New story by me(Cyrus), Strat(Vile), Dark(Lily) and Reaper(Cross).

Chapter One: The Death Game begins

~November 6th, 2022~

The sound of a school bell rings, waking me from my thoughts and dragging me back to reality. "And that concludes the lesson. I will see you all on Monday" my teacher, Mr. Flores, tells us. I get all my things and walk out of the room. An arm wraps around my neck, pulling me into a headlock.

"You seem in a hurry, Cyrus the beta tester" I identify the voice to be one of my friends, Yuji.

"I'd much rather you not call me by my status while we're irl" I say, pulling my head free from his grip. He laughs. "Anyway, what time are you getting on so we can start?" He stops laughing and begins looking serious.

"I'll be getting on late unfortunately. Got a few things going on today. Just start without me and I'll send a request once I log on." I nod as we reach our lockers. I unlock my lock, slide my books into my book bag and leave the school, just barely making the bus back home.

~Home~

I hop off the bus and walk down the street leading to my house. Not such a far walk to it either, which is good. I look at my phone to see the time is 12:50, ten minutes before it's released. My walk turns into a sprint as I dodge the few incoming people leading to my house. Once I reach the door, I quickly unlock it and run inside, kicking my shoes off as I close the door back. I then make my way upstairs, dropping my book bag on the ground and tossing my jacket onto a chair. I then sigh as I sit down, now looking at my Nerve Gear. Looks like it's time to start.

I put the Nerve Gear on and watch as the clock ticks from 12:59 to 1:00. "Link Start!" I say. The various colors then shoot into my face followed by blue circles containing messages.

Touch – OK
Sight – OK
Hearing – OK
Taste – OK
Smell – OK

Once that finished, the language setting pops up along with the log-in screen. I type in my information and a screen asking me if I wanted to use my beta character comes up. I press yes and the screen fades to gray. Welcome to Sword Art Online! Appears followed by a rush of blue and white coming at me.

I open my eyes to the ocean blue sky with little to no clouds in sight. I look down at my hands and then around to see other players spawning. Few minutes into the game and it already looks full. So this is the full look of the Town of Beginnings huh? Might as well take a quick look around before getting started on leveling, I think to myself as I begin walking. I go down an alleyway and reach what seems to be the central market. Some guy with long hair and blue starting armor runs past me and goes down a different alley. It's probably someone who's really eager to play the game or another beta tester looking to quickly get started.

I look around and see vendors posted up together, different from the beta setup. Guess they did change that part. "Thought you could get away, huh Cy?" a female voice asks. I turn around to see a purple eyed girl with black hair in the style of pigtails at medium length. "Just know you can't fool me!"

"Oh, hey Rei" I reply as she gets closer. "Decided to stalk me just like always?" She begins pouting as she furiously shakes her head. I knew that would upset her.

"That was one time!" she quickly retorts. I chuckle as she sighs. "...Anyways, I told my friends I was gonna level up once before they got on. Wanna join me?" A small box appears in front of me, asking if I wanted to join Rei's party. Rei, too, was a beta tester so she knows her way around the start of the game, like me.

"Sure. I'm pretty sure nothing can go wrong with us two." She smiles as I press the accept button. We then begin running to the gate of the city which leads to the field.

~Western Field~

Upon reaching the field, we're greeted by a beautiful scenery of an open green field accompanied with flowers here and there, trees and a clear blue sky. "And here I thought they couldn't make this place look better. This is even better than the beta version" Rei says as she continues looking around. I see a Boar spawn not too far from where we're standing. "Oh look, our first enemy."

"Might as well begin grinding to Horunka village like our beta days" I say. She giggles and we keep walking. The Boar comes closer. Rei takes a step backwards, making me look back at her.

"Let's see how rusty you are from the beta." I see a smile go across her face as I look back at the Boar that's now charging at me. I run and jump over it, stabbing its back in the process. As I pull my sword out and land, my sword glows white. I then dash past the Boar and hear the sound of glass breaking. I turn and see the Boar bursting into a thousand tiny pieces. A box appears telling me of the exp gained from the kill. "Stylish just as always." I smirk and another one spawns. "There's another, let's get it." I nod as she charges after it.

Rei lets out a yawn as I lean against a tree. We've grinded for one and a half hour with breaks in between. I'm level six while she's level five. "So much for what I told my friends" she says. A small chuckle comes out of me as I look at the sunset. We're close to Horunka village. "So, should we keep going?" I nod and she smiles. Seems that even though she told her friends she'd wait, she'd rather keep going. Just as I turn around, the sound of a bell goes off followed by a blue light surrounding me. Forced teleportation?

~Town of Beginnings, Main Plaza~

I open my eyes to the main plaza. Other players begin spawning as well. What's going on? "There's something up there" Rei says, pointing at the sky. I look up and see something red in the sky. More begin appearing, spreading and covering the sky completely. Some red... liquid thing begins flowing out, turning into a giant cloaked person afterwards.

"Attention players..." the cloaked person begins talking. "I welcome you to my world." Various murmurs fly around the crowd. Must be the GM. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba and, as of this moment, I am in control of this world." Well, that's pretty much the part of being the GM of a game right? "I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus, the log out button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be." I watch as he goes through the menu and shows there's no log out option.

"You've got to be joking..." I say under my breath. I must have said it louder than I thought since Rei looks over at me.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO and no one from outside may be able to shut down or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life." More murmurs go around.

"This has to be some sick, twisted joke. Why would someone do such a thing?" Rei questions as she begins getting worked up.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some players have attempted removing the Nerve Gear. An unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has two-hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." My eyes open wide. Is that true..? The game's only just begun too. "As you can see, international media outlets have round up block coverage on everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a Nerve Gear being removed as minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game." Comfort? How will this bring any type of comfort? "It's important to remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your Hp drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever. And the Nerve Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain.

"No more re-spawning then..." I mumble as I look at the ground. Dying is permanent death now...

"There's only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game." Basically, clearing this is now everyone's first priority. "Right now, you're gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor one hundred and you will clear the game."

"So we have to play and finish the game while avoiding death? Sounds a bit interesting..." I hear someone say behind me. That's easier said than done.

"Why should we believe any of the crap you're saying" Someone on my far right yells. I think I can answer this one. It's because of the simple fact that we can't log out. Anyone in the real world can accidentally kill us as well so what choice do we have? Sit and wait for someone else to finish the game for us? What good will that do when we can just do it ourselves?

"Last, but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look" the cloaked one known as Akihiko says. I swipe my hand downward, clicking on the player tap and going to items. Inside it is an item called Mirror. I click on it and a mirror appears in front of me. I catch it and look at it, my avatar's face reflecting back at me. Following after, blue light surrounds me. Once it fades away, I look around. Nothing... happened?

"Cyrus?" Rei says. I turn to her and see... she looks just as she does in real life. Long pink hair, purplish blue eyes and three inches shorter than me. "Wait, your avatar changed into your real self. Is that what these mirrors did?" Seems it happened to everyone.

"Has to be. You look like your real self as well" I reply as I look into the mirror and see my short, messy white hair along with my red eyes and tan skin. This has to be the work of the Nerve Gear doing those calibrations and scans when you first put it on.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear, do this?" Akihiko begins talking again. "Ultimately my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." Red smoke begins flowing out of Akihiko's avatar as it falls down and disappears. The sky then turns back to normal.

Even after that, no one says a thing. Everyone stays quiet, staring straight at where Akihiko was. It's all over if we die... "Oh my god... No!" A girl screams as the sound of a mirror breaking is heard. After that, everyone begins panicking as well as raging.

"So we can actually... die" I hear Rei quietly say. I look at her to see her hugging herself while looking down, tear drops falling from her face. I put my hand on her shoulder and she looks up.

"That only means we have to be more careful than we would in other games" I start. "No gearless runs or itemless runs that'll usually get us severely hurt. Instead, we always head out once we've preemptively prepared ourselves." She sniffles and wipes her tears away, now smiling.

A red headed guy runs past us, heading to an alleyway that makes it easier to get to the field. "Excuse me" is what he says to a green haired girl who he slightly pushes to the side. He's probably a beta tester getting straight to work.

"Cyrus" Rei says. I look back at her. "I'm gonna go find my friends since they should be here by now. I'll also be making a guild soon so you're joining once I find you again." I look at her with a blank face as she requests to add me as a friend. "I'll send you a message if you wanna know when I'm coming for ya."

"No thanks, I'd rather it be a surprise since I have no choice." She giggles as I press the accept button and sigh.

"We'll be in touch later. Till then~!" She runs off into the crowd of people. I smile and go toward the alleyway, the same one near that green haired girl. I then take a right onto the central market, walk down that path and head into the field. Guess now I really have to be careful of what I do.

Current levels:

Cyrus – Level 6
Rei – Level 5

To Be Continued in chapter 2

Hope you enjoyed!