Prologue
My eyes bulged open into a dark room, the only light being from the alarm clock, it's green numbers displaying the time.
It was 12:00 A.M. I stared at the time, as if the clock was snickering at the fact that I was so restless tonight, but who could help it? Today was the day that Sword Art Online will be released to the public. Seeing that I wasn't going to fall back asleep anytime soon, I went ahead and climbed out of bed, and prepared to take my shower.
I tilted my head under the running water, to wash off my face, but mainly to help wake up. That's when my phone rang, indicating I had a text message.
"Who could be up this late?"
I stepped out of the shower, dried off my short, black hair, and checked my messages.
"From Sarah: You still awake? I can't sleep."
I dressed myself, and laid back in bed before answering, "Yeah, I can't sleep either". I sent the message and placed the phone onto my chest, staring at the alarm clock once more, it was 12:30 A.M. now.
"Did she fall back asleep?" I couldn't help but wonder. I stared at the black ceiling, normally, you can see the white wood it's made of, but all I saw was the black shadow where it should be. Eventually, due to sheer boredom, my eyes became heavy, and I slowly drifted to sleep.
I woke up to a slight vibration on my chest, followed by my usual text notification, I checked my phone and saw that it was Sarah again.
"Sorry, must have fallen asleep, did you want to talk?"
I looked at the clock, it was 2:30 A.M. I decided that we might as well stay awake. I pressed reply, with my thumb and typed on the touch keyboard-
"Yeah, that sounds good. It doesn't look like I'll be falling asleep anytime soon."
She responded to my text by calling my phone.
"Hey!" My voice was lower than usual, and not very energetic. "What's up Sarah?"
"You sound like you just woke up!" Sarah giggles. Even though it's so early in the morning, Sarah still sounds like her normal, cheerful self, that I've known for the longest time.
"Yeah, I must have fallen asleep waiting for your reply."
Sarah giggles again. "We haven't talked this late in a long time, huh?" Though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was probably smiling on the other side of the phone.
"That's right, the last time we were on the phone this late, was when we were waiting for the flight to Japan!" I couldn't help but laugh here.
"I'm really glad we were able to come here!" Sarah let out a sigh.
"I am too."
Sarah and I met back in Middle School. We lived in America at the time, and we both really loved Japan and wanted to go there someday.
"Hey... James"
"Yes?" Normally when she calls me by my name with that tone, she usually says something about our past.
"Remember that day, back at Middle School, where we talked about Japan."
"What about it?" Right on the money.
"When we talked about coming to Japan one day, I never dreamed it would happen!"
"Same here, it's amazing how much has changed since then!"
We lived in the same neighborhood, and went to the same classes together. During lunch, we'd always talk about the latest Mass of Multiplayer Online game (MMO) we were playing.
"that player we met with the other day... He sure was helpful!" Sarah had started while drinking her milk. "If he hadn't had showed us that rare spawn of monsters, we may have been doing that quest for at least a few more days!" She giggles at the thought.
I had just finished my food. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. "Actually, that player, Jace, friended me after that."
"really?! How come he didn't friend me?" Sarah questioned, slamming her empty milk carton.
"That's because you logged off and went to bed early!" I laughed, drinking my own milk carton.
She pouted. "That's because we had tests today..." she looked down, then back to me. "Speaking of, how do you think you did? She smirked.
"Ehhh... I'll cross that bridge when I get there." I took a minute to gather my thoughts. "Anyway, that aside, Jace and talked to each other on Skype. Turns out he lives in Japan. He called himself Mike."
"Really?! Wouldn't there be conflicting time-zones?"
"Mike didn't seem to care." I shrugged.
"Still, my dad visited Japan and told great stories about it!" She started going off again on the many stories her dad had told her, about Japan's rich culture, the amazing places to visit, and the pictures of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I just closed my eyes and smiled. "Say, James, let's go there someday! Even if it's for a visit. Let's go to Japan!"
"I'd love that." I smiled.
The rest of our school days and other times to talk would not just be about MMO's, but also about Japan. This went on for a few months before that day...
I just wish," Sarah began talking, bringing me back to reality, "that my parents were here to see me now..." Sarah's voice became weak, and trembled a little with those last words.
"Do you want to come over to my room?" I finally asked.
"Yeah." A little later, the door knob turned as Sarah walked in, her normally cheery face was hidden behind tear filled eyes, her brown hair, falling into her face. When she stepped into the room, I could tell she was wearing a long shirt that went to around half way between her waist and knees. Her pale, white skin, glowed in the darkness. Though she was upset, I couldn't help but admire her beauty, as she wrapped her arms around me, and buried her head in my chest.
"It'll be alright," I brushed her hair to help comfort her. "You're safe here."
She gave a weak nod. "Can I sleep with you, tonight?"
I replied by rubbing her back, and when her eyes met mine, I nodded. We stayed in each other's arms for a couple of minutes before she gently pushed away, and made herself comfortable in my bed; and fell fast asleep.
It was 7:00 A.M. now, and I woke to the sound of my alarm. I quickly shut it off, stretched, and got ready to leave.
I heard a small groan. "Is it time already?" A half-asleep Sarah sat up in my bed and looked around. "Morning, James"
"Morning, Sarah. You should head back to your room and get ready, Mike should already be in line for us!"
It was as if those words were magic because-
"OH CRAP! You're right!" She quickly got out of bed and dashed for her room.
Once I finished getting ready, my phone vibrated, it was Mike.
"Yo."
"'Yo' I've been waiting in line since yesterday for you two and all you can say is 'yo'?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, if it were just me, I would have, but you know how Sarah can get..."
"Yeah... You're right about that. So, were you doing some... 'interesting' things last night?" From the tone of his voice, I could only assume he meant something sexual.
"No! Nothing like THAT!"
Mike laughed, "Relax, Man! I'm just kidding with you! But from your reaction it does sound like something like that is going on!" He laughed some more. "Anyway, stop doing whatever you are doing with her, and get your asses in line!" He hung up before I could defend myself.
"Was that Mike?" Sarah walked into the room, wearing her favorite black shirt with, "For the Horde" in big red letters, with a black skirt, and leggings combo. Everyone back at school said that she should dress more, "lady-like" but I really enjoyed this look on her.
"Yeah, it was." I decided to wear a simple white polo shirt, black jeans, and my black leather jacket. "He's starting to get tired of waiting for us, so we'd better go find him."
"Alright."
"About TIME you two showed up!" Mike held a spot for us in line, along with Ashley.
"Mike you shouldn't be so rude, I'm sure they both needed a long shower to get ready!" Ashley finished her remark with her tongue sticking out at us. It was very obvious that these two got along very well.
"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" Must have been why you were so groggy this morning!" He let out a loud laugh. "Anyway, what happened last night aside," I could tell that Sarah was getting a little mad from his comments, but I ignored it. He's always been this way, always will be. It's just who he is. "I've been reading alot on the NerveGear and about the game! This'll be like no other experience in the world!"
No experience in the world, huh? These words continues to echo inside my thoughts.
"So, whenever we log into the game, we should meet up South West of the starting point, like we do in all MMO's. We should also try and master different types of skills, so that we can remain a balanced group."
The reason why Mike had so much knowledge, was because he's the type of gamer who tries to look up all the information he can about the games he's interested in, so when something as astounding as Sword Art Online was announced, Mike would constantly check the updates and the Beta testers notes that were available to the public.
After a long talk about what to expect from the game, I was back in my room, going through the calibration process. Mike told me that I should do this immediately, then set up my avatar, so that when the servers opened for public at 1:00, we'd be all set!
It was 12:58. The minutes felt like hours, as I waited for it to be 1:00. A whole new game, system, and story would await me. The joy of falling in love with a virtual world is one of the main reasons I love playing RPG's! And trying to stay caught up with Mike is always a hassle by itself!
I laughed to myself a little to the thought. It's true, Mike always finds the best spots to grind for Experience Points (EXP), or rare drops. 'course he always finds the spots, but when it comes to fighting... He's not so good.
As I was thinking back to the previous games I played with my friends, the clocked ticked 1:00. It was time to Dive. I took a deep breath, and issued the command to get the game started-
"Link Start!"
