Chapter Summary: It's the day of Sword Art Online coming out, 100,000 people are playing the game. And in this chapter, we see Kazuto/Kirito help one player by the name of Klein.

Chapter Three…

Welcome to Aincrad!

Aincrad - First Floor, Town of Beginning:

When Kazuto got into the character creation part of the game, he didn't spend much time here, seeing how he already knew what he was doing. But he did notice that his Sky Sanctum was not as close to Aincrad, and his guide was a squirrel-girl Demi-Human by the name of Makoto. And instead of his avatar looking like himself, he made his avatar much older, taller, with longer hair and with more muscles.

Seeing how he wanted to try to be a Swordsman in this version of the game, he altered how he did his stats from his Beta Testing game. He was glad to see that he had thirty skill points to play with instead of twenty. So, he put fifteen into STR, ten into AGI and three points VIT and two into INT. So, his attribute and stats were as following:

Attribute Points:

STR: 30

AGI: 10

VIT: 13

INT: 7

DEX: 2

Stat Points:

Hit Points: 325

Physical Attack: 150

Defence: 65

Soul Point: 70

Magical Defence: 35

Ranged Attack: 10

After he created his character and entered the portal, he found himself back in Aincrad.

"Hello World, I'm back." Kirito said eagerly, wanting to get back into the world, after being away for almost three months after the beta testing ended.

Looking around the plaza, he saw bright lights coming from left, right, and centre, as players spawned in the big plaza. For a brief moment, he wondered out of the hundred thousand people who got the game, how many of them would login today. Seeing how it was the official opening day, Kirito was suspecting quite a lot of people, at least half of the hundred thousand.

Anyway, seeing how he wanted to get a good start in this game and knowing what he wanted to do this afternoon, he ran to the carpenter shop where he can get the Alchemy Chest. Sure, he had the Hidden Alchemist Quests from winning the NerveGear and the game, but he wanted to try out being a Swordsman seeing how he played as an Alchemist during beta testing. For now, he wanted to see what the Swordsman was like. If he didn't enjoy it, he would go back to being an alchemist.

The reason he was going to get the Alchemy Chest when he wasn't going to be an Alchemist was simple: to be able to create free basic potions. As the chest would allow him to make them as long as he got the ingredients.

But as he was making his way to the carpenter, he heard someone call out, ''Hey, you there!''

Feeling that the shout was directed at him, Kirito stopped running and turned around to see an older teen with a red-headed pirate with a bandana approaching. ''You seem to know your way around here. This might be rude, but were you a beta tester, won't you?''

With a surprised expression, Kirito asked, ''Figured that one out pretty quick. Is it that obvious?''

''Just a lucky guess." the elder teen admitted to Kirito, "Can I ask you a favour? I know you don't know me, but I'm new to this game, so I was wondering if you could teach me the basics of the first few floors.''

Kirito quickly thought about this. Normally he wouldn't help just anyone, especially a stranger he just met. As he had problems with interacting with people as it was. But yet, there was something about this man, something that clicked with Kirito.

Because of this and having no reason to decline the pirate, especially considering he was known to help newbies back in the beta, he decided to help this person. As it was a way to pay it forward after all the help that he got when he was a newbie.

''Well, I guess I can teach you some things." Kirito told him, "In fact, I was just going to start a quest."

"A quest?" asked the man.

"Yeah, I would say it is an important quest for any player," Kirito informed him, "as it would help you save money by allowing you to create your own potions wherever you want. All you have to do is to create an Alchemy Chest, which gives you basic tools to make simple potions. So, once I start the quest to make it, we can go to the fields where I can teach you the basics with some fighting. In fact, I would suggest that you do this quest, too."

As the man thought about it, and seeing this was his first VR game, he thought it best to follow this young man. So he said, ''No problem at all. Oh, I forgot. My name is Klein.''

''I'm Kirito.'' Kirito introduced himself as they shook hands. Kirito then led Klein to the carpenter. Explaining how the quests worked in this game.

As they got to the carpenter and entered the store, the NPC said, "Greetings Adventurers, my name is Harold, the carpenter for Town of Beginning. How can I help you?"

This shocked Kirito a bit, seeing how the last time he was here during the beta testing, the NPC didn't say anything until he talked to him. So this was new to the game. Not only did the NPC talk, but he doesn't seem like other NPCs he used to, emotionless. He almost felt alive.

"I'm after an Alchemy Chest." explained Kirito.

"Does your friend want a chest too?" asked Harold, shocking Kirito, seeing how he wasn't expecting the NPC to ask that question. Normally, NPCs would interact with players separately.

But Klein didn't realize this, believing this was part of the game, and said, "I do."

"I see, I'm sorry to tell you two this but I'm unable to help you right now." explained the NPC, "I have run out of the material to make such chests. I've ordered them, but it'll take some time for the order to get here. However, if you want to help me out, and go get the material yourselves, I'm willing to create an Alchemy Chest for free. The first thing I would need was to get wood from the lumberjack near the town."

Upon hearing this, the quest window opened, just like in the beta.

Alchemy Chest Quest - Part 1

Gathering Wood from the Lumberjack!

Collect some planks of wood from the Lumberjack.

Reward(s):

30 EXP.

Next Quest…

Accept/Decline

Upon seeing this, Kirito saw a slight change in wording and that other than the next quest as a reward, he would get some exp too. Kirito had to wonder though, if the amount of the wood was removed, how would that affect the next part of the quest. Would he still have to cut the trees, or would he just have to collect the wood from the lumberjack? He would have to wait and see.

Looking at Klein, who nodded with a smile, Kirito said, "We would be happy to help you, sir."

With that, the Decline from the quest window disappeared and only left the word Accept.

"Thank you, young Adventures, you'll be doing me a great favour." the carpenter thanked them, "Now you can find the Lumberjack's Hut here." Here, like in the beta, the NPC gave them a map of the surrounding area of the town. The map showed more detail. It showed places inside the town and the outside of it. The map had a mark on it, pointing to where they had to go.

"Thank you. We'll be back with your wood soon." With that Kirito took the map and left the shop and walked out of the town.

o0OoO0o

Aincrad - First Floor, Lumberjack's Hut, near Town of Beginning:

As they walked out of the castle and towards the Lumberjack's Hut, Kirito explained to Klein about what the quest they were going to do was about. Klein admitted that it was an easy quest and was glad to have a new skill and an axe to cut down trees.

When they got to the Lumberjack's Hut, Kirito saw that it had changed a bit since the beta testing. There was a huge open farm shed. In the shed, the two men could see a few old-fashioned sawmills. There were shelves with tools on and to put things on. They could see a man putting a log through one of the sawmills to make planks.

Like before, when Kirito and Klein entered the area, an elderly man wearing a lumberjack outfit left the hut and came up to them. The only change that Kirito could notice about the man was that he looked more stronger than the one he met in the beta testing.

"Greetings, young Adventures. Are you here for the job of lumberjacks?" asked the lumberjack.

"What jobs are these?" asked Klein, before Kirito could say a word. Kirito found it strange that the NPC would ask such a question, but then again, seeing how there were certain things turned off or not available during the testing. So this could be one of many things that was missed because of that.

"So you haven't heard about the job then." said the lumberjack, "Well, first off, let me introduce myself. I'm Maverick, one of two lumberjacks on this floor. As for the job that I mentioned, I recently lost the only two people that I had working for me. When I heard about the Adventures being summoned to Aincrad, I thought I would put a notice on the notice board in the Town of Beginnings for hired hands. I thought I could get some help at the same time helping the Adventures."

Kirito was amazed by this story. He wasn't expecting this much realism in it. It would seem that Argus was going all out in this game, wanting to make the NPCs as real as possible. That meant the A.I system that they were using was next gen to make them act so well.

"Sorry," apologised Kirito, "but we're here to pick up some planks of wood for the carpenter in the Town of Beginning."

"Ah, I see," said Maverick, "I'm actually working on his order now. But with my men leaving me, and orders from villages to fix things recently, I'm behind in my orders. But if you're willing to help me, by cutting some trees and making them into planks, I should be able to finish the order soon."

Upon hearing this, a quest window opened.

Help the Lumberjack

Help the Lumberjack finish the carpenter's order.

Reward(s):

Carpenter's Order

20 EXP

?

?

Accept/Decline

Warning - Teaching System Apply to This Quest:

This quest allows you to learn how to cut trees properly.

More strength that you have, the easier this'll be.

(Disable this feature if you don't want to learn this in settings.)

It surprised Kirito that the wording of this quest was completely different from the one from the beta test. At least the rewards, apart from EXP being added, seem to be the same. Upon seeing the warning about the teaching system, Kirito smiled, happy to see that Argus was able to add this skill to the game.

Seeing that with the more strength he had, the better he would do with the skill, Kirito was thankful that he put a few skill points into strength before starting the game. So, it wouldn't be too hard to do this quest. He didn't want to disable this feature, as he wanted to see how this teaching system would work.

Although, Kirito was surprised this would be a skill that they would be learning in the game. Seeing how not many people would be needing it in the real world. He was suspecting to learn skills such as cooking and carpeting. But then again, you would never know when you would need to cut a tree down.

"Are you interested in learning this?" Kirito asked Klein with a whisper.

"Sure, I'm interested in how this works." admitted Klein.

So, Kirito said to the NPC, "We would be glad to help you with your work."

After accepting the quest, Maverick said, "In that case, I need someone to help me cut the wood into planks and someone to cut the trees to help with my next order."

"Is it possible to split the work?" asked Klein, "I mean, after a while we swap places so that we can do both jobs."

"If that's what you want, that's fine. Just as long I can get my orders done." the NPC told them.

So, with that, Maverick taught them how to use the sawmill and to cut the trees in the right way. During their training, the lumberjack explained that depending on their skill level, they would have a harder time in cutting trees and making planks. In fact, unless their skill was high enough, they might not be able to cut down or cut a tree into planks at all. It would be impossible.

This was something that Kirito learned by himself, as he didn't have someone to tell him this. So it was nice that those who took this option for the lumberjack to teach them would learn about it sooner and save time and energy.

Either way, for the next two hours, Klein and Kirito worked on either cutting trees or making planks from the tree logs that were already cut down. It shocked Kirito that whilst he had a bit of an easy time in cutting down, Klein had much easier of a time. It would seem that Klein put all of his skill points into STR and VIT. Klein explained that he wanted to be an attack tank, being able to protect his friends but at the same time attack when needed. So he was planning to put most of his skill points that he gets into STR and VIT, only put points into the other attributes when he had to.

Like in the beta testing, other than getting an axe called Old Lumberjack Axe, they gained a skill, this time though it was a skill called Lumberjack. Although it wasn't the Woodcutter Skill that he got before, Kirito thought Lumberjack was the same skill but with a different name. As long as he got the same stats and skill from it, Kirito didn't care about the name change. They even got the EXP,

Once they finished the quest, Kirito saw a few players coming to the Lumberjack. However, it wasn't to do the same quest as they were there for, but for the Lumberjack Job that Maverick sent to the town.

Anyway, what surprised Kirito was the final part of their reward. Kirito was only thinking that they would get about forty or so planks of wood, but instead, they got a full cart of planks of wood. Not a small cart, but a big one that held at least two hundred planks of wood. More than enough to make at least twenty or so Alchemy Chests.

Kirito had to wonder how this would affect the game. Was this part of the game? To make the game more real like, so that people would have an easier time getting the chest and would only have the quests once the chests were sold out. Kirito would have to wait and see.

Now as they were returning to the Town of Beginnings, Klein asked, "Wasn't we supposed to get twenty planks of wood each, not this chart full?

"That's what I thought too." admitted Kirito, "I might be wrong, but I think this is to make this as a way to prevent too many people doing the quest or make it easier for people to get the chest. Having it so that every so often only a few players need to get the wood once the chests are sold out."

This left Klein in deep thought about this, as neither he nor Kirito knew what to say to this. Either way, when they got back to the town, the town guards came to protect the planks.

Once they got to the carpenter, they saw another player who was about to take up the same quest as them. But they were about to be shocked as to what happened next. When they entered the shop, Harold saw them as just before the other player could accept the quest, the carpenter said, "One moment sir." shocking everyone there, as NPCs normally wouldn't do this. Harold then turned to Kirito and Klein and asked, "Did you get my order of planks that I asked for?"

"We did." Kirito told the NPC, shocked and liking how Argus had an A.I system that could make these NPCs so lifelike.

Alchemy Chest Quest - Part 1 (COMPLETED)

Gathering Wood from the Lumberjack!

Collect some planks of wood from the Lumberjack.

Reward(s):

30 EXP.

Next Quest…

With that, both Klein and Kirito got their skill points. Then Harold turned to the other player and apologised, "Sorry Adventurer, but I no longer need you to get me the planks I need. These Adventurers got them for me." This shocked the players here. This wasn't what normally happened. Normally, NPCs use the same chain event for every player, never stopping one part of the quest because another player was able to finish it first.

But this did prove one thing to Kirito. Argus had created a kind of quest that helps out other players. Something that Kirito had heard about.

"But I would like your help with getting some iron from the mines if you don't mind?" the carpenter told them.

"What about my quest for the planks?" the new player asked angrily. Not liking the idea of losing EXP. Something Kirito could understand. He would be unhappy if he lost a quest that would lose him EXP.

"I'm sorry, but I don't need any more wood, at least not yet, if you come back in a few weeks, I might need your help." the carpenter told the other player, "However, right now, I need help with getting some iron hinges from the blacksmith as I make the base of the chests for you free."

Once again, the quest window appeared in front of them:

Alchemy Chest Quest - Part 2

Get Iron Hinges from Blacksmith

Collect some Hinges from the Blacksmith.

Reward(s):

30 EXP.

Next Quest…

Accept/Decline

"No way, not if I can't do the first quest first." said the other player before he walked out angrily.

"We'll be happy to help you out sir." Kirito told the man, with Klein nodding too.

"Thank you, Adventurers, please give me your map and I'll mark where the blacksmith is." the carpenter told them. Even though Kirito knew where the blacksmith was, he still wanted to mark where the blacksmith was. As he was planning to do all the quests that he can do in town, as they would mark areas on the map. A map he was planning to sell for some Col (money) so he can buy new armour, gear, weapons and ingredients.

Once the map was marked, he left the shop to go to the blacksmith.

As Kirito led Klein to the blacksmith, Klein asked, "When we get the blacksmith, well, we have to do a quest for the hinges?"

"Yes, we'll need to go to the mines to mine iron ore. Doing so, we get a hammer and the mining skill." explained Kirito.

"Then why not get the iron ore first and go to the blacksmith?" Klein suggested.

"Not a bad idea, but I'm a bit worried about doing that." Kirito informed Klein about his fears, "The first few quests are different as it is already. I'm afraid that if we mine the iron first, it might ruin the quest somehow. So, until a guide is out telling us the quests, I prefer to follow what the quests to the tie. That way, we won't miss anything."

"Fair enough." admitted Klein. Before long, they got to the blacksmith and got the quest.

Like with the other NPCs, this one too felt real, unlike other NPCs from other games. The quest was the same, other than getting 60 EXP.

o0OoO0o

Aincrad:

"Ahh… ha… uwahh!" screamed Klein, as he swung his sword but cut nothing but air.

Right afterwards, the blue boar (which moved surprisingly quick considering its bulk) charged fiercely at its assailant. Kirito couldn't help but burst into laughter, watching Klein fly through the air and roll on the hill after getting hit by the boar's flat nose.

"Hahaha… not like that. The first movement is important, Klein." Kirito informed his new friend. He didn't know why, but he was able to make friends much easier in the game than he could in the real world.

"Argh… that bastard." Klein complained as he got up and glanced at Kirito while answering plaintively. "But Kirito, even if you say that… I can't do anything about the fact that it's moving."

It had been about four hours since Kirito started the quest for the iron ore. But as they crossed the fields to get to the mine, Kirito thought that it would be for the best to teach Klein how to fight. As with all the changes happening already to the game, he couldn't be sure if there would be any monsters in the mine or not. So, he thought it would be for the best to teach Klein how to fight now and not in the mine where he could get killed.

Kirito picked up a pebble from the undergrowth at his feet and raised it above his shoulder. As soon as the system detected the first motion of a sword skill, the pebble started giving off a slight green light.

After that, Kirito's left hand almost moved by itself and the pebble went flying, drawing a straight line of light and hitting the boar between its eyebrows. *Ggiik!* The boar squealed in fury and turned towards him.

"Of course, they move, they're not training dummies like you find back in town at the sword training camp." explained Kirito, "But if you begin the correct motion, the system will put your sword skill into motion and hit the target for you."

"Motion… motion…" Klein muttered this like some spell as he raised his cutlass that he held in his right hand.

Although the blue boar, officially named Frenzy Boar, was a level one monster, Klein had lost almost half of his HP from being hit by counter attacks due to his wild swings. Well, even if he died, he'd just respawn at the Town of Beginning near here, but coming all the way out to this hunting ground again would be somewhat annoying.

It seemed like there was one move left before the fight reached its conclusion.

Kirito cocked his head as he blocked the boar's charge with the sword in his right hand.

"Hmm, how should I explain…" Kirito said thoughtfully, as he tried to think of a way to explain to Klein how to fight. He wasn't someone who could teach other people how to do something. "It's not like one, two, three, then strike. But more like gathering a bit of energy and then, as soon as you feel the skill start, it goes BAM, and you feel it hit the monster…"

"Bam, eh?" asked Klein with a smile.

Klein's roughly handsome face under the tasteless bandana grimaced itself into an unsightly image as he levelled his sword at his waist.

Inhale, exhale; after taking a deep breath, Klein lowered his stance and raised his sword as if he was going to shoulder it. This time, the system sensed the pose correctly and the arcing sword slowly started shining orange.

"Ha!" in a low yell.

With his low yell, he jumped off the ground with a movement that was completely different from the ones before.

*Swish!* With this crisp sound, the sword drew its flame red trajectory through the air. The Reaver, a basic skill of the one-handed curved sword, struck the boar right in its neck as it was about to charge and got rid of the rest of its HP, which (like Klein's) was about half full.

"Guekk-" the monster gave a pitiful cry and dropped dead as purple numbers appeared, showing how many virtual experience points they gained. Which was twenty-five.

"Ye~~a~~h!"

Klein struck an over-blown pose of victory with a huge smile on his face and raised his left hand. Kirito high-fived him and smiled again.

"Congrats on your first victory… but that boar-it's about as hard as slimes from other games." Kirito explained the newbie.

"Eh, really?" Klein asked in shock. He would never imagine that. "I thought it was some sort of semi-boss or something!"

"Not a chance." Kirito told him with his smile becoming a little forced as he sheathed his sword on his back.

Even though Kirito was teasing him, he understood what the new player was feeling right now. Since he had two more months of experience than him, it was only now that he could feel the exhilarating feeling of destroying his enemy with his own hands.

Klein started to use the same sword skill over and over again, yelling as he did so, perhaps as a way of practising. Kirito left him alone and looked around.

The endlessly stretching plains gave off a beautiful red as the sun had started setting. Way up north, there was the silhouette of a forest, a sparkling lake down south, and Kirito could just about make out the walls that surrounded the city to the east.

To the west, there was a limitless sky going on forever, with bunches of golden clouds drifting by.

They were at the plains that stretched to the west of the Town of Beginning, which was situated at the north end of the first floor of the colossal floating castle, Aincrad. There should be numerous players fighting monsters around here, but because of the enormous size, none of them were visible.

Finally seeming satisfied, Klein sheathed his sword and walked over while observing the area as well.

"But really… however many times I look around like this, I still can't believe that this is inside of a game." Klein told Kirito.

"Well, even if you say we're 'inside' of the game, it's not like our souls were sucked in or anything." Kirito told his partner, "Our brain is just seeing and hearing instead of our eyes and ears… with the signals that the NerveGear is sending,"

Klein pouted like a kid.

"You might be used to it now, but for me it's the first time doing a FullDive! Isn't it awesome?" Klein asked in excitement, "Really… it's a relief that I was born in this era!"

"You're exaggerating." laughed Kirito, but at the same time, though, he could totally agree with him.

Klein was staring at the wind passing through the plains and the castle walls off in the distance with actual tears in his eyes.

"So, SAO is the first game for the NerveGear that you've played?" asked Kirito

.

Klein, looking like a calmly handsome warrior from the Sengoku period, turned his head Kirito's way, and admitted with a nod, "Yeah."

If he wore a serious expression on his face, he had an impressive bearing about him worthy of an actor from a historical play. Of course, this was different from his actual body in the real world. It was an avatar made out of nothing, based on choosing from a list of options.

Of course, Kirito looked like a strong, ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation as well.

Klein continued in his low, vigorous voice, which (of course) was different from his real voice as well.

"Well, to be exact, I sorta bought the hardware in a rush after I managed to get my hands on SAO." admitted Klein, "There were only one hundred thousand, across the world, in the first batch, so I suppose I was really lucky. Well, if I think about it, you were ten times luckier when you got picked for beta testing. They only picked a thousand!"

"Ah, yeah… I suppose." Kirito admitted awkwardly, as he didn't want to admit that he was the first-place winner of the competition to become a Beta Tester.

Klein kept staring at him. Kirito unconsciously scratched his head.

"Can I ask, does that monster corpse stay there for long?" asked Klein, seeing how it hadn't disappeared yet.

"Only a few minutes," admitted Kirito, "I think they are planning to teach us how to harvest an animal once we killed a monster."

"Interesting." admitted Klein, "But what if we're not interested in doing that?"

"I can see two options. The first is that in the beta we had a skill that allows us to harvest the monster. But we had to go to learn it from a Hunter's Guild." explained Kirito, "The other is that we wait until the monster disappears and hope we get the skill."

Just as if saying the magic words, the monster disappeared, and they got a notice of getting some loot from the monster.

"So, what do you want to do?" asked Kirito, "Do you want to keep hunting till you get used to it? Or do you want to finish the quest?"

Looking at his hub, Klein said, "Sure, I can spare about an hour. I would like to get used to fighting before I log out."

And with that, for the next hour or so, the two of them fought against the monsters in the area. During that time, they were able to level up once, gaining five skill points. For Klein, he placed them into STR and VIT, whilst Kirito placed his points into STR and AGI.

But their time was about to be up though, as when Klein looked at his hub again after about an hour, he said, "Sorry Kirito, but I have to go. I have ordered some pizza at 5:30."

"Fair enough mate." Kirito said in understanding.

"Listen, I've promised to meet some of my friends at the Town of Beginning in a short while." explained Klein, "And I was wondering if I could introduce you to some of them and you could register them as friends. That way, you could always send messages. How about it?"

"Errr… Hmmm…" Kirito mumbled subconsciously.

He was able to get along with Klein pretty well, but there was no guarantee that it'd be the same for his friends. Kirito felt like there would be a higher chance of not getting along with them and, as a result, falling out with Klein as well.

"Should I…?" asked Kirito, unsure about it.

Seeming to understand the reason for Kirito's not-so-confident answer, Klein shook his head and said, "Ah, I don't mean to force you. There'll be a chance to introduce them to you some other time, anyway." Kirito told him.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm normally comfortable around people." Kirito tried to explain to his friend, "So whilst I might be comfortable, I don't know if…"

"If you'll be comfortable around my friends." Klein finished Kirito's sentence, "I understand. I have a few people who are the same. Those who have problems with being around others and take time to get used to others. Don't worry about it. As I said, there'll be a chance to introduce them to you some other time. For now, let's add each other as friends." Klein said as he sent a friend invite to Kirito.

"Thank you." Kirito thanked the older teen as he accepted the invite.

As soon as Kirito thanked him, Klein shook his head vigorously.

"Hey, hey! I should be the one thanking you." Klein waved Kirito off, "I got a lot of help from you. I'll pay you back sometime soon. Mentally."

Klein smiled and took another look at the clock.

"Well, I'll log off for a bit. Thanks a lot, Kirito. Hope to see you again."

With that, he put his hand forward. At that moment, Kirito thought this person would have been a great leader in the future and shook his hand.

"Yeah, see you around." Kirito told the man.

They let go of the other's hand.

That was the point where Aincrad, or Sword Art Online, stopped being just some fun game for Kirito. It was a way to better himself.

Klein stepped back a bit, put his right index and middle fingers together, and pulled downwards. This was the action that opened the main menu window manually. Immediately afterwards, there was a ringing sound and a shining purple rectangle appeared.

Kirito moved a bit, sat on a rock, and opened his menu too. He started moving his fingers to organise the items that he had gotten from fighting the boar: some Sm. Pork Meat, Sm. Tusks and some Col, just some of the things that he got. It wasn't much, but without the harvest skill with a high skill level, he wasn't expecting much from the boar.

As he was looking at his loot, he heard a strange tone from Klein, "Eh? What's this…? There's no log out button."

Hearing this, Kirito stopped moving his fingers and raised his head at that. "No button…? No way, look a bit closer," said Kirito, a bit confused. Why wouldn't there be a log out button?

The swordsman opened his eyes wide beneath the bandana and pushed his face closer to the menu.

The rectangle, wider than it was high, had a bunch of buttons to the left and a silhouette showing what equipment you had on to the right. At the bottom of the menu, there was a LOG OUT button that allowed you to escape from this world.

As Kirito was turning his head to the inventory that listed the items he had gained over from fighting, Klein started speaking in an unusually high voice.

"It's really not there. You take a look, Kirito." Klein told the young man.

"I told you that there's no way that it's not there…" Kirito muttered with a sigh as he tapped on the button on the top left to go back to the menu screen.

The inventory window on the right closed and the main screen re opened. To the left of the silhouette, which still had quite a lot of empty spaces, there was a long row of buttons.

Kirito moved his hand down in a movement that had almost become a habit and…

His body froze.

It wasn't there.

As Klein had said, the button that had been there during the beta test - no, even right after Kirito logged on - had disappeared.

Kirito could only stare at the empty space for a couple of seconds, then looked through the menu, making sure that it hadn't just changed its position. Klein looked up with "Right?" written on his face.

"… Not there, right?" asked Klein, worried about what this meant.

"Yeah, it's not there." Kirito nodded, although it felt slightly annoying to agree so easily. Klein smiled and started rubbing his thick chin.

"Well, it's the first day, so these sorts of bugs could occur. Around now, the GMs should be crying by now from the number of messages flooding in," Klein said calmly.

"Is it all right for you to stand around like that? You said that you ordered some pizza, didn't you?" Kirito asked teasingly.

"Ah, that's right!" Klein said in panic as Kirito smiled as he watched him jump around, his eyes wide.

Kirito threw away a couple of items he didn't need from the inventory, which had turned red from having too many items, and then walked over to Klein.

"Argh! My anchovy pizza and ginger ale!" Klein said, still in a panic.

"Why don't you call a GM?" Kirito asked the man, "They might cut you off from their side."

"I tried, but there's no response." Klein replied, "It's already 5:25! Hey, Kirito! Isn't there some other way to log out?"

After listening to what Klein, who was waving both arms, said…

Kirito's face became rigid. He felt a groundless fear send a chill down his back.

"Let's see… to log out…" Kirito said whilst thinking.

To get out of this virtual reality and back to his room, Kirito would have to open the main menu, press the 'Log Out' button, and press 'Yes' on the window that popped up on the right. It was pretty simple. But… at the same time, apart from that procedure, Kirito wasn't aware of any other way of logging off.

Kirito looked up at Klein's face, situated quite a bit higher than his own, and shook his head.

"No… there's none. If you want to log yourself off, you have to use the menu." Kirito said as he couldn't think of how to log out, "Apart from that, there's no other way."

"That's impossible… there's got to be something!" a worried Klein said to Kirito.

Klein suddenly started shouting as if he was denying Kirito's statement. "Return! Log out! Escape!"

But of course, nothing happened. There were no voice commands in SAO of that description.

After Klein shouted this, and that and even jumped around, Kirito spoke to him. "Klein, it's useless. Even the manual doesn't have anything on emergency access terminations."

"But… this is just stupid! Even if it's a bug, I can't even go back to my room and my body when I want to!" Klein shouted with a bewildered expression on his face.

Kirito totally agreed with him.

This was impossible. It was complete nonsense. But at the same time, it was indisputably the truth.

"Hey… what is this? It's just really weird. Right now, we can't get out of this game!" Klein gave a desperate laugh, then quickly started talking again. "Wait, we can just turn the power off. Or just pull the Gear off."

As Kirito watched Klein move his hands as if he was trying to take off some invisible hat, Kirito felt the anxiety returning.

"That's impossible, both of them." Kirito informed his new friend, as he thought about it, "Right now, we can't move our bodies… our real bodies. The NerveGear interrupts all the commands that our brain is sending to the body, here…" Kirito tapped the underside of the back of his head, the medulla oblongata. "… And converts them to signals to move our avatars."

Klein slowly closed his mouth and put his hands down. They both stood speechless for a while, each lost in thought.

To realise the FullDive environment, the NerveGear completely cancels the command signals for moving our bodies that our brain sends down their spinal cord and, in exchange, converts them to signals needed to move their bodies in this world. So, however wildly they swing their arm about here, the arm of his real body, lying on his bed right now, wouldn't move a bit, ensuring that he wouldn't run into the corner of his table and bruise himself.

But because of this function, they can't cancel the FullDive of their own free will right now.

"… So, unless the bug is fixed or somebody in the real world takes the Gear off, we have to wait it out?" Klein mumbled, still a little dazed.

Kirito silently signalled his agreement.

"But I live by myself." Klein told Kirito with worry; how long would it take for someone to find him? "You?"

Kirito hesitated slightly but told him the truth. "… I live with my mom and my younger sister, a family of three. I think that I'll be forced out of the Dive if I don't come down for dinner…"

"What? H-How old is your sister?" said Klein, his attitude changed, and he suddenly looked at Kirito, his eyes sparkling. Kirito pushed his head away.

"You're pretty calm right now, aren't you?" Kirito asked with a sigh, "She's in a sports club and hates games, so she's got nothing in common with people like us… but more than that," Kirito spread his right arm in an attempt to change the subject. "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Well sure. Since it's a bug." said Klein.

"No, I mean it's not just a bug, it's a can't log out bug." Kirito told him, "It's a big enough problem to bother the operation of the game itself. Like your pizza in the real world is getting colder every second. It's an actual economic loss, isn't it?"

"… A cold pizza… That's as meaningless as hard natto1!" Kirito ignored these meaningless comments from Klein and kept talking. "If it's like this, the operators should take the server down and log everyone out, whatever the cause. But… it has been fifteen minutes since we first noticed this and there hasn't even been a system message, let alone taking the server down. It's just too weird."

"Hmm, now that I think of it, you're right." admitted Klein. Klein started rubbing his chin with a serious expression on his face. In the area beneath the bandana, which covered a little bit of his sharp nose, intelligence sparkled in his eyes. "… The company which created SAO, Argus, is a company that's famous for being considerate of its users, isn't it? That's why everyone was fighting to get their hands on a copy, even though it's the first online game. It's sorta meaningless if they screw up like this on their first day."

"I agree." Kirito agreed, "And SAO is the first VRMMORPG. If something goes wrong now, they might pass regulations for the whole genre."

Klein and Kirito looked at each other's virtual faces and sighed.

Aincrad's seasons were based on reality, so it was early fall here as well.

Kirito looked up, sucking in the virtual air, taking a deep, cold breath.

A hundred metres away, Kirito could just about see the light purple bottom of the 2nd floor.

As Kirito followed the uneven surface, he saw the huge tower - the labyrinth that was the path to the upper floor - and saw that it was connected to the outer entrance.

It was just past 5:30 and the small strip of sky that could be seen was red with the light of the sunset. Despite the situation Kirito was in, seeing the endless plains painted gold with the light of the evening sun, he found himself speechless in front of the beauty of this virtual world.

Right after that…

The world changed forever.

*Ding, ding…* A chiming noise like a bell - or perhaps a warning chime - sounded loudly, making Klein and Kirito jump in surprise.

"Ah…"

"What's this!?"

They shouted at the same time and stared at each other; their eyes wide.

Both Klein and Kirito were immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in Kirito's vision blurred steadily.

Kirito had experienced this a few times during beta testing. It was a Teleport initiated by an item. Kirito didn't have the prerequisite item, nor did he shout the proper command. Did the operators initiate a forced teleport? If so, why didn't they even inform them?

Little did they know, but their lives were about to be changed forever.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note: Here ends another chapter of Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition. I hope that if you enjoyed this chapter and you have a few moments to spare, you could leave some feedback and let me know what you think of this story. As what you say does help me with this story, be it ideas or just comments about what you think of this story.

Now, I was able to post this story much faster than normal, as I used parts of the last chapter and parts from the light novel. All I did was to alter parts of it to fit what I wanted to happen in this chapter. So you know, this will be the case for the following chapters. I'll be using the light novels, the original and Sword Art Online: Progressive, and altering the parts of the novels to fit this story.

There'll be chapters that'll be 100% my own, but until I finish the Elf War plot from the Sword Art Online: Progressive, I'll be using parts of these in my writing. I'll be altering a lot of it to fit my needs, but I'll be using their plot for a while. After the Elf War, it'll be all mine other than a few chapters from the original, to introduce the characters from the novels/anime.

Once again, I would wish you all a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas, and a Happy New Year.