Sword Arts Online: Darkness

Third person POV

 "Woah, the school…" Minato commented as he and his friends entered the school campus grounds. The school had a banner in the center that indicated that it was located in a safe zone in the game.

 "What was that banner?" Shuto asked.

Roxas then shrugged.

 The four friends then entered the front part of the main building, only to see that it was empty since today was Saturday. Some of the students, who had come for weekend classes of PE and other extracurriculars, are in the buildings scared of their new situation and don't know what to do now. Roxas and his friends then entered the second floor and into one of the classrooms, which is used for music class.

 "Hey, guys," Roxas said to them, "did you see what was happening here?"

Those music students then looked at him and the others.

 "Y-Yes, w-we did," one of them replied while shivering in fear.

 "We felt as if we were in some sort of game…" another nodded.

 "Yes, we are in a game," Roxas responded back boldly.

The music students and their teacher were scared even more.

 "No, no, it's okay, it's okay," Minato tried to calm them down.

 "How?" one student replied back. "We are now in some sort of death game!"

 "Yeah, are you expecting us to calm down and do nothing?" another added. "We were nothing more than NPCs!"

Roxas now remembered what Evil Kirito had called him this morning and now thinks of something to remove that classification from him.

So, he said to his friends, "Hey, guys, do you remembered that guy with a sword called us at home?"

 "Yes, that guy in black called us NPCs," Shuto replied.

 "You guys, too?" one music student asked.

Shuto then looked at her. "Yes."

 "Let's see…" Roxas began to think of a solution, "…if this is a game, then there should be some sort of registration to be as players…"

 "Is that so?" Koyuki asked.

Roxas then looked at her. "Yes, let's look around for that."

His friends agreed and told the music class to stay inside for the time being just in case anything bad would come and hurt them.

 With the music class agreeing, the four friends slide the door shut and continued their scouring throughout the school. The headmaster was in his office, not knowing what to do. Then, Roxas and his friends knocked on his door.

 "Come in," the headmaster responded.

The door was opened, and Roxas and his friends came in.

 "Sir, something's not right," Shuto said to him.

The headmaster then looked at them. "Yes, I know. This is bad. We are in a game."

 "Is there anything we can do to survive?" Roxas asked him.

The headmaster then thinks for a bit, then he shrugged, "I don't know either. But I do know that you can register as players in this game somehow."

Roxas now knew that he was right, but he didn't know how and where to do so. "Okay, but how and where?"

 "That's the thing even I don't know how. But, search and you will find it."

Because the middle-aged man wouldn't give them any clues on how to get registered, Roxas and his friends just left the office and later, left the school premises.

 But then, not long after, they found a peculiar, medieval-style building standing next to the school campus. That building wasn't there before, indicating that the game of Sword Arts Online had something to do with it. "Woah, what is that?" Roxas asked.

 "That one looks so rustic…" Minato added.

The sign in the front of the building says, "Adventurers' Guild."

 "Wait, what?" Roxas looked at it, recognizing its English text and classical, old font. "It's an…Adventurers' Guild!"

His friends then looked at it.

 "What?"

 "Adventurers' Guild?"

 "That sounds like those in Minato-kun's video games."

Roxas then nodded. "Yes, these institutions are quite common in adventure games and fiction."

Roxas knew that in his experience of watching anime and reading online manga and manhwa.

His friends get it, and Minato was excited about getting registered in as a new player. "Yes! Let's register in so we could survive!"

 And so, all of them entered into the guild's front doors. There they saw how rustic the interior was. Players of all ranks, levels, and kinds are hanging out in the lobby chatting and laughing. The atmosphere was busy. The guild receptionist was busy in her work.

 "Wow, it's like for real," Minato commented enthusiastically.

Then, a bunch of hologram screens appeared in front of him and his friends, welcoming them into the game and telling them to enter their player info in order to get registered and remove their NPC classification on them.

 "Wha…?" Shuto responded.

 "I was right?!" Roxas' mind yelled.

 "Cool…" Minato was amazed instead.

 So, the four of them entered their information about themselves. Shuto entered some slightly elaborated statements about himself as a 'golden poet', while Minato entered some awesome ones about himself as a gamer. Koyuki was the humblest of them all and entered honest information about herself. But Roxas, meanwhile, decided to express his personal ideology and philosophy alongside his personal information. So, the young foreign student and online writer entered statements of his Reformed ideology and philosophy into the Personality Section of the digital form of the Player Registration Form, filling them out. The occupation part was filled with the words 'high school student – 1st-year' and 'online writer'. His ideological and philosophical statements included the Golden Rule that almost everyone knows and his metaphor of protesting.

His nationality part says, "Filipino".

 So, after they had filled in their Player Registration Forms, their forms were accepted and thus, the four of them became registered players into the game. And, because of their statements, they were given their own, separate Player Badges, which were customized according to their characteristics as individuals.

Here is what those badges looked like:

Roxas – an open book with a pen and a musical note in its two-page spread.

Shuto – a fountain pen and a piece of paper.

Minato – a gaming console.

Koyuki – a sketching pencil.

These badges were then displayed on their stats.

Their stats were set to basic levels in all aspects of themselves.

Their current levels are all Level 1.

And also, their household armor and equipment were all gone, being replaced by new clothes from the game.

Roxas got a new set of clothes in dark blue and black and in the classical style.

Shuto had a set of clothes in light grey and in the formal style of it.

Minato had a set of clothes in the modernist style and in the colors of charcoal black and white, plus a headset as an accessory.

Koyuki had a simple set of clothes in beige and white colors.

 "Woah, look at mine…" Roxas looked at his badge.

 "Mine is cool for a poet like me," Shuto added while acting like a posh poet.

 "Stop that, dude." Minato was annoyed of him.

Koyuki stayed quiet and just looked at her badge.

 With that, the hologram screens told them that with their registered information, they may register in any guild they can go to, before disappearing in a digital way. So, Roxas and his friends eventually went up to the receptionist desk so they could get registered into the guild, registering in by filling in some guild registration forms.

 Then, after Roxas and his friends were successfully registered in, Evil Kirito entered in, only to see them that they, the ones he had tried to kill, are now registered players into the game. But Roxas and his friends left the guild building, happy that they are now going to survive, and not noticing him at all. Their NPC classification was removed, much to Evil Kirito's dismay. But despite that, Evil Kirito was determined to kill them, smirking at them.

 "Your time in this game will not be long…" his mind said.