Prologue

Theo sat on his chair staring intently at his computer monitor. He had on his black and red headphones snug over his ears. He was listening to MMO Today, the largest MMO podcast. The speaker was hyped up for the release of Sword Art Online the world's first VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Role-Playing Game). Theo had played in the beta-test for SAO. His player ID was Heruseus. He smirked and took off his headphones. He turned off his computer. He went into the room of his sister Eliza, who had Down Syndrome, because he had to watch her. He looked at her and said, "I'll be back in a bit, don't do anything bad,"

Eliza just sat there watching her movie. Theo had a strange feeling. He felt like he wouldn't see his sister for a long time. He shook away the feeling and walked to his room. He grabbed his navy blue headgear, the Nerve Gear. The Nerve Gear was the device used to play SAO. He strapped the chin strap and pulled down the dark visor. He plugged in his Nerve Gear and lay down on his bed. He looked at the clock. 12:50 read the digital numbers. Heruseus sighed and waited for the excruciating wait to be over.

Luke was doing his stuff on Minecraft when Theo had texted him, Don't forget it's opening day.

I know that. Luke responded.

Luke shut off his computer and he put on his NerveGear. He double-checked that S.A.O was in the game-port. He checked the time. 12:52

Diane left her copy of Sword Art Online at her girlfriend's house. She ran over, grabbed the game, left and plugged in S.A.O. She smiled. She looked at the time, 12:54.

Stephanie sighed as she looked down on her NerveGear. I can't believe I agreed to play this game… She put on the NerveGear and lay down. She stared at the time 12:56.

Westin had been playing Minecraft with Luke until Luke logged off by saying; "Time to go," Westin took a minute to wrap up what he was doing. He closed his computer and walked out to the living room to check on his disabled sister, Sydney. He had to watch his two sisters. He went into the room of his other disabled sister, Carson. "Carson. I'm going to be in a game for a while. Shake my body if Sydney has a seizure. I'll get a message in game and I'll log out right away. Don't shake me for any other reason except for emergencies, got it?"

"Ok," Carson responded. Westin went into his room and put on the navy blue headgear. He checked the time. 12:57 huh? Nice. Just in time.

Bella was surfing the web and trying to text Theo, but with no avail. Man, Theo never texts back. Jeez, I hope he isn't ignoring me. She put on the NerveGear. It was almost time to go play.

Theo looked at the clock on last time. When the clock changed to 13:00 the 6 of them uttered the startup command, "Link start!"