A/N: I've realized I really enjoy writing these, and have decided to write this story full time alongside To Hyrule and Back Again. The chapter length will stay the same, though.


Kayaba Akihiko (AKA the GameMaster)'s Point of View

There's much less players than when SAO last started; so, I've come up with a plan to add more players: a new VR game. I'll have to use a different identity, though.

When the new players login to the "new VR game," they'll simply be locked inside SAO. They'll be instantly told that you will perish if you die ingame and also that there are no safe zones and no penalty for killing. There's almost no way it can fail unless nobody buys the game, and even though SAO nearly killed the VR industry it's been slowly rising again.

Anyway, Kirito seems to be doing well. He almost died on day one, but other than that, he's getting along really well. Maybe he'll meet all of his old friends in the future; I may have given his friends a few things that could lead them to meet each other again. However, if he gains memory of said friends I'll have to do something about it, because if he can remember something from the past he can remember everything from the past.

But I'm sure it won't have to come to that, right?

Right?

Kirito's Point of View

Year 1, Day 2

Floor 1

Northern Lights

"KIRITO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Mell.

"We're going to eat breakfast, what's your problem?" Gabe replies defensively.

"Yeah, you seriously need to chill."

"You guys already ate breakfast though! Plus, you didn't wake anybody else up!" she yells in response.

"Mell," I say.

"What?"

"Turn around. Go back inside. Go back to bed."

She reluctantly storms back inside and slams the door.

"What's her problem?" I ask Gabe.

"I don't know. She's weird - one minute she seems so closed off and antisocial and the other she's screaming at everybody."

. . .

There's four people. One's unarmed, one has a dagger, and two have the same level sword as I.

This ought be easy.

"Kirito," someone says from behind. I jerk up, surprised, to see Gabe, with the crippling potion he told me he was going to buy.

"Oh. You scared me. And they're just over there, past that Lightning restaurant we went to last night."

"Ready?" he asks. I pull out my sword.

"Ready."

We climb the shack we're hiding behind and climb onto the Lightning Bar Restaurant and steadily make our way towards them. They've stopped, and they're looking at some kind of map; so, we stop once we reach the edge of the building and look down on them.

"Klein, are you sure this is the city?"

"Look! The map says right here that whatever moving item is in this city!"

"'Moving item'? So what we're on a wild goose chase for is mobile? God damn, dude, we need to focus on other things, like not dying! We're out in the open for anybody to see us."

They seem to be conflicted, this is the perfect time…

"Klein, are you even listening to me?" one yells at the other.

"No, I'm zooming in. The map says… the item's in that restaurant over there."

The group turns and stares at Lightning Bar.

Shit.

Wait, no. This is good. They'll be distracted.

I look at Gabe, and whisper, "Let's wait until they go inside, okay? They'll be distracted."

He nods in response, and we wait until the guild wander inside, and then jump to the ground.

"Now it's outside this place. What the crap?"

We run to the entrance and stare them down; they're all looking around, confused. The guy with the virtual map notices us, then looks back at the map.

"Now it says the item's right at the entrance." He looks back up.

"Are you guys the item?"

Before I respond the same guy whose username is Klein says, "Wait. Step back a few times, you with the black hair."

I comply, and he looks back at the map, then back at me, bewildered.

He points at me and says, "You're the item!"

"I'm the item?"

"Yes!"

"What?" Gabe asks.

"Why am I the item?" I ask, confused.

"My map says there's an item in this city, and wherever you go is where the item is on the map. You're the item!"

"What if something I'm carrying is the item?"

They pause, contemplate for a moment, look at each other, then look back at me.

"I guess that means we'll have to take it from you."

They simultaneously unsheathe their weapons and charge forward. I unsheathe mine and jerk backwards before Gabe hurls the cripple potion at them and they all fall to the ground.

"Well," I say, "that was quick."

Klein utters, writhing in pain, "B-bastards… you… how did you do that?"

"Simple," replies Gabe. "Cripple potion. Don't worry, we won't kill you, we just want some of your items."

"G-got it…"

. . .

As soon as I open the door to my guild's apartment I'm greeted by Mell.

"What did you do?"

"Eat breakfast."

"You sure?" she asks in response.

"Am I sure that I ate breakfast? I mean, unless you consider eating breakfast this late lunch, I'm pretty sure."

"Listen to me! Nobody here wants to keep you in check, so I have to! Whatever you two just did probably could've gotten you both killed, and I need you to stop."

"Mell!" Laker calls out as he exits his bedroom. "I seriously need you to tone it down a few notches. You're like an 8 right now, and I need you to be a 2."

"Shut up, Laker, these dweebs almost got themselves killed."

"We found loot," Gabe announces as he drops an iron chestplate, a few weapons, and some gold to the ground.

"Did you guys kill someone?" Laker asks.

"No, no, no! We stole it from them. Much different."

"Oh. Well, dibs on the chestplate."

"Dammit," I hear Lonius say from the couch across the room. "I wanted the chestplate."

"Oh my GOD, you people are so pitiful!" Mell angrily says as she storms off into her bedroom she has to herself, and slams the door in the same manner she did earlier.

We settle back into the apartment and give everybody a bit of the loot, except for Mell, who doesn't want any of it. Everybody goes out into the field right by the entrance to Northern Lights to kill some monsters and possibly level up; after slashing at giant rats and angry boars for about thirty minutes we stop and look over our loot.

I find a new sword, which has a unique red handle and a blue blade, and seems fairly powerful in comparison to my other sword. I name it Restructor 2.0. Gabe finds an iron helmet and equips it, and July finds a bow and names it Evergreen. Upon asking her why she named it that, she replies that it's a reference to a movie. Just as we're sorting out our new items we all get a notification at the same time.

"There's a… newsletter?" July asks. In the "announcements" tab of my menu there's a message that says "Weekly Newsletter 1". Hm.

"Why in the world would there be a newsletter for a death game like this?" I ask.

I open it, and begin reading:

-Sword Art Online Weekly Newsletter 1

-Tuesday, Day 2, Year 1

-Disclaimer: this is unofficial, but I got special permission from the GameMaster to make these, and unless you block me (Mr. Crazikens) you'll be receiving these every week in your Announcements tab.

-It's been a day since this game has started and a plethora have players have already perished. Following the announcement that safe zones are now nonexistent, the SAO playerbase quickly got their act together and began wandering off in search of towns, loot, and other players to mess with. Some even murdered other players. And then some are focusing on the task at hand for us as a whole: to escape this death game. In case you forgot, in order to get out of SAO, all 100 floors of Castle Aincrad must be beaten, and then we'll all be free. The guild known as Dungeon Crawlers are currently working towards beating the first floor already, and reside in the city Stone Tower, which is the second biggest city due to the protection from murderers they offer, next to Alexandria, the bloodbath city, in which multiple guilds are currently fighting over.

-Leaderboard:

-Guild Stats

-Biggest Guild: Dungeon Crawlers

-Guild that has traveled the farthest (on average): The Strikers

-Guild that has killed the most monsters (total): Superlatory

-Guild with most control over Alexandria: CollegeDwellers

-Player Stats

-Player w/ most XP: Ulf

-Player that has killed the most monsters: Stormy

-Player that has lost the most health in total, but hasn't died: Asuna

-(I get these stats from the GameMaster himself, btw)

-If you would like to help me with this weekly newsletter, send me a message, my inbox is open to non-friends for six hours every tuesday; I'll get back to you ASAP. I didn't have enough time to think of every possible stat; next time we may do guild milestones and such.

-This is Mr. Crazikens, signing off.

Well, that's new, I think.

"Hey! We've travelled the farthest!" Gabe shouts. "Nice!"

"Then there's that asshole Ulf, who tried to kill me. Wonder what he's doing right now."

"Maybe we should stop by Stone Tower and see what's going on there. But only a few people, as someone needs to watch over our city," Lonius comments.

"Later," I say. "We probably need to fortify our town before we do anything. Level up a bit more, gather more weapons."

"I agree with Kirito," Mell says.

Well that's a first.

"We still need to focus mainly on survival, and if we're sure we're good we can help out the Dungeon Crawlers to get to the second floor, and maybe we'll even find a place up there to stay," Mell continues. "Anyways, who would want to go to Stone Tower?"

"Me!" I quickly shout. Mell rolls her eyes and says, "of course" under her breath.

"I'll go," says Gabe, followed by July and Lonius joining in.

"Well," Laker says, "You guys can head out whenever you're ready, I guess. I ain't comin' though. Much safer here."

. . .

I'm sitting in my bed, about to take a nap when I receive a message.

-From: Klein

-Open?

-Yes -No

It's the guy Gabe and I stole from, I think.

-From: Klein

-Hey, asshole, it's me. In case you're wondering, my guild has better weapons than we had last time, and all we have on our mind is you, and your friend xGabrielx. I don't know whether or not the item we're looking for is you or something in your inventory, but I can guarantee we'll find out soon enough. Watch your back.

-Klein

I chuckle a bit before falling asleep.

And then I'm at that same house from last night. I had forgotten all about it until now.

The girl from the FIND ME picture stands up and walks into a different room, saying, "I'll cook up some lunch. You guys sit tight, it'll be ready pretty soon!"

The other little girl, who looks around eight years old, turns her head towards me.

"Daddy, can we go fishing?"

"Well, sweetie, don't you remember what has to happen before that?" I ask out of nowhere. I didn't even do that, it just kind of came out of my mouth.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. You and mommy have to find eachot -" the girl replies before I wake up to Mell's voice.

"Kirito, please wake up."

"Wake up!"

"Wha - what? What do you want? How long was I asleep?"

"Shut up. I need you to listen: there's a guild outside of our apartment looking for you and Gabe, and since I assume they're the guild you and Gabe stole from this morning it's your job to figure it out, okay? I'm not helping you this time."

"Good, I don't need your help," I reply, half-smirking. She pulls me out of my bed and points to the door of my bedroom.

"GO. NOW."

"On it."

I find Gabe, who's looking out the window at the four people, angry and desperate for revenge.

"That's a nice sword," he comments. "Maybe we'll have that as well."

"Let's not mess with these guys anymore," I say. "I'd rather not stir up too much conflict."

"Fine. Alright, you ready?"

I check through my inventory and make sure I have a backup weapon.

"You still got the cripple potion?"

"Yeah, it's half gone, though."

We carefully open the door and walk down the stairs leading to the ground with our hands in the air. The entire guild jumps back before three of them pull out bows and aim it as us and the leader, Klein, pulls out a sword.

"Item?" he asks aloud.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me, we want the item."

"I still don't know what item you're talking about."

"Figure it out!"

"HOW?!"

"Alright," he says as he pulls out his map and zooms in on our position.

"The map says it's right where you're standing. So pull out every item you have, one by one, and place it somewhere away from you."

I do that. I place my sword beside me, then my dagger, then the healing potion I found earlier.

"Anything else?" he asks.

"Nope."

"That's funny, because the map's still saying the item is right… there. Where you are."

I realize I had forgotten one item: the FIND ME picture. I pull it out and place it by the stairs, on top of all of my other items. I see Mell in the window, carefully watching everything that's happening. I give her a sarcastic smile and wave, and she gives me the finger.

"That's - that's it! Holy shit! What is - is that a picture? Give me it!" Klein excitingly demands. I pick it up, study it, and fling it at him.

"What is this?" he asks.

"It's the item, is it not?"

He gives me a long, cold stare.

"Well, shit, we came all this way just for a freakin' picture. Son of a bitch... Come on guys, let's go to Stone Tower."

"Wait!" Gabe exclaims as they're leaving. "Why not stay with us?"

"Huh?"

Huh?

"Yeah!" Gabe continues. "I'm not saying our guilds need to merge, but you guys can rent an apartment here and we can all fortify this city and live here until floor 2 is unlocked!"

That actually doesn't sound like that bad of an idea.

Klein turns to Gabe, then looks at me, then back at the three other members of his guild.

"We'll give it some thought."

. . .

Year 1, Day 3

Floor 1

Northern Lights

Nothing else really happened yesterday after Klein's confrontation. I lost the FIND ME picture, but at least now I have that whole ordeal off my chest and we may have potential allies. I messaged Klein later that night, asking him about whether or not he'll accept the offer, and he's read it but hasn't responded.

Feels weird not having that picture. Maybe it's the sense of mystery and that one day I'd figure out what it really means, and now I never will.

Oh well.

Anyway, this morning, I decide to take everybody that's going on the trip to Stone Tower outside to train and also plan. We sit in a booth at the Lightning Bar, the restaurant across from our dark, wooden apartment, and I pull out a map. Apparently, everybody gets a map, and it has its own tab in the menu. Neat.

The map only shows places a player's been, along with other essential landmarks. Right now, on my map, I have Northern Lights, up in the mid-north, the Coliseum, a bit mid-west, Alexandria, just below the coliseum, and the Floor Transport city, where players can travel between floors. I don't know where the Labyrinth Dungeon is on this floor, but I guess that information is in Stone Tower.

"Where is Stone Tower?" asks July, who's studying the virtual map placed down on the booth table.

"I don't know, we have to figure that out before we head out."

"And how will we do that?" July replies.

One person comes to mind.

Klein.


A/N: Introduced a canon character finally! Got this chapter done fast. Make sure to review if you like this story!

Twitter: byzeldro

Tumblr: zeldro


Review Response for Chapter 2: Near-Death Experience

Guest "Hopeful Guest": Interesting flashbacks... Interesting...

Lots of OCs or de-facto OCs for now, but perhaps we'll be seeing more of canon characters and perhaps even loving reunitings in the not-to-distant future... Keep writing!

Yep, wanted to introduce some OCs. And yes, as you can tell after reading this chapter I am starting to introduce canon characters. Thanks for the review!

Gussy Phantom: I'm really enjoying this! It looks Kirito is still able to use his sword skills, so that's going to be really helpful. I'm just a bit worried that things are going to turn out pretty similar to what happens with the Moonlit Black Cats. I hope not, because this guild is really cool! Kirito will be so sad if they die! They're the only friends he has, or can at least remember, for the time being. I hope they'll all be alright! But, I'll wait and see how things play out. This next chapter should be interesting! Keep up the great work!

I've kept the Moonlit Black Cats incident in mind.

I'm not saying that exact event will happen, but characters WILL die at some point and new ones will come along. Thanks for the review!