I sat leaning on my chair looking out the window at a group of kids that were playing a game of pickup basketball, the sky was crystal blue with a few scattered clouds here and there. I sighed and looked at my watch '12:55', I stood up and stretched my arms. I picked up my Nerve Gear off my desk and slide it onto my head. I stared at my ceiling and closed my eyes, "Link Start"...

I opened my eyes to see a number of colors flying by, I watched as my senses locked into the machine. Eventually everything went black and I looked down to see a window. 'Would you like to keep your previous character Model', I pressed the yes button. I had originally spent something along the lines of roughly five minutes, but my I sucked at character creation. Seriously those little balls that changed every little feature of your character just made you want to yell. And the worst part is since in this game you were literally what you designed, you had the ability to change everything, I mean there would be the some 100 odd players that really got into it, but eh... I looked up to watch a giant digital clock ticking down, I sighed when I saw I had another 30 seconds. Stupid timers. Eventually the clock struck 1:00, and my world turned to a blinding white light.

I looked around to find myself in the spawn location of the first floor, a number of people were appearing in flashed of blue. Some immediately took of running, but mostly they stuck around and tried to form parties with one another. I smiled and walked in the direction of the markets. In the Beta I had built my build using a great sword and dagger, that and once I unlocked the acrobatics skill I turned into quite a foe. (My character's play style is going to essentially be based off of the Dark Souls 3 Farron Greatsword. It has a awesome move set in game and I think it would be interesting to throw into a SAO setting." I walked to the nearest blacksmith, making my way through a sea of players that were browsing merchandising. Eventually I found my shop and got my sword and dagger, unfortunately it cost me a pretty penny. I would only be able to afford 4 health potions for my first time in the field. I slipped them on in my player menu and I took off running for the wilderness to start farming.

I swung my blade at the approaching boar and watched as my blade ripped it way through. I stood back up and watched the creature burst into numerous shards. I swiped away the little information window, I felt my stomach grumble slightly so I started making my way back to the starting city. I stuffed my hands into my pants and starting walking along the paved dirt road, looking around at my surroundings for any enemy spawns. After a little way off to my left I watched as a guy wearing a bandana got nailed in the balls by a charging boar, I chuckled. Another guy stood a little ways behind him and killed the boar by hucking a small rock at the creature. the other guy was still rolling around like an idiot, I mean I know it is still mentally traumatizing, but come on there isn't any pain in the game. I continued along my path and eventually found myself sitting outside a small restaurant waiting for the waitress to bring my food. I swiped my menu open and opened my friends tab, I only had 4 friends during the beta, but one of them was missing for some reason. 'very odd, I know for a fact everyone of these guys planned on being there for the opening day, wonder what kept him'.

"excuse me sir, I have your food."

I jumped a little, and blinked at the girl holding a bowl of soup and glass of water, "ah, thank you" she simply set the items on my table and walked away. I stirred my soup a little a took a bite, 'not great, but it isn't terrible'. I ended up spending the better part of half an hour eating my food and watching as people freaked out about the game. The sun had started to go down at this point, coloring the sky in a brilliant display of colors. 'I know it is a game and all, but it is quite beautiful.' I heard the toll of a bell in the far off distance and I leaned back in my chair...

'wait, a bell? there was never a bell in the beta, what going on?'

I saw a bright flash of light and opened my eyes to see I was back in the starting area. I looked around rapidly to see a good number of people debating what was going on, and some people were still getting spawned in. The noise of everyone yelling was increasing very rapidly and starting to give me a headache.

"hey everyone look up!" I heard a random player somewhere off to my right yell. I glanced up to see a flying hexagon in the air that flashing in and out of existence. suddenly the single started to multiply, each reading "warning" and "system warning" respectively. 'what the hell is going on?"

The hexagons formed a massive dome around all the players, and i watched as what appeared to be blood or something, started seeping from the top tiles. The liquid began to form and take shape into a massive flying robed figure, it's face was covered by shadows.

It spread it arms out, "attention players, I welcome you all to my world."

'perhaps a GM of sorts, but the only one in that position would be-'

" My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world." Everyone assembled let out a gasp of shock, and I noticed few peoples faces turning white. "I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus – the logout buttons."

'What has he done to the game?' I thought as I felt my muscles tense up. 'He is hiding something and I don't like it'

Kayaba's large figure open up its menu screen as it spoke, "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

'so he has trapped us here is that what he is saying, but to what ends. Having 10,000 people stuck in a video game accomplishes nothing.' Players around me started murdering their confusion, 'I mean if need be the people in real life could simply pry these machines off of our heads and we would be disconnected from the game. Though I don't know what effect that would have on the human brain...'

He continued, "You cannot log yourselves out of SAO. And no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nerve Gear from your head."

'why not, unless the the thing is set to detonate or kill... he totally did didn't he'

"If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

'Fine, you have us trapped. but big man could you stop talking like a monotone sociopath, it is really annoying.' I heard players talking about the hardware of the game, "he is joking right? there is no way he could do that,"." He's not. The transmitter signals in the head gear work just like a microwave. If the safety's disabled, it could fry your brain."

'can't even turn off the stupid helmet due to the damned internal battery, and I am going to assume that if the battery hits zero it activates it's kill order.'

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have tried removing the NerveGear. An unfortunate decision, to say the least." I didn't want to hear what he said next, but his calm voice continued speaking with no way to stop listening. "As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

'so he can kill every last one of us, hopefully my parents aren't dumb enough to pull a stunt like that. Speaking of which how is the outside world responding to such a thing, I mean a terrorist attack that kills 1000 people can create a national mourning day'

As if hearing my thoughts, screens appeared and started circling the GM. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths." I stared at the screens, searching for a familiar space, and found none, fortunately. "At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a Nerve Gear being removed is minimal at best."

'well that nice...'

"I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game."

'incredibly encouraging, you have no idea. Clearing a MMORPG is a damn near impossible task at best, that being said if the system even allows you to complete it."

"It's important to remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game; if your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system… forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.

'so much for just letting the power simply run out.'

I expected Kayaba's next words, "There is only one way for a player to escape now; you must clear the game." He pressed a button, and a holographic image appeared with a red dot on the bottom. "Right now, you're gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor." The holographic image flushed red from bottom to top. "Defeat the boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game." The cries of "how can we believe you" and "what does he mean" rang out.

Silencing all muttering, Kayaba raised his hand. "Last, but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of each player. Please, have a look." I furrowed my brow, confused, but opened up my inventory anyway. Inside was a single item, a Hand Mirror. I pulled it out, and it was just a mirror. It reflected my image like a normal mirror would.

From the corner of my vision, I saw a white glow surround the person standing to my right. Before I could anything, my own mirror emitted a white glow that surrounded me. When the white glow disappeared, there didn't seem to be any difference. For some reason, though, I felt different. I looked back at the mirror. My own face stared back at me. I felt different because I wasn't my game avatar – the mirror had somehow restored my actual face.

"Right now, you're probably wondering, 'Why?' 'Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this?' Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."

' I have officially decided that, that man without question is insane. That had to be the only explanation; he had no possible idea what he was doing.'

Kayaba continued. "As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." The image of the GM seemed to corrupt and dissolve into smoke. Any remnants of that strange red liquid were quickly reabsorbed into the cracks of the red hexagons, returning the sky back to its beautiful colors.

In the crowd, a mirror shattered and a girl screamed, and general panic set in. People started rushing forward, trying to escape the mad man's twisted game. This game had just become a literal matter of life and death. some players just collapsed, unable to bear the thought of dying.

'Time to go.' I crouched down and pressed off the ground with as much force as I could manage. I looked down to see numerous people sobbing, angrily yelling at one another, or just plain standing there. 'alright it's time to put information to use. I have to get to the next town because if what he said was true, and I think it is, the only way we're going to survive in here is by making ourselves as strong as possible.' I pulled up a map of the first floor; we were blinking in a red area, which most likely denoted a town. 'you see in n an MMORPG, the money you can earn, the EXP, once the game starts up there's only so much of that stuff to go around. meaning the fields around the Town of Beginnings will be hunted clean and will be chalk full of people. If I were to head to the next village now, I will have a considerably easier time collecting cash and points.'

I felt the crunch of my boots on the pavement and I kicked off, flying through the alleys of the town. I saw the rapidly approaching gate of the town and I willed my body to go faster, speed was key. I heard noise of a few people that were dashing behind me, 'no doubt beta testers that shared my thoughts on how the game worked.'

I heard the crunch of dirt below my boots, 'do or die time, and I have never been known to turn down a challenge.'

"Game On"

Hello to everyone who was willing to read on to this point. I am plan on this story being quite long hopefully. At least with the way I have the story planned out it should. Anyways, my character and what he looks like will be revealed later on, to add suspense I suppose. I plan on him becoming a Solo player, he will run into Kazuto and company in the next chapter, I also plan on him and Argo being good friends and seeing each other quite often. The whole romance idea is still pending, but I plan on Kazuto and Asuna being a couple like canon, my OC and Argo might become a couple, but I am still debating the subject in my head.

As for why my character is lacking in reaction to the series of events, I plan to explain in the next chapter.

My character's fighting style is completely based off of a game boss call the Abyss Watchers, if you look it up you should have to much trouble finding it. It belongs to the Dark Souls 3 game if you are unaware, Though I don't think I am going make it so that my OC is going to have a giant flaming doom stick. But anyways after fighting the boss for like the fifth time I thought you know what would be cool... and yeah here we are.

I will for the most part stick to the canon, of course a good portion will be changed to the way I want it, but I really like the original plot line so I am going to try and follow it.

All right enough with my rambling, if you think my little creation here worthy enough, leave a comment on what you like or didn't like. I am brand new to this so I need something to help push the story along.