Asuna in Galagil's Sword Art Online 1.2

"Welcome! Please beware of danger," said the NPC innkeeper as Asuna passed in front of him the next morning, reaching the doorway quickly enough to trigger a vaguely amusing response as both prompts were triggered back to back.

Asuna stepped out of her chosen hidey-hole inn, a small building in a generally less populated corner of the Town of Beginnings that was more bed and breakfast than fantasy tavern. But it only took a few streets and turns before she encountered the bustling sprawl of the rest, the size of a whole district in Tokyo laid out in cobbled streets and fantastical architecture. Its sheer size, encompassing a fifth of the entire first floor of Aincrad, was daunting.

The players moved around her like an agitated ant colony. Some, hollow-eyed and defeated, slumped against buildings, whispering anxieties to themselves. Others, fueled by a morbid optimism, roamed in close-knit groups, hunting for quests and resources as if this were still just a game. Still others treated this digital wasteland like a playground, trading crude propositions and boisterous laughter.

She carefully did not notice the couple brazenly... coupling upon a balcony just above the street.

Hours bled into each other, a blur of alleyways, bustling marketplaces, and less populated courtyards. She scrutinized public boards, hesitantly questioned certain players, yielding nothing but frustrated shrugs and whispers of conflicting rumors.

Eventually she made it to the vast, circular plaza at the center of the city.

She probably should have headed straight here, it was the obvious location to post information for all of the players.

But this was also the place where Kayaba Akihiko had ripped the rug from under their video game reality, his blood-red announcement staining the virtual sky. So her hesitation made some sense at least. Asuna shuddered, the memory of his speech etched into her mind with excruciating detail.

Asuna shook her head, pushing down her anxiety. It wasn't productive, this situation was stressful enough without wallowing in negativity.

Instead, she looked to a dense crowd gathered around a small, unassuming bulletin board off to one side under the awning that ringed this enormous open space.

She took the several minutes trip across to reach it and fought her way through the dense mass of players, they were alternately chattering with each other or checking their menus with furrowed brows. Finally, she made it close enough to actually see the posted sheets even as one helpful player was shouting the contents to those further back in the crowd.

"The official License Agreement by Galagil" the first sheet read.

Asuna read with intense focus, the players pressing in around her falling away as her eyes raced through the agreement and her brain committed each word to memory.

A strange sense of deja vu washed over her, a disquieting echo of a life lived under unseen regulations. The categories, the licenses, the license book ranks – it all resonated in a way she couldn't quite grasp. Yet, the acceptance flowed through her like a warm current, washing away the initial shock and replacing it with a numbing normalcy.

Asuna's eyes traced the list of actions now requiring a license. Accepting quests, using skills, equipping weapons – they were all woven into the fabric of Sword Art Online, so natural that she'd never considered them forbidden. A cold knot of fear tightened in her stomach as she realized she'd been an unwitting transgressor.
Her rented room, her sanctuary, suddenly felt like an albatross around her neck. She'd been occupying it without a license, a blatant violation. If the Licensing Association discovered it, what would her punishment be?

A fine? Deranking? Negative Licenses?

Asuna swallowed thickly, her throat dry.

Panic, cold and clammy, gripped her. Her cor felt woefully inadequate in the face of this sudden avalanche of restrictions. Could she afford the licenses to reclaim her normalcy, her very existence in this digital purgatory?

Asuna's fingers danced across her menu and her sword dematerialized into motes of blue light, her basic armor likewise disintegrating into thin air. She hesitated slightly before clicking again. Bra and panties, gone, absorbed into her inventory.

Glancing around, she caught glimpses of similar situations. Women fidgeting with their clothes, faces flushed with a mixture of shame and necessity. So called 'jiggle physics' was prevalent in all modern games and Sword Art Online was no exception.

Some women, blessed with modest curves like Asuna, were spared the most pronounced effects. Others, sporting fuller figures, struggled visibly as the system rendered their big bosoms with so much kinetic energy they appeared possessed with their jiggling and wobbling.

"The License Association is residing in Cluster street 5.

We are usually open between 10:00 am and 12:00 am, as well as 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm."

The virtual sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the cobblestone streets. Cluster Street 5, according to the scrawled sign, was her destination. The address led her not to a grand administrative building, but to an unassuming townhouse, nestled amongst ordinary residences. An air of normalcy clung to the building, seemingly at odds with the monumental task waiting inside.

The queue snaked its way back and forth between buildings, winding its way across the streets in a serpentine fashion. It extended nearly a thousand players, all patiently (more or less) awaiting their turn before the doors.

Asuna settled in, the line inching forward like a sluggish beast. Ahead of her, a woman with brown hair in a loose ponytail, including rather large bangs falling onto her forehead on either side along with two shoulder-length sidelocks framing her face and a sardonic grin chewed her gum with a rhythm that mirrored the crowd's impatience. Her eyes, sharp and calculating, scanned the line like a predator sizing up its prey. This, Asuna instinctively knew, was not a woman to be trifled with.

She was wearing only the basic leather armor up top, leaving her smooth tight abdomen exposed to view. Skin-tight blue booty shorts showcased her athletic thighs and the short blades strapped to her upper calves reflected her dual wielding character build.

"Bunch of clueless noobs," the woman spat, her voice gravelly and laced with disdain. "Can't even follow simple rules. Wonder how many of them pissed themselves when Kayaba declared his little game."

Asuna winced, the truth in her harsh words resonating like an icy spike in her stomach.

"Simple rules? I wouldn't call navigating a sudden **** game with cryptic regulations exactly 'simple', ma'am," she replied, her tone polite but firm.

The woman chuckled, a harsh, humorless sound. "**** game? Maybe for some softies. Me? I see opportunity. New world, new rules, same old me." She twirled one of her daggers idly, the metal glinting in the sunlight. "Adapt or die. That's the name of the game, princess."