Here I was, standing in the Town of Beginnings. Nothing was different at all.

Oh yeah, except for the fact that my avatar was a girl.

This technology was amazing. I ignored my avatar for a couple seconds to gaze at the scenery. It was like I was actually inside a town. Then I remembered my avatar again.

I created my avatar the way I described myself to look on the forum: long, straight brown hair, medium height, and-

"Hari!" A random, feminine voice yelled. There were a lot of people here, and I couldn't tell if maybe someone else had picked the same name as my avatar - which was a lazy female version of my own name - or if Ayumi had seen me.

I whipped around to see a tall girl with short blonde hair.

Ayumi.

"Heh, hey..." I nervously said. Man, my voice was high. This would take some getting used to.

"Hi, Hari!" Ayumi giggled. "I'm finally... well, kind of meeting you!"

"Yeah..." I replied. Okay, a lot of getting used to. I hated this voice.

"So, wanna go shop for stuff?" Ayumi asked.

"Eh... shouldn't we kill boars or something? It'd be much more productive." I argued. I almost punched myself in the throat.

"You're right! You're an awesome friend, Hari! Let's go kill some boars!" Ayumi ran like a lunatic down the streets of the town, bumping into people, saying a long apology and then continuing her run.

I sighed. She seemed kind of annoying in real life... uh, or SAO. It was really hard to remember this was a video game.

We arrived at a field where there were loads of boars. Ayumi started shaking.

"It's a video game." I reminded her.

"Right, right... those boars look scary..."

"I wonder how you'll react when you see bosses."

"Don't remind me about those scary monsters... I just wanna have fun here!" Ayumi whined.

"Uh... I guess I'll shop with you, or whatever... if you fight boars for a few minutes." I reassured her.

"YES!" Ayumi automatically snapped out of her funk and victoriously pumped her arm. "Let's do this!"

She ran into a boar and fell down, losing a ton of HP.

I sighed.

"You have to be smarter than that; try to plan out your attacks." I tried to act all serious, but this voice... I think I've said enough about it, but it was pretty much on my mind the entire time.

"Okay, bossy." Ayumi crossed her arms, walking back over to me. "You try it."

"Fine with me." I shrugged. I'd read enough about this game to fight a simple boar like this.

I slowly took out my dagger and grasped it in my palm. The boar went for me, but I sidestepped it and slammed my dagger into its skull. Ayumi cheered.

It wasn't quite over yet, as the boar had a bit of HP left. I stood there nonchalantly as it ran towards me, but when it arrived, I sliced its body in half, delivering the final blow.

"Holy crap!" Ayumi rushed over to me and patted me on the back. "You are amazing, girl!"

Thanks for reminding me, Ayumi. I'd been so immersed in the battle that I almost forgot, but leave it up to you to remind me.

We fought a lot of boars, and the sun was setting. Ayumi was actually getting the hang of it, slashing boars like they were butter. We were getting a lot of experience, and we even leveled up.

"Well, it's almost night. I wouldn't want to keep fighting boars 24/7. It's time for some nighttime shopping!" Ayumi sheathed her sword.

Tsk, tsk. I forgot.

"Oh, fine. I said I would." I painfully agreed.

Then I looked at the time, and a plan formulated in my head.

"Ah, shoot. Dinner's ready at home." I tried to sound sad, but inside I was screaming "YES!" over and over. Escape from Ayumi, who I much preferred in a chat window online.

It was a lie, by the way. Dinner was ready whenever I wanted. It was in the fridge, ready to be microwaved.

"I'll start shopping, but come back later, okay?" Ayumi smiled at me, and it was a really nice smile. For the first time today, I wasn't annoyed at her.

"Okay." I answered, giving a grin back. I pressed my thumb and index finger together and swiped them down; this is the way to open your menu in-game. I scrolled down with my finger to the log out button.

Wait.

It wasn't there.

"H-Hey, Ayumi, you know where the log out button is? I thought I knew." I nervously asked, anxious to eat my food and keep a watch over my sister before she destroyed my house. My mom wasn't even home, nor my dad, and my sister didn't care. They depended on me to babysit her, because when I turned fifteen my parents treated me like a full-on independent adult. They're out for a movie or something.

"Yes, it's... huh?" Ayumi was staring at her menu. "It's not there..."

"Oh, man... I never heard about an emergency logout. This is a serious bug." I grimly said.

"I need to go home!" Ayumi whimpered. "I can't be stuck here!"

"You probably won't. They'll fix it." I shook my head. "But it is an odd bug. If they knew about this bug, which they probably would, they could turn off the server and log everyone out automatically."

"What d-does that mean?" Ayumi was panicking. I was more worried that before they fixed the bug, I'd wake up and my sister will have destroyed the entire house and done something weird with my body while I was in the game.

"I don't know... let's just wait." I reassured Ayumi, who looked like she was going to faint.

Just then, I was swallowed by light.