Lost in the death game : SAO

by Trueblades

Well all know how SAO unfolded for the real Characters, but what about the others in SAO. Those that struggled from 2 years. This is the story of some of those that get caught up in SAO whose tales weren't center stage. People just trying to survive a death game. Join Suijin, True, Benten and more as they try and sometimes fail to clear SAO.

1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer, I own nothing in regards to SAO, neither the characters not word.

Chapter One.

November 3, 2022

*Ping*

The incoming message chimed again. He'd be ignoring it for the last few minutes. His cell was linked in to his computer, and every time Yuu sent him a message in the chat it chimed his phone. R had been ignoring it mostly in hopes that it would stop. He was mentally begging it to stop. It was a little past 2 am, and he had been sleeping, something he normally liked to do at two in the morning most days.

*Ping*

*Ping**Ping**Ping*

He covered his head with his pillow, and groaned. Yuu was the only one that would ever send him that many messages in a row at this hour.

*Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping**Ping*

"UHHGGGG! FINE! I'M UP!" He shrugged himself out of bed, and stumbled over to his phone. He pulled the charger out and held his thumb to the screen. It beeped and his phone clicked on. A bright 1:54am, Nov 3rd came swimming across the screen. The room lit up under the faint blue light the phone provided. He scrolled through Yuu's messages. It proved what he always thought, Yuu was an asshole.

-Hey you up?
-I know you're up.
-I can prove it...
-If you're not up, how are you reading this?
-Seriously man, get online now.
-Don't make me Beep you.
-BEEEEP
-Bep
-Beeeeeeeeeep
-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
-Bep
-Are you up yet?
-Beeeep
-Get online now!

Yuu was indeed an asshole and his best friend. A few years Yuu moved here from Japan and they were put in the same class. For the last three years they had been like brothers. Of course he actually had a brother, but he was three years younger and they didn't really get along. Yuu was like a brother that you actually liked. About five months ago Yuu's father got another job back in Tokyo, so they moved back to Japan.
Now about twice a week, Yuu would wake him up with messages. The 13 hour time difference was a real killer, but its what you put up with for a friend right?

He punched his computer on, and sat down. The chair creaked menacingly and two of the legs on it wobbled a bit. He really need a new chair. It was going to snap on day, and probably sooner rather than later. The old OLED monitor swiftly brightened. It was an old piece of crap, but he had built it himself. He was proud of it even as old as the parts were. The chat program came up with the OS, and Yuu was already sending him text.

-What took you so long?
-I hate you, you know that right. Like beat you with a stick, and drop you in a pile of salt, hate.
-OK, enough of your talking. You're talking time is done.
-HATE.
-So dad's new job has some perks.
-Geisha's around every corner eh? You're fathers job sucks. You suck. When are you moving back? I'm bored here, and you suck... just in case you forgot it.
- OK, so not coming back any time soon. I know it sucks. Also, no Geisha. I asked for some, but Mom says we don't have any spare rooms. I'm trying to see if we can kick Natsuko out but again Mom says she stays. Anyways back to the part with you shutting up, while I talk. So ya, shut up already
-Salt, lots of salt. Hundreds of cuts and salt
-So my dad is working for this firm that is covering the PR for this huge game release. Good news, I got in to the beta. Bad news its freaking amazing and wont end up in North America for a year or two. So yeah Awesome game, that I get to play, and wont be there for a few years.
-You woke me up to brag... and its not even about a girl, but a game? You're going to die a virgin you know that right. Not that, that's a bad thing. I'm proud you strong enough to come out with your life choice. That aside, can we get Natsuko to take Geisha training? She's already sweet and quiet. I swear I'll come and visit her. Not you mind, just her.
-First, your a horrible and disgusting person. Its almost enough for me not to tell you the best news. Honestly though, Natsuko? Are you mentally ill dude? She's an evil tyrant. A monstrous overlord bent on destruction. I swear I once saw her kick a puppy... Ok so that's a lie. But she did give it a hurtful stare.
-She's hot. You're right though, I won't have a chance.
-Damn right you don't. God your words make me want to scrub my brain with cheese grater.
-Best news I've heard so far tonight. What was your good news now?
-...Right... So are you ready to grovel?
-I will try my best, but I'll warn you now, I was born with out the grovelling gene. Instead I got god-like awesomeness.
-So you're genetically defective? It wasn't being dropped on your head a lot as a child? Maybe the awesomeness makes up for your hideous looks.
-You know what, I can't think of a witty reply. Its 2 am. I dug myself that hole, and now I dearly wish to lie in it.
- OK, so you're not going to get any sleep tonight. Sorry. Time for best news.
-Dude its been almost 5 minutes, spit it out. I know it says youre typing, but I bet youre just hitting a button and backspace. You're not building any suspense, cause I'm going to fall asleep, and your "big" news will fail. Also, funnily enough, I can't find an emotion that is stabbing its self in the face while waiting for a friend to let it go back to sleep. Weird they don't have that, I assumed it would be really popular.
-Sorry man, had to double check with my dad on something. OK so there are some legal things that I'll need you to sigh after, messed up eh? Oh and of course you can't tell anyone in the press about it, cant blog, vlog, or brag about it, blah, blah, legalize, blah.
-...k
-Yeah. OK so, my dad was able to get a third copy of the game I've been beta testing. It's called Sword Art Online. There is only 10k copies for opening release(Until they get some more servers running.) Oh and you wouldn't believe the hardware that they call servers, its like 20 normal servers running in tandem to make one world. It's crazy man. Its FULL DIVE. There hasn't ever been a game like this.
-I thought it wouldn't be available here. How can I play? No way my Ip would connect.
-Huh... yeah. Hadn't thought about that. Maybe a Vpn or something would work.
-I hate you and I'm going to go back to bed. That was a serious I hate you by the way. Not a playful one like earlier.
-OK... OK I got a plan.
-So do I, I'm grabbing my blanket as we speak.
-Stop! Man, put the blanket down! Are you putting it down? Listen. You can't sleep. Sleep is for the weak and you're... OK crap... uh, true sleep is for the weak and you're weak, but don't sleep! Listen to the plan.
-Yuu.
-OK listening?
-Son of a... yes I'm listening. Wait, got a sec knock. :-( Parents must have heard me swearing.
-O.o
-yeah. Brb
-But, but... listening, and the plan!

The soft tap at the door happened again. R got up but hesitated. He paused as long as he could, His gathered his courage and then opened the door. His father's large frame stood there, looking like he had just been woken up. "Son we have to talk. Get dressed and come down stairs." His father stood there for a long moment, and then shuffled away. Waking up in the middle of the night really showed the similarity between father and son. He shuffled to his computer again.

-Hey, its going to be a while man. Dad wants to have a chat. Since its 2am that means it's going to take time.
-No worries, I'll sit here thinking about how only specialist doctors can help you with your disgusting taste in women until you get back. Tell him I say Hi. Then we shall discuss...THE PLAN... dun dun duuuuun.

R grabbed his pants from where he had tossed them on the floor earlier and put them on, before heading down stairs.
His dad was sitting in his favourite chair in the living room, when he saw his son motioned for him to sit on the couch near him. There was a chess board set out in between them. It was something that they started a few years ago. When ever R woke up in the night, or more recently stayed up late, and his father was still up, they would play a game. His dad would have a glass of scotch as they played, and no one would talk until it was over. So he sat on the couch, and made the first move. His father made a move and the game began.
They were about half way through, and he was losing which was sadly the normal case. It surprised him when his father started to talk. First his father looked at the clock, then asked.
"Have you figured it out yet?
R studied the board again, looking for what his dad was talking about. "Uhhh..."
"Want a hint?"
"No, I'll get it" He stared at the board, and then moved his bishop across the board.
"Smart move, but it shows that you really haven't figured it out." His dad moved a knight and took his bishop.
He smiled at his father and his queen took the knight. "Check"
His dad let out a deep sigh, and pushed a pawn forward to threaten the white queen.
"I wouldn't be so smug son. You just lost the game." as he said this he leaned back.
R's eyes scanning the board for the trap that he missed. He couldn't see it.
"All talk, I have you this time." Still he retreated with his queen.
His father glanced at the clock again at the mention of time.
"To think I raised such a fool, what will they think?"
"They?" he started to ask, but stopped as his father's other knight took his queen.
"Ah! AHHHH!"
"Quiet you'll wait your brother up!" He said in a stern but quiet voice.
"You bluffed. I fell for it... my queen." There was a really long moment before he used a pawn to take the knight, but now even he could see it was over.
"Check mate" his father said as a rook slid across the board.
"So figured it out yet."
"The trap? Yeah I figured that out, you know hindsight and all that"
"Don't be glib, and I wasn't talking about the game"
"What?"
"I know face is still a big thing, so don't shame us over there."
Somewhere outside a car horn sounded. His father looked over at the clock.
"What are you talking about?"
"Well that's your cab. Tell Yuu we say hello, and thank his father for letting you stay for the holidays. Your mother packed your bag its beside the door. Here's your passport."
"Are you freaking kidding me?"

November 6 2022

"Come on lay down, its going to go live in about two minutes." Yuu started at him and shooed him to his spot.
"Here's your nerve gear." Yuu handed him the helmet that was attached to a computer. It's what allowed you to full dive, for the new VRMMORPG type games. Nothing had even come close to using the nerve gear hardware to this degree.
"Should I be as nervous as I am now? I've never full dived before."
"Don't worry buddy, once you're in you'll forget any worries you had. I hope you've learned to grovel. Oh and Natsuko here's yours"
The boys lay down on some futons on the floor, and yuu slipped on his helmet. R stretched out, then reached over and patted Yuu on the shoulder. He hoped that Yuu knew how thankful he was for this. Natsuko took hers helmet and stepped around the boys to claim her spot on the bed. She was oldest, and since her room was the only one with enough space.
She hadn't said more than two or three words at a time to him the last two days. In fact she barely looked at him. Which was sadly normal. R knew she was painfully shy. He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She was shorter than him, by almost 8 inches, and had wonderfully long hair. The fact she was a year older made the gap between them just that bit wider. She was just so cute. He glanced around her room, a place he'd never been before even when they lived in the same town as him. It was pretty girly, a few stuffed animals on the bed, and pink and red things everywhere. It even smelled slightly of some kind of flowers.

"You comfortable?" Yuu 's voice was muffed from the Nerve gear. R pulled his helmet on and the world became much darker. Like he was wearing super dark sunglasses.
"I'm good... any last minute things I should know? I mean other than the translation you'll be giving me as we go."
"Don't trust anything that looks to good to be true." Natsuko's soft voice carried through the room. He was a little surprise she had spoken at all. She rarely spoke to anyone outside of her family that he'd seen.

"OK, so Yuu, you'll translate and don't trust Natsuko as she is too good to be true."
Yuu made a gagging noise, and there was a long uncomfortable pause where the laugh he hoped to get from Natsuko didn't come. Finally asked
"Whats your job than?"
"Sigh, it's to have both of your guys backs and to stay out of the way."
Yuu laughed. "I've never heard anyone say sigh before."
The room went quiet after that. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath for a moment as they waited. It wasn't long before all three Nerve Gears let out a soft chime. Almost as one, they said "Link Start"

R let out a quick breath when lights started appearing. Slowly a grey room appeared.
"Well this is a little underwhelming"
As he spoke his voice echoed in the grey room. He couldn't even hear the ac in Natsuko's room. "hmm well that's pretty cool. This is getting better."
A grey full length mirror appeared in front of him. A blank mannequin stared out of it. It looked like one of those artist's wooden pose dolls. As R moved, the mannequin moved with him. He flexed a bit and tried a few poses that was mimicked perfectly.
A brisk female voice came from the ceiling. It spoke in English, but the voice and accent were Japanese. Interrupting his fun. "Please using your right hand reach as far as you can to your left. Then touch your right knee. When you hear the chime repeat using your left hand and your right side."

These instructions were followed by many others. Each asking him to touch a different part of his body with one hand than the other. When that finally ended, the walls slowly started changing from grey to other colour. Each time the voice asked him to tell it what colours he could see. Every now and then there were other colours mixed in. Red in the green, blue with yellow and such. It took R, a few of them to figure out that it was testing to for colour blindness. After that it ran through some hearing tests, through the room now stayed in colour. Low sounds to high. After that it was temperature test, first the room grew steadily colder and he was shivering, then it grew hotter and started sweating bullets.
After that a table appeared, and a row of 15 tablets appeared on a silver tray. The first was incredibly sweet, than sour, then so spicy it burned his tongue.
Once that was done, the tray vanished and in's place boxes appear. Each one, when opened released scented smoke. Some were flowers but R, couldn't placed them. Then for some reason it was a running. First a few feet, then a 10 meters, 30 meters , 100 meters etc. Finally after all that was done and said, he got to take a break. He was surprised at how out of breath he was already. It was a bizarre strain on the body and mind.
The female voice spoke again. "Please step to the mirror." R, groaned and sat up. This time the mirror had menus in front of it and the reflected image was not that of a blank mannequin but that of a generic young hero. The menu had sliders for just about every facial, and body feature that you could imagine. He was laughing by the time he reached individual finger length and width. It took him over an hour to get the perfect hero. Taller, stronger, and will a few light scars on cheek and necks. R imagined them as training wounds. He thought he looked every bit the hero, and dare he say noble even.
The last part of making an avatar was the name. Which would be your mail address and chat id for the game. It had to be original, so you couldn't copy someone else name and run amok. He tapped a bit button at the bottom that read confirmation. The room extracted to a single point of light in front of him. He smirked as a line from a book he's father had given to him a few years ago came to mind. He had been complaining that they didn't have a full drive system in the house. At the time they were still new and super expensive. His father laughed and said, "Each book is a full drive system" and gave him that one. It was a book about full drives written before they even existed. In the book that there was a line that always came up before a full dive. So despite his growing excitement he spoke it, in as serious a tone as he could muster.

"Ready player one!"

Then the world came back in. It was everything that Yuu said and more. In almost perfect detail, the world came at him. Or maybe he came at the world, it was really hard to tell. There was a beautiful hillside with prefect green grass, with sparse patches of bright flowers. The sun was warm on the R's skin and scent of water lifted off a near by lake, or maybe it was the ocean. Hanging in the early blue sky is the most important in this world.
Aincrad, the floating castle. R decided that he was coming at the castle, not the castle coming at him. His carefully crafted avatar flew to the castle. Yuu had told him a bit about it but not much. Apparently it was huge. 100 levels of twisting corridors filled with monsters and adventure. As R was reaching the end of his journey he realized Yuu had been holding out at him. This place was huge, one level wasn't a like the floor of a building, like he thought. It was small world of its own. As his avatar rushed past, he saw layers of deserts, lakes, snow, forests and so much more.
His character landed in the centre of a large town, called the town of beginnings. There were plenty of players running about already. He was a little surprised at how many people were milling around. All of them were chatting and running about. It was a bit intimidating and a bit fantastic. Since he only knew a few words of Japanese, he didn't understand a thing being said at this break neck speed of speech. Luckily SAO had the option for English in game menus. The menus weren't prefect English though, and sometimes the translations were bizarre but he was thankful for them. Even some of the signs in the streets were in English. Shops had wooded signs with a symbol for what they sold. You know classic video game stuff, hammer and anvil for smiths, potions for item stores, Shirts or breastplates for armor, and swords for weapon merchants. So he wasn't completely screwed. Though a bit of help wouldn't go amiss.

On that note, he checked his messages. Yep there were two emails from someone called Suijin. There was also a message from a player called Benten. I tabbed them open.

To: True

Once you stop beautifying yourself, come me at the bridge dues east of where you're probably standing. Oh hey, remember in game handles only. I thought up this great one, and I want to hear people call me by it!
-Suijin

To: True
What is taking so long, its been hours?! Are you stuck, did you fall asleep? What did I tell you about sleep? Don't give in to your weak nature!
-Suijin

To: True
I don't think I ever told you my handle. I know what you're thinking, and I came up with mine before Yuu did. So you can tell him that he needs to get a new one and stop copying me. ^.^ Natsuko

PS. We've been waiting for about almost an hour now. It's a beautiful world, but I want to explore.
-Benten

Well crap. According to the time tag on the last message, that was about 15 minutes ago.
He took off running.

When he reached the bridge, there were two very similar looking avatars standing near enough to each other to be together but just far enough apart to tell they were both very angry. They each had long black hair, large dark eyes, they were lithe and about average in height. The only thing that set them apart was... True blushed as his eyes quickly glanced at the out of proportion chest on female's frame.
True approached carefully.
"Hey guys... waiting long?" He tried weakly.
He felt like he was about to catch fire when two sets of angry eyes burned in to him.
"What took you so long? Its been an hour and a half since launch! It shouldn't have taken you that long to make a character." The male avatar, Suijin started.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know we were all suppose to make the same avatar." True shot stupidly at his already angry friends.
He was ready, so he successfully blocked a quick but friendly blow from Suijin, in fact it was kind of a habit they got themselves into for the last year Yuu had been in north America. That said, the blow to the back of the head from Benten, which wasn't even remotely friendly, was unexpected. In fact it floored him. He almost fell over again at the idea that gentle, quiet Natsuko had actually hit him.
"Baka, my brother copied me. AGAIN." Benten began.
True had never heard her raise her voice before.
"I did not! You copied me. First with the names, and now this." Suijin interjected.
Aaaand they're off, True thought while rubbing the back of his head. He waited a few minutes before interrupting.
"How can you create your character any faster? I only spent about ten minutes on the sliders." A lie, but they'd never know.
Suijin stopped mid insult, and took a breath.
"So what did you do with the rest of your time? Couldn't find the confirmation button?"
"No I was in a grey room thing. It had me eating weird stuff and touching things."
"Oh..."Suijin looked a bit sheepish. "I completely forgot about that. That's something you do the very first time you make a nerve gear account. After that you have to do it about once a year, but that's it. "
"Enough chatter. Lets get some swords and kill some bad guys, I have some..." Benten glanced at Suijin, "Rage to work off. Plus we brought you here for a reason little brother. You got to play the beta, so where are we going and what are we killing."
True stared at her, still a little off guard. Rage?
"Still jealous about that? You could have joined me, oh wait dad only got one beta pass and you wanted to go on that trip with your friends Osaka instead. How was the two days of fun? Still worth passing on two weeks of this?" Suijin let his arms go wide, gesturing to the greatly detailed world.
Benten smacked him in the same place, she had just smacked True.
Suijin looked a bit dejected. Then puffed up.
"OK, I deserve that. But I also deserve some grovelling, where is my grovelling, True? I need it. Its like water to a man in the desert. I need it to live."
Benten raised her hand.
"OK, OK, first stop is armor, than weapons."
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" True asked
"First no, second the reason for no is I don't want to have keep coming back to town for you guys every time you have to re-spawn. So I'm making sure you have decent armor, and we can work together to take anything out before it kills you."
True and Benten exchanged an unimpressed look.
"So lets talk about skills quick. I know this is pretty dry but I told you guys not to mess with them before we talked. That's because some other beta's screwed their ups pretty past. So well go through this as fast as I can.
Right now you have 6 skill slots, and you can unlock 6 more pretty fast as you level up. First you are going to want to focus on one of the weapon skills that suits you. Here's whats you're looking at, Dagger, straight Blades, curved blades, blunt weapons, two handed sword, two handed assault spear, two handed battle axe, throwing. As you level up skills like one handed sword you'll unlock One handed rapier and two handed sword. Or one handed curved sword unlocks Katana. I've heard rumours of being about to unlock more skills, like martial arts, but I don't know how you get that.
If you're really talented with a weapon, you can make an outside the system skill. Which we'll not get to before we ship you back home. It takes months to get that good.
Than you have you're general skills. Which is broken down in to two categories. First non-combat, they are Fishing, Musical Instrument, Singing, Sewing, Cooking, Appraisal, Sales Negotiation, Medicine mixing, Slash weapon forging, thrust weapon forging, blunt weapon forging, light metal forging, and heavy metal forging, repair, Metal refining, familiar recovery, and lastly Familiar Communication. They can be fun but not really useful survival wise. Forget about the Familiar skills, neither of you are lucky enough in life to get one.
The second part is Passive skills. Tracking, Listening, Detection, Night vision, Acrobatics, Sprint, Extended weight limit, hiding, and x ray vision. Some sound pretty useless survival wise.
Last set of skills is Combat skills. These are useful so think carefully about them. Parry, Howl(that will attract enemies), Battle healing, Meditation, Light Metal Equipment, Leather Equipment, and Heavy metal Equipment.
If you pick a weapon and use it, you're skill will go up. The best thing to do if you're not sure about what style fits, is to try a few different weapons.
OK any questions? No, good now buy some leather armor, and some bracers it will cost you a bit past half of your starter Col. Col is basically gold in the game."
They did as he said and wandered over to an NPC weapon merchant. All the merchants were currently npc's. In a couple of weeks players would start buying up store fronts in the city and opening their own shops. So you're not stuck with the beginner stuff, until they cleared the floor.

They spent the rest of their money on weapons and a little things. Suijin walked them through the town, showing them the best inn's shops and sights. They all bought some food and nick knacks. They ended up back at the bridge after some time. Suijin leaned against the rail. He was wearing a brace of daggers across his chest and was fiddling with a deck of cards. Benten kept a running translation of passing conversations for True, while checking on her new pink and black choker in the reflection of her large hammer. True had an assault spear strapped to his back, and was rolling some dice...blue dice as he listened to Benten.

"Seriously he's such an ass"
"Where have the moved the re-spawn zone, I can't find my friend."
"So, if I eat cake here, it tastes like real cake? Whats the point in that? Probably just a Col sink"
"Has anyone seen a player called Leafett? He was killed by a boar and I can't find where he would re-spawn."

Suijin looked around at all the players that were wandering past. Some were freshly created running about without armor or weapon. There were a few other already selling some drops from successful hunts to merchants or giving them to other players. It was kind of nice, to watch everyone stream by. It really felt like a city, some place lived in, it helped with the uneasy he felt about the town. It was so new and unnaturally clean gave that it an unreal quality, but the players were a wonderful balance to that.

Suijin clapped his hands to get their attention, "You both look ready, so lets go hunt some boar!"

"You know, I've always liked spears. The elegant balance of range, defence and attack" True said off-handily as he thrust forward, raking the boar across its flank. "Still I wish I could have been a mage. What kind of RPG doesn't have a mage?" He was getting the hang of the sword skill system. You just got in to position, as if you were about to attack. Held that pose, and the system feed your attack power. Than you pictured where you wanted the attack to end up, and the system made the attack for you, and it was really hard to miss. Once you got used to it, you could do a few attacks in a row... at their level, you did it very slowly.
"I don't see why you're so happy with a stick. My hammer is obviously superior." Benten said. Over the last hour or so, Benten unveiled a vicious streak that True couldn't have imagined in her beautiful and quiet real life self. Already Natsuko and Benten were becoming two separate people in his mind. She took up a baseball batters position, than nodded at True to show she was ready. He moved in front of her, and jabbed at the boar again. After a moment the boar charged, and True jumped aside and the boar charged past. Right in the middle of Benten's hammer blow. True tried to focus on the fight, but her massive new chest swayed in a very distracting way when she did that. The boar stumbled back, not dying like they hoped. The blow stunned it, for a moment. It shook it's head a few times. Before it could get its bearings three daggers hit it in the side of the neck, one after another. A fourth dagger sailed clean over the boar, and thudded in to a tree. The boar shattered in to fragments of blue light as its hit points finally dropped below zero. It sparkled against the darkening sky.
"I just think it's ...cute... that you guys can only use one weapon at a time." Suijin said, as he tugged the knife that missed from the tree. True looked at Benten and said
"You know I think I liked you better as Yuu's overly quiet older sister. You've ruined your image in my eyes. Oh cruel fate! You're prophecy from this morning has already come true!"
Suijin laughed.
"What prophecy is that?" Benten said with a thin layer of ice in her voice.
"Don't trust anything that seems to good to be true. Like a talking Natsuko."
Suijin didn't laugh this time. He looked over at True with a piteous expression.
"You never knew how good you had it, and its over now. She will never stop talking now. You're Venus has fallen from the heavens to smash upon the jagged earth of reality...in a game."
"I...HAVE...A...HAMMER!" Benten yelled. She took a few determined steps towards them and assumed a skill stance.
"Whoa whoa!"Suijin began. "You don't want to do that"
"Why, ever not? I do feel so very much like crushing you both with my lovely hammer." Benten said through clenched teeth.
"First of all, you can challenge us to a duel, which when we accept will allow you to smash to us to your delight. Well, it won't kill his avatar, but it will keep an official record of you beating him on your, and his characters. If you attack us now, you'll go orange, and believe me you don't want that."
Benten's hand flickered to her menu.
A box with a challenge appeared before True. He gulped, and with a very shaky hand reached slowly forward to accept. Somewhere in the distance a bell started to gong. It wasn't really fair. True knew he couldn't fight full out against her. He cursed, than manned up, and tapped accept.
The duel was brief. True was down and out fast enough. Before the words "Benten Wins!" appeared between them, a box appeared before Suijin. True got to his feet, his hit points which were in the red, were very, very slowly restoring. Suijin hit the decline button to his sisters challenge.
"You can refuse? I mean I know there is a button, but..." True said, then glanced at Benten "I don't think that's very smart."
"It's OK True, I like the colour orange. My name will look good in orange." She began.
"Orange is very bad. Orange means you hurt other players, which means other people will avoid you and NPCs wont trade with you. If you happen to reduce me zero hit points, you're name will go red. As a Player Killer, you're fair game to other players, who can kill you with out issue, and they will. Partly from a sense of justice, and partly to loot your character.
So today's duels are done." Suijin smiled confidently. That look flickered as he looked at his sisters steady and widening smile. Benten looked wolfish at the male version of her own avatar.
"I've nothing to lose. We're only level three!"
Benten charged, and with all her strength her hammer came from his left side straight towards her brothers skull.
To Suijin, the world suddenly went blue.

The three of them had been force teleported from the field, in to the main square of the starter town. Benten didn't notice... or True was starting to expect, didn't care and finished her swing. Suijin went sailing in to others players near by, he didn't take any damage since the town was a non pvp zone. Still it looked like it hurt.
The other players looked pretty annoyed at having a body slam in to them. Their tones were enough to tell True that, even though he didn't understand exactly what was said. There were a few panicked voices here and there, probably from being forced here so suddenly. True smiled, of course there was going to be a special event, I mean it was opening day. As he thought this, the sky filled with red warning signs. Blood began leaking from the sky, it gathered in mid air, and formed a giant faceless red robed avatar.
Well a bit grisly for my tastes but yep, I called that, thought True.
The huge figure spoke in rich Japanese voice. It was only slightly modulated by the system. Just enough so there was no mistake that wasn't a persons actual voice. After each sentence Suijin translated.

Attention Players.
Welcome to my world.
My name is Kayaba Akihiko.

"Is he a boxer like in that game you made me play?" True whispered to Suijin. Who just smirked as he continued.

As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world.

The crowd of players around True started whispering at this.

I'm sure you've already noticed that the log out button is missing from the main menu.

True and quite a few of the others quickly checked their menu's. He hadn't noticed, but the giant avatar was right, there wasn't a log out option.

But this is not a defect in the game.
I repeat this is not a defect.
It is a feature of Sword Art Online.

True could hear, pride in the avatars voice as he said this.

You can not log out of SAO yourselves.
And...

Suijin voice was starting to fail, but he took a deep breath and carried on.

And no one outside can shut down or remove the Nerve Gear.
Should this be attempted, The transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will

emit a powerful... a powerful microwave.

Again Suijin's voice faltered, this time it came back as only a whisper. He stopped translating here, just stared open mouth at the robed giant in the sky.
The crowd around True was gasping, and looking frightened. What ever it had said, True could tell it was bad. Though powerful microwave didn't really need anything following it up. Voices of panic and outrage started to pop up in the crowd, but the avatar ignored them and carried on. Suijin didn't translate at first, until True shook him, and hissed "I need to know. I have a right to know." Slowly Suijin carried on.

Sadly, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and
tried to remove the Nerve Gear.

Sweet gods, Suijin whispered. True shook him again.

213 players have left Aincard and the real world.
Browser windows popped up around the robed avatar. True could see news sites in various languages from around the world. Some had pictures of SAO, or the nerve gear, and not one of the news agents looked happy. Pictures of kids and adults were flashing by, the only thing text was at the marque at the top, saying in English "Multiple victims in online game incident." Suijin had started talking but True hadn't hear him. One of the news windows had a young girl sobbing in her mothers arms.
The avatars tone shifted again, now slightly encouraging. True felt bile rise in his throat.

I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game.
I want you to remember clearly that there is no longer any method to revive

someone with in the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be
forever lost, and the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain.

Suijin's repeated this is a mechanical voice. The browsers around him began to close as he said this. It was expert speechcraft, to drive the point the home. To True it said your life will wink out like a browser window. The crowd was motionless.

There was the stick, True thought. Now where is the carrot?

There is only one means of escape.
To complete the game.
You are all on the lowest floor. Floor one.
If you make your way to, and defeat the floor boss, you may advance
to the next level.
Defeat the final boss, floor 100, and you will clear the game.

The crowd burst out in a thousand small conversation. The word Clear was spoken in English all around True, but most of the voices were saying it with disbelief, fear and panic in their voices.

Lastly, I've added a present from me to your inventory. Please see
for yourselves.

Almost at once, thousands of people were calling up their inventories. Desperately hoping, like True was, that it was something that would keep them alive. Something that said it was all a horrible and vastly unfunny joke. There was a Mirror under his items tab. True tapped the word, and a small steel hand mirror fell in to his hand. All around him people were looking confused at their menu, or already staring in to their mirror. True did the same. His avatar stared back at him. Around him blue light started enveloping people near by. He glanced up at them, than quickly back at the mirror. This time it wasn't his avatar staring back.
White, blue light covered every inch of him, making him a human torch for just a moment. Everyone in the square was covered in a matter of seconds, then as quickly as it happened, it faded away. True's vision was a little wonky for a moment, like he had a bad case of vertigo. He looked to Suijin and Benten to make sure they were alright. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't looking at twin avatars but where they were standing, Yuu and Natsuko stood. He looked at the mirror in his hand and his own face looking shocked and afraid stared back. They didn't say anything, looked at each other. The avatar started to speak again.

Right now you're probably wondering "why?"
Why would the creator of SAO and the Nerve Gear do this?
My goal has already been reached.
I created SAO for one reason.
To create a world and intervene in it, and now its complete.

The voice of the avatar was incredibly smug. Each word that rolled out of its empty head was thick with self satisfaction.

This Ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch.

The three of them drew closer to each other. Suijin put his hands on each of their shoulders drawing them closer to him. They watched as the avatar was sucked in to the ground like smoke raising in reverse. There was a long moment, where no a single soul in the square made a noise. They didn't even breathe.

Then everything was chaos.

Authors Notes.

-So first proper attempt at fanfitcion. I've been wanting to do some writing but my own short stories have hit a wall, so a friend suggested this. I know the opening is rough, as I was trying to find a grove. If you want to beta read, I'd love the help.

-I know this was pretty slow to start, and I went through all the technical stuff I could about skills(all from the SAO wiki! Kirino says he had 12 skills by level 50)

- I decided to start writing this while listening to the audiobook of Ready Player One. I was thinking about how interesting a full dive would be. I thought about the fact that there was 10000 players in SAO, and how it might be neat to see one or two of their tales.

-R/True is not me. As I don't believe in writing yourself in to a story. He is how ever based off an unsuspecting friend of mine. Luckily one that has never seen or read SAO. So odds on him finding out are slim. That said if by chance you're reading this, remember you did say I could use you in a short story!
The idea for R coming from North America and not knowing japanese came to me, since I spent 7 months in China not knowing the language at all.

-I didn't want to mess with canon, so I'll stick as close to the actually story line as I can. So while I plan to have the actual characters pop in and out of the story, it will be more of a cameo. My characters will have their own events and will rarely take place in major story events of SAO books/anime. They will not become best friends with the real characters. I'll try to keep it to a few lines of dialogue, so my guys knowing more about them the real characters as events unfold and their fame grows will of course happen. Who in the game doesn't hear about Kirito the black beater that clears the first floor, right?

-Suijin is a Japanese water god, while Benten is a Japaneses luck goddess(though I think someone once told me she was stolen from the Hindu pantheon). Since they both chose names from deities that's why they accused each other of copying the idea.

-Oh and this story might hit an M rating as it progresses. Depends on how violent I decide to make the story in the end. That said, you want to out you're likeness's fate in my hands I could always use a few more characters to toss in. Just tell me your handle(character name) and your first six skills. Understand I will try to give you a decent place but keep in mind that not even my main characters are safe from death in SAO.

-Lastly, the boxer comment, was a play off of name Akihiko, which is one of the main characters from the play station 2 game Persona 3. Personally I thought Persona 4 is a better game, but the feel of going endlessly up a tower, level by level from persona 3 fit SAO much better.