Read Sword Art Online - Volume 1 - Aincrad for Free Online

reduced after the «change». I — and most probably Cline too — had set the height to equal that of my height in the real world to prevent my extra height from hindering my movements, but most players had seemed to made themselves taller by about ten to twenty centimeters.
    That wasn’t all. The actual build and the horizontal length of the players had become larger too. There was no way that the NERvGear would have been able to know all this.
    The person who answered this question was Cline.
    “Ah…wait. I bought the NERvGear just yesterday so I remember, but there was a part of the set-up… what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it touched your body here and there, maybe it was that…?”
    “Ah, right……that’s what it was…”
    Calibration was where the NERvGear measured «how much you had to move your hand to reach your body». This was done to reproduce the sense of feel accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the NERvGear had data about our exact figures saved inside itself.
    It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was also almost too clear now.
    “…reality,” I muttered. “He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar…and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this he’s produced a perfect copy of us…”
    “But…but y’know Kirito.”
    Cline scratched his head roughly and the eyes beneath his bandanna shone as he shouted.
    “Why? Why the hell’s he doing something like this…?”
    I didn’t answer that and pointed upwards past our heads.
    “Wait a moment. Most probably he’ll answer that in a bit anyway.”
    Kayaba didn’t let me down. A few seconds later a voice, sounding almost solemn, sounded from the blood red sky.
    ‘You will all most probably be wondering ‘why.’ Why am I — the creator of both the NERvGear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko — doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?’
    It was then that Kayaba’s voice, which had been emotionless up to now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. Suddenly the word «empathy» passed through my mind, even though there was no way that would be true.
    ‘None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only that, but now for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because…this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the NERvGear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.’
    Then after a short break, Kayaba’s voice, now emotionless again, sounded.
    ‘…now I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players — I wish you luck.’
    This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.
    The huge robe rose soundlessly, and started sinking, hood first, into the system message that covered the sky, as if melting.
    Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and legs merged into in the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterward the system message that had covered the sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.
    The sound of the wind blowing above the plaza and the BGM that the NPC orchestra was playing came softly to our ears.
    The game had returned to its normal state, apart from the fact that a couple of rules had been changed.
    Then — at last.
    The crowd of ten thousand players gave a proper reaction.
    In other words, countless voices started to resound loudly through the plaza.
    “It’s a joke right…? The hell is this? It’s a joke right!?”
    “Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!”
    “No! You can’t! I’ve got to meet someone soon!”
    “I don’t like this! I’m gonna go home! I want to go home!!!!!!”
    Yells. Clamors. Shouts. Curses. Begging. And screaming.
    The people that had changed from game players to prisoners in a