Chapter one

The screen sprang to life, logged myself on, then went through a few system tests, before I was greeted by a gray screen with black letters.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online"

The next thing I knew, I was staring at the tiled floor, and at my black boots. I then looked at my hands, to see that they, too, were the gloves that I chose for my avatar. I was overwhelmed with the perfect 3-D world I was witnessing! I had heard that it would utilize all five senses, but I didn't think it actually could. Already, I could feel the ground beneath my feet, and smell the rich aroma of delicious foods. I couldn't wait to taste it.

"Hey, over heeeere!" I looked to the South West of me and saw someone waving at me. I knew it was Mike, because he always uses the same types of Avatars. He makes them look badass, and always have a good amount of red. The last time we played a game together, I made that comment and he replied with, 'it's so you can instantly recognize me'. Well, I've yet to fail to see him, so I guess it works.

I tried to run over to them, at first it felt a little awkward trying to run with just my mind, instead of the usual WASD, but I eventually got the hang of it, and ran over to my comrades.

"Glad you could make it!" Then a window appeared in front of me.

"Accept Jace's friend request?" Then there were two buttons. A red "X" and a blue circle. It was obvious that the circle was accept, so I pressed it with my finger, and the menu went away. Once this happened I could see Jace's name over his health bar, but surprisingly, not his level. Then, almost immediately, another box appeared from nowhere.

"Jace invites you to join his party" Once again I click accept and then two more names appear. Elena, (Sarah) and Alexis (Ashley).

"You should probably friend Elena and Ashley" I swiped my finger and thumb to access the menu, and with the assistance from Jace, I was able to send friend requests to Elena and Alexis.

"So," Alexis started, "How do I look?" She spun around so that I could get a good look of her. She too had her signature style, but hers was straight, red hair, that went down half way down her back.. She was wearing a black shirt and skirt, followed by a red jacket. The combination didn't look all too great, but she wanted her and Jace to match.

"You look great!" I lied. This was the normal pattern, every game we play. Then-

"How about me?" Elena jumped down from the rock she was sitting on, and also spun around. Now Elena always takes pride in her avatars, making them absolutely gorgeous! This time, she had long brown hair, tucked behind her ears, a pretty blue tunic, paired with light brown leggings.

"As amazing as always!" I responded. Elena could only blush to my comment.

"And you're flirty as always, Jin!" Jace remarked. Now I couldn't help but blush a bit. "Anyway, now that we're all here, we should go out and get some EXP!" We all cheered and headed out of the gate as a party of four. "Now remember, guys, the EXP system is calculated by the amount of Hit Points (HP) your opponent has, so we need to take turns fighting off monsters so that we can level at a steady pace."

As always, Jace knows most of everything about the game before we begin.

"Also, just to be clear, if there's ever a rare item dropped-"

We cut him off in unison, "It goes to the player whom it would benefit the best." It was a simple, yet important rule. We always try and keep balance within our group, so when a peice of equipment is dropped, it's always to the person that needs it the most. Jace also added that people get greedy and will take rare items to sell. This helps get rid of that.

"Well, since that's taken care of, let's go!" Jace bolted towards the nearest boar. He raised his sword to about shoulder length, then his sword glowed, and dashed at the boar hitting him dead on, causing the boar's HP to drop to the yellow.

Jace had explained that the HP bar changes color depending on the amount of HP remaining. It starts green, and stays that way until it drops to the middle. Once there, 50%, the color changes to yellow, red at 25%, and finally starts blinking at 15% and lower.

"What was THAT!" Alexis screeched. As always, Jace shows the coolest ability available at level one, and shows it off.

"That, my dear Alexis, was a Sword Skill. These are the main abilities we use to fight the monsters in the game. That one was "Sonic Leap"!" Jace smirked.

"That's awesome!" Jace did a few vertical strikes, and once the boar reached zero HP, it shattered into thousands of pieces, and eventually disappeared. Another boar was approaching us, and I charged for it this time.

"Now, Jin, the trick to combat is to let the system do everything for you. You just have to raise your sword as if you were going to do a technique, then the game takes care of the rest for you."

"I see..." I raised up my sword, to my shoulder as Jace did, and noticed the sword glowed, then I just let released control of my sword allowing the system to take care of the rest, and my body was sent straight toward the boar, stabbing right through it. "Wow! That was awesome!"

"I know right!" Jace was smiling, "This truly is, a revolutionary way to experience video games!"

We ended up grinding for hours, and for the first time playing an MMO, I didn't mind grinding for EXP, because the fights felt so real!

"Hey, guys," Jace started. "look at the time." I opened up my menu, which I was getting much better at navigating through, and noticed that was about 5:30. "It's starting to get late, should we log off and call it a night?"

It was Elena, who surprised me, "Are you kidding?! We stayed up later playing browser based MMO's! Don't tell me you actually want to stop playing one as immersive as this?!" After she yelled at Jace, she quickly looked away to hide her blush.

I walked over to Elena, "She's right, we should play longer! We should take this opportunity to advance as far as we can!" I smiled.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's continue grinding a little longer, then!" We all cheered once more.

I've noticed, that when Elena (Sarah) plays an MMORPG, she's a completely different person then how she is in the real world. IRL, she's a quiet girl, who's always clinging on me for protection. But in the Virtual worlds we've visited over the years, she's a strong willed woman, who does anything to protect the party, and to ensure our safety. More times than I can count, she has saved us by pulling off some heroic deed by pulling aggro at just the right time, or healing right when it counts. It was this side of her, that I've grown attached to over the years, and because this virtual world is so immersive, so is this amazing woman, who's avatar stands before me.

Jace, and Alexis went off to fight a few more boars, and Elena took the opportunity to thank me.

"It's nothing," I tried acting all cool. "I've noticed that you really get into games, so I wanted you to be able to play more."

"Yeah, though I appreciate Alexis' company, I'm afraid all she does is fanboy over Jace."

"So you've noticed too..."

"Yeah. I have." We stood silent after that, and listened to the BGM (BackGround Music) of the area.

"You know," I finally said to break the silence, "I never really payed attention to the BGM till just now. It's really nice!"

"It sure is!" Elena smiled, and my heart skipped a beat.

"HEY!" Jace yelled, "Are you going to grind or what?!"

"Yeah, yeah! We're coming!" I replied. "Should we go?" I extending my hand out to Elena, with a smile.

She nodded. "Of course!"

As we walked toward Jace, we heard a loud bell, and simultaneously, the BGM turned off.