AN: To the one person that somehow came across this story, Hi. As a bit of background, I've been a fan of fanfiction for a few years now, and I've always wanted to try my hand at it. As a fair warning, this is the first time I've ever truly written a story with the intention of sharing it, so grab popcorn for amateur hour.

Depending on my own personal thoughts on this story and whether I get any sort of engagement will determine whether I actually make more chapters.

As a preface, I've changed the actual game mechanics to be a bit more easy to understand and also personal preference, so sorry if that upsets you, but it's what I chose. Anyway, that's enough blabbering, I hope you enjoy what I wrote!

Kenji, or perhaps more appropriately now, Hoshi, wasn't a stranger to Sword Art Online, the world's first true VRMMO—not by a long shot. After all, he'd been closely following the development for about two years. He probably watched every interview, gameplay demo, and trailer at least a dozen times.

Had he not been swamped with schoolwork at the time, he would've dove headfirst into the beta as well. After months of convincing, promises of doing all the household chores, and any buttering up he could do, he actually managed to convince his mother to purchase SAO and the necessary Nervegear so that he could play on launch day.

His excitement was palpable; he practically fell up the stairs when he ran to his bedroom to check it out.

He quickly unboxed the goods, and within minutes he was faced with a character creation screen. He'd already had the perfect design and name decided weeks ago, so he quickly flicked through the multitude of pages filled with sliders and presets. After finishing the last touches on the appearance, a holographic keyboard blinked into existence, on which he input the name of his character, "Hoshi."

Then, when he actually spawned into the world, he couldn't have described the feeling. It was beautiful. Everything from the light shining on his eyes to each step he took felt real, as if he had truly been transported into the game, even when he knew that it was simply fake sensory information given by the Nervegear.

He was like a kid in a candy store, filled with wonder and curiosity. So that just begs the question: What went wrong?

This question seared itself into his mind as that man, the creator of Sword Art Online, Akihiko Kayaba, in his imposing virtual form, disappeared, returning the sky from its blood red hue to the setting sun.

He stood surrounded by countless thousands of fellow players, yet the plaza was silent. His perfectly curated avatar, which he'd spent weeks planning for his dream experience, was ripped away and replaced with his real appearance, that of an immature teen with dark eyes and shaggy bleached hair.

Of course, that was only the first revelation; next was the biggest and most worrying facet of this situation. He, along with these thousands of strangers, were trapped in this game, and it would stay that way until all 100 floors had been cleared. And along the way to completing this seemingly impossible goal, were your health points to ever reach zero, there would be no respawns. If his avatar died, the Nervegear would kill him.

Hoshi tried to speak; maybe it was to scream in denial, perhaps hurl insults at his likely uncaring oppressor, or maybe he just wanted to make sure it was real. All that ended with leaving was "ha...ha." A hollow laugh.

All around him, people began to shift from initial shock to panicked desperation. First, it started with a young boy, probably no older than 12. He fell to his knees as he began to sob, calling out for his mother and father.

The sound of his cries sent chills down Hoshi's spine.

It was as if that boy's breakdown had destroyed the dam that blocked everyone else from panicking. One by one, a wave of cries, screams, and silent fear spread throughout the crowd.

It was then, at that moment, that Hoshi realized things would never and could never be as they once were. Perhaps it was the sheer cruel irony of being trapped in the very thing that was meant to escape the harsh reality, but Hoshi once again began to laugh. He began to laugh as tears ran down his face, and he fell to the ground.

"Hahahaha…Mom…" Hoshi's hysterical laughter slowed as the thought of his mother crossed his mind.

"She's probably still at work now." He could picture it as clear as day. By now, newscasters were probably already reporting on the situation; it'd immediately become international news. No doubt his mother would receive the news and immediately start rushing home, praying her son hadn't been one of the victims.

Only for her heart to break at the sight of her son lying motionless with a murder device strapped to his head—a device that she bought him.

"That's right… I convinced her to buy the Nervegear; I kept pushing and pushing until she caved." His hand formed into a fist, and he pounded the ground beneath him.

"She'll blame herself; God knows she will." And it was all his fault.

Approximately one hour later

Hoshi somehow managed to get ahold of himself, or at least pick up enough broken pieces to drag himself off his knees and stagger away from the center plaza.

Currently, he wanted nothing more than to rest, to momentarily forget his worries, and maybe even just wake up in the morning to realize this was all a dream. Either way, he slowly walked through the streets, which had begun to fill with light from the street lamps.

A few NPC vendors tried reciting a couple throwaway lines toward him in an attempt to make a sale: "Young man, what's with the long face? Come browse my wares; I've surely got a deal that'll raise your spirits!" An older man said this from behind his stand, which was covered from top to bottom with swords, daggers, handaxes, and other various equipment.

"..." Hoshi kept quiet, with his heavy steps as the only response. After a few minutes of walking along the shadowy streets, a certain building came into view.

It was a wooden, two-story building, roughly the size of a motel, and had a large sign hanging above the door, which read, "Traveler's Bed and Breakfast."

"There's one." Hoshi unconsciously muttered, the prospect of rest becoming more real as he walked inside. The interior was a welcome change of pace from the dreary, desolate streets outside. A few lamps were lining the wooden walls, and a pleasant lavender scent was present throughout.

He walked over to the receptionist, a young woman wearing a modest medieval-style beige dress. "I need a room for tonight." He plainly stated this as he stared at the woman.

"Certainly, sir! One room for one night will cost you 50 cor." She spoke with a cheery attitude and a smile on her face.

"Cor" was the universal in-game currency; it was usually gained through quest completion awards and defeating monsters in combat. Hoshi hadn't done any of that yet; however, in fact, he was only online for about an hour prior to Kayaba's announcement. Meaning all of his time had been spent exploring the Town of Beginnings.

Thankfully, however, it seemed that all players received a base of 250 Cor upon creating their character. That was in addition to a wooden sword that was currently sitting in his inventory.

Either way, Hoshi was happy he could afford to stay the night.

A system window then blipped into view within the space between them. "Will you rent a room in Traveler's Bed and Breakfast for one night at the cost of 50 cor?" It read.

Hoshi pressed the accept button, and the window disappeared. "Thank you for staying with us for the night! Your room is up the stairs; it's the first one on the right." The woman said that and gave a slight bow.

Immediately after shutting the door, Hoshi collapsed on the bed, his face becoming buried in the pillow. So many thoughts rushed through his head, and yet exhaustion had begun to take over, and slowly but surely, he drifted off to sleep. Still unsure of his next steps.

Perhaps on account of his body needing ample time to recover, it wasn't until 14 hours later that he awoke. Of course, that could've simply been a side effect of his horrendous sleep schedule. Either way, any hopes of this all being a bad dream were dashed as his eyes slowly opened.

That unfamiliar ceiling of wooden planks, the bed instead of his beloved and comfortable futon—they all confirmed Hoshi was still in Sword Art Online.

"Activate HUD." He spoke one of the various voice commands, and immediately his field of vision lit up. In the top right corner was his name with a health bar next to it and his level, 1, displayed.

In the bottom left corner was a clock that read, "1:23 PM.".

"Talk about a late start." He muttered before sitting up in bed. All things considered, it seemed his initial panic had begun to fade, apparently replacing itself with resignation to his horrible yet unavoidable situation.

With a flick of his right hand, his menu appeared, displaying basic character info along with access to the inventory and system settings, to name a couple.

He took a moment to look over his current situation. Level one, base stats, and only 200 remaining Cor. As for equipment, all he carried was the aforementioned wooden starter sword, which had a durability of 25 and dealt a grand total of 1 damage per hit. All things considered, he wasn't exactly batting a thousand.

"Not the best way to start a death game."

Either way, today was for exploration, he'd have to work up a bit more courage to exit the safe zone.

Giving a slight nod to himself, Hoshi closed out the menus, deactivated the HUD, and began making his way downstairs. His first realization was that there were other players here.

Muffled voices could be heard through the walls, though most of the noise originated from a room off to the side near the receptionist. Hoshi hadn't even noticed in his half-asleep, half-dejected state from last night.

Inside, there were a dozen or so players scattered around the room, seated at tables. Some silently poked at their food while others were engaged in conversation, mainly a mix of game plan discussions and general discussion of the entrapment situation they found themselves in.

In addition, a couple NPC hostesses were on standby, waiting to be flagged down by a hungry patron.

This scene reminded Hoshi of another feature of this game, hunger. Thankfully, starving to death wasn't a possibility, so you could theoretically go months without eating. Of course, many people would still eat simply for taste. And while you would still feel hunger, to a much lesser degree than you would in reality, Hoshi assumed it was meant to be a subtle and fairly non-intrusive way to remind players of the mechanics.

There were, however, a couple negative side effects to not eating. After a certain period of time without eating, stamina and health regeneration would begin to slow down, eventually completely stopping after a week or so.

Opting not to incur any debuffs considering the circumstances, Hoshi took a window seat and waved his hand toward the hostesses. After a standard greeting, Hoshi ordered a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, a meal that cost 25 cor. Only a couple minutes later, the hostess came back with a steaming plate.

Everything about it—the smell, texture, and way each individual strand of spaghetti flailed on his fork—was realistic. And thankfully, the taste was also realistic, as he realized as he began scarfing down every last noodle and meatball.

"Thanks for the food." He habitually said that while placing the fork down on the plate and standing up, presumably the hostess would come clean up after him or the plates would simply despawn. Either way, it was time for him to hit the streets and gather whatever information he could.

The sun was high in the sky, and as he stood on the inn's stoop, he recognized the streets, which filled up exponentially more than last night, not only with NPCs but also with players traversing up and down the roads, some haggling with street vendors and others simply taking in the sights.

Hoshi couldn't deny that, no matter how dubious and downright horrific the current scenario was, SAO was still an enchanting game with its intense attention to detail and alive-feeling world.

Shaking away his moment of awe, it was time for the first order of business: getting better gear. No matter how much kendo he participated in as a child—it wasn't much—rather than a wooden sword, he much preferred one of steel, or really any material that could deal more than 1 damage for heaven's sake.

Recalling a certain old man who was bugging him last night, Hoshi retraced his steps, eventually leading to the Weapons/Equipment stand. "Ah, if it isn't the young man from last night, it seems you couldn't pass up my fine wares, eh?" The man said it in a jolly tone with a big smile.

"You could say that." Hoshi muttered in response while examining the gear. The items were displayed neatly next to each other, with a small wood carving displaying the price below.

As a test, Hoshi lightly tapped on a dagger, and a system window appeared.

Iron Dagger

"A commonplace iron dagger often owned by beginning adventurers favoring a stealthy combat style. Boasts a slight sneak attack bonus Compared to swords and axes, Able to be thrown."

ATK: 3 Durability: 50/50

Below the text window were a purchase button and a cancel button.

"Sneak attack bonus... able to be thrown." Hoshi read aloud as he studied the information. Realistically, it wasn't too bad of a weapon, and the prospect of an assassin-type build, while not his usual playstyle, wasn't a bad idea. Though there were a few hesitations Hoshi had, he ultimately opted against them for now.

Assassin builds rely on getting up close and personal with the enemy for a sneak attack. Considering that Hoshi currently had no experience with how fighting felt and functioned in SAO, keeping an arm length away from threats felt a bit safer at this stage. He also felt that Assassins were much better as support, players who dealt chip damage while the Tanks and DPS players kept the enemies distracted, and currently he had no one to fill those slots.

Closing the window, Hoshi moved onto the more basic weaponry, an iron sword. It was a bit better attack-wise in that it dealt 5 damage, though the durability was the same for the two.

Being much more beginner-friendly and the flagship of the game, Hoshi quickly came to the decision to make the purchase. It was a hefty cost of 100 cor, but considering it would make grinding a bit easier, he figured it was worth it.

"I knew you'd come around! Thanks for the purchase!"

The sword then began to give off a faint blue light as it dematerialized, immediately resulting in a "picked up item" type sound effect to play as Hoshi went to his inventory and pressed Equip.

And, similarly to how it disappeared, light in the shape of a sword faintly glowed on his back until it took shape as the iron sword in a leather sheath.

This purchase did, however, only leave him with 75 Cor remaining, meaning only enough for one more night at the inn and a meal in the morning. This was the determination that tomorrow would be the day he heads out of the safe zone.

"Come back anytime!" The shopkeeper called after Hoshi as he began to walk off.

It was nearing 3 p.m., and Hoshi had one location on his mind. The Room of Resurrection, during SAO's beta, acted as the default respawn location for players that died. Now, however, he was curious if the place even existed since it was rendered useless by Kayaba's schemes.

He'd actually visited it yesterday after initially loading into SAO; it was right next to the plaza, so he easily found it after a bit of walking.

It was still there, interestingly, in all of its grandiose nature. It was reminiscent of a cathedral in design and had stained glass windows that made images of swordsmen in various poses.

As far as he could tell, externally everything was the same, so it came to Hoshi's surprise when the inside was entirely different. Engraved into the back wall were the words "Monument of Life," and the stained glass window just below it depicted a swordsman on his knees, head bowed down, as he presented his sword to an angelic-like figure.

As for the main attraction, the walls were lined by a black, obsidian-like material and were covered in thousands of names—the names of all the SAO players.

Just to make sure, Hoshi went through the names; thankfully, starting from left to right, the names were in alphabetic order, so all he had to do was find "H," and voila, there he was.

Hoshi flinched as a group of six or so players burst through the entrance and rushed to the wall opposite Hoshi.

"His name was Noct, right!?" One of the players yelled for clarification as he began running through the names on the list.

Hoshi made an inquisitive expression as he slowly began to walk over to the group.

"Oh, God… It's really here." The same player said this as he took a step back.

Hoshi finally made his way to the group and got a look at what was causing the spectacle, and upon reading it, his eyes widened in shock. "Someone's already gone." He unconsciously spoke.

The monument is displayed as follows:

Noct

November 7

3:12 PM

Cause of death:

Fell into Void

"W… What the hell even happened!? What does 'Fell into Void' even mean!?" Hoshi's shock boiled over and turned to confusion. Whoever this player was, they didn't die by any monster.

"We were all there." A young man, seemingly in his early twenties, responded first. "I didn't know the guy—I don't think any of us did, right?" His question was met with affirmation in the form of nods: "It was at the edge of the city; you know how there's a fence, and then beyond it is an endless void, like it's the end of the world or whatever?"

Hoshi's expression darkened. "He was pushed?"

"No…h-he jumped." The man corrected as he balled up his fist, averting his gaze to the ground.

"We saw him trying to climb over the fence; at first we were confused, like, 'What's this guy doing?' but as soon as we realized..." The man hurriedly spoke as he met Hoshi's eyes. "We tried talking him down. He told us his name, Noct; he was talking about not playing along with 'Kayaba's jokes'."

"Jokes? He thought it wouldn't kill him?" Hoshi asked for clarification.

"Yeah, he said this was just some big prank, a PR stunt, or something. Said that dying here would just log him out of the game, that he'd just wake up in the real world." The man spoke with tangible guilt in his words, ashamed that he couldn't stop this from happening right in front of him.

"Wha… He killed himself over a baseless theory. Sure, Hoshi acknowledged that theoretically it was a possibility, but hundreds of players should've already been unhooked from the Nervegear by people on the outside by now if that were the case. It made more sense that the people on the outside had reason to believe the threats were real.

"Guy must've changed his mind right after he started falling...yelling for help." A couple of tears began to form in the man's eyes as he recalled the tragedy.

Another one of the players, presumably his friend, tried comforting him by saying, "It's not your fault, Klein. You did everything you could. The look in his eyes... He shuddered. "He denied the whole situation so much; he convinced himself he couldn't be wrong."

"I… I know, Issin; I just didn't think I'd see something like that. It's only day two." Klein said the last part in a dark tone, and Issin met with an equally dark but agreeing expression.

In a situation like this, Hoshi couldn't blame anyone wanting to escape by any means, but this just didn't sit right with him, and the worst part is he knew this was just the beginning. He could tell in Klein's eyes and the eyes of his friends that they all understood there would be many more cases like this in the coming weeks.

"Damnit." Klein muttered as he released the tension in his fist, "Sorry for unloading all of this on you, kid."

"Don't be; I can't imagine how it feels." Hoshi admitted that everyone began to relax, or at least as much as they could.

"Let's get outta here, guys; this place gives me the creeps." Klein announced, trying to change the subject, "Wanna tag along for a bit?" He extended the invitation to Hoshi.

"Gladly." After giving the Monument of Life, as it was now known, a last glance, he accepted the invitation.

After leaving the monument, the group finally made proper introductions: "As I'm sure you heard, the name's Klein." He said it with a friendly grin while outstretching his hand.

As mentioned, Klein seemed to be in his early twenties. His most distinctive feature was his brownish-red hair, which spiked upward and probably outward too if it weren't for the bandana he wore around his forehead to keep it in line.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Klein; I'm Hoshi." Taking his hand, the two shared a firm handshake. Hoshi tightened his grip quite a bit to not seem like a wimp.

"Well, Hoshi, these guys are my friends; we used to play all kinds of RPGs together and figured we'd all meet up for the big release of SAO, wasn't the best idea in hindsight." Klein said it with a bit of a laugh at the end.

"Speaking of friends..." Hoshi said as he began rifling through menus, "Mind if I send you a request?"

"Not at all! In fact, I was about to ask the same."

As soon as the friend request went through, Klein accepted.

"How bout' these guys too?" Klein proposed. "Though, ya may wanna stay clear of Harry over there." Klein said the last bit like he was whispering, but obviously loud enough that everyone could hear.

"Pshh, shove a sock innit, Klein; you're just pissed that I can actually kill a boar by myself, unlike you." Harry responded to the light banter in kind, as a few of them began to laugh.

"Oh, shut up! That was my first fight; cut me some slack, and you weren't even there!" Klein shot back in defense of his honor.

It was then Hoshi noticed that Klein was a bit more seasoned than him; he'd already reached level 4, meaning that unlike Hoshi, he must've been able to do a bit of grinding prior to Kayaba's announcement. In fact, all of Klein's friends were at least level 2.

After settling down, everyone sent friend requests to Hoshi, which he of course accepted.

"Anyway, Hoshi, it's gettin' kinda late; me and the guys are gonna chill for the rest of the day, but by any chance you wanna meet up tomorrow, maybe do some leveling?"

Considering the potential for danger when going out alone and the fact that he'd already planned on doing some leveling tomorrow, it was the perfect offer.

"I'll gladly take you up on that. When did you plan on meeting up?"

"Probably around 11, but that all depends if I can drag Harry's lazy ass outta bed on time!" Harry rolled his eyes, while Klein had a look of triumph. "But seriously, I'll see you at the front gate."

"Definitely, see y'all tomorrow!"

The next morning

After actually managing to wake up at an acceptable hour this morning, Hoshi headed down the stairs and ordered some breakfast, including a platter of pancakes and bacon. This did, however, mean that he was officially broke.

In between bites, Hoshi sifted through menus; the one primarily keeping his attention was "Skills." Currently, he only possessed a Sword Skill known as Reaver, a basic one-handed skill. Though there were a couple empty categories: "Support" and "Recreational", he assumed they covered skills such as blacksmithing and cooking, respectively.

"As for attributes..." He flicked back to his player info. The base attributes were fairly similar to those he'd familiarized himself with in other RPGs: Vitality, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Speech.

Sword Skills, Support Skills, and Recreational Skills, not to mention the Attributes that they were all intrinsically linked to. It all felt quite daunting. Normally, he'd be able to take his time, step by step, understanding all of the intricacies and trying out a half dozen avatars with different builds; that, however, wasn't an option in this case.

Every single decision he makes would ultimately impact whether he'd end up leaving this game alive, and there wouldn't be a next time.

He waved away his thoughts with a sigh and stood up. "I'll figure it out another time."

As the front gates came closer and closer into view, so did Klein and his group who were currently sharing in light conversation while awaiting Hoshi arrival.

"There he is!" Klein announced as he saw Hoshi strolling toward the gates.

Once getting wihin talking distance, he spoke "Hey Klein, guys, sorry for being a bit late; it's my first time coming this way." He apologized in slight embarrassment, recalling when he flagged down an NPC for directions.

"No problem!" Klein assured him with a pat on the back. "Anyway, now that Hoshi's here, let's talk strategy." Hoshi got the feeling this wasn't Klein's first go at strategizing, but that was a conversation starter for later.

"First off, since we're only gonna be encountering one monster at a time, traveling in a group of seven would be pretty inefficient." Klein began to explain while everyone else began equipping their gear.

"Me and a guy I met a couple days back were farming around here, and we did pretty well by ourselves; he compared the things to slimes."

"Even still, going alone would be an unnecessary risk, right?" Hoshi interjected, to which Klein nodded. "Exactly, Hoshi, since you're level one, you'll be sticking with me. As for you guys," Klein then turned to Dale, Dynamm, and Kunimittz.

"Since there's an odd number, I want you three together."

"That leaves me and you together, buddy!" Issin finished before Klein could say so and threw an arm around Harry's shoulder while making a comical grin. "Hurray for me..." was Harry's response as he deadpanned.

"Anyhow, I want everyone to meet back up here around 5; maybe we can even have a little celebration feast at that restaurant we passed on the way here!"

And with that, the plans were set. Without any holdup, everyone broke off into their groups and headed out of town.

Taking a deep breath, Hoshi exhaled as he kept pace with Klein: "Don't worry, kid, I'll whip you into proper warrior shape in no time!"

With that lighthearted reassurance from Klein, Hoshi set his sights forward, ready for whatever may come.

AN: So there it is. For my first ever shot at writing, I feel I could've done a lot worse, but above all I'm just glad I actually got it done! Of course if you have any criticisms or thoughts about the content, feel free to say so. Anyway, that's all for now, see ya!