In one timeline an unassuming 22 year old man finished observing a group fighting skeleton type monsters on the 24th floor. He notes how much damage the monsters do to them, notes his own strength, and only then decides to fight one. He goes in supremely confident that while a skeleton might take him low, mathematically his victory was assured as long as he just attacks with his slash sword skill over and over again. He goes in without the knowledge that the skeleton when brought low possesses the ability to critically strike and it kills him, making him one of the 3843 unfortunate souls to die in Sword Art Online in that timeline. In this timeline, the critical strike leaves him at 1 HP and instills in him a motivation; a motivation to be a speaker for those who had died and would die in this brutal game. A motivation that leads to him becoming known as the Chronicler of Aincrad. This is his story.
After two years, two thousand four hundred interviews conducted personally, and over eighteen hundred names finished I had eventually, against my will, began to see my effort as a vaguely necessary routine and not the noble and life affirming work that I originally envisioned it as. As much help as I have received in terms of financial support and connections with the front liners from the entirety of the Knights of Blood organization and especially their leader Heathcliff it still felt as if so much was solely on my shoulders. The grind of talking to people about those around them whom they have lost with absolutely no prior training for it has left me a shell of my former self, persevering only due to my believe that I am the only one both capable and willing to finish the task I set for myself. The task to account for each death in game and use my near eidetic memory to tell each fallen players story once the front lines save us from this accursed game. I am one of 6,190 people remaining from the approximately 10,000 to log in to Sword Art online. My title is the Chronicler.