Hello everyone, this is Sentinel07 along with ThisWillBeFun, and we're here with Chapter 3 of Curiosity.

Got about the same reception for Chapter 2 as Chapter 1. Sounds like a good pace so far.

Disclaimer: We don't own Sword Art Online or anything related to them.

Well, shall we get right to it then. Time for things to really get going. Hit it!

(BEGIN)

Chapter 3: The Game Begins

Outside Town of Beginnings- 1:30 PM

Outside the Town of Beginnings, Leafa and Silica ran out on to the fields. Well, it was more like one being dragged out; Leafa specifically. Silica was so excited to finally get out that Leafa didn't really have a say in the matter. Well, it was worth putting up with. At least Leafa actually had someone to converse with.

Once they were a ways out, Silica brought out her menu, going over a few things that she remembered from the instructions. All of their gear was "Standard" equipment; it was even in the names. One thing they noticed though that their gear seemed to differ from the actual clothes they wore. According to Silica, that apparently made sense, since normally in RPG's, a character's clothing differed from the armor they wore. Supposedly, any clothes they were wearing were in the "Accessories" section. Leafa of course didn't know much of that.

"How do you know all of this?"

"I've played a few games. Just before this, I was playing Pokemon Plus!"

Leafa recalled the name (who hasn't?), but she never played that. Boy, was she really out of touch here.

"So, you ready to defeat some enemies?" Silica chirped.

"Enemies already?"

"Yeah, they're just tiny animals at the very beginning. I'm not quite sure how exactly the fighting mechanics are in here, but I figured we can learn as we go along."

"But what are we going to fight with?!"

Silica put her finger under her chin. "Good question. Probably need to check our inventories. You usually start off with some type of simple weapon, like a small knife or a stick."

"We're going to fight things with sticks?" Leafa didn't have any idea what the heck they were supposed to be fighting, but she was pretty sure it'd take more than piece of wood to defend herself. It made her truly wonder if her sword skills back in the real world made any difference now.

Her friend simply giggled. "No, silly, I don't think we'd be using sticks for this game. It's just that some games make you begin with one, but it's mainly the more story-driven ones. Come to think of it, I actually wonder if there's a story to go with this world. It's so huge and awesome and all, but there has to be more to eat than just what we can see."

"Well, the book didn't say anything, so I don't really care," Leafa brushed off. "Now, you said we should check in our inventory thingies?"

"Yeah. You know how to do that, right? If not, I could show you how."

"Don't patronize me!" Angrily, she opened her menu the way she did before. "See? I know what I'm doing."

"Okay, okay, no need to get hasty," Silica sweated. "Man, no need to get so intense." She then opened her own menu.

"Oh, sorry," Leafa apologized. "I'm just getting used to this whole 'game thing'. Now, let's see what we got here…" She selected the inventory option, followed by the equipment one. A list of everything at her disposal appeared, though it was mostly blank due to having little more than her armor and something labelled "One-Handed Straight Sword". "Sweet, I got a sword!" She quickly selected the sword and watched in awe as what seemed like small blue shards form together to form a small blade within her very grip.

It wasn't much of a weapon by the game's standards, or even regular RPG standards. The sword consisted of a small, even somewhat dull blade with an even smaller grip, but to Leafa, it was the most beautiful instrument she had ever held before. Sure, she had grasped the old shinai many, many times, but not once had she handled an actual, steel sword. Just the way the sun shined upon it was enough to mesmerize her eyes as she started to imagine the sheer amount of possibilities this one sword could unlock.

"Leafa? Yoo-hoo?" Silica said while waving her hand of front of her entranced friend.

"Huh?" Leafa snapped back to reality. "S-sorry. I just got kinda...distracted for a moment there."

"It's okay, I know what it's like to get distracted by shiny objects," she smirked.

"It's not like that," Leafa defended, more than a little embarrassed by her ditzy moment. "It's just that I never thought I'd ever hold a sword like this in my life. Just taking it in is all."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. Check mine out!" Silica quickly brushed through her menu and selected her own default weapon, an even smaller sword with more of a curved, orangish blade. "I think it's called a Reaver or something." She took a dignified stance. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I suppose. Now, where exactly do we find these enemy-things?"

"Not sure. Guess we just keep on walking until we see some. You know how to use your sword?"

Leafa scoffed. "Of course! I'll let you know, I'm a rather renowned kendo practitioner back in the real world."

"Well, that won't help you here," Silica chuckled. "In case you haven't realized, this is a completely different world with completely different means of swordplay. We might want to consult the in-game manual on how to use them, though."

"Oh, please. What's to understand about swish, swish, stab?"

"I think there's more to it than that."

"Whatever. You see that?" She pointed off into the distance, where two small figures laid. They weren't entirely visible, barely coming off as two dark orbs on a faraway hill. Still, they were there and the two partners were excited.

"Yay! Our first encounter!" Silica cheered. "Come on, let's go!" Leafa started to prepare herself to be dragged again, but after a couple seconds of not being tugged on, she saw her partner already running off into the distance.

"H-hey, wait up!" she called out while trying her best to catch up. Damn, that girl was pepped up. The two sprinted off towards their game, the figures becoming clearer with each passing moment. Leafa was extremely excited to see what kind of enemies they were to fight, only to see the orbs' image begin to clear, revealing...hogs?

"S-Silica, hold on a minute!" she shouted in order for her rushing partner. She did hear her plea and ceased her advancing to properly speak together.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Are those pigs?" Leafa asked, a little dumbfounded.

Silica did a quick double take to their approaching enemies. "Yeah, looks like it. More like boars, though."

"We're fighting animals?"

"Yeah…" Silica answered with a weird look. "Why?"

"That's what we're fighting? No monsters, just animals?"

"Currently, yeah."

"Because the manual said there would be monsters with weapons and stuff to fight, not just little defenseless animal things."

"We will, just not now."

"Then when?!" Leafa was becoming a little exasperated by now. After all the hard work, money spent (and borrowed), and apology work, she finally managed to get her hands on a game where you had to start by killing stupid animals?! That didn't sound attractive at all. Maybe her brother just needed some way to take out his built up frustration, so he just played these games in order to help with that.

"Well, first we need to level up, so we can fight the harder enemies," Silica tried to explain. "The harder enemies are in dungeons and other places, which you can't go to unless you're strong enough."

"I'm strong enough!" Taking out her straight sword, the blond warrior took a battle ready stance. "Just you wait, I'll have these two into bacon in no time."

"Wait," the other pleaded while tugging on the sleeves of her partner. "You can't just go rushing blindly. Even in Pokemon, you have to have some sort of strategy."

"Pigs are killed all the time in the real world, so I imagine it won't be that difficult within a fake one."

"So you're just going to charge at them, no plan at all?"

"Like I said, it's nothing more than swish, swish, stab. Watch and learn." With that said, Leafa rushed off into the distance with all her speed, which honestly wasn't much considering how underdeveloped her skills currently were.

If she had bothered to look into the actual stat system of the game, she would have realized her great mistake of heading straight towards her game with such reckless abandon. Still, despite her low in-game stamina, Leafa ran up the hill of her enemies without losing her initial speed, eye on the prize. Even such low level enemies could see her coming in a good twenty feet feet away, meaning that while she was just about to thrust her sword right through the boar's body, the beast decided to charge an attack and give a good hit before she could. It wasn't long before she ended up being flung right off the hill the hogs was perched on, only to crash quite a few feet backwards, not to mention downwards. The impact was not comfortable for the girl and only became more humiliating once she opened her eyes to see Silica looking over her with a smug smile.

"I suppose you really do have the workings of a master butcher, Miss Leafa," the girl taunted while barely containing her laughter. It didn't take long for it to come out, though. Leafa could only glare as the other girl guffawed at her predicament.

"It's not that funny…" she defended while getting back on her feet.

"S-sorry!" Silica attempted to apologized while trying to suppress any further laughter. "You gotta admit, that was pretty funny. You did kind of deserve it."

"Yeah, yeah." The two glanced back up the hill to see the two enemy boars staring back at them menacingly with glowing red eyes. Now that Leafa got a good look at the beast, she could see its more monstrous qualities. Although she had not seen many other hogs in her life before, she was certain they didn't usually have such blue hair or such a hunched back. The red eyes were definitely an artistic decision.

Glancing off to her upper left point of view, Leafa noticed her HP bar, which had declined a little. Luckily for her, the boar didn't have too much time to charge an attack, so the damage was minimal, probably only an eighth of it gone, she couldn't quite tell. Still, it was more than she wanted gone and more than she was going to allow. Her expression became similar to the enemy glaring at her, one of sheer bloodlust. Taking a traditional kendo stance, she just waited for her opponent to make the first move.

"You're just going to attack it straight on again, huh?" Silica sighed. The boar was already starting to run down the hill and towards her fellow player.

"What, you have something else in mine?" The pig was halfway to her, though Leafa's stance did not falter.

"Yeah, it's called a strategy. Watch." The brown-haired girl brandished her own sword and held it beside her shoulders. The blade began to glow just as the boar, with its fully charged attack, came rushing towards her friend. She then thrusted the sword forward, ready to perform the action she had read about in the instruction manual. Silica was then whisked away by the dagger's strength.

While she was shrieking at her sudden flinging, Silica did manage to slice through the pig critically, though not fatally. Still, the enemy's health bar was already in the red and its path towards her partner was deterred, so it wasn't a total loss. Both the player and the pig were now several yards further away from their original spot.

"How the hell'd you do that?!" Leafa said in astonishment.

"I think they're called 'Sword Skills' or something," Silica answered while struggling to keep her balance. "Maybe I should have read the manual a little bit more intently. God, I think I'm going to be sick."

As the girl tried to her regain her composure, the enemy boar was faster to recuperate. Back on its feet, the beast began to charge for another attack for its new attacker, only to get cut off by the stabbing of a different sword into its back before exploding into blue shards. By the time Silica's vision cleared itself, all she could see was Leafa, a One-Handed Sword stuck in the ground, and some type of screen where the pig once laid.

"Yes!" Leafa cheered while digging her sword out of the grass. "You saw that, right?"

"S-sure…" her partner nervously chuckled. "What's the screen say?"

"Well, let's see…" She looked at the screen in front of her. "Results: EXP...what is-?"

"Experience points."

"Right. Well, whatever that is, I got twenty-four of them. Looks like I also got thirty Col and two new items. Cool."

"What do I get?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I did give most of the damage, so what do I get?"

Leafa closed the result screen with a nervous look. "I dunno. I guess...nothing…?"

"Seriously?!" Silica pouted while stomping her right foot. "That just isn't fair." Glancing upwards, she saw the boar's little friend from before. She then pointed at the looming figure. "You see that one?"

"Yeah…"

"It's mine." She brandished her dagger once again and ran uphill. Leafa could only watch, more than a little amused.

Town of Beginnings- 3:55 PM

"I still don't get it. I had to kill, like, twenty-something pigs. Maybe thirty, forty, I don't know. Point is, how am I only level four?"

"It's a gradual system," Silica rationalized as the two walked down the streets, taking in the sights of the beginning town. All around them, players like themselves were just strolling around while talking, with others simply taking in the sights and smells of the place or visiting with NPCs. Considering all the activity in the town, it was already looking like an actual, sprawling community. Well, a rather fantastical one, but one nonetheless.

"It's a stupid system if you ask me," Leafa pouted while looking at all the people at stands manned by strangely garbed avatars. "Say, what's with all these players selling stuff to other ones?"

"Huh?"

"The street vendors. How are they selling stuff? Where'd they get it?" Silica giggled in response, prompting a "What?" from her partner, followed by two more, each raising in volume and annoyance.

"Those are NPCs, stupid," the girl finally answered. "They're not players, they're just computers that act like real people."

"What? But they act so real!"

"Such is the wonder of Sword Art Online." Looking at the vendors herself, she began to wonder what sort of what sort of swords she may be able to procure herself, should she ever build up the money to properly purchase one. Come to think of it, how much time had passed already. "Can we stop for a sec?" she asked her other party member.

"Uh, sure. What's up?"

"Nothing, just checking the time." Silica opened up her menu, only to notice the lateness of the time. "Oh, man! It's almost four!"

"Huh?"

"Sorry, Leafa, I gotta go," Silica bowed in apology before scrolling down her menu. "It's been fun, really, but I got other things."

"I understand," Leafa said with a small smile. "We're friended, right? We can just track each other once we're both online. right?"

"Yeah!" Her expression brightened up a bit. "I'll try coming back on after dinner. See ya!"

"See ya."

The two exchanged friendly faces before Silica went to press the proper log-out button. She wondered why the option had no writing, but having read the manual before, she knew it was supposed to be the last option down. Oh well, she didn't make the game, so she had no reason to question the design choice, although the fact that nothing nothing happened after its selection was rather strange. Nothing happening after about ten other attempts was downright alarming.

"Dang it, what's wrong with this stupid thing?!" Silica yelled after attempting her selection a twelfth time.

"Is the button not working?" Leafa asked quizzically.

"What does it look like?!" the other girl snapped back. After seeing her friend's shocked look, she quickly changed her temsed up demeanor. "S-sorry. Just kind of lost myself there."

"It's okay, really." Leafa strolled on over to Silica's menu and examined the blank space. "You sure that's where the log-out's supposed to be?"

"Yes! That's where the manual said it was, so it should be there!"

Lefa hummed to herself before attempting to touch her friend's menu, only to cause it to retract immediately. "What the heck?"

"It's my menu, doofus." Silica then reopened her menu with a determined look on her face. Ignoring the still blank choice, she went straight to her inventory and went on to select the player manual, not batting an eye once the book materialized in her hands.

"What's tha-?"

"The player's guide," the girl cut off while beginning to flip through the pages in hope of some tech support. She began to flip through page to page, hoping to find something remotely helpful for this situation. The more she flipped, the more anxious her expression became and the more frantically she flipped. Luckily she soon found what she was looking for.

"Aha! Found it!" she cheered. "If logout commands fail, it may be due to a system failure or glitch. Please send an error report should the option appear and, if not, send a message to a gamemaster." She shut the book. "I have no idea what any of that means."

"It sounds to me like it's a problem only the people in control can fix," Leafa inferred. "Maybe we should just wait for them to fix it or whatever."

"Well, it's a pretty big problem to have on the first day," Silica grumbled while closing her menu. "Though, I guess I don't have much of a choice right." She gave off a weak smile. "I guess my parents are just gonna have to wait on me."

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Leafa chirped. "Now, how about we see what this town has to offer? I bet I could use a new sword besides this lame thing. I wonder if we have enough money, though."

"Only one way to find out!" Silica said while regaining her regular grin.

Town of Beginnings- 5:20 PM

"Damn, the weapons here are freakin' expensive!" Leafa yelled as she and her partner entered the town's local cafe. After over an hour of attempted in-game shopping, the two had finally given up on trying to equip themselves with more admirable equipment.

"Well, we are just beginners," the other girl said calmly while choosing a table for them to sit at. "You can't expect all the options to be open just like that." She then spied a free table in the center of the restaurant and walked over to it, with Leafa following compliantly. The two then sat down across from each other.

"I'm just saying, we've just been walking around aimlessly and for what? A couple of potions? Elixir thingies? We could have been killing some more of those annoying boars and getting more Col, not to mention more experience."

Silica giggled. "I guess you're finally starting to get into the spirit of the game, huh?"

"I guess." Leafa then looked around the cafe a bit. "Say, how do we order something here? Do we wait for a NPC or go over to one or what?"

"I'm...not sure." That was when Silica noticed a small button on the wooden surface of the table. Curiously, she tapped on it, only for a restaurant menu to materialize in her lap, causing her to "eep" a little.

"Woah, cool!" Leafa exclaimed while making her own materialize. "Are you really supposed to be able to taste the food here, like it's actually real?"

"So I've heard." She looked into her choices. "Hm...green tea, no...coffee, no...ooh! Hot chocolate sounds nice!"

"Same here, I guess. Although, 60 Col does sound a little expensive. Think we can spare that expense?"

"Sure, why not? Whatever we spend today, we can just make up next time! It's launch day, so now's a better time than ever to just do everything with reckless abandon."

"Yeah, I guess you're...right…" Leafa's attention seemed to veer towards some other source. Across the restaurant, there sat a familiar looking girl that looked about thirteen with curly auburn hair and wearing some standard armor just sitting at a table all alone, looking to be in deep thought. Could it actually be…?

"Excuse me, may I ask you your name?"

"Huh?" the mysterious girl muttered as she stared at the older-looking blond girl in front of her. She then seemed to actually process what was then asked of her. A smug grin then creeped itself on her face. "That may cost you some money to answer. Ah, what the heck, it's launch day! I'll give you one answer for free." The girl then propped her feet against the legs of the table she was sitting at, as to cause her chair to lean back before offering a handshake. "Name's Argo. Best remember it for later on."

"Argo?" Now that sounded familiar to Leafa. "Would your actual name happen to be, uh, Tomoko?"

The girl's eyes widened a bit. "Have we met before?"

"Kinda. On video chat, remember?"

Argo looked surprised for a second before reclaiming her usual smugness. "Well, well, looks like Kirito's snooping little sis finally caved in. Impressive. Nice to see you've even gone ahead and made some…" Her eyes lowered slightly below Leafa's face. "...creative liberties."

"Sh-shut up!" Leafa shouted almost as a defense mechanism, inwardly wondering why realtime blushing was an in-game feature. "Why do you look exactly the same, anyway? I thought you could make yourself anyone in this game."

"You can. That's why I chose to be me." Argo released her feet, causing the chair to crash back down on the floor with a thud. "I'm not one for lying, really. Not a good attribute for an Info-Broker."

"Am I supposed to know what that means?"

"It means it's gonna cost you if you want to know about what it is. I don't answer nothing for free, so you either have to deliver money or service for whatever you want to know."

"But that was exactly what I wanted to know."

"And now you owe me." Leafa was left to interpret whether or not Argo's canines were that large in real life or not. Either way, they looked way too noticeable in her state of perpetual smugness. It was almost annoying.

"Well, whatever," the other girl brushed off while trying her best not to want to punch the smile in front of her. "I guess you were right in that this game is pretty cool. Could use some improvements, though."

"Oh, really?" Argo perked up. "Interesting. I'd love to hear constructive criticism from a non-gamer's point of view, assuming you're not one of those people that just complain about things being too hard and such. Basically, don't blame the game for all your suckiness."

"You're really just asking for a punching, aren't you?"

The Info-Broker opened up her inventory and popped out a notepad and pen. "Other players don't count as legitimate complaints either, by the way. Now, shoot."

"Well…" Leafa pondered. "There is the small problem of not being able to log out, for one."

"Oh, you noticed that, too?" She didn't even bother writing it down. "It really is a bad glitch, especially for the game's overall reputation. Although, this isn't the first time this has happened."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, back during the beta, on the last day I believe, the logout button disappeared for almost two hours. It came back later, of course, but it was still strange."

"So then this isn't a new glitch?" Even Leafa had to know that wasn't a good sign of the game's quality.

"Pfft, heck if I know. Maybe it's the same one, maybe it's a new one, maybe it's just for one big stunt, I don't know. So, any other complaints, other than practically being trapped right now?"

"Well, you do have to kill a bunch of stupid animals to get the good stuff, but other than that, everything seems alright."

"Ah." Argo rose from her seat and put her materials back in her inventory. "I'll just take that as a sign of your own incompetence then." Before Leafa could make the rat's spiky maw cave in, the girl was already darting towards the exit. Even if she had never played an online game that much, Leafa could still label Argo as a textbook troll.

"Weirdo…" she muttered to herself while returning to the table where Silica had been watching.

"The heck was that about?" she asked while putting her cup of hot chocolate down.

"Long story, no idea," was all the answer she got. "That stuff really taste real?"

"Yep~!" she cheered while holding her mug up high. "And super yummy!"

"Cool, cool." Leafa then took her own menu and pressed her finger against the hot chocolate option. A screen popped up on the menu asking for confirmation, to which she confirmed. Right now, she needed something to drink. So, she proudly accepted the scalding heat and sweetness of her chocolate. "Ah...that's good."

"Ah, there they are!" Leafa flinched a bit as she heard a familiar voice. She slowly turned her head to a familiar redhead along with Kirito walking back. Her delight at seeing Kirito was contrasted with seeing the guy she kicked in the virtual balls a few hours ago.

"Oh, hello!" Silica gave the two a nice wave, while Leafa went back to her drink, hoping not too catch too much of her brother's attention. However, the two boys ended up taking a seat at the table right next to them, both of them looking a little tired.

"Were you both out training?" asked Silica.

"Yeah, Klein wanted me to teach him the ropes. However, we decided to come back after we ran into a problem. Klein couldn't log out and I couldn't find the option, Kirito explained, gaining knowing nods from both of the girls.

"We had the same problem." Silica told them. "So it's not just us after all."

"Nope, it's the final day of testing all over again," Kirito sighed while leaning back in his chair. Leafa couldn't help but giggle a little bit, actually getting the meaning of her brother's complaints, rather than be in the dark like, say, anyone else that wasn't a beta tester.

"Well, why are you two here then?" Silica asked, causing Klein to chuckle nervously.

"Well, I…kinda…" Klein coughed in order to clear his throat while steering his eye contact towards the blonde in the group. "Yeah, um, I was feeling a bit sorry for my previous uncouth behavior, so...I figured that, since I'm practically stuck here, maybe it wouldn't hurt to, you know…"

"Are you trying to apologize for earlier?" Leafa finally interrupted.

"Uh...yeah…" he replied, even more embarrassed at not being able to even properly apologize by himself. "So, think you would be willing to?"

"Maybe," was all the answer he got.

"That's all I'm ever gonna get, huh?"

"Pretty much."

"Fine…" Klein sighed. "I guess I can live with that."

"Well, that's taken care of," Kirito sighed as well. "If you ask me, trying to make a relationship based on virtual identities is rather meaningless. You never know who the person you're talking to is IRL, neither physically or mentally, so there's no use thinking pretend you know the person."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Leafa added with a smug smile. "How else do you make friends in games?"

"By playing them, of course," was the simple reply. "People like games and people like playing them with people. That doesn't mean you necessarily like the people playing."

"Hey, man, that hurts," Klein said, a little disappointed.

"Oh, sorry," Kirito apologized. "I was referring to romantic relationships mainly, not personal ones altogether."

"Still hurts," his friend said a little more jokingly.

"Still, you can hardly even tell one's gender in a game," Kirito continued. "Heck, there's no telling you two are even really girls.

"What?!" both girls shouted, both burning red faces and looks that could kill. And by the looks of it, they looked about ready to.

"W-wait, m-maybe I could have phrased that better," he said hastily. "What I meant was, you can't tell anyone who anyone is in the real world! Heck, who even knows what Klein's like?

"I do!" Klein said with an annoyed look. "You trying to say that I'm a girl?"

"N-no! I...please tell me you're joking."

His friend gave a deep, mocking pout. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You can't really tell, can you?"

"Pfft, how do we know you're not some girl in the real world?" Leafa said with an evil grin that could frighten a shark. "I bet that's just who you are, some little girl who can't fight worth a damn in real life."

"H-hey, please stop ganging up on me," Kirito sweated. "This only proves my point further, really."

"Well, can't argue with that logic," Silica rationalized while taking a sip of hot chocolate.

Kirito sighed. "Thank you."

"I mean, there's no reason we should make fun of Kirito for being a weak little girl outside."

Both tables immediately bursted into laughter, with the only exception of a very annoyed Kirito. Not even a kindly patting on the back by Klein was enough to brighten up the boy's face. However, their great laughter ceased after hearing a loud ring from outside.

"Strange, it shouldn't be time to ring any kind of bells," Silica commented.

"I actually don't remember it ringing at any point during testing," the only beta-tester in the group added. "Maybe it's just a small post change." That was when they all heard loud mutterings from outside.

"Wonder what that's all about," Klein pondered.

"Yeah…" Leafa said suspiciously. "Feel like maybe checking it out?"

The two tables replied with variances of "yes" and "sure", they all decided to head outside to see what all the commotion was about. Once they arrived outside, all they saw were a bunch of players looking up to the sky and pointing. After a while, other players seemed to be transported there against their will, with various levels of disappointments. Yet, all of them looked to the sky afterwards. Their group was no exception.

Up in the sky, a single "Warning!" sign blinked, like a panel on a computer screen. Just as everyone began to wonder what it was about, the single sign became many, all spread over the sky, as many sirens went off at once. No one, not even the beta testers, had ever seen this before.

"Um, Kirito? What is that?" asked Leafa.

"I have no idea. Even I've never seen something like this."

"What in the world is that?!" Silica's scream brought everyone's attention right above them. There, some kind of red liquid seemed to pour from the panels in the sky, forming just above the players. Slowly, some form of cloaked figure began to emerge from the clot, almost resembling a human. The being towered over everyone present.

"Is that….the Gamemaster?" The audience broke out in random muttering about what in the world they were looking at. Truth be told, Kirito had a very bad feeling about this. As much as he wanted to believe that perhaps this was just a minor problem, something seemed….foul about this.

"Attention players. I welcome you to my world." the daunting figure boasted over the players.

"What does he mean?" asked Kirito.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world." Surprise and mutterings erupted around the players. This was the Akihiko Kayaba?! This was the creator of the game himself? How could that be? Still, the figure continued as if nothing was wrong. "I assume but now that most of you have noticed an item missing from your main menus; the 'Log Out' button. I can assure you that this is no defect. In fact, this was how Sword Art Online was meant to be played."

"He's kidding, right?" Klein asked in disbelief.

"You cannot log yourselves out, and no one from the outside world will be able to help you or remove the NerveGear from your head. If they do, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will activate and discharge a magnetic signal, which will in turn destroy your brain and end your life."

"Say what?!" Leafa's reaction couldn't have been more obvious or more justified. What was he saying? They were stuck here and could die at any time?! Klein called it BS and even asked Kirito about it. However, Kirito went on to explain how the NerveGear acted like microwaves and could very well destroy the brain, plus, because of the internal battery, there was no chance of cutting the power.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some less fortunate players attempted to remove the NerveGear. Very unfortunate to say the least. As a result, 213 players have been removed from the game, as well as real life." As he went on, additional computer screens appeared around Kayaba. "As you can see, international audiences around the globe are taking watch of these events, including the deaths."

To the horror of the players, the screens showed exactly what Kayaba was talking about. News channels from everywhere, from England to the United States, were showing images of gatherings around Japan. Families and siblings were everywhere, some in hospitals, some at the beds of the players, some crying in despair. One news headlines stood out:

"Death Toll Rises In Gaming Incident."

"N-No way." Silica was nearly covering her eyes, just trying to control the tears from coming out. She ended up leaning against Kirito, who helped keep her stable.

"It's important to note the following: there is no way to revive someone now. If your HP drops to zero, you will be removed from the game, and the NerveGear will destroy your brain. To escape, there is only one way and this is to complete the game. Right now, you are on the 1st floor and you must traverse through all 100 floors to win."

"All 100?" Leafa vaguely remembered that from the instruction booklet, though this was hardly how she imagined doing it. They had to go through 100 floors, and just one mistake could be fatal. Those weren't good odds. Hell, they weren't survivable!

"Oh, on another note, I've now placed an item each of your inventories. Please take a look at them." While most were still in disbelief, they all did as Kayaba said, seeing an item called "Mirror of Truth".

"Huh? I didn't see this earlier," Kirito commented, as if that was the strangest thing worth mentioning right now. Selecting the item, a mirror appeared in his hand. The same occurred for Leafa, Silica, Klein, and just about everyone else. She looked in to her blonde-haired reflection, but she didn't get to enjoy it much before the mirrors started engulfing everyone in blue light.

The shrieks of the players echoed around the meeting area, although the light didn't last for long. Kirito and Leafa didn't feel a whole lot different. However, it was a different story when their eyes happened to meet. Two familiar teenagers with dark hair.

"Suguha?" There was a brief pause, where Leafa wondered what Kirito would do, until she got her answer. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

They were lucky everyone was so focused on their own changes that no one paid attention to the screaming of the two siblings.

"How in the world did you get here?! When did you get a NerveGear? Hell, when did you start playing games at all?!" Kirito bombarded right off the bat.

"Um, that's a really long story." As if she had any real way to tell her brother how she clawed her way in here, especially the part about all the money borrowing.

"Leafa?" The dark-haired girl jumped a bit as she heard a tiny voice next to Kirito, where Silica used to be standing. However, Leafa didn't see anyone there, right until she happened to look down, seeing a pre-teen girl around her own age with twin ponytails on her head. After a few seconds went by, another set of confounded cries went out.

"You're not a teenager!"

"You're not...!" Silica paused a little bit. "Well, you're less than before!"

The fact that Silica was a kid probably shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to her, but considering all the shocking swerves occurring, just about every revelation was becoming unbelievable. Klein looked a bit older than his previous avatar, which at least seemed slightly amusing to Leafa, in a kind of lightheaded way. To some slight embarrassment, they all realized that not only did many players look different than their actual age, but the gender ratio changed a bit too. They all questioned how the game could even know their true appearances when Kirito then remembered how the NerveGear scans a persons' face, so it got their faces from there. Klein then remembered how they had to help calibrate it by touching themselves all around before play. Eventually, all attention went back to Kayaba.

"I assume you're all wondering by now what the point of all this is. Why would Akihiko Kayaba do all of this? Well, ultimately, I wanted to be in control of my own world: a world of my own design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal." He took another brief pause before continuing. "This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you all the best of luck."

Once that was said, the figure began shifting out of reality, slowly fading away from the view of the players as the tutorial ended. All there was in the area was silence.

And then, the area was filled with screams.

(END)

And after who knows how long, Chapter 3 is in the books. All it did was take us 3 chapters to get to the same point as the first episode. Well anyway, the story is now set to take off.

Hope you all enjoyed this and continue to leave helpful reviews.

So, on behalf of ThisWillBeFun and myself, this is Sentinel07, signing out!

ThisWillBeFun: Actually, I'm signing back on to say "Hello!" I personally would like to thank for all the support you've given us, especially since we were in a rut with this chapter for the longest time. However, it was thanks to you, yes, you, that we were able to finish this. That, and more free time than what's healthy, but mostly you. ^^

So, uh, I guess I'm signing back out now. Because guess what? Unlike the characters, I can do it whenever I want! Hah!