Ryou Misaki looked at the gaming system, holding the headset in his hands, looking at it vacantly.

He'd only just gotten the new game, Sword Art Online, but unlike his friend, who was eager to get the game, he himself just got it out of...

...he didn't even know why now that he thought of it.

He simply remembered his friend telling him about the game, and how fun it had been, since he'd been a beta tester for it.

Ryou held the headset in one hand, supporting his head on his palm as his elbow pushed into his knee.

"You've got to get it man! It's even better than "The World"!" He could remember him telling him a couple of weeks before then.

Ryou sighed, leaning more heavily on his knee.

Typically, around this time of day, he'd be in the world, trying to find clues as to where his online friend was in "The World", known to most as Ovan (or at least, the people who personally knew him, as Ovan had the undying habit of being seen but disappearing shortly after.

Though it often was very irritating, but most times hopeless, Ryou never stopped his search for Ovan, going to different areas that hinted at him being there, yet all ending with Ryou coming up with absolutely nothing.

Sure, he swore with his friend, Shino, that he'd find him someday.

But, after three months of searching, Ryou was tired of what seemed to be an endless wild goose chase to him.

Maybe that was the reason he'd gotten the game...

Ryou had been playing "The World" for almost an entire year now, and with his Xth form, the challenge of the game had lost itself.

But, he noted, he never really had played the game for fun or anything like that to begin with...

He could remember the first day he ever played the game.

Two people who seemed petty friendly had taken him somewhere to help him get used to playing the game.

But just before he was about to beat the level, he was betrayed by the same people, them almost killing him.

Almost.

If it hadn't been for Ovan, he'd definitely would've gotten player killed (or PK'ed for short).

Even to this day, Ryou wondered what would've happened had he never met Ovan...

He closed his eyes at his thoughts, one sentence forming in his mind's eye.

He probably wouldn't have been nicknamed "The Terror of Death" by PK'ers, most definitely.

But...

No, he shook his head, he'd probably have something similar happen to him again in the long run.

Especially with the, to this day, unknown phenomenon, AIDA, going wild on the network, he'd probably STILL end up going through all the things he had.

He sighed, then smiled.

Oh well.

Nothing he could really do about it now. And besides, he had saved both "The World" and the real world itself.

He should've been proud of himself, like all the other members of G.U. who helped out.

Speaking of them...

Ryou looked to his other game system, looking for a moment, then moving, sitting at the desk he himself made for himself.

Maybe before he played SAO, he'd check his email...

He started up his system, seeing the loading bar up, and seeing the main menu of the game he'd become so used to that he paid it no attention.

A message appeared on his screen, and he smiled in interest when he saw the words, "You have 4 New emails." With the mail symbol along with a number "4" on the left side of it.

He moved the options with his controller, and he saw immediately who they were from: Silabus, Gaspard, Atoli, and Alkaid, in that order.

The one from Silabus read: "Hey, Haseo! Did you hear about the new MMORPG? A lot of people are talking about it in the forums. Some of the beta testers tried going to the world, and now so many people are getting it. I got the game today, are you ever going to try playing?"

Ryou smiled.

He wondered if Silabus was going to try and make something similar to Canard there when he got the hang of things.

That was his way of doing things after all.

He opened Gaspard's email then, reading it, his much more portly friend's voice coming to his mind as he read: "Haseo! Guess what?! Me and Silabus just got SAO! I'm so excited about it!"

He kept smiling, leaning on his palm.

Just the same optimist as Gaspard always was.

Maybe he'd meet them when he himself went into SAO...

He clicked on the third, from Atoli.

"Hello Haseo, how have you been? I wanted to give this to you to say that I won't be online as often as I used to be. You see, I'm interested in seeing what the new MMO is like. But it was pretty hard to do anything when I first played "The World", and I'm not sure if I'll be any different with this one, so it might be a while before I come back into "The World." Lol"

Now, Ryou was having a feeling of strange coincidence as he read it.

A lot of people were getting this game.

It really must be a big deal after all, huh.

He wondered if Alkaid was any different...

"Hey there Prince Charming. :-)" were the first words Ryou saw on the screen.

The sophomore in high school could already tell that there was going to be teasing in the mail.

Alkaid had gone from hating him, to befriending him, and somehow after coming out of her AIDA induced coma, she seemed to make it a point to always tease him at random times.

And somehow, the boy always felt himself become flustered when it happened.

Shaking th thoughts off, he braced himself.

But to his surprise, it was for nothing.

"I'll be going to try out this game that Atoli told me about. I didn't really want to, but since Sirius and Taihaku are about to try it, I just thought, 'Why the heck not?' I will say though, the line was something that I'd never even seen before. Not even the line for "The World" was anywhere near as bad! I actually wanted to leave there after a while, but I didn't since I felt like I would've wasted several hours of my life for nothing."

Ryou raised an eyebrow.

The tough Alkaid, former Emperor of the Demon Palace Tournament in "The World"... was complaining about a line?

"So, the members of Icolo won't be able to log into "The World" today. See you!"

He blinked at that, then looked back at the case for Sword Art Online.

It really was an irregularly popular game.

The strange thing was that he wondered if he'd even hear about it had it not been for his friend.

But then again, he probably got the idea of playing "The World" from him too.

With that thought, he turned the computer off, the other system on, placing the headset over his head, closing his eyes as the images flooded into his mind.


Many cyan circles went in front of his head, each loading themselves up, every one for one of the five senses.

"OK" they said when finished.

Ryou was somewhat taken aback when he saw the sign come up after he created a user name and password for himself.

Data from "The World" still available. Would you like to use it?

He would've blinked had his eyes still be open.

What the heck was data from "The World" doing in this?

Was CC Corp involved in this game in any way...?

He shrugged the thought off, looking at the "yes" option and imagining it being clicked on, seeing the screen carry out his wish.

The screen turned gray then, with white words flashing up in the middle of it: Welcome to Sword Art Online.

Then a light appeared behind the words, and he was taken into it, blinding him momentarily.

When it faded, he opened his eyes, only to see a town he'd never been in before.

He looked around, then looked down at himself, seeing himself wearing the clothes he'd usually wear in "The World".

A white sleeveless t-shirt with armor like bands on his lower arms, that somewhat showed his midriff as there was a cut going up the middle of his abdomen, with matching pants that were tucked into more armor like objects around his shins, complete with shoes that were a variation of white, red, and black.

He looked at himself, surprised at how identical he was from "The World".

Then he looked around himself, seeing many others logging into the game.

He began moving himself, marveling at how much he actually felt his movements.

This was incredible...

Smiling, Ryou, or Haseo as his character name said, looked to the beautifully crafted world of Sword Art Online.

Alright, he thought to himself, let's see what this place has to offer...