A/N: The one really big author's note because I don't really plan on doing them that much for this story, no one reads them anyways.

This is a reboot of the Aincrad arc with magic added. For some reason I don't like ALfheim at all, so here's to giving Aincrad a more MMO like feel. I'm throwing in a self-insert wish fulfillment OC as the narrator because I feel like it. If you don't like that, don't read it. I'm going to try and make things more the way I wish they would have been, which means, more MMO mechanics and a more broken Kirito.

I honestly don't like Reki Kawahara's characterization. So I'm going to try and spice up each character, and hopefully turn Asuna into a character I don't hate by taking more than a little inspiration from the writing of the Haruhi Suzumiya series. As in, 90% of the seriousness of SAO is going to be shot by my OC's internal monologue.

My OC is the narrator for the series, but don't expect him to pull any Kirito stunts. He is a power gamer through and through, so his character will obviously be more powerful than most from a statistics standpoint, however, I don't intend to give him some sort of special place as a super powerful clearer or anything like that. He will be up there with clearers at the top of the game, but not Kirito or Heathcliff level or probably even Asuna level. He's also going to be ambiguously labeled as a Caucasian foreigner from a country where people speak English. If you want that to be England, Canada, or America, feel free to think that.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online, Reki Kawahara does. The stupid OC that most people will drop this story because of? Yeah he's mine.

«Welcome to the Death Game!»

"Get Sword Art Online!" They said. "It'll be fun!" They said. Yeah right. Well… maybe that's not entirely false, I mean this game is pretty freaking fun, but the whole if you die in game you die in reality thing puts a damper on things you know?

I'm Shou, it means soaring, however it's not my real name, but we can ignore the details, because, as it stands now, it might as well be my real name. I along with a few other friends went off on a magical journey to Japan to go buy this game, «Sword Art Online», which was being released exclusively there. Well I was really on a school trip, and the only one to actually buy the game, but no one cares about the details. Why would we leave our home countries for a game you ask? Why, it's a VR game, and not just any VR game, but the world's first VRMMO and the first game to give players a physical form after entering VR! Now this may seem like the best thing ever, and it might still be, but there's a catch that we, the players, were recently informed of. It may seem like common sense to you the reader; however, to us gamers, this was an extremely disturbing revelation; people die if they are killed.

At the moment I'm standing in the plaza of the starting town along with every other player of «Sword Art Online» listening to a talking cloak who claims to be the creator of this game telling us about how if we die, we don't come back, and how we can't leave. Now I'm pretty freaking happy, and I guess a little worried, probably scared somewhat too, but the idea that I never have to leave seems pretty great. On the other hand, everyone around me didn't seem too fond of the prospect. I can't blame them though. I doubt I'd die easily cause I'm a pretty good stat muncher if I say so myself, so I can probably find a nice way to exploit the system, become a Marty Stu, and wreck; at least in comparison to most players. Years of competitive gaming does that to a guy.

My more jovial mood changed, a lot when I heard that 213 people had already died. That scared me, but more than that it pissed me off. I understand that from this point on most of the people who die will be stupid, but those first few hundred had no way of knowing or taking precaution. They thought this was a game and didn't have any reason to try and stay alive. That wasn't fair. I do not like it when things aren't fair.

Mr. Cloak, AKA Kayaba, the man who I currently believe is a genuine idiot and should be executed, finally decided to start talking again after standing still for dramatic effect for a stupidly long time as all big bads do, "Finally let me prove to you all that this is your only reality. I've prepared a gift for all of you. You may find it in your inventory."

I opened my inventory and pulled out the new item «Hand Mirror». I looked at and saw my awesome avatar staring back at me. Next I saw a bright light. Then I saw my real self in the mirror. After that I made that sound three year olds make when their parents won't let them eat any sweets until they finish their vegetables. Staring back at me in the mirror was my average height, dark red haired, blue eyed, fifteen year old self. The same glow spread to the people standing around me, and much to my chagrin, turned into their normal Japanese selves, leaving me to stand out even more than I already did with my ridiculous anime hair color that everyone thought was dyed. Then they just started screaming again. For the love of God stop screaming people, nobody on the outside can hear you and it won't do any, well… anything really.

Well, that just spoiled my day. I mean, I spent two hours working on that avatar, and for what? It looked really cool, and now my only distinguishing feature is my odd hair and eye color combination, and I suppose my race, but that's beside the point. Anyways, let's take a look at the situation. The news stations were probably blaring this information by now and sending people to hospitals, so the whole world should know in about 23 seconds. The sheer speed and power of the internet was truly a force to be reckoned with. I had snuck out of my trip's scheduled events to buy the game, but I was now in my hotel room. I had a friend cover for me under promise that I'd let him play the game so I could wait in line overnight to buy the game. Everyone on my trip should be back soon, including my roommates, so I shouldn't have to worry about my body. The real problem was how long I was going to be trapped here. My family would undoubtedly worry, and I'd probably be eternally banned from not just video games, but all technology until I moved out. Ah well, such is life. I'm sure governments from around the world would try to crack into the system to boot us out, meaning we may only be trapped a few days. The "people die if they are killed" thing scares me a bit, buts it's balanced out by "I'm in a video game, and I don't have to leave… ever." Yeah I'm just over thinking things, I want to stay in a game, but I don't want to die, why must the world be made of such difficult compromises.

So ignoring the above internal conflict that is impossibly hard to follow, Mr. Cloak disappeared magmagically, leaving the now largely male population of the game to scream like little girls. Now the whole there are no girls on the internet thing is false. There were still a large amount of girls here; it's just that the guys held a 65-70% majority.

With most of the players running around like chickens' with their head's cut off, I ducked out of the main plaza and into a nearby building to formulate some kind of plan, or, as what was far more likely to happen, completely overthink everything, waste my time, and spend the next until we get released from this game trying to catch up to the top players.

Anyways I've got to come up with a survival plan. «Sword Art Online» is very much a party based MMORPG, so my top priority should be finding a party, but that takes social skills… bleh. My next priority should be formulating my build, as it stands; we have five stats plus our HP and MP, and gain a few skill points each level. Strength determines a lot of what you can wield, and damage per hit, so it's not to be neglected to the auto increase at each level, Agi determines our movement speed, Vit determines out physical resistance, Mag is our magic damage, and Res is our magic resistance. I've always run a burst controller of some sort, usually a gish (magic swordsman for those who don't know), but I'm not sure if that's even possible right now. My top priority is my agility stat, then I suppose magic and strength. I won't need much defense investment if I never get hit. Yeah that thinking might get me killed.

While I stood in that random building thinking about stats and getting absolutely nowhere, I overheard some talking in the alley behind the door I was standing near, "Klein, listen up. I'm leaving this city right now and heading for the next village. If what he said was true then we'll have to get stronger and stronger in order to survive. I'm sure you already know that MMORPGs are a battle over system resources."

In a way I suppose they are, but 99% of the resources are infinite in the games I've played. But how the hell do you know where the next village is? The game's only been out for a few hours and the size of this floor is larger than the entire map of Skyrim, which, might I add, was considered one of the largest worlds in gaming ten years ago. And there were one hundred floors to this game; that makes SAO the single largest non-randomly generated map outside of player made Minecraft maps. That game is absurd though. To-scale maps of whole countries are a bit excessive.

I leaned against the door and listened as the voice continued, "There's only so much gold, loot, and experience to go around, so the more you win the stronger you get. Everyone's going to have the same idea, so the fields around the Town of Beginnings will be cleaned out in no time. You'll be forced to wander around, endlessly waiting for mobs to repop. We need to take this opportunity to set up base in the next town. I know the way, and I know which spots are dangerous. I can get us there safely, even at level one."

My Japanese may not be the greatest, but I'm pretty sure this guy just said he knows the way around the first floor entirely already. Considering how the game's been online for around six hours and walking to the next town would take almost the entirety of that time, and considering how much time it would take to find the safest route, he's got to be a beta tester, in other words, my lucky break.

I raised my fist and smacked it into my palm as if I had just realized something monumental. Then I leaned back against, and fell through, the door, landing on my back facing the massive stone ceiling that is floor two. Not my greatest moment, but not my worst. At least I wouldn't have to stalk the beta tester just to work up the courage to talk to him. That sounded a whole lot worse than I initially pictured it.

Feeling a little dizzy from the fall, I sat up and looked at the two people hosting the conversation I had been listening in on. One looked about my age, probably a year or so younger. He was normal height for his age with black hair and black eyes, a pretty normal looking Japanese kid, which was kinda rare in a game that you had to stand outside for 18 hours just to get a copy of. The other was an older guy in his late teens or early twenties with, wait for it, almost there, keep waiting, red freaking hair. That's right folks, I am not the only redhead in this game. My hair was a much more vibrant crimson than his almost matte red. He looked pretty scruffy, your normal around twenty gamer, except he had eyes like a dead fish.

I reached behind my head and nervously scratched the back of my hair, "S-sorry about that, I um, fell." My obviously unpracticed Japanese evident in my voice. I'll have you know that started taking Japanese in the 6th grade as a means of understanding anime without having to read those blasted subtitles, so I boast a much higher level of understanding of the language than the rest of my class, it's just that I never speak it or practice it since I just coast by on perfect written and hearing exams.

The red haired man chuckled and spoke up, "Ha! I needed something like. The name's Klein mysterious falling stranger."

"H-hi, I'm Shou." I notice the black haired boy snuck back a small bit, obviously the asocial type. Not exactly sure what someone that antisocial was doing in a VRMMO, wait a second… please pay no heed to that last statement as it never existed in the first place.

I quickly scrambled to my feet and sunk back into the doorway a small bit. Klein continued with the conversation he held with the black haired boy, "Kirito, remember what I said earlier? I have some friends that I stood in line with all night to buy this game. They're probably logged in and still back in the plaza. I can't just leave them."

The black haired boy became very sullen. Klein seemed to pick up on this and continued, "Nah… I can't ask for more help than you've already given. Hell, I used to be a guild leader back in the last game. Don't worry, I'll get by with techniques you taught me. Besides, there's still the possibility that this was all a giant prank and we'll be able to log out in no time. Just go on ahead and don't mind me, actually, if you want to take someone, why don't you take this kid?" he proclaimed, gesturing to me.

Now I know I'm not exactly the social type, and I'd probably find things most people consider normal completely outlandish, but that had to be a really strange request. I fell out of a door and interrupted your conversation, so now I'm your replacement as Kirito's travelling buddy seeing as you have other commitments? I do see where you are coming from though. He is your friend and you are concerned about letting him travel on his own in a game that meant life or death, but asking him to take a random stranger with him is kind of absurd.

Kirito looked about as shocked as I was, and Klein was a lot more perceptive than I initially thought so he of course picked up on it, "I know that sounds a little weird, but hear me out. Shou right? You are new right?"

"Y-yes." I nodded.

"You're not Japanese, and you don't speak much of the language do you?"

"I u-understand it, b-but I am not used to s-speaking it. I-I'm a f-foreigner and I bought the game w-while on v-vacation."

"Okay. Do you know how to use sword skills?"

"I r-read the m-manual."

"Alright, Kirito, this kid is a new player and needs someone to teach him how to play just like I did."

Kirito the quickly chimed in, muttering under his breath, but still speaking for the first time since I so rudely interrupted, "At least he read the read the manual."

Klein's composure completely fell apart. "H-hey now. I learned how to use sword skills right. Nobody even reads the instructions anyways." He stuttered out while waving his arms around as if he were a bird ready to take flight.

Kirito and I both began chuckling a little bit at his antics. I guess that was my first little bit of insight into Kirito. For all his front, he was a pretty good person underneath.

Klein quickly regained his composure, "Anyway, you should take him and teach him how to fight. Sword Art Online is a party game. It's not something meant to be played alone and I don't want you getting killed before me, so take Shou as a back-up."

Both Kirito any myself remained silent. I wasn't the type of person to butt into a conversation or try and get my way, even if I did, at least a little, want to tag along with a beta tester. Kirito was probably feeling some amounts of pressure. Klein had pretty much told him to babysit me so he and I aren't killed.

"Shou, Kirito here is a beta tester, I'm sure he could help you a lot, so what do you say?" Klein looked at me a little impatiently. I'm sure he was concerned for his friends and was just trying to speed things along here.

I looked at Kirito and then at the ground, "I-I would r-really appreciate the help, but I don't mean to impose."

"See Kirito, the kid needs your help."

Kirito turned around and spoke in no particular direction, "Okay… We'll part ways here then Klein. Shoot me a message if anything comes up. Shou, we're going to need to head out as fast as possible. Have you bought the gear you need?"

I quickly muttered a yes and mouthed the words 'that you' towards Klein.

Klein waved at us as we began walking away, "Hey Kirito, you look pretty cute after all! Just my type!"

Kirito called back over his shoulder, "And you look ten times better now that you're a mountain bandit!"

He then began running forward, and followed after. That must've been pretty hard to part with a friend like that, so I'm sure Kirito wanted to get out of town as fast as he could. We also needed to get to a good grinding spot near the second town before the plebs come along and take them all. With a mixture of sadness, anxiety, and oddly excitement, we headed off together to start our epic battle for survival.

Two thousand players were dead within a month, and I still can't find any ice cream.

A/N: One more thing, what do you guys think about the format of this story?