Sword Art Online: An Unseen dilemma.

Chapter 1

"Everything is so cold...why is it this way? Where am I? Who am I?" I asked myself in the black emptiness that I currently resided in only to be met with a deafening silence...That was until a booming voice filled the void.

"I have no idea on who you are even with my extensive knowledge in technology and to answer your question of where you are...well let's just say your mind is too stubborn to give up but your body is dying."

I was surprised, glancing all around the darkness for the source of the voice as my own trickled with fear. "Bu-but how?! How is my body dying? Where the hell am I? Why can't I remember my own name or anything else?!"

"Calm down." The voice ordered as the air grew thick and I uneasily complied, taking deep breaths. A few seconds passed and the voice continued. "As of now I cannot answer how your body is dying because I found you critically injured in an alleyway. Where you are or to be exact where your mind is inside NerveGear, specially designed to reroute the brain's electronic signals into the hardware's systems. That way you wont bite your tongue off or accidentally injure yourself further while in your fragile state." He paused a moment making me anxious. "Your body however resides in my private residence with a capable doctor and equipment that will ensure your body a chance of survival since you wouldn't have made the trip to a hospital."

I Sighed in relief, so I wasn't completely dead yet, I had a chance at life again. Still I had to thank the voice for all of this trouble but it answered with...

"Do not thank me just yet. While your body is recovering you are going to play a game of mine it's called Sword Art Online. The first Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online (VRMMO) game ever, it requires the Nerve Gear to function, which your mind currently resides in. Anyway you will not be a normal player oh quite the contrary, you'll be the the twist in my game." Screens suddenly surrounded me, some showing pictures of a dark figure battling against other people I assumed were players, while the rest showed me in armor battling with a large centipede made of bones. "Your job will be to constantly hunt down players battling them, to test their will to pass my game, you can even infiltrate their ranks and play as one of the players. You will earn everything a normal player would either way. How does that sound?"

Listening intently I nodded.

There was silence and the darkness grew heavier until the voice finally spoke again. "However there is one thing...in my game, death will be forever. Every time you kill someone or they fall to the mobs, they will die in real life but the same rule applies to you, one death and you die for good."

As soon as he said that I felt suddenly sick to my stomach. "How...how could you..." Reeling from that shocking revelation I tried to compose myself as I continued speaking feeling my anger soar against this man. "How could you expect me to kill actual people for you? I can't! I wont!"

"You don't have a choice." It answered in an neutral tone.

"What do you me-"

"I could order the doctor to pull the plug on your life-support right now and you would die. The game will continue on, with or without you. Just think of it as me giving you a job to pay off your debt to me for saving your life by taking other lives and encouraging the players to clear the game."

I glared all around feeling my anger flare but the voice didn't acknowledge my rage.

"Now will you work for me or shall I end your life now?"

'Fight for my life or die without a sound at the flip of a switch?' My brain chose the first option to try surviving but to kill other human beings could I really do it? I'm going to have to because the other players will show no mercy for their own survival...

Sighing loudly I lowered my head and muttered in defeat. "I'll do it."

"Excellent, let's begin creating your character." The darkness cleared around an area revealing a man in a lab style attire with glasses and his hands in his pockets. "Firstly I am Kayaba Akihiko creator of NerveGear and Sword Art Online and secondly what will you name your character in SAO?"

A keyboard appeared in front of me. "You're letting me pick my name?"

"Of course it's the first thing you do in RPGs."

I ran my palm through my hair trying to think of name and almost instantly a simple one came to mind so I typed it in, hitting enter when I finished.

Kayaba gave nod. "Yari is an acceptable name, now your appearance will be just like it is in the real world so you cannot change that, also I will allow you to pick two sets of clothing. One set for when you go player hunting and the second for when you blend in with the player community." He pulled up two screens both having a portrait of me wearing only underclothes waiting to be dressed while having my weight, and measurements on the side.

As for my appearance I was average for a fifteen year old girl. 168cm in hight, weighing 55kg, and my three sizes being 82-60-83 meaning I was pretty slim. I had long blood red colored hair that reached my back, shining purple eyes, really pale skin, and a heart shaped face.

Anyway for my first outfit (which was going to be the anti-player one) I picked a simple dark colored sleeveless shirt, my chest covered with a thin black painted armor plate, black elbow length fingerless gloves with thin armored gauntlets, small shorts, a pair simple leather shoes with long black socks that went to my knees. Though all of the clothing was concealed by a dark trench coat with a hood that hid any indication of my identity besides my gender.

As for my secondary outfit (which was for when I decided to be a player for a bit or just hiding in plain sight.) I wore light armor. My top consisting of two layers. The top layer being a tight silver colored metal plate strapless top split vertically. It was secured tightly by heavy stitching. The bottom layer a low black v-neck showing just a tiny bit of cleavage. A black A-line mini skirt covered my lower half ending mid-thigh, with a red drapery matching my hair color reaching ankle length wrapped around my skirt, secured by a cross. On my arms were black cut off sleeves, but on my left arm was a large silver colored bracer. Around my legs was an elaborate set of armor. I had silver greaves that start below mid-thigh continuing downward into my black boots along with silver steel cuirasses that began mid-thigh connected to my greaves but stretched upward ending slightly above my knees. For accessories I chose two small thin plates of steel that wrapped around my arms with leather straps to cover my shoulders and a silver bangle for my right wrist.

With dressing finally over I hit enter on both designs, causing both to flicker back to Kayaba who nodded in approval. "Now you must pick the starting weapon class you're going to use for them." Kayaba sent the two screens back with my two outfits but this time there was a list of weapons that added onto the screen.

I scrolled through each choice that would fit me the most and I ended up choosing to start in the default one-handed sword class.

"Very good. Now Yari I'm going to send you where the other 10,000 players are now being teleported." With a snap of his fingers Kayaba Akihiko was suddenly donned with large robes that added to his small size and hid his identity. "However, before I send you though, are you going to blend in or wear your other outfit and watch?"

I pondered that question for a few seconds weighing my options. Either pretend to be clueless on my role in SAO or watch the revelation begin from a distance. I opened up my menu picking my choice, and suddenly the all black clothing of my anti-player outfit appeared on my body making me feel mysterious, even more so when I lifted the hood over my head. Then seconds later I felt a tingling sensation inside my entire body along with my vision blurring...

When my vision cleared, I took a look of my surroundings and no longer was I surrounded by emptiness, rather a dark red sky filled with the word 'WARNING' surrounding around an expansive amount buildings filled with people focused in the town center, I was atop a building allowing me to see all of this. Along with these people was the now massive robbed Akihiko Kayaba giving his announcement to all the players, so I took a few to steps to stand on the spine of the roof listening to him speak watching the players as well since all their backs were to me.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. As of this moment I am the only person able to control this world." There was a pause and a few whispers from the players below, but I could not hear from my elevation...

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu." He pulled up his menu proving that it was missing from his as well. "But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat this is not a defect in the game, but a key feature to Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of SAO of your own free will, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit powerful microwaves, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

This time I barely heard a little of the mutters from below, I even noticed a male player and female player couple try to leave only to smash into an invisible wall causing them to shout.

"Hey! We can't get out!"

"Let us out of here!"

Kayaba ignored them. "Unfortunately, there have been several instances where players' friends and family have ignored this warning, and attempted to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have exited permanently, from both Aincrad and the real world."

Before anyone could protest or speak, multiple screens appeared around Akihiko with news headlines showing that what he said was proof. "As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting on this situation, including the multiple deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed has been reduced. So, I would like you all to focus on clearing the game. But be sure to keep this in mind. There will no longer be any function to revive someone within the game, the instant your HP drops to zero you and your avatars will vanish forever."

There were hundreds of gasps but after it was deathly silent, as if all the players were never here...

"The one condition for your escape is to complete the game." He opened a large blue colored map. "You are on the lowest floor in Aincrad, floor one." A few red dots lit up on the map showing the location along with other settlements, but it lasted a moment before he switched the map to a full view of Aincrad and all 100 of its floors.

"If you proceed to the dungeon and defeat the first boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game." He made the map disappear and waited for the voices of people to die down again.

"Now then, I've provided you all with a present in your item storage please check them now."

I watched as the thousands of players opened their inventory, even I was curious and opened my own.

'A mirror?' I questioned mentally picking the item it briefly materialized in my right hand and watched as my hooded reflection stared into it only for my actual reflection to stare back and the mirror disappeared.

I shrugged. "He already said my appearance would remain the same."

'It was probably just for all of them.' My mental voice chirped.

I was proven correct too when I glanced down into the mass of people. My eyes had instantly narrowed to block out the blinding amount of light shining from below...

Suddenly some of the female population vanished, I assumed that they were turned into their original genders, though some of the male population turned into females too, but not as many. I even grinned under my hood when there were shouts of surprise when true genders, ages, and other physical secrets were revealed.

However my attention suddenly snapped back to the robed Akihiko when he spoke again.

"Right now all of you must be wondering, 'why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear do such a thing?' Well my goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason... To create this world and mettle in it. And now all is complete. This ends the tutorial for the Official Sword Art Online launch. I wish you luck, players."

Then without any warning the massive robe began to glitch out and red smoke dribbled from it into the sky, then at last vanishing into nothing causing the large red sky to turn into a normal sunset, replacing the old red 'WARNING' sky.

I continued to watch the players as they all stood in shock, mouths agape with disbelief in their situation. The dead silence laster for two entire minutes until their was a loud shrill come from a young girl somewhere in the crowd, all hell broke loose after that and shouts were directed at where the robe once stood.

"Screw you!"

"Let me out! Let me out of here!"

"What was he thinking?!"

"You bastard!"

Watching the crowd almost made me sick on how they completely ignored Akihiko's words when many begged to be released or asked what they could do to leave.

Though I noticed two people push through the crowd leaving the area when the invisible barrier vanished...Unfortunately for me that caused a few of the pushed people along with other frantic players to notice my black cloaked figure on top of the rooftops.

"Who the hell is that?!"

"Hey you! What the hell are you doing up there?!"

"Do you work for that bastard that trapped us here?!"

Before anymore could notice me or try to chase me, I quickly began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, thankful for the buildings being no more than a few feet apart.

Eventually I reached a relative safe distance away and decided to check this menu thing out now that I had time. Only to see a (1) by an envelope icon, I pressed the icon and a message appeared.

'Sender: Game Master: Akihiko Kayaba.
To: Yari
I will be modifying your player outfit due to it looking too advanced for a level 1 player. Right now it'll be made of leather and bronze while missing a few pieces, but you can always buy the upgraded versions of your clothing/armor later on but your hunter outfit and armor will remain the same. Still you can customize it too as well. Until then feel free to either hunt players or mobs to level up your skills and yourself while earning Col (the currency for SAO) and reward drops. Also, I've left you a few gifts in your inventory once you read this message. Good luck to you and I hope you only allow the strong to proceed further.'

When I finished reading, I signed in annoyance shouting at nothing.

"Then why in the hell did you let me make the costume!"

Afterwards, I opened my item storage only to see a few hundred Col, a few teleportation crystals, healing gems, a spare iron sword, a map and a manual with the title. 'Sword Art Online' player guide. The guide would probably be useful to read but so would be moving on with some of these people out trying to find me.

So with a few dozen more building jumps I found myself at an exit and began to walk towards the next town to find some ripe mob hunting grounds on the road, and around the town, along with less cramped lodging. Though on the road I heard a very loud yell, followed by a the sound of something shattering into pieces.

"Somebody must have had the same idea." I muttered, only to hear something howling behind me...

Turns out it was a wolf pack of about three silver furred, red eyed wolves coming towards me and the lead one lunged as soon as it got in range.

With rapid motion that surprised even me I grabbed the small iron blade attached to my hip and ducked, pointing the blade upward and dragged it across the wolf's belly causing a thick red line to stretch as it exploded in a flurry of blue polygons.

The remaining two tried to double team and pounce me at the same time. Though with quick thinking I turned my body to the side, readying to swing my blade horizontally, only as soon as I did just that my blade started humming while is started glowing with purple light. Rather than being startled by the motion it actually felt...right so I swung the now purple glowing blade towards the virtual wolves and due to their close proximities to each other the weapon cleaved straight through both mobs leaving them split in halves only to break up in polygons like the first wolf moments before.

Then a small Congratulations! window appeared showing that I had leveled up once, earned a bit of Col, and received three wolf pelts as loot. I sheathed my sword, closed the window, and began to head towards the next town as a single thought passed my head.

'This is going to be a long journey might as well read this manual to find out what I just did...' I quickly opened my inventory then selected the guide book and indulged my curiosity of knowledge on the long walk to the next town...

A/N: For those of you that notice something about Yari's appearance.

Yes I purposefully did it for a (hopefully) good story element.

For those of you that don't know, don't worry it'll be revealed later.

I'm going to try to keep updating it as often as I can while trying to adhere to the plot and try to keep it interesting.

Also I'm trying to continue writing. Samurai vs Titans my first story.