[CLOSED] Man of the South

[SouthernCross]

"Oi! W****r!" ☒ @tagged ✐ 000 ✉ notes SouthernCross Lv1

The Great Plains of Beginning, the first area an adventurer would see after leaving the borders of the Town of Beginnings. If one ignored the sky the plains would look no different from the great grassy plains of Europe that his ancestors had once walked. The sky, however, had floating rocks and towns as far as the eye could see. Which was surprisingly far given how all this was supposed to be inside the floating castle Aincrad. But even the green fields where almost alien to the hulking man who gazed upon them. His eyes where used to vast plains of red-brown soil with a few spares shrubs. Australia was a very different, and far harsher, landscape then Europe. Where others had feared the dangers awaiting them in the Death Game that SAO had become, a tiny handful, those hailing from the Great South Land, had barely been deterred. They had already spent their lives in a land that took every opportunity to try and kill them, the beasts of Aincrad would hardly register to them. In fact they where less threatening then the creatures of Australia. In Aincrad you could see them coming. The hulking figure stepped forward towards a gathering of boars and placed a hand on grip of the two handed sword resting on his back before whistling. First a long note followed by a series of short high notes. The shrill sound drawing the ire of the oinkers and aggroing the entire group, sending them charging at the lone man. Cross simply smirked as the boars charged and with one motion unsheathed his blade and brought it to his left side, spinning the blade as it became enshrouded by red light. Carrying the momentum he brought the weapon to his right side and spun it again as the boars drew near. Finally he spun his entire body and stepped forward with his right leg and swung his blade from left to right with a mighty roar as the boars came into range of his weapon. The five boars where launched into the air and hung there for a moment before bursting into motes of light. The giant of a man used the remaining momentum to sheathe his blade once more and nodded in satisfaction.

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS

[SouthernCross]

Oinklin was but a simple boar born of programming code, his life an equally simple one of grazing the code-born grass of the great plains. There wasn't much more he could ask of life really, what more could he want? All that he was and all that he needed was right here in front of him.

He snorted as he glanced up at the sun that shone down on him and his kith and kin and silently thanked it for it's blessings and bounty. Truly life was grand and there was nothing that could ever possibly change that truth.

Suddenly Oinklin's world shifting as he felt two great paws wrap around him from his blind spot and lifted him from the ground. Squealing and flailing his stubby legs in a vain attempt to free himself he was soon far far further off the ground then he had any good reason to be. A moment later he was descending back first with the great paws wrapped around his neck and stomach.

However impact occurred before he hit the ground, his back twisting as it met the knee of the monstrous creature assaulting him. If he had been a flesh and blood boar his back would have surely broken. As it was he was afflicted with the paralysis status as he was unceremoniously discarded.

The last thing Oinklin ever saw before his end was the gleaming cruel eyes of the giant as it sank it's blade into his chest.

------

Cross watched the boar dissolve into light impassively. If nothing else he was assured that the Cardinal System could adapt to players doing really crazy shit.

[SouthernCross]

Some time later Cross sat with his legs crossed as he watched the sun begin to set. He had found an area with no monster spawns nearby and decided it was the best spot to rest. And to think.

Sword Arts worked much the way he expected, given that he had been reading the blogs of some of the Beta Testers he had been working with mostly first hand information. So to did the monster spawning and damage mechanics. Past games had pretty much refined that to the point there was little for the developer's to change.

Basic movement and the menus he had mastered while still helping to organize the Town of Beginnings. Combat movement, that was a whole new ball game.

It was much like how companies of the past had made claims about in the past with their consoles, he was the controller. It wasn't really a surprise to him that it had been the PC that was the system of choice for this kind of hardware. Still, this system completely changed everything there was to playing a game, especially an MMO.

Normally MMO battles could be broken down to gaming the RNG and spamming special abilities as their cooldowns finished. SAO put you right in the action. There was no Auto-Attack, all attacks where made by the player directly. There was no RNG based dodging, the player themselves had to be the one to move out of the way. That changed everything.

SAO wasn't just a game. It was a simulator.

Cross' mind nerded out at the possibilities. It could revolutionize how things where taught; imagine history class where you didn't just read about things in dusty old books with a droning teacher but actually got to see it first hand through a Full Dive? You could recreate any point of history and put the students right in the middle of it.

They could make them experience looking down on the Earth from the Moon, changing their perspectives forever…

Despite the PR disaster SAO was bound to be there was one undeniable fact that couldn't be ignored…

This Full Dive technology was something the world needed.

And Cross was going to use what political power he still had once he got out to ensure the seeds of that future where planted and nurtured.

But there was one other thing he had noticed. Something… odd.

When he Back-Breakered that boar… there was no way that was programed into the system before he did it. There was no way anyone would predict someone trying something that crazy. And yet the system hadn't even attempted to stop or restrict him, indeed it rewarded him.

Somehow the system had adapted on the fly and allowed him to do something he shouldn't have been able to and even had an outcome that made sense. The strange part was, when doing it he hadn't had a doubt in his mind that he could. He could see exactly how it would play out and it happened.

No… surely he was just over-thinking things… or was he… but no, that would be ridiculous… but what if it wasn't…?