Edit: Jan 31 15 Basically rewrote entire prologue/ chapter, hope you enjoy! :)
Feb 18 15 Separated dialogue

Prologue:

Brady Grider was only 17 when he had purchased his own set of NerveGear. He purchased his set online, from a website that deals in wares not available in certain regions.

One of the most promising RPG players in North America, from Dark Souls to League of Legends. He had no limits to what he played, anything to escape his harsh reality.

Unlike everyone else in the U.S, and the world, Brady got to beta test Sword Art Online. He had personally written Kayaba asking him if he would send him a copy of the beta.

Kayaba had responded with an astonishingly fast reply, all in English, even though Brady knew Japanese, the letter looked a bit like this;

Dear Mr. Grider, I was pleased to hear how much you would like to beta test Sword Art Online, and would be glad to send you a copy. I must warn you though, SAO is like none other. This is a game of such magnitude, it feels real. SAO is not just another game lining your shelves.

We will speak again, I am sure of it,
-AK

At the moment, Brady had no idea why he was chosen. Or why she was chosen. All he knew, was the he was to have the time of his life.

Chapter 1: Not so Deadly

Wow, I thought as I read through the letter, he actually wrote to me. I felt extremely special, staring at the package that laid before me on my bed. I had no idea how, or why. But I wasn't worried about that within the current moment.

Taped to the top of the box, with duck tape, was his letter, inside, I found an index card, it had emails and phone numbers on it, probably the developer studio's, a crimson nerve helmet, I wondered why this was given to me. But most importantly, there was the beta copy of SAO. In it's casing, was encased in a plastic wrapping.

I quickly hooked up my nerve gear, and went through the calibrations. It was tedious. But after about thirty minutes of creating my account, I was in. The game had asked me to make a username, I smirked slyly as I thought of it; Kotani.

The first time I entered the game, everything digitalized around me, becoming more and more real with every second that I watched. A town had encircled me within seconds, and it was huge, almost like a kingdom's main village. Cobblestone paths formed around a large statue, and buildings arose from nothing. Shops and merchant stands popped out of the walls like Bubbles from a wand.

Coming back to my own reality, I touched each one of my fingers to my thumbs, feeling the flesh against flesh, it all felt so real, I couldn't get over it.

My avatar had black hair, like mine it covered his eyes, stormy gray eyes, although mine were brown, and a black set of clothing with leather armor covering me.

I had a basic sword with me, it was seriously nothing special, I could have sworn it was a starting sword in at least three other fantasy RPGs. I unsheathed it and started to play around with it. It was a grey-ish color, with a solid hilt, and a two way cross-guard. I swung it from side to side, it glowed as I took it back, and swung it through the air quickly. It was the first time I had activated a sword skill. And I loved it so much.

I made my way through town, ignoring everyone else and the merchants, I was looking for a quest giver. I pulled up my map of the current floor, and checked the routes, And decided moving to the second town would be best.

On my way to the second town, I encountered various mobs, and it was difficult getting used to this 'Sword Skill' I had almost died, not that it would have bothered me, new game, first death, happens all the time.

I guess the only thing that had kept me alive was this... girl, she had dark red hair, almost like a blood red but not to that point, enticing brown eyes, and a pale complexion. She was about 5'7 ish with black armor, that had a red trim. Her sword seemed to gleam in the sunlight, it was different from the others I had seen today, must have been a mob drop. It was a polished silver looking blade, and a sleek black hilt with no cross-guard.

She approached me, with a confused look in her eyes. She tilted her head trying to act sly, she had obviously been studying me and my actions, "Are you an American? Because you sure as hell don't look Japanese." this question shook me a little bit, I hadn't realized that I hadn't met anyone who wasn't Japanese yet, everything kind of just... Blended together for me. I forgot that SAO's beta had basically been exclusive to Japan.

"Yes, I take it you are as well, considering by the fact that you actually asked me that."

She nodded with a smile, "I'm Flynn, I think we might actually be the only American's in SAO."

I laughed softly, "I'm Brady. Of course we are."

On the walk to the second town, we decided to form a party, we laughed a lot, I told her about my letter to Kayaba, and the extra set of nerve gear that was given to me, "Maybe he likes how interested you are with all of this."

I was still puzzling it together in my mind, "maybe... I'm not sure, how did you get SAO?"

She kept walking and shrugged, "When I got home from school today, I saw this box on my bed. I had applied to join the beta like the others, but my application was rejected due to my location. Although I guess Kayaba had reconsidered. I had received the care package inside of my mail, it was a roughly small box, inside was a set of nerve gear, and the game." I nodded, the same description of the box's content as mine.

We had spent the day together, questing and collecting all the Col we could before I became exhausted from grinding. The clock in my main menu read 6:00 PM, almost time for diner, and my daily jog, "you know, you should add me, just so we could do some dungeon runs maybe tomorrow or something." she nodded and blushed lightly, after all was said and done I said my good byes, and logged out for the day.

I came out of my, only to find my little brother standing over me, I jumped back in my bed, "Dude! Personal space!"

He laughed as he took a step back and regarded me with his little innocent looking eyes, "Sorry brother, I was just curious is all."

I smiled as I stood from my bed and dusted myself off, glad to see someone cares, "Is diner almost ready?" I'm pretty sure he heard me, but he didn't respond, instead he just skipped out of my room and hummed something that sounded like the PokeMon theme. That's the thing about my family, my mom is from Japan, she herself isn't Japanese, but was raised there, both of her parents had lived in America, but had job opportunities there, so my mom grew up around the culture and language, we all speak it and write Japanese fluently. Well, everyone except for my father that is.

I sighed as I put away my NerveGear. I went over to my closet, it was as dull as the rest of my room, just white doors. That's all my room was, apart from all of my posters. It was all just white. White walls and a simple white door. I pulled out my running outfit, a black track jacket and a pair of black joggers. I change in to the outfit, pulled on my running shoes, and headed downstairs, SAO was going to be awesome.