I sat looking up at my computer monitor, pondering as the loading bar was gathering its data. I was gearing up and getting ready to play the first ever VRMMORPG ever created: Sword Art Online. Of course every gamer knew about this and all of them wanted to pick up a copy of it and play it for themselves. However, only a handful of people ever got the chance to beta test the game. I was one of them.

I picked up my "NerveGear"(the Virtual Reality headset that allows a user to interact within the game) and plopped it on top of my head, later configuring all of the settings that were required to play the game. And so I laid on my bed waiting for the initial start button to load up, and when it did, I had activated it. "Link Start!" I shouted! The screen started booting up, all of the sensors were tested, calibrated, and loaded. I loaded up my character named "Xephius" specifically with all of my beta test data that I had acquired from the beta game. And then there it was, a white screen with a black text was displayed that read: "Welcome to Sword Art Online!"

Arriving in the town of beginnings via teleportation, I reclaimed my thoughts and information from the beta test. That's when it came to me, that the "day one" blacksmith in the town of beginnings carried rare weapons on the grand opening of their shop. I checked the server, and so far their were only 72 players logged in so far, 6 of them(including me) were beta testers. Knowing this I ran with all of my strength towards the local blacksmith, hoping that no one would have found it yet. I hoped that I could get an early start to my grand adventure.

Fortunate I knew where this shop was, in the beta version on of game the shop was closed because it was "currently undergoing construction." I was glad that the shop was open this time around though.

Approaching the entrance of the smithy, I knocked on a door and awaited a response. I was greeted by a female with blue eyes and blonde hair. She didn't look much young than me, and she appeared to happy with a smile on her face. "Hello sir! My name is Aria, and I'm the blacksmith on floor one in the Town of Beginnings!""Cool!" I replied. "Do you have any rare weapons in stock"?

Because I was the first customer to her smithy, she showed me her selection of rare weapons, however, to be exact, they were all longswords, shortswords, daggers, great swords, or axes. "Don't you have anything, different"? I claimed. She replied with "Well I do have some others for sale though...".

"Do you perhaps have any katanas"? I asked. She seemed quite stumbled, "Rare ones"? Well I only have one and it's kind of "pricy" if you get my drift. "No, no, it's fine!" I said. "I have the cash to pay for it!" She took me to the back room of her shop where she actually smithed her equipment on the shelf there was a silver case. She took it down off the self that it was on, unlocked some contraptions, and opened it up. It was a Beautifully crafted katana with a silver hilt, and an Amantium/crystal blade. Aria stood up and looked at me.

"This is the single-handedly most expensive piece of equipment here at my shop. This blade's name is "Exultation", it cuts amazingly and is surprisingly light and durable for a katana. It's special because it has stats of basic higher level weapon, but it has no level requirement, So that makes it very valuable for lower levels. In addition to that, it can continue to be upgraded to +40, making it hold its worth even later in the game."She told me.

"Sounds great, Let let me try it first before I buy it". I picked up the blade and slashed to the right, then I put it back in the Scabbard. "it's very light as well, Ok, I'll take it!" Once I paid for the blade I received the sword, the Scabbard, and the sliver case(which I then placed in my inventory). "Thanks, come back if you need anything else!" Aria announced. I waved back at her as I exited the shop. I started walking in a random direction(not really paying attention to streets), looking up at the sky. "This world, although it was only virtual, it felt... real." I thought to myself. "But it couldn't be real... Or could it?"

At this point in time, so much was racing through my mind that I didn't know what to do next! Maybe I could meet new people, go have some target practice with my new sword, or perhaps go and by some new arm...!

Having come to my senses I realized that I had accidentally collided with another user and collapsed on top if them. I then stood up seeing broken boar fangs scattered all across the ground, and a young girl, perhaps a young teenager with a brown hairstyle and what appeared to be red eyes. She was lying down on the ground curled up a little. I wanted to help her up and apologize so I gave her my hand.

"Are you ok?" I asked the girl. "Yeah I guess, thanks for helping me up." She said. "Ugh... OH NO!" She cried out! "What's wrong"? I asked." She fell to the ground, and began to cry, "I promised my friend these boar fangs, so I went out of town to get them and... NOW THEY'RE BROKEN!" "Hey don't cry" I said. "I'll help you get some more. Here come with me, I'll take you to the fields."

As we walked towards the end of the gates of the towns, I knew that I had to apologize to her. "I'm sorry for bumping into you. We wouldn't be in this weird situation if it wasn't for me."

I said. "It's fine," she said. "I have lots of time before the official release begins." I looked at her with a more relaxed expression. "Oh I need to burn the time as well too". We both laughed as we reached the end of the town, heading out into the Beginner Fields...

It seemed like it was just us two, in the gigantic field outside the town of beginnings. I took the girl over to the open part of the field where I remembered fighting boar in the beta version of the game. "Here," is said. "If I can recall, the sawn points are right here." All of a sudden about 15 meters away, to the northwest, a beam of light sparked on the ground with a newly spanned boar appearing out of it. Fascinating! "So if this really like the beta, then this game should be a piece of cake!" I shouted.

Overhearing my rambling, the girl started blasting out in laughter. "your too funny mister whoever you are. Oh yeah! I completely forgot to introduce my self. My name is Silica." "Cool," I replied. "And I'm Xephius! I prefer katanas and slashing weapons because they're fast and they hit hard." She laughed. "I think its time for us to hunt for some boar fangs now!" I said.

We had been farming for boar fangs for around 20 minutes when we finally gathered enough to replace the amount from the little "accident" that occurred involving Silica."That looks like that should be enough. I said. She approached me slowly. "Thanks for your help today, you really didn't need to help me. I had lots of fun though, so we can do this again if would want to later." A small window came up on my HUD that read "Friend Request": "Silica"

YES/NO. I guessed it would be good to help her out again if she ever needed it again, so I tapped yes.

I said my goodbyes and decided to head my own way. It wasn't long until there was a forced teleport that brought me and every other player to the opening ceremony. This, Was where it would take place.

All of a sudden, a waring bar was displayed(blinking on and off) up in the air, it was small, but everyone could see it. It suddenly multiplied into a spherical dome that covered all of the players. We all waited a little bit longer until a red ooze leaked from the top of the dome. It formed into a humanoid figure with a long red cap. The figure then spoke out. "Attention, players. I welcome you to my world." "Who the hell was he?!" I thought to myself. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba." He said. "And as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

Akihiko Kayaba? He was the creator of Sword Art Online right? I thought about a time that I heard of him in an interview that I read. He was the creator of Sword Art Online, along with the NerveGear. So he's probably here to conduct the opening ceremony. But I thought that something was up with him. And what I heard next would change my life forever.

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus - the log out button." I thought to myself as to what he said, and I stood there with a confused look upon my face. "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 stood there In shock, not knowing how to react to his words that had been spoken right in front of me. I dropped to my knees,shaking and awaiting Kayaba's next response.

Akihiko Kayaba started to speak again. "You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the "NerveGear" from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

My upper body fell over, and by this point I could no longer hold my self up. My hands on the ground were shaking, and my mind was shuttering in despair to the horrible words that he said right then and there. I could hardly belive that this was actually happening. Meanwhile the red figure continued to speak out.

"Despite my warnings, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, 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."

I could hardly believe it. Two hundred and thirteen people dead?! It didn't even make sense at all why Kayaba would do this, or why he would get us to believe this. My head was flowing with heat, and my whole body was sweating. I turned my swelling head to take a look at the other players. Of course, almost everyone else was freaking out almost as if they've seen a ghost or an apparition.

Kayaba continued with his statement. He pulled up some virtual screen that show many news channels. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game."

"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 NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

"There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

Although I really didn't want to believe what he was saying, I knew that somehow, that he was telling the truth. That the only way that we're going to get out of this death game is if we can make our way through the 100 floors of Aincrad, and defeat the boss on each one. But still, why would he do this to us? And to clear 100 floors sounded ridiculous. It was almost as if he wanted to prolong the suffering.

The Game Master spoke out once again. "Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look."

I went to my menu screen and pulled up my inventory to see a newly placed item that wasn't there the last time I checked, It was a small, blue mirror. I taped on its icon and selected "Grab", thus placing the item in my hand. I pondered at the mirror I was holding as it reflected not my avatar, but my real life body.

Suddenly, I felt strange. It was almost like I had teleported, but this couldn't have been the case because I was still bent over in the same place that I was before. I then realized that I had not been teleported, but had been transformed instead, specifically into my body from real the real world.

I was overhearing everyone else ramble on about the strange transformations that they were all experiencing. And although many players avatar's had changed drastically, my character avatar had been barely altered. This was probably because I created my avatar in Sword Art Online to resemble myself from the real world.

The rambling in dome eventually started to quiet down. Kayaba was probably going to end his long speech. But this time he spoke with a little sympathy in voice, almost as if he was sorry for us. "Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control a 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." Shortly after, the game master disappeared into the sky, and all of the messages that created the red dome disappeared.

I thought I overheard Silica after the speech. She must not have been far away from my position. "My god... No!" She cried out.

I was able to finally life myself up after being down all that time. And when I got to my feet, the only thing I started to do was run. Because the only thing that I could do at that time was run. I needed to go somewhere, anywhere, I just couldn't stay here. I ran through the market, I ran through the gates, i continued out onto the Beginner Fields where I still ran unknowingly.

While I ran, I thought to myself: "was I going to die in here?"No. There was no way I was going to die in this "game", but it wasn't a game anymore. It may as well be like real life. And I knew that the only sure way to survive in here(and especially in an MMORPG) was to be amongst the best players.

"This game can't beat me!" I shouted. "I will survive and become the most powerful swordsman, no matter what it takes."

I started to get tired of running after a while, so I switched to a jog. I wanted to see if any other players had made it to where I was now, so I tried looking around in the fields. That's when I caught a glimpse of shattering crystals not far off in the distance. Feeling curious, I started to come upon the score if of the light to see if I could find anything.

That's when I realized that the source of the shattering crystals was coming from a boy with black hair, who was slaying some boars, probably trying to gain experience of some sort. I watched as he used his Sword Skill to slice directly through the mobs that he was fighting with, knocking them out in one hit. I wanted to approach him, so I moved closer to him slowly, hoping that I wouldn't scare him off.

When I got closer to him, he slowly turned around and stared at me, a blank expression lay upon his face. He didn't say anything, nor did he take his eyes off mine. I then started to walk towards him, at a very slow slow pace. That's when I noticed that a Player Name had appeared in front him. I stopped walking towards him so that I could take a glimpse at it.

It Read: "Kirito"