~September 15th 2029~
The entire world was buzzing with anticipation for the upcoming release of something many thought would be industry and even life changing. This release didn't just have the feel of a huge game about to be released to the public this had the feel of a literal world wide event. Tests had been run strenuously and samples worked on for years and it had finally been perfected.
A gear had been created called nerve gear that allowed people to immerse themselves in what for lack of a better term could be called a whole other reality. A complete escape from the real world. The world had been buzzing pretty much since details had been released about the nerve gear. Of course there were those who could care less about the gear and just saw it as another game fad. There were also people interested that would have never even dreamed about being before. Needless to say the actual gaming community as out of their minds about the release of the gear along with it's first working game. Sword Art Online.
A very select few gamers from hundreds of thousands that had signed up were chosen to beta test Sword Art Online. The five thousand players were in complete shock about just how real the game seemed. Some of them even had a bit of trouble after awhile distinguishing the game completely from real life. Now with the release of the game on it's way people were doing everything that they could possibly do to make sure they got one of the select few first copies of the game. Little did they all know the tragedy that they were all about to witness.
Xavier walked down the streets completely ignoring the rain drizzling down onto his semi long black hair. He just kept his eyes locked down on the box that he was holding in front of him. Xavier glanced around a bit. With the way things were going with people trying to get a copy of the game and nerve gear it honestly wouldn't surprise him if someone tried something to get it from him.
Xavier had been one of the lucky few chosen to be a beta tester for the game. He had also excelled in doing so. The boy made it further than just about any other beta tester in the game. Though there were a few that had made it further. One stuck out in his mind a bit that seemed especially skilled. A dark haired boy close to his age maybe a bit younger that if he recalled correctly was from a different country but he couldn't recall his name.
Sword Art Onlines initial release was having fifty thousand copies of the game and gear sent out to. The United States, fifty thousand copies to the United Kingdom and the same amount of copies to China,Japan,Russia and Canada. So overall there would be three hundred thousand players playing the game.
"hey man! I actually got one!"
Xavier blinked a bit snapping back into things hearing a familiar voice. He looked up to see his best friend Ian grinning from ear to ear holding a box. Xavier raised an eyebrow and laughed.
"looks like it." Xavier nodded still a bit focused on the game in his hands.
Ian chuckled looking up at Xavier standing at about five foot nine himself and Xavier being around six foot one there was a decent height difference between the two boys.
"and just so you know i'm gonna mess you up once we get inside the game beta boy!" he winked jokingly knowing he would never stand a chance against Xavier at any sort of game like this. Especially this one. It almost seemed like Xavier had become a part of the game himself once he started playing it during the beta test.
"right" he grinned starting forward again "come on let's get to my house so we can get ready."
Xavier opened the door and walked inside taking a deep breath once they were inside of his room. Slowly he opened the box with the game and gear inside and laid it out across his bed. Ian doing the same.
"damn this look pretty high tech" Ian mumbled.
Moving the gear into place and setting everything up Xavier just stood there for a moment. He thought about all the reading up and studying that he had been doing on the game and everything about it since the beta test had ended waiting for it's actual release. It seemed like a whole other world when he was inside of their. He wasn't exactly your typical nerd with thick rimmed glasses or that was a braniac and was very socially awkward. From a young age Xavier was actually pretty skilled in sports and that was part of what made his parents feel about him the way that they did.
Instead of him going all out and training for baseball or mixed martial arts he preferred to play video games and loved technology. This had always caused a rift between his parents and himself especially his father. He didn't want that but he couldn't help it. The only one that actually supported him for the most part was his little sister Maggie. She had even gotten herself in trouble a few times sticking up for him when things got a beat to heated between his father and himself. Shaking his head Xavier picked up the gear.
"ready?" he asked looking over toward Ian with a nod.
"stupid question i'm always ready!"
Xavier took a deep breath laying back against the bed and sliding the helmet over his head. He waited as everything was ready and then clenched his fists. He was going to be the best inside of this entire game no matter what he had to do.
"Link Start!"
After everything had been synced and collaborated Xavier blinked stretching out his hands in front of him. He then looked up glancing around. His mouth nearly dropped open taking in this world once again and just how real everything seemed. He grinned tightening his fist together.
"HOLY SHIT MAN!" Ian blinked looking around shocked.
"There is no way this is for real!" he exclaimed looking around walking feeling everything.
"it's like where actually here..." he muttered looking over toward Xavier.
Xavier smirked and nodded walking over toward him.
"yeah and this is nothing." he said truthfully "come on"
He walked over toward a small field that he remembered pretty clearly from the beta test. He smiled when he noticed the small boar roaming around just like it had been back then.
"ready to learn how to fight?" he asked taking out his sword that the game had started him off with.
Ian nodded shaking his head roughly to get himself pumped up blonde spikey hair glistening in the games sunlight.
"yeah let's do it!" he said taking out his sword.
Xavier turned toward the boar focusing on the monster.
"alright so you have to focus on what you are trying to attack and sort of I guess the best way to explain it is to wait and then when it feels right attack" he said smiling when the boar locked on to him.
"like this!" he said waiting and then swiftly moved to the side dodging the bars attack before launching forward and slashing across it. He landed beside Ian.
Ian watched in amazement as Xavier took out the monster so easily and then blinked.
"alright...?" he said taking a deep breath and waiting as another boar made it's way over to them. He tried to do as Xavier had said but found himself getting blocked by the boar and knocked back. He hit the ground hard cringing and his eyes widened as the boar rushed him.
"guhhhh!..." he cringed blocking his face but moved his hands as he didn't feel anything hit him. He looked up at Xavier in front of him and laughed scratching his head.
"uh...not a great start huh?"
Xavier raised an eyebrow and laughed reaching down and helping him up.
"i've seen better."
Ian scuffed.
"just you watch i'll be able to take you out with one eye closed within a week" he said getting ready to try again.
Xavier couldn't help but grin at his friend and nod.
"yeah yeah I know just try not to get killed the death penatltys are pretty rough in this game."
Ian nodded getting back to work.
After awhile Ian managed to get the hang of it a little. He just dodged a boars attack and blocked it when he grinned looking over toward Xavier. This was just to much fun once you got used to it and the realism.
"so how does the leveling work ? do you think I should go for a strength build speed build."
Xavier tilted his head to the side a bit thinking about it.
"it's a pretty straight forward system and unlike most modern game systems benefits grinders. You get alot more exp and rare items from fighting than you do normal quests unless the the quest itself involves a battle." he said thinking it over .
"it also doesn't have magic just sword and hand to hand combat so that makes it even more straight up. It is a pretty honest system. Of course the leveling and being smart about how you use your skill points along with your weapons and weapon types matter but much more so in this game actual skill and fighting ability matter as well as reaction time."
Ian moaned loudly.
"Reaction time? so in other words i'm a goner?" he said knowing he was pretty lame when it came to being athletic fast and anything of that nature.
Xavier smiled and shook his head.
"not not really like I said the other stuff matters and I haven't mentioned one of if not the biggest factors. Sword skills"
Ian blinked knocking the boar away.
"sword skills?" he asked.
Xavier nodded looking off into the distance thinking about it.
"yeah sword skills are sort of like a hand crafted or created combo that you can gain from battling especially stronger monsters that allow you to fight with stronger attacks as well as increasing your reaction time a bit because of it being a sort of memory thing."
He thought back to the beta test that dark haired guy that he had thought about earlier had been on another level when it came to this and it was one of the reasons that he was so straight up fighting and reaction time Xavier could possibly beat him but back then itwas like the guy was always a step ahead thinking about his attacks. He wondered if the boy was already here inside the game or not.
"what was his name...Ki...Kir...someth..."
"hey man I think I've got the fighting down a bit you wanna go look around and see what people are doing?"
Xavier blinked hearing his friend and stood up with a shrug. He didn't really but he knew Ian would like it being much more social than him.
Ian looked at him and chuckled noticing something for the first time.
"hey man why did you give your avatar white hair? your hairs black and much more sexy on you I must say" he said jokingly with a wink.
He rolled his eyes.
"yeah yeah come on already if you wanna walk around a bit I wanna get straight to grinding."
Ians eyes widened.
"oh shit! I forgot I have to let my sister in from work i'll be right back!"
Xavier covered his face lightly and shook his head.
"idiot...' he muttered waiting.
"huh...it's not there..."
Xavier looked at him.
"what isn't there? " he asked confused.
"the log out button it isn't there"
He scrunched his eyes bringing up his own menu and scrolling through it.
"it has to be there."
He just looked at it shocked when it wasn't.
"oh well maybe it is just a bug i'm sure they'll fix it."
Xavier could feel a sort of chill down his spine as he closed his menu and shook his head.
"i'm not so sure man I've got a bad vibe about this."
Ian looked at his surprised how serious he looked.
"damn man you look like you've seen a ghost theres gotta be some other way to log out right? a message prompt or motion or something?"
Xavier shook his head.
"nothing the only way to log out is to do it from the menu."
Ian narrowed his eyes.
"really that's crazy..."
They both cringed as the sound of a bell tolling could be heard loudly and then things began to get shaky.
Xavier looked around holding his ears.
"what the hell?"
He stumbled forward bumping into someone and glanced around. He was now standing in the middle of the town of beginnings with what seemed to be every single other player in SAO.
Ian walked over to him looking around.
"damn this is insane look how many people there are." he smirked elbowing him lightly "hey man look there are some hot girls around here." he said waving looking around.
Xavier just stayed silent looking around. He didn't know what it was but he knew this wasn't good.
It was then that the walls of the place started dripping red almost as if it was blood and a figure of some kind began to form up in the sky.
Xaviers eyes widened watching. He could faintly hear the echoes of people around him discussing what was going on and asking each other if this was some sort of opening event but he knew that it wasn't...he just knew.
"hello players of SAO my name is Kayaba the creator of this game and world.'
Hushed whispers could be heard around the crowd of people. Xaviers eyes widened clenching his fists tightly. Kayaba? the creator of SAO...?
"I am here to address an issue that i'm sure many of you have already noticed which is there being no log out button and no way to log out of the game. By no means is this a mistake in any way shape or form."
Ian looked over at Xavier and grinned for a moment but as soon as he saw the look on his face blinked.
"He can't be serious right?"
Xavier just watched swallowing deeply.
"There will only be on way for you to get out of this game and that will be for you to make it through all one hundred floors of SAO."
Some people were now yelling along with many still thinking it was a joke.
"Also everything that takes place inside the game will now be for real. In other words if you happen to die inside of the game you will die in real life as well."
Xavier just shook his head in shock as he listened to the man. He already knew that every word he was speaking was true.
"and just for reference if you don't believe what I am telling you is true here are reports from some local news outlets from around the world about those unfortunate players who had family attempt to take off their nerve gear causing their brains to be fried. Though you needn't worry about that all to much because of how wide the coverage has been about the incidents now."
Ian gritted his teeth balling his fists together tightly.
"is this some sick sort of fucking joke!" he yelled toward the man above along with some other and some others horrified trying to see if they could leave somehow.
"that is all my friends and goodluck to you all oh and in a moment you with receive a gift from me." the man slowly dissolved and with that left.
The moment the man was gone and it really struck the players what he was saying was true a majority of them broke into panic. Yelling and screaming, crying knocking people out of the way running around.
Xavier just stared on into the distance in shock blinking as someone bumped into him snapping him back into things a bit. He swallowed clenching his fists tightly. Damn that Kayaba...how could he...if he died in this game now...he died for real? He glanced over toward Ia who seemed even more shocked than him. He then heard a beeping sound bringing up his menu and a new item popped up. With a flashing light along with ones all around him Xavier blinked looking around.
His eyes widened seeing Ian. It wasn't his avatar but it was Ian himself. It was his exact physical appearance all the way down to his height and body size.
Ian blinked seeing Xavier.
"what the hell man you look like you...'
Xavier shook his head.
"the item he made it so that it would reveal our true appearances."
Ian blinked still shocked by everything that was going on. Was all of this even possible ?
Xaviers head snapped behind him as he heard a screech. He watched as a pale ivory skinned girl with long braided and curled hair was knocked to the ground. He watched as a guy almost stepped on her as she curled up on the ground trying to get up but couldn't for all of the people. Xavier gritted his teeth pushing through the people and reaching in grabbing her hand.
"here stand up."
The girl blinked looking up to him and standing up.
Xavier pulled her away from the majority of the crowd and let go of her hand. He looked at the girl dark blue eyes sparkling like she was about to cry. He shook his head trying to think of what to do. He needed to get Ian and they needed to get out of here to the next town fast.
"im sorry I have to go" he said looking to the girl before turning away and moving back toward Ian.
The girl simply nodded watching him. She scrunched her eyes reading his name above his cursor "Xavier..." she muttered in her soft British accent thankful that he had gone out of his way to help her.
"come on man we need to go now!" Xavier said grabbing Ian shoulder and pulling him along.
"where are we going!?' he asked stumbling forward trying to keep up with him.
Xavier sprinted forward looking around.
"we need to get to the next town as fast as possible. There are limited resources in this game and now that everyone knows that this is for real soon people will be hitting them like crazy so if we get to the next town before them we can get an advantage especially because alot of people won't be willing to risk it."
Ian blinked looking at him.
"what do you mean?"
He looked up ahead as a silver wolf came into view.
"there are some monsters through the trail to get there but even at level one...i'm pretty sure I can get past them."
Ians eyes widened.
"pretty sure!? man if you die you die for real."
"I know." he said gritting his teeth and drawing out his blade as they got closer to the wolf. He speeded up even more locking on to his target.
"but I don't plan on dying easy" he gritted his teeth launching forward with his blade at the beast.
"ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Next Chapter 2-Different Kinds Of People.