In this chapter, Asuna's going to start doing some level-grinding. The best way to survive Aincrad is to keep leveling your character, right? If you do it often enough you'll basically be invincible.

Also, we'll get to meet the three admins in charge of Aincrad Online. They have very different moralities. One of them is Heathcliff, of course. The others are different characters entirely.

Chapter 2: Level Grinding

"Well, I hope that my message was meaningful. They're living in my world now...so they should know the rules." noted Heathcliff. No doubt a lot of people would want his head...but if that was what it took to make his virtual world a reality, then that was what he was going to do. He was surprised how many people had bought the game. Was his game really that popular?

"I find it so amusing that people have died even though they hadn't actually started the game yet..." remarked Raiden. Compared to Heathcliff, he was a sadistic admin indeed. His avatar was a black knight. In real life he was known as Taichi Urasawa, and he had black hair like his avatar underneath his helmet. He carried a black sword...that for some strange reason was stained with blood.

"Do we really have to make this game a death trap?" inquired the third of the admins. She was the lone female of the three. Her in game name was Diana. Her real life name was Hikari Tajiri. Her appearance was a young lady wearing a strapless white dress with no shoes. Also, she carried a magical staff.

"It's not a death trap. I'm giving them a chance to survive..." stated Heathcliff. He'd like to think that he was willing to listen to Diana's advice. Of course, he was also listening to Raiden, who was surprisingly bloodthirsty. Perhaps he should have done a background check on him before making him an administrator. Then again, he was only planning to pick two of them.

Personally Raiden was excited at the opportunity to watch the players die...even if they burst into shards instead of actually bleeding. It was kind of disappointing. Not only that, but they didn't feel pain. If only there was a way to change all that.

Unfortunately, he couldn't act without the consent of at least one of the other admins. Since he and Diana never agreed on anything, Heathcliff was their tiebreaker. Sometimes he agreed with Raiden, sometimes he agreed with Diana.

Diana had been outvoted on not making Sword Art Online dangerous to those that were playing the game, sadly for her. Heathcliff agreed that making the game dangerous would make it more realistic. Diana wished that Heathcliff had not hired him to begin with, but she wanted to keep her job as administrator so that she could help the players playing the game.

On the lighter side, Heathcliff had allowed her to create towns where players could live in peace instead of actually playing the game. Raiden was unsurprisingly disgusted. She also included crystals that they can use to heal themselves.

Currently, the players were exploring the first floor. The brave ones anyway. Many of them were deciding to play it safe in town rather than actually play the game. Just because they were trapped in the game doesn't mean that they couldn't try to live a normal life. It was actually pretty safe there. Maybe they could stay there instead of returning to society in the real world by beating the game.

Elsewhere, Asuna was shaken by the bad news. Was she going to be stuck in the game for the rest of her life, however brief it would be with the deadly monsters in the game? It was quite frightening to her.

"I can't believe that I'm stuck here..." said Asuna. On the lighter side, she wouldn't have to hook up with her fiancee Sugou. He was a real creep. At least she was safe from him in this world. He wasn't playing Sword Art Online, right?

Well, she might as well make the best of it. Maybe she could try hunting boars for experience. Those boars didn't put up much of a fight yet she would be able to gather col and experience for killing them anyway.

Fortunately, since she was a beta tester, she happened to know a great deal about the game already. There were blacksmiths that would be willing to sell her decent armor and weapons if she got enough gold.

She decided to go outside to hunt some boars. She might as well get started leveling up if she wanted to free everyone from the game.

Fortunately, they hadn't noticed her. They were munching on the grass, because the grass was so delicious. For them, anyway. Asuna wasn't even a vegetarian.

She slashed one with her sword, killing it instantly.

Asuna wondered why the admins had betrayed them all like that. Last time she checked Admin Diana was a sweet lady. She wouldn't make a game like this...if you could even call it a game. On the other hand, Admin Raiden seemed to enjoy mocking the beta testers at every opportunity. Maybe this was HIS idea.

At least Admin Heathcliff was playing the game as well. He was killing monsters all by himself. Perhaps he enjoyed playing the game knowing that he was safe. How she wished that she was safe.

Aside from some boars, there were also some goblins. They had their own camp. And speaking of the boars, they were roasting one on an open fire. It would most likely be tasty and refreshing.

One of the goblins noticed her.

"Pretty lady!" exclaimed one of the goblins.

The rest of the goblins began to drool.

Asuna sweatdropped. Did the goblins find her...hot?

Apparently Sugou wasn't the only one.

She was starting to wonder if she should actually kill them for experience. Maybe she could use her looks for her advantage and have them give her loot.

But before she could do that, someone else killed them. According to the name above his head, his name was Kirito.

"Am I kill stealing?" asked Kirito. Players typically got mad at him whenever he did that.

"I wasn't planning on killing them..." answered Asuna.

"OK?" answered the warrior.

"I can't believe 10000 players are trapped in the game like this..." said the beta tester. Thousands of thousands of people that were just looking for a good time. No doubt people would question the safety of virtual reality games. Some of her friends were playing the game too. They were in danger as well.

"Yeah...I just wanted to have fun. Now I'm fighting for my life..." noted Kirito.

On the lighter side, she didn't have to worry about catching any illnesses while in this world. She had a cold last week before she signed up for Sword Art Online and it was not fun.

She hoped that her father was looking for a way to get her out of the game...but unfortunately, he wasn't quite sure how he would do so. Even if he freed his daughter, there would still be over 9000 players trapped in the game.

Wait, did she just reference Dragon Ball Z? If only Son Goku could save them now. But he was just a fictional anime character.

Wait, wasn't SHE a fictional anime character?

"Great, I've only been in Sword Art Online for one day and I'm already going crazy..." noted Asuna.

"Sorry to hear that...maybe we could party until you're sane again?" suggested Kirito.

"Thanks.." nodded the girl. This was Diana's idea, apparently. When you partied up, you got a boost in exp.

"Why would Diana allow people to die in this game?" questioned Asuna.

"I hear that the admins make decisions two out of three...maybe she got outvoted." suggested Kirito.

Asuna nodded. At least Heathcliff seemed willing to listen to SOME of the things that she said.

"I have to admit...the monsters on the first floor are pretty weak..." noted Asuna. Those boars weren't exactly a challenge for her. Of course, since this was a video game, the boars would probably come in many different flavors.

"I know...even the boss of this floor probably won't cause us too much trouble..." agreed Kirito.

So far, there had only been a few casualties...some fools had gone and attracted a train to zone. Luckily, they weren't aggro dumping them on other players because that would make people want to PK them.

Besides, the city guards were paying attention whenever that happened. They wouldn't let the monsters get too close to the town. Thank Diana for them.

However, she got the feeling that the casualties would increase as they went higher up. The monsters would keep on getting stronger and stronger. Who knows what Floor 100 would be like? She heard rumors that there were dragons on the last ten floors. Dragons that wanted to have adventurers for their supper.

Fortunately for Asuna, it seems that she was leveling up rather quickly with Kirito around. However, she knew that she would start to need more exp if she wanted to keep more leveling. Perhaps she should try looking for the boss.

Currently, several players were currently doing the same.

"Where on Earth could the boss possibly be?" questioned one of the players.

"Now that I think of it, there do seem to be a lot of kobolds on this floor..." noted Kirito. He wondered why. There was a kobold sentinel nearby.

Wait...now that she thought of it. Wasn't the first boss a kobold? It didn't seem particularly threatening, but this was the first floor. She couldn't really expect anything else.

Still, it would probably be best not to take on the boss alone. Bosses were meant to be taken on by multiple players, not just one. If she tried to take the boss on solo it would most likely be a suicide mission.

For now, she decided to fight the ordinary kobolds. They didn't put up much of a fight.

Suddenly, a vine latched onto her leg. It was some sort of plant monster.

According to the label, it was a Nepenthes. Thankfully, it was one of the little ones. If she encountered a big one, things could get messy.

She slashed the vine and it burst into pixels. For some strange reason, even though this was technically a deadly game, there wasn't exactly a lot of blood in it. It was ironic. She heard that Raiden had complained about it.

Still, it seemed like Akihito wasn't interested in trapping people in his game if they were children. Perhaps he wanted to keep his conscience clear like that...not that it was clear to begin with.

Fortunately, it seemed that Asuna was leveling up quite a bit. She decided to increase her HP to make sure that she didn't get killed...though on the lighter side, she wouldn't have to marry Sugou if that happened.

Now she felt nice and healthy.

"How's the leveling going?" asked Kirito.

Asuna nodded.

"Wait, if you're a beta taster, how much do you know about this game?" inquired the male player.

"I know that there's plenty more bosses other than that kobold boss, that's for sure..." noted Asuna. They differed wildly in appearance and abilities.

Suddenly, a player ran by.

"Train to zone!" screamed the player.

He was being chased by a herd of boars.

"Oh no..." said Kirito.

Immediately, the boars began to attack them.

Frantically, Kirito and Asuna began to shake them off.

Luckily they did...but at that point their health bars had reached yellow.

Asuna sighed. It looked like they should rest.

"Don't you hate it when that happens?" asked Kirito.

Asuna nodded. This happened all the time back when she was playing the beta. She wished that this game was as safe as the beta was...though on the lighter side, it was a lot easier to survive the game now. The frenzy boars weren't nearly as angry and violent as they were before. Raiden had been somewhat disappointed.

"Let's go back to town, shall we?" inquired the black-haired player.

Together, the two of them decided to head back to town. Something told Asuna that if she ever got out of this game, she would never want to touch a video game again. At least, not one that involved virtual reality.

She wondered if they would all die trying to complete the game...or if they completed the game, how long it would take. Her family would no doubt miss her if she died. They were probably missing her now.

Fortunately, she had enough col to spend at the shops. She was glad that she had partied up. Maybe she could join a guild and see where that took her.

Currently, one of the players was selling a shop. He was an adult gamer apparently, judging from his avatar. It was nice to know that there were adults playing the game alongside the various teenagers. It was a bit like being with their parents.

"So, how did you get trapped in this game?" questioned Asuna.

"I heard rumors that Akihiko was going insane, so I decided to investigate one of the NerveGears myself..." answered Agil.

"Well, you apparently thought right." answered the female player.

"Though to be fair, I think he's sane compared to Raiden. He always seemed to laugh evilly..." noted the bald man.

Something told Asuna that she would not like to meet Raiden. She would love to meet Diana though.

She decided to purchase some better armor and some better weapons. That way she would be ready in case she encountered another train. Hopefully this wouldn't happen if she made it to the higher floors since theoretically the players would know better by then.

Personally she was glad that it wasn't a high-level train, otherwise she would probably be done for.

How fast did the monsters respawn, anyway?

"You wouldn't happen to have a map of the first floor, now would you?" asked Asuna. If so, she would know where to find specific monsters...and possibly the boss for when she was ready to face it. Some of the players were considering fighting the boss already...even if it would be risky to them.

Asuna knew that if the boss was slain, it would take a long time for it to respawn. So it might not be a good idea for her to miss out on the exp. It would help her out if she wanted to go to a higher floor once it was unlocked by the community.

"As a matter of fact, I do." nodded Agil.

"Thanks." nodded Asuna.

Immediately, she picked up the map and had a look at it.

Apparently, the boss wasn't too far from where the town was. That was convenient.

Still, it would be a good idea to make sure she was ready for it. Otherwise she would get killed and then it would be game over for her in the game AND in real life.

"I guess I better get ready for this." noted Asuna.

Of course, even if they did defeat the boss, they would still be a long way from completing the game and having sweet freedom.

It looks like we're going to see the first boss of the game...or fanfic...or whatever. And yes, our protagonist Asuna won't get killed...otherwise this would be a very short fanfic.

In the next chapter, it's kobold clobbering time!