#I cannot fucking believe I wrote a SAO au

[loosingmoreletters]

Take a snippet of a Sword Art Online AU for mdzs

Watching the teenagers talk among themselves, gesticulating wildly, Wei Wuxian figured they must have spent a lot of time in full dive systems, which was odd enough. After what had happened to Lan Zhan and his brother, it seemed more likely that their uncle would’ve shut down any association Lan Corp had with that tech. Then again, it had been over a decade. Maybe Lan Qiren wasn’t even CEO anymore, though Wei Wuxian couldn’t think of anyone to succeed him. Neither Lan Xichen nor Lan Zhan had seemed particularly suited for the position of a CEO when he’d known them.

“Sizhui,” the loud Lan - Jingyi? - suddenly interrupted the conversation, “is your dad gonna pick us up?”

Sizhui shook his head. “No, he’s at physical therapy.”

“He’s always at PT,” Jingyi muttered.

“It’s not like muscle atrophy suddenly goes away,” Sizhui reprimanded him as the Ouyang boy dug his elbow into Jingyi’s side, and Jingyi grimaced.

“Sorry, you know how I meant it. After all this time, is there really a chance it’ll get better?”

Sizhui sighed, proving at once that it couldn’t have been just Lan Zhan raising him for all that open sass. Had he gotten a real marriage? A proper spouse with benefits that weren’t the the highest spell stats?

“Father cares about it.”

Lan Zhan had been their high school and university’s athletics champion for years. The time spent comatose in game would’ve likely ruined all of that. If Wei Wuxian still had a body, it would probably break apart the moment he tried to move.

“We can catch the bus to my place then,” Ouyang kid said. “It’s not that far from Lan Corp and we can grab food on the way.”

So much for Wei Wuxian’s assumptions that the company wouldn’t have anything to do with Full Dive tech anymore.

“Are you all diving from Lan Corp?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“Yeah, it’s the closest,” Jingyi said. “What company are you playing at?”

“Jingyi!” Ouyang - okay, Wei Wuxian really needed to catch his name - exclaimed. “You don’t just ask a high level player from where they’re diving when in private! Sorry, Senior Mo!”

Oh, dear, did they assume Wei Wuxian was a pro gamer? He grinned.

“No, it’s fine. I’m diving from home!”

A blatantly lie as Wei Wuxian’s continued existence was a string of zeroes and ones, but he wasn’t about to tell a bunch of kids he was little more than a virus hanging onto the remaining Wen servers.

But instead of reassuring the teenagers, his statement just made them gape in horror.

“From home! How? With a homebrew system? Isn’t that illegal?”

Was it? It hadn’t been when Wei Wuxian was still alive. Most of them had dived from home over standard consoles.

“What server are you on? Even Sizhui isn’t allowed to dive from home, though it wouldn’t make such a big difference for him.”

“Father doesn’t want me to risk taking a less secure connection. I could suffer severe damages.”

Yeah, that did sound like Lan Zhan. Wei Wuxian laughed and ruffled the kid’s head. “Being supervised while diving is for the best. I’ve got my brother looking after me, don’t worry.”

Despite everything, Wei Wuxian was sure Jiang Cheng had claimed his body. His brother probably arranged a nice funeral too. Wait, was his name famous IRL now? Wei Wuxian mentally patted himself on the shoulder for sticking with Mo Xuanyu’s character profile instead of editing it.

“That’s good, Senior Mo!” Ouyang kid said.

“Are you diving on a regular schedule then?” Sizhui asked. “We took down that demonic arm quicker than I calculated with your help. You’d be a great addition to our party.”

The last tome Wei Wuxian had been part of a group, it hadn’t ended well for anyone. But without him there, the kids would’ve died and they obviously planned to stick around.

And if Wei Wuxian wanted to figure out who had hooked up the Wen servers to a new game, he ought to stick around living players.

“I’d be honored to join your party,” Wei Wuxian said. “Maybe I can teach you a trick or two!”

Not any of the gaps he exploited for his demonic cultivation, but one or two shortcuts that would bolster the kids’ chances. Maybe he could disguise hacking their stats as extra training. Obviously they wouldn’t die IRL if they died in game, not like the last humans Wei Wuxian had talked to, but he was incredibly selfish.

He didn’t want to witness anyone’s death again. Helping then was fir his benefit too.