Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online in any way or shape, the work below is a work of fiction only, I however am the creator of this story and thus also the owner of this piece of work.


Edit 18th of January 2019:

I've fixed some minor errors in this chapter and have begun writing chapter three. I'm sorry for making you wait this long for something like this. School has been a pain in the ass and the amount of homework has been - excuse me for my language - fucking ridiculous, seriously!- besides memes and music the only other thing remotely keeping me sane is food, and boy have I eaten a lot of food, jesus.. oh I've also been busy with my friends, aaand developed a freaking crush on a friend of mine (inwardly speaking) "stupid, stuuupiiidd!"

So yeah, what's your 2019 been like so far?


Hi folks, it has been quite some time (for those of you who has followed my previous work). This is the third story I have been working on ever since I started.

After finishing watching the SAO anime, I felt like there wasn't enough time spent in the original SAO world; Aincrad, and I really think that the whole idea, of trapping seemingly average gamers inside a game, literally, of Survival of the fittest is fascinating. My love for the franchise and its story ultimately led to me writing this.

It's a different take on the SAO story with a slightly different Kazuto and a different turn of events setting off the story.

Without further ado, let's jump right into it :)


"Bye oni-chan!" I heard Sugu call out, as the sound of footsteps going down a set of stairs followed suit.

In stead of calling back I directed my attention to the screens in front of me, and took one last glance at the opening livestream of the game that I had been anticipating for the past 3 years.

"I guess this is it." I said to no one in particular as a digital timer, little by little neared the 0 second mark. After having spent countless of hours in the closed beta I had grown accustomed to the world of Aincrad, a world I truly belonged to, and a world that I could find myself living in for real.

I wasted no time and quickly inserted the cord of my NerveGear extension; a recording unit, into the NerveGear and put it on my head. The pressure from the device on my head was something I hadn't expected to remember, but as I adjusted the device to fit my facial characteristics the feeling of nostalgia from my first dive took in. God I felt so old already.

Through the built-in grey-tinted glasses I managed to open up the streaming application I had prepared beforehand, activating it for the occasion. "I can't believe I'm doing this again." I said, relinquishing the feeling of being about to return to that isolated, yet fateful and colorful world. Not even a second later, the theme song of the SAO game began playing on the opening livestream on another one of my web browser's open tabs. I had to have like 30 of them open by now. After shaking my head in disappointment of my lacking IRL organizing-skill, I got out of my chair and began to find a comfortable position in my bed, expecting a sore back when I return from the dive.

"Link start."

NerveGear extension detected: Activate / Deactivate

"Activate."

User: Kirito46 found. Proceed / Create new profile

"Uhh p-proceed."

Did my progress from the beta transfer to the final version of the game?

To continue please read the terms of use: Accept terms

"Sure, Accept terms."

Welcome user: Ki-ri-to_4-6

As soon as I had been welcomed into the game, I felt the texture of the ground beneath me change instantaneously. Because I had been lying in my bed prior to entering the game, I fell a couple of feet downwards before colliding with the cold grassy ground, my back first, making it hurt quite a bit. The expected sore back arrived a little earlier than I had originally expected.

I guess Kayaba and his team decided on increasing the hurt modifier from the previous stages of the game. Still, I can't believe they never updated the entering animation, you would imagine this would be priority number one.

Sighing to myself I stayed in my position, and took in the surroundings of the first floor of Aincrad. The sounds of swords clashing, boots tumbling down gravel roads, even shouts emanating from what had to be a market place nearby and not only that but one could easily distinguish the o-so-familiar sound, that horse driven carriages created when their iron wheels crushed the small particles of dirt that made out the surface of the ground below them. There had to be thousands of people flocking about the streets of the starter city on this very day, and every single one of them clad in the starter gear.

W-wait horses?

To imagine that the team behind this magnificent game had managed to add such detailed and complicated features into the game, this late in its state of production, it was absolutely flabbergasting. Not once had the company behind SAO hinted towards the idea of implementing horses into the game. Which would, by the standards of other games be considered an impossibility to keep secret.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see other players interacting with them already, figuring out what conversations lead to what.

Sucking in a big chunk of digital air resulting in me coughing loud enough to compare it with a lion's roar, I realised that new smells had been added to the game too. There was no longer this neutral odor of dirt around. It had now been replaced by the fresh smell of lillies and other flowers, adding to the list of seemingly only positive developme-

A green flashing ping with an icon similar to a speech-window caught my interest.

Immediately after seeing it, I stretched my right arm towards the flashing icon and pressed my index finger against the little logo.

Hello!

Who must that be now?- ah, the chat window, yes that's right... the chat window. Apparently someone had just entered my stream and was communicating with me.

In the top bar of the chat window (CW) another icon presented itself, it was the icon of a person, and next to it a two-ciphre number was counting up and down continuously - it was displaying the number of people watching the stream. Considering my internet record, I wasn't anything close to internet-famous, so this in itself was quite a feat actually. I couldn't help but crack a selfish smile, thinking to myself something along the lines of, YES! but visibly showing something along the lines of a goofy, terrifying and night-marrish evil grin.

"You alright?"

I quickly pressed the logo again, causing it to disappear.

Instead of seeing a blue sky, someone's face forced the scenery away, replacing the colorful, calm nature completely.

"Can you hear me?"

I guessed the starter gear differed from person to person, because this player was obviously wearing a cloak, probably had something to do with the algorithms, either that or a preorder bonus code. This person's face looked somewhat recognisable though, had I seen him before?

"Hey, wake up."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, okay?" I answered back, slightly uncomfortable about the way that I responded - I didn't mean to make my first impression be negative, but I guessed I couldn't force time to rewind. "and yeah, I'm alright."

Shifting my position so I sat cross-legged in front of this cloak-wearing individual, I stared intently at the stranger hovering above me. About the recognisable face.. "Is this who I think it is?- that you Argo?"

"Took you long enough, Kirito."

"Bu-"

"I saw you lying here- a pure coincidence I guess."

"Wow, you don't say." I answered back and twisted my neck to look at the beautiful sky above once more. "Isn't this great?"

"It isn't great, it's magnificent, seriously. I just saw this NPC with a pet, like whaaaat?"

"Oh no, Argo." I laughed, "I meant being back. Isn't it great?"

"Oh- yes, it's awesome, I can't wait to meet up with the rest of the crew; Leader-chan, Mini-kun and Asaka-oneechan. It will be like the good ol' days." Argo said with sparkling eyes as he patted his chin with his index finger like he always did when he was thoroughly thinking. "Hey Kirito, you haven't seen them, right?"

I pulled my head back and rested it on my hand. "No I just got here. I haven't had time to look around."

Argo was quick on the trigger, his excitement infecting his vicinity like an airborn pathogen. "Then let's go look for them, Kirito!"

"I'm sure they'll contact us as soon as they get in the game, instead, what do you say about going to the north eastern hunting grounds? - we could meet them there."

Argo picked up from before and began patting his chin. "You know, I think I'll go take a look around the city and see what I can find. We can befriend each other now, if you want to, and then maybe head off separately, or you could join me- nah I don't really know, I guess I'll go have a look around and leave you to do your thing until the team is ready to be assembled." He paused briefly before continuing. "Better yet, why don't we all meet up at The Inn 4'o clock. Then we'll have plenty of time exploring on our own."

Smiling and nodding, I said jokingly, "I'm all inn for that plan.", before opening up my menu, inviting Argo to be my friend while he looked at me stumbledly.

"You sure are happy to be back Kirito."

As I cruised around on my personal interface I saw the CW icon from before flash rapidly, I must have attracted myself quite a few fans already. All the while I could hear Argo hum the tunes of his favorite anime, realising his sudden appearance must have been the source of this short-lived-fame.

Should I tell him about the stream?

"There, hol' up one moment."

Friend request sent: Status - pending

"The interface looks nice, it has this... I can't quite put my finger on it, but it looks much more- user friendly, that's the word I was looking for. Yes, user friendly." Said Argo as he went through his own menu searching for the request I just sent him.

I didn't mean to pry into his stats or anything, but the SAO interface displays are visible to virtually anyone. How I wish they had changed that before launching the final game, imagine what kind of ruckus it could cause for someone wanting a little privacy, not even a coat could cover up that candle-lit-Christmas tree-like menu.- but it probably could, I would have to remember this, it could come in handy someday maybe. Making a mental note for myself to remember this I was interrupted by a new system message.

Friend request accepted, Argo2 has been added to your friends list

"Seeing that we're done here I will see you later, Kirito." Argo said and dashed off.

Chiming in before it was too late I shot a reply in Argo's direction "Yes, see you later too, Argo."

With that I finally stood up on my legs, and began stretching out my limbs. Sure SAO was a game and stretching my body here might seem like a really unintelligent thing to do, but it actually worked like it would in the real world, although the effects of stretching out in the game, didn't pass on to the body in the real world.

I could feel that some dirt and grass had stuck to my clothes as I stood up, so I took myself some time to evaluate my appearance and brush it off. I was wearing a leather brown tunic beneath a set of dark brown suspenders that connected in the center of my chest where a piece of silver armour was located, I would imagine that this silver chest plate wasn't designed with the intention of protecting it's host but rather work as a decoration of sorts.- it must have been a gift from participating in the beta.

My waist was covered by a silver-black belt and below it were a simple pair of trousers in the same brown colour as my tunic but in a slightly different tint. My footwear consisted of brown leather boots with laces that looked like the kind of string people used to tie around books in the 17th century, but only these laces actually looked like they were from the 17th century. After inspecting myself, it was time to inspect my equipment. I reached for the sword, clasped tightly and held firm by a leather strap, that I had tied all the way around my back. I grabbed.. absolutely nothing?

Of course there was nothing. I didn't have the gear I wore back in the beta. I was convinced that it would take quite a lot of grinding to get to where I was back then, but it definitely wasn't impossible, and as such, in that moment of time, I was more than certain that with the knowledge from the beta, a simple feat like that would be child's play.


Floor 1: approx. 2pm

I had been walking for a few minutes before I finally decided that I had moved far enough away from the city that I could, while undisturbed, begin my grind.

Due to the location of the north-eastern hunting grounds I had yet to see the centre of the city and had only passed through its outskirts, where lone buildings and lodgings were common and traffic very scarce, like literally only a few carriages every now and then and the gravel streets almost completely empty of people. There were a few blacksmiths scattered around the area that I managed to run into, and I got my hands on a pretty fine sword after almost completely depleting my persuasion skill to spare a few Col from the wraths of the NPC 'business-smith'.

Meeting someone out here, within less than an hour since release would be odd, well unless other beta-players had decided to specifically go here as well. For new players who had yet to learn the basics about fighting in SAO, jumping right into battle could be considered a waste of time. Who would spend time walking away from the city, only to teleported back into the city later on and lose equipment for doing so?- literally no-one.

The northern floor 1 hunting grounds were generally perceived as good, although there were much better options to choose from, much closer to the city, but considering that the amount of players in this particular server of SAO could host about 20.000 players and this being the very first floor, one could be sure that those hunting grounds would soon be overrun by the enormous masses of sword-fighting and experience-seeking gamers, if not they're already overrun, that is.

As I directed my attention to the open field before me, a blue glow appeared seemingly out of nowhere, it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared but left behind a monster.

The first creature to spawn was a Boar, they were very easy to take out, but granted only a little amount of Col and experience to the player, thus not exactly making them the most valuable creatures.- wolves were much better in that regard, but they tended to spawn in numbers, making them a little more difficult to deal with compared to the Boars, but easier and more valuable targets for player parties.

To catch the attention of the lone Boar i grabbed a small rock from the ground and charged up one of my starter sword skills. As I was about to throw the rock, it became encircled in a red glow, indicating that I had fully charged the weapon, in this particular case the small rock. I bent my elbow, forced forward my hand and gave loose of my grip, essentially leading to the small rock to escape my fist and lock onto the Boar. Mere moments later, the trajectory of the rock, combined with its velocity, made the rock connect with the boar and cause it's health to drop a fair bit; 85%. Had I had enough rocks, killing it this way would have been much more time conserving, but since there weren't many lying around I had but no choice to use my new sword and finish the weakened creature off.

I sprinted with all my might, as I poured every single joule of energy I had in my body, into my legs and hands, and as I hit the creature I sliced it apart with the tip of my sword, revealing to the world a red mesh of cubes that supposedly was the creature's insides.

"Got you!" I exclaimed happily as I withdrew my sword from the pierced Boar and saw it's health bar drop to an absolute minimum before the creature turned into a thousand glass-like particles that soon after began fading away. "First kil."

Kill bonus [entry: Boar: {144 Col} {34exp}

After exterminating the poor Boar a bunch of other creatures spawned in; namely a small pack of wolves and a couple of Boars.

I immediately went to work on a second Boar and began slicing away at its health bar, drawing the attention of the other creatures around, to me and my target.

Kill bonus [entry: Boar: {136 Col} {36exp}

I had killed the second Boar much earlier than I had anticipated and I hadn't even suffered a single hit yet, reaching level 3 would be like a walk in the park with the way things were looking right now, and apparently the average amount of experience gained by killing monsters were much higher here in the final game, than it was back in the beta and the early stages of the alpha.

I waited around for a few seconds before the approaching wolves launched their attacks at me, their attacks were swift and dangerously close to me, as I had to maneuver around to avoid getting hit. Crouching down I avoided a jumping wolf from attaching itself to my virtual body using its jaws, and in the same moment, I had to jump to the left to avoid getting surrounded by the other two wolves. The battle was relatively intense by now and my luck with not getting hit was being put on a test. Unfortunately though for the wolves the system of SAO was designed in a way that meant that sword skills would always latch on to the pray if fully charged and if released in the correct direction.

As I stood face to face with one wolf, I swung my sword upwards, jumped back and quickly brought the sword down again, cutting right into one of the pack's members as it happened to jump past me. Its health declined until it reached 0% and it turned into a swurl of lightening shards

Kill bonus [entry: Common wolf: {205 Col} {55exp}

With one wolf down and two more to go, I went from being the one under attack, to being the one attacking. I swiftly charged forward while I prepared another sword skill and slashed ahead at an unprepared wolf, cutting it in half.

Kill bonus [entry: Common wolf: {222 Col} {52exp}

Without waiting I swung my body in a rotating manner and slashed to the left, hitting the last standing wolf dead in its side, its body shattering in a thousand pieces of illuminating glass.

Kill bonus [entry: Common wolf: {180 Col} {67exp}

It had not been a full minute since I had arrived and carried out my assaults, and in that time, I had managed to take down a whole 5 creatures and stacked up 675 Col and 244exp.

Everything was sure to go good, had someone not decided to show up and disrupt my grind. The person must have seen me whack away at the monsters from the sidelines earlier when I was concentrating on fighting, so I hadn't seen him take down one of the remaining Boars.

The two of us briefly met gazes and exchanged looks at each other. The person seemed to be a new player, and had been damaged by the Boar, though it wasn't anything serious at all.

I quickly looked around my surroundings and concluded that there weren't any other players nearby, so the player most likely hadn't entered a guild just yet, how he had managed to stumble across me, I had no idea, although I couldn't help but wonder.- did he want to party up?- or maybe he was looking for a mentor to help him learn the basics?

Whatever it was I would help him if need be, but for now I was more concerned about gathering money for new equipment and experience for better skills and more health.

Soon after our gazes had met and we had locked eyes, the next wave of monsters appeared, though this time a little larger than the first wave in terms of numbers.

To start of the battle I selected an easy target, a Boar, and prepared a sword skill as I charged right at it, unfortunately another Boar had seen me charge up my sword skill and decided to interfere. The Boar intercepted my charge with a charge of its own, and with its speed and build it hit me in my right side causing me to fall over and land on my stomach and my sword skill to cancel out. I had been stupid, I didn't expect the Boar to attack me like that nevermind deal this much damage to me.

"Gah!" I screamed out as I looked at my health bar and saw it stabilise itself at 80%, I was reckless and it costed me dearly.

I made a mental note of waiting for the monsters to attack me first, before swinging my sword to intercept their attacks.

As soon as I had gathered up my strength, I raised myself from the ground and once again got into a fighting stance, meanwhile the Boar from before had begun to run in a circle around me causing dust and leaves from the ground to fly about in the air as it ran around.

Out of nowhere it began pushing inwards, closing the circle and the gap between me and itself. I instinctively charged another sword skill and swung it at the attacking Boars glowing red eyes, causing it to dissipate into thin air as the others before it had done so too.

Kill bonus [entry: Boar: {120 Col} {39exp}

With my first target down, the dust cleared and I singled out another easy prey, this time a common wolf.

It had been slightly hurt by the second player in what I guess was an area-effect dealing attack, since the wolf and the other creatures nearby all had lost approximately the same amount of health.

"You need help?" I shouted at the second player as he took down a wolf, killing it.

"I'm good." He yelled as he dried his forehead off with the sleeve of his shirt. "A little busy, but good."

"The name's Kirito, just shout out my name and I'll help you out."

"My name's Asuna, nice to meet-ya!" The player responded, the last part of his sentence pitched up as he defended himself from an incoming Boar.

Again we met eyes although this time like old friends acknowledging each other's presence.


Floor 1: approx. 2:30pm

We had been fighting for a good while and both of us levelled up twice.

"Wanna battle it out?" I asked Asuna. Wherever my inexplicably sudden calm and brave nature had come from was a mystery, although not so shockingly, I lost exactly those traits a second later as realization hit me hard; my social anxiety crawling its way up my body and latching on to my heart as it caused a severe stinging feeling to cover my body's upper half.

"Battle it out, what do you mean?"

"PVP, first below 50% loses." I was losing my internal battle.

"Eh- okay, but don't you have more health left than I do?"

"I have a spare healing potion left, should bring you to about 70% health, I myself is at 68%." I answered calmly.

"I don't see why not, but, under one condition."

I thought about it for a second, I had nearly collected 5 thousand Col but wanted to spend it on a new sword.

"I don't really have that much to offer. Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Yes, if you treat me to a meal, I'll happily oblige with your request."

Oh- no can't do, sorry, I say we call off this immature fight and go our separate ways.

"That's a deal. Myself and a few friends of mine are meeting at this Inn 4'o clock, you're welcome to join us." I said and materialised the healing potion before tossing it to Asuna.

Catching the potion and downing it faster than anyone could say 'damn' he continued. "Deal, now should we get the fight started?"

"Absolutely." I said with determination, and charged a sword skill.

Asuna charged one of his sword skills too and the two of us ran towards one another.


"I totally didn't expect you to dodge that attack, just...how?"

"I don't know how, I think it was just my reflexes acting on instinct."

"Whatever it was, it looked beautiful, the way you turned around like a carousel fixed on the spot, and tilted your sword to reflect my attacks... it was astonishing and I had no idea what you were doing until you pushed me back and finished me off, thank you for the fight, Asuna."

"You're welcome, Kirito, you're not bad yourself either, your agility is impressive, do you by any chance attend martial arts classes, you know outside the game and all."

"Well for a matter of fact, I actually did for a period of time." I laughed. Adrenaline pumping through my body, from the fight Asuna and I had shared just now. "You know Asuna, I kind of expected you to turn off your 'Report crimes against me' thingy."

Asuna formed a goofy and apologetic grin and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm marked as an orange player now."

"I'm sorry Kirito." Asuna said, this time sounding more serious.

"It's just a game, don't worry about it." I answered back to ease the slightly more tense atmosphere, with a friendly smile hopefully evident on my face. "I'm heading back into the city to buy myself some new gear, I could really use a healing potion now, and I'm guessing you too?- wanna tag along?"

"Sure, haven't got the opportunity to see the place for myself just yet."

"Then let's go." I said and materialised my map. "I think if we head this way." I pointed in the direction of a tall water tower. "Then we might be able to hitch ourselves a ride by horse into the city-centre."

"Let's get going then, you lead the way."

I opened up my menu and pressed the map-button again to hide away the chart. "Alrighty."

We had been walking for what seemed like ten minutes and had talked about trivial things such as what other MMO's we had been playing prior to SAO, then we also talked a fair bit about in-game classes and various back-ground-simulation algorithms.

Asuna was completely new to the SAO franchise, and I told him about how I registered for the closed beta and how I joined a small guild. I even shared information about the first boss with him.

But as soon as we entered the city perimeter again, we attracted ourselves quite a few NPCs and players. I was convinced that my orange cursor was the cause of this.

"Asuna, when we go to buy the equipment from the store clerk, then can you please do the talking, with my orange cursor I can't buy anything for 24 hours. You know, until the cool down ends."

"Of course." Asuna said, "I was the one at fault after all. But you'll pay for your equipment yourself."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

As the two of us walked closer to the city the number of people walking on the streets increased tenfold, the delightful smell of lillies also disappeared leaving behind only the neutral smell of nothingness.

The streets were surprisingly narrow and one would have to guess that the city roads were one-way since there was only room for one horse carriage per lane.

Speaking of which, I could discern a large building with the icon of a wheel present on it's front, it was the horse rental service that Asuna and I had been looking for, and just next to it a parlor selling clothes was situated. There was also an armour and weapons shop a little farther behind but still within close range. Deciding upon first going to buy weapons Asuna and I walked towards the shop of our interest.

From the outside it looked like any of the other buildings in the city, had it not been for the big sign above the entrance consisting of two crossed swords in a shield keeping them from falling. There were also a line of letters below the sign, most likely the name of the shop, but I didn't really pay it any attention, so I couldn't quite see what was spelled.

Inside however the place was different. There were dozens of long swords, bows and rapiers hanging on the walls and below the sharp weapons, small sandy-brown price tags hung.

There were two ladders resting on the opposite walls of the shop that players could use to climb up and reach the weapons located at the very top of the shelves, just below the roof. They reminded me of the ladders that are used in old libraries that you usually see in films.

At the very back end of the shop the store owner - an NPC - stood proudly behind a desk and talked to party of players, probably in the midst of discussing prices.

In each of the four corners of the room, small candles it up the interior, but since there wasn't much else to illuminate the building besides the windows and the candles, it was a relatively dark but generally cozy looking place. I wouldn't mind substituting my room for a place like this, but then again, there were no router and power outlets installed so living under such conditions permanently, must tear apart any internet-praising persons.

"Kirito, I'll go upstairs and look for armour. I'll be back in no time."

Nodding I turned around and faced the left wall studying the different varieties of weapons.

The sword I was presently carrying was nothing worth praising, it was a terribly simple sword with a very fitting name: {Common Sword}

In the beta I had purchased a relatively great sword from a shop almost identical to the one I was currently in, and that sword had proven to be good enough in the battle of the floor 1 boss.

If only I could-

"There!" I accidentally screamed, as I picked up the sword from its place and held it in my arms. Immediately after picking up the sword a panel showed up on my hud, displaying the price of the weapon and its stats. This time however it also came with a name. "H-hurry-c-cane?- hurricane! That's it!" If only I had actually participated in my English classes, I wouldn't have had such trouble pronouncing its name.

{Hurricane} was a well-rounded sword with great opportunities for close range fighting. It was a little more slim than most other swords so its durability was a little worse than the average, however it packed a hell of punch, and had been redeemed as one of the 7 best swords regarding prices and effectivity.

Putting back the sword I had longed for to hold, I ran towards the staircase Asuna had went up earlier, I hadn't seen it initially as it was well hidden, but it was there, located left to the desk where the shop owner stood.

"Asuna!" I called out as I reached the top of the stairs. "Asuna."

"Hello Kirito, did you find anything, nevermind, you did find something, I'll be back in one moment."

"Alright" I answered back and went to go down the staircase once more-

"Kirito!" I heard Asuna shout.

As I had promised him earlier, if help need be, all Asuna had to do was call out my name, and this moment in time, I could hear his tone falter in seriousness.

"Kirito!- what's going on with me!"

As I looked at Asuna, I could see his figure fade into a red mist, the look on his face terrified me and I didn't know what to do, nor what to say.

"A-Asuna!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I saw him disappear, leaving me behind... alone on the first floor.

Downstairs I heard the party of players scream and shout out as I assumed what happened to Asuna had happened to them as well.

I barely got time to think as the same red mist enveloped my body too, and in a frenzy of panic I thought I was going to die.


It's a long chapter (at least I think so) and I expect the upcoming chapters to be around 3.5-4k words each.

Let me know what you think- are there things there could have been improved and what-not, then don't hesitate to RR - feedback is very much appreciated :)

- Lord Meap signing out

Oops, I forgot to mention that the updates for this story will be released every second to third week (I know it's a long time but please, there is so much going on in my life right now that I don't think I can manage week-to-week scheduled releases - bear with me please)