When Akihiko Kayaba made the declaration that indelibly changed the nature of this game, I ran immediately. I ran like there was no return. This was now a death game. Dying here meant you met the same faith in reality, where you were probably stuck on your hospital bed. We were stuck here. We had absolutely no choice but to reach the 100th floor and clear this game if we wanted to escape.

I, along with the other one thousand lucky beta testers, used our prior knowledge of the game to survive. We were called Beaters. It was a derogatory term for us beta testers. It combined the words "beta testers" with the word "cheater" and as such it formed Beater. Why they called us that I couldn't comprehend.

We weren't cheaters. They were simply ignorant. We weren't selfish. We only wanted survive like everyone else. We even prepared a handbook for them, free of charge. It wasn't our fault that they expected us to spoon-feed them everything.

That was then. The frontline is now at the 25th floor. We've just cleared the 24th floor's boss. It was named Minotaur and rightly so. It looked exactly like what we were shown as children, as if it was pulled right from the picture books. It was accurate to the point of it holding a resemblance to a caricature. Notwithstanding, it hit harder than most mobs we've seen. One direct hit from hit nearly brought our best tank's health bar to the yellow zone. Thankfully, I was part of a boss party and had my other party members heal me. Of course, at times I was forced to use expensive crystals to heal myself but the loot was more than ample compensation for this.

The 24th floor's city looked like an ancient Greek city. There was even a Parthenon in the middle of the city. That was one of the benefits of being part of the frontline. We got to see the next floor before everybody else. Obviously, the downside was the higher chance of dying because of facing higher- leveled monsters but that was the price we had to pay for the chance to clear this game, to end the death game.

"Hello, Tryfon."

The tall, lanky man in front of me was a merchants, in fact as one of the few merchants that were part of the frontline, he became one of the top merchants in Aincrad.

"Hello, Cromwell, I see you've decided to steal the spots of the other merchants as usual."

"Haha, it isn't my fault they're slow."

I sat down at one of the tables and ordered a coffee. Cromwell sold it for 100 Coll, a tad bit overpriced but luxury itself in Aincrad wasn't cheap. The cafe's BGM was reminiscent of old classical music, which I loved. It made the atmosphere all the more peaceful for relaxation. The town was slowly starting to fill up with players that had come from lower levels. This was why I chose to stay here and relax for the meantime; you had to wait for the merchants and other players to come in before there was anything productive to do.

Suddenly the door opened.

"Ahoy, Tryfon, Cromwell." said the man.

"So, Tryf, why did you call me here?" Raf asked.

Rafael or Raf for short, was a fellow beta tester and a longtime party member. I realized that it would be more effecient to have at least one party member while doing dungeons. It was much safer and faster that way. It wasn't as if we lived together though, we only came together when one of us decided to message the other.

"When we cleared the 24th floor's boss, I got a message from Sinker." I said.

"Wait. THE Sinker?" Rafael asked.

"Yes." I replied. "Raf, we've been promoted to The Army's lead dungeon clearing team."

The Aincrad Liberation Force or informally, The Army is currently the biggest guild in all of Aincrad. It was formed in the first floor by a man named Sinker. He was apparently an editor of some MMO magazine. We were called The Army because we've started to require members to wear uniforms but Raf and I were different. We were the elite. The norm for them does not govern us. We were our own people. This was only cemented by our promotion today.

When we left Cromwell's store, it was already sunset. Aincrad was covered in an orange glow. It was a peaceful afternoon. It's odd how something so peaceful can come from this game of death. While we fight for our lives in this game, we sometimes forget how beautiful the atmosphere really is. It's been a few months since Kayaba's announcement and that genius, the one who designed the NERVGear, the revolutionary fulldive technology also decided that upon death in this game, the NERVGear would fry our brains in real life. We couldn't understand and still don't understand, why he had to do this but maybe it was because of the fear of death and the entrapment we feel in this game that makes it so real. Those feelings, along with the realism of this world makes it feel truly like reality. The months we've spent here truly blur that line. We then question ourselves if this beauty we see in front of us really is part of the game.

"We've made the big leagues." said Rafael, given the honors of opening the dungeon gates himself.

"Damn, right we have." I replied.

But something was amiss in this dungeon, it didn't feel like all the other dungeons we've conquered before. There was just - something wrong about it. It's almost as if this eerie feeling is an omen of things to come.

This is my first fanfiction and hopefully some of us SAO fans out there have enjoyed it.
Posting reviews and comments would be really great
and if you see any grammar errors please cite the instance so I can correct it.

Thank you very much for reading.