A/N: So, this is my first time actually posting a fanfic onto this site, or actually making any of my writing public for that matter. There are a few things that I would like to make explicitly clear.

1: I am by no means a good writer, though I do try and make as few mistakes in grammar, punctuation, etc. as I possibly can. When it comes to the flow of idea, world building, and whatever else, I'm a novice. If anyone actually takes the time to read this and write a review, then please tell me where and how I can improve. That would be a great help. (Agent 94 and ThisIsTheGreatestUsername, I didn't actually think you would review this. Not gonna lie, I was excited when I saw both of your reviews as the first two on this story. Bit of a fanboy moment. And thanks for the advice. I have taken it into account and agree completely. Moving on...)

2: This is a semi-self insertion fic. The main character is based off of me, and if I go any further with this OC's I will introduce will be based off of some of my real-life friends. There are a few other self insertions out there, but they seem to be pretty poorly written and I thought I could do better, as well as improve as a writer.

3: This fic has runs parallel to canon, in terms of events and whatever else. But I've made several changes based off of suggestions made by two of the best reviewers on the site.

4: One of the changes I've made is based off the self-insertion, and it isn't blatantly obvious in the story. Talon actually starts in America, for reasons that will be explained later. You might be asking, "How is he going to communicate with the other players if he can't speak Japanese?" There was a BS reason as to how this was going to happen, but that was quickly called out as the cop-out it was by Agent 94, and I agree with the review he left on how the language barrier makes more sense than an Ex Machina NerveGear auto-translation, and it will open up character development of i do it a different way.

Without further ado, let's get on with this and see where it leads us. (Again)

A young man with dark brown hair sat at his computer and watched what must have been the twentieth news story on the next big thing in gaming, the NerveGear, and more specifically, Sword Art Online, created by the genius Akihiko Kayaba. This new technology cut off the motor functions of the user in the real world in order to transport them into the virtual, where they controlled an avatar of their creation to clear the hundred floors of what was named Castle Aincraid.

"Nothing here I haven't already heard…" Talon said to himself, shutting down his computer and looking over at the helmet that was sitting by his bed, the partial cause of all of the fuss that was happening in the news worldwide, even though the main release of the technology was in Japan. This was what gamers had been waiting for for years, and it was understandable that this was something that would be well covered in the media. `

Talon glanced at his desk clock, reading 9:57 PM. Almost time for the launch. With one last check of his phone, he plugged in the NerveGear and lay down on his bed, donning the helmet. As soon as the clock hit 10:00 PM, he used the command phrase.

"Link, Start!"

As soon as the words left his lips, his eyes were met with a kaleidoscope of colors, and a check of his five senses to make sure they were correctly synced with the NerveGear.

Wouldn't want to get in the game and not be able to hear, would we? Talon thought to himself with an inward smirk. Quickly logging into his pre-created account, Talon was extremely grateful when he received a prompt asking him to select a language. Immediately, he pressed "English" on the floating pop-up.

"Thank you, Kayaba, for that option."

The amount of sliders, wheels, and options was daunting, but what was most disconcerting and incredible was the full size replica of himself across the empty white space from him. Talon walked towards it, and was only slightly surprised when the interface moved with him.

"Technology has really come far…" Talon said to himself, studying the model up close.

"Yep. I really am not photogenic."

And thus began the grueling process of customizing his avatar.

Not really. Talon really didn't care too much about what he looked like in game, and he only changed a few things about the model itself. He turned his hair from dark brown to black, and his eyes to a slightly darker grey. Of course, he couldn't help but change a few things about his body, getting rid of a bit of his belly fat and making his arms a bit more defined. He kept his six foot two frame and broad shoulders, and didn't change too much else. And he didn't even think about changing his gender. That was a little weird to him.

So, Talon pressed the "Create Avatar" button on the floating interface, and was asked to put in his preferred name.

Without a second thought, he typed in "Tarok", his gaming handle for years. Thankfully, the name wasn't taken, and he was teleported into the game in a flash of blue light.

Temporarily blinded from the flash, Tarok blinked rapidly, clearing his vision so he could look around at the world around him. What he saw just blew him away.

All around him there were romanesque buildings, absolutely breathtaking. The carved columns were topped with even more intricately carved archways, and through these arches there seemed to be exits out into the rest of the city, and from what he could see there were NPC shops set up along the walls, probably selling potions, weapons, and whatever else was needed on the first floor of Aincraid.

From what he had read online, Talon knew there was a menu he could access by swiping his right two fingers in the air in front of him. So, he attempted to recreate the action, and was able to open the menu on his second attempt. As soon as it opened, Tarok was greeted by a white menu, with your usual inventory, skills, friends, etc.

Before he was able to scroll through the interface in front of him any further, there was a flash of light and someone spawned behind him, and stumbled because of what he assumed was a change in height. Unfortunately, the new player ran straight into Tarok, knocking him forward and almost causing him to fall.

Tarok turned around angrily, ready to yell at the idiot who had run into him, but that anger quickly diminished as he saw who it was. Their avatar was an attractive girl, who looked incredibly flustered as she brushed her long brown hair out of her face.

"Go-Gomen'nasai!" She said, attempting to stand but still stumbling around. Taking pity on her, Tarok held out a hand to help her up, which she took a bit bashfully, unsteady on her feet.

Tarok gave her a small smile, knowing some very basic Japanese from Internet searches in preparation for this game, so he replied to her apology in stuttering Japanese;

"Monda-Mondainai."

I sound so white.

The girl in front of him tilted her head to the side in curiosity, and asked, "Are you an American?"

Tarok's smile grew a little more, happy to find someone else that spoke English.

"Yeah, I am."

As they looked at eachother, they both studied the face of the other. Her avatar was obviously of Asian descent, with long brown hair and emerald eyes that were a few inches lower than Tarok's, with the starter leather breastplate over a light red shirt, and what seemed to be light leather pants, and a sword on her left side.

Tarok himself had the same leather breastplate and pants, and his sword was on the same side of his body for an easier draw. The only real difference between the two was Tarok's green shirt to her red.

"Hi, I'm Eldra." She said as they finished examining each other .

"Tarok." He replied.

"I apologize about running into you, Tarok. It was a complete accident."

"It's all good, Eldra. If I may ask, where are you from?"

"Tokyo, you?

"Utah." Tarok replied.

The head tilt came back again. "Utah? Does that mean you're a… Um…" Eldra paused, trying to think of the word, snapping her fingers when she got it.

"Are you a Mormon?" She said triumphantly, remembering the term.

"Yep. I am. Why do you ask?" Tarok replied, his smile fading a bit as he didn't know what her feelings about his religion were. There were so many misconceptions about it, and he didn't really feel like trying to change someone's mind about something that they'd been told for a long time.

"That's cool! We live next to a nice couple who are also Mormons." She said, with a beaming smile that made Tarok relax. "How'd you get a copy of the game? I thought it was only released in Japan?"

"My dad works for Argus, at a branch in the U.S., and was able to get me a copy of the game and a NerveGear." Tarok replied, thinking about how lucky he was to get his hands on one of these games before anyone else. He'd rubbed it in his friends noses the day before, and as soon as he logged out he was texting all of them about how cool it felt to be in a game and actually move a body.

"Right. That makes sense…" Eldra said, pondering that for a moment.

Tarok smiled. He'd been prepared to go through the game as a solo player, off of the fact that the rest of the player base was Japanese, and communication would be very difficult, if not impossible. Now, that seemed very silly, seeing how widespread English was as a language. So, while he wouldn't be able to communicate with everyone, chances were that a good portion of the players logged into the game would speak at least a little bit of English.

"So, do you want to party up with me?" Eldra asked, surprising Tarok.

"Sure, but usually the guy asks the girl out." Tarok said with a smirk, not really thinking about what he was saying, and he looked at Eldra to see what her reaction to the joke would be.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to be oneto get flustered at such a question, and laughed it off with Tarok. She swiped open her own menu, moving through it with much more speed than Tarok did, and sent him a party invitation.

"Usually they do, but today is not the day." Eldra said, laughing once more.

A playful frown on his face, Tarok accepted the invitation and then moved through the menu to his skill list. There were supposed to be an unlimited number of skills, and looking at the list in front of him, Tarok could believe it. Thankfully, the developers knew how daunting it must look to see that amount of skills, and had a list of "starting skills" that people could choose from.

The only one that Tarok knew he needed was the 1-Handed-Sword skill, because at the moment he didn't know what else he wanted to use. Scrolling through one more time, he saw something that was a little different from the rest of the skills, but he didn't have time to look too closely before-

"Come on, Tarok! Let's go!" Eldra said, grabbing his arm and running through one of the arches.

"Alright, alright! Sheesh!" Tarok said, getting his feet under him to avoid being dragged, and started running along with her.

"You seem to have found your balance!" Tarok shouted as they ran, dodging through NPC's and players alike.

"Just had to get used to it!" She shouted back, leading him further away from the inner ring where they spawned.

No other talk happened as they continued to run, so Tarok took the chance to look at his surroundings. Players were in the street, talking about different things in front of one of the many NPC stalls that lined the streets. He couldn't imagine that they all would have different goods to buy. It was more likely that they were either regular NPC's with just scripted conversations, or the ones that were actually shops simply recycled the item lists for this town. But, with the amount of time Kayaba and his team had put into this, he could be completely wrong about that. He was so lost in thought that he almost returned the favor to Eldra of knocking her over. Thankfully, he saved himself the embarrassment by skidding to a stop a few feet behind her.

"It's great to be back..." She said to herself with that beautiful smile, taking in the field around her, alive with boars.

"Were you a beta tester, Eldra?" Tarok asked, surprised that he wasn't out of breath from that run.

"Yeah, I was. Was one of the only ones that farmed on the eighth floor, in fact." She said, with a little bit of pride in her voice.

"Wow. I can assume you were pretty good at the game then?" Tarok asked.

"Yeah, I was, and still am."

"Wait, if you were a tester, then why did you think it was a good idea to change your height?" Tarok asked with a smile, knowing that was the reason she had been so unsteady when she had first logged in.

Elders face flushed, and she smacked him on the arm.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time..." She said quietly, pouting.

Tarok laughed loudly, and patted her shoulder, which only caused her pout to deepen and his laugh to become louder.

"Come on, jerk. Let's get to farming..." She said, still pouting as she walked toward the field. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Tarok followed her.

The pair approached a mob named Frenzy Boar, and it looked at them dumbly with dark eyes, not realizing that these people were going to be the death of it.

"Alright, smartass. Let's see you kill this boar." Eldra said, smirking evilly.

"Yes ma'am." Tarok replied, mock saluting her and drawing his sword from his left hip. Not being a complete idiot, he approached the boar cautiously. There had to be a reason behind Eldra's smirk. As soon as he swung the sword for the first strike, he found it.

When the blade bit into the digital flesh of the boar, and left a red slash in its side, the health bar of the boar appeared above its head with an eighth of its health gone. At the same time it's dark eyes flashed to red as he drew aggro, and the boar flipped around to attack the young man who would dare to hurt it.

Unsurprised by the turn, Tarok stood firm with his sword held in front of him in his right hand, his left at his side. Pawing the ground, the boar charged, its red eyes flashing with killing intent. Tarok side-stepped the charge, dragging his blade across the boar's side as it passed him. This maneuver took a chunk out of the boar's health, equal to about a fourth of the remaining life.

Off to the side, Eldra looked on impressed. Without using sword skills, the boy in front of her had taken out almost half of the health of the mob. Reminiscing for a moment back onto her first attempt, she had died three times before she had gotten the hang of exactly how to fight with her body, and even longer before she had begged another beta tester into explaining how to activate sword skills.

Turning her attention back the the fight, Eldra watched as Tarok whittled away the boars health, little by little, using the same dodge-attack tactic that he had been using prior. As he went for the final blow against the Frenzy Boar, his sword glowed with a soft blue light, and Eldra's jaw dropped.

He had activated Horizontal without being taught how.

As the attack went through, and the Frenzy Boar burst into shimmering polygons, Tarok tilted his head to the side, mimicking the action that Eldra had used earlier in the day.

"What just happened right there, Eldra?" Tarok asked, looking at the rewards screen that had appeared after he had killed the boar.

"Was that a sword skill, like the one's that were described on the forums?"

"Yes, it was," Eldra replied. "And I am thoroughly impressed that you activated it without being taught how." She said, albeit reluctantly, a little annoyed at how easily he had taken down the boar.

"It just kinda, happened, y'know?" Tarok said, closing the rewards screen and looking at the sword in his hand. "But I guess if I impressed a beta tester by doing that, it's not a bad thing. Wanna go hunt some more?"

"Yes, let's." Eldra replied, drawing her own sword and heading out into the field with Tarok.

A/N: So, that's the end of the first chapter of this story (for the second time). The one that let's me know if this is worth continuing or not. If you've taken the time to read all the way here, could I ask for a moment more of your time to review this story and let me know how I can improve? To the two greatest reviewers I have ever seen, the interesting part is coming, the part that will set the story away from the rest. Probably next chapter. But please review again so I know what to improve on.