Caleb woke up early the next day. He hopped on his computer to see the time of release for the game and was surprised when he found that it was already out and that people were already on it.

Caleb got up to grab his Nervegear, he put it on his head and laid down. He sighed before yelling, "Link Start!"

He saw a flash of colour before his Nervegear tested his five senses, touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. He then opened his eyes to a world he'd never thought he'd actually see, as he had been reincarnated after the beta tests.

He saw a character, who looked like he imagined Kirito to look like with his avatar, spawn in beside him. Caleb then looked at his own avatar in his reflection on a nearby mirror. He had brilliant blue eyes, and black hair combed over his left eye, though it was like he could still see out of that eye as if the hair never existed, compared to his normal messy dark brown hair and eyes, his eyes in real life scared some people when they were in the dark, as light reflected off of it in the dark and made his eyes look black, when he looked at his settings for his base avatar the other day, that being his real body, he found that even his Nervegear thought they were black, as such, Caleb expected that to be a key feature when the game actually began. He was wearing a basic red shirt with the starter armour set, that being a standard chest piece and leather pants and boots. His facial features were very much the same as his real life features, an oval shaped head and full lips as well as a straight nose.

Kirito noticed Caleb and waved him over. As he walked over a girl fazed in beside Kirito, he recognised her as Leafa, as she had all the features of her in the future game Alfheim Online, without the wings of course. He smiled as Kirito looked at her in confusion before recognising her as his sister Suguha.

"Hi, my name's Leafa," The oblivious Suguha told her brother, Caleb laughed at her and she glared at him before recognising him, "Caleb?"

He laughed even harder, and as he was laughing he choked out to Kirito, "Haha, it seem as if she recognises her brother's friend faster than she recognises her own brother."

Leafa's eyes widened and went on to apologize to Kirito. Caleb coughed, ending his laughing fit. Leafa looked at him in surprise as he suddenly went into a fit of coughing, which quickly ended as he cleared his throat. "I'm fine, I'm fine," He said as he closed his eyes. When he opened them again he said "Those mobs ain't gonna kill themselves, are they?"

Kirito smiled and nodded, they ran as fast as their agility scores would allow, however as they were running through an alleyway, they heard someone calling for us to wait. Caleb Immediately recognised the person chasing us as Klein, but however opted to let Kirito handle the introductions. As Kirito talked to Klein, Caleb looked at his profile screen and saw that his in game name was Artemis, one he highly approved of. He then looked at the help menu and found out how the leveling works, it was very much like Skyrim, you practice a specific skill to level it up, such as one handed, and each skill goes up to level 100, but when you level up by actual level you get 15 points to put in either, Strength, Agility, Stamina, Charisma, and Fortitude. Strength and Stamina work the way you would think it would, Strength is how much you can carry as well as how heavy a weapon you can wield as well as how powerful your hits are, Stamina is how long you can keep running, fighting, and is also affected by armor, as in the heavier the armor, the faster you tire. Agility is your speed in both combat and in travel, it also affects how fast your reflexes are, your Charisma stat affects your shop prices at NPC shops and inns, and your Fortitude is how long you're affected by paralysis, poison and other status effects.

Leafa noticed Artemis was looking at this and questioned him on it. "Why are you looking in the help menu, I thought you were in the beta."

Artemis had switched to the stats page of his menu and replied, "I was checking to see if anything changed." He saw his stats were as follows, STR: 25, AGI: 27, STA: 23, CHR: 18, FTD: 20. It was pretty standard for Caleb's tastes. He quickly decided to focus on STR, AGI, and STA, as he wanted to be able to defend himself more than he cared about prices.

He closed his menu and proceeded to say, "Well we need to get going and grind some boars or something before the launch Event starts."

Kirito looked at him strangely, "What makes you think that there's gonna be a Launch Event?"

Artemis chuckled, "Every MMO I've seen has a Launch Event so I don't see why SAO wouldn't have one."

Kirito thought on this for a second and nodded, "Well Klein, come on with us, we'll show you the ropes, right Ca – I mean Artemis?"

"Right!" The four of them ran out to the fields to grind. Kirito went off a bit to show Klein how the combat works while Artemis just fought normally, but it felt strange for him, automatically knowing where and when to strike and block or dodge. The boars went down easily enough, and soon Artemis and Leafa were level five while, Kirito and Klein didn't level at all due to Kirito not caring about his own level while teaching Klein how to play as well as sitting him down and telling him the ins and outs of the game.

"Well hate to leave you guys but I ordered a pizza earlier and I need to get off and be ready for it." Klein told everyone. They wished him a good night and then it happened.

"Um… guys?" Klein said worried, "Newb question, but where's the logout button?"

"Really?" Kirito said exasperated, "It's right here in the… Options?" Kirito saw that it was missing.

"Yeah, I noticed that earlier," Artemis said a little nervously, "I thought it would be fixed by now though."

They then felt a tingling sensation as they teleported back to the town of beginnings. Artemis knew exactly what was going on, "And here's where they declare this a death game," he mumbled.

"What?" Kirito asked, having heard him mumbling though not knowing what he said.

"Nothing!" Artemis said quickly, "Nothing at all." Kirito looked at him suspiciously but then looked at the sky ask Klein started to panic as a huge dome of hexagons, with the word warning on each of them, appeared above them. A blood like liquid began to spill out of the cracks of the dome, they stopped halfway and began to form a red robed figure.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba," the figure said, "The creator of Sword Art Online."