Chain 050: Sword Art Online

Chain 050: Sword Art Online

Location: The Official Tutorial
Age: 14
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+100] An Inconvenient World
[Free]      Switch!
[300/1100]  Critical Existence Failure
[900/1100]  This Is, In Fact, My Final Form
[1000/1100] Immortal Object: Ring of Elru
[1100/1100] Immortal Object: Blackthorn and Phoenix Feather Wand

You know, it's kind of fun to be back in an MMO-like setting. This one is a little more blatant than it was the last time around, mind you, but it's still very much a thing. Honestly though, I've got nothing better to do for ten years and I don't need to worry about the outside world overly much - I'll simply serve as the ultimate support for everyone.

Literally everyone.

Now, there's a distinction to be had here. I'm not starting some sort of guild - I'm the go-to guy when a newbie comes along and wants to make a difference. You want to go out in the field and fight? I'll make you a decent sword. Bring me the materials and I'll make a better one. You want to get the money I'm getting? I'll apprentice you and match the pay that comes in, so you get double what they pay you. Because the crafting economy is awesome. You want to stay here? I'll craft you cooking utensils so that the food can be utterly delicious. You want to learn alchemy? I'll do that, too. You want to form actual guilds? I'll be happy to sell to your guild at a reduced rate and sponsor random quests for various things. You want to hit dungeons? I'll pay handsomely for rewards.

(Much to the confusion of a certain someone who has no idea how I instantly mastered everything in order to set this in motion, but it's ultimately harmless - more players are active than might have been, after all.)

The Ring of Elru served to dispense currency as needed, not to mention helped stretch out crafting supplies, but a low tolerance was placed on player killing. Everything I made had an enchantment to react to people being killers, and my apprentices were taught the same enchantment to weave into the weapon as a matter of course - it was invisible until the PK flag was tripped, at which point any such items that they equipped would unequip themselves and refuse to equip. You just stormed in and killed someone with your +10 sword of omens and armor of badassitude? Oh look, you're unarmed, unarmored, and facing all of his buddies. Who are going to beat you senseless and then toss you to the wildlife.

And when a PK guild figured it out just before the game ended and came knocking at me door with their self-crafted equipment... I smiled at them while pulling my wand, told them, "Congratulations on unlocking the optional boss," shifted to my Final Form (which was remarkably similar to my every day form, but 100% bigger), and proceeded to spend the next hour beating them all senseless, healing them, beating them again, and so forth until they all had the presence of mind to retreat and rethink their lives.

Goddamn PKers.

After that, once I got out, I put things together and launched my OWN game. Globally. Vastly superior to the others, everything player-built aside from the initial conditions, and a time dilation factor built into it. Sure, it was only three to one, but it got the job done. And if you died in the game, you didn't die in real life, because that would be silly. It was more of a cyberpunk/sci-fi thing, admittedly, but it worked nicely and was really rather successful. Increasingly so when people realized that everything in it could be duplicated with real-world science.

The launch of an experimental FTL ship the year before I left proved that point handily.