I didn’t spend too long in the character creation menu. It wasn’t as important as taking my first step in this new world, after all.

As for my name, I kept it simple and just used my real name: “Akira.”

This was the start of my journey to martial greatness, so I saw no reason to use anything else.

The moment I entered the world of Sword Art Online was something I could only describe as breathtaking.

The Town of Beginnings was something that I thought could only be seen in anime or manga, but here I was, standing in that iconic circular fantasy city. It sure as hell was impressive for a starting city.

A grin spread across my face, and I could spot similar smiles adorning the expressions of various other players around me.

This experience was truly beyond magical.

I took an experimental step forward and found myself wobbling slightly. It seemed that moving in virtual reality was still kind of weird, but I felt like I’d adapt to it with a few minutes of gameplay.

I can’t say that I was ever a “true” gamer, but I’d dabbled in MMOs for a while with my friends and really, this is the first time in a game where I’ve got no clue where to start despite my excitement.

Unlike the other games that I’ve played before, there was no sign of a tutorial NPC or anything of the sort. Hell, I didn’t even know how to open the menu.

I looked around and approached someone who’d just logged in. He had black hair and his avatar looked like the sort of “cool” character that you would see in anime. More importantly though, he gave off this air that made me feel like he knew what he was doing.

“Hey!”

He looked at me curiously. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting anyone to call out to him the moment he logged in. Honestly, I felt a little bad about it, but I wanted to experience true combat as soon as possible.

“‘Scuse me, but do you know if there’s a minimap or a menu? I can’t find a tutorial anywhere!”

The boy laughed and swiped his hand in the air, opening his menu and explaining to me how it worked.

It was that simple, huh? Now I feel stupid...

The moment we bid farewell, he took off sprinting.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one who’s just as excited.

Alright, let’s go fight some mobs!

Now that I knew how to open the menu, I had no problems making my way out of the city using the minimap. I’d hoped to run into at least one of my friends here, but I sorely underestimated just how vast of a population ten thousand was.

It wasn’t a big deal, though. I could just shoot them a text tonight.

Wait, who the hell am I kidding? Make that tomorrow. Ain’t none of ‘em gonna be logging out tonight.

Just outside of the Town of Beginnings laid a vast swathe of grassy fields. The skyline was decorated with several “islands” that were standing on curved pillars of earth, making them look almost as if they were floating.

If I looked closer, I could spot what appeared to be either dragons or wyverns making their way through the sky.

The mere sight made my heart pound with excitement. I really was in a fantasy world.

But right now, I wouldn’t even stand a chance against one of those monsters. All I could fight were these “Frenzy Boars” in front of me.

It was time to get down to business.

“Alright, let’s see what you’re made of!”

I ran straight at one of the closest boars and fired my best punch into its flank, sending it flying a short distance across the field.

I grinned, but before I could celebrate my triumph, the boar immediately picked itself back up and charged at me. Its movement was entirely linear, which made the attack trivial to dodge.

However, there was a slight issue that I should’ve considered in retrospect.

My fists did next to no damage.

I really should’ve known since Sword Art Online was an MMO, and in the end, these games were based off of your statistics. Currently at level 1, my unarmed attacks barely even took away a sliver of the boar’s hit points.

I wasn’t stupid enough to think this was unbalanced. It was pretty obvious that I was supposed to use the sword that was provided to me, but that sure as hell wasn’t the point!

I came to Sword Art Online to test my karate against monsters that could only be found in a fantasy world!

I stepped to the side as the boar charged at me once more, firing a kick into its flank and knocking it down on its side.

I could probably defeat it just by doing this, but based on how little damage the boar was taking, it’d probably take an hour or more. Plus, it was mind-numbing.

Dammit, there’s gotta be a way to beat this thing without using a sword! It’s just a trash mob!

The boar had already recovered now and it was pawing the ground with its front hooves, readying up for another charge.

My eyes scanned its body. It was large and rotund, just like any other boar. Its glowing red eyes were congruent with the feral intelligence that its enemy AI provided it. Dark blue fur covered its muscular body, and a prominent hump formed its back.

The only real method of attack it had was a straight charge as it attempted to gore me with its tusks, which meant it wasn’t much danger.

I proved this by stepping aside once again and issuing yet another kick into its flank, causing it to squeal angrily as it crashed into the grass next to it and bounced back up, just as angry.

The biggest advantage of a VRMMO was that you could really feel every gust of wind that passed you by, every ray of sunlight that touched your skin, and most importantly, you could feel what you were hitting.

The flank of the boar was muscular and dense. It was clear that the creature’s muscle mass was primarily concentrated around its haunches and the sides of its hump.

Even though this information might seem useless since it was a game, it was precisely because this was a game that it was in fact useful.

Why?

That’s simple. The existence of critical hits.

It’s a mechanic that’s in nearly every MMO out there and in a VRMMO like Sword Art Online, it’d be the perfect environment to have actual weak points on enemies that could trigger critical hits. At least, I hoped it would be.

Random criticals are nice, but nothing beats the real deal of finding and targeting a weak point. The only problem was finding that on this damn boar.

Legs? No, they’re pretty sturdy. Eyes? Possibly. Tusks? I’m not trying that.

Again, the boar charged while I was in mid-thought. It was like I was stuck in a time loop, but I didn’t mind. Even if it took me an hour, I’d gladly do this repetitive back and forth with it to confirm the existence of weak points themselves.

It was like second nature to me now. I stepped to the side and kicked.

The boar bounced twice this time.

On the second bounce, I saw it.

Right on the crown of its skull was a tiny divot. There was muscle and fur that surrounded it, but there was undoubtedly a small dimple atop its head which was unprotected save for its skull.

A skull that I would have no issues striking.

There was no doubt about it. This was the boar’s weak point.

The boar picked itself back up again and prepared itself once more. I readied myself, clenching my fists tightly.

This final meeting of our violence would settle once and for all whether or not weak points and critical hits existed in the world of Sword Art Online, and whether I would be able to refine my martial arts or not.

The boar charged.

I stepped to the side.

My fist flashed out toward its skull, and my knuckles met virtual flesh and bone.

The boar’s figure paused in mid-air, as if frozen. Then, it shimmered once and shattered like glass as its entire HP bar dropped to nothing.

[Result]

EXP: 24

Col: 30

Items: 2

I did it! I scored a real critical hit!

A massive rush of exhilaration shot straight through my body as a grin spread across my face. I jumped in the air, pumping a fist upward at the sky in the ultimate expression of victory.

Even though it was just a trash mob, I felt like I had somehow cleared a raid boss on my own or something.

Hell yeah! I really fuckin’ did it! With just my fists, I can survive in this world of swords!

My moment of jubilation was interrupted by the sound of clapping from behind me.

I whirled around, my cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment. I mean, no matter how impressive I thought I was, jumping for joy after defeating a mere boar probably looked pretty weird.

“Damn, bro! That’s gotta be the first time I’ve ever seen anyone pull off something like that!”

The speaker was a tall man with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. He had a chiseled jawline and handsome features which told me that he’d probably spent at least an hour in the character creation menu crafting himself into the perfect bishounen character.

Unfortunately for him, the beginner gear that we were wearing wasn’t exactly the most endearing of outfits which kind of put a damper on his painstakingly crafted avatar.

“Well, yeah. I mean, the game’s only just come out, right? I doubt anyone’s as stubborn as I am when it comes to sticking to unarmed attacks.” I laughed.

“Nah, even during the beta test, there wasn’t anyone who could pull off somethin’ like that with just their fists. Not even with the «Martial Arts» skill.”

“Yeah? Well, thanks for the compliment, I gue—Wait, you were a beta tester!? Holy shit! Weren’t there only one thousand people who were allowed to test the game?”

“Yup. I’m one of those chosen few. You could even call me an existence who was chosen by god.” He smirked.

Ah. He’s one of those characters.

“Yeah, yeah. So what’s this «Martial Arts» skill you were talking about?”

“It’s a quest that you can find on the second floor. We found out about it from an NPC on the seventh floor during the beta test and a few of us ended up heading back down to see what it was all about.”

“Seventh floor? You beta testers must’ve progressed quite a bit, huh?”

He shook his head. “Just one more floor above that, actually. Floor eight was all we managed to get to, and that took us two months. This time around should be much faster though.”

“Well then, I’m looking forward to having you all carry me to the second floor so I can get my goddamn skill.” I grinned and extended a hand toward him. “The name’s Akira, by the way.”

“Jin.” He shook my hand.

“So, you mind showing me a few tips and tricks while I kill a few more boars?”

Jin shook his head. “Unfortunately, I gotta get going in around ten minutes or my older sister’s gonna be livid. But hey, lemme add you on my friends list real quick and you can shoot me a message tomorrow.”

“That’s a plan.”

After I accepted Jin’s friend request, he made a vertical swiping motion with his hand and opened his menu. I turned away from him and prepared myself to aggro another boar.

“What the hell!?”

I turned at the sound of Jin’s panicked voice. “Huh? Something wrong?”

“There’s no logout button! Ah shit, are we really having this type of launch bug!? My sister’s gonna get pissed for sure...”

I made the same swiping motion to summon my menu, scrolling down to the gear icon in order to find the logout button.

It wasn’t there.

“It’s gone on my end too. You think the GMs will fix this soon? I’ve got club practice tomorrow and I gotta catch some sleep before that.”

“Probably...” Jin didn’t sound too sure of himself, though. “I’m trying to call a GM right now, but no one’s responding.”

This sounded pretty bad already, honestly. I mean, a big company like Argus making a fatal mistake like this on launch day?

There was going to be a massive backlash without a doubt, and probably lawsuits too.

“Fuck! It’s already 5:30! Augh, my sister’s gonna be so mad!”

I went to respond, but before that, the sound of a bell ringing echoed throughout the grassy plains and a blue-white light enveloped the two of us.

“Wh—”

My vision was obscured by a blinding flash for a second. When it returned, I found myself inside the Town of Beginnings once more. I was standing there in the middle of a massive crowd, all of them looking confused.

Jin was beside me and he was no exception.

“Uh... I’m guessing this didn’t happen in the beta test?”

“Hell no, bro! I’m freakin’ out here! She made me promise that I was supposed to do the chores today, and if I didn’t she wasn’t gonna make me my favorite aburaage for the next three months!”

Wait... That’s why he was so afraid of his sister!? Because of her goddamn aburaage!?

Then, my attention was drawn to a flashing red hexagon in the middle of the sky.

There was only a single word that it displayed: “Warning.”

I blinked, and a second later, it multiplied rapidly, filling up the entirety of the sky above us like some sort of virus that was self-replicating recklessly.

Thick and viscous crimson liquid seeped from the “cracks” between the interlocking hexagonal messages, dripping down and forming what looked like a cocoon of blood.

Lights flashed from the cocoon, similar to sparks of lightning, and from it emerged a towering robed figure which floated in the sky. A hood obscured the character’s face, but there was no doubt about it. This was a GM’s avatar.

The hooded man spread his arms out as if in a gesture of welcome.

“Attention, players. Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am currently the one and only person who can control this world. 

“I am sure that you’ve all already noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed.

“However, this is by no means a mistake. I repeat... This is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online.”

...What? If that’s the case, then... How the hell are we supposed to get out of here!?

Those words shook me to my very core.

I was excited to enter this world filled with fantasy creatures and epic adventures, but never once did I consider leaving behind everything I knew just for this.

I couldn’t even choose what world I wanted to live in anymore.

Suddenly, I felt very small. And I realized that indeed, I was.

Because I was just one in ten thousand.

HungrySheep

Sorry for the slightly belated author's note, but I thought I'd update everyone on my schedule! I'm still preparing volume 2 of "I Am the Greatest" as well as progressing this novel (if you haven't checked out my other novel, please do!). However, this novel is not something that I am going to drop even after volume 2 begins steady releases, so I wanted to set a proper release schedule that I'll be able to keep up even when that happens.

As a result, SAO: Divergent Integer's release schedule will be every Monday and Sunday going forward. I feel that this is a release schedule I'll be able to keep up with even while juggling two novels. There might be a change in September when my university semester starts, but we'll just have to wait and see!