Free Sword Art Online - Volume 1 - Aincrad by Reki Kawahara Page A

cloth. They were all most probably the highest-quality player made items.
    But it wasn ’ t overly decorated either, nor did it make you feel uncomfortable. It was totally different from my house. I felt overwhelmingly relieved that I didn ’ t invite her to my house.
    “ Erm … how much did this cost … ? ”  
    At my materialistic question.
    “ Hmm-, with the house and the furniture, about 4000k? I ’ m going to change so just sit anywhere you want. ”  
    She answered lightly and disappeared through a doorway. “K” is short for thousand. 4000k meant four million Coll. I practically lived on the front lines so I could save up that much if I tried. But I always wasted it on either some strange item or a sword that caught my eye, so I never saved up. I chastised myself, which was out of character, and sank into the spongy sofa.
    Asuna appeared after a short while, fully changed into a simple white tunic and a knee-length skirt. Well, I say changed but there ’ s no actual taking off and putting on involved. All you have to do is fiddle with the figure in the stats window. But there were a few seconds when the player was only dressed in their underwear. So unless they were a very bold male player, most players, especially girls, did not change in front of others. Our bodies may be nothing more than just a bunch of data rendered into 3D, but that sort of thinking got hazy after two years, and right now my eyes went to Asuna ’ s bare arms and legs without any remorse.
    Asuna, with no clue of my inner-conflict, threw a sharp look my way and said.
    “ Are you planning to stay dressed like that? ”  
    I quickly opened my menu screen and took off my leather coat and sword. While I was at it, I brought the «Ragout Rabbit ’ s meat» out as well and put it, which was in a clay bowl, on the table in front of me.
    “ So this is the legendary S-rank food ingredient-. … so, what should I make? ”  
    “ Ch-Chef ’ s recommendation. ”  
    “ Oh … ? Well then, let ’ s have stew. It even has «ragout» in its name. ”  
    Asuna headed into the next room; I followed.
    The kitchen was large, and the various appliances that I could see next to the oven looked expensive. Asuna double clicked on the oven ’ s surface, set the time on the pop up window that appeared, and pulled out a metal pot from the cupboard. She put the raw meat in it, threw a couple of herbs in, and then poured water inside it before closing the lid.
    “ If I was actually cooking, it would need to make all sorts of preparations. But in SAO it ’ s so short that it ’ s no fun. ”  
    She put the pot in the oven and pressed the “start” button on the menu as she complained. Even as the 300 seconds counted down, she moved about with precision, making various other side dishes. I watched in a stupefied daze as she went about, not making even a single mistake in operating the menu or the actual tasks.
    In just five minutes, the table was fully set and Asuna and I sat down across from each other. The brown stew looked incredibly delicious as it rested on the plate in front of me. Its smell enticed me as the steam rose slowly from it. Smooth, rich sauce covered the thick meat, and the creamy white marbling on it was truly enchanting.
    We lifted our spoons, and felt that even the time spent saying, “ Thank you for the meal, ” was too long. Then we ate a mouthful of the best food in existence in SAO. I tasted the heat and flavor in my mouth and as I bit into the meat, the juices inside poured out.
    Eating in SAO didn ’ t calculate and simulate the feeling of biting into the food. Instead it used a «Taste Reproduction Engine» that Argas and an affiliated environment programming designer had made together.
    This sent preprogrammed sensations of «eating» various foods and could make the user feel as if they were actually eating something in real life. It was originally designed for people who were on diets or needed to restrict the