I walked home with David and Corey The three of us were talking about Sword Art Online, the new virtual reality game that had just come out, for which we had stood in line for five hours to get.

"I'm logging on as soon as I get home" I said.

"Yeah, let's meet up at the center of the first town so I can show you guys some things" Corey said.

"I've played other MMORPGs before. I know what to do" I said.

"Oh yeah, that was mostly meant for David."

"Yeah, this is going to be my first one" David said.

"My house is down this way. I'll see you guys ingame" I said.

They nodded and I ran home as fast as I could so that I could hurry up and play what I thought was going to be the best MMORPG I have ever experienced in my entire life. I got to my house and unlocked the door my family had gone away for the weekend and I got to stay home because of the game release. I closed the door behind me and locked it back up then I ran upstairs to my bedroom where sitting on my desk was my Nerve Gear the very tool I would use to experience SAO. I started the downloading process and paced back and forth in my room as I waited when the game was done downloading I put the Nerve Gear on my head. Then I laid down on my bed waiting for the system to warm up.

"Link Start!" I said.

Instantly the virtual reality started.

I was standing in a plaza like area I looked around at my surroundings seeing a bunch of buildings everywhere and a fountain in the middle of the plaza. I could see my health bar in the corner of my eye and I had a sword hanging at my side. I turned around and saw someone over by the fountain waving to me and I ran over to them. I could tell instantly that it was Corey because of the name that was over his head.

"Hey Heisenberg" I said.

"What's up Guardian" he replied.

While we talked more and more people began to appear in the center of town.

"So this is the Town of Beginnings?" I asked.

Heisenberg nodded.

"I can't believe that I'm finally here after you got lucky and were chosen to be a beta-tester I just couldn't wait to finally play this game for my self" I said.

"When the opening ceremony is over I'll take you to those secret rare items that I had found while beta-testing alright" he said.

I nodded "Sounds good."

"I wonder where David is?" he said.

"Same here."

"Hey Damion! Corey!"

We looked at eachother and then looked out in the crowd seeing the person calling our names.

"Over here by the fountain!" Heisenberg called back.

Then David made his way over to us.

"Hey guys" he said.

"Hey."

I looked above his head and saw his name.

"Really?" I said.

"What?" he replied.

"Your name is Abrielle."

He nodded.

"Nice" Heisenberg said sarcastically.

"So Corey being the beta-tester here what should we do first?" he asked.

"First don't call me Corey here I'm Heisenberg" he said.

"And I'm Guardian" I said.

"Oh ok so Heisenberg what do we do first?" he asked again.

"Well lets go out to the fields and get some experience before the opening ceremony starts, that way you guys can learn how this game works" he said.

"Especially you Abrielle since this is your first MMORPG its important that you learn everything you can before the game gets serious" I said.

"Ok then lets go" said Abrielle.

We made our way through the crowd following Heisenberg through the streets and then out to the fields where there were wolves and boars alike roaming the fields I was still in awe of how awesome this was.

"Alright I'm going to go and kill a pig" Abrielle said.

"No Abrielle wait!" Heisenberg said.

Abrielle ran over to a random boar and drew his ax but, the boar charged and smashed into him knocking Abrielle on his ass.

"Dammit" he said.

I laughed as we was laid there holding his stomach as if he was in real pain.

"Dude you just got your ass handed to you by a pig" Corey said.

"Was it really that bad" he said.

I nodded.

"Watch."

I drew my sword and the boar attacked me I moved to the side avoiding the attack and swung my sword to chop the animal in half.

"Nicely done Guardian" Heisenberg said.

I put my sword away and looked at the pop up message telling me how much gold and experience I had earned.

"Sweet I got ten gold and twenty experience points" I said.

"No fair those were supposed to be mine" Abrielle whined.

"I killed the pig so I get the rewards thats how it works."

Abrielle folded his arms and I shrugged figuring that there was no way I was going to be able to reason with him.

"Look it really isn't that hard to kill these things you just have to think about what you're going to do instead of charging in head first" Heisenberg said.

"Yeah this is your first virtual reality MMO you'll get the hang of it eventually" I said.

I held out my hand and helped him up then he sighed.

"Whatever just wait I'm totally going to become a higher level then you two combined" he said.

"What if me and Guardian both reach the maximum level?" Heisenberg asked.

"Yeah because then even if you reach the max then combined me and Heisenberg would be a higher level than you" I said.

Abrielle didn't say anything after that and just folded his arms ignoring us.

"Whatever" he said.

I shrugged.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"I pretty sure it's almost lunch time we should probably log out and get something to eat" Heisenberg said.

I nodded "Sounds good we'll meet up here after were done eating" I said.

"Ok" Heisenberg replied.

I swiped my right hand down and brought up the main menu and went into options then I noticed something.

"Dude the logout buttons missing" I said.

"What do you mean?" Heisenberg said pulling up his menu.

"I mean what I said the buttons missing."

Heisenberg went into his options menu.

"Wow you're right" he said.

Abrielle unfolded his arms and looked at us.

"So we can't logout?" he said.

I shook my head.

"Apparently not" I said.

"Well today is the first day out of beta and they probably want everybody to stay for the opening ceremony once it's over we'll probably be able to logout" Heisenberg said.

I shrugged "Makes sense."

Then a blue light began to engulf Abrielle.

"What the-"

Then there was a bright flash and all three of us were engulfed by blue light, When I could see again we were in the Town of Beginnings again and a bunch of people were also appearing in the center of town with us.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The opening ceremony, the tutorial must be over" Heisenberg said.

Then a red warning block appeared in the sky and it was blinking until more appeared and filled the entire sky with the red warning signs we stood there in silence waiting for something to happen and then the sky began to bleed.

"Why is the sky bleeding?" asked Abrielle.

Neither me nor Heisenberg answered him, the blood pooled in mid air and then began to form a large figure in a red hooded robe.

"Welcome players I am Akihito Kayaba the creator of Sword Art Online and I would like to welcome you to my world. Some of you may have noticed something missing from your menu the logout button, now let me reassure you this is not a defect I repeat this is not a defect. This was how Sword Art Online was meant to be and the only way to get out of this world is to climb through all one hundred floors and defeat the final boss. But, be warned if you die in the game the Nerve Gear will fry your brain in the real world if anyone tries to remove your Nerve Gear then it will fry your brain as well."

I was frozen in fear I didn't understand what was going on none of this made any sense to me I was just so confused.

"Now I have left a little gift for you in your storage" he said.

I swiped my hand down opening the storage to check what it was.

"A mirror?" I said.

I clicked it and a small hand held mirror appeared in my hand then I was engulfed in a blue light again but, this time I wasn't teleporting but, when my vision cleared I saw Corey but, he wasn't his avatar he was his actual self and the same was for David.

"What the hell is going on?" I said.

"As of this moment there is no way to revive a player who dies and this is the end of the tutorial I welcome you once more and remember play as if your life depends on it because it does."

Then the figure faded away and the sky went back to being blue.

"Oh my god" said Heisenberg.

I was frozen in fear after the announcement, I couldn't move at all and just stood there staring at where the Game Master had been a moment ago.

"Guardian."

I knew that Corey or Heisenberg was trying to get my attention but, I just couldn't do anything at all.

"Guardian we have to move."

I felt his hand grab my wrist and pull me away I followed his lead completely terrified of my HP dropping to zero and my brain being fried.

"Guardian snap out of it."

We stopped and Heisenberg stood in front of me than he smacked me and I stumbled to the side my face stinging.

"Thanks I needed that" I said.

He nodded "Alright we need to move."

"Where too?" I asked.

He pulled up a map.

"We have to get a head start on everyone else and level up so we can get out of here" he said.

"Hey guys what about me?!"

I turned around and David was coming our way.

"Come on he's never played an MMO before so he'll slow us down" Heisenberg had a point.

"Abrielle stay here and stay safe level up fighting the weaker monster and we'll meet back at the fountain in a week" I said.

"Alright sounds good, just don't get yourselves killed."

Me and Heisenberg nodded and then ran off and out of the town toward the next town where we could level without competing with the others that were trapped in this death game.

"We'll only fight if necessary we can start leveling once we get to the next town."

I nodded trusting that Heisenberg knew what he doing since he had been a beta tester for the game.

"Before we get there though we're going to grab those secret rare one of a kind items so we'll take a detour."

"Sweet" I said.

"The only downside is that we have to be a higher level than what we are to equip the items."

"But, at least we'll have them for when we reach that level" I said.

"Exactly."

We ran down the trail our swords drawn avoiding any monster unless they were blocking our path which happened a few times.

"Guardian boar to the left!"

I swung my sword and slashed the board in half gaining enough experience to level up as well as ten gold.

"Nice now the items are over here."

Heisenberg walked to a large tree and felt around the trunk looking for something.

"It's around here somewhere" he said.

In the distance more boards began to spawn as well as wolves and they charged toward us.

"Heisenberg" I said.

"Hold them off."

He continued to look for something well I attacked and held off the monsters.

"Come on where is it" he said.

I cut down a boar and a wolf jumped at me chomping down on my left arm I grunted in pain and swung my arm throwing the wolf away. My health bar was almost in the yellow anI began to get a little worried that it would fall into the red if we didn't hurry up and I backed up toward Heisenberg a little.

"I wonder if they moved them to the top."

"Hurry up!" I yelled.

I deleted a bars attack and stabbed the wolf that though my arm was a chew toy so in the end I got my revenge on the stupid mutt.

"Yes got'em!"

"Good now lets get going!" I said.

A wolf caught me off guard and bit my leg bringing my health into the yellow, Heisenberg jumped down from the tree and took the wolf out as well as killing the last two boars.

"Thanks" I said.

"Couldn't let you get all of the experience now could I" he said.

"Whatever lets just get out of here already" I said.

Heisenberg nodded and we ran away from the tree and back onto the dirt path heading to the next town it took us a few hours but, we finally made it Heisenberg level tow and me level three with both of us having at least one hundred gold.

"Lets hope that those items were worth me almost dying" I said.

"Oh they are" Heisenberg said.

"Lets get to a tavern."

"Good idea" he said.

We made our way through the town passing shops run by the NPC's as well as other buildings.

"Maybe we should by some equipment."

Heisenberg shook his head "Not yet."

We continued to walk through the streets until we found a tavern and booked ourselves rooms for the night, we went to one of them and I threw myself on the bed and laid down looking up at the ceiling.

"I'm going to die" I said.

"No you won't" Heisenberg reassured.

I looked at him.

"Really I was almost beat by pigs and dogs" I said.

"First they were Wolves and Boars completely different second you'll survive because when you play MMO's you become something more than just the kid I know outside of the game you become a fearless warrior."

"Thanks but, you only made it to floor seven in the beta test so beyond that we don't know anything that s going to happen" I said.

"We don't need to know what's going to happen we just need to be prepared now lets figure out who gets what items" Heisenberg said.

I sat up and nodded.

"Now you can have first pick since you fought off the monsters" he said.

"Ok lets see what we got" I said.

I looked at the items and read them out loud.

"Speed Slasher, Dragon Feather Armor, Shadow Blade, Shadow Thieves Cloak, and Grand Ax."

"I want the Shadow Thieves Cloak" I said.

Heisenberg nodded and sent it to me.

"I'll take the Dragon Feather Armor" he said.

"Then I'll have the Shadow Blade and you get the Speed Slasher so we can give the Grand Ax to Abrielle" I said.

"Alright now that we have taken care of those lets get some sleep and heal up so we can go and level up some more tomorrow" Heisenberg said.

"Good I need some sleep I am exhausted."

Heisenberg left the room and I laid back down unequipping my sword and pulling the covers over me then looking out the window.

"What did we do to deserve this?" I said before slowly drifting to sleep.

"Guardian wake up we got to get moving."

I opened my eyes and yawned rolling over and hearing Heisenberg knock on the door again.

"Come on we have to start leveling up so we can use our rare items and find the Boss room."

I sat up and stretched.

"Alright give me a second" I said.

"I'll be waiting for you downstairs."

I got out of bed and equipped my sword again stopping to look at the rare items really quick and then I saw something that was going to help a lot the Shadow Thieves Cloak allowed me to become invisible for thirty seconds.

"Awesome" I said.

And then I ran out of the room and downstairs to tell Heisenberg.

"Good you're finally awake come on we got to get some leveling down today."

"Heisenberg my cloak gives me temporary invisibility" I said.

He nodded.

"Was waiting for you to figure that out" he said.

I shrugged.

"Yeah when I reach level ten and it's only for thirty seconds" I said.

"Well as you upgrade it the time limit will probably increase" he said.

I nodded "That makes since and I can't do any damage while invisible."

"That makes since to because if you could then that would be completely unfair."

We walked out of the tavern and down the streets passing by the NPC's again.

"Should we buy better equipment?" I asked.

Heisenberg shook his head.

"No we can do that once we reach a good level and can get the good stuff until then we'll just have to use our standard equipment."

"If you say so" I said.

Then we left the town and began the leveling process of just killing anything we find not stopping unless our health reaches the yellow.