I raced up the staircase, two at a time, and dashed into my room, closing the door behind me.
I checked that the Sword Art Online disk was in the disk reader (of course it was) and that it was connected to the nerve gear which resembled a black motorbike helmet.
I eagerly jammed the nerve gear onto my head and flopped onto my bed, my eyes flicked to the little digital clock in the corner of the screen. It read; 13:58.
I waited for what seemed like ages, barely able to contain my excitement.
The clock changed to 13:59 and my heart skipped a beat. Just one more measly minute... I counted the seconds, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five... Come on, come on! Fourty eight, fourty nine, fifty, fifty one, fifty two, fifty three-!
Just as I reached fifty three, the clock turned to 19:00.
Two o'clock!
Yes!
"Link start!" I said out loud, voicing the command necessary for activating the nerve gear.
The nerve gear ran an assortment of various checks and verifications before displaying in front of me a large notice reading; 'Login details required'
I looked around, I appeared to be suspended in mid-air surrounded by white with computer code shifting and retyping around me. That was the clever way the nerve gear worked. It created a completely believable and virtual world around you that you felt, smelled, saw, heard and even tasted as though you were really in it.
The nerve gear worked by intercepting your brain signals and moving your avatar's body so it was as though you were actually in the game.
I turned my attention back to the login notice. A transparent, blue, qwerty keyboard materialised in front of me with an echoing 'ping' sound.
Login:
'Beck' I typed. Beck was actually my surname but I wasn't a very imaginative person and it served me well as a username.
Password:
'* * * * * * * * ' the screen typed as I routinely tapped the keys.
'Access confirmed, User: Beck' The screen displayed, 'User history recovered, would you like to use your previous avatar? Yes/no'
I tapped the 'yes' button, relieved that I didn't have to go through the tedious avatar design again.
Suddenly, I was transported for a second at a breakneck speed.
Then I was stood there, the babble of human voices surrounding me. Everything was blurry but as my vision cleared, I looked around and found myself in the plaza at the centre of the town of beginnings.
I laid my hands out in front of me and examined them, fisting and splaying them, slowly adjusting to the slightly disorientating feeling of being in the body of my avatar.
I gave a happy sigh. I was here again. I was in Sword Art Online.
Since I had been a beta tester (one of the one thousand lucky people to be selected to test out Sword Art Online before it was officially released), I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing. I began to walk, slowly adjusting to the feeling of being in the game, the feeling numbness slowly melting away.
My avatar looked deliberately nothing like me. In game I appeared about seventeen or eighteen years old, had brown eyes and brown hair. I liked the fact that I didn't look like the real me in SAO. It made me feel safer, it helped me forget the real world, it made me feel less me and more somebody else.
Video gaming was my escape. I loved SAO because I could be whoever I wanted.
I clenched my fist.
I was going to make people notice me.
I was going to get strong and then everyone would acknowledge me.
From now on I was going to play SAO like a maniac 'till I was the strongest player. Then people would know my name, I would be relevant.
My first order of business was to reach level two, then level three. I started to run towards the town gates, and the way to the first monster-inhabited area. There, I could earn Exp defeating monsters and I could also practice my sword skills a little more.
(break)
I took a battle-ready position, facing the monster.
'Wild boar' the caption above the monster read.
Boars were SAO's weakest monsters, and great for levelling up against.
The monster recognised my challenge.
It gave a grunt and began to charge towards me. I smiled, loving the feeling of being back in Sword Art Online. I felt excited.
The boar barrelled towards me.
I stepped to the side and pivoted upon my left foot, easily moving out of the monster's path as it missed me, clumsily. This was it, this was what I played for. That feeling of freedom, I relished the feeling of battling again.
The monster began to turn around for a next attack but I didn't give it a chance.
In one flowing, practiced motion, I unsheathed my sword from the sheath strapped to my back and raised it up, pausing momentarily to activate a sword skill.
My sword glowed red with the sword skill and I dashed forwards, lightning fast, weapon held in front of me, slashing the boar right the way across the side as I passed it.
The boar let out a squeal and exploded into a shatter of glittering blue pixels like smashed glass.
A little smile snuck its way across my lips.
I twirled my sword around once before sheathing it, smoothly.
"How'd you do that?" I heard a quiet voice from behind me murmur.
I whirled around.
"Who's there?" I shouted.
A boy stepped out from behind a nearby tree, shyly.
He appeared to be about the same age as me in real life, about thirteen or fourteen years old. He had blonde hair and blue eyes that studied my every move, warily.
"Who are you?" I demanded, short temperedly.
"Uh, Rin. Nice to meet you I think." He said, slowly, eyeing me watchfully.
I relaxed as I realised that the boy must be a new player.
"What do you want?" I asked, slightly annoyed by the way that the boy was acting- as though I was going to bite his arm off at any moment.
"Could you- could you maybe show me how to do that?" Rin asked, timidly.
I sighed and nodded, I had better things to do but showing this kid how to use a sword skill couldn't hurt.
A look of both surprise and delight crossed Rin's face, as though he had been expecting me to turn him down. He quickly glanced down at his feet.
"I'm Beck." I said, introducing myself. I held my hand out for Rin to shake and he took it, cautiously.
(break)
The next hour or so, I spent teaching Rin how to use a sword skill.
"You bring your sword back, like you're going to attack, like this." I said, giving a demonstration, "Then you pause for a moment, and you can feel the energy of the sword skill building up." I instructed, my sword began to glow with a red light. "Then-" I suddenly slashed my sword forwards, attacking a nearby boar. The unsuspecting monster squealed and shattered into a scatter of blue pixels. "-you attack." I finished.
Rin nodded, a look of determination painted on his face.
He turned to the nearest boar and unsheathed the sword from the sheath at his waist.
He tested the sword's weight in his hands briefly, giving me the impression that he had fought with a sword before, then swung the sword back, ready for an attack, just as I had instructed him.
He slowed for a moment just as the sword reached its furthest point and a green light began to softly halo the weapon.
Suddenly, Rin gave a yell and bought the sword forwards with impressive speed and slashed out at the creature.
The boar gave a high-pitched grunt and exploded into shimmering blue particles.
"I did it." He said, somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, well done." I said. "Next one then."
(break)
Rin collapsed onto the ground, bored.
"Okay that's the eighth one!" He complained, "Can we stop for a bit?"
I thought for a moment, then pinched my right thumb and index finger together and swiped downwards in front of me, bringing up the transparent, blue, glasslike main menu.
'5:28' The little digital clock in the corner read.
I closed the menu and turned to Rin, "It's half five, you're right, we should probably take a break." I said.
He nodded, "I'm really hungry, too."
I smiled, "The food here, in SAO only makes you think you're full, you should probably go offline to eat if you really are hungry."
Rin shook his head, "No it's ok, don't worry."
I gave a shrug.
"Hey, I've got an idea, will you add me to your friends list?" Rin asked, eagerly.
"Sure." I replied.
"Great!" Said Rin, he opened the main menu the same way I had and selected 'friends' then 'add friend'. A popup window appeared in front of me saying 'would you like to add this player to your friends list? X/O'
I tapped the blue 'O' button.
Just at that moment, I became surrounded in a blue light.
"What's happening?" Rin exclaimed.
"I don't know," I shouted back, "this isn't supposed to happen!"
The blue light around me grew brighter and brighter until I couldn't see a thing.
Finally, the light began to fade.
I glanced around.
I was back in the plaza, in the town of beginnings.
What?
Had I just teleported?
But I was sure I hadn't done, at least on purpose.
What was happening?
I looked around.
There were thousands of people, all muttering and whispering, nervously.
I began to feel very uneasy, why would everyone be rounded up like this in the plaza? And where was Rin?