Story of My Life (Up Until Now)

It began when I was about 9 years old. My gaming career, that is. It all started on one sunny Wednesday afternoon, when a friend of mine called and offered me to join him, and another friend of mine, in a free game called "Fantasy Quest". Being a kid who grew up surrounded by technology, I immediately ran to the computer, and downloaded the game. Turns out it was a free-for-all, no premiums, role-playing game. It started by designing my character's looks, hair, height, weight, and all those other stuff you want to set for your character to look just like you. Except I designed mine to be quite the opposite. You see, I wasn't really popular in school. I mean, who wants to make new friends with the scrawny nerd with the weird glasses who always sits in the back of the class and draws? So my only two friends in fourth grade were those I met in kindergarten, and had been best friends with ever since. Anyway, I started playing Fantasy Quest, and I just couldn't stop playing. It got so bad at one point that one night I had simply forgotten to go to sleep. My mom found me asleep on the keyboard at 7 a.m., at which point she decided to yell at me that I can't keep it going. At this period of time in my childhood I was already at the end of the second semester of fifth grade, and failing all classes due to my gaming habits. Except for one class: Sociology. For some reason that was the only one I was excelling, and that all my classmates were failing. I do not know why, but I was so drawn to learning about communications between different humans, discovering the relationships I have never known in my life. Then, one night, all of this changed. It started with the most dreaded statement you can hear you parents say: "We need to talk." For two and a half hours straight, my parents scolded me for the bad grades, and told me about their decision about my bad habits: I was to start focusing on my grades, and take a break from Fantasy Quest for an unknown amount of time. As someone who was already the head of an extremely powerful guild in the world of Fantasy Quest, I could barely take in the news. However, I did realize that without good grades at school, I could not succeed in the modern day Japan. So I decided to strike a deal with my parents: I will do whatever it takes to get good grades, and if I succeed in doing so by the end of sixth grade, they will let me return to Fantasy Quest. As parents whom understand their child's needs, they agreed. So for the next ten months I worked my hardest, only played games at my friends' house, and finished sixth grade the top of my class in Mathematics, Physics, and Sociology. My parents remembered our deal, and let me return to playing Fantasy Quest, with one condition: I will have set hours and lengths of time at which I could play at once (which was fine for me).

But everything changed when the virtual reality came to be. When I was in eighth grade, a group of game developers had come up with a new device: A pair of glasses that when you look through, you see a different world. And you can use them to enter almost any game that you went, and be inside the game! I asked my parents to buy me those glasses, begged them to buy it as an early birthday present, and grudgingly they agreed. They had no reason not to; my grades were sky-rocketing, I was at the top of my class in almost everything, and thus came the first step to making my dream come true: The creation of a virtual world I can be the ruler of, and play in with other people from all around the world.

As soon as I entered high school, I signed up for the computer programming class. I wanted to become a game developer myself. "If my parents want to limit my game time, they surely won't limit my development and learning time!" is what I thought to myself. And it turns out I was right; they had no problem with my game-developing habits what so ever. Sometimes they would even agree to try and play the game I made (although most of the time they would die at the first challenge. I guess I can't really blame them for it though). My friends would try out every new little project I made, and they always loved it. My friend Rinko even wanted to learn from me how to develop games herself. She wasn't very adept at it though, and gave up after a few tries. At around twelfth grade I created a full computer game, and released it online for free. Those whom played it said it was such a great and fun game, that they're sad there isn't a multiplayer version. As a result, I started learning how to also incorporate multiplayer options for the games I made.

It wasn't until I was two years into my university studies that I decided to take a bit of time, and try to develop a game for sale. Not just any game, but a game for the special new device that was just created ("NervePlay", I think it was called) which lets you submerge in a game completely. This meant people could put on a very heavy helmet, close their eyes, and transfer themselves to a virtual world where they could feel all emotions they could in real life. The only feeling that was banned from the game by its ethics committee was "pain" (which actually makes perfect sense). So after downloading the development tools from the Nerveplay's website, I started learning about creating virtual realities (where I also understood why it was so important for me to excel at mathematics and physics). I started creating games for a living, with university studies also weighing down on me. After two more years of study, I finally received my degree, and decided it was time for me to try something new: Working on a game, full-time, non-stop, and later releasing it to the public for buying. It was hard, (no sh*t), but after about three years I can say I have fulfilled my dream. To create a virtual reality in which I could play with other players, and lead them. By this time NervePlay has already changed its name to "NerveGear", the helmet got lighter, the communications with the person's brain were made easier, and virtual reality became so much more "reality".

And so, after going through the long and intensive beta-testing, the game was ready to be shipped. The servers I rented were very small, so I could only sell about 10,000 copies, and one to myself. One fateful day, the 31st of October, 2022, my game was launched. All 10,000 players showed up and started playing right after the launch. It is later this day that I would appear as the creator of the game, and say welcome to all the players at once. It was time for me to step up, and send them my most welcoming and heart-warming blessing:

"Players, welcome to my world. I am Kayaba Akihiko. I am the only person who can control this world. I trust you have already noticed the logout button is missing from the main menu. However, this is not a game malfunction. I repeat. This is not a game malfunction, but an original feature of Sword Art Online. Please relax and work hard to clear the game. You cannot respawn…" And now, a new time begins for me. A time in which I control the world. My dream has finally come true.

I am Kayaba Akihiko, Supreme Ruler of Sword Art Online, and leader of the Knights of Blood.