Chapter 1: Logging In

It was warm, unusual at 1AM, but Kirito could not stop thinking about the next day. Tomorrow was the opening of the beta test for Sword Art Online; Kirito could hardly believe it when he received the e-mail, telling him to log in to SAO at 11AM. Kirito noticed how tired he was and almost immediately fell asleep, "tomorrow is a big day," he thought to himself.

NEXT DAY

Kirito woke to the sound of his sister's voice "I'm going to practice now," was all he could make out. 10:53. Kirito looked at the clock but for some reason he could not remember the time. He quickly scanned it again and literally jumped from his bed and ran downstairs. He then ate his breakfast in under 5 minutes, which was almost a world record to him. Immediately after he ran upstairs and grabbed his Nerve Gear rather excitedly. He lay on his bed and placed the Nerve Gear on his head, he put his credentials into the relevant slots and waited to press 'OK.'

10:57….

10:58….

10:59….

One minute until he would become a beta tester.

11AM!

Kirito tapped 'OK' as soon as it hit 11AM. He felt a twist in the pit of his stomach and moments later he felt a warm breeze on his cheek. "Hello world!" He said ecstatically.

Kirito noticed a small item on the ground; he picked it up and saw that it was a note. It was from the Game Master, Kayaba Akihiko, it read – "Dear Kirito, as a beta tester of Sword Art Online you are required to write down all bugs/glitches with the game, along with any information new players will find useful.

Signed Kayaba Akihiko GM

Kirito started to walk towards the town to his left, on his map he noticed it was called Twilight Town, after a few minutes he arrived, and saw a group of three other testers, he made eye-contact with one of them and the whole group seemed to walk towards Kirito. "Hi," said a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes and a black and white chequered band on his left wrist, "I'm Roxas."

Kirito replied with only his name.

"Nice to meet ya." Another boy replied, he was tall, with almost lavender hair and piercing eyes.

"That's Riku, and I'm Sora." The final boy of the group said, he was shorter than the others; he had spiky brown hair, and a chain around his neck. The leader appeared to be Roxas but Kirito wasn't very sure. "Wanna join us in a party?" Roxas said.

"Ok then." Kirito replied.