"Ok, this is so cool!" Dakota said looking around the city that he was now in. "So, this is Sword Art Online, I wonder what kind of people are here?" I thought as I bushed my white hair to the side. looking to the side, I someone dash off, making me think that they knew the game. I folowed them, where I then spotted someone else chasing the same person.

The man called out to the same person I was following, gaining his attention. "You look like you know your way around, so, can you help me with this game, I know next to nothing about it?" The man asked the kid that looked at him before Dakota walked up to him.

"If you're going to give lesions, then count me in!" Dakota said with a grin, causing them to look at him.

"Sure, I don't mind." He said swiping his fingers down and opening a team request to the both of them. Once they accepted they noticed each other's names. The one with the reddish hair name was Klein, the other one with blackish brown name was Kirito. "Alright, there's a spot not far from here that should be good for training you two just follow me." He said running off.

Floor 01: Town of Beginnings, West Field

"GAH!"

Kirito cringed as he witnessed an enemy boar with red eyes ram the newbie Klein right in the crotch, making him fly back and crash to the ground.

"Right in the nuts…" Klein groaned, rolling around on the ground, holding his man bits.

"You got hit by a Critical Hit." Kirito noted, "In the game, only Critical Hits from an enemy attack cause real pain. Luckily, the rest don't."

"Worst…feature…ever…" Klein groaned as he got up.

Kirito sighed, "Listen Klein-san, what's important is your initial motion input."

"Sure, I get that, but the damn boar keeps moving around." Klein complained, pointing to the boar that was shaking its butt at him.

"Don't worry Klein, it's easy." Dakota assured him as he picked up a rock, "If you do the motion input right by focusing…" he said as he focused, with the little rock shining a bright red, "…and activate a sword skill…" he then threw it at the boar, the rock hitting the boar in the butt and angering it, "…the system will ensure that the tech connects."

"Motion input…motion input…" Klein muttered to himself, looking at his katana. "How does one put it…"?

"Add a slight pause when focusing, and when you feel the skill begin to activate, let it explode when you attack!" Kirito told him while shaking his head.

"Explode?" Klein wondered before finally understanding and took a stance with his katana over his right shoulder, the blade starting to glow and bright yellow.

Kirito then smiled, "He's got it down."

Dakota deflected the boar's attack and kicked it towards Klein, who was ready to strike. "RAH!" Klein let out a battle cry and successfully used the Thrust skill on the boar, leaving a red gash on its side, defeating it and making it explode in a shower of blue data shards when its HP gauge hit zero.

Result

Exp - 24

Col – 30

Items – 2

"All right! I did it!" Klein cried, proud of himself of his first kill in the game.

"Congrats, Looks like you picked up on my teachings pretty quickly." Kirito said as he gave Klein a high-five. "However…" he started. "That lowly boar's about as weak as those annoying slimes in the other games."

"Eh? Seriously? I thought it was a mid-level boss or something!" Klein complained.

"Are you serious? Of course not." Dakota deadpanned, pointing behind his back with his thumb to some newly spawned boars. "But not all slimes are weak, there are some that are immune to physical attacks."

"So how do you like SAO so far?" Kirito asked them as Klein practiced his new sword skill, "Pretty exciting eh?"

"Yep, I can meet new people." Dakota said throwing a few practice swings with his dagger.

"Hell yeah!" Klein exclaimed, "There are lots of skills, right? Like blacksmithing, fishing, cooking, and other stuff?"

"You're right on the money. We've heard there are supposedly unlimited numbers of skills. Like sewing, meditation, medical, almost everything in here!" Kirito informed. "However in exchange, there's no magic." He groaned, showing his displeasure over the fact.

"An RPG without magic huh? That's a pretty bold decision." Klein noted as he now practiced a slash skill.

"Though there are rumors that players with certain high enough stats can get special skills reserved only for them." Dakota pointed out. "They're also talking about creating job classes in the next patch as well." Klein nodded as he suddenly cheered at getting the hang of sword skills.

"Even though we're in our Avatars, isn't it more fun to move your body as you fight?" Dakota asked, amused by Klein's enthusiasm.

"Hell yeah!" Klein said excitedly.

Dakota nodded, "Shall we move on to the next monster?"

"Oh yeah, keep them cumin'!" Klein cheered, causing Kirito to sigh and move on.

The three of them kept on hunting monsters until sunset. Now they lay on the grass, taking a well-deserved rest. "I still can't believe it, no matter how many times I see it…that we're finally in a video game." Klein said, "Whoever made this is a genius. It's really amazing... You know, I'm glad I was born in this time."

Dakota sighed, "You make a big deal out of everything."

"Aw come on man! It's my first full dive!" Klein protested, "Players like me can't even contain their excitement."

"Then this is your first time playing a game with a NerveGear?" Kirito asked.

"I rushed out and bought the hardware to play SAO." Klein explained, "I was really lucky to get one of the ten-thousand copies. Well, you were ten times as lucky, getting into the beta test stage. It's hard to believe that you were part of the thousand people who got to do it."

"I guess you could say something like that." Kirito shrugged as he scratched the back of his head, a usual habit of his.

"How far did you all get in the beta?" Klein asked, curious, "Were you with other people before it was over?"

"No, I was a loner. I got as far as the eighth floor in a couple of months. But this time, it'll only take about a month if things are the same." Kirito said with a smile on his face, as he and the others looked over at the setting sun.

"You're really into this." Klein said with a grin on his face.

Kirito unsheathed his katana, "To be honest, during the beta test, SAO was all I thought about, day and night. In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. It's a virtual world, but I still feel more alive here than I do in the real one."

"Fine speech sensei." Klein said as Kirito sheathed his blade.

Dakota then look at them both "You all want to go hunting some more?"

Klein nodded quickly, "Of course! I'd love to…" A gurgling sounded came from Klein's stomach. "But I'm really hungry, so I'm logging out."

"Eating food here only makes you think you're not hungry." Kirito pointed out.

Klein grinned and gave a thumb up, "I know, but I already ordered a pizza to be delivered at 5:30pm!"

Dakota laughed, "Maybe I should call you sensei for being prepared."

"Yup! Well, once I've eaten, I'll be back, and after this, I'm meeting with some people I know from another game. Want to friend them too?" Klein asked as us as he stood up.

Kirito smiles, "Sure. Thanks man."

"If they're like you, sure." Dakota said giving a thumbs up. "Till then, keep safe."

"Hey, that's my line." Klein said. "I see. Listen Kirito, Thanks for all your help and guidance. I'll repay you for this sometime... Mentally that is."

"Hai, hai, hai." Kirito said, "I'll hold you to that."

"Thanks so much, man." Klein said as he put out his fist. "I'll see you two around."

"If there's anything else you want to know, just contact me." Kirito said as he fist bumped Klein's hand, followed by Dakota. "You'll no doubt see me around."

"Yeah, I'll definitely do that!"

Klein waved before opening up the game menu to log out.

Dakota was about to kill more monsters when he heard Klein's confused voice saying, "Huh? There's no button to log out."

"Look closer." Kirito suggested.

Klein checked again, "No, it's not here."

Dakota sighed and opened the options menu, "Come on man, it's at the bottom of the main menu- what the?" There wasn't a button on the main menu either.

"See? Not there." Klein told them.

"Definitely not." Kirito agreed opening his up.

"Well, it's the first day out of beta. There are bound to be some bugs. I'm sure the server people are freaking out..." Klein joked, laughing nervously.

Dakota also laughed. "In a second, you will be too." he said pointing at the clock on my HUD, "Because right now, it's 5:25pm."

Klein blinked before he started to freak out, "NO~! MY TERIYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALE~GAH~!"

Kirito chuckles "Just hurry and call the game master."

"I tried, but nothing's happening." Klein said, pointing at the GM Calling icon.

"Is there any other way to log out?" Dakota asked with a scared look on his face.

Kirito eyes widened, "No, if a player wants to log themselves out, they have to go through the menu."

"That's nuts! There's got be another way." Klein exclaimed before starting to do some poses, "Return! Log out! Escape!"

Nothing happened.

"Maybe if I can take this thing off my head!"

Kirito shook his head, "You can't. Right now, we can't move our real bodies. The NerveGear intercepts anything we tell our bodies to do. Here." he said, pointing to the back of his head.

"Seriously? So we have to wait for them to fix the bug?" Dakota asked.

Kirito shrugged, "Or for someone in the real world to remove the NerveGear from us."

"But I live alone. What about you?"

"I have sister and a mom." Kirito informed him,

At that, Klein grabbed Kirito's shoulders, "How old are your little sister?"

"My sister is on kendo team, and that's creepy, control your hormones pervert."

"That doesn't ma-"

"It means that she might take off Kirito's helmet." Dakota said with some hope.

Klein groaned from the ground, "It's just a bug."

Kirito shook his head, "This isn't just a bug. If we can't log out, it'll pose a serious threat for the future of virtual gaming."

Klein nodded as he got up, "Come to think of it, I think you're right."

"If they wanted to, they could just shut down the server and log everyone out." Dakota said.

"But there isn't even an announcement..." the blond katana-user added, putting his hands to his ears.

Suddenly, a loud bell started ringing, making them turn back towards the Town of Beginnings. Then, they disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Floor 01: Town of Beginnings

They suddenly appeared at the starting point of SAO, and looked around to see other players appearing in blue light.

"What's going on?" asked one player next to them.

"I don't know." Another player answered back.

"A forced teleport?" Kirito wondered.

"What the hell's going on?" Klein growled as the bell stopped ringing, "First there's no log out button and now this!"

Dakota looked up at the bell tower when he saw something. "Up there!" He shouted, pointing to the sky and drawing everyone attention to the red blinking panel up there. "That's…"

They all saw that the panel said "WARNING". Then, the panel expanded, also saying "System Announcement" as it spread across the sky, turning the sky red.

"What is that?" Klein wondered out loud as what looked like blood poured from the in between the panels and slowly formed into a figure with a red robe and hood, hiding its face.

"A game master?"

"Why doesn't he have a face?"

"Is this an event?"

"I'm scared…"

"It's fine. It's just another part of the opening ceremony."

"I don't think it's the game master. He must be the main enemy of the world of SAO." Kirito said, "Guess he came from 100th floor to taunt us."

"Attention players. Welcome to my world." The robed figure greeted.

""My world?"" Someone parroted.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who in control this world."

My eyes widened in shock as murmurs broke out after the claim… "I remembered hearing about this guy and just saw him on the news this afternoon!"

"He must've spent a lot of time on this."

"I'm sure you're already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game." Kayaba said as he opened his own menu, showing the logout button missing.

Kirito put his finger in his ear to clear it out to make sure he heard right.

"I repeat… this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."

"A-A feature?" Klein stuttered out.

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down on remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside of the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain."

A few people tried to walk out of the city square to leave, only to find the way blocked by an invisible barrier. "Unfortunately, several player's friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove them and as a result, two hundred and thirteen players are dead. As well, if your health drops below zero and you die in SAO... you die in real life as well. Now hopefully this doesn't discourage you from playing the game, instead it should urge you to complete it faster. There is only one means of escape. One is to complete the game, and reach the hundredth level of the dungeon then defeat the final boss, freeing everyone. Oh and I have one present for you all, if you look in your inventories." Every player quickly checked their backpacks, only to find mirrors that quickly changed their avatars to look like their real selves.

"K-Kirito, Dakota are you alright?"

"Yeah." they said at the same time to the sound of Klein's voice before turning around to a different face. "Who are you?"

"And who are you?"

"Me, I'm Dakota, wait, Kirito? Klein?" Dakota asked with a confused look.

All around them, girls were turning into guys, buff guys were turning into fat guys, and then they looked at each other.

"You're Klein?"

"You're Kirito? How? And, You actually didn't change all that much."

"What?" he shouted! He looks at the mirror. 'It's impossible!' he look like his character, his black hair, brown eyes were still there!

"How did this happen?" Dakota asked as he started freckling out.

"The scan. It probably copied our face but our bodies..." Kirito said. "When I first turned it on I had to calibrate my body by tapping myself all over to register my height and size."

"Oh... right. I forgot about that." Dakota said as he looked up in fear. "But... but why? Why do all this?"

Kirito then pointed at the large looming figure. "I'm sure he'll tell us."

"You may be asking yourselves why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko, creator of SAO do all of this? Well my goal has already been finished. To create this world and intervene in it."

"Kayaba..." Dakota said as he grabbed his head as he started losing his sanity.

"And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players." The large figure disappeared and the stunned faces of all the players now stayed silent… then... Chaos started!

Everyone did his or her best to try to escape the city.

"Come with me!" Kirito whispered, as he pulled Klein into an alley, leaving Dakota behind as he ell to his knees.

Dakota started crying as he leaned forward, unsure if it was best for him to leave the city and possibly die, or to stay put. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to be useless, he honestly didn't know what to do.

Everyone had left the area, leaving only him behind...

That was, until the area glitches, gaining his attention.

Looking up, he spotted a person coming down from above, landing in front of him. She had a white dress that went just below her waist, with it reviling her chest a bit, black hair that was in pony tails and nothing on her feet. She looked down at him with a smile, with his eyes widening as he saw that she had a life bar. "My name is Hestia, and I'm a goddess that has come to guide you." She said as she held her hand out to him.