The year was 2030, and the world was, still, swept up in the craze known as virtual reality games, but more specifically, VRMMORPGs. Years before, an event occurred, that would come to be known as the SAO Incident, where 10,000 players became trapped in the game known as Sword Art Online, where dying in game meant dying in real life. While the remaining players were trapped in game, the concern that such games that utilized Full Dive Technology being dangerous began to rise, and it wasn't long before the future of VRMMORPGs began to look bleak.

However, after the defeat of SAO, and the release of the remaining 6000 players, strides were made towards creating safer games that could be played without the danger of death looming over the players' heads, and with the release of Akihiko Kayaba's World Seed, people were able to create their own games that they could control, and invite others to play in the worlds created by their friends. Suddenly, VRMMMORPGs were once again in the public eye, but not for negative reasons. They became more popular than ever before. In fact, with the rise of a new VR game, almost the entire world began to fall under the spell of virtual reality, and in this year, a census taken by children, AND adults, revealed that almost eighty five percent of the human population on Earth spent their free time in virtual reality games. One game, in particular, began to sweep the world: the game known as the Divinum Comoediae Online. The name being Latin for Divine Comedy; the game was modeled after Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy", and featured settings based on Paradiso, Purgatorio, and Inferno.

The game was, sort of, like the reverse of Aincrad: i.e rather than players starting at the bottom, and working their way up to the 100th floor, DCO created a virtual heaven in the upper most floors, and gave players the opportunity to venture down to the lower realms of the game, Mount Purgatorio, where the players could take on various humanoid entities that ranged from the lowest leveled enemies to mid level enemies, and Inferno, where players could challenge the strongest monsters the game had to offer. Just like Aincrad, and New Aincrad, each floor was guarded by a boss monster, of differing appearance, and difficulty. What made DCO draw in so many players was the promise of monetary gain upon beating the lowest level of Inferno: cash numbering in the millions of any country's currency to the player from that country that delivered the final blow to the boss.

Indeed, it was a golden age of virtual reality gaming, and the heroes of Old Aincrad, such as Kirito, Asuna, and the like were still enjoying their lives, together with friends. However, little did they know that DCO had its own secrets, both light…and dark.