Mash-up Anime World: Creating the SCP Foundation to Contain Anomalies

SAO public beta launch day.

Three public beta game headsets were neatly laid out on the desk, ready for use.

Gabriel stood by eagerly, itching to dive in.

Shiro, meanwhile, was connecting the headsets to a computer, making some data modifications.

Before long, a white light glowed from the headsets.

Shiro unplugged the data cable and clapped her hands.

"Big brother, the port modification is done."

Haruto nodded.

Thanks to Kayaba Akihiko's crazy plan, 10,000 players in the public beta would be trapped inside SAO with no logout button.

Haruto just wanted to experience the game—he wasn't interested in playing along with Kayaba's madness.

So, a logout button was a must.

Not that such consciousness-guiding tech could ever truly confine Izumi in the first place.

The port modifications might be noticed by Kayaba inside the game.

After all, three accounts that could log out at any time would definitely stand out.

But it didn't matter.

Kayaba had no way to interfere with Haruto and the others' accounts.

Thanks to a mechanical module that had been implanted in the game's root server in advance.

That external hardware had created a backdoor for the trio's accounts.

Now that Kayaba was fully inside the game, no matter how brilliant he was—"867" or not—he couldn't affect hardware from within the system.

He could only stare helplessly at the data anomalies caused by the hardware.

At the same time, thanks to that mechanical module, SAO's fatal logic had also been rewritten.

Players who died during the public beta wouldn't be killed in real life—they'd just fall into a coma.

The whole "death game" thing? Better left as a fantasy.

As for why not just free the players directly?

Well, letting the SAO incident play out was essential for taking over the management of full-dive games later on.

This kind of tech obviously belonged in the hands of the Foundation.

Gabriel ran over, grabbed a game headset, and put it on.

The SAO closed beta had been stunning—Gabriel had been eagerly waiting to dive into the public version.

Haruto and Shiro each took a headset as well.

"Link start!"

With the command input, countless points of light spread across their vision.

Haruto immediately felt a faint pull on his consciousness.

Since the pull was weak, Haruto had to consciously lean into it.

Then, the game's character creation screen appeared.

Haruto casually created a young male avatar based on his real appearance.

After all, he planned to reveal his real look later—why bother fine-tuning the face?

The name input box popped up.

Haruto thought for a moment, then entered a blank space using a special empty character like 『』.

After confirming, he entered the game with a completely blank name field.

Coincidentally, it was exactly 6:00 PM—the game's official launch time.

The screen shifted to reveal a mysterious tower.

This was Aincrad.

The perspective zoomed in on a town.

With a flash of white light, Haruto's character appeared in the town square.

He flexed his hands and stretched.

Haruto took a moment to adjust to this frail digital body.

Having grown used to his ultimate form enhanced by the Blacklight Virus, this data-based body actually felt kind of novel.

Still, even if the virus couldn't be used, abilities like The World, Root, and Mystic Eyes of Death Perception—those supreme divine traits—were fully usable.

No matter the narrative level, supreme divinity did not change.

The town was now bustling with activity.

Players were cheering all around.

Haruto looked around and quietly sighed—these players were still so young and naive.

Would they still be cheering when they discovered the logout button was missing?

"So now I'm supposed to go level up by killing mobs or something…"

Haruto was a bit confused.

SAO's newbie guidance system was pretty terrible.

First-timers would have no idea what to do.

Just then, a slender, cloaked figure passed in front of Haruto.

Haruto reached out and grabbed the figure.

"Caught a guide!"

The cloaked girl was startled by his action.

When she heard what he said, she got a little annoyed.

"You! Who grabs a guide like that? Totally unreasonable!"

Under the cloak was a cute girl with short curly golden-brown hair.

Most eye-catching were the three whisker-like markings on each cheek, similar to animal whiskers—adorable decorations.

Those whiskers, combined with her trademark curly hair, made her resemble a certain rodent-like animal.

But in an anthropomorphic form, it was almost unfairly cute.

"I'm a newbie and have no idea what to do. Please guide me. I'm begging you."

Haruto didn't back down at all under her scolding—instead, he responded with perfect confidence.

The girl had clearly never met someone so thick-skinned. She was stunned for a second, then pointed at herself.

"Hey, newbie—I'm a well-known info broker from the closed beta. I make my living off this game. Do you have any idea how much income I lose every minute I'm held up like this? That's real—"

Haruto cut her off.

"So, Ms. Info Broker, how much would it cost to hire you as a guide?"

The girl blinked, then her eyes sparkled with glee.

That annoying guy? Now a potential sugar daddy? Her attitude flipped in a heartbeat.

"Dear customer, a basic newbie guide is 2,000 yen. Full newbie training is 10,000 per session. And for just 100,000 yen, you can enjoy premium hands-on leveling assistance. What service would you like?"

Watching the girl's instant attitude shift, Haruto smiled.

"Let's go with the 100,000. Send me your account number—I'll pay you after I log off."

Her eyes lit up even more. She immediately added Haruto as a friend and sent him her account details.

"Then, dear—wait, what's up with your username?"

After adding him, she instinctively glanced at his name.

It was… completely blank.

She was stunned.

At the same time, Haruto saw the girl's name.

Argo.

The most well-known info broker from the closed beta—"The Rat" Argo.

That nickname came from the whiskers on her cheeks.

Although the public beta wiped everyone's characters, she must've added the whiskers again in character creation to maintain brand recognition...

"So then, Miss Guide, what's our next step?"

Haruto asked.

Argo snapped out of her confusion and checked the time. She quickly grabbed Haruto and dashed toward the town gates.

"Crap, it's already five minutes past launch! We need to hurry to the grinding spots—if we're late, we'll miss everything!"

Haruto was being dragged along, puzzled.

Are all guides this hands-on these days? Holding hands and everything?

But then Argo added:

"If you weren't a girl, I wouldn't even offer this kind of hand-holding service! Launch time is precious—monsters around the starter town are limited!"

Haruto mouth twitched.

Did his character look that feminine?

Thinking back to the character creation screen…

Because his real appearance was too perfect, it had already blurred gender boundaries.

Then he added long hair on a whim...

Yeah… maybe he did look kinda like a girl?

Without that initial bias, the more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

But hey, if being misunderstood let him catch such a cute guide, so be it.

With Argo leading the way, the two arrived at the outskirts of town.

A system prompt popped up: [You are leaving the safe zone.]

There were already quite a few players grinding mobs outside.

Most of them were closed beta testers who knew how valuable the early monsters were.

Level-one monsters were dopey-looking boars.

"Watch carefully! I'll show you how to fight!"

Argo drew her newbie shortsword and assumed a stance in front of a wandering boar.

The blade lit up with energy in the next moment.

A glowing arc sliced through the air, striking the boar.

Data fragments flared from its body as its HP bar dipped—by about 1.6%.

That was the basic one-handed sword skill, Slant Slash.

After executing the move, Argo looked at Haruto.

"This is SAO's support system. As long as you perform the right movement for a sword skill, the system will enhance it."

"Once activated, the skill will auto-lock onto the target and execute. Of course, higher-tier skills require more complex input."

"That boar's coming at you now—try doing what I just did—"

Before Argo could finish her sentence, she froze.

The boar she had just repelled charged at Haruto.

Haruto's short blade flashed as he shifted slightly to one side, dodging it by mere centimeters.

At the same time, he struck.

His blade carved a smooth arc through the air, leaving behind a trail of icy-blue light.

In the next instant, four sword-like shockwaves erupted from the boar's body and scattered in every direction.

Argo's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Horizontal Square Slash!? That's impossible!"