I'm a murderer. But I don't feel like one. My father is dead. My mother is too afraid of me to come near me. I have no friends. My world is a lonely, pitch-black void... Or at least it was before I met her. My name is Shino Asada, and this is my story! ShinoXKazuko. Female Kazuto. Yuri.

They say a true friend is someone you can rely on when everything seems hopeless, and for Shino, that person was Kazuto Kirigaya, her best - and only - friend. But Shino didn't want to rely on Kazuto as much as she did, so when beta testing opened for a new game called Sword Art Online, she submitted an application...