"And the NerveGear plugs in, here." A boy said to himself as he finished setting up the equipment. The room he was in was dark, with the curtains closed and a single light shined on the expensive VR gear. Most of him wasn't visible, aside from his lightly tanned hands that were moving the headgear around, plugging a cord into the back.

Once it was plugged, the boy turned to look at his computer, seeing that Sword Art Online had finished downloading. A small chuckle came from him, as he placed the NerveGear onto his head and laid onto the bed. A calming breath was then heard as he prepared himself for his first dive into the critically acclaimed VRMMO. It was nerve-racking, but he did make a promise to play it, so he was going to go through with it.

"Link Start."

In the moments that followed, the boy's mind was then linked to the NerveGear, all the flashing lights temporarily overwhelming him. It was only a few seconds for the boot up and loading, but it felt like ten minutes before he entered the avatar screen. It was hard to tell how he felt, but it seemed as if he was floating simple in an empty space, reaching out to customize his character.

The design was simple, a tall male at about six feet in height with silver hair and blue eyes. The clothes color was left to his choice, with him setting his tunic to be maroon red and his trousers and shoes black. After that he was given the choice of his starting weapon, which he selected a one-handed axe.

And finally, the choice for his Username came up. And as it did, to what appeared to him a small keyboard appeared. And with it, he typed in the choice of his name.

Nadar

Several more bright flashes went through him, his ability to process the data incapable of keeping up until suddenly it was all gone. And in place of it, a town made of well-crafted vibrant stones.

In the midst of the flashes, he had put his hands up in a means to protect himself, leaving him to look ridiculous once he came out. As he lowered his arms, he took in all the scenery that surrounded him.

As players began to log in, dozens to hundreds at a time, Nadar knew he'd be impossible to be seen among the group. So to try and find his friends, he headed out of the courtyard spawn and towards one of the routes that would lead out of the town.

From there, he started to wait for when his friends would find him. He told them what his Username would be, so he'd keep an eye on his messages in case they tried to communicate with him.

After almost ten minutes, he felt a tap on his shoulder, getting him to jump away and turn. In front of him was a group of four players, three guys of various heights, each with black hair while two had brown eyes and the third had red. The fourth was a girl, who's avatar stood much shorter than the guys with had pink hair and eyes.

"Jumpy as usual, eh Nadar?" The tallest in the group said, smirking at the boy's jump.

Nadar felt slight annoyance at seeing the four, his eyes half lidded as he looked at them. "Very funny you four. What took you all so long?"

"Well, we were waiting for you at the weapon merchant." The smaller boy with red eyes answered.

The girl in the group then grinned, leaning towards Nadar as he realized his mistake. "Yeah, you know, like how we had it planned before getting this game?"

"R-right." Nadar responded, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry I… forgot during the dive process."

"It can be a little overwhelming the first time, but come on man!" The third guy in the group said, energy in his voice. "It isn't that difficult to collect yourself. I mean, aren't you supposed to be the brains here?"

"I think that's PoH's job, actually." Nadar commented, turning to the tallest in the group. "What does that even stand for? That's the second time you've used that name, but I don't get it."

PoH chuckled in response, shaking his head as he did. "Maybe when we've done three games. You're still new to our little group."

"I mean, I know Sar-gah! I mean Serana in the real world!" Nadar spoke, getting interrupted as the girl elbowed his stomach.

"I know this is your first MMO, but there's no way I should have to explain why you can't just say someone's real name." Serana said. "Even XaXa and Johnny know that, and they're knuckle heads that think with their blades rather than their brains."

"Heeeeey, that's mean Serana." Johnny Black, the shorter of the two mentioned whined.

"But she isn't entirely wrong either." XaXa admitted, chuckling as he patted the dagger on his waist. "Can't help that playing the bad guy is so much fun."

"Oh, is that the route we're going this game?" Nadar asked, looking down to Serana.

"Well duh, that's how we usually play our games. I mean, we've always played the criminal role when playing the Elder Scrolls?" The girl brought up.

"Fair enough." Nadar shrugged. "So what do we do? Head out into the field and level up?"

"I mean, it'd be best to at least get you all a little experience in game." Serana brought up. "I mean, I was the only one here who managed to play the beta. So it'll be helpful to all of us if you don't suck."

"Aren't you the only one in the raid groups that always died a few minutes into the boss fight?" Nadar asked, having to jump back to avoid getting punched by her. "Ouch, still sore over that, huh?"

"I told you that in confidence you'd keep quiet!" She shouted as the boy had to keep her back by arm's distance to avoid getting punch.

"And truly, you made a horrible mistake."

(Two hours later)

"I've made a horrible mistake." Nadar groaned as he clutched his stomach. In front of the group were three boars, with yellow health bars and the third with only one.

"Nadar, I told you to wait before striking." Serana said as she dodged away from on e of the boars, clutching her sword as she stopped. "You have to let your skill activate before using it. Otherwise you're doing a normal move."

"I wasn't… paying attention." Nadar responded, getting up slowly as the pain went down. The game was super advanced, enough to send small signals to the brain to actually simulate pain. It was toned down, but it still hurts to get hit.

"And whose fault is that?" PoH asked rhetorically as he prepared his next attack, waiting until his dagger glowed a bright green. In the next second, he lunged forward and landed several fast blows on one of the boars, draining its health close to 0.

"Ah who needs to think through like that!?" Johnny questioned as he was right in front of the damaged boar, slashing at it wildly with his dagger before his ability could activate. The slashes weren't at their strongest, but they were more than enough to kill the beast, causing it to explode into crystal fragments. "Yeah! That's how it's done!"

"Watch your back!" XaXa called out as he used a skill to stab the boar that was in the red, demolishing its health and destroying it.

"Okay Nadar, I want you to try your axe's skill again." Serana spoke, holding the boar back with her sword. "Just remember, go through the motions like you would any other attack. But pause a bit in the pose before striking out, that'll build up the attack and cause significant more damage."

"That seems a little flawed, pausing before attacking." Nadar muttered to himself, setting himself up into a simple one-handed swing. Seeing him ready, Serana pushed the boar away, getting it to agro onto him. As he waited it to approach, he could feel the power in his weapon begin to grow.

As the boar started to charge him, the axe's blade was surrounded by a red light, signaling the skill's activation. "Now! Hit it with your axe!" Serana shouted.

Nadar's eyes narrowed as he rushed forward, bringing the axe down in a diagonal swing as he cut into the boar. The weapon's attack gave significant damage, more than the rest of the group's skill attacks and cut through it like butter. The boar exploded like the others and as soon as it did, a small pop up appeared in front of each of them.

They weren't an official party, but each of them earned EXP and col for their parts in taking the mobs down.

"Whoa, that was more damage then I was expecting." Nadar commented as he sat down, taking a breather as his health was in the yellow.

"Yep, axe's have one of the highest ratings for damage in this game." Serana explained, sitting next to him with her health in the green. "But they require a lot more strength then swords and more dexterity than hammers. So not many people choose them because of how dedicated to those you have to be. You'll be limited to the amount of skills outside of combat you can preform."

"Outside of combat?" XaXa asked. "What other abilities are there?"

"Well there's cooking and smith skills for one. And it was only discovered as the beta ended, but some guys started preforming alchemy to create paralysis poisons."

"Sounds like a good trick to grief some lower level players." PoH responded, smiling a bit as he rubbed his chin. "Sounds like there's a good style we can go for."

"Well there are a near infinite number of skills and abilities out there." Serana added. "We have no idea what's out there. There might even be a skill that comes around that negates poison, and that could completely ruin that style. So I'd recommend at least putting effort into getting your weapon skills up."

"Fair enough."

"Hey, Nadar!" Johnny called out to the axe wielder, waving him over. "I want to talk for a second or two, okay?"

"Huh, sure thing?" Nadar said cautiously, getting up and walking over to the guy. What's up, something on your mind?"

"Sssshhhh! Quiet dude, this is secret." Johnny shushed him in return, draping an arm over his shoulder. "Hey man, this is your first time in an MMO with us, so me, XaXa and PoH all thought it'd be cool to get you to do the initiation."

"Initiation?"

"Yeah, you know, like a cool club activity to see if you can keep up with us." Johnny chuckled lightly, sure to keep quiet while the others talked about skills. "Ya see, every time we get a new member, we wait until the next game we get to start this little initiation. All ya got to do is kill one of us with a backstab, it'll be hilarious."

"Okay, but which one of them?" Nadar asked. "I can guess you aren't going to volunteer yourself, so how does this whole thing work?"

"Oh that's easy. It's already set that Serana will be your target."

"Serana? Dude, she'll be pissed at me for a month if I backstab her like that. She takes what I do a lot more seriously than all of you."

"Ah don't worry about it. She's the latest member after you so it was set back then. She got me when she joined and it was a blast! Trust me dude, she'll be laughing all year over how good it'll be."

"Well, I guess it can't hurt." Nadar said, looking over to the girl. It didn't feel right to single her out, mostly due to her bringing him into the group. And it was just a harmless joke, it'd might even make him fit in more with her friends. "But how do I do it?"

"That's up to you man." Johnny shrugged as he released Nadar. "Find a way to distract her, get her to turn her back on you and go in for the kill. Nothing too big there."

"Alright, I'll think of something." Nadar groaned as he turned back to the group. She's the experienced one here, so he had to do something underhanded. Like… using his lack of experience in MMOs!

"Hey, Serana?" He called out, walking over to the three while Johnny hid his chuckling face. "Can I ask you about something?"

"Hmm? What's on your mind Nadar?" The girl asked, the two other guys piecing together what was happening and smirking.

"Well, I was just wondering on any good ways of leveling in MMOs." He asked. "I mean, most have an infinite number of quests for everyone, but is that the same here?"

"That's actually a good question." Serana said, punching Nadar's shoulder lightly and grinning. "You've spent time playing RPGs and shooters, good to see you know how to ask the important questions."

"Alright, here's something important about SAO." Serana started, opening her menu and bringing up her map of the first floor. "You're right about the limiting of quests. In the beta we all shared certain quests, but all of the ones here in the Town of Beginnings, there's limited EXP to go around. So it would be smart for us to move on ahead and get some quests in the next village. There, we'll have better gains then the noobs here."

"Okay, but which town?" Nadar asked, opening his menu by copying the way she did. "There's three that are all pretty close, which one is the best one to start?"

"Oh, that's easy." She responded, turning west. As she faced away from him, she didn't notice Nadar exit his menu and unsheathe his axe. "Down that way. There'll be a few mobs that way, but nothing even level 1 players can't handle. Course with me it'll be no problem."

As Nadar readied himself, XaXa and PoH both had to hold a hand to their mouths to keep their chuckles from being heard. And by the time his skill activated, Johnny couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The laugh had almost warned her in time, but she was too late as Nadar's axe drove into her back. While she was in the green, the axe's massive damage added with the skill and backstab was enough to drain her health all the way to zero. When it did, her eyes widened in realization as XaXa and PoH started laughing with Johnny. "Well played."

She then exploded into the same crystals as the mobs, vanishing without a trace as Nadar stood there in mild disbelief. "Holy shit, I killed her in one hit."

"Man, she wasn't kidding about an axe's damage." XaXa chuckled as he calmed down. PoH was already done laughing, but Johnny was busy rolling around the grass, clutching his sides as he laughed.

"Oh my god! She went down like it was almost nothing! That is just too priceless! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

"Alright we had our fun." PoH interrupted. "Let's revive her and get back to leveling. We don't want to fall behind everyone else now do we?"

"Right." Nadar responded as he knelt down to where Serana disappeared, holding his hand out and expecting something to happen.

"Hey, what are you waiting for?" XaXa asked as a minute went by. "Why aren't you reviving her?"

"I-I don't know." Nadar responded, looking down to the area in confusion. "She said that holding your hand out to your fallen ally will start the revive process. But she didn't mention about when the body disappears. I thought it would be the same."

"Maybe she was sent back to town." PoH stated. "Perhaps we should wait for her to come back. If that's the case she'll be back in no time."

The four then waited long for the girl to return. Minutes flew by faster than they realized, and soon even a few hours had gone by. A feeling of confusion and regret began to swim through Nadar's head. Along with that, the green icon over his head had turned orange, likely signaling him killing her.

"Come on!" Johnny whined, clutching his feet. "I want to go out and kill some people! What's taking her so loooooooooong?"

"Did something come up for her?" XaXa asked, turning to Nadar as he did. "You know her in real life, right? Any idea what could've made her log off?"

"None." Nadar responded, looking down to his hands. "We had set things up with our parents to have the entire weekend to grind and get used to this game. And we even finished all our schoolwork ahead of time to make sure there was nothing to worry about. It's kind of… unsettling."

"She's a smart girl, I'm sure everything's fine." PoH said, taking the situation as if nothing's wrong.

"Maybe she just forgot to do her chores or something and her parents unplugged her." Johnny commented, picking his ear with his pinkie finger.

"Yeah, that must be it." Nadar sighed, standing up as he opened his menu. "I'll log out and call her. See if she'll be on for the rest of the day or not. Just wait here for me okay?"

"Not like we're doing anything else." Johnny groaned as he laid down, letting out a dramatic sigh.

Nadar rolled his eyes at the childish response and navigated through his menu to the profile settings. Once he entered, he saw three pages he could go to. Help, Options, and… blank?

"Hey guys? This'll sound like a complete noob question, but isn't the log out in profile setting?"

"Of course it is, where else would it be?" XaXa asked back.

"Well it isn't. Or it is and… some glitch is going on." Nadar responded, clicking onto the GM chat to contact the Game Master. "Check your guys' menus and try to find it. I'm contacting the GM to sort this out."

"You're probably just getting a bug. It's right… here?" PoH started, confusion hitting him as he saw his log out button blank. "What the hell? This is where Serana said it would be."

"Mine's missing too." XaXa added.

"Oh sh*t son, things just got creepy." Johnny finished, tapping lazily at his blank button. "Wait, what the f**k? They have a filter on our spoken chat? Broken log out and censoring just out of beta?"

"I mean, little kids are probably going to be playing this game too." Nadar brought up, tapping his foot as he watched the GM request constantly load. "Man, there must be a long waiting list or something. I wonder if more people are having this problem now."

"Makes sense, it's past five so probably a lot of people are trying to log off for dinner." PoH sighed, rubbing the top of his head. "I was supposed to get off and order some takoyaki in an hour."

"Well, you might have to wait a bit before we can get off." Nadar shrugged, scratching his left cheek as he waited. "Although I don't know how much the GM cares right now or not."

"What?"

"If this is happening to everyone, why not just shut the servers down?" Nadar asked to the group, getting their complete attention. "Shutting down the servers would instantly log everyone out, and that way they'd be able to fix the problem without us being trapped."

"It just doesn't make…" Nadar started to continue before the four were all suddenly teleported back into the main courtyard of the Town of Beginnings. "…sense?" Almost as instantly as they appeared standing, every single player in the game was either there or being teleported in as well.

"What the hell is going on?" Johnny asked, appearing actually surprised over suddenly standing and appearing in town.

"I'm not sure, maybe we should call the GM."

"Shut up Nadar."

"Hold up." PoH interrupted, motioning up to the sky.

When they all looked up, there was a single red hexagon in the sky blinking with WARNING across it.

"What's that?"

"Well XaXa, I can't be certain but I'm sure it's some type of warning."

"Nadar. F**k. Off."

"You're a lot more vocal now, huh?" PoH interjected.

"I've been stuck waiting for my one friend in real life to show up with three randoms who thought pranking her was a fun gag." Nadar responded, crossing his arms as he narrowed his eyes. "I'm reasonably annoyed and am starting to lose my patience with… this."

Before Nadar could finish his rant, the hexagon quickly multiplied until it completely covered the sky in red. Between the shapes, a thick blood like liquid began to seep through and take shape. Sparks danced across the shape before it became detailed, revealing a massive figure in a red cloak. His face was completely hidden, making it impossible to see who it was.

"That… turned into someone?" XaXa questioned, rubbing his eyes to test if he was just seeing things.

The figure then spread his arms to his sides, extending himself in presentation to the crowd of thousands. "Ladies and gentlemen. I am Akihiko Kayaba, head programmer. Welcome to the unparalleled experience that is… Sword Art Onlin-!" Before he could finish speaking, the crowd started to get loud, all asking different questions as they tried to figure things out.

"Uh, Hello, hel-hello."

"He seriously thinks he can get a bunch of gamers to stay quiet when they're confused?" Nadar said to himself, sighing as he looked down in shame. "Us gamers as a community suck dick. I can't believe he was expecting us to stay quiet while he spoke."

"Um, hello! People! Kinda talking here. Focus." After a minute of their constant chatter, he moved his hand forward and opened a menu to pull up voice chat. "Kay, I'm just gonna go ahead and disable general chat her-" His voice suddenly caught off, causing the four boys to all look up in confusion.

"Did the creator of this game just mute himself?" PoH asked, surprised himself at the noob mistake.

"Probably under a lot of pressure." Nadar considered. "Probably has terabits of chat requests appearing out of nowhere and had to rush this. He's likely not supposed to actually be in game like this."

"Alright, I just realized what happened." Kayaba spoke up again, unmuting himself. "It's very funny, but right now, serious time."

"How many of you have seen Tron?"

.

.

.

"Eh? Eh?" Silence entered the world, seeming to catch the programmer off guard. "W-What, seriously? None of you have seen Tron? Sh*t, I was really banking on that. Okay, okay, no problem. I can wing this."

The programmer then cleared his throat, preparing his explanation. "Much like the World of Warcraft, none of you are here by choice anymore. Unlike WoW however, you are being held here by me, not by your need to escape your empty f**cking lives." He then went down to where his log out button was on his menu, showing that his too was gone.

"There is no longer any way for you to log out of Sword Art Online, something that I was fully intended on doing upon the release. And if someone on the outside attempts to log you out by removing your NerveGear… well… has anyone seen Scanners?"

'Oh shit.' Nadar thought, one thing coming to mind with the mention of a movie. Likely with one scene in mind.

"Uh, Scanners." Kayaba asked again, surprised at the silence once more. "It's-It's a movie that-seriously!?" He then sighed as he pulled up several computer screens around him, with most having news reports of NerveGear accidents. "Okay, give me a sec. Let me just… Alright, here we, here we go. Watch this: /pjnZO5ZgWE8"

The scene then played out, getting everyone's attention at the gory scene. "Okay, that was from Scanners… and basically that." A collective of gasps was then heard, showing that the gamers were slowly starting to put it together. "Okay, finally! Seeing some gears turning. We're making progress."

"So as I was saying, the only way to keep the NerveGear from going all Galaga on your grey matter is to make your way through Castle Aincrad and beat Sword Art Online." Nadar then raised his hand in the air, getting Kayaba's attention. "Yes?"

"So let me get this straight; you want a generation of idiots who let EA sell half-baked games, complain about it while simultaneously buying the game and DLC anyways, to beat an MMO?" Nadar asked.

"Essentially."

"F**k you man! This is probably most of our first MMO!"

"Whoa, whoa! I'm sensing an unnatural amount of hostility here. Not gonna lie, I don't appreciate it."

"Well be real here, how many people do you know that complete MMOs?"

"How many people do you know that PLAY MMOs?"

.

.

.

"Touché."

"Anywho." Kayaba picked up, seeing Nadar seemingly unable to counter further. "For all you guys who wanted to play as girls, and you know who you are." He brought up, looking specifically at the large group of girls closer to the center of the crowd. "Well… I've got a surprise for you."

An item then suddenly appeared in Nadar's inventory, leading him to find it and have it appear in his hands. "A… mirror?" As he saw his avatar's reflection, blue light began to instantly go off around him, everyone and himself seeming to be caught in it for a few seconds.

When it wore off, Nadar stared in shock as he saw the reflection of his actual appearance. His short, dark red hair, brown eyes, slightly tan skin, young appearance, 5'6 stature and most importantly his clearly frail and weak body.

"Nadar?" PoH questioned, getting the boy to turn to him. It was obvious he was an adult, his voice was more than enough. But he was clearly past what most would assume, even with greasy hair he was attractive by most standards.

"Holy sh*t." Johnny said. "Are you in a hospital or something dude? You look like the wind would break your bones and blow you away like dust."

"And you look just as crazy as I expected Black." Nadar said back.

"It's Johnny Black."

"Hehe, you're not getting that from me."

"As you can see, I have peeled away at your petty facades and revealed you for what you truly are…" Kayaba started to speak again, looking among the crowd to take in everyone's appearances. "Fairly attractive twenty-something… apparently…Good for you. Kind of undermines the whole "Cold light of day" thing I had planned. But still. Way to break down stereotypes."

"Except you, Fatty." He pointed out, looking at the overweight player at the edge of the crowd. "Way to bring down the curve."

"Oh, oh, oh, wait! One more thing." Kayaba chuckled, finding humor in his next news. "I should probably mention that if your health points reach zero, your real bodies perish as well."

That news suddenly hit Nadar like a train. If a player's HP goes away, they die. And if he was telling them now, that had to have been the rule before hand. Which means that he…

"Guys…" Nadar started to say, tears flowing freely from his eyes as the system prevented him from hiding them. "I think… I think Serana's dead."

As people seemed confused and unable to understand, PoH looked down to Nadar and put his hands on his shoulders, seemingly trying to comfort him. "Now Nadar, we don't know that. There's no way that people can die in this game. Don't let this crazy sh*t get to you, okay?"

"But it's completely possible." Nadar responded, looking down as his eyes were wide in horror. "The NerveGear has microwave emitters to power it, that safety feature could easily be shut off. All it takes is one good power burst to completely fry someone's brain. There's no other reason why she wouldn't be here right now. She wouldn't miss this game unless… unless…"

The sound of the Scanners clip going off again was then heard, and suddenly it seemed to click for most of the players. "Oh my God! If we die in the game, we die for real!"

"Yeah I'm just going to keep that tabbed…" Kayaba stated, sending his menu away as his visage started to fade. "And with that, I bid you all adieu. Oh, last thing, I swear. I disabled the profanity filter. Have fun with that." The red sky and visage all disappeared in the next instant, leaving everyone to take in the information in their own way.

"We're fucked!"

Which resulted in chaos.

Players were all scrambling, all terrified at the prospect of being thrown into a death game like this. It was terrifying, and both adults and kids alike were panicking.

"PoH!" XaXa shouted. "We need to get out of here! We'll get trampled at this rate!"

"Come on Nadar, we have to move! Now!" PoH shouted to the boy, trying to pull him with him. But before he could, the axe wielder ripped his arm from his grasp, confusing him. "Nadar? What are you doing?"

"Get away from me."

"Huh?"

"I said get away from me you fucks!" Nadar shouted as he stared in utter rage, tears still going down his face.

"Nadar, what's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me is that I just killed my best friend because of your stupid initiation!" The boy screamed, pointing to the three. "The one person I was able to talk to, the one that honestly saw me as a person! And you made me kill her!"

"Dude, calm down." Johnny tried to reason. "There's no way she's actually dead. This is just some sick joke."

"We can argue over this later." PoH added, reaching for Nadar again. "Right now we have to get you out of here before-"

"Fuck off!" Nadar shouted, swiping his hand away. "I'm not accepting your help! I don't need people like you to pretend to care and protect me! So with all due respect: Fucking. Get out of my sight you damn murders!"

"We don't have time for this." XaXa shouted. "PoH, leave the fucker. If he doesn't come with us, then that's his problem. We have to go and start leveling up now. Or at least avoid getting ran down by the panicking idiots."

PoH seemed to be weighing the options, almost ready to grab Nadar and drag him even if he didn't want to come. But seeing the unbridled rage on the kid's face, he knew that the moment they left the town, there was no telling what reckless thing he'd do. So he and the others left, leaving him without looking back.

As he saw them run, Nadar couldn't help but look down, Serana's fate and his involvement feeling unbearably heavy. He just wanted to fit in, to become friends with his friend's online pals. He never meant for this to happen. He'd never do it if he knew that was going to happen.

'Sarah… I'm so, so sorry.'

As the rampaging streets were nearly cleared, Nadar could hear distinct crying. When he looked at the source, he saw a little girl on her knees. She couldn't be any older than 12, even younger than him. She was scared and unable to take it, breaking down without any end in sight.

"You remember why you play games right?" Sarah's words started going through Nadar's head, recalling how she convinced him to accept the offer of getting SAO. "To become the person you wanted to be. SAO will be perfect for you, as a VRMMORPG, you'll have no limits!"

Wiping the tears away, the boy tightened his fists in determination. And without a second thought, he approached the girl. "Why are you crying?"

The girl's crying lightened slightly, her attention turning up to him. "W-What?"

"Why, are you, crying?"

"Because I'm… I'm going to die!" She cried into her hands, terror filling her. "This is my first MMO, and I'm stuck in a game of death! I didn't want this, I won't be able to survive for a week!"

"You, maybe." Nadar said. "But you're not you, not here." His words confused the girl, causing her to look up to him again. "We're not in the real world right now, so you aren't whoever you are there. In here, in SAO, we have to make a hard choice now. To be stronger than ourselves, to be weaker, or to be the same."

He then looked to his hands, blood seen on his hands for a split second before vanishing. "And I don't know about you, but I plan to be stronger than ever before. I won't let this game kill me, but if it does I'm going to make it the most difficult thing in its life."

He then turned back to the girl, seeing her crying stop as she looked at him with teary eyes. "I won't be able to watch over you, but I seriously recommend getting stronger. You have family waiting for you, stay alive for them. Get stronger for them. Grow for them."

"And while you do." Nadar said as he turned away, facing the west exit of town. "I'll get stronger and grow for who brought me here. Whether you do or not is your own choice." He then pulled his axe out, holding it with his right hand as his eyes glowed red. "But I'm going to become who I was always meant to be, and I'd recommend you do the same."

Then without turning back, Nadar sprinted out of the Town of Beginnings. From this point on, he was going down a path he refused to retreat from. He would turn this game of death into his own world.

"I won't let it be for nothing." Nadar said as he ran on a dirt path, seeing a grey wolf form ahead of him. "You told me where to go, and I'll follow."

The wolf then ran towards him, to which he held his axe to his side and charged a skill. "I'll defeat this whole damn world because you taught me what I'll need to survive!" Without even stopping, he cut the wolf in half and destroyed it.

"SARAH!"

He was going to burn this game to the ground. And once he did, Kayaba's head would be on a pike.