Chapter 1: Worst. Birthday Gift. Ever!

Disclaimer: SAO is not mine. The only thing I own are the characters I have created. Thank you.

November 6th, 2022. SAO's Alpha Launch

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POV: TAIYAMA

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Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

The bell rang loudly, before I approached the middle of the ring with my glove extended, offering it respectfully to my opponent, the other person competing with me for the final. He tapped it back, nodding in respect.

We got into our stances, the match had begun!

"Gooo Taisuke!" I heard my chestnut haired best friend, Asuna Yuuki, cheer from the crowd with a fist raised in the air.

I held back, playing defensively as I heard the room roar.

He jabbed at me incessantly. I began to use my fail proof strategy, I called it the one round punch out. They'd tire themselves out against my guard, and then I'd counterattack and knock them out throwing everything I had at them.

He was faster than I'd expected, jabbing at me quickly, his rights were fast too. I dodged and rolled, his blows became faster and faster. My sharpened reflexes were used to evade his attacks, boxing was nothing new to me. I had done it for years. I held energy, not striking back until I saw the clock behind my opponents shoulder.

Perfect, the round had thirty seconds left.

I was still covered in sweat from twirling about his jabs all round, and then I unleashed my counter attack. The crowd roared in excitement and anticipation, seeing my sudden countering, same with my friend Asuna, still cheering me on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two empty seats next to her. Seeing this again just made me angrier, fueling my strength.

He grunted as he threw a fast right to my cheek, I dodged it and began to counter punch to his ribs, throwing all of my adequate strength into it. A clean shot from me was no joke, even at this high school championship.

My plan worked perfectly, he was too tired from attacking me all round and was pretty tired. Too tired to block my attacks that were coming his way.

He began to keel over, before I attacked again, my green glove brimming with power as I punched with all I had, my dark brown hair whipping about as I attacked. I launched a strong yet fast right straight to his eye. He dodged it but I saw this coming, I had my left prepped up and I hooked it into his right side temple, immediately after.

The punch was so powerful, I only needed to unload a right completely on his cheek, before he fell to the ground cold.

Asuna screamed in happiness with the crowd, rising out of her seat.

I then bowed to the crowd smiling, I won!

...

I removed the dark green boxing wraps from my hands as Asuna entered my car, an old silver MX-5 Miata, my shimmering bronze trophy sitting in my lap.

"Wow. That looks handsome." Asuna chortled seeing the long silver trophy, about to enter it.

"Oh. Er. Thanks, you still need a ride to the game store?"

The girl nodded, closing the silver door on her left, "Mhm. You know where it is right?"

I smirked, "You've been looking at that place ever since they announced Argus' new title. What was it again?"

"Oh please Ishoyama." She said as I started up the aged engine, "You know what it is."

I left the championship parking lot as I kept talking to her, "You've had your eye on her for a while. Looking forward to playing it?"

"Oh hell yeah!" My chestnut haired friend said cheerfully, "I'm gonna kick butt in that game for sure. Aren't you gonna get a copy?"

"Nah." I said shaking my head, pulling out onto the street from the parking lot, "I tried the beta. The game's just not for me."

"Oh c'mon. I heard from some beta testers the game was amazing!"

"They're lying. There were some flustering design choices." I admitted.

"Well Dad said I could get one, plus they probably made the game better since the beta." She said raising her finger, "I'll buy you a copy too if you'd like."

"Asuna...No." I said simply.

"C'mon!" She pleaded, "We've known each other since we were in diapers, you can't do me this one solid?"

I sighed, "Look. I have the hardware from the Beta. You know that helmet thingy?...The Nerve Gear? I don't want to play."

"Fine." She said crossing her arms.

I could tell she wasn't cool with this, she did this sort of stuff all the time, "Asuna, tell me what's up okay?"

"You'd be the only person I'd know all right, jeez." Asuna said looking out the window shyly.

"So? You can make great friends in that game." I said remembering the beta.

She stayed silent, as I drove down the street stiffly.

..

We reached the counter and Asuna drew her wallet, "Two copies of Sword Art online please."

"Asuna..." I said reproachfully.

She looked at me, "Dad never paid you for all those rides you've been giving me everywhere. Plus its your birthday!"

"I'm fine without the new copy, Asuna, please."

A reddish brown haired young man behind me cleared his throat, "Can you please hurry this up? I want to start the tutorial like now!"

I shrugged, "Whatever. I'll play it for like an hour then drop it. Don't complain to me at school tomorrow that I didn't play it."

"Oh Ishoyama! Thank You!" She said jumping into my arms and hugging me.

I hugged my best friend back, gripping the red material of her jacket tightly, before letting her pay for my copy of the game.

She carried the two copies of SAO with her back to my car out in the parking lot, past the long lines of people waiting to buy the game stretching outside.

Asuna passed me the plastic blue box she bought for me, "Happy 16th Birthday Taisuke."

I set it down in the water bottle slot that usually held my canteen for boxing.

"So. Are you actually gonna play it?" She asked me.

"Of course."

"Yay! I can't wait to meet you in-game!" She said happily, opening her copy.

"Whoa." She said looking at the little blue chip, "That goes into the game slot right?"

"I don't know Asuna, what do you think?" I asked sarcastically.

"Ha-ha, very funny." She said punching my shoulder lightly, as I started up the old engine and pulled out onto the street.

"Hey Taisuke, how are you allowed to drive? You're a little too young right?" The girl asked, leaning on her hand posted against the window.

"Yeah. But apparently, this Miata my dad bought me classifies as a small special vehicle. Got my license earlier today."

"So you've been practicing?"

I nodded, braking before the red light.

"Your parents weren't there at the tournament, do you want to talk about that?" She asked, probably remembering my furious nature during the final match.

The light turned green, and my car rolled ahead with traffic. I shook my head, pressing the accelerator, "What's there to say? They didn't show up, so what?"

"All right then." She said shyly, turning her head from looking at me after seeing me snap quickly.

I pulled up right in front of her house.

"See ya tomorrow." Asuna said before walking off. Before I drove away, she spoke over her left shoulder, "Oh, and Ishoyama. When I meet you in-game, I'm gonna kick your butt."

"I look forward to it." I said in a bored voice before rolling up my window and driving off.

...

After getting all of my homework finished in my room, I booted up my PC on my desk and loaded up a video I'd been watching before I took my special vehicle's test.

"So Mr. Kayaba. Your game is the very first of its kind. A VR MMO. How do feel about that?"

The white lab coated game designer cleared his throat, "Well I'm very glad you asked that Ms. Inoe. We've been taking the players feedback from the Beta, and there was a strong opinion a lot of...refining needed to be done to the game's mechanics. Design flaws all that." The man kept speaking, "We've definitely been taking Beta testers words in mind. And we have some very special stuff made up for all players." He said, smiling at the reporter talking to him.

"Do you look forward to next month's launch?"

"Of course I do. It'll be gaming's most historic moment. I'm sure of it." The man said calmly, taking a sip of his coffee from the porcelain table in the news studio.

The reporter turned to her television screen smiling, "That was Akihiko Kayaba, designer of upcoming game Sword Art Online. Back to you Takeru."

I paused the video, hitting my keyboards's space bar, and scrolled down to the description of it.

The news broadcast recording had been posted over three weeks ago, they had a month to refine the huge number of strange design decisions Kayaba and his team made. I encountered them myself when I tested the Beta. And were it not for those flaws, I think I would've loved the game.

I turned my head from my desktop screen to the blue box she had bought me for my birthday, still laying on my desk.

"Craap..." I said, rolling around in my desk chair and thinking, my back facing the paused video on screen.

I don't have to play it. I can just tell Asuna I played it for a bit and make up some stuff I remembered from the Beta...But she's my best friend! I can't just lie to her! And she paid with her father's own hard earned money to get me it! It'd be wrong for me to bail on her like that.

She supported me at my own boxing tournament, I have to support her too!

"Huhhh..." I groaned, sighing deeply, "Goddammit Asuna." I said hooking up my Nerve Gear helmet to my PC.

They must have improved it since Beta, maybe this won't be so bad. I mumbled in my head tying my dark green gym shorts tightly.

I laid on my bed, helmet on my head, and closed my eyes before lazily saying, "Link Start..."

DDrrrrring!

The colorful pixels rushed towards my face before I got logged into the game.

I was dropped onto Floor one obviously. Luckily, the system had registered my old avatar already.

Thank god I was using my old avatar, because it was just me in-game.

Hell I even used the same gamer-tag from the beta, which was nice of the guy who made this game, which was my surname mixed with my first name: Taiyama.

My avatar was me essentially. With my exhausted but cheerful face, and tall stature. I had a forest green undershirt beneath my Level 1 Leather Jerkin. As I usually had from the beta, I had my samurai style su, or straight Yari hung behind my back. It was a spear, my favorite and only weapon in the game.

I held my finger out in front of my face, dang.

Nice graphics, but I still didn't like this game very much.

I'll go find her and get the hell out of here. I thought, getting bored in seconds.

I saw a player getting whooped out a couple paces from where I was and walked to her, my boots passing just through the virtual grass. She had vermilion hair and a disgruntled look on her older face.

"Wassup Asuna. Cool to see you here."

"How do you know my name?" She asked looking at me as I approached.

"You used your actual name for your gamer-tag?" I asked, laughing at her slightly, "Holy crap, I bet you're gonna get wrecked when you try to hit the most basic mob. Oh look, what a surprise." I said smugly, seeing the Level One Hog knock her to the ground.

"Shut the hell up!" She shrieked getting tossed about by the pig.

"Ugh. Step aside." I said tiredly.

Using the decently buffed strength stat my avatar gave me, I forced the boars head into the ground under my boot.

Then I powered up my yari, or classic samurai spear, the blade glowing lime green using a Level 1 Spear Skill: [Downward Thrust], and shoved it into its head, the mob blowing away to glass pieces.

The results screen sprinkled to life after the mob was defeated. The Exp I got from it was pitiful, but it was a pig so hey, whatever.

"Wow. Look Asuna, I defeated the most powerful mob in the whole game for you!" I taunted.

She stood up and brushed some virtual dirt off her chest, "Only one person I know would be as cynical and tired as you. You're Taisuke aren't you? Clever gamer-tag by the way, combining your two names."

"Why do you look like you're 18?" I asked.

"I didn't want to look 15 okay?" She said looking away shyly.

"Oh my god!" I said slapping my knee and laughing, leaning over, "The Great Asuna of house Yuuki, daughter of one of the most respected CEOs in Tokyo is ashamed of her age in game!"

"Shut up!" She yelled turning around, "Not all of us are scared of what we look like in real life! Why'd you make your avatar look exactly like you?"

I shrugged, "Nothing to be ashamed of I guess." I then let in a deep breath, looking around at the familiar floating emerald green plains of Aincrad, "Damn. I still remember the Beta. This place is just as beautiful as I remember. I'm actually glad you brought me back to reminisce Asuna."

She snorted, "No you don't. You still think this game sucks don't you?"

I grunted, "Mf. You know me well." As she rolled her amber eyes I asked a question, "Hey Asuna, how'd you get into video games anyway? I thought you were the most straight-laced rich girl ever."

She crossed her arms and looked at me, "As if! Kouichirou let me borrow his helmet for this game, plus he's the one who suggested I should play it."

Asuna looked at the spear I had slung over my back, "Whoa. Cool yari, where'd you get it?"

"Well. I defeated a mob of fierce flying demon monkeys on Floor 34 of the beta. I was rewarded with a randomly generated item, but it was a glitch in the game! It allows me to become the most powerful player in the game!"

The girl was impressed, her eyes widening, "Whoa! Really?"

"No dum-dum." I taunted smirking, "Its just a basic Yari I got from the avatar creation screen jeez. Well! This is already boring." I said sighing, "Seeing you get your butt whooped by the most basic mob in the game is funny, but I have something better to do."

"And what would that be?" Asuna asked looking at me with her hands on her hips.

"Literally anything else." I said cynical as always.

I tried to log out but somehow, the button was empty.

It took me about four seconds before I started to freak out.

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Was I stuck in this game I barely liked?

"Taisuke. I mean Taiyama! Calm down bro! It's not like we're actually stuck in the game right now. Wait how do I open the menu?"

I looked at Asuna, "Are you serious? You just swipe down."

"Really?"

"I know right? Whatever, just swipe down."

She did so and tried to log out, "Crap you're right. How the hell do I get out of here?"

"Wait are we being teleported?" I asked feeling a small tingle before being teleported to a large arena type place.

I looked around the plaza, Asuna was right there next to me.

I saw the literally thousands of players currently logged in being ported around me.

My usual cynical mind went to work, "Wait. How is there no lag with the ten thousand people being ported to the same place?"

"Sh!" Asuna hissed at me.

Soon, red hexagons filled the dome above us and I felt a pit of fear in my stomach grow.

A red glob of blood formed and I saw my best friend wrinkle her nose next to me, "Ugh. Stupid M-rating."

A dark ominous figure appeared, he was covered in an enormous red cloak. People were scared but I chuckled at him.

Dramatic entrance huh? Pretty cliche bro.

"Hello! I am Akihiko Kayaba, creator and head programmer of this world. Your new lord and savior."

I raised an eyebrow, and the figure floating continued to monologue.

"Just kidding. I have some interesting news for you all. Has anyone seen Tron or played Everquest?"

He looked around, "Really? Ten thousand people, and not one person has seen that movie?"

I got what he was saying, having seen the movie, "Oh crap." I said frowning, raising my hand slowly. I wouldn't ever admit to playing Everquest, because honestly, that was an experience that was far worse than this one was so far.

"Ah! He gets it! Anyway. There's something I should address with you all. You're all pretty much boned. No I'm serious. I have no other way of explaining it."

Everyone was confused, and one player screeched, "What're you talking about?"

"Are you guys kidding me? If your HP reaches zero, you'll die in real life too. How you may ask? Fine, if enough electrical current is sent around the circuits around your cranium, your brain will be fried and you'll die. You dig?"

We all grew shocked, many players ran around screaming, "We're dead!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"I should've donated to charity more!"

"I should've told my girlfriend I cheated on her with her sister!"

A huge conundrum broke out, people running about and screaming.

I looked at Asuna. She was crying, "I'm so sorry Ishoyama."

"Asuna..." I said grabbing, essentially my only friend now, and bringing her to my chest to comfort her.

Kayaba sighed disappointingly, "Amazing. You all cannot handle a crisis properly. You know what. I'm just gonna mute you all."

To shut off all the rabble, he muted everyone.

The shouting stopped and he un-muted everyone so they'd get the picture, "All right. So to successfully escape my masterpiece of death, you have to reach level 100 of the castle Aincrad." He explained, a huge model of the game appearing in front of him, "Thus, beating the game. Any questions?"

I raised my right hand, as she wiped aside some tears next to me, "Yeah. Player Taiyama here, I think your game is pretty bad. Can I leave?"

"Uh...No. If I let you out, then everyone should be let out?"

"Would that be so bad?" I asked the enormous red cloaked figure floating in the air.

"Er...Yes..." He said slowly.

I felt my fists tighten in fury.

He'd lied to me. He'd lied to everyone around me. He was this maniac trapping us in this virtual badly designed nightmare of a game.

I started screaming throwing my hands up, "You...son of a-!"

"Whoa!" Kayaba kept his menu open, interrupting me, "Watch the language there kiddo! Let me enable the profanity filter real quick..."

"You're a genocidal, nihilistic, self righteous and totally nonsensical bastard! Let us out you-"

I was promptly muted and the Game Master chuckled lowly, "Ah. Much better. Now, let me explain real quick why I did this."

"Since I was a child I loved playing with puppets, dancing them on strings. I played video games that gave me power over virtual people, and boy... Did it feel nice." Kayaba said, growling ominously, his red cloth covered fist tightening in pleasure, "And now I can mess with real people!"

"Our good friend Taiyama was right. I do use self righteous nihilism to justify all this. If I logged you all out right now, I'd still go to jail for even letting this happen, allowing Nerve Gear Helmets to be distributed en masse. So! Might as well have some fun before I die!"

"Now, I have ten thousand little puppets to play with. Have fun beating the hardest game ever conceived to the human mind! Oh! I almost forgot to remind you all again, if you die in-game here, without a pain absorber by the way...Your brain will be popped like a balloon by a needle holding three year old."

Kayaba then forced all avatars in the game to be real life versions of their players, his menu open with him. Didn't change anything for me, but I didn't care, "Wow. You all look totally unprepared for the cavalcade of existential death that's about to come your way! Have fun!" Kayaba chortled chuckling before disappearing.

A now chestnut haired Asuna cried into my chest, "Taisuke...I'm so, so, so sorry. You're gonna die..." She looked up, her amber orbs brimmed with tears, "And its all my fault..."

I shook my head, before I led her out of the plaza walking into the Town of Beginnings.

I gripped her hands kindly and comforted her, "Asuna. We're not gonna die." My glowing orange eyes burned into hers warmly, "Because we're going to beat the hell out of this game."

"Together." I added confidently.

I held my pinkie out like when we were kids, and said our old promise, "Friends to the end?"

She nodded slowly, her chestnut locks bouncing, "Friends to the end."

We gripped each other's pinkies, and I leaned in and hugged her.

Asuna kept crying, and I shed a tear with her. I cried not because I was gonna die. Honestly, I was more afraid of what Asuna'd do, and how it would impact her, if her only friend in this game so far left her. I was crying right now, not because I'd die.

But right now, I cried because I was stuck inside my least favorite game ever created. At least my best friend was there with me. I guess the irony in all this is that I was probably going to die playing my least favorite game that never should've been made.

Sword Art Online.

The worst scripted and designed video game I'd ever played. And just because Asuna convinced me to start playing with her, I'd regret it forever.

To top everything off, the damn profanity filter was enabled...

Yay...

Which really sucked because I had some choice words to use with my good friend Kayaba...

Still comforting Asuna, I wound down about what an utterly crazy day this had been.

I got my special vehicle drivers license. I turned 16. I won my first boxing championship. And then I got stuck in this death game, just to end a perfect day in a perfect manner.

I remembered how in Kindergarten, the best friend of mine currently sobbing into my chest bought me an old figurine set of the Go-Bots. Right now, I'd take that outdated play set made of plastic over this game any day.

It was now official.

This wasn't just the worst birthday gift Asuna'd given me.

It was the worst birthday gift ever.

...

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A/N: Quick shout out to Marcus Cersy for helping me with the story picture. The guy told me how to make it, plus he's awesome and makes incredibly compelling stories! Thanks man! Have a nice day! -Den