It was a rainy day in Eugene, Oregon, and on the sidewalk of NE Silver Road was a single biker heading home. His name is Jeremy Ackerman. He was up and about at 9:45 AM because of a new game releasing in Japan, called Sword Art Online. It was the first Virtual Reality MMORPG game, and everyone in Japan was getting excited about it. Jeremy only knew because of a short trip to Japan he and his sister saved up for a few weeks ago. During that weeklong trip he was lucky enough to get into the beta, despite being there for only a week. In the end, he pre-ordered the game and went back home, waiting for the release. It all went up to today, the official release of SAO. Jeremy opened the door to his two-story house and immediately went towards the stairs, passing his sister, Sarah.
"What's the rush?" she asked as he passed her.
"Sword Art Online release is today!" Jeremy replied.
"It's today?"
"Yeah, I'll be done before dinner." Jeremy said, heading up the stairs and into his room. He opened the closet door and plugged in his Nervegear, making sure it was secure. He looked at the clock. It was 9:55 AM. Roughly 12:55 AM in Japan, if his timezones were correct. He put the nervegear on, and laid down in bed. "Here we go..." He muttered. "Link Start!" He said, and the Nervegear started up, doing a check up on the systems. "English detected. Translating Japanese to English... Translating complete. Welcome to Sword Art Online, Jeremy." A programmed voice said. Jeremy closed his eyes as a bright blue light appeared, and he felt a sort of tingling sensation all over his body. After a few short seconds, he opened his eyes and found himself in a large circular arena-like structure. He looked down at his hands and found them a bit different than his real-life hands. There weren't any scars or dirt, and they looked a bit... toylike, almost. He grinned, flexing it. "Well, I'm back..." He muttered, more to the game than himself. More pillars of light appeared, and more players arrived, each with the same starting gear of a colored shirt with leather padding on places like the chest, elbows, and knees. Jeremy grinned and ran off, leaving the other players to play on their own. As he got out a fair distance, he pulled out his sword and held it infront of him. It was a simple Machete, but it would have to do. Jeremy looked around. He was in the fields area, and he smiled a bit. It was just like in the beta, and he knew where to find the best areas to grind for items.
As he finally found the enemy he was looking for, he unsheathed his Machete and used his identify skill. The Frenzy Boar snorted, and he looked at it's name. "Tusky the Rabid" read under the cursor of the pig, and he smiled. A mini-boss of the area. He should be able to get a good sword from it. Putting his machete into the "Slant" skill, he waited until Tusky charged towards him, and he waited for the boar to come to him before sidestepping and slashing its side open, and the pig disintegrated, exploding into shards of crystal. Jeremy smiled slightly, as it dropped a sword. "Why this boar has a Arming Sword in it's inventory, I'll never understand." Jeremy muttered as he equipped the Rare Drop from this miniboss, Eclipse. The sword was one-handed, just the way he liked it. Well balanced, polished black blade, and a comfortable pommel, with a Black Pearl at the edge of it. He swung it a few times and sheathed it, smiling slightly. "Whelp, back to grinding." Jeremy muttered, looking around for other boars. "Guess I cleaned the place out... May as well head back to town and logout, it's nearly dinner time." He said to himself, and he walked back into the town of Almere, the closest one. As soon as he found a place to rest, he opened the menu, and his hand moved towards where the Logout button was in the beta. "Wait a minute, what the...?" Jeremy said, looking for where the Logout button went. It wasn't in the menu, and he looked at his manuel. Nothing about the Logout button. "Where'd it go?" He mumbled frustratedly. He tried other ways of logging out, from scouring the Menu to saying the keys "Alt F4." Eventually he gave up, and tried calling a Game Master. No response. Jeremy frowned. This wasn't like the beta at all... Course, it could be a bug... Right? Jeremy sighed, before hearing a bell come from the first town. Something wasn't right about this whole situation. Suddenly he felt the same tingling sensation he felt when he started the game, and a bright blue light filled his vision, and he squinted, trying to cover his eyes with his arms.
When the light cleared, he was back in the arena, Still with all his gear. He frowned, looking around. All the other players of the game were being teleported there too. "Something's not right..." Jeremy muttered. Everyone was talking nervously.
"Is this an event?" A girl asked, looking around for a way out.
"Nah, couldn't be..." A man in blue armor said, looking at something in the sky.
"Why can't i log out?!" Another person panicked. Jeremy looked towards where the blue-armored man was looking and found a small red rectangle-like shape in the sky. It read "WARNING" in large red letters. As soon as he saw it, the red expanded until it made a dome above the arena. Jeremy backed up, hitting an invisible wall.
"The hell is going on?" Jeremy said, trying to break it. Suddenly a few people cried out, and he turned around. Some sort of liquid was seeping between the seams of the rectangle-shaped tiles. Eventually they formed a hooded figure, that looked similar to a Mage from other RPG's. It held it's arms out, as if wanting to give them all a hug.
"Hello Players. I am Akihiko Kayaba, and welcome, to Sword Art Online."