CHAPTER 1 - Imprisoned

Tenshi thought back, almost wanting to laugh at the words that changed 10,000 people's lives, including his.

Tenshi had been a beta-tester for the revolutionary virtual reality game, Sword Art Online. He had fallen in love with the game as soon as he first logged into the beta client. He had recently turned twelve, and was given a nerve gear for his birthday. He managed to get into the beta, and was happy as could be. He was 5 foot 1, and somewhat short for his age. He had shiny, silver hair that went down to around his chin, as well as pale, blue eyes. He was thin, and although he couldn't be called handsome he could definitely be described as cute.

It was the day of the full release. There was only around five minutes until the servers would be up. He had already told his parents and his sister that he would probably be playing until late at night. Everything was ready, he laid back down on his bed, putting on the nerve gear.

"Link start!"

He didn't have to go through character creation, or the tutorial as the game recognized his ID from the beta. He did of course, get reset to level one, and have all his items and money reset as well. He spawned into the starting town, and took a deep breath. As he looked around he only saw two or three other kids, and they must have been 13-14, the rest were mostly in their late teens or early twenties. It felt weird being one of the youngest players, if not the youngest. He headed into the town, and through a few alleyways, to an old-looking shop. He went inside, remembering it from the beta. It was a weapon shop, an Easter-egg of sorts. It was hidden way back in the labyrinth of town, where practically none would find it. Although it looked old and unreliable on the outside, on the inside were weapons that, although they sold for the same price as those in the main streets of the town, were around three times better. To put it simply, if the main street sold you a one-handed sword that had dealt 20 damage, the ones here would deal around 50 - 70 damage. He went to the vendor, and asked for the same weapon he had used in the beta. A large, two-handed great-sword that was pure black. It was titled 『Night's Fury 』. He paid the NPC, and started to make his way back into the main streets.

After a few minutes of walking he arrived in the main street, and promptly headed over to another NPC, buying some black bread from him. He bought a few hp potions, and headed out of town. As he ran along towards the town gates, he heard a voice call out. He kept running, thinking that it couldn't be directed at him, but about 15 seconds later a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned around to see a read-haired man standing behind him. The name above his head, Klein.

"Whew, you run fast. Anyways, you seem to know your way around the game so i figured you were a beta-tester."

"M hmm."

"Really? Sweet! Anyways, I was wondering if you could show me around the game, the tutorial didn't make any sense to me..."

"Sure, follow me."

And thus, Tenshi took Klein outside of town, to the fields where boars spawned.

"Oof." Klein gasped as the boar slammed into his stomach, knocking him back.

"Alright, Klein. You have to use your sword skills if you want to kill it. You have to put your sword into a certain position to activate the skill, and then the system will automatically do the motion for you. Here, watch me"

Tenshi's great-sword glided out of it's sheath on his back. The boar charged him, and his blade glowed red. As soon as the boar was within range he swung his sword at it, slicing it clean in half. A little screen popped up in front of him.

『You have defeated "Boar". You have received: 2 EXP/7 COL』

His EXP bar went up some, and Klein's mouth opened wide.

"THAT WAS SO COOL!" Klein yelled, startling Tenshi.

"Well, it is a game, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't cool." Tenshi replied, laughing a little. Klein laughed a bit as well.

Klein pulled up his menu and said,

"Oh, I have to get off now, ordered a pizza earlier that should be here about now. Later man, it was fun."

"Sure, have a good night man." Tenshi said, starting to walk away.

"Hey Tenshi," Klein said, "Total noob question but, how do i log out?"

"Oh, open your menu and tap the gear icon, it should be the third one down." Tenshi said, opening his menu to indicate the icon.

"Hmm, it's there but it's grayed out, and when i tap it it doesn't do anything." Klein said with a confused look on his face.

"Huh, you're right, it's probably just a bu-" Tenshi was cut off as Klein and himself were enveloped in a white light. When he opened his eyes he realized that they were in the town of beginnings, in the plaza. It was at that moment that red hexagons sprawled across the sky, closing them in. And of course, the sky started bleeding. A red hooded figure emerged from the cocoon of blood.

" Hello my dear gamers, I am Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online. As many of you have noticed, there is no log out button. I promise you that this is not in fact a bug, but a feature of the game. There is no way to log out of the game. The only way to get out of the game is to clear all 100 floors, and defeat the final boss waiting for you in 『The Ruby Palace』. Also, there is no way to respawn in the game. If you die in the game, you die in real life. The Nerve Gear's will send microwave signals to melt your brain and end your life both in the game and in real life if you die in-game, or someone attempts to remove your Nerve Gear. Over 200 people have already perished in this wonderful world, so try your best not to die!." He pulled up multiple windows, showing news stations around the world reporting on the event.

"No way..." Klein said flatly.

"Oh, one last thing, I left each of you a little present if you would open your inventories."

As he said that, everyone opened their inventories, and mirrors appeared in front of everyone. They were all consumed by light, and when the light faded everyone looked different, as well as that there were a lot of guys wearing girls clothing. As Tenshi looked at the mirror he didn't see anything wrong with his face. Oh. It was HIS face, not that of his avatar. he had also shrunk a good 10 inches, and looked far less mature, as his character looked about 17.

"Well, that's enough from me, anyways, good luck!" With that the figure dissolved, and the sky cleared. After about 20 seconds of silence complete chaos broke out.

"Tenshi?" Klein called out, looking around.

"Down here..." Tenshi sighed. Klein looked down, and he looked confused.

"Tenshi... How old are you?"

"I'm... 12..."

"Holy crap man, not to be rude, but, you're tiny!"

"No offense taken, I'm used to it. Well, I'm gonna go over to the next town and get the quests there before they all get taken. Wanna come with?"

"Sorry man, I had some friends that I was going to meet up with anyways, and I can't just leave them in this mess..."

"It's cool man, I understand. Anyways, see you."

With that Tenshi dashed off towards the gate of the main town. He had some grinding to do.