A/N So I was going back and had finally finished editing some of the stuff in the earlier. I go to post the new chapters and did something incredibly stupid. instead of hitting the replace/update chapter button I pressed the delete chapter button. so I had to go and delete every chapter and then re-upload them to get them all in the right order. and now i'm really fucking pissed at myself. but at least the edited chapters have been uploaded and everything is back in order. I'm sorry chapter 8 is taking so long my life hasn't been going great lately, my girlfriend broke up with my two weeks ago out of the blue, and it hit me hard, anyways i'm working on the next chapter and should be finished soon. if your looking for something to read right now though and your willing to read something i'm writing that's original go over wattpad and search my account name, it should come up with a story called Game on (Terrible name I know, i'm working on it). also I will be starting a RWBY fic eventually so stay tuned for news and shit about that. btw if this is your first time reading something by me, there are no author notes on the rest of the chapters because again i deleted them and i didn't feel like going through and rewriting one for each one, but your not missing much it was mostly me bitching and ranting like this. Finally please enjoy.

Chapter 1: A new Beginning

Ten minutes, it's all that stood between me and my return to the most anticipated game of the year. Sword art online, the first VRMMO ever created and something thousands of people have been anticipating for over a year now. And in ten minutes all the waiting will have paid off because the game will finally go online. As a beta tester I knew where to go as soon as I logged in and met my friends. Seven minutes now, god damn it why does time move so slowly when you're waiting for something. As I paced back and forth I glanced at my mirror and saw my dark brown hair was down to the base of my head. It surrounded my face people have always described as chiseled. I looked back at my clock, five minutes left. I finally decided to just lay down put the nerve gear on and just wait. Five minutes passed slowly each second one closer to the game. Finally five minutes later it was time.

"LINK START." And with those words a flash of colors appeared and disappeared, after the standard calibration I could finally log on. I signed in and was teleported to the Town of Beginnings. As the glow faded I looked around me at the familiar town, I walked over to the fountain at the center of plaza and waited since my friends and I decided to make this our meeting place for when we first logged on.

"Jason?" I turned to see a young female player looking around.

"Right here. Although in here it's actually Atticus. And you know you're not supposed to use your real name as your in game name Charlie." Looking at my girlfriend I noticed she made her avatar look the same as her real body. From her long red hair to her emerald green eyes, the only difference I could see was the sword strapped to her back.

"Hey this is the first game I've ever played so cut me some slack." I shrugged and she grabbed my hand as she sat down and leaned on me.

"I still can't believe that this is all just a game. I mean everything just looks so real and your hand is just as warm as I remember it."

"Yeah even though I beta tested the game I still can really believe that this is all just in a computer." With that I leaned in planted a small kiss on her lips.

"Yeah they definitely have temperature settings down." I said while Charlie started to blush and hit my arm yelling at me while I was laughing.

"Hey am I interrupting something?" we stopped and looked over to see a teenage looking player with black hair and dark skin looking at us.

"Not at all John, but that's not your in game name so what is?" I asked my longtime friend as he approached

"I'm going by Ryuk in this one. But how'd you know it was me" he asked slightly disappointed I could tell who he was so easy.

"Easy, Charlie's sitting next to me and Sam doesn't answer like that. Speaking of her have you seen her yet?"

"Yeah she said she'll be here in a minute her sister decided to join us today."

"Well this should be fun we'll finally get to meet her sister." No sooner had I said this then two female players walked up to us.

"About time I was seriously thinking about logging off going to your house and forcing you to log in." Ryuk joked as Sam and her sister walked over to us.

"Sorry first time Jill's used a Nervegear. Oh and my in game name is Kallen, Jill's is Nyssa." Sam said as Jill looked around with a look of awe on her face. While Nyssa was busy staring at everything I sent out friend requests to everyone. When Charlie got hers she nearly fell over in surprise.

"What the hell is this box in front of me?"

"It's a friend request. It allows us to know when and where each other is while we're online, just press the yes button." I explained to her. She still looked a little uncertain but pressed yes anyway and jumped again as the box disappeared.

"Noob." Ryuk said as we all tried not to laugh from Charlie's reaction to the friend request, but Ryuk's comment got us instead and even Charlie joined in after a few seconds. After we all stopped laughing and got on each other's friend list we headed out to the vendors.

"Most of the stuff here is garbage but if you're not really a sword person then you might want to buy something else now." I explained for everyone. After that I headed towards an NPC and bought a two-handed axe with the 500 starting col.

"Didn't you just say most of the stuff here is garbage though?" Nyssa asked a confused look on her face.

"I did but I'm not really a sword guy and I'm working towards another skill."

"What skill?"

"You'll see." I said grinning. In the end Ryuk was the only one who didn't buy anything. Charlie bought a scimitar, and both Kallen and Nyssa got rapiers. After buying what we wanted we headed towards the fields of the first floor to get some practice in. after thoroughly explaining how to use sword skills everyone but Charlie had them down.

"You're not waiting long enough." I tried explaining

"It's the stupid games fault not mine."

"Here, let me help." I grabbed her hand and positioned it in the right place and kept it there until her scimitar lit up. I let go and her hand whipped down cutting the air in front of her. She smiled trying again this time succeeding on her own. After a couple of hours everyone understood how to use skills perfectly.

" Shit, sorry I've got to go. It's my turn to make dinner tonight." Charlie said tired from an hour of hunting boars.

"So how do I leave?"

"Just open the menu, it's the bottom button." I explained

"Alright thanks Jason… um Jason it's not there."

"Sure it's not, sometimes I can't stand noobs." Ryuk complained, which received a punch in the shoulder from both Nyssa and Kallen. Opening my menu I saw she was right. Before getting a chance to wander what the hell was going on a bell rung and Charlie screamed while being surrounded by a bright blue light, next were Nyssa and Kallen then Ryuk. Finally it was my turn. After the light faded I found myself in the town square we all met at in the beginning. Looking around I saw what looked like everyone in the game here.

"What the fucks going o-." Ryuk was stopped when he noticed a single red hexagon in the sky. As we looked more began appearing until the whole sky was red. After a few seconds what looked like blood started falling through the lines separating the hexagons. The blood starting changing shape until finally a giant humanoid in a red cloak was left.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online. My name is Akihiko Kayaba" The figure began.

"And as of this moment I am in control of this world. I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your menu, the logout button. Let me assure you this is not a defect, this is how Sword Art Online was meant to be played."

"What the hell does he mean Jason?" Charlie said with a look of confusion and terror on her face.

"And no one on the outside will be able to remove or shutdown the Nervegear helmet from your head, if someone does try the Nervegear will send out a microwave signal into your skull. This will result in your immediate death." The figure calling itself Kayaba continued.

"This can't be happening." Charlie kept repeating terrified, until I came and took her into my arms. She jumped then saw it was me and turned to hug me. I could feel her shaking in my arms.

"What if someone tries anyways?" Another player yelled at Kayaba.

"Authorities have already been made aware of what's happening. Even still some families have tried removing the Nervegear, resulting in Aincrad having 213 less players."

"What the fuck." Kallen said looking absolutely terrified.

"Even now major news companies around the world have around the clock coverage of everything happening. Needless to say the chance of a Nervegear being removed now is minimal. Also it is important to remember the following." The square grew silent as Kayaba continued.

"There is no longer anyway to revive a player in the game. If your health bar reaches zero your avatar will shatter and the Nervegear will simultaneously destroy your brain, ending your life. There is only one way to escape this game. You must clear the game. Currently you are on floor one if you can clear the dungeon and beat the boss you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor 100 and you clear the game" with that said shock hit me, not even the beta testers got close, hell we didn't even make it past floor 10.

"So much for a speed run." Ryuk said trying to mask his terror with a bad joke.

"He can't be serious."

"Why would he do this?" was heard all around from players.

"Now, I bet your wondering, why Akihiko Kayaba creator of the Nervegear and Sword Art Online would do this. The answer is this exact situation. And now good luck and a gift." And with that he disappeared. The gift he mentioned was a small mirror. As I looked at it I and everyone else was surrounded by that same blue light. After it faded I couldn't tell what had happened until looking around for Kallen's avatar and instead finding a tall girl with short black hair.

"Kallen?"

"Yeah"

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Me what about you?" looking back in the mirror I saw I changed to look like I did in real life. Looking around I saw everyone except Charlie had changed.

"Let's go" I grabbed everyone's hands and we ran.