Current Theme:
Ievan Polkka(Intoxicated)
Current Date: December 1st, 2025
Current Time: 13:00 JST
----
A little over 2,000 people had died thus far in the three weeks during which Sword Art Online has been active. Only about half of the beta testers who had started off in the game remained. The future looked bleak. Not only had the players of Sword Art Online failed to discover the location of the first floor's boss before now, they were struggling merely to adapt to the new game world. Of the 7,500 or so players which remained among the living, only 10% had any skills with a level higher than 200, and only 1% had even one skill above 400. Even worse, the economy was completely one-sided in favor of the more experienced players, resulting in gruesome politics and desperate business deals which, at very least, promised the participants safety from death by hunger. Simply put, those without experience in games like Sword Art Online were at a disadvantage, thus the most common general emotion among the players was hostility towards the successful. Most of those who found themselves stuck in this situation considered their luck mortifying, as if they were a part of a disaster, the worst possible situation imaginable. Whatever hope they had when they bought the game was now shattered, just like the 2,000 unfortunate souls who were smited not only with misfortune, but also with an untimely death at Kayaba Akihito's behest.
But there was at least one player who adopted a completely different outlook on the situation. A rather small girl, lightweight, with soft features and an easily frightened, yet remarkably hopeful and innocent gaze. This girl's name was Deru, an 18 year old girl who had only barely managed to successfully graduate High School in America before moving to Japan. Instead of cursing her luck and whining like the rest of the general population, Deru was pleasantly surprised, excited even, by the opportunity to be unable to return to reality, and to instead live life as a video game avatar. Why is this the case, you ask? Another time, dear friend. Another time.
For now, all that you need to concern yourself with is the situation which she finds herself in presently. You see, Deru's avatar, a character named Derunia Nekoski, currently finds herself within her personally owned shop and home, a structure named the "Neko Teko Tailor". On its exterior, the rickety wooden structure would appear to risk toppling over and resulting in the demise of its inhabitants at any given moment. However, as luck would have it, the structure was counded as an "immortal object" by the Sword Art Online system, and was thus at no risk of being destroyed without the express will of the owner herself.
Within this rickety-looking, but structurally stable building, Derunia Nekoski presently finds herself within the second story of the building. This second floor consists of piles upon piles of materials, items, textiles, clothes, accessories, and various other cloth, hide and leather items. The room contained multiple sewing instruments, including a loom and a large bucket containing small sewing needles, another containing crochet and knitting needles, an automated thread spinner, a leather tanning vat, a drying rack, and even a few chests for item storage. However, no matter how large 250 square feet sounded on paper, it was not nearly enough to satisfy Deru's need for space. The floor of the room was covered with random materials and items to the extent that one could not distinguish between carpet and thread. Indeed...the room was quite a mess.
And thus, here we are, observing Deru as she darts around the room, juggling materials around as she activates tools and items to craft with, occasionally glancing over to her menu to check her skill levels...
------
It had been 5 hours since Deru started her materials-burning cycle, and now she was starting to run out of everything but cloth. Cloth was the only item which she could collect a lot of, considering how cheaply NPCs were willing to sell medium-quality and high-quality wool and fleece for on the outskirts of town. She quickly threw up all of the leather and thread which she held in her hands in order to dash over to a loom to check on the progress of item production of a "Casual Blue T-Shirt". Immediately upon tapping the loom a few times to force it to continue it's work process, she dashed back over to the items which she had thrown into the air and continued to juggle them around as she moved on to the leather-tanning vat.
And so she continued, hastily dashing around her room for what seemed like another hour or so, when in fact, at that very moment, she was holding her very last strip of leather. The wool and fleece layer which was sprawled upon the floor steadily grew thinner and thinner as the material was fed first into the thread-spinner, then directly into the loom. The tanning vat's satisfying, [BING] upon the completion of the final strip renewed her eagerness to grind skill exp and, as she dashed over to the vat and reached in, she suddenly realized precisely how much she had accomplished. "
Oh, uhh..." She started, hanging the leather on the wall as she took a brief moment to pause and look around the room, "
I...guess I should go collect some more soon..."
Deru ended her brief break in order to finish up her use of the thread spinner and the loom, finally completing the last item in the long list of production pre-sets which she had already programmed to force the loom to automatically make once fed materials. With a few more bumps on the sides of the loom, an item plopped out and landed on the floor next to the mountain of other textiles. The item's name was, "Fluffles the Big Green Sweater". The stats were almost good enough to be considered light armor, however the giant kitten embroidered on the front of the shirt was not likely to arouse fighting spirit among the general population. For Deru however, as she held up the masterful embroidery which was Fluffles, she gasped, "
...k.....k....kawaii..." and offered a slight blush and she briefly hugged the sweater. There was no question in her mind as to whether or not her work was worthwhile. Fluffles was evidence enough.
Once she was done with her tender moment, she set to work folding up each and every clothing item which she had manufactured and placed them all into two medium-sized chests. She then happily walked around her room, the floor of which was now almost completely clean without the organized chaos which previously reigned supreme upon its surface. Deru eventually decided that she had spent enough time in her room and ventured over to the door. Her hand hovered over the door briefly, as if trying to warn her about something, but her subconsciousness refused to accept the babbling of an illiterate hand, thus she flung open the door with a cheerful smile and, after closing and locking it behind her, pranced down the stairway towards the shop-level. Derunia Nekoski's Nekomimi and Whiskers flopped up and down with each and every step, as did her Scholar's Black Dress, gleefully bouncing up and down in celebration of their creator's new achievements.
By the time Derunia reached the ground level, she briefly giggled to herself and went about shifting her hair and clothes to their proper places so that she would look less disheveled in case a customer was within the shop. Then, once she was all set and ready, she made a faint "
Mew~?" sound and peered around the corner to see how her friend, Felicity was doing.
Current Theme:
Kikyou Kaoru Iroha Michi(Heart Attack)
Immediately upon looking around the corner, she saw a tall man covered in blood walking through the door. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, immediately feeling her chest tighten. The stranger wore damaged armor, and over his head was a red light, the same blood-red color as the sinister liquid covering his right arm.
A....Player Killer? How? She could almost see the weapon outlined by his hand, the wicked grin coating his face with the malice of the demon of demons. She couldn't move, let alone run away. Her eyes were locked on the stranger as he steadily got closer and closer to the desk. After a few moments, the stranger was all she could see, and with one swift movement of his head in her direction, he shot all of the murderous intent of the world straight towards her. Instantly, all blood drained from Deru's face. Her chest tightened even more, as if threatening to implode from shock.
N-No! It's not possible to have a heart-attack in this game...is it?! She mentally shouted to herself, still staring at the blood-covered stranger as the world around her hastily faded to black. "
N-No.....Not...Like.......this....." The only sounds she could still make out before completely losing consciousness were the sounds of claws scraping across the immortal object known as "Wood Flooring" as the murderer shot her way. "
No......please...." She tried her best to protest for her life one last time, but it was too late, she was already out.
[THUD]
-----
Meanwhile, at the front of the shop.
-----
Felicity sighed as she stared at the entryway. There was little to nothing for her to do but sit in the hammock-chair designed by her employer and wait for customers to walk in. It was potentially the most boring job imaginable. But it wasn't entirely a waste of time. She got paid a good amount, considering how her employer was one of the wealthiest players in SAO at the time, and she was able to train her Musical Instument, Straining and Searching skills while sitting around.
Still, I'd prefer to be bursting boar's skulls right about now... She continued to stare at the door, focusing her Straining skill as much as she could to see if she could detect anyone nearby. To her surprise, she was able to do so quite well, and a few seconds later, an individual grabbed the door handle and walked through the door. Felicity grinned, both because she was finally given something to do, and because the tiny red counter light she installed above the door worked perfectly. The second the stranger entered the room, it flashed on and made a tiny jingling noise, indicating that a customer had entered. However, after looking over the customer a bit more carefully, she started to frown. Just as she was about to comment on his...interesting fashion statement, she heard whimpering from the stairway. Immediately, she shot a look over to the doorway to the stairs and chills shot up her spine as she watched Deru plummet towards the ground, the little girl's expression offering all the explanation Felicity needed to know what was happening to her.
The store clerk immediately planted her foot into the ground and charged towards the doorway, abandoning her post at the cash register momentarily. The second Deru hit the ground, Felicity dove towards her and immediately started checking her for wounds. "
Deru? Deru! Speak to me! What's going on! Were you attacked?" She insisted on asking a few more times, but gave up soon after and carried the poor girl over to her station. Felicity carefully laid Deru down on the counter-top, took a moment to pause and sigh again, then remembered the stranger in the shop and shot him a quick look. She eyed him up and down for a few moments, then something clicked in her mind and her eyes narrowed momentarily. She then hopped over the counter and hastily advanced towards the stranger. Despite how cushiony her Fox Paw Slippers looked, each step made a sharp thud from the shock of impact. She wore a clearly fake smile on her face as she darted towards the sauce-covered stranger, but her eyes were as honest as could be - they expressed a bloodlust and malice which the stranger's corpse could not possibly quench, an expression so painfully obvious in intention that she might as well not even attempted the smile. She stopped precisely one foot in front of the visitor and growled, "
Welcome to the Neko Teko Tailor Shop. How can I help you?" She then pointed down at the ground, which was becoming progressively more coated in red sauce as the stranger carelessly allowed it to drip onto the well-maintained shop floor, "
Perhaps you can start by dealing with that," and once she had said this, she sharply pointed back at Deru and continued, "
Then you can apologize for traumatizing my employer."