Once again, I do not own Sword Art Online, and I'm certain the world is better off this way.


I blinked several times as I tried to adjust to the endless white surrounding me. They could definitely have designed a more welcoming scene. Although I was obviously standing on something, as the pressure in my feet reminded me, I had trouble looking down without feeling nauseous from the absolute nothingness. It was like staring off a cliff at midnight and it appears that there's nothing in the bottomless expanse but blackness. This time however, it was unnatural whiteness.

A floating, and what appeared to be glowing monitor without the physical, plastic frame, expanded in front of me from nothingness. It made a humming noise as it expanded, and ended with a soft chime as text begun to appear.

-Please enter your desired username-

Uhh, username, I had been thinking about that all day, but hadn't been able to come up with anything. I was the kind of person who would spend hours prolonging a game just because I couldn't create a desirable username.

It had been Matthew who had come up with the best name for me, however. Cursing my own increativity, I typed on the keyboard that had chimed into existence below the monitor. I was surprised when my fingers found resistance from the monitor that appeared to be formed by nothing but light.

"Sirius," I typed.

The brightest star in the night sky, reminiscent of my last name, Richard Star.

The monitor asked for variation, and I confirmed, and felt the glowing button click, before both the monitor and the keyboard were compressed into nonexistence silently.

I stood confused for a few seconds, wondering what to do next, when noises and lights begun to explode around me. I watched as near to 50 screens were stretched into existence, followed by strange electronic humming and chiming noises. Several of the larger windows acted as mirrors, reflecting my image onto them, while the others contained slide bars with labels on them, ranging from things like "height" and "weight", to "finger thickness" and "neck angle".

The first thing I noticed was the gender option, which although greatly intrigued me, I forced myself to ignore it. Playing around with genders was not why I bought this game.

I begun to play around with the sliders, but begun to feel sick as my body began changing drastically in front of me. It wasn't painful, or even unpleasant, just… unnatural. I kept my height, weight, and muscles the same, as I was worried how changing such physical properties of me would affect my accordination in the real world.

I did change my face slightly, removing some of my "faults". I shortened my rather pointy nose, and trimmed my bushy eyebrows. I lengthened my hair, something I'd always wanted to do in the real world. It was such a shame that as soon as my hair grew long, it also grew outwards, making me look like an overgrown mushroom. My now long (and rather luscious) locks of hair ran down my neck to the tips of my shoulders. Now I was model material, I mused.

I confirmed my selection on one of the monitors, and winced as I watched and heard the bright screens around me disappearing. I sure as hell hoped no epileptic kids were going to be watching this anytime soon.

"Welcome!" a passive, female, obviously computer generated voice announcing from seemingly nowhere, but everywhere at the same time.

"To the world, of Sword Art Online!"

The world around me exploded into colours. I had thought the earlier screens had been bad. That was nothing compared to the dripping colours and pixels that merged, formed, and crackled all around me.

Good luck, epileptic kids.

Just as I was starting to nauseous, not for the first time today, and feeling slightly irritated, the colours stopped moving, and the world of SAO was visible.

I gaped, open mouthed, at the city that surrounded me that felt like it was based on the renaissance era of the middle ages. I was standing in the middle of a large plaza, big enough to easily host an army. I would've been curious as to why one area would be so damn large, if it weren't for the thousands of other players occupying the area.

Some of them looked very much like I did right now, shocked. The world was simply so… real. The air tasted very different from Melbourne's air, but it wasn't an unpleasant taste. It was crisp and clean, an ironic contrast to the plaza which appeared rather grimy and worn out. The sky was a mixture of wondrous blues, with light and pale clouds lazily drifting by, attempting to smother the sunlight, but to no avail.

I looked down at my hands, and gripped them hard. It was real, all real, I thought as I slowly unclenched them. I released my loud and common laugh, gaining some smiling, knowing looks from several others nearby players. One of them raised their hand, calling me over to a small group that was gathered with him. I happily ran over, laughing as they laughed at my eagerness. They were all male characters except for one short female.

I had to remind myself that the female could very possible be another male. A rather disturbing thought.

All of the males were at least my height, most of them taller, reaching the grander 6'6 height. I wondered how many of them would be taller than me in real life though.

The girl had pixie pink hair, along with chubby, yet cute cheeks. Rounded off with a chest that could put up a fight against Rebecca's, she had an incredibly beautiful avatar. Noticing my staring, she grabbed my hand.

"Hey hey, what's your name, what's your name", she asked, a bit too excitedly. She was bouncing on the heels of her feet as she said this, causing her chest to make rather… erotic movements.

I felt my face heat up and blush. I groaned silently, this must be one of those games where emotions were displayed exaggeratedly on the player's face.

"Sirius" I pronounced clearly, receiving a small look of admiration from the males. I smiled a bit, while mentally thanking Matthew for my username. "Where are we?" I asked, curious to learn more about the game.

"Starting City", one of the males said, with one eyebrow raised.

"Creative, huh", another said, his voiced laced with sarcasm. We all laughed, while one of the other males punched the speaker in the arm in mock play.

"We're currently on the first floor of the floating castle, Aincard," the male continued, "There are 100 floors, each with differing terrains and environments, and between each floor is a connecting dungeon, guarded by a boss. It's really quite the beautiful world. It's a shame they couldn't come up with better names for places."

"Oh stop bitching about the name, it's the only drawback we've seen so far," another male argued. "I mean, even the menu's are amazing," he added, while placing his finger and thumb together into an "O", and flicking them outwards.

I blinked. Nothing happened.

They laughed at my confused expression. "You can't see other players screens unless they give you permission," the pixie girl (or man, I sullenly reminded myself) exclaimed.

My lips formed an "O" as understanding washed over me. I bent my finger and thumb into a similar shape as the other male. As I flicked my fingers outwards, I groaned as I heard the all too familiar and highly irritated hum and chime of a monitor appearing. The words "Menu" appeared at the top of the monitor, while underneath, there were several options:

-Stats-

-Equipment-

-Inventory-

-Quests-

-Options-

-Relations-

-Exit-

There were several other titles that were blurred out, that I assumed would be available later on in the game. Before I examined my starting stats, equipment and inventory, I pressed –Options-, scrolled down to sound effects, and muted the menu effects. No more humming and chiming for me.

I then explored the other titles. My starting stats were listed out:

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Dexterity: 5

Perception: 5

Vitality: 5

Luck: ?

I was interested in them, but as I was unsure as to what exactly each one would alter, I left it for later examination. Sure, strength would make me stronger, but does stronger mean that I can carry more equipment, or would it make my attacks stronger. Perhaps both. I couldn't wait until some players released a FAQ, or a basic guide about the game. Out of all the stats, luck was the most intriguing. It appeared that the luck stat could not be altered nor viewed. Very interesting.

My inventory and equipment was much less interesting. My inventory consisted of three "weak health potions", one "home teleportation crystal", a loaf of bread and a flask of water. My equipment consisted of torn cloth leggings and a ragged shirt. Nothing else. Not even shoes.

Except for my sword of course, I thought as a grin made it's way to my face. Sure, the "Beginner's sword" wasn't very impressive, in fact, it was probably the plainest lump of metal I had ever seen in my life, but it was still a sword. I practically started drooling over the though of using it.

I swore as my character's exaggerated display of emotions caused me to actually start drooling. The laughing of the group around me drew me out of my menu, and I quickly pressed the small "x", and closed the menu (thank the gods and heavens) silently.

After looking at my ragged equipment, I noticed that everyone in the group had near identical clothing to me, including the pixie girl. In fact, I wouldn't have minded a few more tears in her ragged shirt.

Except she was probably a guy. I felt nauseous for the third time

Feeling the need to get away from the group of males plus a girl possibly a guy, I gave my thanks to them, and promised that if I saw them in the field, I would party up with them. I didn't befriend them yet though. Just like in the real world, I considered friends to be only a few and special individuals.

The fact that I did not know how to add friends had absolutely nothing to with my actions. None at all.

As I walked away, I pondered how I was going to be able to locate Matthew in this infestation of players.


The high pitched laughing of NPC children passed me by for the third time, as they followed their given, binary commands without pause or hesitation. I wished that I had some sort of plan that I could follow, instead of sitting on an empty bench watching the stone carved water fountain in front of me that was glistening with rivulets of pure clean water. Several drops would bounce off of an ornament, and following very precise physics commands, would direct themselves at me, leaving me with a pleasant array of cool pinpricks on my bare arms. I was considering dunking my head in the water, just because I was curious as to how the Nerve Gear system would handle a feeling as complicated as immersion within water.

My chance was stolen however as a soft chiming signified a glowing exclamation mark surrounded by a circle to pop into existence. I sighed exasperatedly. I thought I'd already turned off the menu sound effects. I guess that there were many other sound effects that I would have to disable before I'd be blessed with peace and quiet.

I touched the glowing exclamation mark, and blinked in surprise as I examined a friend request. It was from a player named Rhythm.

"Matthew", I muttered. I knew it was his username instantly. It wasn't that the name related to him in any way. It was just that, after knowing someone for so long, and being such good friends with them, you just gain a sixth sense about these things.

And of course only Matthew would have been able to befriend me without even meeting me in the game, he was the one who created my username, for goodness sake.

I pressed the accept option, tapped the exit button, and the screen silently slid into nonexistence. I swore, when no sooner then the screen had closed, another chime sounded. I angrily scrolled through my options, found the sound effect setting for notifications, and muted it, despite the protests of the system.

Then, after a sigh of relief, I looked at the notification.

-Meet me at the North Gate now. Don't bring any of the babes with you, I fear they're all men in disguise: Richard-

I laughed quickly, and stood up from my bench, before I paused suddenly. Where was my compass? For that matter, where the hell was my map? That was a complication I hadn't been expecting. I decided that you had probably had to pay for them, so as a compromise I began running in a random direction, praying that it would lead to something.


Running was definitely a feeling I would have to get used to. I had run for a good 20 minutes, and had yet to feel any exhaustion. My breathing was heavy, but that felt more like a habit from running in the real world than a necessity. What had confused me was that no matter how hard I tried; I just couldn't seem to run faster. My pace had been rather slow, definitely slower than what I could run in the real world. However, when I tried to push my legs further, and pump my arms harder, it achieved nothing, except for increasing my irritation.

After getting nowhere with my blind running, I finally swallowed my pride, and had asked some players that looked more experienced where the North Gate was. The way they acted, and the quality of some of their equipment, made me suspect that they were some of the beta testers. Beta testers were players who had already had a month's experience of playing SAO before it was officially released. They seemed a little arrogant, but were very kind nonetheless, and happily pointed the way for me, for which I thanked them greatly.

As I rounded what was hopefully the last corner, I received yet another glowing, yet thankfully silent, notification from Rhythm. He had begun to grow impatient over the past 5 minutes, and had been barraging me with messages, much to my annoyance.

They consisted primarily about babes.

The North Gate loomed in front of me, and I slowed my running pace into a more comfortable walking one, and glanced around, trying to locate my friend. This proved to be a fruitless endeavor however, as Matthew's avatar, Rhythm must look physically different than what I was used to.

I decided upon the easiest course of action.

"Where are all the babes?" I shouted, receiving a few weird, judging looks from other players nearby.

My moment of embarrassment was rewarded with a response, "The babes are here!", which, to my disappointment, consisted of one lonely female.

Rhythm was standing with his arms crossed, looking noble and righteous in his 6'6 avatar, with long black hair, blowing slightly in the weak wind. His unusually blue eyes stared at me, clouded with amusement. Beside him was a female avatar, and another male avatar, who was of a height more similar to mine, with short black hair, which reminded me strongly of a certain individual who I couldn't quite place my finger on…

I was about to question Rhythm as to who these people were, but all that came out of my mouth was...

"Oomph."

A fist had connected with my gut, and had done the equivalent of winding me within the video game parameters. I was basically left with an unpleasant feeling in my lungs, while maintaining the ability to breathe.

I followed the fist to its source, and was surprised to see that it had belonged to the girl who had been standing with Rhythm. Her purple highlighted hair and playful purple eyes distracted me for long enough for her to connect the sole of her shoeless foot with my chest, effectively knocking me to the ground.

"That's for earlier today, you asshole" She smirked, while sticking her tongue out at me. My mind whirred a bit, while gears and levers clicked into place.

"Rebecca" I said shocked. She laughed, amused at my expression. I turned to face the fourth member of our party.

"Daniel" I said in mock disgust, facing the black haired individual. He kicked me in the chest, less playfully than what I would've preferred, but proceeded to hold out his hand and lift me up. Rebecca swooned over to him, and wrapped her arms around his midsection.

"A true gentleman", she said, sighing in affection. Rhythm and I snorted, which quickly morphed into a cough as we received stabbing glares from brown eyes that promised certain death. Rebecca closed her eyes, and her shoulders visibly relaxed as Daniel stroked her hair, before opening them again her brown irises full of mirth.

"But… how?" I asked, still confused. Where had they gotten the Nerve Gears and SAO installations? I only managed to get mind because Matthew had waited in line so long and…

Understanding washed over me. There had been four boxes in Matthews's room. He had bought one for everyone. I growled, annoyed that they had kept it a secret from me, but was secretly happy about the turnout.

They were all laughing at my reaction

Rebecca begun playing with her fingers in front of her face, and it took me a few seconds to realize that she was navigating her menu, and not making rude hand gestures to me.

A glowing notification appeared in front of me, and I tapped it, unsurprised when it contained a friend request from…

"Becka, creative, aren't you" I said laughing.

She laughed with me, but continued by stating, "You want creative, wait until you see Daniels," she said, before collapsing into a fit of laughter.

I frowned as a new notification appeared on my screen. My eyes found Daniel, who was looking at me expectantly, as if waiting for my approval. I noticed that Matthew was trying to look disappointed with his friend, but was fighting a losing battle with the smiling muscles in his face. Rebecca was still laughing beside Daniel, using him as support, else she would surly have collapsed on the ground by now.

I hesitantly pressed the notification alert, worried about what I would find.

I could only stare.

"Cig Bock?" I said weakly, struggling to get the words out. Daniel just nodded his smiling head.

Words could not describe the disappointment I felt in my friend

But laughter could.

And as the laughter bubbled out of my chest into the outside technologic world, Matthew lost his battle, and burst into laughter along with me. Rebecca finally collapsed from the amusement. Daniel finally happy that we more or less "approved" of his username began laughing.

I was content. I was happy.

Richard, Matthew, Daniel and Rebecca continued to laugh, attracting stares from passerbys who just shook their heads at the overly excited kids, some smiling at the scene, others frowning, but we didn't care.

Sirius, Rhythm, Cig Bock, and Becka laughed alongside with us.

We were content. We were happy.

For now.


And stop.

Yeah, I released this much earlier than I originally planned. I was just too eager, despite the lack of current readers... hmmm, hopefully that'll change eventually. I also realized that the first chapter contained no actual SAO gameplay, what a shocking disappointment as that is why anyone would be be here. So, second chapter came out nice and early. I'll try and figure out a proper release date. Or, you know, i might keep it spontaneous, keep the future readers on their toes.

Cheers

-Council