Hi, guys (and gals)!

I feel like my writing's improved a lot from my last fanfic - I attribute this mostly to reading the first couple volumes of SAO and learning how the author wrote, but I'm sure you guys helped with your reviews of the Crimson Swordsman too.

For some reason I feel like I just can't write long author's notes anymore (not that it's a bad thing) so I'll just go ahead and say -

Enjoy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.

The days slowly floated by while I did a combination of gaming and checking every message board I knew for updates on SAO.

While I knew I could probably have gone to school the last few days before SAO was released, I couldn't help but concentrate completely on Sunday, November 6th, 2022. My brother, being the awesome brother he is, didn't bother pushing me since he knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate in school anyways.

Then, finally, it came. I was in my bed, NerveGear hooked up, copy of SAO ready at 12:45, just waiting for 1:00 to finally appear on the Gear's interface.

I could barely hold in my enthusiasm at finally being able to play the world's first VRMMORPG. The day I heard about it, I wanted it. When my sister was miraculously chosen as one of a thousand beta testers, my longing for it increased even more. When she was waiting for me one day after school with a copy of it in her hands – well, I just couldn't wait. The days I've waited have all felt like their own lifetimes; my life was all leading up to this point.

And practically before the time even fully displayed, I was shouting "Link Start!" and flying through the usual maintenance checks.

And then, suddenly, I was there. In the world I had wanted to see since I first heard of it.

«Aincrad».

I glanced around a bit, taking it all in, before focusing on the task at hand. She said we'd meet on the south end, near the bench on the eastern side... I spotted a female avatar that looked pretty similar to her IRL and walked over.

"That you, Rin?" I called to her before standing in front of her. I noticed she looked pretty much the same, though she'd changed her eye color to green and shortened her hair a bit.

"Call me by my IGN," she said, looking me up and down. I basically looked the same as well, though I'd made my hair a slightly darker shade of black.

"Can't call you by your IGN if I don't know what it is," I said, before holding out a hand for her to shake. "My name's Katsurei."

She took my hand and shook it. "Reina. I can still just call you Rei, right?"

"If I can just call you Rin."

She sighed. "I guess. It's close enough to my IGN anyways."

I nodded, opening and closing my hands a couple of times. "So, I'd assume we're going out into the field?"

"Yeah. You're going to be pretty useless until you actually learn how to move and fight in this world." She grinned at me, then turned and started walking to the exit out of town.

"Harsh...but true, I suppose," I said, scratching my head and following her outside.

What I saw outside took my breath away. "You're...sure this is a «game», right?"

Plains seemed to stretch endlessly anywhere I looked. The level of detail on the graphics was incredible; I didn't even know it was possible for a game of this scale to look this good.

She smirked at me. "An «RPG», in fact. So if we don't hurry, all the easy monsters are already going to be hunted down and we're going to be stuck in the «Starting City» until they respawn."

I happened a glance at the mass of players still standing in the central square. "...wait, shouldn't we go and get some equipment first?"

"The «Unarmed» skill's useful to have in case you can't use your weapon for some reason. Besides, it'll be easier with a weapon since you have more range."

"So teaching it to me the hard way, so I can figure it myself out the easy way."

She nodded. "Exactly. Now let's go, before all the other players come to their senses." She started jogging in a random direction, and I followed her, still marveling at the level of detail the game had.

She pointed at a «Frenzy Boar» roaming the field. "Try fighting it."

I looked at her, exasperated. "No teaching at all or anything? What if I die?"

"If you die you'll never get to be my student again, seeing as that's the easiest «monster» the game has to offer." She smirked and pushed me toward it.

As soon as it spotted me, it gave out a squeal and started charging towards me. I, still unsure what to do, simply sidestepped, entirely unsure what to do.

"Open your window and check your skills!" Rin called out to me, making a motion with her right hand.

I followed suit, sidestepping the Boar again as it charged, and opened my skills menu. I quickly read through the «Unarmed» skill description and what I had unlocked in it, then equipped it and got ready for the next charge.

It turned around and charged at me again, letting out a squeal in the process. This time I surged forward to meet it, putting my hands in position for a throwing skill. The system recognized my pose and quickly moved to toss the boar a few feet away, shaving off a bit of its HP bar and allowing me to go on the offensive.

I charged toward the downed Boar and unleashed a two-hit combo, taking off a fair bit of its HP, followed up with a quick strike by my left fist, then used the most powerful skill I currently had: a powerful six-hit combo that took its HP into the red zone.

I leaped back, unsure how the Boar would react to having most of its HP taken off. It staggered to its feet and let out a guttural roar one wouldn't think would come from a pig, before turning to me and charging at me faster than it had before.

I crouched down slightly, then when it was within range released the final skill in my arsenal: a powerful single kick, which successfully took out the remainder of its HP and caused a purple window to show up with the XP and Col I'd gotten.

I glanced at the measly amount of loot I'd acquired, then turned to look at my sister, who gave me a thumbs-up and grinned. "You're a fast learner."

"Kinda had to in that situation, lest I get run over by 200 pounds of boar," I said somewhat sarcastically.

She shrugged and walked up to me. "Worked, didn't it?"

"So...are we getting weapons yet?" I asked.

"Nope. You're still in training." She smirked and poked my chest before taking off in a northward direction.

I sighed and followed her, already knowing this was going to be a long grind.

I finished the last Dire Wolf of the day off with a new skill I'd learned, «Viper Strike» - a quick, vicious strike that served as an excellent finisher.

I gave a quick look at the loot, then opened my menu. By 5:00 I was already a good way to level 3 and had gotten my «Unarmed» skill to level 6.

"I think I'll log out for now and get started on some of the homework I missed out on," I said to my sister, who was halfway to level 3 herself.

"Tell Onee-san I'll be back for supper," she said, closing her menu and looking around for any more monsters.

"'Kay." I navigated the menu to where the button to log out was -

Only to find it wasn't there.

"That's a pretty bad bug to have your first day..." I muttered.

My sister made a "hm?" sound and turned to me.

"The log out button isn't in the menu," I said. "It was there when I logged on, but there must've been a bug or something."

"But SAO's been practically bug-free, even since the beta," Rin said. "Having a bug like that on your first day...that could be pretty fatal, since we're stuck here until they fix it."

I sighed. "Well, at the very least...no math homework for now." I grinned at her. "I'll check again at 5:30. For now, I guess we're doing more grinding?"

"I was thinking we cold go buy some weapons now. Won't break our Col reserves."

I made a triumphant gesture with my fist. "Finally! An actual weapon!"

"Yeah, yeah. I just hope you won't kill yourself with it," she replied dryly.

I glared at her, then started walking back in the direction of the «Starting City».

I stared at the sun slowly dipping towards the horizon. "I still find it hard to believe this is a game..."

"Beyond things looking more polygonal it's pretty realistic," she agreed, gazing at the sun herself.

A couple dozen minutes later we were back in the plaza, now mostly deserted.

Rin gestured down a street. "The weapon shop's this way."

I nodded and started following her, listening to the NPC merchants' cries from their street stalls and looking at all the shop fronts and stalls. "It's exactly like we're in medieval Europe," I said, awed by the attention to detail.

"You get used to it eventually," she threw over her shoulder, then walked into one of the stores.

I followed her in, casting a few looks around. The weapon shop was, in a word, cozy – little sense as it made. A fireplace cheerily burned on one wall, fighting off the autumn chill, and weapons of all kinds sit on racks or simply on the floor all around the shop.

I walked up to the shop owner – a middle-aged man with gray hair and a fairly modest beard – and tapped the counter a couple of times to bring up the menu.

By the time my sister had already chosen her weapon and materialized it – a rapier – I was still deciding between all the weapon choices, mainly torn between a simply sword and shield or a greatsword.

She stared at me and tapped her foot impatiently, so I did some quick math and then bought all three items. I navigated quickly to my inventory and materialized the sword and shield, which I then strapped to my back.

As the merchant thanked us for our business, my sister asked, "Want something to eat?"

I looked at her curiously. "Why would we eat in-game if we're going to be eating IRL soon?"

She shrugged. "You get hungry here, too. Don't ask me why."

"I need to check on the bug again, first," I said, opening my menu and checking for the log out button. I shook my head. "Still not fixed."

"Have you tried contacting a GM?" she asked, opening her menu as well and typing out a quick message.

"Yeah, I'll try that," I said, doing the same.

She grinned at me. "So, since we'll be stuck here a little longer, do you want to eat or not?"

I shrugged. "Nothing better to do, I suppose." I glanced up and down the street quickly, before pointing to a cafe. "There?"

She nodded. "That's my favorite place, actually." She grinned and started walking towards it.

I sat down at one of the outside tables and tapped the table twice, glancing at the menu.

"Even the food's European," I said, deciding on a simple sandwich and a glass of water.

"Like I said, you get used to it," she said, deftly navigating the menu to order what she wanted.

When the food came, I bit into the sandwich – surprisingly good for how simple it was – and finished in a few minutes, feeling comfortably full. I stretched, waiting for my sister to finish, then got up.

I glanced at the time – 5:55 – and checked for the log out button one last time. "It's still not there!" I exclaimed, exasperated.

She finished and got up. "Seriously? They should have fixed it by now." She rapidly tapped some things, then frowned. "No response from the GM either..."

I shook my head. "Maybe it's more complicated than we think." I started walking back to the main plaza.

"Yeah. Hopefully." She followed behind me, still frowning and looking mildly worried.

When we got back, I sat down on a bench and marveled at the level of detail in the flowers and central clock tower once again. "Still...might not be so bad to be stuck here a while, I guess," I said, thinking.

"For a while. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a game any longer than that."

In a few minutes I'd regret those words as blue particles started shimmering around both of us, only to place us back where we were.

"...a forced teleport?" my sister muttered, as players starting appearing all around us.

And so the game began.

A much better beginning than my first, I'd say. I'm certainly liking this story a lot more than the Crimson Swordsman, for whatever reason.

We'll see how soon I have Chapter 3 up - I'm feeling good about this today, so it might even be out later today (no promises, though). I also hope the MC's a little less OP than Drakan was - I agree that he was just a little OP. [sarcasm]

Quick little edit here - I see I didn't set any actual name for Chapter 1, but sadly I have no idea what I'd name the chapters. So, guess I'm being generic this go around. Hooray!

And as always - thanks for reading!