AN: This is the first time that I have ever wrote a story, please excuse any mistakes that have been made. I would appreciate if you can correct me on them.

November 6th, 2022, Release date of Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online. I sat on my bed, holding the game in my hands. Why was I suddenly nervous to play? I had played the beta test to death, reaching floors few players got to. Only HE surpassed me. Now here I was, not wanting to put my NerveGear on. It was as if a sudden worry came over me, preventing me from diving in.

"Meh, what am I nervous about? Its fine." I said to myself.

Just as I was plucking up the courage to put the device on, my sister burst into the room.

"Did you get it?!" She asked with supreme excitement.

"Sure did! Are you going in right away too?" I asked back, curious if she has the same nervous feeling about the game.

"Nah, I got roped into doing the washing up." She said disappointed, a frown showing on her face.

"I'll be on tomorrow though! I can't wait! See you there!" She barely got the last words out as she rushed to do her chore. I had never seen her so excited about a game before.

Finally putting my mind at rest, I slot SAO into my NerveGear, I settled it onto my head. 12:59, seeing the clock I said the words that would decide my fate for the next few years, unknowingly of course.

"Link... Start!"

Suddenly, masses of colours obscured my vision as I was sucked into virtual reality. I could see my five senses being ticked on my screen as the NerveGear booted itself into the game.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online! Would you like to create a new character?"

I swiftly pressed yes, and almost as quickly created my character. Modelled mostly after myself. My hair was a mixture between blonde and brown, Spiked at the front and shorter around the back and sides. A lot neater than I manage to get it in real life however, I must admit. I had an average build, slightly taller than most people at my age.

"Enter your desired username."

I slowly typed in my previous username that I had used during the beta test, S-H-O-N, Shon. This was my name in Japanese. My sister always had an obsession with using her name in Japanese. Opting against this, I decided to punch in my real name, S-H-A-U-N, Shaun.

With that out of the way, I arrived in The Town of Beginnings. The place felt so familiar to me since I spent a lot of my time here helping people get around. Despite wanting to be the top player during the beta I did do my fair share of helping people. During the beta, I went solo most of the time, now however, I was going to be different. This time, I wanted to form a guild, and get to the top. You will not beat me THIS time!

I spent the next 4 and a half hours familiarizing myself with the game once again. A little light training on a few boars too. My parents had told me that dinner would be at 5:30PM. Suddenly realizing the time, 5:32. Damn, I'm going to get some scalding because of this, no doubt. I swiped to the left with my right hand, going to the options menu.

"Huh? I swear the logout button is meant to be here..." I said to myself. Reopening the menu to see if that would fix the problem.

After 3 solid minutes of trying to locate the logout button, a blue light surrounded me with a familiar feeling of a teleport. Confused, I arrived in the main plaza of The Town of Beginnings. Looking around at the 10,000 or so players I worked out that it had been a forced teleport here. Probably by the game's GM, Akihiko Kayaba. There was at least another minutes wait before a warning sign lit up in the sky. Said sky was then engulfed in red, and what seemed like blood started to pour out of it, producing a cloaked figure.

"Is that the GM?"

"Beats me"

"Can we log out yet? Jeez!" I heard coming from the crowd. Half panicked and half confused.

I myself, was only panicked, my dinner was getting cold. I could feel my face turn to a frown at the thought of the cold dinner and inevitable rant from my parents. I was ripped out of my thoughts however as the familiar voice of the GM started to talk. He was Japanease, like most of the games players, but the game automatically translated everything into your native language. How it does that so fast when people are talking beats me, but it was certainly clever.

"Hello players, I am Akihiko Kayaba, the GM and creator of Sword Art Online, and the NerveGear used to play. I'm sure most of you have realized by now that the logout button has vanished. This is not a defect in the game, but the way Sword Art Online was meant to be." Kayaba stated, pausing for a moment to let his words sink in.

I could hear further panic and shouts spread across the crowd. I stayed quiet, not letting panic completely take me over. I immediately started making a plan.

"To logout of the game, you must go through all 100 floors of Aincrad." Kayaba proceeded to create a visual representation of the floating castle named Aincrad, showing all 100 floors. "To do this you must defeat each of the floor bosses and proceed to the top. Not only can you not logout, but when your HP reaches zero, you will be removed from the game, and the NerveGear on your head will produce a high powered microwave to destroy your brain." Again, Kayaba let the information sink in before proceeding.

"Despite my warnings sent out, people on the outside world have attempted to remove the NerveGears from your heads. This will also trigger the death wave to destroy your brain. As a result, around 200 people have already perished in this game. The media, however, have picked up on this, thus the risk of your NerveGear being removed is minimal at most."

Around me I could hear shouts and screams as the crowd started to get out of hand.

"I wish you all the best of luck, I have left you all a gift in your inventories, as a welcoming present. Please all take the time to view said item." And with that Kayaba appeared to leave the same way he came out, just in reverse.

I quickly scrolled through my inventory, reaching the item that was given to us.

"A mirror?" I said quietly to myself as I equipped the bizarre gift.

Looking at the mirror, I could see myself. Not my avatar, no, but my real self... With that, a yellow light suddenly engulfed me and people around the plaza. As I looked around, I could see that peoples avatars had changed. As surprised as them, I looked at myself in the mirror, assuming that it had changed us to what we really looked like. I looked around in panic as other people started to get out of control, and others breaking down. I hastily brought myself together and run for the nearest alleyway. Seeing many others do the same, including, him. Kirito. The only person superior to me during the beta test.

I selected my map as I remembered my plan from earlier. I am going to head to the next village in hopes of getting some of the spawn points and better equipment for myself. I know this is selfish, but I have to survive. If this really is a game of death, I must become strong. Not just for me, but for my family too. How must they be feeling?

I will get out of here...

And with that, the first chapter is complete. I will appreciate any and all feedback that you give and thanks for reading!