Lost Days - SAO One shot

[Cheb]

Sad. Utterly understandable, but sad

[Dumbledork]

Ouch. This will be trouble. Can't wait to see the confrontation. It will probably be either epic or ridiculous ^_^

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Time jumps are not a problem, the thing is that we really need to know what... floor and the relative date.

And the percentage of survivors at that time!

[LawOhki]

Time jumps are not a problem, the thing is that we really need to know what... floor and the relative date.

And the percentage of survivors at that time!

Well the floors, and exact dates are before each section now but the percentage of suvivors is a rather meaningless number. The mass exodus of try hard noobs who killed themselves in some stupid way was mentioned directly by Ranma early on and after that it became rare enough that it's useless to note an overall loss of life.

[Konsaki]

Shouldn't take much to have someone do a /whoall function or something though. No need to go into details of how they died, just how many people are left.

'There are 6,483 players online.' Ranma let out a sigh with a shake of his head. Around ten less than last week and the only way to know if Akane was one of them was to make the long trek back to the Stone.

[LawOhki]

Shouldn't take much to have someone do a /whoall function or something though. No need to go into details of how they died, just how many people are left.

Actually such things don't exist in it. Even a public chat appears to only extend as far as ear shot. So there literally was no way for them to know that Akane was alive except by finding her name on the block or by hearing rumors.

[LawOhki]

Just a taste.

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June 5th, Month of the Fig
357 Days since Launch
61st Floor, Selmburg Duel Arena

Ranma surveyed the floating billboard displaying the tournament bracket for his level range. There were two large domed rotundas for the arena; the one he was in now was designated only for competitors while the other would be for spectators. The other room would mirror this one, with notification windows detailing all the participants and which group they fell into. Dolmez, their guild officer in charge of running the tournament, had just posted the brackets and only a handful of competitors had yet to arrive.

Even though he was no longer active on the frontlines, due to his heavy training schedule, he and four of his students were in the most elite class. Only twenty players occupied his bracket: three from Knights of the Blood Oath, two from Fuurinkazan, Akane with one of her guildmates and the rest made up of players he didn’t recognize.

Each bracket was broken up into five level increments to keep the duels as fair as possible. The majority of the players sat somewhere in the middle of the pack, so many that his bracket wouldn’t see any action until two days from now.

“These brackets are so much bigger than usual.” He idly commented to Nabiki, ignoring the excited conversations happening around him. Usually, these tournaments only brought in half this number of players.

“Oh? That should make you feel better when you’re making love to the couch until the hundredth floor is cleared.” Nabiki informed him in an overly saccharine tone.

“I had nothing to do with it!” He protested vehemently, waving his hands defensively. Dolmez had been discreet with Ranma’s request; setting up the bracket so that he would meet Akane before Nabiki could.

“Oh, really? That’s how you’re going to play this?” She asked, like he was the biggest idiot in the world.

“No-- but hey look, it’s Heathcliff-san!” He quickly left his wife’s side to go visit the only other unique skill user in Aincrad. The KOB guild leader was standing with his three subordinates, creating an imposing group of white and red armor. “Right on time to see the brackets.” He called out jovially.

“Good morning, Ranma-san.” Heathcliff greeted with a nod of acknowledgement. “Congratulations on the impressive turnout.”

“Thanks.” He answered proudly before being forcibly yanked down to Nabiki’s eye level by his ear. “Ouch! Ouch! Nabiki, don’t do that!” He whined, even though he didn’t feel any real pain.

“You’ll be lucky to have ears when I’m done with you.” Nabiki hissed before turning a bright smile towards the KOB members. “Hi! Thanks for coming.” She greeted sweetly.

“What's he done now?” Asuna asked dourly, giving him a dark glare.

“Something he’ll regret.” Nabiki answered tiredly. “Hey, Asuna, you don’t happen to have your claws in that black swordsman yet, right? I think I want to trade in my model Ranma for a younger option.”

The light brown haired girl’s face was instantly covered in a blush as she stuttered denials. “Me and Kirito? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Oh, good! He seems pretty cute and the whole dark loner thing has a certain marketable mystique.” Nabiki giggled to herself in a highly suggestive tone.

‘Nothing I say is going to help.’ Ranma groaned and covered his face with his hands.

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And a little something extra I saw the other day.

http://grailalpha.deviantart.com/art/Se ... -419421208