In Year 2022, mankind finally brought a true virtual world into existence. And 10000 people's' destinies are about to change, in an unexpected way…

"And now we begin! It's this week's MMO stream. For starters, we had you watch the PV. Looks like this is from last week's launch." A cheery voice announced through the television. "What were all these people lining up for? Sword Art Online! Those in front said that they started waiting three days prior to the release. Unbelievable! No, I should say it's natural for true gamers!" A boy with fiery red hair sat on his chair, browsing through a gaming e-magazine as he listened to the broadcast.

"Onii-tan! I'll be going for club practice!" a girl shouted as she ran off. Shutting the television and book, the boy headed for his very own Nervegear. Once plugging in the charger, he placed the machine onto his head. Smiling slightly, he closed his eyes and muttered the command, "Link Start!" Instantly, the machine powered on and directed him into a virtual login. After running scans, a screen showed "You have character data from a beta test. Would you like to load it?" After clicking "Yes", a welcome message popped out and he was instantly directed to a new different world. After blinking a few times, he smiled and looked up at the birds flying past the blue sky. "I'm back to this world!"

"Hey! Vargas! I've been waiting!" An energetic shouted, causing everyone to stare towards the direction of a yellow-haired boy, electricity sparking around him as he ran towards Vargas.

"A-as excited as usual eh, Eze?" Vargas chucked, a drop of sweat falling down as he was jumped on by Eze and thus Eze received a playful punch in the stomach. Behind the hyperactive Electric boy was a much calmer Earth typed one.

"Eze, I thought I told you to stop jumping on others."

"But I can't help it! Today is the day of the actual game, after all! Finally! After all those beta work! Of course I'll be excited! Aren't you excited, Lance? I mean, who's not happy?" Eze jumped up and down, waving madly.

Lance said nothing and just sighed. Holding his beloved Drevas in his hands like always, he pulled Eze back and muttered something into his ear then dragged him off.

"Well I see someone finally got control of that hyper-active punk." said a voice from behind.
"There you are, Selena. It's five minutes to the official launch, isn't it?" He smiled as the water-typed girl spawned and used her hand to block Eze who was charging furiously at her. Next came Atro, who got punched in the face due to Eze mistaking his gender. Again. Magress was last, maybe just one second late, as many players started spawning in.

The six friends then headed over to kill some mobs with the weapons they acquired at high levels of dungeons when they played the beta version of the game. With their levels of skill from before, they cleared the mobs with efficiency and acquired tons of experience. Just when they thought it was like the first day of the beta, where they would log out in the evening, all of them realised that the logout button disappeared.

"Maybe it's a bug…" Atro groaned. "Let's report it to the central of the town."

When they gathered there they realised that there was a large crowd already. Everyone was complaining and groaning that they needed to attend to other matters. Suddenly, a huge figure appeared.

"Greetings, everyone. Thank you for purchasing Sword Art Online. You must have realised that the log-out butt on was disabled. This is not a bug. I repeat, this was intentionally done. From now on, you will no longer be able to respawn. If you die in this game, you will be erased permanently from the Earth. The only way to get out of here is to clear all the 100 levels of the game. If anyone removes your nervegear, a high shockwave will be emitted and will destroy your brains. There have already been 27 death cases. My warnings have spreaded virally. Good luck, everyone, I have given you all a present. Please check your inventories."

Soon, everyone was doing as told, confused and shocked at the sudden turn of events. What they saw as a mirror. Once they looked into it, they instantly got turned into their real-life appearances. There was a gigantic rampage and everyone screamed and shouted in panic. The six friends gathered, recovered from their shock and all knew what to do. When the other players would clear all the mobs and take all the limited experience away from the starting town, they would go to the other towns and clear the harder mobs to get extra experiences. Then they could have a headstart in clearing the dungeons.

News spread fast. Every single party who tried to kill the boss of the first level dungeon failed and many died. So all the players all gathered together to try and discuss their strategies. Of course, the six friends were there, accompanying each other almost all the time. There were also many other players like Shida, who insisted he only went for good research objects, Logan, his accompanice, Kikuri, who loves bloodshed, her rival Sefia, Falma and Grafl, the inseparable buddies, Loch, Dean, Edea and Lorand, the four strong and wise players, Tia, with her friend a deer, Maxwell, floating on her globe, Kanon, following her. Cardes was dragging her mutated monsters on her back and Tora was close behind her. Next came Taser, Feeva, Kira and Alpha. Then, more pulled in and a meeting was commenced.

"Everyone! We will use the strategies based on the attack patterns written by the kind souls who sacrificed themselves to give us this valuable information! Forward, everyone! Let's clear the game for everyone!" Sodis, a male in white armour shouted. Once rearing his horse, they all ran inside the dungeon. Everyone instantly ran in, except a girl who had a hood covering herself. Vargas saw her and walked towards her. Her username… Lava? Why was she so quiet? He instantly approached her…

Kikuri: Ahh... That about ends it

Sefia: CHAPTER ONE ENDSSSSSS!

Kikuri: Wow... So ooc...