- What?:
Katsumi paced in the center of the square. It wasn't the main square, not filled with tons of people. Her uncle had chosen a good place to hide his projects. Right under the noses of the magic council. Those righteous bastards hadn't realized he made two additional death games until after he'd vanished and SAO was well underway. She shuddered trying not to succumb to the memories of that horrible game. They were all gone now. Everyone she'd made friends within that place. They'd vanished into the aethers the moment the game had released them all. Maybe those relationships hadn't been as real for them as they'd been for her. Okay, maybe not everyone was gone. There were a few she still saw. Elizabeth being one of them. Katsumi wouldn't have her Henkan without that woman.
Now she had to face that terrible reality again. Her uncle had created GGO and ALO in addition to SAO. The magic council wanted her to enter each of those games and find a way to shut them down. A task that was nearly impossible by herself. Perhaps that was why they'd sent out a notice. A notice that was vague as could be. 'Help wanted by the Magic Council. Will be paid 25000 jewels and get recognition from the MC.' Then it rattled of this square's address and Katsumi's name as the contact. Bunch of idiots.
They expected her to make the initial dive today with whoever showed up. Brilliant idea. She'd be taking a newb into a potentially deadly situation with little idea of what they faced. All she had an idea of was the pictures and the project names her uncle had used. Project Fairies and Project Guns. There were helpful little pictures on the consoles thankfully. ALO was a game centered around Fairies. GGO was the one centered around guns. Despite being a Rune Knight, Katsumi wanted to strangle the magic council. How was she supposed to keep a newb alive in a place she was unfamiliar with?
GGO seemed to be less complicated from what she could see. Point gun, shoot things trying to kill you. However, it was also designed to be more deadly as a result. Nearly everything was trying to kill you. The environment, the creatures, even the NPCs around town. Kiyaba Akahoshi really knew how to put a downer on games. ALO was more complicated, more fantastical with a worldwide war going on between the races of the fairies. Simple enough especially with safe neutral zones provided for rest. Katsumi was leery of those, however. Her uncle wasn't one to provide safe passage in his games.
A few people walking into the square caught her attention. She put on her best smile and strolled up to them. They were clutching the notice in their hands. "Hello there! I'm Katsumi Akahoshi. I see you've brought the notice from the council. Would you be here about the job offer?" After a round of mumbled assurances, Katsumi gestured to the dead fountain in the center of the square. "Join me over there then please and I'll explain what we'll be doing today. You can decide if the reward is worth it or not afterward." A few gave her surprised looks. They apparently hadn't thought it would be that dangerous. Two actually dropped the notice and walked from the square. That was fine. Where they would have been headed wasn't for the faint of heart.
Katsumi climbed up onto the edge of the fountain. There were about five people still here. Good. That was a fair sized party. Assuming all of them stayed that way. "Right I'm not sure how many of you heard about SAO. It was a game designed by a madman that managed to kill four thousand of the initial ten thousand players. It did this by trapping them within the game and magically frying their brains if they died in the game." Katsumi took a deep breath. Now to deliver the final blow. "The magic council discovered that madman created two more games. Today, I'll be leading you into one of them on a cursory exploration. We won't go too far in but the chance of death is very real. If you can't handle that please leave."
Unsurprisingly, none of them really wanted to stay and risk their necks. Katsumi sat down on the edge of the fountain dejected. She wasn't sure she could do this by herself. SAO she'd known like the back of her hand. Heck, she'd even brought its 'magic' out into the real world. These games would be entirely new. She needed someone to watch her back or there wasn't a chance in hell she'd make it back out alive.
WC: 856
856/7,000
@Shane Stern