Hello, welcome to my premier story within the fandom of Sword Art Online. I hope you enjoy your time spent. This story is AU so don't expect it to follow cannon at all really. Besides some of the over arching SAO ideas.

Disclaimer:

All characters, settings, etc. that are recognizable are the property of their respective owners. I am not associated with them. I do however own any original characters or ideas etc. that you find within this story. No copyright infringement intended.

‹‹Sword›› game specifics

'thoughts'

"speaking"

Italics or bold are just for emphasis or to make something stand out.

One quick note, Hostile NPC = Mob, Friendly NPC = NPC. Just to differentiate.

Onslaught

Written by: Northerner7

November 6, 2025
2:00 pm

'Finally! I was worried school would never end.'

Thought a very excited seventeen year old boy. Kirigaya Kazuto, had just been let out of class and was rushing from his locker to where he kept his small black motorcycle parked. Quickly he donned a tinted black helmet with visor and paced around in front of the bike. His sister didn't have kendo practice so he was her ride home. Thankfully she remembered to come quickly since Kazuto had only reminded her to 1,000 times this morning alone.

They jumped on the bike after she slid her helmet on sped away from their school. Kazuto was in such a large rush to get home because, finally about an hour earlier the first ever VRMMO Sword Art Online, commonly called SAO, had officially launched. He had wanted to skip out on school that day but his aunt would not let him.

Two months prior SAO had conducted a beta test with 2,000 of the overwhelming 500,000 applicants. Kazuto had been one of the lucky ones. Since the end of the beta he had been in a constant state of agitated waiting. As a beta tester he was able to purchase one of the highly sought 40,000 copies of the game that have been shipped.

Kayaba Akihiko, the designer of the Nerve Gear, and Argus the company producing SAO had been under serious pressure to create and release more Nerve Gear's but they had focused instead on the quality of SAO. So only 40,000 Nerve Gear were created prior to today. The Nerve Gear is a large plastic helmet equipped with all manner of microwave powered sensors, it is the conduit that allows people to dive into virtual reality.

Kazuto arrived home at 2:30 pm and without pausing to hold the door for his sister, he had raced to his room and slammed the door shut while stripping his jacket off. Before him on his bed lay his Nerve Gear, he had already updated and prepped everything for this moment. He strapped the helmet into place and laid down on his bed. He smiled to himself and said the now famous initiation command.

"Link Start!"

Kazuto was instantly cut off from the real world. Before he could enter the game a pop up window appeared.

Welcome back ‹‹Kirito›› do you wish to keep using this name?

Selecting yes, Kirigaya Kazuto aka Kirito was then confronted with another question.

To show our thanks for your beta participation, your name, character model, and all your in game contacts can be carried over from the beta. Also, with the new implementation of titles you will be granted the optional title of 'Beta Tester'. Do you Accept?

'Titles?'

Thought Kirito. While he accepted.

'I don't remember hearing anything about titles, but this is an MMO so it makes sense.'

Without a further thought he dived into the world he missed so much.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

In a swirl of blue pixels, Kirito's avatar is left standing in a giant open cobblestone square. The square is starting to fill up with new players as the game is over an hour into launch and plenty of people were trying to adjust to the virtual world by wandering around the starting spawn or doing the tutorial. Kirito's avatar was carried over from the beta, the character had shoulder length raven hair and glowing red eyes. He went with red to try to frighten weak players. His character stood one centimeter taller and had a pretty boy face that would fit right in as the main protagonist of any anime. He body was built strong and lean, the physique of a perfect warrior.

The square he found himself in was named ‹‹Plaza of Beginnings›› and it is one of the few places in the city that could hold up to 50,000 players at once. The city he spawned into, is known as ‹‹Aincrad›› the main city in the surrounding landscape and it is currently the only known city in the game. Aincrad is a massive three-tiered behemoth. It sprawled across the landscape taking up roughly 10 square miles. In a leisurely walk from the center it takes about an hour and a half to reach one of the gates. Each tier of Aincrad served a general purpose and was protected by a wall.

Currently Kirito was near the center of the upper or the ‹‹First Tier››. The purpose, besides being the most secure and housing large elegant and impressive buildings as well as hundreds of extravagant but vacant player houses, was unknown. The central keep named ‹‹Black Iron Castle›› loomed over Kirito as he stood in the square. It was a large building made of black granite and built in a Gothic style to match the rest of the first tier. Upon dying in the game, a player would re-spawn within the keep in a room near the entrance. Already Kirito could see some sad-looking players trickling out.

He already had planned out every move he would make to maximize time spent within the game. He didn't need to waste time with something trivial like the tutorial so he turned north and jogged his way to the gate. Soon enough Kirito arrived at the gate between the two tiers, and he crossed through with no problems. And he found himself jogging into the ‹‹Second Tier››. While the first tier spanned a single square miles, the second expanded circularly outward and covered about 3 square miles. With the third tier filling in the remaining 6 square miles of the total 10.

The second tier is the where the ‹‹col›› really flows. Col is the in-game currency, when materialized it only came in strange silvery coins that were about the size of a United States quarter. They were each only worth one col. So materializing the in-game coins was not a common practice. Merchants and craftsmen ply their trades throughout the second district. There were districts within the second tier where each trade made their home. While scattered vendors selling the basics could be found in every district, the northern district of the second tier is exactly where Kirito wanted to go. It was one of the four large districts that made up the second tier. The second tier was heavily inspired by ancient Rome and Greece, with large marble columns found alongside the road and thin red-ish orange baked clay tiles shingled the rooftops.

The northern district focused on metal working. And Kirito found himself bee-lining for an NPC store that he preferred from the beta.

'I hope it is still here. I know they were going to make changes after the beta but I don't think they would delete an entire store that worked as intended. AH, yes ‹‹Real Steel››. I am glad this place is still here. Hmmm... Let's see. I have a ‹‹Beginner's sword››... this thing is terrible!'

Lost in his thoughts Kirito browsed the medium-sized store as the NPC clerk stood blankly at the counter.

'Ok so I have enough col to get either a ‹‹Copper Straight Sword›› or a ‹‹Weathered Iron Straight Sword››... Well the durability on the copper one is much lower but the damage... oh the damage is nice.'

The price decided it for Kirito as he was able to buy two iron swords for the price of one copper. With their higher durability he would be able to go for a while without having to repair. Each iron sword cost him 200 col while the copper sword charged 650 for a single one. Alongside his swords, Kirito picked up about 50 ‹‹Cheap Iron Picks›› that he could use with the ‹‹Throwing›› skill. He was also able to snag some cheap leather armor and a health potion from one of the street side everything vendors. This depleted his initial starting col of 1000.

Kirito exited the shop and ran into another player. He brushed them off, too focused to be distracted and set off jogging through the rest of the second tier. Thankfully besides the clanging of hammers, the northern district was one of the calmer ones. The eastern one was where wood working was done, while the western district dealt with the loud and noisy merchant class. Which left the small sub districts and the larger southern district to accommodate the other crafts and odds and ends of business.

He saw several players browsing weapon vendors alongside the road but paid them no more attention.

'Really does that guy need to shout about buying a katana so loudly?'

He finally came to the wall between the second and third tiers. The ‹‹Third Tier›› was the furthest one out, and was mostly filled with wooden buildings built-in medieval European style. Heavily reliant on wood. Inns and housing made up most of the buildings. NPC's strolled around conducting the inns and running the housing market. Much like the second tier, both were filled with NPC's to run business. While the first tier was nearly vacant besides the NPC guards that protected the wall and occasionally patrolled the streets. All together Aincrad was a mix of different building styles that made it slightly odd-looking, but nice at the same time.

Kirito passed through the final stretch of the civilian tier as it was often referred to as, and finally reached the barrier between Aincrad and the world surrounding it. He stood in a small receiving plaza before the gate. A small fountain bubbled in the center. Overall a cheery picture, one he didn't take the time to pay attention to. He had reached the ‹‹North Gate›› and wasted no more time by continuing to jog straight under the gate's arch.

After exiting Kirito found himself on the road heading north toward a large ancient pine forest. This forest thickly blanketed the land with large pine trees and other coniferous types. Immediately around Aincrad stretched a massive expanse of grass. This plain reached about two miles in every direction. Another two miles of jogging it seemed. If there was one positive side to the long two month break before SAO launched it was the time Kirito had to get in shape. During the beta he had realized the pure size of the world meant he needed to actually be able to walk across it. His normal life style was very inactive and to enjoy this game he knew he needed to be in better shape. While things like stamina and strength were technically ruled over by the system's stats. Kirito believed being in shape in real life would help translate over to the game. During the beta he had often found himself short of breath doing most anything. Already he knew it had paid off as he had been able to maintain a steady jog so far. So Kirito had pushed himself hard each day to gain some stamina and the beginning of some muscle tone.

Dotted across the green plain of grass, packs of odd purple boars could be seen. These were your typical beginning mob type enemy. Basically walking targets. They could fight back, but if you died to one Kirito would have had a hard time respecting you.

'Even though I nearly lost to that first pack I tried to fight...'

He shook his head to clear the fond beta test memory of fleeing in terror from when he had arrogantly, after killing his first boar, gone and agro'd the entire pack and run over to agro a second pack. He had barely made it to the ‹‹East Gate›› in time to have the NPC guards jump to his aid. This ruined all the xp he would have gotten, but he couldn't be upset about it at the time. He killed several boars that strayed across the roadway but didn't waste the time to go hunting the others.

Behind the pine forest loomed a massive mountain range, which stretched across the horizon, both east and west. Kirito knew that within the forest eaves roamed packs of wolves and small tribes of goblins. Deep inside the forest was a mystery however, as no one had ventured that far during the beta.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Still jogging, Kirito was advancing up the road when he spotted what looked like a caravan in the distance. He knew from the surrounding quest hubs, that sometimes the NPC's sent caravan's carrying materials and supplies to Aincrad. To the north on the forest's edge lay a lumber camp. But he noticed something odd to the side of the group. Getting closer, Kirito could see a sort of standoff between the two groups. On the caravan side, there are about twenty NPC's hiding behind the wagons, one was richly dressed. In front of the five wagons, which Kirito could now see bared large logs, stood five NPC guards, one for each wagon. Across from them stood a group of ten goblins.

The NPC guards are human, and Kirito could tell they are level five and each one is equipped with iron long swords and an iron rimmed kite shield. They are wearing uniform leather armor and iron caps on their heads. Their shields all bear the insignia of Aincrad, a large golden crown above three black, concentric, diminishing, half circle chevrons on a gray background. They stood ready to fight the goblins off, each trying to keep their wagon safe.

The goblins are standing in a large mass, they hadn't attacked yet and most of them seemed to be quickly discussing something. The goblins are short creatures, half as tall as the NPC humans. They have large pointed ears and sharp teeth that poked out from their mouths. They have short limbs and beady black eyes. Their skin tones ranged from a swampy green to a sickly yellow. The goblins are level two mobs and each carried a nicked and bent iron short sword. Several also carried in their other hand a small iron rimmed black buckler shield. They were wearing plain cloth clothing, that was ripped and stained in every case, and Kirito guessed the main function of the clothing was so the developers didn't have to portray their thoughts on goblin anatomy. As he couldn't see the clothing serving another function.

One goblin stood slightly larger than his comrades, he also had an iron cap wedged between his ears atop his head. Out of the ten randomly generated facial appearances of the goblins, Kirito believed that this leader goblin got the funniest looking one, as its face is quite pudgy and puffed up in most places. Instead of the sharp angular features the others have. Suddenly as Kirito was nearing the group, the goblins split their impromptu meeting up and two goblins charged each defending soldier. Would quantity overcome quality? Kirito wasn't sure of the outcome if he left this fight alone. But who ignores such an obvious quest?

As the two sides clashed, Kirito sped up and got behind the closest set of goblins. He grabbed a pick from the pouch at his waist, holding it above his shoulder he took aim. Initiating the motion input, Kirito activated one of the ‹‹Sword Skills›› that made up a large portion of combat in SAO. His initial motion had activated the skill which then followed a set motion or pattern and executed its designated action quickly, precisely and powerfully. The pick in his right hand glowed red and his arm whipped forward, his ‹‹Throwing›› skill powered its flight. The pick wizzed forward quickly and struck one of the two closest goblins in the back of the head. Charging forward Kirito initiated the motion input for a ‹‹Slant››, a quick diagonal slash, and cleaved his now glowing sword down from the goblin's right shoulder to its left hip. His strike left an angry red line across the goblin, denoting his attack's effect. The goblin was quickly destroyed and dissipated into pixels alongside its partner which died to the NPC soldier fighting this duo.

The NPC defender turned to Kirito seeming to forget the battle raging alongside the convoy.

"Hello there, thanks for the help a moment ago. If you help us drive off the remaining goblins I am sure you will be rewarded for your effort. Do you accept?"

Verbally accepting Kirito replied.

"Sure."

Then the two turned and charged forward. Already one more goblin was dead alongside another soldier. The soldier who picked up his dead comrade's goblins looked to be on the verge of falling under the increased pressure. Dashing forward Kirito engaged one of the free goblins and in a quick back and forth flurry of blades he landed a strong blow across the goblin's face, followed by a stab through its heart for the kill.

Combat in SAO took two routes really. You could rely completely on the sword skills system and be a strong player within the game. Something Kirito had relied heavily on during the beta. But alongside his vigorous workout routine over that two month break, he had with his younger sister who is an up and coming kendo star, re-learned the basics. Which he slightly remembered from his childhood. Now he was by no means skilled, but he had sparred regular with Suguha as she insisted it was the best way to learn. So he could fight within SAO without the sword skills to some degree. He was planning to continue training with his sister so he could become a stronger player within the game. He had been one of the best in the beta pvp tournaments and he saw no reason he couldn't become the very best.

After wiping out that goblin, the group Kirito was among charged forward to aid the failing soldiers still alive. At the front of the charge Kirito met edge to edge with the larger goblin. Kirito parried an overhead cleave, and struck out to slash the goblin's chest. Finding himself parried, he jumped back to avoid the following stab. The goblin over extended, and one of the NPC soldiers next to it stabbed into the creature's exposed chest, he was rewarded with a sword straight into his neck from one of the remaining goblins. Kirito wasted no time in pressing this advantage and while the goblin leader reacted as if in pain, he lopped its head off with a ‹‹Horizontal››. By now the guards on the far side of the caravan were gone and the two sides were clashing around the middle.

Two soldiers stood side by side failing to hold the goblins back as the remaining five were overwhelming them. On the side Kirito danced around with two of the five. They were slow and couldn't use sword skills, definitely the weakest goblins Kirito had ever encountered. So as he dodged one's swing he managed to get in under the guard of the second and drive his sword into its gut. With no bones to snag his sword, he ripped it out viciously adding damage, and pushed the goblin causing it to trip backwards. The other one came at him and managed to slice him down his back. A numb sensation covered the inflicted area, informing Kirito of his wound.

The pain system in SAO was not aligned with real life. When taking a hit, all a player felt was a dull numb sensation that lasted for the wound's duration. So not incapacitated by what would be a very painful wound, Kirito turned and engaged his attacker. Parrying the goblin twice Kirito knew he needed to finish this one before the other got back. So he ducked under its horizontal swing and rushed forward. He tackled it to the ground and from on top jabbed his sword several times down into its unprotected chest. As the creature shattered into pixels, Kirito was back on his feet in time to meet the returned goblin.

This goblin was low on health and the two of them fought back and forth for a minute. Using his speed, Kirito tried to dodge a thrust, but his thigh was impaled. The numbness oozed over his leg, making it temporarily hard to stand. But Kirito ignored the sensation and while the goblin was trying to get its sword free, he delivered the killing blow.

Kirito spun to see the two soldiers and three goblins still locked in combat. He took out another pick and started pelting the goblins with his throwing weapons. He managed to hit several of them before he grew bored and charged forward to aid the soldiers. Together the three of them overpowered the goblins and finished them off.

'Whew, my first real fight back in the game. WHAT A THRILL!'

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Of the twenty laborers assigned to the caravan, five had been killed when the guardsmen were over run on the far end of the fight. Kirito was approached by the richly dressed NPC he saw earlier. The man was a pudgy merchant who wheezed with every step. The merchant began praising Kirito for his assistance, the character was a huge suck up Kirito realized. He was busying browsing through the dropped loot from the goblins he killed when.

Bing!

Interrupted Kirito's actions as a window popped up showing him a reward.

"Congratulations young warrior, to thank you for your effort I will award you with 3,000 col. Also since you manage to keep most of my laborers intact (for the quest bonus at least three fourths of the laborers must survive) I will write you this letter to give to the foreman of the lumber camp, he will see to it you are uniquely rewarded."

He finally paid attention to what the merchant said as his voice had sounded more serious. So Kirito accepted the reward and walked away. While walking he opened his character window and began distributing the points he earned for leveling up twice.

Kirito focused his build into three stats, agility, strength and vitality. Every level granted a player five points to distribute how they pleased among their stats, and Kirito spent his as two into ‹‹AGI››, two into ‹‹STR›› and the last point into ‹‹VIT››. For his first three levels however he spent his points, as one into ‹‹VIT›› and the rest into dexterity. A ‹‹DEX›› stat of twenty is required to wield most weapons and Kirito wanted to finish it off. With the beginning value of six for each stat, he only needed to drop two more points into ‹‹DEX›› and he would be good to ignore it. So one more point from ‹‹AGI›› and ‹‹STR›› and he would be good. He wanted to be equal in speed and power, as he played without a shield Kirito needed to be quick and strong enough to parry or dodge attacks coming his way.

At 5:15 pm Kirito reached the lumber camp. He had been in-game for nearly three hours and most of it had been spent travelling, such was the fate of the adventurer in this game. He only have about an hour left to play as his family expected him at the dinner table at 6:00 pm. Even with the release of SAO his family would not give him lee way.

Kirito identified the foreman's lodge and heading over there. A large thickly muscled NPC was the foreman. He had a large brown beard and limp brown hair. If the man were real it would be easy to guess he had spent his life hauling the heavy logs around. The NPC turned and greeted him.

"Hello there stranger, can I help you with something inside my camp?"

Kirito spoke his name and handed the NPC the letter.

The NPC took the item and pretended to read it. Several seconds later the NPC looked at him and spoke again.

"Thank you very much for helping out the caravan, my boy's lives were saved thanks to you. Also that caravan had an important shipment of lumber the wood workers really need. The merchant says here to give you the special cloak he left me...Hm... Well here take it."

The NPC materialized the item and threw it at Kirito. When he looked at it in his inventory he found it was named ‹‹Cloak of the Forest's Shadow››. It was a black cloak with a high collar that fell down to the floor. The cloak gave the bonuses of +10% hiding skill, +10% one-handed ax skill, and all noise made by the users movement is muffled. Kirito liked that his noise would be muffled and since he just leveled up from the xp gained from talking to the foreman he had already planned as his fourth skill to be ‹‹Hiding››. Even though he doesn't use an ax he knew the cloak would be worth his while to use for now.

‹‹Skills›› were abilities you could use in-game, such as ‹‹Throwing››. Kirito had now gotten the total amount of ‹‹DEX›› he would need, and he had spent his skill points into:

‹‹One Handed Sword››
‹‹Throwing››
‹‹Searching››
‹‹Hiding››

Players unlocked a new skill point every level till fifteen. Giving them a total of fifteen slots. Except for at level two players start with a second skill slot and don't receive a point for their first time leveling up. Currently no know way of acquiring more than fifteen skill slots was known, but it had been hinted at being possible during the beta.

Kirito had finished spending his points, and decided to go pick up the quests around the camp. As it was the quest hub for the quests within the forest northward. Grabbing the last one, Kirito set about organizing the list of quests he now had. When suddenly a tugging sensation shot through his body and a swirl of blue pixels enveloped him.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

The swirling mass of pixels ended just as suddenly as it began, Kirito glanced around and realized, with what seemed like everyone else in the game had been teleported back to the ‹‹Plaza of Beginnings››. He looked around confused for several moments and listened to the murmuring around him.

"I couldn't either..."

"This is so dumb..."

"... MY PIZZA!"

He was still confused what everyone was talking about. When the sky filled with long red hexagons. They created a dome over the plaza and without anyone's knowledge they formed a barrier so no one could exit the plaza at that time. On the hexagon's was the message ‹‹System Announcement››. From the center, where the first hexagon appeared, red liquid started dripping down. It looked very viscous and lots of people believed it to be blood. Instead of falling to the ground and splattering on those below. The liquid stopped in mid-air halfway down, and started forming into a blob. When the last of the liquid reached the mass, it sprung out and began resembling a recognizable shape. Soon it formed into the robes the GM's wore during the beta. Only this figure had a black void for a face and lacked any real body to speak of. Besides the shape that held the robe in place. It even had gloves freely floating, unattached. It raised these hands in a welcoming gesture. Then a deep voice boomed out.

"Hello and welcome to Sword Art Online. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am the lead designer for SAO and I have put a lot of effort into creating this world. Now it is your turn to put effort into this world to truly make it come alive. To accomplish this, SAO will now be following a unique and risky design choice. The log out function of this game has been disabled. None of you will be able to log out until this game is cleared. As you have no way to log out from in-game, I am sure many of you are thinking. Ha my family/friend/neighbor/government agent will just pull the game thing off my head. Well I regret to inform you this is also not a possibility."

Kayaba materialized news broadcasts from around the world and they floated around above the players as flat rectangular surfaces. This was to be a feature of SAO, using a screen to access the internet or just to hang out in VR while doing a homework assignment. But now Kayaba was using it to showcase the truth to his words.

"Across the world right now, news agencies are broadcasting my message. That any attempts at removing the Nerve Gear now attached to a player's head. Will result in the microwave sensors within the helmet unleashing a powerful pulse wave that will flash cook the user's brain and kill them. As you can see on these broadcasts, already 213 people have not heeded the warning and killed off a precious family member or friend. Since this is such a huge news break, I give you my sincere belief that you should all be safe of this occurring to you."

'I-I-is...Is this real... Microwave pulse... OH SHIT! The microwave sensors in the Nerve Gear are definitely strong enough to do such a thing... I really hope Suguha saw the news.'

Kayaba had paused to let his words sink in momentarily and while Kirito and many others realized his word's truth. The man above then resumed talking.

"Now then, with this all said so far. I have some changes to the game to address. From this point onward any player death within SAO is permanent. No re-spawning, this means if your ‹‹HP›› reaches zero, the microwave within the Nerve Gear will fire and fry your brain. So those of you who died in this game before I called you all here. I hope you learned from that mistake, or prepare to face your true end. Along with this true death, the pain buffer which was previously a one out of five which let you feel objects around you as realistic and only left pain as a dull numb sensation, had now been set to a four out of five. Pain will be felt at 60% of its realistic value. Any more could be detrimental to your real bodies and we can't have that now can we? The authorities might get upset."

Kayaba chuckled darkly with his latest statement. His evil laugh caused the hair on many players' necks to stand on end as a chill went down their spine. One player burst out crying and screamed.

"HOLY SHIT I ALREADY DIED FIFTEEN TIMES! I AM FUCKED! I DON'T WANNA D..."

Kayaba did something with his fingers before he spoke again. The screaming player was now silenced.

"Ah don't worry I only muted him. I must say though that you are rather unfortunate. I suggest you play with less risk from now on. Or... Bye bye... heheh... Ahem, anyway the land surrounding Aincrad is a mystery, but you must set out, explore it and grow stronger to survive. Because for the next five years the city fortress of Aincrad will be under a heavy onslaught of evil forces within Sword Art Online. What I mean by this is that every 30 days, an in-game event will occur that has the potential to threaten the lives of all of you if you do not heed my words. Those of you that do set out to conquer the world, know that if you are successful and survive all five years and defeat the final event all players remaining alive within the game will be logged out and you will have saved yourselves from this new reality. The reality in which I am the god of this death game. Amuse me mortals..."

Kayaba hissed the final s and as he was hissing it his outline began wavering and then robes disappeared along with his voice and all the hexagons. A window popped up in front of everyone, it proclaimed they were gifted the ‹‹Reality Mirror››. No one was sure what it was, but naturally everyone checked it. When it materialized it everyone's hands, another swirl of blue pixels obscured the view around everyone.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

When his vision came back into focus, Kirito looked at the mirror and realized with horror what had just happened. The face staring back at him was not the suave and handsome face of his avatar. The face staring back at him was the slightly feminine, youthful face of Kirigaya Kazuto. Short black hair with black eyes. A much rounder face and his height had reset to his natural height. Something in all honesty he was glad for. Being even slightly taller, threw off one's perception and movement slightly.

Kirigaya Kazuto was 5'6''. Kirigaya Kazuto did not have the ridiculous perfect physique of an in-game avatar, no he had the thin and slightly wiry frame he had gained over the past two months. He was still pale from years of shut in gaming. Kirigaya Kazuto did not have intimidating glowing red eyes. No Kirigaya Kazuto was a rather average, pale fellow.

Looking around Kirito realized everyone else had reverted as well. Around him was a mass of normal looking people. Instead of the collection of finely chiseled faces and defined bodies, was an amalgamation of average and sub-average. People began freaking out.

'Ok ok ok... C'mon Kazuto think here... Kayaba just made this world into a reality. People are gonna freak out... I am freaking out... No, there is no time I need to act.'

Focusing again Kirito heard the shouting raise in intensity around him. Kirito realized lady luck was on his side as he was near the edge on the north side of the plaza. Kirito quickly threaded and forced his way between the now panicking players. He heard people shouting countless profanity, while several players were screaming as if they were being brutally murdered. Terror was rampant in the crowd and Kirito wanted nothing to do with it. He hated the group mentality and preferred to deal with things by himself.

Already people were shoving and arguing. Fights were breaking out around him, but he was almost there. Amid the cacophony, Kirito wondered if anyone else was trying to flee the square right now.

'Probably not.. Stupid group mentality...'

He made his last push and broke free. Kirito began jogging northward a plan forming in his head.

'Ok Kazuto guess what. You are now actually Kirito. I need to adjust to that, don't feel like telling anyone my real name. Besides that... Hmm Kayaba said that if we don't train ourselves we are basically forfeiting our lives. Not on my to-do list. Solutions? ... Well I guess I will just adjust my original plan. I need to become as strong as possible, the strongest even. I told Suguha I would go to her next match, so I definitely will have to survive to make up five years' worth of matches... Sorry sis.'

Kirito spied several other players sprinting around in the streets among the first district. Some seemed lost. Others Kirito could see the spark of determination in their eyes. He imagined he had something similar forming in his own.

'Hmm competitors... SHIT! I really wanted to role play a strong pvper... Can't do that anymore, Thanks Kayaba. Ok ‹‹Northern Forest›› it is likely no one else will go there. It is rumored to be a very dangerous place. Even those determined people will fear for their lives. Less competition means more mobs for me.'

Crossing the gateway between the first and second tiers, Kirito stared out at the view he had of Aincrad. There was a hill that the first district was built upon, allowing one to look out over the other two. Distracted by his thoughts, Kirito didn't notice the sun setting to his left.

'So this is my reality now... I only have 30 days, and in that time I need to be as strong as possible. The seconds are already ticking down... I cannot fail, I will survive.'

Hope you liked it. This first chapter was basically re-written from when I first put it out. So if you notice it is kind of different.

Feel free to leave a review, or to write me a pm on any questions, comments, or ideas you may have. Really I just like to chat with anyone who reads my story.