02

The central fountain area of the starter area is packed with people, probably thousands—hell, the entire server population probably—when we arrive. There's a lot of talking going on amongst players, all wearing the same starter gear and their own choice of weapon.

"Is it a special event?"

"Will it have sweet rewards?"

"I was just about to go out adventuring, too."

Rapier teleports in beside me. "Hey," he blurts out, "can anyone else not logout?"

"Huh?"

"You can't logout, either?"

"What's going on?"

"Relax," I tell Rapier, "I'm sure the GM's will sort it out. I mean, it is Launch Day. Bugs are only natural."

"Yeah," Rapier says, "but I really can't stay here any longer." He makes an effort of pushing up around his ears. "Darnit!" He tries again with the lifting motion. "I can't get my Nervegear off."

"It's because your body is paralyzed while your consciousness is in the game."

The ominous red skies above us suddenly turn into hexes with 'GM Message Incoming' written over each hex, unfolding in a rolling pattern from the very top of the sky to the ground in a hemisphere around us.

"Finally," says someone.

"Yeah, maybe we'll get an answer."

The alert message 'GM Message incoming' at the very top point of the sky begins to shrink into itself, swirling, coalescing, until it is a mess of red and black that quickly drips down like a single drop of blood. No, it is a single drop of blood, just hanging up there...until the drop falls, streaming red beneath it, to everyone's shock, and even a few girlish screams.

The drop stops falling, and the red behind it expands, taking form and shape, until the black that was the letters gives it definition, creating a faceless man in red robes highlighted with two black stripes up the sides.

"A GM!" someone cries.

The crowd cheers for the GM's entrance, then goes nuts with questions, which the robed avatar listens to for a few seconds before holding out a handless sleeve for silence. "I am the creator of this world," it says, "Kayaba Akihiko."

I gasp, which gets Rapier's attention. "Do you know him?" he asks.

I whisper to Rapier, "He made the Nervegear that lets you play this game."

"Oh."

The hooded figure continues, "You may have noticed you cannot log out. This is not a bug."

Shocked murmuring, and even one person starts crying for some reason.

"You are now all players in my death game. My Sword Art Online. There will be no logging out until you've defeated the 100th floor of Aincrad."

"What?"

"Are you serious!"

People en masse try logging out through their pop-up HUDs, but everyone gets the same red [Error].

"Hey, what's the idea here?"

"Let us leave, please!"

"NO!" says the GM. It continues in its calm voice, "If you remove your Nervegear, radiation waves from the active gear will destroy your brain."

Gasps.

"If you die in this game," the avatar continues, "you die in real-life, as well. The Nervegear will see to it."

"He's mad!"

"This can't be happening!"

"He's lying! You're lying!"

"I am not lying, nor am I mad," says the GM, Kayaba. "I am now God of this world, and I will see you fight for your lives to escape the playground I so diligently created."

I speak up. "What? Why?"

"This life outside of Aincrad has grown soft and safe. There is no more need to fight, grow, evolve against the terrors of war and death." The GM's avatar holds it armless sleeves out to its side. "I will see your passions, now. I will see your fear and courage. I will see you band together and fall apart. And, lastly, I will see a Grand Triumph."

"You can't expect us to believe this," someone says. "Let us out!"

"Oh?" says the avatar. "Open your inventory and find the mirror I have placed inside." Thousands of players do so. I can feel Rapier beside me shudder. "Now look within, and tell me I have no power over this world."

I find my mirror and look inside...and see me. Not me the avatar I've chosen, but me, Kirigaya Kazuto, my face, my eyes, my hair, my everything, staring back at me. And in that instant white light illuminates everyone for a second, and then…

"What? You're not a girl?"

"Hey, I'm me! In-game!"

Still looking at myself in the mirror, I feel my hair. It's the same cut as I have in the real world, and it moves with my hand as it does in the mirror.

My God, I've become the real me, in here! Not my avatar at all anymore…

"Now do you see?" says the GM avatar. "I am truly God here."

"Now," Kayaba says, "let the glorious struggle of life and death begin!"

And with that, the GM disappears, and the blue skies and white clouds over the starter city return as the blood-red hexes disappear into nothingness.

Stunned silence…

I look over at Rapier...who is now a teenaged girl.

"Hey…" I point at her (?), "You're not…"

"I know, okay," she says, and flips her hood up to cover her face. Not before I catch auburn eyes that match her long hair, though.

"I mean, that's cool and all," I tell her. "Lots of guys play as girls, but I've never met-"

"A girl playing a guy?" she says. "I didn't want all the attention." She looks around. "Shh!"

That 'shh!' seems to have set the crowd off, who now start screaming and crying about wanting to be let out, how it isn't fair, they're all going to die.

"Crap," I say. "Rapier, or whatever your name is, we got to get out of this town."

"What? Why?" she asks. "Didn't you hear the GM? If we die here, we die for real."

"This place will be packed with people too scared to move, Rapier. This gives us-with me as a beta player-an advantage. We can farm the easy monsters from here to the next town, then get ourselves set up with some power leveling off the easy stuff, before it's all farmed out."

Rapier looks incredulous. "Are you seriously suggesting we risk our lives now?" she asks. "What if someone manages to rescue us from the game soon? Disables this madman's game and gets us out of here? What good does it do us if we're dead?"

People are outright weeping around us. It's a dreary mess.

"C'mon," I tell Rapier. "Let's talk somewhere else. We're upsetting everyone else."

Rapier hesitates a moment. "Okay, fine."

I lead down an alleyway, taking some twists and turns, and stop before reaching the outside, where all the monsters will be. It's a beautiful day beyond the starter city: all greens, blues and whites. It looks nothing like a death game.

"Right," I say to Rapier as I turn around, "We take the path a few blocks down, which leads to a road to the second town, Tolbana. It's about 30 minutes away, through some tough terrain, but we can handle it."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Rapier asks. "I haven't agreed to going along yet."

"'Yet'," I say. "Which means you're thinking about it?"

She hesitates a moment. "Okay, fine, I'm thinking about it," she admits. "If there's really no escape from this game then up the 100 levels, and no one is going to rescue us, then at least we have to look out for ourselves, right?"

"Right," I say with a nod.

"That means, what do you call it?"

"Leveling-up, getting money and gear."

"Right," she says. "And you know how to do all that?" I nod again. "Then I'm sticking with you," she say, trying one a faint smile.

"All right, that's the spirit!" I say. I hold out my hand. "My name's Kirito."

She looks at my hand for a moment, as if it might be a snake, but she takes it for a brief second. Long enough to say, "Asuna."

"Hey, Asuna," I say, and, "Let's go."

Weapons drawn, we set outside, to find the path, me on point, which will take us to Tolbana.