#1: November 6, 2022

He sat in front of his computer, watching the ongoing live stream being held for the biggest game release ever: Sword Art Online. And yet, despite the hype, Haiyo Yamamoto was only slightly excited for the game at all. Maybe it's because he was one of the 1,000 beta testers, but he dismissed this quickly; instead, he held to the belief that the game would be cluttered with dedicated, competitive pro-gamers.

"Maybe I'll get lucky and run into a few beta testers," Haiyo reassured himself. He always tries to stay positive during the darkest of times, even if it is melancholy reassurement. But for SAO, he was right to be worried; a game filled with extremely dedicated players and access to the game's special sword skill system was sure to make more than a few casual gamers nervous.

He looked at his clock: five minutes to launch time. Since he was a beta tester, Haiyo had priority to the retail version, so he had the game home already. With that in mind, he prepared his room (and more importantly himself) so that he could hop right in.

"Alright," he remarked. With his person finally prepared after three minutes, Haiyo brushed aside his silver-colored hair from his face and laid himself down in his bed. He placed the NerveGear on his head, closed his eyes, and said the magic words to bring the game to life.

"Link start," Haiyo stated. His vision blurred into a brilliant white and, after a brief login screen, found himself covered in a blue veil of pixels. Finally, he opened his eyes to the brilliantly colorful world of Aincrad, the floating castle that marked the setting for SAO. Only now did he believe he was in the virtual world. Just like before, Haiyo had no words to describe the feeling of standing in this fantastical world.

"Hello, Aincrad," he remarked, "I'm back."

SAO

Unlike the person he's like in the real world, Haiyo led a mostly sociable life in a game, a face hidden behind the virtual mask of an avatar. Under this persona, he was Haiyamoto, an obvious mash up of his real name to reassure himself that this character was his. Even after a minute, more and more players virtualized around him, until it seemed like a thousand people littered the entrance. After his minor excitement died down, Haiyamoto started the dull trek inside this first floor's city: the Town of Beginnings.

Inside was still as bustling as the entrance, but that was thanks in part to the various NPCs and their shops rather than excited players; although, players were starting to flow in, even in pairs already. It was calamity.

At that instant, he saw a blur of blue race past him. From first glance, Haiyamoto guessed it was a beta tester like himself; only the beta testers would be racing through town like they lived there. However, he paid the guy no attention as he returned to his own thing; jus a second later, he heard a man yelling out from the crowd.

"Hey, wait up!" The man seemed to scream over the roar of the crowd, followed by a blur of red in the corner of his eye. It was completely obvious the man was after the beta tester from a moment ago, but it's not like Haiyamoto blamed him. In fact, while he thought about it, maybe partying with a fellow beta tester would make the game more tolerable. At the same time, the point of an RPG is to make the character you want, not of what others thought of you.

Well, what the hell? Haiyamoto thought. I can't distance myself all the time, so I might as well follow. With all of his might, he did his best to trail both the man and the beta tester, and he actually caught up as they stopped in an alley.

"Hey, stop," the man and Haiyamoto yelled before acknowledging each other.

"Wait, who are you?" the two asked in unison. Now they were both annoyed by each other.

"Why were you following him?" Haiyamoto asked the man as he pointed to the kid in front.

"Why were you following me?" the man asked as he pointed to himself.

"I was following him."

"Then why are you asking ME why I was following HIM?" Both men bickered to each other while the kid stood back, confused with the whole situation.

Finally, the kid spoke up. "Umm, what do you two want?" Both men bolted upright and regained their composure.

"Umm, it seemed like you know you way around," the red haired man started. "So, I wanted to know something."

The kid blinked. "Ok?"

"Were you a beta tester?

Haiyamoto snapped back. "That's what I wanted to know!" He faced the kid. "There's no way any regular player would be blazing through town like that."

The kid blinked again. "Yeah, I'm a beta tester. So what?"

The man started blubbering. "W-well, could you show me how to play, then? I'm a bit inexperienced, you know."

The kid just blankly stared at him. "W-well,"

"H-hey," Haiyamoto interrupted. "I happen to be a beta tester, too. I just want to party up with you for a while."

The man twitched his head towards Haiyamoto. "N-no way. You're BOTH beta testers? Please teach me all you know. Please?" The man was on his knees, hands clamped together, and his head bowed. He was serious about some mentoring from others, but the man also seemed desperate.

"Wait, you're a beta tester, too?" the kid asked Haiyamoto.

"Sure am." Haiyamoto replied. "Although, I don't think I ever saw you around the beta test before. What's your name?"

"My avatar name is Kirito."

"Wait, THE Kirito? I actually heard about you from the other testers. They said you were one of the few who made it to floor eight before the test ended."

"It wasn't all that difficult. Anyways, what's your avatar name?"

"Haiyamoto, but I was probably on the other side of the popularity spectrum. No one really tried to party up with me."

"Well, considering you were also a beta tester, I guess we could party up for a little while."

"Sweet!" The blood was pumping now. Haiyamoto didn't have to start the game in isolation anymore, especially since Kirito was a real high performer to begin with."

"But," Haiyamoto started, "what do we do about him?" He pointed to the man once more, still in the same position as before.

"Hmm…" Kirito thought.

SAO

"Gah!" The man, who introduced himself to the two as Klein, had just been attacked by a blue-colored hog, indicated by an orange marker as a hostile mob. Kirito was training him in using the game's sword skills, but Klein just wasn't getting the hang of it at all.

"Grr, that hurt," Klein grunted as his face wore an expression of pain.

"You know that the game absolves you of pain, right?" Kirito asked as he covered his face into the palm of his hand.

Klein's expression suddenly changed. "Oh, right."

Haiyamoto was similarly astonished at Klein's stupidity. "Honestly, how dense can you be to forget that little detail?"

"Hey," Klein yelled. "That isn't very friendly of you."

"Just watch me, Klein," Kirito stated. He picked up a stone and held it in his right hand.

"Pretend this is a sword," Kirito started.

"Ok," Klein stated.

"You need to activate the sword skill by doing this." Kirito brought his arm behind his head, and the stone began to shine a bright red.

"Ok," Klein stated.

"Then, kapow!" Kirito tossed the stone at the hog, and it smacked its butt, decreasing the mob's health bar slightly.

"Kapow?" Klein asked. Despite his confusion, he followed Kirito's instruction, bringing his curved sword back behind his head; at that instance, his weapon began to glow a bright yellow. He looked at Kirito and Haiyamoto, who both nodded at him.

"Yaaaah!" Klein cried. When he brought his weapon back forward, the sword dragged him along as it moved in a constant, horizontal pace. As it made contact with the mob, the sword left behind a red slice in its victim. As the enemy's health bar depleted, it let out a pained cry as it imploded into a shower of blue pixels. A congratulations box popped up in Klein's view showing his acquired Col and XP.

"Haha," Klein chuckled. "Yeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

"Congrats," Kirito replied calmly.

"But, you do know that was about as powerful as slimes in other games, right?" Haiyamoto asked.

"Wha," Klein replied. "You're kidding!"

"Just look over there." Haiyamoto pointed out to the field, and as Klein took a peek, two more of the blue hogs spawned right in front of his eyes.

"Aww," Klein sighed.

"W-well," Haiyamoto stuttered, "you did look like a badass doing it, though."

Klein pepped up after he heard that. "Gee, you really think so?"

Kirito nodded. "I agree. You looked like you were having a lot of fun."

Klein smiled. "Thanks, guys. That means a lot coming from you two."

"Do you wanna keep practicing?" Kirito asked.

"Hell yeah, I do." After saying that, his face dimmed a little. "But, I've got to log out for now. I ordered a pizza for 5:30."

"Wow," Haiyamoto exclaimed. You came here prepared, didn't you?"

"Yep," Klein replied. "I stayed in line all night just pick up the game with all my friends, so after I log back in, I'm gonna go meet up with them."

"Suit yourself," Kirito replied. "But if you ever need help, message me."

"And me," Haiyamoto added. "You can trust either of us for help."

"I might just take you guys up on that offer."

"Awesome." Haiyamoto high fived Klein, who then high fived Kirito.

"Well, see you guys later," Klein told Kirito and Haiyamoto, who waved him goodbye before turning around to walk back into town. Haiyamoto was just happy to have made two friends there and now, so he just wore a huge grin on his face.

"What the hell?" Klein exclaimed.

Kirito turned around. "What's wrong?"

"The log out button is gone," Klein replied.