Disclaimer: Don't own SAO or anything affiliated with it.
Part I - Sword Art Online
Prologue - The Day The Game Stood Still
How long had it been? Four months almost, the days of the beta test were long since over and soon he would finally be getting his hands on the actual release. The world's first full-dive VRMMO had been completed. Sword Art Online would soon be going live and after having a chance to experience it during the BETA, he couldn't help his curiosity toward how much the world might've changed during the time since he'd last entered. He took a deep breath then lowered the large helmet over his head. The young man closed his eyes and uttered, "Link: Start." A wide array of color rushed into view, several strands of it burst through the screen until four circular blue circles moved to the side and next a language selection window was displayed having 'Japanese' in the entry bar. The next screen had the user's name and password entered on screen until everything turned white.
A brown leather boot touched down on the brick strewn ground followed shortly after by a second one and the spherical energy colored in bright blue exploded to signal the arrival of a player in the town of beginnings. The young man who'd appeared at the gate's landing zone stepped down off the arrival gate. His deep blue eyes were filled with wonder and a bright smile lit up his pale features. He'd only been here a few short months ago but he couldn't help the happiness that swelled inside at the opportunity to return. First things first, it was time to go and buy a starter sword. The boy extended his hand and swiped through the air. He pressed his finger against the floating status button until he found his money and nodded once, "Fifty col. Not much but enough to get a basic weapon at the very least. I'll grab one and then head out into the field."
The young man knew he needed to be quick, if he took too long then all the other good hunting spots would be gone and he'd be left with the lesser ones. Still, there was no use trying to fight enemies without a weapon of some kind so he needed to hurry up to a merchant first. From the beta, he could remember the location of the beginner's store so it wasn't that difficult to get his hands on an entry-level sword. Now, he was finally ready to head out into the hunting areas.
x-x
Slash!
The young man wearing the blue shirt zipped across the field, slashing his glowing blade through the center of the beast. A glowing trail of sapphire shines against the light then in one burst, the beast explodes, small triangles of energy blasting in every direction signalling that the monster had been felled. A sigh of relief and he returned the sword to the scabbard strapped to his back, "Well, looks like that's the last of them. Maybe I'll log out for a while and come back on after dinner." He swiped at the air, bringing up a drop-down menu infront of his face and switched to the settings tab, but much to the young man's suprise, the log-out button was nowhere in sight.
"Log-out button's gone? That's...weird. Well, it is only the launch day, there's bound to be some bugs here and there. Nothing to do except to wait for the administrators to fix it." Eugeo closed the menu and allowed himself to sigh again. This was hardly a good start to the first day but he supposed he should be grateful that it wasn't something worse than this. It was the world's first fully fledged fulldive RPG so the types of things of a more serious nature that could go wrong were numerous, Eugeo knew he would have to -
His train of thought had been unceremoniously interrupted by a loud siren erupting through the field and a moment later, bright light burst around Eugeo's body, it grew stronger and stronger until, in one flash, he'd reappeared in the town center, "W-what the heck? What just happened?" he heard himself say aloud.
"What's going on?" he heard someone say.
"I don't know," another voice followed closely behind the other, "A forced teleport?"
"Up there!"
Eugeo's eyes widened, horror was written across his face at witnessing the grotesque figure formed by blood and electricity floating high above all the players that had gathered here.
"What is that, some kind of Game Master!?"
"Attention Players, welcome to my world."
"My world?"
The young man who'd spoken up about the forced teleport had asked the question, but as with the first time he'd spoken it didn't look like he was going to be getting any kind of answer right now. All they could do was to wait for this 'Game Master' to speak so that they could all figure out what the issue was and perhaps get some clue into why none of them could be logged out of the game.
"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world."
'Kayaba Akihiko?'
Eugeo would know that name anywhere. Kayaba was the individual responsible for SAO's creation, to put it in simple terms, he was the one who'd built every single aspect of this game and enabled it to become a reality. Eugeo vaguely heard another person shout something but he was no longer paying attention. If this was Kayaba then he would have answers and Eugeo could already sense that he wasn't going to like those answers.
"I'm sure you've already noticed, that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game…I repeat..this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."
"A - a feature!?" A tall, long-haired individual standing beside the young man shouted this, and Eugeo might've turned his head toward such a loud exclamation ordinarily, but he wasn't sure that he'd heard Kayaba correctly. A feature!? Why on earth would logging out be removed as a feature?
"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shutdownor remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."
"What!?" Eugeo shouted.
"What's that guy talking about? He's gotta be nuts, right Kirito?" The long-haired man asked to his companion. Though the shorter of the two's expression was blank, Eugeo could tell that he was contemplating something, as if working out what he thought about the situation.
"He's right that the transmitter's signals work just like microwaves. If the safety were disabled it could fry a brain."
"Then, what if we cut the power?"
"That wouldn't work either," Eugeo spoke up, interrupting without fully realizing, "See, the NerveGear, it runs on an internal battery."
Klein's eyes burst open, horror written all over his face, "What!? This is crazy!"
"Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players Are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."
"Two hundred and thirteen killed," Kirito murmured to Eugeo and Klein.
"Tw-two hundred…"
"I don't believe it…"
"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is not minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. and simultaneously the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."
"Clear?"
"What's he talking about?"
"Y-you're just making that up!"
"Clear all one hundred floors? That's impossible!" Kein shouted at the Game Master over all the shouts of indignation, "Not even the Beta Testers made it that high!"
"Finally, I've added a present to your item storage. Please see for yourself."
Eugeo summoned the item from his storage, it was a small rectangular hand-held mirror. The item seemed insignificant at first glance, but there would be more to this. After everything that Kayaba had just sai- Eugeo felt his height leaving him and his darkened hair lightened to its normal shade of blond, his eyes becoming a bright sapphire. Eugeo looked over at the two people he was standing beside and his eyes widened. The first had become a little taller and his hair was shorter now and spiked, He also had a hooked nose, and a slight beard on his cheeks and chin. The second player seemed about the same height still but now possessed slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. He still looked similar to his avatar but looked much younger by comparison. If he were forced to guess, Eugeo would have said this player was around his own age in the real world. The two players were pointing at each other.
"You're Klein!?"
"Which means...you're Kirito?"
At the precise moments, their heads turned and Klein's brow shot up. The tall dark-haired individual that had been walking alongside the two of them was now about a head shorter with blond hair and blue eyes instead. Said player noted the expression and allowed a sigh to grace his lips, "My name's Eugeo."
"How did they change our appearance?" Klein asked Kirito.
"That scan. The NerveGear covers your entire head with a high-density signaling device. So it can see what our faces look like….but our height and body shape.."
"The calibration," Eugeo put in, "Remember how you had to touch your body all over it when you first fired it up?"
"Oh right, that must be where it got the data."
"But why?" Klein asked the two of them, "Why do all this anyway?"
"I'm sure he'll tell us," Kirito said pointedly, his finger aimed up at the game master.
"Right now, you're probably wondering, "why". Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the Nerve Gear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason. To create this world and intervene in it."
"Kayaba!"
"And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online Launch. Good luck players."
The strange rendition of Kayaba Akihiko that had been deployed to converse with them all had just disappeared and now it was up to Eugeo to decide what to do next. He could assume that very shortly the monsters around the town of beginnings would soon be smothered by people desperate to gain money and experience as quickly as they could. All the good farming spots for that sort of thing were sure to go quickly. Meaning, if he left for the next town now, he could get there before anyone else did and find the best hunting spots over there while everyone else filled out here. It was a bit of a journey, but he knew he needed to capitalize on it.
"I'd better get going if I'm going to find a good spot to start working on increasing my level. Maybe I'll see you both around?"
"Yeah, see you, Eugeo."
End Chapter
I know this chapter mostly follows the initial beginning to SAO and the only difference is the inclusion of Eugeo so far, but I promise the story is going to diverge more and more as we progress through the story. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this fic and please review! Also if anyone has any ideas for some unique sword skills for Eugeo I'd love to hear what you have! Though he looks very similar to Kirito I don't want them both to be the exact same fighter in a different skin. I haven't even decided on his major one like Kirito's Dual Wielding, but I do have some ideas for minor ones. Thank you all for reading this and I hope to see you for the next chapter.