Sunday, November 6th, 2022, 12:50 P.M.

At the end of the beta test, all the beta testers were given the opportunity to pre-purchase the game; since there would be a very limited number of copies on release, this was a godsend, and naturally Kazuto and I both bought the game immediately. Finally, the day for the official release had come, and the server would be opening at 1 P.M. I rushed to finish my lunch so that I could log on to SAO the second the game came online. Normally I didn't get so worked up about big releases—hell, SAO is probably the only game that I'd consistently played that wasn't at least a few years old—but it was hard to not get excited. I hadn't logged as many hours into the beta as Kazuto had… although, to be fair, that boy was insane; I don't think he was ever offline when I logged in. In any case, I was one of the top players, probably second only to Kazuto, despite it being the first major MMO that I had really ever played. I was hooked on the game, and I couldn't wait to be able to play again.

My mom grimaced when she saw how quickly I was eating. "Slow down a bit, Rei… it's not like your NerveGear's going anywhere. Besides, it'll probably make it harder to play if your stomach hurts."

I didn't respond immediately, as I was preoccupied with my food. "Give me a break, Mom… I just don't want to miss the launch."

"Ehhh, it's not like you to make such a big deal out of it."

I shrugged in response, and continued to eat my food, albeit a bit more slowly in order to appease my mother. Once I finished, I stood up, stating that I was going to go dive into the game.

"Have fun. Just be sure to come back downstairs by 6 to get something to eat."

"Yeah, I will."

As I ascended the stairs, I could overhear my little sister, Maki, complaining. "It's not fair… I want to play too." I could almost hear her pouting.

"Now, Maki-chan, we only have the one NerveGear for now. Besides, you're a bit too young to be playing something like Sword Art Online yet."

"Ehhhh!? I am too old enough!" She clearly wasn't too enthralled by our mother's response.

I chuckled softly as I went into my room. Maki had come to me more than once over summer break, begging me to let her try the beta out just once. Mom was right, though; she was too young for SAO, since the game was rated for 13 and older. Normally I wouldn't be too strict about age ratings to a certain extent, but FullDive games were a different story, since you were actually the player character yourself.

I checked my clock, which read 12:59 P.M., so I was just in time for the launch. I laid down on my bed and put on my NerveGear, and when the clock on the device's HUD changed to 1, I said "Link Start," sending myself into the gaming world. As usual, the device did its sensory checks, and once it was done I was greeted by a system prompt.

『Character data detected. Use current data?』

『Y/N』

I selected the 『Y』 option, knowing that it was referring to my character from the beta. Us testers had been informed that we would have the option of transferring our characters over to the full release. Of course, none of the stats would be transferred; however, our name, appearance, and some of the game settings would be, so it saved some time. As such, I didn't go through character creation, and instead was immediately sent to the main plaza of Starting City. There were already some other people logging in, but I just ignored them and made my way out to the fields just outside the city. As I was running, I moved the sheath for my dagger from my hip to my right arm, so that the grip was pointing down. I had messed around with the positioning during the beta, and I found that having it on my arm provided the easiest and fastest access. Fortunately, the game was kind enough to prevent the dagger from simply falling out of the sheath when it was upside-down.

I spent a couple hours grinding on the «Frenzy Boars» in the grasslands, which got me just over halfway to level 2. The boars, being the weakest monster in the game, didn't exactly give buckets of XP, and it didn't help that levelling in SAO took quite a long time compared to other games. I decided to take a break from fighting and head back to Starting City. I also had a few drops from the boars to sell; they were mostly just trash items, not worth holding onto and not worth much Cor either. As I was walking along the crowded streets, I was sorting through my inventory, and out of the various voices from all the conversations that people were having I could hear one specifically directed at me.

"Um, excuse me…"

Looking around, next to me I noticed a young boy standing around listlessly, looking completely lost. He had short, light-brown hair, and wore a light green shirt and khaki pants. His avatar looked no older than 12 or 13, and he was actually a centimeter or two shorter than me. I shot a questioning look at him, which got him to speak up.

"U-Uh, could you give me some help? I've never played a game like this before…"

I sighed slightly. I was planning on sending Kirito an instant message to tell him to meet up with me, since our friends lists were one of the things that didn't get transferred over, but if I helped this boy that would have to wait. I stood there in silence for a few seconds, unsure if I should help him or not. Eventually I decided that I might as well help him; Kirito was probably out grinding anyways, and it was possible that we would run into him out in the fields.

"Yeah, I guess… though, why did you ask me specifically?"

"Er, well… you just seemed really familiar with the game when you were walking by. Everyone else here is just kind of standing around…"

Fair enough. "Alright. You should already have a starter weapon, right?"

The boy grinned and nodded vigorously. "Yep! I have a dagger, if that's okay. My name's Yi, by the way." His name appeared next to the cursor above his head shortly after he told it to me.

"A dagger, huh. That makes this a bit easier, at least. My name's Rei. I don't want to waste any time, so let's get going."

"You know, having a staring contest with the boar isn't really going to accomplish much."

Yi and the boar in question had been facing each other unmoving for the last 30 seconds or so. Well, 'unmoving' wasn't completely accurate; the boar had been pawing at the ground, and Yi looked like he was about to shake to pieces. He clearly wasn't going to go on the offensive… hopefully he would at least have enough sense to move once the boar charged.

The boar let out a high pitched squeal and began its attack, charging at Yi at full speed. As the boar got close to him, he jumped hard to his left, avoiding the boar's charge. He swung his dagger desperately at the boar as it passed by him, but doing so only sent him further off balance, resulting in him landing on his side rather than his feet.

"Jeez…" Shaking my head, I drew my dagger and ran at the boar, holding the short blade horizontally just above my right shoulder. The boar was still recovering from its charge; once I got near it, I stopped and shifted my posture slightly, activating the basic Dagger Sword Skill called «Slice». I leaned forwards, and the glowing dagger dug into the boar's right flank, taking about 35% of its HP. Afterwards, the post-motion delay held me in place for about a tenth of a second, after which I jumped backwards. Determining me to be the bigger threat, the boar turned around and faced me, preparing to charge again. I repeated the process twice more, killing the boar and receiving marginal Cor and XP for my trouble.

After sheathing my dagger, I turned to look at Yi, who had since picked himself up off of the ground. "Like I said before, just swinging your dagger around isn't going to do much. You have to wait for an opening and counter with a Sword Skill."

"It's so hard, though… and actually facing the monster is scary."

"No one said it would be easy. I get that actually fighting with your own body can be jarring at first, but you've got to get used to it. Hmm... Try practicing using «Slice» for a bit before fighting another boar. Having the pre-motion for the Skill memorized will help a lot."

"Okaay." Yi did as I instructed, and used the Sword Skill repeatedly, swinging at the air. After a while, he tried fighting another boar, with much more success. It still took him over twice as long as it did for me to kill it, but it was major progress nonetheless.

"Good job. Take a minute to rest. Once you're ready we'll keep fighting. You're going to have to pick up the pace, though, if you want to level up anytime soon."

"Understood, Rei-sensei!"

"...I'd really prefer it if you didn't call me that…" I sighed. Yi was a fast learner, but his personality was really wearisome, at least for me. I found it hard to deal with people that were always bouncy and energetic, with the exceptions of Kiko and my sister… Well, to be honest, I tended to dislike spending time with anyone outside of my family and two friends for extended periods of time, but that didn't mean I wouldn't help someone that needed it. I glanced up at the clock in the corner of my vision, which to my dismay already read 5:29. Well, good excuse to take a break, I guess. "Crap, it's getting late… I should probably get going. I'll go back to Starting City before logging out." I turned around to start heading back to Starting City, but Yi stopped me before I could start walking.

"Wait! Um…" I turned around to look at him, and a small system window appeared in my vision. It was a friend request. I just stared at it for a few seconds; when I didn't immediately accept it, Yi hurried to explain. "Um, well… you were a really big help today… I just want to be able to repay you sometime…"

"Oh, I see… You really don't need to worry about it, it's not that big of a deal." I still didn't accept the request, which prompted a questioning look from him. I averted my gaze. "Er… it's just, I don't like adding people to my friends list unless I know them well…" Well, it was only sort of an excuse. Besides, I wasn't lying.

"Oh, okay…"

He looked kind of down about it, which made me feel bad. I waved my arms in front of me, trying to convince him to cheer up. "Uh, but don't be upset about it! It's still possible to contact other players without having them as a friend… Sorry, I really need to get going."

"Alright, I'll see you around sometime, I guess."

"...Yeah." I turned and started running back towards Starting City, waving at Yi as he retreated from my view. There were a few other players fighting the boars scattered around the fields; I made sure to avoid getting too close, so that I wouldn't get in the way of their fighting. Judging by their movements, most were new players; a lot of them were struggling to hit their adversaries, and were quite low on health. As I watched, one of the low-health players failed to dodge the charging boar and got hit straight in the gut, depleting the rest of his HP. I ignored the newbies and continued on my way to Starting City. As I neared the gate, however, I was engulfed in the signature light of a teleport effect, along with all the people around me. After the effect subsided, I found myself in the main plaza, surrounded by players.

It looks like almost all 10,000 people are here… a mass forced teleport? What could be going on? The players around me seemed just as confused as I was. After some time, I noticed a hexagonal red system window floating up in the air. The window rapidly multiplied, forming a red dome that enclosed the entire plaza. After that, a viscous, blood-like red liquid emerged from the gaps in the hexagonal red tiles, and formed into an oversized version of the robe that GMs wore. Oddly, there was no avatar inside; instead, it was like the robe itself was an avatar. Seeing the authoritative robe, the crowd quickly quietened down, and the GM took the opportunity to speak. His voice was amplified, to the point where it sounded less like someone was talking to me and more like his voice was put directly into my mind… although, with how the NerveGear worked, the latter was actually the case.

『Greetings, Players, and welcome to my world.』

"My world"? Is this Kayaba? Just what the hell is going on?

『As you have probably already noticed, the «Log Out» button is missing from the «Options» menu. Do not fret, as this is no bug. No, the lack of the option is actually a feature of Sword Art Online.』

What!? I hadn't heard about that… I checked my menu, and sure enough, the 『Log Out』 option was grayed out. That... wouldn't accomplish much, thinking about it; players could be logged out forcefully by someone removing their NerveGear in the real world.

『As for forced removal of the NerveGear… should it be removed, the powerful electromagnetic transmitter within the NerveGear will have its limiter disabled, and it will release a high-energy pulse, effectively frying itself—and the user's brain.』

… Is this some kind of joke?

『Unfortunately, 213 players have already passed away. However, due to mass media coverage, there is no longer any threat of your NerveGears being removed.』

To emphasize his point, windows displaying various media outlets appeared in the air around him. They reported various deaths, and one had a video feed of a house surrounded by police tape. It wasn't a joke at all.

『To be more specific, being disconnected from an Internet network for more than 2 hours, being without sufficient power for more than 10 minutes, or the NerveGear being tampered with in any way will trigger the pulse.』

『Ah, before I go any further, I have a gift that I wish to give to all of you. Please, open your inventories.』

Not having any real reason to not do so, everyone opened their menus, the characteristic chiming sound reverberating 10,000 times over. In my inventory, at the top of the list, was an item labelled «Hand Mirror». It was… a hand mirror; looking in it, I saw the reflection of my avatar. A moment later, however, I was engulfed in light similar to a teleport effect, as was everyone else in the plaza. Once the light subsided, I could see the mirror again, and the reflection looking back at me was… me. Not me as in my avatar; me as in me, my real appearance. Looking around, everyone's appearance had changed… everyone got a bit shorter on average, and looked much more realistic, compared to the idealized avatars that they had made. Many of them had also changed genders, mostly to male. He returned us to our real appearances… the NerveGear does have our appearances stored, thanks to the calibration we had to do while setting it up… but why?

『So, to be able to log out, you must fulfill one condition: clear all 100 floors. Once the final boss in the «Ruby Palace» at the top of Aincrad has been cleared, all remaining players will immediately be logged out.』

Upon hearing this, many in the crowd started yelling about how ridiculous that was; the beta testers got to Floor 10 in a month, so getting all the way to Floor 100 would take at least a year. Realistically, it would probably take much longer.

『There is one more thing... should you die within the game, you will no longer respawn. Instead, your name will be stricken through on the «Monument of Life» in the «Black Iron Palace» at the south edge of this plaza...』

No respawning? With the way this is going, the only thing that could mean is...

『and the NerveGear's transmitter will release the high-energy pulse, ending your life.』

『You may be wondering, asking yourself why I would trap all of you here within the game. The answer is simple; this situation itself was my end goal. This is now your reality; you will live in Aincrad from here on out, until either the game is cleared or you die trying.』

『With that, the tutorial for the official release of Sword Art Online has been concluded. Best of luck in your endeavors, players.』

The robe avatar melted back into the dome formed by the system, and the dome itself receded shortly afterwards. After a few seconds of dead silence, all hell broke loose throughout the crowd, the cascade of shouting resonating throughout the plaza.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

"What kind of twisted joke is this!? Let us out of here already! I have a meeting to go to!"

"No… I want to go home…"

Unable to stand the noise, I retreated from the crowd, heading down one of the narrow alleys branching off from the main road. Once I couldn't hear the crowd anymore, I stopped walking, and sunk down to the ground with my back against the wall. I opened my menu again, staring at the grayed out button that should have been able to let us log out of the game. I wasn't really sure what to think. After sitting there for a few minutes, I realized that I had started crying.

"... Damn it…" I felt sick, which reminded me of my mother warning me that having a stomachache might make it hard to play. What could be going on out there right now? How are Mom and Maki-chan reacting? Dad probably doesn't know yet… Kiko-chan must be freaking out… I continued to wonder about what had happened, not paying attention to how long I was sitting around.

A small chime pulled me out of my moping, and in the left side of my vision appeared a blinking orange icon. A message? I tapped on the icon, and my eyes widened when I saw that the message was from Kirito.

「I'm at Horunka. The faster we can get stronger, the faster we can get out of here. I'll probably start heading to Tolbana tomorrow morning. It'll be faster to level up solo, but it's more dangerous too… we can party up in Tolbana if you want to. Don't die.」

He's in Horunka already? Looking up at my clock, it was almost 8 P.M. Two hours was enough time to get there, but that meant he left as soon as Kayaba's 'tutorial' ended. He had a point; the only way out of here was to get stronger and move upwards. Sitting around and worrying about dying wouldn't do anything for us. Travelling so late in the day would be a bit more dangerous; while there was enough moonlight to be able to fight by, it was still fairly dark. Stronger monsters also tended to spawn during nighttime, but the road to Horunka wouldn't have anything I couldn't handle. Deciding that it would be better to leave now instead of waiting for morning, I stood up and made my way to the gate to exit the city.

The dagger sheathed on my right arm had never felt as heavy as it did then.

Author's Notes

Hey! Hopefully you've been enjoying this so far! I keep worrying and worrying about the quality of the prologue and this first chapter, but I think I just need to get it out there and keep on trucking. I'll get more comfortable with some time.

The next few chapters are going to be both fun and a challenge to write; the impact of the situation hasn't really completely sunk in for everyone yet, and it's going to affect characters in different ways. It sort of feels like I'm putting the hard part off so my future self can deal with it… I've found that writing a realistic reaction is hard. Mostly because I have no clue how I'd react. I don't think I'm the kind of person that would freak out in that situation… I'd probably just go "oh, ok" at first and start making my way out. The breakdown would probably come later. It's impossible to really know, though; it's not like I've been in such a life-or-death situation before.

With Kayaba's speech… I just kinda winged it. Didn't feel like looking it up in the book or anime to see what he said word-for-word, so I just tried to get the point across. Not like it's anything new anyways. Another thing: the proper name for SAO's currency is Cor. I've seen it spelled as Col a lot as well, but there's a specific reason for spelling it Cor: Aincrad is short for "An Incarnating Radius," (which somewhat alludes to Kayaba's true intentions for the game); Cor stands for "Coin of Radius," so it's quite literally the coin of Aincrad.

That's all from me for now. Take care!