Disclaimer: Sword Art Online and associated characters are owned by Reki Kawahara. This is fan fiction written for entertainment only. No money or other negotiable currency or goods have been exchanged. Special thanks to Baka Tsuki for the translations of the Light Novels, they were invaluable tools for the development of this chapter, and in the future I hope I can be less reliant on them.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

"Sword Art Online is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality…. The moment the HP of a player reaches 0 the avatar will be gone forever. This is a world where heroes and villains will surely raise and fall. Witness their deeds, rejoice their triumphs and mourn their losses.

There can be no heroes without someone who records their plight…"

Extract of the announcement done by Kayaba Akihito to the media.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

The .scrmx was another of Kayaba Akihito's brilliant ideas, a computer file that recorded VR games in a multitude of high tech formats, from low quality videos easily converted to their use in cells, to HD quality multi-angle computer interactive files that allowed the users to see the stats of both players and mobs at will as well as from endless perspectives. They could even reproduce the entire battle in special rooms of compatible VRMMO's.

When the SAO incident occurred Kayaba send the first of these files to MMO Today shortly after his infamous caution message, the sign of the bloody avatar telling the 10,000 players of their imprisonment and the conditions for their release made headlines in all papers as well as YouTube's most visited video.

Then the rest followed, less than an hour later, dozens and then hundreds of recordings send to the personal E-Mails of the players, most of them depicting their deaths, which when from the silly to the outright tragic, from accidents to suicides, but most of them just the rookie mistakes that everyone did when playing a game for the first time. Then a month later a second recording was send to MMO Today's mail, this time with the battle for the first boss. The authenticity was confirmed when comparing it to time of death of the only player killed in that particular fight, and subsequent ones were similarly confirmed.

After a short while the rules for the videos were inferred. They would record automatically certain events, starting with any and every death of a player, being from internal or external causes. They would also record field, area and boss battles, the successful complexion of quests and other special events, PvP battles, duels and anything that was recorded on a Record or Mirage Crystal.

Then as soon as the battle was over and the players were out of combat mode it would send from the first 60 seconds previous to the fight to the last 30 seconds after it was all clear to the E-Mail address that the players established when doing either the Nerve-Gear's registration or the one they designated for that purpose when starting SAO. Additionally all boss encounters, no matter their size, duration and outcome would be mailed to MMO Today and other similar websites.

The government of course tried to stop the flow of videos, but Kayaba with his usual infuriating brilliance had routed them through the Nerve-Gear, so simply cutting the connection would be an instant death sentence for the player in question. Additionally many of the families were quite reticent of missing their only form of contact with their loved ones. When the government was able at last of reliably cutting it off, it had been shortly before the first battle of the 25 floor. That particular bloodbath was at the time considered to be Akihito's retaliation and after reestablishing the Mails no more efforts were done in that front.

People outside the game also realized, both from the lack of deliberate messages and random comments from the players than their recording function was set as permanently off and that they ignored that they could actually communicate with the real world.

Indeed, the people outside could only see their children, friends, and spouses try to live their life as best as they could in their virtual world.