AN: Hey all, here is chapter 2, and a semi long Authors rant at the end.
(Gong, Gong, Gong,)
At the sound of the bell, Kirito turned towards the town, only to find himself in the starting plaza. As he kept glancing around, he noticed that people were porting in all over. Klein appeared next to him. "What happened? Is this part of the opening ceremonies?" Kirito shook his head. "Look." He then pointed to a hexagon that read 'Warning' "That blinking red likely means system announcement. Probably about the lack of a logout button." As he finished, the blinking red hexagon started to spread, covering the entire sky with system warning alerts. A red goo started dripping from the panels. Eventually, the goo took shape of a humanoid in flowing red robes.
"Attention Players. Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and I am the only one able to control this world. I'm sure many of you have noticed that the logout button in the main menu has been removed. This was intentional and a feature of the true Sword Art Online. The only way to logout, will be to complete all 100 floors of the game, and defeat the final boss at the top of Aincard. Be warned, should anyone in the real world remove your nerve gear, your brain will be fried using a powerful burst of microwave radiation, emitted from the transmitter in the Nervegear itself, killing you. This has already happened, and so, 587 player have logged out of this world, and the real one. From this point on, all methods of revival have been removed, and death in game, will result in your permanent demise. If your HP hits zero, the Nervegear will also fry your brain. Lastly, there is a gift in your inventory. Please equip it now."
All players immediately opened their inventories, hoping for relief from the nightmare. As one, every player shone with a bright light, changing all appearances to that of their actual form. Klein and Kirito stared at each other for a moment, before turning back-to-back, watching all players for any that showed aggression. "As I'm sure you have guessed, the Nervegear used a high-density scanner to estimate your facial features, and the setup determined your height. Your real body is now your Sword Art Online body. Your preparation is complete. This ends the SAO tutorial. Good luck."
Following this announcement, Kayaba faded to nothing, and the sky returned to the orange sunset it was before the message. Kirito looked around, and noticed several others doing the same. One, an African American looked at Kirito, and mouthed "Angora?" Kirito glanced around once more time, before nodding. At once, everyone started shouting at the sky, as the beta testers, and those few smart enough to follow, extracted themselves from the crowd before running off. Kirito, dragging Klein with him, followed suit, sprinting for the city gates as fast as possible. Kirito pulled Klein into a side alley. "Listen carefully, all of the beta testers are meeting in Angora, hopefully to discuss strategy. You should come too." Klein looked at Kirito, before glancing back at the plaza. "I can't, I have friends in the Plaza. I can't abandon them." Kirito thought for a few seconds, before nodding. "Quickly, let's get them, and head for Angora." Klein smiled, and nodded, before the two new friends ran off, heading towards the plaza, and finally, Angora.
November 8, 2022: Angora, First Floor.
Hundreds of players gathered in the small town of Angora. Kirito, Klein, and a couple of friends that partied together, sat in the town square waiting for something to happen. One of the members, Chong, leaned over. "Klein, Kirito, what's going on here?" Kirito looked over, before staring back at the crowd. "I don't know, what I do know is that someone told all of the betas to gather here, so we gathered." Chong leaned back, and sighed. Klein stood, and started strolling through the crowd, making nice and looking for anyone who was taking charge. Finally, a player with blue hair stood. "Everyone, listen up. Break into parties of 6, and then elect a leader. And solos come as well. We will begin talks then." Kirito looked at their party roster and noted that they were full, and Klein wasn't there. "Guy's listen, I'm going to go solo. Klein is your friend, and deserves to be with you. I'm more solo anyway." Chong glanced at the roster, before nodding. "Be safe." Those two words meant more to Kirito then anything else could have. He nodded, before running off towards the meeting point.
The meeting point was an old amphitheater just off the town square. Kirito arrived, and took a seat. The blue haired player from earlier stood up front, and leaned on his sword. As the party leaders and other solo players arrived, he smiled. "Attention everyone. This meeting represents the players best suited to beating this game, at least initially. We need to decide how we are going to do it. Also, we need to decide how much we are going to help the new players as well. The main argument would be that by us focusing on the bosses, we can beat the game faster. However, more people means less casualties. We vote now on how to proceed. Agreeing means we should help the newbies, disagreeing means we shoulder all of it." The message appeared in all of the leaders menues. After a few tense moments, the votes rolled in. "Alright, 124 were in favor of helping, and 118 were against. So initially, we will assist how we can. You also should keep an eye out for the boss room. I have sent all of you a friend invite. Please accept so I can message all of you when we find the door." He stared at the gathered players for a while. "That's it everyone. Go back to your parties and relay the news. I'll see you all soon." Kirito glanced around, noticing everyone else standing at moving out, except a solo player in a red hood. As he watched, the player stood, and walked out. Kirito then glance back at the leader, only to notice the blue haired man was staring back. The two players stared at each other, before the player said one word. "Diabel." He then proceeded to walk out of the amphitheater, heading out towards the city.
This chapter is some canon, which will continue until the fight with Illfang. This will be setup for the guild, as well as establishing a couple of OC for later use. After Illfang, AU will probably come in force. Current plan is to keep it semi canon until the Cats come in to play, or the episode Red Rose Reindeer. There will be deviant chapters where nothing is canon but the names. I hit some of the major episode points, like Kirito napping in the grass, as that episode had a lot of character development for Asuna. Others may change, like the entire cats guild getting killed. Let me know what you think, and submit some ideas for OC. Best 3 will make it into the story. Finally, the possibility of a beta guild will be established early on, but may or may not come to fruition, and Kirito may or may not be apart of this guild.