Mattie laid on the bed, nerve-gear over her head, watching the digital clock displaying the time in the upper right-hand corner of the screen covering her eyes. The room was quiet, with only the hum of the computers and the breathing of Mattie and her brother, Josh. Her dog Ollie was cuddled into her side, asleep. She couldn't help the excited wiggle as she watched the clock slowly count up to 11:00 pm. Even though the time difference between Texas and Japan was huge and Mattie and her brother had to stay up extremely late the night before and drink copious amount cola and lemonade, it was the most exciting event she had ever waited for, including the release of the Harry Potter books (not the movies). She was glad that the first VRMMO had a built in translator, Mattie didn't want to have to wait for the US version to come out. She didn't play too many MMOs, but with the prospect of actually fighting monsters face-to-face appealed to her more than typing on a keyboard and watching a tiny avatar stab and slash on the screen. It was amazing that Josh had managed to get an extra nerve-gear for her. Even though he was one of the few beta-testers in the US, there were only about a few hundred copies available to Americans.

Finally the clock showed11:00 pm and as one 10,000 people around the world cried out "Link Start!" Mattie's vision went white and bars of color rushed past her. Five circles darted in front of her and to the side too fast for her to see. Once they stopped she could read that they were labelled with the five senses and all of them became green and sped out of her vision. Suddenly she came to a screen in front of her asking her to enter her account information, which she had created before diving. She enter it with the keyboard displayed and went through the language settings, selecting English. Since she did not have an avatar ready like her brother she had to go through the creation process. She didn't change much except thinning her cheeks a bit and getting rid of her freckles and changing her hair color to a deep purple ad her eyes a light shade of green. The resulting avatar was about 5'6" with a filled out form and a bit on the squishy side, not that Mattie minded, it made for softer hugs. She had mid-length hair in a ponytail with longish bangs framing her face. She wore a light purple beginner's outfit. Mattie frowned and went into the options and changed the outfit from a skirt to pants. Nodding to herself she entered her username [Mayzer] and clicked the accept button , then staggered back as the avatar rushed at her, merging with her then feeling a falling sensation. She opened her eyes to find herself in a plaza in [Town of Beginnings]. She grinned and looked around, amazed by the realistic surroundings and the other players teleporting into the game. She was so absorbed in the surroundings she didn't notice the body coming up behind her. Mattie, or Mayzer now, screeched as a hand came down on her shoulder and lashed out as she swiveled around.

"Goddammit Josh! Stop that! One day I'm going to give you a black eye for that!" Her brother, who she recognized by the username [Arkus]. "Chill out, it's not like you'll ever get close to hitting me."His avatar was also similar to him with just some more muscle definition. It stood at an aggravating height of 6'2" and was solidly built. His face was round like mine but had a straighter nose than mine and his mouth was a bit thinner than my plush one. His hair was the same length as mine and pulled back in a low tail, its color was a lighter shade of purple than mine. His eyes were a light shade of gray and were narrower than my almond shaped eyes. He was decked out in a beginner's outfit in a deep green and already had an axe strapped to his back.

I pouted up at him, "You went and got your weapon without me?"

"Don't worry," he said, patting me roughly on the head, "we'll get you sorted out. Follow me, I found a cheap stall over there."

He led me to one of the brightly colored stalls in the market area of the town. I looked over the selection and frowned. "Don't they have any bows or anything like that? I know the creator nixed the magic aspect but I didn't think he would take away all ranged weapons." "Yeah it kind of pissed off some of the beta-testers that there weren't really any ranged weapons except for throwing knifes and senbon, but Kayaba just stated on the website that it would be one of the unique skills he would introduced to the game." "Unique skills?" Mayzer asked. "Yeah, like duel-wielding and stuff like that, the player with the highest of one of the hidden stats would get a unique skill that isn't seen in the rest of the game." Arkus explained as he wandered over to a stall selling health crystals and other items. "Make sure to stock up on some before we head out." "Wait, wait, wait. Hidden stats? I have trouble managing the visible ones, and now you tell me there is a whole other set!?" "There stats that are affected by the visible ones but can't be manipulated by the player themselves. It's like the hidden relationship stats some games have. Kayaba never said what those stats were or what affected them so don't worry about them. Now, do you still want to go with the ranged throwing knifes? If so, I suggest also getting a regular dagger in case you get in a tight spot. Maybe some trap-laying equipment as well?" Mayzer sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I don't really want to get to close to the monsters, that's what you're here for. I think I'll actually get into alchemy instead of traps. I rather make my own crystals then mess around with finicky wires and stuff." "Then you should get a pouch so you can collect ingredients while were out there." She nodded purchased a beginner's dagger and ten of the small throwing knifes and a small ingredients pouch along with a couple of health crystals.

"Alright, let's head out to the field and see how good you are with those toothpicks."

"You want to get a close up view of them?"

Arkus just laughed and patted Mayzer's head again. "Maybe when you can hit the side of a barn. Otherwise, I fear for any poor bystander." Mayzer punched him in the arm and stomped after him to the fields where some level 1 boars were grazing. Mayzer noticed another pair working a bit away from them but ignored them. She wasn't interested in them and the long haired guy looked kind of shady.

"So the first thing to go over are sword skills. These are attacks that are automated by the system. To activate these you just need to shift into the starting stance and then the computer takes over from there. These attacks are guaranteed to hit your target." Arkus demonstrated by shifting into a stance, holding his axe to the side in both hands, crouching a bit. The blade started glowing and suddenly he swung, catching a boar in the side, the blade buried deep in its side. The boar let out a squeal and burst into glowing shards. A screen popped up in front of Arkus, showing the amount of Col and EXP he got for killing the boar. "There are other skills available like cooking and sneaking and there are practically thousands of these that you can work on. Back to the sword skills though, you specifically have an extra step in the process." "Oh, and what would that be?" Mayzer asked, looking down at the knife she had in her hand. This had gotten a lot more complex all of a sudden. Who made such an immersive environment just for a game? "You, my lucky little sister, actually have to aim to be able to hit something. Like I said, usually the system takes care of it and melee weapons always hit the target, but the throwing knifes actually have an aiming mechanism built-in to their program. It's supposed to be a beta for any future shooting games that might come out. I tried it out myself in the beta, it was really weird." "How so?" Mayzer asked, curious about the addition that seemed exclusive to her weapon. Of course it had to be her preferred weapon that got removed from the first game she was ever really interested in. "A circle appears in your vision as the place where the knife could land, and it grows and shrinks in response to how focused you are. The bigger the circle the more chance you have of missing." "Nothing to do with dexterity then?" "Well, yes it does. The higher you dexterity, or agility in this game, the smaller the circle is supposed to be able to get. So go ahead, try it out. If it's too difficult for you we can just work on your dagger kills for the rest of the time." Arkus said, a shit-eating grin on his face. Mayzer just gave him a glare and shifted her eyes to a boar grazing a little ways away from them.

She palmed the knife and raised her arm, bringing the knife level with her ear. She saw it start to glow out of the corner of her eye, but the thing that held her attention was the glowing circle in front of her, centered on the boar she was aiming at. As she focused in on the boar she noticed the circle contracting to the neck area, only to expand as her mind wandered to ponder the novelty of it. She shook her head and refocused, and as the circle contracted she let go of the stance and felt the system take over, her body moving on its own as her arm snapped out, the knife slipping out of her hand and sailing straight into the boar, a couple of inches from the neck and into its shoulder. Mayzer saw the bar floating above the monster lower a bit, but stayed green. It squealed and whipped around to spot her, lowering its head and pawing at the ground before charging at her. She yelped and cringed back, only to see the boar shatter at her brother buried his axe into the mob's head. "And that, dear sister, is why we are doing this together and why you aren't soloing for at least another ten levels."

Mayzer gulped, "Yeah, sounds good."

They had just finished killing the last boar around them when Arkus looked at the time. "We should log out soon, it's going to be almost 3:30 am. Even though we get to sleep in we don't want to throw our schedule off that much." "Yeah, okay. Just give me a minute." Mayzer panted out, her hands on her knees as she slumped over. It was exhausting running from those monsters! She didn't care what he said, there was no reason for Arkus to use her as bait and a distraction for boars. He's the one who's supposed to be the meat shield, not her!

She was still gasping for breath when she noticed Arkus freeze up at something on his menu. "What's got you in such a twist? Accidentally drop all your Col or something, cause I'm not looking over the entire field for it."

"Check your menu, Mattie." Arkus said, looking more serious than she had seen him in a long time.

"Why? Hey I thought were not supposed to-"

"Just do it! Let me see if I can get the GM on…" He broke off muttering, staring at the menu screen and waiting for the GM to pick up.

Mayzer swiped her right hand down and looked at the menu, clicking through the different tabs and looking for anything odd. "I don't see anything wrong with the menu that is freaking you out, are you sure you're not just…" she trailed off, staring at the blank button where the logout option should be. She stared dumbly at it, going through all the instructions Josh had given her before they even loaded the game up. And remember if something goes wrong you can just log off. Your avatar should be relocated to the nearest town when you log back in. It's time-consuming but it sometimes it's the best thing to do. There is only one way to logout and it's the button in the menu, so don't go trying any weird poses if you forget. Mayzer felt a cold chill settling in her spine. If they can't logout, how are they supposed to wake up? Is this a glitch? It has to be, this can't be on purpose. They'll just manually disconnect all the players from the game or, or have someone just come and yank the helmet off right? That would definitely force logout right?

Just as Mattie was starting to panic, she and Josh were surrounded by light and were transported to the main plaza of [Town of Beginnings]. They looked around and saw that almost all the other players in SAO were already there. No one seemed to know why they were there, people speculating that it could be an opening event or in response to the logout glitch. Mattie hoped they were right, but couldn't shake the dread she could feel in the pit of her stomach. Suddenly someone yelled out, gesturing up into the sky where there was a red blinking [Warning!] panel hovering there, soon followed by more red panels alternating between [Warning!] and [System Announcement!]. They covered the plaza in a red dome, casting a sinister light around the players. A red ooze started to seep through the dome and formed a giant hooded man, with no face visible and smoke billowing out underneath him and lightning crackling in the low hanging clouds.

Mattie zoned out during Kayaba's speech, barely picking out the facts of how they were stuck in this world, how if someone took off the nerve-gear they would die, how some people have already have died, the world coverage of this, and the only way to get out would be to beat the entire game. She only came to when he mentioned a present for every player. She went into her items menu and clicked on the mirror that had been placed there. She clicked on it and caught the small handheld mirror as it materialized. As she gazed into it observing her purple hair and green eyes, she was once again surrounded by white light. When it faded and she opened he eyes she dropped the mirror in shock. She watched the floating pieces of the broken mirror disappear, unable to make sense of the image. Why could she see her chocolate-brown hair and light-brown eyes? She looked over and saw her brother Josh, with short, spiky hair and deep brown eyes. "Josh?" She whispered, Josh looking just as stricken as she felt. "How?"

"The face scan, in the nerve-gear… but why?"

"He wants us to believe that this is as real as possible, to make us really live in this world." Mattie spat out, anger, no, fury, boiling in the pit of her gut, burning away all of her dread. "How long does he expect our bodies to survive in a comatose state? They can only keep our bodies alive for so long." "How long do you think we have? Before…" "I'm not sure, it could be years or decades, but there's so much that could go wrong. Infection, muscle atrophy, blood clots. It's not a good situation."

While they were whispering to each other Kayaba had finished his speech, "And so ends the tutorial of Sword Art Online." Once again smoke billowed out of its sleeves and then disappeared, the dome above them also vanishing, leaving the players frozen. Silence reigned over the plaza, players frozen, no one daring to move, to make this real.

Then, a single scream rang out.

Suddenly everyone was screaming. Screaming and crying, and begging, and some just sank to their knees, unaware of the people rampaging around them, injuring them but not lowering their health. It was impossible to injure another player in the towns, which were programmed to be safe-zones.

Mattie looked around, moving to cling to josh's sleeve to prevent from being separated. Josh suddenly grabbed her arm and started running out of the plaza and down the street, towards the road out into the fields. "Josh, Josh! Where are we going? You want us to leave the safe-zone now?!" "Yes, its best so we get first pick and before the fields get picked clean of XP and Col. But I thought I saw someone I know…" As we were running a man with bright red hair that stuck up in all directions and had a roguish look to his dashed past them, head held down and headed straight back to the plaza. Mattie looked over her shoulder following him with her eyes before Josh turned a sudden corner and she was brought face to face with a young boy, maybe around fourteen or fifteen, with short black hair and eyes and a bit taller than her, looking a bit lost and hurt. His eyes refocused on them and his face closed off and he turned to leave. "Kirito, it's me! It's Arkus! I thought it would be better if we stuck together instead of soloing it like I guessed you would." The boy, Kirito, gasped and took a deep breath and smiled, relieved. "Arkus. I didn't think… I thought that I was…" "Alone? Not by a long shot, Kirito. Remember, there's a thousand more of us beta-testers, and thousands more other players. You don't have to do this alone."

Kirito nodded, "Alright, so who is this? She isn't a beta-tester." "Kirito, let me introduce you to my sister Mayzer. Mayzer, my friend Kirito." "Yo, what's up?" Mayzer wave her hand awkwardly. She leaned towards her brother and whispered to him, "I would crack a joke about online predators but I'm guessing this is an inappropriate time." Josh, Arkus Mayzer corrected herself, punched her in the arm, sending her into the wall. She cracked up laughing, slightly hysterically, leaning against the wall that was still blinking [Immortal Object], "Aha ha! What? You're twenty-seven and he's what? Fifteen? Sixteen?" "… Um? I'm fourteen, actually." Arkus put his head in his hands as Kirito looked on in confusion with a light blush on his cheeks, and Mayzer burst out in new peals of laughter, hand covering her eyes, but he could see tears tracking down her cheeks and his irritation and embarrassment cleared away as he went to his sister, taking her into his arms and holding her as she broke down, sobbing as she clutched his shirt. He stroked her back murmuring at her, soothing her as she tried to calm down. Kirito couldn't make out what was said, only the end a sentence as they parted, "… longer, just until we get to the next town." "The next town, and the next, and the next, and the next…" she grouched, wiping her cheeks clean. "All the way to the end, yeah?" He said, stepping away and turning back to Kirito. "Yeah," she said taking one last deep breath. "So, Kirito, shall we?"