Chapter 1: World of Swords
"Ready?" Kazuto asked his twin brother.
"Ready when you are," replied Keigo (Not sure how it's actually pronounced but for this s tory it's pronounced Key-go).
They both placed their copies of Sword Art Online into their computers, and simultaneously said, "Link start!" and they were sent into the VRMMORPG.
Upon loading into the world, the former beta-testers immediately started running towards their favorite hunting spot; however, they were cut off by a red-haired man, who Keigo accidentally ran into. "Hey," the man said, "Uh," he continued, caught a little of guard by the two identical avatars in front of him, "are you glitching or something, because I'm seeing double," This was their favorite part of meeting people in video games, so much so that they had a prepared routine for when it happened. At the same time, they both looked to their right, and then their left, and then said in unison, "I don't know what you're talking about; I don't see anything,"
"Okaay," the man said, and then the twins looked at him and began to laugh, "Hahaha," Kazuto spoke "We're just screwing with you; we're twins, so whenever we play a game together we make our characters look the same. My name's Kirito, and this is my brother Kei. Nice to meet you," the last sentence the said in unison.
"I'm Klein, you two seem to know what you're doing, do you mind helping me out?" the man said.
"Sure, no problem," agreed Kirito, before Kei had the chance to say no to Klein's request.
The three spent the next several hours grinding wild boar. Although they were the equivalent of slime in other MMOs, Klein couldn't seem to get the hang of fighting them for a while. "Whelp," Klein eventually said, "I've got to go. I ordered a pizza and it should be at my house in a few minutes,"
"Finally, I thought you'd never leave," Kei mumbled under his breath. Kirito heard this remark and proceeded to elbow his brother in the ribs.
"Hey, guys," Klein said, breaking up the argument before it started, "Where's the logout button?"
"It should be under the menu," Kei responded, with a hit of annoyance in his voice.
"It's not there," Klein said.
"Ah, for the love of- here," Kei said, trying to reach over Klein's shoulder, "What the? It really isn't there," he checked his menu, and Kirito check his. All three were missing the logout button. Conveniently enough, bells started ringing and there was a mass teleport to the center of the town you start the game in.
The sky became filled with red hexagons, and a large figure in a red cloak appeared above everyone. "Hello," the figure said, "my name in Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online. Welcome to my world. Some of you have noticed a key item from your menus, the logout button, this is not an error in the game, this is the way Sword Art Online was intended to be played. There are three things I should mention: One, if you die in game a component in the nerve gear you are wearing will overheat and fry your brain, killing you instantly. Second, if anyone in the real world tries to remove or unplug the nerve gear, the same will happen. Finally, I have placed an item in all of your inventories,"
The sound of opening menus flooded the square, flowed by bright tubes of light encasing all of the players. When the light finally cleared, the twins looked at each other and realized what had happened, their avatars had been replaced by their real bodies.
"Kei… Kirito… What happened to you guys?" Klein asked, incredibly confused.
"It looks like that item used the scans from when you set up the nerve gear to make our in-game avatars look like our real bodies," said Kei, who pulled Kirito aside and told him, "Look, we can't stay here very long, all of the hunting spots are going to be taken soon, we need to go,"
"Fine, let's get going then," Kirito responded, and with that they began to run out of the town. As they were running they were stopped by Klein, "Hey, guys, what are you doing?" he said.
"We're leaving," Kirito said, "All the good hunting spots are going to be taken soon. If we can get to the next town before everyone else then we'll have more time to level up before everyone else gets there,"
"Okay then," Klein responded, "you guys seem like you work well together. So, I'm not going to bother asking if you wanted to join my friends and me,"
"Ya kinda just did," said Kei, who was, again, elbowed in the ribs by Kirito.
"We appreciate the offer," Kirito corrected his brother, "But, no offense, we can't have extra players dragging us down. We've always been able to handle the two of us, and I'm sure we could fit you in our group to, but any more than that and it's just too much dead weight. Sorry,"
"No, I see how it is," Klein said, disappointed, "See ya around I guess," and with that Klein left.