"I am Akihiko Kayaba," the figure said, "The creator of Sword Art Online."

Everyone gasped and Kayaba continued, "As I'm sure most of you know, the logout button is no longer on the menu, this is not a bug, I repeat this is not a bug, it is a key feature of Sword Art Online." People were yelling and cowering under this robed figure. "Furthermore there is now no way to revive a player once their HP reaches 0, and when a player's HP reaches 0 the Nervegear will simultaneously microwave the users brain effectively killing them. If one were to try to take the Nervegear off the player's head the Nervegear will kill you in much the same way. The only way out is to reach the 100th floor and defeat the final boss. And though I have warned everyone the danger of removing the Nervegear from a player, 253 players have already departed this world, forever. Now I have left a little gift in each of your inventories."

Everyone went into their inventories and pulled out a mirror and as they looked at it they were all bathed in light and each came out looking like they do in reality. "Is that you Klein?" Kirito asked as Artemis and Leafa looked on in shock.

"Yes, but who are you guys?" he asked, and Artemis reintroduced himself as Artemis once again, and Leafa noticed this and did not mention her real name and introduced herself as Leafa, and Kirito did the same.

The figure spoke again, "This concludes the Sword Art Online Launch Event, good day and good luck."

Kirito grabbed Leafa and Klein's arms and nodded at Artemis to follow, which he gladly did, they ended up in the same alleyway Klein and Kirito first met, "We have to leave and head to the next town, I know how to do that easily enough for level 1."

Klein looked nervous for a second, "Well I already have friends waiting back in the centre of the town, I have to go find them, but thanks anyways!" As he turned around and headed back towards the crowd.

Kirito turned to Artemis and Leafa, and asked if they would join to which both said yes.

They all ran as fast and hard as they could but along the way found a pack of wolves, about 6 of them. Kirito recklessly charged in cutting one down while Artemis charged at two that were running toward him, when one of them pounced, he slid under it while stabbing it as it flew over, effectively gutting it, and as the second one came up, he flicked the sword down by his left hip and as he was sliding, he pushed himself up as the second wolf pounced at his face, he slashed upwards with a backhanded swipe, disemboweling the creature.

Artemis look around for Leafa and saw her confronting 3 wolves all on her own, he charged two of them, zooming past one to go into a 180 spin and slashed horizontally, and then turned the 180 into a 360 and stabbed the other target, killing it. He turned to finish off the other one only to see Kirito pulling his sword from its corpse before it shattered.