DISCLAIMER : Sword Art Online does not belong to me, but to it's respective writers, developers, publishers, etc. You know how it goes. I do, however, have the right to any and all OC's than can and will appear throughout the story. That being said, let's get it done!

I held the glass of whiskey up, looking at the refraction of the light hanging above me.

It just looks so real...but...

Sighing, I downed the drink in one go, slamming the glass on the table. My vision blurred for a second, before righting itself again.

"Tch." I scoffed, pouring myself another drink. For a world that supposedly simulates reality to a tee, It can't replicate getting drunk. I suppose that ruins my plans of sleeping this whole thing off and chalking it up to just a bad dream.

Oh, who am I kidding? I knew it deep inside my heart. Game or not, this is as real as it gets.

Sword Art Online, the revolutionary game that allowed for a fully virtual experience, a full-dive system. A marveled breakthrough in technology. It was what we had be dreaming of for years. What I had been dreaming of...a way to escape from the real world, at least temporarily.

My name is Isao Michi, but my avatar's name is Itami. I just turned 16...a few hours ago, as a matter of fact, so what better way to celebrate than having my first drink. It's easy to lose track of time here, in this world. But I don't want to forget who I am. I can't just abandon the real world like that.

Heh. I keep telling myself things like that, but here I am, sitting in a bar in the Town of Beginnings, along with every other player that didn't have the guts to try and clear the game. It sounded so simple at the time...clear all 100 floors, and we're free. Back in the closed beta, the beta-testers managed to clear 10 floors. And there were just 1,000 of them. If what the news said was true, there are exactly 10,000 players trapped in this world now.

Or at least, there were. It's been a month, and it's rumored that around 2,000 players had died already. In any normal game, that wouldn't mean a thing besides respawning with a little bit of lost exp. But this game was different.

"If your HP reaches zero, you will die in this game, as well as in real life."

Those words echoed in the back of my mind over and over, a constant reminder of the special rule in this "death game". Our real bodies were still connected to the Nerve Gear, the helmet device used to allow the full-dive experience. If we died in this game, the Nerve Gear would emit powerful microwaves, effectively frying our brain.

That's why the majority of us daren't even leave the safety of the starting town. Out there, the cute little pigs we would normally farm over and over for chump exp? One mistake, one accident, and you don't get to respawn. You die.

I sighed again, having successfully frustrated myself again by thinking about this. Pouring myself another drink, I downed it with no remorse, slamming the glass down as hard as I could on the table. The glass smashed into pieces and disappeared, and a purple notification appeared on the table, reading "Immortal Object".

As the momentary blurriness of my vision cleared, I could hear someone standing on the bar, shouting at the others.

"It's hopeless! Even with 8,000 of us, we're never gonna beat this game. Might as well kill ourselves now and be done with it!" He yelled, earning a few angry and devastated looks from the players around him.

They just don't get it.

"It's not like that." I said, still in my seat. "Numbers are important, yes. But not the numbers you're thinking of."

"Then what else could you possibly mean?" The man sneered at me, clearly unimpressed.

"This world is, for all intents and purposes, an MMO." I said, standing up and walking to the front of the bar. "Stats are what matters. Your STR, DEX, and of course, your HP. These are the numbers that will keep us alive. If we rush in as a mass of low-levels, we would get wiped from the start, and we'd all be dead."

I jumped onto the bar, pushing the man off as I used him to balance myself. Swaying slightly, I looked at all the patrons in the bar, a fire in my eyes I've never felt before.

What the hell am I doing...I guess alcohol DOES have an effect in this game.

"I know you're all scared." I announced. "It's the only reason any of us in here have. It's what we keep telling ourselves. If we die here, we die in real life. But that rule has always applied! We can't just..."

I paused as I pretended to take a breath, but was actually thinking of what the hell to say to inspire them. Then it hit me.

"Our bodies in the real world," I started, getting everyone's attention with the mention of that. "Think about it. It's been a month. Our bodies can't just be in our beds at home anymore. We're most probably in hospitals, every one of us. The only thing keeping us alive is a machine...and this game. Neither of those will last forever."

"There's only one way to clear this game, and that's getting stronger and clearing every floor!" I shouted. Looking at the faces of the people around me, I could tell I wasn't getting through to them...they needed a sign, something to prove to them that this death game could be beaten. If only-

*BAM*

The door of the bar was thrown open, and a man ran inside, yelling.

"They did it! The 1st floor is cleared!"

That'll do.