In the mid summer afternoon, a teenager came out of the local market with groceries to bring back home. The boy is somewhat below average in size for people his age with olive black hair, clothed with a dark long-sleeved shirt, loose blue jeans, and a black, bulky coat. The bags contained a half gallon of milk and tea with bread in a separate bag. The boy walks towards his bike that he had left at a bike parking rack near the market and stormed off. He is biking fast with the two plastic bags hanging on his shoulders. The bread bag was teetering back and forth while the milk and tea bag remained dormant.
As the boy avoids the townspeople against his direction, he comes across a giant billboard, embellished with a blue background, and a silhouette of a teenager holding up what appears to be a sword, with gradated light shining behind it. The text on the billboard was labeled "Sword Art Online Official Server Open Now!" The boy makes an immediate, yet gradual stop, to read the rest of the details presented on the precious advertisement with full enthusiasm. He notices the familiar dark navy blue helmet-like device on the billboard, which was labeled "NerveGear." The device also had translucent, teal lenses for the users to look through as the device is being worn. Also, there was text next to the NerveGear picture that jumped into the viewers arms that said "Full Dive System!" and "Explore the New World!" These messages imply that the functions of the NerveGear that is required to explore that new world within a video game.
After admiring the astounding news from the dazzling advertisement, the boy rushes home in excitement for the revisiting of the beautiful virtual world since he had explored a Beta version of the same world. Approximately ten minutes later, the boy arrives home, leans his bike against the left side of his house near the porch, and rushes inside through the front door. The boy sets his groceries down on the table and shouted "I'm home," informing his family that he had returned from the market, all while racing to his room.
When he had finally arrived in his room, he shuts the door behind him and began to search for his previously used NerveGear. The boy had found it seconds after shutting the door, and has checked the condition of the device. The NerveGear only had a thin blanket of dust on the top of it, so the boy dusted it off with his shirt, preparing to use it once again.
He targeted his bed and decided to lie over the blankets, thinking of nothing but starting the NerveGear up. He puts on the NerveGear gently upon his head after sitting up for a moment, and lies back down. The device began to do its magic by scanning the boy's brain and body, using invisible rays that detect the sensory receptors of the body, and obtains the information about the user to create an avatar that resembles the player. After minutes of scanning and telling the boy to wait, the NerveGear displays a message screen within the translucent lenses for the user to direct the system to the server the user desired. The boy had chosen the new Sword Art Online server, titled "SAO," that is ready to be explored. The NerveGear focuses on that server and waits for the boy to give the proper command to the NerveGear to connect to the targeted server, which it instructed the user with a message presented on the left side of the lenses. Since the boy already knew how to give the proper command, he gave the command the second after the NerveGear was ready for him.
"Link Start!" the boy shouted, commanding the NerveGear to connect to the server, and then taking control of his brain for the Full Dive System to work properly. The boy's mind is travelling though many visible portals with many colors and kaleidoscopes opening up different pathways until it reaches a shining white light at the end. After approaching the light, the light slowly fades to black. The boy began to gain his senses again, and has realized that he is closing his eyes after his mind approached the light.
The boy wakes up lying on the ground with the vast blue sky in his sight. He ganders at the familiar territory that his virtually calibrated body has set foot on once before, and puts on a satisfied smile on his face. After getting up from the ground, he has noticed the familiar indicators that stalk him throughout the game in a fixed position within the player's point of view. The indicators are a rectangular screen at the top left corner of the player's vision that displays their username and level, and the Hit Point bar at the right of the player's vision that is curved forty degrees around the player's head, and is entirely green in color, showing that they have a high amount of their maximum HP. The boy's username was labeled as "Kirito," and the level value is one. Kirito then looks at his virtual body, and has noticed a change in clothing. He is wearing the default armor that the server provides for beginning players, which is a leather chest plate, leather gauntlets, a belt, leather boots, and a long-sleeved shirt and pants of a custom color the player chooses. For Kirito, his shirt is blue and his pants are black. He is also equipped with a sword called the Beginner's Blade, which is a sword that can only pierce enemy monsters.
After analyzing his virtual avatar, Kirito began to walk and observe the scenery.
"It's good to back in Aincrad" Kirito said in enjoyment after letting out a big, satisfying sigh.
Kirito realized that the players start around a random location around the central tower of the area he is on, which is the called the Tower of Beginnings, due to his view of many other players laying on the ground after the connection process of the NerveGear the same process that has been done with him, but in various areas. Due to this situation, the Tower of beginnings has very few tame monsters that the players encounter. Kirito had also noticed that a big number of players are heading to the village around the central tower, so he began to walk there as well, watching for incoming players and monsters.
Unfortunately, he has noticed an inexperienced player being attacked by a monster, known as the Frenzy Boar, and came to his rescue. Kirito was distant from the beast, so he spotted a rock on the ground that is lying at his feet, picked it up, and threw it at the monster with all of his might. The rock is travelling in high speeds, and then hits the monster's left cheek before it prepared for another attack, causing severe damage with the swollen cheek to prove it. The monster's lost sight of its current target due to the incredible force the rock has given to the monster, and immediately forgets about the current target and looks straight at the source of where the rock was thrown. The livid monster exhales loudly, and charges straight at Kirito in full speed. As soon as the monster lowered its head, ready to ram its target that is only steps away, Kirito successfully and nonchalantly sidestepped to the left away from the monster, dodging its ferocious attack, and pivots his right foot to face the monster and slices the monster in half perfectly. The monster was severed with no graphic display, and blew away in many pieces, giving Kirito and the boy experience points and gold that it has dropped.
After witnessing the noble hero's soigné attack, the troubled player thanks him. Though Kirito is a slightly xenophobic individual, he looks at the rescued player and politely acknowledged his appreciation. The rescued player was younger and shorter than Kirito is. He has purple, straight hair and purple eyes, and his build was average for a kid his age. He wears the default armor and has a red shirt and blue pants. He looked at Kirito excitedly and introduced himself.
"My name is Reginald" he introduced himself in slight desperation to be acquainted with his rescuer. Kirito emits a moderate sigh of annoyance and introduces himself as well.
"I'm Kirito" he said calmly, noticing the inspired and interested look on Reginald's face, like if he wanted to be like the noble warrior standing before him.
"I want to be like you one day!" Reginald shouted in excitement and determination, and Kirito smiled at him.
Kirito admonishes Reginald about sword wielding skills as well as defensive tactics. Reginald has taken full consideration towards the instructions Kirito had provided him.
Kirito had realized that he had spent a lot of time than he expected helping a beginner, so he quickly said goodbye to Reginald and ran to the central tower. Reginald waved goodbye to Kirito with a big smile on his face, and thanked him for all he had done. Reginald runs off in search of more enemies to practice the strategies that he had learned from Kirito.
Players near and far from Kirito are all communicating with each other as they battle and head to the village as well as assisting each other in battle. He had noticed that there are also lone wolves fighting enemies and observing the world that they have been set upon. As he analyzes all the actions of every player in sight, Kirito tries his best to avoid contact with them.
After a while of running, Kirito has reached his destination and began to walk. The village was fairly big, with many players registering for spots to start a business with vending, blacksmithing, cooking, and much more. Kirito wasn't too hyped with starting a business and wasn't fathomed with players starting businesses in the first place. Even though earning money in the game is as crucial as it is in the real world, Kirito planned on earning his money by defeating enemies as well as selling the treasure he finds, just like in any other role playing game. Businesses in Sword Art Online are generally not Kirito's way of making money, along with many other players.
With many stores and residential homes, an inn has been included near the central tower, and right next to a neutral settlement that is currently being registered by an enthusiastic player. A player with a fantastic build and dark colored skin, and has a green shirt and tan pants with the default armor. Kirito rushes to the inn, passing the man in the process.
Kirito's excitement rises as he notices the host politely welcomes him with a graceful smile. Kirito immediately requested for a room to stay in, so the host booked a room for him, and offers 200 gold. Since every player starts with 2000 gold, Kirito has enough money and accepts her offer, and heads to the room as soon as he received the key from the host. Although the host was only computer generated, she brings a smile to many customers. Kirito enters his room, which has only a single bed provided for him. It may seem inadequate to people in the real world, but it is lovely to the players in the server.
Kirito approaches his bed and set all of his equipment beside it. After getting fully situated for resting, he lies on the bed, puts his blanket over him, and leaving only his head visible. Seconds after that, he had reached in front of him and tapped the air, as if there were an invisible button in front of him, and accessed his personal menu. The menu was launched with a vertically lined sequence of five circles. The circle with the gear icon on it is the "Configurations" option. This option was located on the very bottom of the line of circles. Kirito taps the Configurations option and then more choices slide from the right side of that circle until they are all visible to the player. One choice was to log out of the server, and Kirito tapped that option to go back to the real world.
The setting flashes brightly and the portals and kaleidoscopes from before reappear, except in an inverted direction, giving Kirito the illusion that he is going backwards, away from the virtual world. Around ten seconds later, the portals disappear, and leave only a black void for his mind to see. Kirito has regained the senses in his real body and wakes up looking at the ceiling of his bedroom through the translucent lenses on the NerveGear.
Kirito slowly sits up, takes off his NerveGear, and looks to his right out the window. He had realized it was already night, and looks to his left at his clock displayed on the wall. The clock tells Kirito it is 10:34 PM. Kirito felt exhausted, yet satisfied, and dosed off after putting his blanket over him, looking forward to his second adventure in the wonderful virtual realm.