I woke up covered in sweat. My mouth opened as if it were attempting to scream something, but decided otherwise. I couldn't remember anything except a bright light and the words, "Good luck, plaything of fate."

I got up and looked around. It seems I'm currently in an alley full of dumpsters. I stared at the broken fragment of a mirror, confused by how I looked different from what I was supposed to look like.

Wasn't I supposed to have ▇▇▇▇▇

What is happening?

Why ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇

▇▇▇▇▇▇▇…

What was I thinking about again?

I looked in the mirror, and a weird premonition came over me, but I ignored it.

"HEY, WHAT YOU DOING THERE? SHINJI, THERE IS A HOBO BEHIND OUR SHOP!"

I turned around and saw a bald man pointing at me and screaming into the "shop." I would have stayed there dumbfounded if I hadn't seen one of the biggest bodybuilders in my life. I ran for my life, with "Shinji" close behind, dove behind a different person, and hid in a shop. "Shinji" ran past, and it took a while for my heart to calm down.

After regaining my calm, I looked around and saw that I was in a store that sold games. All sorts of games were on display, from RPGs to sandboxes to shooter games. For a weird reason, my heart started racing after I stared in a specific direction, so trusting my instincts, I walked deeper into the store.

Sword Art Online

The Newest NerveGear

Created by Akihiko Kayaba

I stared at the advertisement, feeling a force sucking me in like a planet at the mercy of a black hole. It was as if my whole life was made just so I could see this. I felt the urge to check my pocket and pulled out a wallet, which I didn't remember being there.

Eclipse ▇▇▇

Unemployed

Living in an apartment

Parents: deceased

Unemployed. That one word hit me harder than a bullet.

How can I get the game if I have no cash?

I left the store, my mind still on that game, when I bumped into a person. I looked up and saw a young boy—at most 14—with black eyes and neat black hair.

"Umm, sorry, I'll leave now."

The boy walked into the store, and it seemed that he was going in the same direction as the ad. Well, that isn't really something I need to care about, so I left the store.

A few days later...

Getting a job is hard.

No, I'm not kidding. I got rejected over 10 times already and basically lost all hope of buying the game. It's not my fault that I got fired three times. I don't even remember such a thing, but because it was on my records, no job owner was willing to accept me. My desperation was increasing so much that I even tried asking the bald man for a job, but he recognized me, and I was once again chased out by Shinji.

"At this rate, I should just give up."

"Not so fast, youngster; you looking for a job, aren't you?" I turned around to see an old man hobbling towards me. "I can pay you to take care of me, although the payment ain't going to be high." Oh, pray the God(s) or whoever is up there. After so long, I FINALLY GOT A JOB.

"Yes, sir, I'll gladly accept this offer."
And from that day on, I worked my butt off. I took care of his house (I finally had somewhere to stay instead of the dumpsters), bought and cooked food for him, and even had to save him (he almost got hit by a car FIVE TIMES). After a year of tortu– I mean work, I finally saved up enough.

"Hey sir, why are you just staring at the advertisement? It's either you buy it or you leave. You've been doing this once a week already. I'll have to kick you out if you continue doing so."

The very impatient security guard glared at me, but his hostility turned to shock when I smiled cheerfully.

"Alright, sir, here's the cash." I handed him the cash and ran home to the apartment, which I was supposed to have but did not find until now.

I frantically opened the package and took out the shining NerveGear, about which I had dreams,nightmares, and fantasies about. FINALLY.

I braced myself and put on the NerveGear.

"Link Start"

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

Please enter your name.

Hmm, a name, huh? I wonder if this will register.

Random dude.

Are you sure you'll name yourself this?

Remember, you only get one chance to make a name.

Ok, so it worked. Actually, I'd rather not have that name. I guess I'll just put my actual name.

Eclipse. The game is starting.

Wait, it didn't even ask for confirmation. Just what is going on?

Please choose your weap▇▇.

System error.

Please log out.

What?! How am I even supposed to do that?! I knew I should have read the instruction manual.

Please log out.

Pl▇ase L▇g ▇▇T

▇▇e▇▇▇ L▇▇ ▇▇▇
▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇

The whole screen turned dark, and then the words slowly reappeared.

Characters had been made. Game started…

And with a bright flash, I was teleported into the game.

I woke up falling from the sky, the wind rushing towards my face. I couldn't see anything, and WAIT A MINUTE, IS THAT LAND?

When I fell down and hit the ground, a huge jolt of pain went through me, and a message appeared.

YOU HAVE TAKEN A LARGE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE.

PLEASE RESTORE YOUR HP OR YOU MAY DIE.

YOU ONLY HAVE 3 LIVES.

I stared at my HP bar. 1 hp. The gods really took pity on me, did they? But the message that intrigued me the most was the fact that I only have three lives. What happens after the third life?

I took a while to familiarize myself with the controls, which wasn't really hard to do.

Eclipse

Lv. 1

Hp: 1/100

Def: 0

Primary weapon: Guns

Isn't the game called Sword Art Online? Why do I have a gun? I reached in my inventory and pulled out a pistol. It was as plain as plain can be. A literaly hunk of wood with a hole and a trigger.

Training Pistol

Ranged | One Handed

Range: Long | Type: Shoot

Attack: 10 | Durability: 100

Weight: 50 | Requires: Lv.1

Equip: +0

Strength: +5

Agility: +0

Armor: +0

I guess this can be registered as a gun. I wandered around, testing my weapon, surprised by the fact that it almost looked like it was made for me. My body moves by itself as if it had done such movements multiple times before, and soon, the wild boars were no match against me.

"Hah, that was tiring. Well, I guess I'll log out now."

I opened the settings menu.

Option

Help

Logout

After the screen glitched, the logout button disappeared.

"WHAT THE F#CK!"

After all the hard work I did to earn the cash for this game, it glitched right on the frst day! I was about to click the help button when I was forcibly teleported back to the Town of Beginnings.

Thousands of players were swarming the area, and unrest started escalating as more and more players realized the disappearance of the logout button.

"What's going on?"

"Why are we here?"

"This is so cool!"

Apart from the last person (whoever that was), everyone was shouting and demanding an answer.

And the answer came. In the form of a cloaked figure coming from the sky.