Morning came too quickly.

I was unsure if it was because of the relief that had come from Stern and Sterra’s company or the effects of having a full meal for the first time in weeks, but I had slept unusually soundly through the night and groaned when my alarm rang off waking me from my slumber.

Equipping my usual gear I made my way down to the Teleport Plaza. It was still fairly early in the morning so there weren’t many players around. I often ran between the towns of the first floor partially to practice my agility and acrobatics but also to scan the crowds for any sign of Miku.

I recognized the regulars leaving their houses or teleporting in from the higher floors, but as usual my sister was nowhere to be seen among them. I had considered exploring the higher floors myself, but each time I approached the teleport gate, I felt a tightness in my chest turning me away again.

“I should’ve let myself sleep in a bit.” I yawned watching the digital sun rise slowly across the fake sky.

“Well good morning sleepy head.” A voice called out from behind me.

I turned around to see Sterra leaning in towards me with a smile. I, in contrast; stood with a blank expression struggling to respond to the sudden familiarity.

“Again I say, good morning sleepy head.” she repeated with a mischievous grin.

“Sterra honey, you’re gonna scare away our new partner before he even teams up with us.” Another voice chuckled. I turned to see Stern walking towards us maneuvering through his menu.

“I was just trying to be friendly.” Sterra pouted in an admittedly cute fashion.

All the apprehension and anxiety from the night before seemed to have melted away. Whether it was a conscious effort or just the relief that I had accepted their offer, they had made it clear now that they considered me a part of their team.

A window popped up before my eyes inviting me to join the party. I peeked up to see Sterra and Stern looking towards me with anticipation.

“It will be a pleasure having you.” Stern exclaimed.

With a smirk I pressed the ‘Accept Invitation’ option.

“It will be a pleasure to work with you.” I replied.

For a newly formed group, our teamwork was surprisingly smooth. I took the lead, scouting out enemies, and backstabbing any that I had the opportunity to. As soon as my attack hit, I would switch out with Stern who acted as our tank. Sterra and I would then switch out intermittently offering dps and support until the enemy finally burst into multicoloured polygons.

Grinding for materials turned out to be far more lucrative than I expected. As the weeks went on, we had the opportunity to take on many of the large enemies I had always avoided up until that point. The feeling of contribution that came from working in a group was exhilarating. The experience and rewards from slaying larger monsters was encouraging as well.

In spite of my time in stealth having severely dropped, I still managed to hit level twenty providing me with my fifth skill slot. Having seen the effectiveness of my hiding ability on other players, I decided to choose the searching skill as a counter measure to any other stealth-based players and enemies. With any luck, I might even be able to outwit Argo’s hiding skill someday!

Sterra and Stern were both amazing to work with. Sterra could be a touch too overprotective at times, and Stern a bit too lax, but they both had good hearts, and we soon became close friends. In the mornings we would grind for resources from mobs and quests on the first level, in the evenings we would drink and laugh and enjoy ourselves. It might have been wrong of me to take Sword Art Online so lightly, but for the first time since I had entered this death game, I felt like I was actually having fun!

“You know, it was Sterra’s idea to ask you to join.” Stern confessed one day while we were waiting for Sterra to return with supplies.

“Why would she do that?” I asked confused as to what about my antisocial, obsessive self could have enticed her.

Stern leaned forward as if remembering a bittersweet memory.

“Sterra has a little brother about your age.” He explained. “The two of them were like water and oil. They could never agree on anything and argued all the time. Ever since we got trapped here, she’s wondered what he must think of her now and if she’ll ever get a chance to apologize to him. With how similar you two look, I think she saw you a bit like a second chance to make up for before. She won’t admit it, but hearing you talk about looking for your sister meant a lot to her. In all honesty she was a little envious of your sister!”

“Ah, I was worried if I just came off as petty.” I admitted. “I mean, compared to you guys trying to supply others, my reasons must seem pretty self serving!”

Stern laughed. “I think everyone has at least one or two self serving reasons for fighting in Aincrad. Even I do.”

Stern leaned back against a tree as another bittersweet smile came across his face.

“Sterra and I have known each other for as long as I can remember.” He reminisced. “We started dating back in high school, but never went beyond that. Looking back it was my fault. At first I thought we were too young, then we were too busy, then my job wasn’t stable enough… But if I was to be honest I was just scared. When we both got trapped in this game… you know, it’s amazing how a crisis straightens out one’s priorities. We talked things out, and got married in game. We’ve enjoyed many happy days together since then in spite of our situation but…”

Stern paused a moment as a smirk crossed his face. “I want to survive long enough to put a ring on her real hand.” He continued.

A voice called out as Sterra returned from town.

“No telling her any of that.” Stern winked. “A man to man talk is a sacred affair after all.”

“What were you talking about?” Sterra asked as she sent both of us suspicious glances. We averted our eyes with the worst poker faces ever seen in response. Sterra rolled her eyes but didn’t press any further.

“Come on you two conspirators.” She teased. “We’ve got a forest to explore today!”

Today’s goal was to gather juunberries from the forest in the northwest. Gathering these berries was more of a chore than most players were willing to take on, however the berries could be made into lower level health potions.

Juunberries were rarely gathered. Any player with a high enough level to handle the mobs in the forest wouldn’t benefit much from such low level potions. Any player low level enough to benefit from the potions would be too scared to take on the mobs in the forest. It was such a poorly balanced resource it half made my wonder if Kayaba Akihiko only added it to see if anyone would be selfless enough to gather them.

At our level, none of the mobs in the forest posed any real threat. Even I could solo against them if I needed to. This allowed us to speed up the task by splitting up. Though I could down most the mobs in one or two normal hits, I wouldn’t be earning much experience from these mobs. I decided to take advantage of my stealth skills instead. Without the pointless battles wasting my time, I was able to collect to my heart’s content uninterrupted.

After a few hours of harvesting I returned to the agreed upon safe zone to break for lunch. As I neared the edge of the zone, I made out the familiar figure of Stern sitting in the shade of a tree with Sterra resting her head against his shoulder.

I couldn’t deny they were a cute couple, and they seemed so comfortable relaxed together like that. My bitter, single heart told me it would be a crime to let them continue this level of adorableness!

Remaining hidden I took the long way around to get behind the two lovebirds. They were so distracted that I could get within arm’s reach of them without my hiding rating going below 70%.

“BOO!” I shouted jumping out from behind. Sterra and Stern both reached for their weapons startled until they realized it was me.

“It’s in bad taste to sneak up on people outside of town.” Stern scolded settling back under the tree.

“Ah, I’m sorry, it couldn’t be helped.” I jived back in reply. “When I see a couple looking so sweet and loving together I just want to shock them back to reality!”

“A worrisome habit you’re forming there.” Stern chuckled with his eyes closed again.

I sat down across from them and pulled out a steamed bun from my inventory to munch on. When I first entered this game of death, I had never thought having a relaxed picnic with friends like this would be possible. The strangest thing about being in a crisis had to be how normal life could continue to feel. However, I was not about to complain.

Without Stern and Sterra, I would have still been forcing myself to exhaustion in an attempt to level up and find Miku. While I was still pushing myself to level up, Sterra and Stern had pulled me out of that dark pit, and taught me how to have a life in spite of the circumstances. I was truly grateful to both of them.

“You must be really getting skilled at your hiding abilities.” Sterra marveled like a proud older sister. “We couldn’t even tell you were nearby!”

“I think I’ve got a knack for it!” I agreed. “I was really concerned when I first saw I had set a dagger as my default weapon by mistake, but I’m really thankful for it now. That stealth bonus is pretty powerful once you take the time to understand the mechanics. I feel like any other weapon would be disappointing now!”

“Oh-ho!” Stern chimed in. “That is pretty bold talk coming from the guy wielding a butter knife! But let’s put your money where your mouth is!”

Opening his inventory, Stern checked the box to make his window visible flipping it to show me all the juunberries he had collected.

“Now of course, Sterra and I being married, share an inventory.” Stern bragged. “So I don’t expect you to have gotten this many yourself. I’ll even consider half as a passing grade!”

“Hmm…” I pondered as I fumbled awkwardly through my inventory. Stern gave me a smug smile as I purposely hesitated.

“I don’t know about half…” I continued, “but how does double sound?”

Stern’s eyes widened as I flipped my inventory menu around for him to see. True to my word, I had collected twice as many as Stern and Sterra combined. This had been due to the battles I had avoided thanks to my stealth skills. I could hardly contain my laughter as Sterra and Stern stared at me with their mouths agape. They gave each other a confused look before Stern raised his hands with a sigh of defeat.

“I concede!” Stern admitted with a smile. “You have clearly raised your berry picking skills higher than any other player in Aincrad!”

I was about to give my comeback when a strange noise caught my attention. A strong wind blew through the clearing nearly knocking me off my feet. The leaves on the trees shook and the area became dark for a few seconds as if a cloud had passed the sun momentarily.

“Is there… bad weather approaching?” Sterra asked confused.

“We’re in a floating castle in a video game.” I pointed out. “Do we even have weather here?”

Stern scanned the area carefully, but as far as any of us could tell everything had returned to normal.

“Let’s finish up.” Stern exclaimed rising to his feet. “I think we’ve got most of what we need. Twenty more minutes of gathering should have us set for a while. It seems like we’re fine now, but I think we should ask a higher level team to check out this area when we get back just to be safe.”

I went back into hiding as our team split up. As I made my way back into the forest I couldn’t shake the sense of uneasiness that I felt… I had been in this forest countless times, but somehow it felt different, as if I were seeing it for the first time and something terrible was going to happen at any moment.