Disclaimer: I do not own any of what is in this story, with the exception of my OC. Enjoy!
November 6, 2022
"Alright guys, welcome to the stream! Today, I'm gonna play some Smash Ultimate online until I achieve elite smash."
The usually soft light of two computer monitors - now almost like a room light itself in the darkness of the room - caused the occupant to wince slightly. Having just woken up a few minutes ago, staying in the darkness of their room, they weren't used to having a light shone directly in their face, no matter how dim it may seem. They often found themselves cursing for their stupidity, using an electronic device so soon after awaking.
After giving their hazel eyes another rub and a few more seconds to adjust to the light, the occupant slid their mouse over their mouse pad with quick, precise movements that came from years of practice. A few clicks here and there, and the monitor displayed a stream and a stream chat next to it. In the box that showed what the webcam was seeing, was the face of the streamer, which happened to be the sole occupant of the room.
They were in their teenage years, male, and couldn't have been older than 16. The teen had pitch black hair, almost blending in to the dark background of the room, and contrasting white bangs framing his face. His eyes, a soft hazel that was usually filled with life, mischief, and humor, were almost half-lidded with exhaustion. His nationality happened to be mostly Japanese on his father's side, but his mother's Caucasian side had more of an influence on his skin pigment, making him look more tanned than creamy white. This teen's name was Inazuma Rakurai.
Inazuma let out a yawn, trying to stifle it to no avail. "Sorry, chat," he apologized, wiping his eyes of any tears that came up. "just woke up a little bit ago. Ignore my half-dead appearance please, haha." A few seconds of silence from the young streamer, so as to check if his 600 and rapidly rising viewers would give his half hearted apology a response. Seeing none, only meme spams and some casual conversations, Inazuma quickly set up his nintendo switch so that he would have one monitor displaying the gameplay, while the second would have up his stream info and chat. With another yawn, Inazuma glanced at the time on his digital clock on his night stand. The time flashed 3 am.
If you're wondering why the boy decided to wake up this early to stream, it's because even though he may be in Japan, his audience was mostly American. Japan is 14 hours ahead of America, so 3 am for him is 1 pm for them over there. How he had a mostly American audience, he will never seem to figure out. But he did, and he wasn't going to complain. Though, if he wanted to earn enough money from all of the views and subs that he gets from streaming, Inazuma has to wake up at a very early time.
However, even though he has to wake up early, he thoroughly enjoys what he does. Inazuma streams a variety of games, like Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Rocket League, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty Black Ops 4, and Fortnite being some of the big ones. Due to his skill in gaming, the teen made the choice to start streaming at the age of 14. His gaming prowess managed to earn him sponsors, and allow him to participate in small tournaments, since Inazuma was not yet 16 at the time. Now that he was 16, having been of age since September, he was able to go out and participate in big tournaments with the big time gamers. The young prodigy was still limited though, as he did not have his drivers license quite yet, so he still stuck to small tournaments for now.
"Oh! Before I begin, I forgot to mention that the new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, is coming out today, so I won't be on for as long as I usually am." Inazuma turned and grunted somewhat as he lifted up a grey, bulky helmet with a visor up to the webcam so that his viewers can see. "I managed to save up enough money that I could get a Nerve Gear and the proper wiring and set up for it. Not only that, the creator of SAO, Akihiko Kayaba, was generous enough to allow me to have a copy of the game, when it comes out, free of charge! It's only for a week though, and after that week, if I like the game, I can buy it for 80% of its usual price." The teen lowered the Nerve Gear and looked into its visor. "Apparently, he's a fan, and is really looking forward to seeing what I have to offer to this game of his."
Inazuma put down the helmet, staring at the rapidly passing messages of the chat. Even though he could barely make out what the messages were saying, he was able to pick out a couple that were short enough to be read. "Do I live alone? Uh, I mean yeah, I do. I've been living alone for around 3 months now." He picked up his nintendo pro controller and started up Smash Bros. "How I manage school? Haha, actually that's pretty funny. I don't go to school. I was home schooled for most of my life, and only took a year of actual schooling. I decided I didn't like it, so I kinda just stopped going, and my parents didn't mind." As an after thought, he quickly added, "I do have friends though! I'm not a loner like most would assume."
The Q and A session between Inazuma and his viewers went on like this for the better part of 2 hours, while the teen was quickly raising his global smash power in order to finally play elite smash. Sometimes, when Inazuma was not using his main, Sheik, he would ask the chat what character he should be. In short, it was really entertaining for both the streamer, and his viewers. He didn't win all of his matches - the viewers made sure of that - but at the end of the 2 hour long session, Inazuma had reached elite smash status.
"Finally! Oh lordy, that took way longer than I thought." He sighed in relief and reclined in his padded chair. "I don't think I would have lasted another half hour of Smash. Too much of one thing gets me really uninterested after a while. Unless it's like, not repetitive and an open world type of game, y'know?" The gamer placed his controller down and looked at his clock, absentmindedly wiping his somewhat sweaty hands on his sweatpants as he did so. "Only 5:15? Oh man oh man, I really thought it would be a little closer to 6. I'm starting to get hungry."
For the next few hours, after Inazuma decided to take a break from Smash for a while, he played the games that were suggested by those watching his stream. He played Rocket Leage, Fortnite, Pokemon Reborn[1], and Rainbow 6 Siege, all of which he had great success and enjoyment in playing. He did stop to use the bathroom and eat between sessions though. He knew it was important to not neglect eating and stepping away from the screen for a bit. It was only after the time went into the ninth hour of the day did Inazuma decide to stop.
"Okay guys, I'm stopping here for today." A few seconds after his declaration did messages pop up in chat, trying to prevent him from delaying the flow of gameplay. A small chuckle escaped the lips of the 16 year old. "Guys guys...and gals, sorry. I already told you that I would stop sooner than I usually would. SAO is going to be released today, and I'm playing it. Maybe some of you Japanese viewers that are able to get your hands on the game can find me." His words did little to calm the flow of messages in the chat. "Alright, fine. Next time I stream, I'll do a 24 hour stream, starting at 10 am Japanese time. So that's 8 pm for you Americans. That better?" This made some of the messages change to content ones, giving Inazuma the que to sign off.
After saying goodbye to his precious viewers, and thanking some for their subs, Inazuma ended the stream. "Phew, well that's enough of that." He got up from his chair, whistling a jaunty tune, and went to his kitchen to get himself a snack. After debating about it for a few seconds, he decided to just go for a granola bar, since it was the fastest and relatively safest option.
"Now, I just gotta figure out what I'm going to do while I wait for my package to come. Kayaba did say it would come around 9..." Inazuma perked up, hearing a knock at the door. "That has to be it!" Quickly finishing off his bar and throwing away the rapper, the excited teen jogged to the front door. Taking a peek through the peep hole, he briefly saw a delivery man entering his car and driving away. Not wasting another second, he unlocked the door and swung it open.
Ahh, just as he had hoped. It was at the foot of the door.
Finally, after waiting for...maybe three days, Inazuma had, in his possession, Sword Art Online. 'Thank you Kayaba.' The teen took the box and went inside, eager to download the necessary game data to play the game. So eager was he that he nearly forgot to close and lock the door behind him. A quick swear and the closing of a door fixed that problem right up.
"The game server launches at 1 pm, and Kayaba told me the game takes around 3 hours to download, so I have around 4 hours until I can play." Inazuma let out a small sigh. "I need to find something to do in those 4 hours..."
It was now 12:45, and Inazuma was hooking up all of the correct components needed for the Nerve Gear to work.
"This wire goes into this slot, and that in turn goes into the back of the Nerve Gear...right there." He inserted the wires into their proper places and saw two of the three LEDs on Nerve Gear light up, the one for power and the one indicating it was charging. The need for charge was because the Nerve Gear had an internal battery, so that even if it was unplugged, or the power went out, there would still be power in the Nerve Gear for use.
"And now, according to the back of the game case, I need to do a calibration of some sort, if I haven't already." Picking up the Nerve Gear, he shook his head. "I really should have done this when I unboxed the thing..." He carefully placed the grey helmet upon his head, watching as the room dimmed due to the visor. Once the helmet was situated, a voice suddenly spoke in his ears.
"Calibration initiated. Please follow the instructions precisely, so as to not interrupt the calibration process, or restart." The robotic female voice startled Inazuma somewhat, with the voice speaking so suddenly. However, he quickly recovered once directions flashed across the visor, prompting him to move, and touch his body in certain ways. Once he was finished, which was 10 minutes later, the voice spoke up again. "Calibration complete. Should there be any changes to your body, such as growth, or loss of limbs, please re-calibrate so that there are no future problems with gameplay. Enjoy!"
"Well, that's that." The gamer sighed and took off the Nerve Gear rig, setting it on his bed, which was next to his PC set up. "Before I do anything though, I really need to use the bathroom."
A quick trip to and from the bathroom left Inazuma feeling relieved, glad he can now enjoy his first Full Dive experience without having to worry about somehow pissing himself. "Alright, let's get the show on the road!" Hopping onto his bed, he put the Nerve Gear on once more, fully prepared to finally dive right into the world that was SAO. His excitement, barely able to stay contained, seemed to radiate off of him in waves. If anyone else was in the room, they would say that the excitement was contagious.
Inazuma watched the time, shown on the top left corner of the visor, almost impatiently waiting for the clock to strike 1. When it did, the teen grinned and shut his eyes, uttering the 'magic' words.
"Link start!" However, as he entered the world of VR, he unknowingly just surrendered himself to a very prison-like reality...
Hey readers!
So, I know this is a very weird way to end this chapter off - for me at least - but please bear with me. Should I continue this chapter, I would probably stop it at Kayaba's leave after announcing that the 10,000 players were trapped in the game unless they cleared all 100 floors. Knowing me, not that any of you do, since I'm new, I would put in a lot of extra fluff, and leave out some crucial detail. The longer I make a chapter, the more I tend to do that. So, to fix that, I'm just gonna make these chapters around maybe 2-3k words average. Once I get better, I'll write more, but as of right now, that's it.
Next chapter, we start first person POV, probably for the rest of the story if that receives good feedback from y'all. Besides that, my OC will meet some people, fight some mobs, find his calling in the world of SAO, and, possibly, attend the meeting to fight the first boss. But the meeting might be for the third chapter.
Alright, that's it! Leave a like, comment, sub- wait, wrong outro... Read, review, follow and fav if you enjoy! And please, feedback is welcome, just don't flame. Until next time!