November 6th, 2022.

The world around me grew from hazy to bright rather quickly. I blinked a few times and glanced down at my hands. The entire experience felt so surreal, it was hard to believe I was here.

I remember wishing for someone to invent video games just like this as a child or of not, I would do it when I grew older; this was something I always hoped for. Something my brother always wished to see come to life. Something he'd never experience.

"Wow, this is…this is what you always wanted to experience, brother. Too bad you never will…" I whispered in a low, hushed tone to myself. I looked around me and saw multiple players coming into this fantasy world known as Aincrad.

Abruptly, someone stumbled into my back and I stumbled forward. I frowned; rather angered about being forcibly snapped out of my astounded state. I spun around, ready to scold whoever shoved me when I saw a girl who was rather small with long hair that was a bright shade green.

She had blue eyes that seemed really sparkly like she doused them in glitter, her hair reached her waist, and she had a cute, little, round face that anyone could gush over, so in short; her avatar was too freaking cute to even exist. As for her height, I'd say she's about 5'3, a few inches shorter than my character.

"O-oh," the cute girl stuttered in a high-pitched voice that suited her well, "I'm so sorry! I kind of fell asleep standing here, I didn't expect to bump into someone!" she squeaked, whispering something inaudible, only meant for her I assume, unless it was a quiet insult to me that she didn't want me to hear.

I turned to her with a deadpan look and sighed, "Next time be more aware of your surroundings, moron! …I guess the same could be said for me." I trailed off, raising my hand to rub the back of my neck.

One thing I don't really like is admitting when I'm at fault, a bad habit I've been trying to kick for years. To me, it's like trying to grind up a diamond by scraping it against a granite rock, which is impossible and a waste of time.

Despite my harsh tone, she brushed off any hurt I may have caused and said, "I'm Kalihara! What's your name?" she politely asked, fluttering her long eyelashes adorably.

My name? Or username…?

Making a quick decision, I said,"It's Karma." As plainly and bored as teenager could be or sound.

"Karma?" She said as if she didn't believe me.

I furrowed my eyebrows and took offense, "Yeah, is there something wrong with it?" At my words, the girls' cheeks flushed a bright pink and she shook her head and flailed her arms around.

"No! No! It's a perfectly good username! I really like it! It's really pretty and-and-!" She kept fumbling over her words as she tried to piece together compliments in order to appease me as if I was some high school bully trying to feel better about their selves.

I rolled my eyes at her pathetic form and simply turned and started to walk away from the center of town. In the middle of Kalihara's muttering, she stopped and called out, "Uh, hey! Where are you going?"

Without stopping my pace, I yelled back, "Away from here!"

And like a lost puppy, this girl began to tail me. At first I didn't really notice but when I glanced sideways to my left when I was buying a sword, I saw her cute little face peeking from behind one of the market stands. At first, I ignored her and continued with my purchase as if she weren't staring directly at me. Then when I was looking at gear, I saw her hiding behind a crowd of new players, once again ignoring her. Next, I saw her at the exit to the Town of Beginnings when I was walking by, this time I glanced at her and she started whistling like wasn't stalking me. Just as I was exploring the town a little, I spotted her pressing her body against one of the walls in the alley near the plaza, her beady blue eyes piercing into my soul. Wow, she's starting to get creepy and on my nerves. As my brother always said, there's a first for everything.

I did not know there was a first for…this.

Eventually, I stopped, spotted her, and then stomped over to Kalihara's hiding place. She spotted me heading towards her and she tried to run but I was much faster than she was, so stepping in front of her and trapping her wasn't too much of a challenge.

"Why are you stalking me?" I growled.

"Well, it looks like you know what you're doing so…I was just spectating so I'm not completely lost in the game."

"Kalihara, don't you know watching people and following them is creepy?"

"Not really."

My eyes widened in surprise at her response, since it totally caught me off guard, "Wow, okay."—I couldn't help but smirk—,"If you want me to help you figure out what to do, just ask."

Kalihara's eyes lit up and she beamed with pure joy, "Really?"

"Sure, I wasn't planning anything big today anyways."

Immediately, she pulled me into a tight hug and started squealing, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Um, you're welcome?" I responded awkwardly.

"Help my pick out a weapon please! I haven't done that yet." Kalihara stated, letting me go from her iron hug. Thank God, it was a VR game and not real life or else she would've and could've hugged me to death, the worst way to go out of style in my opinion.

"Which type of weapon do you prefer to fight with? Ya'know, if you've played any other RPG's." I asked as we approached the NPC weapons merchant.

"I have…" She answered. Kalihara looked at all the weapons and shrugged, "I don't know. What do you think?"

I tilted my head at her and bit the bottom of my lip, "It really depends on how you like to fight. You could use spears and fight from a distance. You could use a sword if you like getting up and personal. Whatever your fighting style is, I can pick out a weapon that would best suit you, but you have to tell me how you like to fight first like I mentioned before."

The girl blinked a few times and went into thought, "I really like fighting with lightweight swords because it helps me move fast."

I thought for a little bit and thought of a prefect weapon. I picked out a simple, silver rapier that wasn't too fancy looking, as expected for a beginner's weapon.

"How about this rapier? Since its low-level weapon, it's not gonna be spectacular, but it's a start."

Kalihara examined the weapon nodded, "It's fine, this'll definitely work." The rapier was bought and I decided Kalihara needed some training with her weapon since she's never played a VR game (Neither did I until today). It would be perfect to train with the weapons so we can get a hang on combat on this game.

"Kalihara," I called. She turned to me and tilted her head at me, "We should leave the town to practice with the weapons."

Kalihara liked the idea and agreed, so we walked out into the fields just outside the Town of Beginnings, where plenty of level one boar were grazing.

A sudden thought crossed my mind, so I turned to Kalihara and said, "I'm gonna be honest with you, we'll be learning combat together since I've never played this game before."

Kalihara turned to me, absolutely shocked by my words, "But you were acting like one of the beta testers; like you knew what you were doing."

"Well, I use my logic and past experience to play games like this; so far my strategy is working pretty okay." I chuckled, placing my hands on my hips.

Kalihara smiled and nodded, "At least I have a partner to learn with."

I frowned, thinking, Partners? I haven't had a partner since…

"Yeah! It's better to train with someone rather than yourself anyways." I said quickly, disrupting the thought that floated to the surface of my brain. Kalihara raised one of her green eyebrows in confusion, but thankfully decided not to question my sudden outburst.

By the time five o'clock rolled around, we had killed about forty boar. I fell to the ground as if all the hunting exhausted me, and sighed dreamily, "VR is so awesome…"

"I know, right?"

"Yup, the graphics are amazing here too." I added.

Kalihara plopped down next to me on the grass, "Do you have any friends playing?"

I glanced at her and shook my head, "I don't have any friends."

"That's so sad!" Kalihara cried, placing her hand over her mouth

Why is that sad? I asked myself, absolutely bewildered because of her reaction.

"Do you have any friends, Kalihara?" I asked, wanting the attention off me.

She looked up at the virtual sky and nodded, "Yeah, an entire team. We were all supposed to meet up at the plaza at one, but that didn't happen because they didn't show up, that's when I ran into you." She finished looking at me with a smile.

I thought about earlier and realized how rude I was to Kalihara earlier. Again, I hate when I have to admit when I'm wrong or did something wrong.

I paused for a minute or two then said, "Kalihara, I'm sorry if I was rude to you when we first met, it's just…I'm not used of people talking to me or even acknowledging my presence. When you apologized, it confused me and my reaction ended up being an aggressive one. So, I'm really sorry."

I glanced at Kalihara and saw her still looking up at the sky, a sheepish grin plastering over her face, "Thank you. It makes me really happy to hear that." For another few minutes, without moving her fixed gaze, she added, "Hey, maybe we can hang out in real life and you could meet my friends, then we all can be friends." Kalihara cheered.

I smiled at the idea, "I would like that."

I pulled up my character screen to look at what options were available when I noticed the time on my HUD, 05:17. Crap.

"Oh no." I muttered, getting off the ground.

Kalihara looked at me, "What's wrong?"

"I…was supposed to log out a few minutes ago! If I'm not ready to leave by five thirty, my mom will put my head on a pike." I muttered, going to my options to log out.

There was one problem though.

Where was the log out button?

"Um, Kalihara? Can you look at your log out button?" I asked calmly.

She stood up and did as I asked, a look of surprise painting her features just as I feared, "There isn't one…" She glanced up at me, her pupils dilated with fear, and mines were probably too, "M-maybe it's just an error." Kalihara tried to press the empty log out space but nothing happened.

"I'll contact the administrators…" I muttered, going to the admin button, but when I tried, it said they were unavailable, which was absolute bullcrap.

I looked at the time again and it read 05:27.

"Maybe, admin will make an announcement explaining the whole ordeal." Kalihara mumbled reassuring us both, nothing was wrong…hopefully.

"Y-yeah, besides, if anything, my mom will pull off the VR headgear and I'll be up in no time!" I chuckled, thinking of how pissed my mom would be if I wasn't ready by five-forty.

We decided it was best to wait until admin made an announcement, so until then; we made uneasy conversation, silently praying the worst wouldn't happen.

But when the bells from Town of Beginnings rang, a sudden blue light enveloped Kalihara, and before I could make a sound, it swallowed me up too.

Instead of the green pasture I saw before, I was now back at the center of the plaza back in town, along with hundreds of other people, the numbers rapidly increasing by the second thanks to the blue light.

I looked around me and noticed Kalihara wasn't next to me, slightly making me anxious, "Kalihara!" I hollered, hoping to catch her attention somehow among these what must be thousands of people.

A few feet to my left, I heard, "Karma?!" I immediately tracked her voice, squeezed through all the players, and found her standing by herself, utterly confused by what was happening around her.

"What's going on?" she uttered in terror. Although I could tell she was scared to death too, I kept my calm composure and shrugged.

"Whatever it is, we'll find out soon." The second those words left my mouth, red hexagons rapidly appeared over the plaza, forming a dome like structure over the plaza like a roof. The word "warning" also appeared in all caps on all the hexagons, making this entire situation a lot scarier than it needed to be. That's the hexagons started oozing blood. Yes, literal blood that formed itself into a hooded man wearing a red cloak with the hems being gold. Very not super-freaking creepy at all…It's sarcasm if you didn't get it.

Suddenly, everything was too overwhelming and I passed out.

I woke up with Kalihara shaking, saying something with urgency.

Open your inventory…

I lazily pulled up my inventory and saw a new item, called Hand Mirror.

I got up from where I fainted, and looked at Kalihara.

"What happened?" I muttered.

"We're trapped here! We die here; we really die! I'm scared!" Kalihara practically screamed, pulling at her hair and crying.

Something about her words just didn't click in my mind, as if she was speaking an entirely different language, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. I looked at the new item and then the girl next to me, "What is this?"

She glanced at me and sniffled, "A gift from admin…"

A gift…?

I clicked it, along with a bunch of other players. An object appeared in my hand and it was actually a mirror. I looked in my reflection and saw my avatar. Suddenly another blue light engulfed me, this time not transporting my anywhere.

I blinked a few times and noticed more people being eaten by the blue light I'm already sick of.

"Karma? You look…different." I turned to Kalihara and jumped back.

"Uh, you do too!" I yelped, seeing an even cuter girl than before. Instead of long hair, green hair like before, it was blonde and short. Her eyes were a beautiful topaz color, her skin was porcelain, her lips were a pretty pink, and she was only 5'1 at most! She was a lot cuter and precious than ever!

I gasped and figured if she changed… I looked in the mirror and my heart stopped.

In the reflection, my bright green eyes that reminded me of a cats' were there, my skin changed from white to a brown coffee color, my hair was definitely longer, all the way to my heels.

The mirror slipped from my hand and it hit the ground, shattering into shards then pixels.

I look exactly like the real me.

That's when everything Kalihara said kicked in. This isn't a regular RPG; it's a death game.

Moreover, I was one of the unfortunate players.

A/N: I don't think I'll have a regular updating schedule so please bear with me. Before I forget, Karma and Kalihara are my OC's, just to clarify.