Saruyama Kenichi Takes Control (Rewrite)

(In this chapter I used a part of the SAO novel, this was just to give importance to the novel the MC wrote, in the future I don't think I will do it again, so don't worry about any discontent).

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The two rewards I received were from SAO, and unlike the swords, these were general abilities that all characters had at the start of the game. The one that caught my attention the most was Battle Healing, with this skill I will now be able to automatically heal myself during the fight, and I also noticed another curious thing, I could now see a small green bar with my name on the left side of my vision, this is definitely the same HP bar that the SAO characters had.

With so many SAO rewards I feel almost like a character in a game.

On the other hand, having Quirk Danger Sense and Artoria Pendragon's instinct, this Search skill isn't very useful to me.

Although I didn't receive such impressive rewards, just receiving Elucidator and Dark Repulser made all this additional training worth it, now apart from a strong body I also have weapons that allow me to protect myself, this means that the idea of writing novels and drawing manga is not bad, I can receive rewards from some specific story.

The only thing I'm missing now are opponents against whom I can use these swords, although I plan to go the way of a Hanma by fighting only with my fists, I don't feel very satisfied to let such good swords, rust in the storage system.

Come to think of it...

I was so immersed in training with the swords that I didn't even notice the time...

The good thing is that tomorrow is Sunday...

Just thinking about the explanation I'm going to have to give for my new look on Monday when I go to school gives me a headache, lucky for me classes just started, so other than Rito, Sairenji and some other guys who were my classmates in high school, most of my current classmates don't know me, plus I'm going to have to buy new clothes.

Kenichi: "Haa... To Love-Ru's plot hasn't even started and I'm already feeling nervous."

With nothing else to do, I went to take a quick shower to get rid of all the sweat from training and went to sleep relaxed, thanks to this body I didn't need that much rest, but something told me that tomorrow was going to be a pretty busy day.

*POV Third Person*

From the center of the pattern, a blood-like liquid began to slowly flow downward. It descended at a speed that almost emphasized how viscous it was, but it did not fall to the ground; instead, it began to coagulate into another form.

After a few seconds, what appeared in front of all the players, was a twenty meter tall man, covered in a hooded robe.

No, that wasn't quite right.

From where we were looking, we could easily see the inside of the hood...

There was no face...

It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the clothes inside and the green embroidery on the inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe, all we could see inside the edges were shadows.

I've seen the same tunic before. These were the clothes that had always been worn by Argus employees, who had been working as administrators (GMs) during Beta testing. But back then, the male GMs had a face like an old wizard with a big beard, and the female GMs had a girl avatar with glasses. They must have worn the robe due to lack of time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space under the hood gave me an inexplicable sense of anxiety, in fact, it felt like something mysterious yet sinister.

The countless players around me must have also felt the same way.

"Is that an administrator?"

"Why doesn't he have a face?"

"For some strange reason I feel nervous when I look at him."

"Even though we're in a game, you have to admit this feels very real."

Numerous chatter could be heard, to the point where nothing but voices could be heard, but that can't be helped, at this moment there are 10,000 players gathered in one place, Besides, we are all trapped by a game bug, it was obvious that everyone was going to get angry, just like Klein there must be several people who had planned to do something or had some commitment in reality.

But all voices were muffled the moment the giant robe waved its right hand, that simple act was enough to silence them all. A pristine white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, was not connected to any kind of body.

Then he slowly raised his left hand, and when he had both hands fully extended in front of the 10,000 players, the faceless robe opened its mouth...

No, actually, it felt like it did, because no matter how you looked at it, it had no mouth. Then, to everyone's surprise, a deep, calm male voice was heard echoing from high in the sky.

???: "Players, welcome to my world."

-My world?

I guess I wasn't the only one who was confused by what he said?

If that red robe is an administrator, then he would certainly have omnipotent powers that would allow him to change this world at will, but I feel that from the way he said it he wasn't referring to that.

At everyone's dumbfounded looks, the red robe lowered his arms and continued speaking.

???: "My name is Kayaba Akihiko. At this very moment, I am the only person who can control this world."

Kirito: "What the...!"

My avatar stiffened in shock, and I'm pretty sure my brain stopped working for a few seconds.

Kayaba... Akihiko!!!

I knew that name...

No, actually, it would be weird if someone didn't know it.

Kayaba Akihiko, this man is both a famous game designer and a genius in the field of quantum physics, and he was also responsible for turning Argus, which only a few years ago was a small company, into one of the biggest companies in the whole country.

He was also the development director of SAO and, at the same time, the designer of the Nerve Gear.

As an intense gamer, I deeply respected Kayaba. I bought every magazine he appeared in and read some of his interviews until I almost knew them by heart, I was a true fan. I could even clearly remember his image in his trademark white coat just by listening to his voice.

But...

Why was he here?

As far as I know, he always stayed behind the scenes, refusing to expose himself to the media; he never acted as an administrator, not even in the Beta version of SAO...

So why did he decide to show up just now.

I forced my mind to work again, trying to make sense of the situation. But the words coming out of the empty hood seemed to mock my efforts to understand.

Kayaba: "I think most of you may have noticed by now that the logout button has disappeared from the main menu. But I can assure you that this is not a bug, in fact, this is part of the Sword Art Online system."

Klein: "P-Part of the... System?"

Oblivious to our doubts, Kayaba continued speaking indifferently.

Kayaba: "Until you reach the top of this castle, you cannot leave of your own free will."

This castle?

I think, like me, no one could understand this sentence. After all, we are on the second floor, "In the starting city", although there are various scenarios and events, in none of them can you find a castle. As our doubts grew more and more, Kayaba in his usual cold and indifferent tone answered our doubts.

Kayaba: "Furthermore, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If any of these things are attempted... -"

At Kayaba's words, we all fell silent. The silence of ten thousand people in the same place was quite overwhelming.

Once again, indifferent to our growing fear, Kayaba spoke again.

Kayaba: "Your Nerve Gear's signal sensors will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying their brains and stopping all your vital functions in reality."

Klein and I looked at each other in complete shock for several seconds. It was almost as if our minds refused to process what we had just heard. But Kayaba's brief statement made the ten thousand players present freeze completely.

They will destroy our brains...

In other words...

We will die...

Any user who turned off the Nerve Gear or unlocked the security lock and pulled it out would be killed. That was what Kayaba had just stated.

Anyone listening to him would think he was talking nonsense, but it was a fact that the exit button was not available, and what he said was theoretically possible, but... He must be lying. Even if you disconnected the Nerve Gear, it was impossible for it to emit a pulse strong enough to do that. The only way that would be possible would be if it had some kind of battery with a large amount of built-in storage...

Inside...

Am I stupid, 30% of the Gear's weight is the battery.

But...

That's complete nonsense! WHAT IF THERE WAS A SUDDEN POWER OUTAGE?

Kayaba: "To be a bit more specific, being away from an external source of electricity for ten minutes, being off the grid for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will be initiated. These conditions have been presented to the government and the public through the media in the outside world. Incidentally, there have already been cases where family members or friends, ignoring the warnings, attempted to forcibly remove the Nerve Gear. The result..."

Kayaba's cold voice silenced us again.

How can he say such a thing and be so calm about it, he's talking about killing people?

Kayaba: "...Sadly, 213 players have already left this game, and the real world, for good."

Kirito: "!"

Most of the players couldn't believe what they were hearing, or refused to believe it and just stood there with their mouths open and fear reflected on their virtual faces. I, for one, was not much better than them, my head desperately trying to deny what Kayaba was saying. But my body betrayed me and my knees began to shake violently. I stumbled back a few steps tripping over my already weak knees in a pathetic attempt not to fall backwards.

Kirito: "213... Players..."

This single sentence echoed over and over in my head.

Kayaba: "Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you have left behind anymore. Right now, all TV stations, radio stations and the internet, all of them, are repeatedly reporting on this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having the Nerve Gear taken away from you is now gone. In a few moments, making use of the two hours I have given you, you will all be transferred to hospitals or similar institutions and given the best treatment. So you can be at ease... and concentrate on completing the game."

Concentrate...

On completing the game...

When those cold words were uttered, the long silence was finally broken.

*Narrator's POV*

That night, while Kenichi slept peacefully, without a care in the world, the media was anything but quiet.

It turns out that a few hours ago, when Kenichi posted the first few chapters of Sword Art Online, it only took a few minutes for it to trend.

It all started when a famous reader known for his reviews read the first few chapters. At first he thought it was just another story, a simple fan who thought he was a writer, these were his words, words that were discarded almost instantly after reading the first chapter.

At first he thought the idea of making a story about a virtual reality game was very innovative, and thanks to the first and second chapter he thought the story was going to be fun full of adventure and fantasy, this beginning already attracted him, in his experience with several novels he already imagined a perverted protagonist with a harem full of girls.

Or at least that's what he thought would happen...

But he never expected that chapter five, would take such an unexpected turn, suddenly the story that he thought would be the usual cliché of adventure, humor and harem, turned into a ruthless survival game in which unless the characters managed to overcome all the floors of 'Aincrad' they could not return to reality, and to top it off if you died in the game you also died in reality.

Throughout the chapter, the reader could feel the fear of the players and the growing suspense, even for some strange reason could clearly see the imposing appearance of Kayaba Akihiko as he told all the players about the true purpose of SAO.

In the end it was just as Kenichi said when he received the knowledge of entertainment from other realities, this world was incredibly in need of new sources of entertainment, even if it didn't need good writers, mangakas and developers, it was a fact that the stories were stagnant, almost all of them were about the same thing.

A guy dies and is reincarnated in another world with a harem of beautiful girls accompanying him, or enters a magic school full of girls who adore him, that's the usual pattern that is repeated quite often in the novels, and the manga is no better either, although the quality of the drawings is incredible, the stories are in constant decay.

And it's not just that, everything from books to movies, music and games are at an incredibly backward level.

That's why Kenichi's story, Sword Art Online, was like a break from the usual pattern everyone was already used to, plus the level of his writing was on a completely different level, the amount of details and descriptions of the settings and characters made someone believe they were also part of the story.

This was one of the biggest advantages of Kenichi's ability to see other realities, it's like when he wanted to see the knowledge of the boxers in Hajime no Ippo, or when he wanted to see the culinary skills of the characters in Shokugeki no Souma, instead of seeing the knowledge of the anime or manga, he could vividly see all the sweat, blood and tears that the characters had to shed to become who they were, even the experiences that were not shown in the story. That's why when he used Hajime no Ippo's boxing he felt a deep respect for the sport.

When he wrote his version of SAO, he was not only guided by his knowledge of the original novel, but he was also guided by his knowledge of the characters in SAO, so they all felt incredibly real, the fights as well, and obviously the scenery as well.

This was one of Kenichi's biggest shows of respect, as he was born as a side character he could empathize with characters that had similar stories, background characters, characters that are just there for humor, characters that were just friends with the main character, characters that just appeared to make the story more interesting and then never appeared again.

They may have been characters that were just there to help the story move along, But they were real, they had dreams, goals, fears and insecurities, and he being able to feel them, he was able to reflect them in his novel.

This was no longer the original SAO, it was Kenichi's own story composed of all the characters, from the protagonist to the NPCs, who also had an important role in his story.

Those five short chapters were enough for the reader to feel like a character in the incredible world of Aincrad and even empathize with each character's story, that's why the scene with Kayaba Akihiko felt so real, it was almost like a God imposing his own rules on the weak and fragile humans.

Even that famous reader couldn't help but shudder at the scene of over 10,000 players trapped in a fantasy world where they would have no second lives, and death in the game was equivalent to death in reality.

The reader lingered for several minutes trying to process what he was reading.

When he came to, he quickly contacted several of his hundreds of followers and recommended that they all read SAO.

This of course came as quite a surprise to them, although this reader was famous for his reviews, most of them were always negative, so it was rare to see him recommend a novel with such enthusiasm. After that, everything followed its own path, one friend told another friend, and soon the visits went from 1000 to 10,000, and in a few hours more than 100,000 people had read the five chapters of SAO, the amount of positive reviews and comments almost completely saturated the page.

And all this happened without the knowledge of Kenichi, who was sleeping peacefully like a newborn baby...

He was completely oblivious to the disaster that his novel was causing in the media, this made it clear that this world was really desperate for new sources of entertainment.

*Kenichi's POV*

When I woke up, the first thing I did was to go for a run.

Fortunately, since the To Love-Ru story hadn't officially started, there were no aliens around, and the city of Sainan was incredibly quiet, I could even go for a run without any worries.

No, to be exact it's not that there are no aliens, from what I know of To Love-Ru there should be several of them living camouflaged as humans in society, a good example is Mikado-sensei, the nurse at Sainan High School.

During my outing, I was running around the city of Sainan and I realized that this city did not look much like the one I saw in the To Love-Ru manga.

Both in the manga and in the anime, Sainan city was an ordinary city, apart from having some shopping malls and some attractions, it had practically nothing special, but on my way I could see several landscapes that did not exist in the story, for example apart from the city there was also an area that was more rural and was full of fields of crops and even a forest with a beautiful river.

And it was not only that, near the outskirts of the city there were several mansions like the ones you would see in foreign movies, there were even some traditional Japanese style ones.

Another thing that caught my attention was the large number of schools that were around, in the story of To Love-Ru there was only Sainan High School, but on my way I could see a high school that was only for women, another that had an incredibly fine appearance, it looked like the typical high school for boys from wealthy families, and there were also several others that were familiar to me from other anime.

But without any doubt what surprised me the most was a traditional style inn that was located in a somewhat remote part, what surprised me was not the incredible resemblance it had to one I saw from another anime, nor was it the fact that it had hot springs. What surprised me was the strange atmosphere that surrounded it, it was a strange feeling, I even felt a slight chill.

Although I had an idea of what story it might belong to, I decided to walk away without probing too much, I had enough problems with To Love-Ru and some of the other stories I had identified, for the moment I had no reason to add to my problems by getting involved with another To Love-Ru-like story.

After a few hours, I went back to the house, took a quick shower and started breakfast, it's amazing how my cooking skills get better and better as I cook.

Admittedly, the Hanma body is amazing, not only can it easily replicate fighting styles, but it also easily adapts to almost any type of physical activity, whether it's cooking or writing.

After eating I went down to the training room and started my routine, which unlike yesterday's routine which was just to get my body used to the training, this one was much more intense, now I trained different martial arts moves, as the training equipment was not very useful I decided to add difficulty to the training by increasing the gravity of the room X2, when I finished my body was all sweaty and sore, but after drinking a juice I made from the rainbow fruit, all the tiredness was gone as if it had never existed.

The rest of the day passed normally.

Until the afternoon came, I finished my daily training and took a shower, after relaxing a bit, I left the house, my goal was to go shopping for new clothes.

Luckily the director, although a pervert, was not a bad guy, I just had to explain a little about my situation with some innocent lies and he quickly sent me a new uniform that fit my current size. I was honestly a bit surprised, I thought he was just being nice to women, but he was quite understanding when I told him a bit about my situation.

As I walked through the streets I couldn't help but notice something that would be seen oddly if I were in one of those alternate realities I had seen.

All around me you could see several couples, that in itself is not weird, the weird thing is that some of those couples were walking in groups of several people, for example in front of me there was a blond haired playboy looking guy walking holding hands with two girls while being followed by three other girls, in the same way you could also see a girl walking while three guys were following her from behind while wearing leashes as if they were dogs following their owner.

And it was not only them, several people were walking accompanied by more than one person and they were behaving as if they were in love without any kind of shame.

Yes, that's what you are imagining...

This is the typical image of a harem that you would only see in light novels or manga and anime.

Before this seemed completely normal to me, but now that I'm free of the world's influence and I've seen several alternate realities, I have to admit that this is quite an abnormal sight.

All this is due to something that happened several years ago, it was around the time when my grandparents were children, apparently in those times there was a large decrease in the birth rate that affected all countries in the world, there were couples who had already a lot of years married and only managed to have a child after several failed attempts, apparently it was a very complicated time, there were even cases of couples who made desperate acts like praying to the gods and perform strange rituals, it was a really complicated time.

Each country took their own measures to counteract this abnormality, but no matter how much genetic research they did they could not find the exact cause, in just a few years this was going to end up putting humanity in general in danger, the number of people who died daily only increased and the number of those born decreased more and more.

It was at that time that "The Compatibility System" was created in Japan.

In itself was not a complicated experiment, they were going to take into account different characteristics of several people, such as their genetic compatibility, personality and tastes, at the end of these evaluations they were going to match different couples that were compatible with each other, at first this system worked wonders, it was successfully demonstrated that compatible couples had much more chances of success when it came to procreate.

But although it was successful, over time it was strongly criticized.

After all the government was forcing people to pair up with strangers regardless of whether they were already married, in some cases they even paired up old men with underage girls, so it was obvious that it was going to end up being criticized, then the years passed and quite a few measures were taken, until we got to the present day.

Now the birth rate has stabilized, this is because after many difficulties the government approved, that an individual either male or female could have more than one partner, in other words now the harem is approved by law, although at the time this was also somewhat criticized, with the passage of time began to be accepted to the point that today it is seen as normal, although there are still some people who dislike it, it is a fact that having several partners increases the chances of having several children and it is not mandatory.

In addition, the government began to give a large sum of money for each child had during marriage, so several people began to take advantage of this law to obtain large amounts of money.

Honestly when I think about it carefully, this is quite similar to a plot taken from a hentai story, in fact when the law was just passed, there were several guys who stripped naked in the streets and began to perform acts of rape, obviously they were quickly imprisoned.

And that gave the situation that I have in front of me currently, you could say that this is paradise for the perverted protagonists of Ecchi genre anime, it is a world where they do not have to hesitate so much when choosing a girl, in this world Rito should not have problems in completing the harem plan.

Well, although that's not my problem, for starters the Saruyama family never had that problem of having difficulty having children, so the chances of that happening to me are quite low, and even less now that I have Hanma blood.

I decided to keep walking while ignoring the weirdness of my surroundings.

I spent a few hours choosing different types of outfits in my size, luckily I still had enough money left, so I started buying good quality clothes.

After a while though I noticed something strange.

For some strange reason all the women around were looking at me with a blush on their cheeks.

I'm not a dense leading man, so obviously I know they are looking at me out of interest in my new appearance, even even I have to admit that now I'm quite handsome, if I had a normal appearance before, now I'm on the same level as those male models in the fashion magazines. Although I feel it's a bit exaggerated that they all look at me that way.

I can even feel the murderous looks from the men, especially the ones who were walking accompanied by several women, if I were Rito or some other protagonist I would probably feel nervous or intimidated, but I am a Hanma it is impossible for me to behave so pathetic in front of some wimps.

I have to admit that it was quite funny, the moment I looked back at them, they all froze and within seconds they started shaking in a pathetic way, some even ran away while leaving the girls that accompanied them abandoned. This is another advantage of Hanma blood, just like Yuujirou I can release a slight atmosphere that makes normal people realize that I'm not someone they should mess with.

Although it seems it backfired because now more women were looking at me with interest.

After buying several sets of clothes I decided to go to the hairdresser, I wasn't a big fan of long hair, thanks to Hanma blood I now had hair as long as Yuujirou's the only difference was that mine was black with some red locks.

After I got it cut, I asked for a hairstyle a little similar to the one I had before, although to add style I asked for a little long fringe on the right side of my face.

When I looked at myself in the mirror I was quite surprised, it turns out that I looked like Tetsurō Kuroo, a supporting character from a volleyball anime called "Haikyuu", well now that I think about it, his hairstyle was quite similar to the one I had before, it wasn't exactly his vivid image but I looked quite similar to him, The biggest difference is that he always had his eyes half closed and he also had some feline features.

Kenichi: (I think I understand now why women were looking at me so much, I'm not exactly the most handsome guy in the world, but my new look together with the presence I release as a Hanma make me look quite masculine).

I quickly paid for the haircut and left, although the hairdresser who cut my hair desperately asked for my cell phone number, I obviously ignored her, ever since I had that fight with Yarizui-senpai I feel that normal women don't get my attention that much anymore.

With nothing else to do, I was ready to go home and get ready to go to school tomorrow, but as I was walking back, I came across a scene usually only seen in an anime.

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Words by the author:

Although it is still a bit early where I live, I wish you all a happy new year.

I thank you for following my story during 2024 and I hope you will follow it during 2025, now that things finally calmed down with my work, I'm finally going to update regularly again, also in the next chapters come the first changes I made to the story, I hope you like them.

Without anything else to say, I hope you all have a happy new year.