[ Begin A/N ]

To give some background as to why I wrote this, I'd like to begin by prefacing the story with the fact that I really enjoyed Sword Art Online (the anime, anyway). I binge watched the first season in a day and the second season the next day. However, I think that it had a lot of missed potential, both with respect to characters and story, so I thought I'd give my own take on SAO as a whole and how I would've had it go down.

First and foremost, this is not meant as a substitute to the LNs. While I tried to read the LNs, I personally couldn't get into them because the writing style had a hard time capturing me-it felt like it was too formal and meandered in a lot of areas (but that's just my two cents, I know people love the LNs to bits). I also know that the LNs have a lot going for them that the anime doesn't (namely some additional plot points and character development), but the reason I'm writing this is to combine my love for SAO with my love of writing and see if I can't get you guys to consider some additional things that I see in the series. I encourage you to read the LNs should you want to, and I want to make it clear that I don't claim my writing is in any way better, merely more compatible with... well, myself (unsurprisingly). To put it simply, I'm writing this for my own enjoyment and uploading it to the site on the off chance someone else might enjoy it, which would be a very nice bonus :)

Some events and characters will be very similar, if not the same as, events and characters that are already canon. Others will be changed, and some things will be entirely new, that I personally add. Just keep in mind that this is fanfiction, and while I'm going out of my way to make it compatible with canon, if it doesn't agree in some areas, that's, well... sort of the point. I would give you details on what I'm planning to change/add, but that'd ruin the fun, now wouldn't it?

This first chapter will be very similar to how SAO first starts (Kirito logs in, meets Klein, they train, Kayaba reveals himself, etc. etc) but I assure you that I'll quickly be taking a turn to provide my own interpretations of what happens after the fact, so bear with me here if you read the chapter and wonder why I just took SAO and put it into text form.

Now then, shall we?

[ End A/N ]

"The genius known as Akihiko Kayaba…"

"Pioneering a new virtual reality technology…"

"One of the most anticipated games of the century…"

"Now exiting beta for a full release…"

"Only ten thousand lucky owners…"

"Experience the newest multiplayer virtual reality game…"

"Sword Art Online!"

Kazuto flicked off the TV and laid back on his bed, stifling his anticipation for a moment to gather his mind for the occasion. "Today's the day…" he thought to himself.

With a glance to his left, he scanned over his computer station—one state-of-the-art gaming computer topped with 3 monitors, each displaying a different news site espousing the new game that would no doubt go down as possibly the most important game to the advancement of human virtual reality endeavors in history. Kazuto's eyes finally rested on a slim white box sitting on the computer table. Its spine faced him, and he read its title out loud. "Sword Art Online," he said with a satisfied sigh.

Mustering the resolve to move despite the butterflies fluttering in his stomach, Kazuto stood up out of his bed and grabbed the box for Sword Art Online. After a moment admiring the box art, he snapped it open and took the disc out, inserting it into his computer's CD drawer. Though still not quite understanding why a pioneering virtual reality game needed to be in physical form—especially in this day and age, where pretty much everything was a virtual download—Kazuto just assumed that it was necessary and considered himself lucky he had come to own one of the ten thousand copies.

Kazuto looked up slightly and stared somberly at the helmet that lay perched on a shelf above his computer station. "NerveGear," it read. He reached up and grabbed it and, after examining it to make sure nothing was wrong, slipped it onto his head. Satisfied that he was comfortable with the helmet, he completed linking it to the computer. With a click of his mouse confirming to his computer that he intended to start the game, he closed his eyes and waited.

"Welcome to the NerveGear setup," a woman's voice soon sounded in his head.

Though initially surprised, Kazuto quickly realized it had come from the helmet itself.

"To ensure maximum user satisfaction," the voice continued, "please follow all of these instructions."

Kazuto frowned. "Great, stupid setup wizards…" he thought.

"Please stand up straight," the voice started, to which Kazuto quickly straightened his back and raised his chin. A beep sounded in his helmet. "Now, trace your hands carefully across your entire body to outline its shape for the NerveGear setup, starting at your arms and moving down to your legs," the woman said.

Though it struck Kazuto as a bit odd, he wasn't one to argue with the instructions and quickly patted himself down from head to toe. Another beep sounded in his helmet.

"Now, to assess your physical fitness, please perform these exercises:" the voice continued, listing off an array of simple workouts ranging from jumping jacks to push-ups.

As he reluctantly performed the exercises, Kazuto heard a voice from downstairs. "I'm going to practice!" it announced. "See ya, Suguha," he thought to himself, though he bit his lip and no words came from his mouth. After faintly hearing the front door close behind her, Kazuto frowned again. "Sorry, sis," he apologized mentally.

A beep sounded in his helmet and began a new list of instructions, this time to test everything from his voice to his personality. After completing each one, a series of three beeps rang in his helmet.

"Good. You have now completed the NerveGear setup. Loading game... Sword Art Online."

With a final grin of anticipation, Kazuto laid down in his bed and allowed his mind to whirl with the possibilities of the world he was about to enter. The loading progress bar advanced slowly on the NerveGear's visor, and upon reaching completion, he closed his eyes and announced his final words in the real world for the time being:

"Link, start!"

An unintelligible mass of loading game information flooded his mind, but it subsided as quickly as it began, and Kazuto opened his eyes. Before him lay the beautiful sight of the Town of Beginnings, crafted of virtual marble and stone, complete with player housing and services available through NPC vendors. No doubt this would be where many players spent the majority of the starting days, but Kazuto had other plans.

As other players began to materialize in a similar manner around him and the world began to populate itself with every one of the ten thousand new players, Kazuto examined himself quickly. As he had expected when he hadn't been prompted with a character customization screen, his character avatar was the exact same as he remembered it from the beta test. His normally mid-length black hair had become a long mop that fell down on both sides of his face, with a small lock of hair falling between his eyes. He was also quite a bit taller than he was in real life, and slightly better built. With a swipe of his left hand, he opened the player menu and read his player ID: "Kirito." Again, as he remembered it.

He took a moment to look around and watch all of the other players log into the game. What was dozens became hundreds, then thousands… the plaza of the Town of Beginnings quickly overflowed with the ten thousand players that had obtained their physical copy. Some looked around and admired their surroundings, while others shuffled between the crowd in search of their friends. The town square was soon a bustling metropolis of activity, but the player now known as Kirito merely watched silently as all the other players milled about, talking and acquainting themselves with each other. He had not entered this game with the intention of making friends… no, he would play this game the same way he did everything else: solo.

Nodding to himself to acknowledge that everything was at it should be, Kirito stepped forward and joined the mass of players that were now advancing beyond the town square in search of adventure in this new, grand world.

Kirito opened his inventory and saw he had started with a small sum of money, no doubt to buy basic equipment. With that in mind, he broke off from the crowd to open trade with a nearby vendor, on the edge of the town square, something that had not occurred yet to many players.

"Welcome to my store!" the NPC exclaimed, an obviously scripted introduction. "What would you like, young man?"

Kirito's eyes scanned over the vendor's wares. "One straight sword, please," he requested. "And a few health potions."

The vendor handed him the basic straight sword and potions he had requested, but then raised an eyebrow. "Would you like a shield to go with that sword?" the NPC asked.

Momentarily surprised by the NPC's suggestion, Kirito quickly realized that, in the Town of Beginnings, the vendors were most likely programmed to give tips and hints to new players. After briefly considering the option, Kirito shook his head. "No thank you," he said. "I'll just use the sword for now."

"Suit yourself," the vendor said as Kirito handed over his payment and stepped away, satisfied with his early purchase. "Yeah," he thought to himself. "I never really liked the way shields look, plus they're heavy and would slow me down. One sword suits me just fine."

Now prepared to begin the game, Kirito ran through the crowd and down the street to the city's exit. Most players were too busy admiring the scenery of the game to notice him, but one in particular noticed his methodical navigation of the city as abnormal, and followed him through a side alley shortcut he had taken to confront him.

"Wait up!" the player called to Kirito, causing him to stop and turn around.

Kirito examined the new player. His avatar had long red hair held back with a bandana and a chin stubble of similar color, but was otherwise built similar to Kirito himself. "Hey, what's up?" he asked simply.

"Sorry, I saw you running through like you owned the place so I figured you knew the game pretty well already," the player said. "So I came to talk to you. You were one of the beta testers, weren't you?"

Kirito flinched at the remark. With an awkward reach to scratch the back of his head, he let out a small laugh. "Yeah… was it that obvious?"

The player smiled. "Well, not obvious enough—I'm the only one who noticed," he said. "By the way, my name's Klein."

"I'm Kirito."

Klein looked at him, wide-eyed. "So… Kirito… you're one of the beta testers…"

He nodded. "Yeah. I was hoping it would just go unnoticed and I'd blend in with the rest of you guys, but I guess I rushed it and got found out."

Raising his hands behind his head to stretch, Klein sighed loudly. "Why's it so important to you that no one finds out you were a beta tester?" he asked. "I mean, you're damn lucky you got in. Wasn't it only a few hundred people?"

"A thousand, actually," Kirito confirmed. "A thousand people, including me. The thing is… if people find out I'm a beta tester, they'll be all over me asking for help."

"What's so bad about that?" Klein pushed.

Kirito gestured around him. "An MMO like this has got limited resources. Most things are on a first come, first serve basis. If I've got to stop to help everyone, it slows me down."

Klein grinned. "Ah! Well don't you worry, Kirito, your secret's safe with me..."

"Thanks, Klein," Kirito said, but paused and raised an eyebrow when he saw a devious expression appear on Klein's face. After an awkward moment of silence between them, Kirito spoke up. "What's up? You're kind of creeping me out…"

Klein's grin widened. "Yeah… your secret's safe with me…" he repeated. "If you teach me how to play!"

Kirito's mouth dropped at the audacity of the request. "You can't be serious, Klein! I just said that's something I was trying to avoid!"

"Ha! You can avoid it after you've taught me what to do!" Klein laughed, obviously already decided on the victory earned by his blackmail.

Now sporting a deep frown, Kirito sighed deeply. "You know, I could just leave. Then you wouldn't know where I was, so even if people knew I was a beta tester…"

"Come on, man!" Klein begged. "I was just joking! You've got the time to spare for one noob like me, right?"

Kirito averted his eyes and brought his hand awkwardly to the back of his head again, giving it a brief thought. "Yeah, alright, just this once, Klein."

Klein clapped his hands together and gave a formal bow. "You're the best, Kirito! Thank you!"

Not quite sure how to react to such a heavy thanks, Kirito just smiled slightly. "Yeah, well, I'll be going pretty fast, so make sure you keep up."

"Not a problem!" Klein announced.

Kirito re-examined Klein's character and something occurred to him. "Klein…" he started. "Do you have a weapon?"

The aversion of Klein's eyes and the reddening of his face was all Kirito needed as an answer. "So that's a no," he remarked simply.

"I was going to get one!" Klein yelled back, embarrassed. "Once I found out where to actually buy them…"

Kirito sighed and let his face fall into his hands. "This… is going to take a while…"

"Watch out!" Kirito yelled across the field.

Klein swung his sword in a panic, completely missing his target. The charging boar hit him head-on, toppling him over.

"Agh! Dammit, that hurt!" Klein complained.

Kirito laughed. "Oh, shut up," he said. "No it didn't. The pain threshold in this game is turned way up. I doubt you felt much more than a light breeze. Besides, that boar barely did any damage. Look," he finished, pointing to a spot in the air.

Klein looked up to where Kirito was pointing and saw his health bar, which was barely depleted from full. "See?" he asked. "You're fine."

Standing up and brushing the dust off from his pants, Klein growled slightly. "Alright, then, but that boar still pisses me off! It's way too fast for me to hit!"

"You're just not using your sword correctly, Klein," Kirito explained. "It's kind of hard to explain, but let me try to show you."

Kirito unsheathed the sword from his back and held it front of him. "Look closely," he said, and Klein's eyes shifted from Kirito himself to watching his sword intently. He gasped as the sword began to glow a bright blue, after which Kirito swung it slightly to the side and cut a swath in the nearby grass. "In this game, using anything requires a certain skill," he explained. "In this case, a sword skill. Your sword won't work otherwise."

"A… sword skill?" Klein asked. "Well, how do I use it?"

Kirito sighed. "That's the part that's hard to explain. I can't really describe it… you just sort of feel it when you want to use one. It sort of becomes second nature once you get used to it."

Gesturing to their left at the boar, which had now started charging toward them again, Kirito urged Klein on. "Come on, give it a shot. These boars aren't dangerous, so you've got time to practice. Just try thinking of a sword strike. The sword should do the rest of the work for you."

With a nervous nod, Klein redirected his attention to the boar. He closed his eyes and thought of a decisive strike… one to cut the boar in half. Without warning, he felt a strange sensation run through him. His sense of self changed; his arm felt as if it was growing to an abnormal length, almost merging with his sword. His eyes shot open in a panic, but he was surprised to see that his sword was glowing a bright red. With a glance to Kirito, who grinned and nodded, a newfound calm settled over Klein as he sidestepped the boar's cumbersome charge and let out a vicious slash, cutting the boar clean in two. After a small while, the boar's remains shattered into pieces and evaporated into the air.

A notice for Klein's received experience and items appeared, but he was too distracted by his success to notice. "Yeah! I did it!" he exclaimed proudly.

"You sure did," Kirito remarked. "Might need to work on the eye-closing thing, though. It's not a very good idea to close your eyes when you're fighting an enemy."

"Hey, I was concentrating!"

Kirito raised his hands in mock defeat. "I know, I know! But you'll have to get a bit quicker than that if you want to get better. You're off to a good start, though. All these skills have names, too—you'll learn them as you practice."

"Names? Like what?"

Kirito smiled. "If I told you, that'd ruin the fun of learning them, wouldn't it?"

With a nod, Klein relaxed and watched the evaporated remains of the boar disperse into the air. "Wasn't that a bit easy, though?" he asked.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Kirito replied, confused.

"I mean, one hit from a noob like me? Wasn't that too easy?"

"What, did you expect it to be hard?"

"Well, yeah…" Klein pined. "I mean, if you hadn't been there to teach me, I'd probably have thought that was a boss fight of some sort."

"A boss fight?" Kirito laughed heartily. "No, not anything close." He gestured to the field around them, where dozens of boars had spawned and were now roaming and grazing. "These things are a dime a dozen. You would've figured out how to beat them on your own long before they were any real danger. This is the starting zone, after all."

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" Klein said simply.

After a silent moment of thought among them, it was back to business. "What say we get some more practice against these things for a little while, then try something a bit harder?" Kirito offered.

Klein gave Kirito a surprised look for a moment, then smiled widely. "Sounds good to me!" he agreed.

"We must have been at that for hours," Kirito thought to himself as he looked to the horizon across the endless green fields, noting the setting sun. "Wonder how many beta testers are already ahead of me?"

"Kirito?" he heard a familiar voice say.

He turned around to address Klein. "Yeah, what's up? Sorry, I sort of zoned out there."

"I was just thanking you for teaching me," Klein said. "I know you went out of your way, and I just want to say it means a lot."

Kirito waved his hand in response. "Don't mention it. I like keeping solo, but at the end of the day, these games are multiplayer and are meant to be cooperative. I'm glad I got to help someone… but if more people were involved I might've had some problems."

Klein smiled softly. "You're not a bad guy, Kirito. I think most peoples' first impressions of you would probably be some sort of loner asshole," he pointed out.

"Gee, thanks," Kirito quipped.

"No, I don't mean it that way!" Klein cried. "That came out wrong, sorry. I'm saying that you're not what most people would think of you. I can tell you're a good guy at heart, though a bit rough on the outside."

"Easy on the psychology," Kirito said, sitting down to watch the sunset. "Don't worry, I'm not insulted. In fact, I appreciate the compliment. A lot of my life has been spent alone, and these sorts of games are sort of how I spend my time. I don't think I'd be here if I didn't enjoy the interactions at some level."

Klein turned to watch the sunset as well. "It was a fun day at least, wasn't it?" he asked.

Kirito smiled. "Sure was. And there's a lot more still. Tomorrow's another day, right?"

A wail of surprise from Klein interrupted the calm of the sunset. "Shit!" Klein cursed. "That reminds me, I ordered a pizza to be delivered right about now! I've got to go!"

"Wait, Klein!" Kirito exclaimed as Klein opened the menu to log off. "Before you go, add me as a friend," he said. "That way, you can find me whenever. If you ever need help with something, just shoot me a message."

Klein looked at Kirito blankly for a moment, then smiled from ear to ear. "Ha! I knew I was right about you! Yeah, alright, here's a friend request. I'll see you later, Kirito!"

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, see you later, Klein." Preparing to log out as well, Kirito took one last look at the sunset and opened his menu before realizing Klein was still standing next to him.

"Something wrong?" he asked Klein.

"Yeah…" Klein said. "The logout button isn't here…"

"Are you sure you're in the right menu?" Kirito navigated through the menu to Player Options, where logout should be. "You're in Player Options, right?"

"Yeah. It's not here, Kirito!"

Kirito ran his eyes over the options available to him. The third option, which he remembered as having been "Logout" during the beta, was blank. "Hm, you're right… it's not there." he said.

"Oh god… are we stuck here?!" Klein wailed.

"Calm down," Kirito said. "It's probably just a bug. I'm sure the admin's working on fixing it right now."

"You expect me to calm down?! I'm going to miss my pizza!"

Suddenly, Klein's character avatar shattered into the air, just as the boars had when they were defeated earlier. "Wha—? Klein?!" Kirito exclaimed, quickly approaching a panic, not knowing what was happening. He looked around his surroundings quickly, but didn't see anything that would've caused Klein to disappear.

"Stay calm," Kirito thought to himself. "He probably just had a delayed logout, so it was a bit sudden," he rationalized. Soon, however, Kirito noticed his vision gradually becoming blurry. "Wha—what's going on?" he wondered as the world around him disappeared into white.

As Kirito's vision slowly began to return to him, he became able to make out a familiar object in front of him: a massive obelisk, extending nearly 50 meters into the air. But that couldn't be right—the only obelisk familiar to him was the one in the Town of Beginnings. But as more of Kirito's surroundings took shape in his mind, he quickly realized that that was indeed exactly where he was. "How did I get here?" he thought. "And why all of a sudden…?"

"Kirito? Oh, thank goodness…" he heard someone say.

"Klein?" Kirito looked to his right and saw the familiar redhead, confirming his suspicions.

"So you ended up here too, huh?" Klein observed.

"Yeah. My vision went white and then the next time I woke up, I was here."

"Same here, and apparently we're not alone." Klein gestured to the surrounding area.

For the first time, Kirito noticed that he and Klein weren't the only ones in the plaza—far from it. There must have been thousands of others confusedly shuffling about the town center, unsure of why they had been appeared here. More and more were materializing throughout the center by the second, until it seemed like the entire game's population stood around the obelisk, similar to how it had appeared at the game's launch. All of them were talking among themselves, asking the same thing: why were they here?

"Any idea what's happening, Kirito?" Klein asked.

Kirito thought hard at what could have caused this, bringing back memories of some events he had experienced in the beta. "Someone teleported us here… someone who has the power to, probably the Game Master. I guess he wanted to gather us all together, but I don't know wh—"

A red hue was abruptly cast over the plaza, and all the players simultaneously looked to the sky. Slowly, the brilliant orange of the sunset above turned to a blood red. Lines began to appear as divides in the sky, almost as if it was splitting apart, being divided into cells. Letters also appeared in each cell, reading "WARNING", repeating for as far as the players could see on the horizon. From between the cells, a red liquid began to emerge, oozing down and congealing at the top of the obelisk in the town square. It gradually began to take form, first rotating into a sphere and then expanding outwards in what appeared to be… the shape of a human. Soon enough, the consistency of the liquid gave way to a billowing cloak of the same color, and before the players hovered a massive, nondescript hooded man.

"Good evening, players," the man said, his voice booming across the plaza. "I am the Game Master, and I would like to formally welcome you to Sword Art Online."

Utter silence followed, such that even the sound of one breathing could be heard throughout the town square. Everyone held their breath for his next words, which he soon obliged.

"Surely by now some of you have noticed an important option that has gone missing: namely, your ability to log out of the game. I am here to inform you that this is not a bug or an error in the game code; it is an intended feature of this game."

Those who had not checked for the option yet quickly opened their menus to see that he was telling the truth, while the others who had already come to realize this fact soon began to mutter among themselves. No matter how the players reacted initially, however, they all soon turned back to the Game Master and waited for him to continue.

"To explain why this is," the Master started, "perhaps I should first explain who I am. Some may know me only as the Game Master… while others may recognize my true name… Akihiko Kayaba."

"K-Kayaba?!" Kirito thought to himself. "Wasn't he the one that made Sword Art—"

"Yes, that is correct," Kayaba said, seemingly predicting Kirito's, and everyone else's, thoughts. "I am the original creator of this world… and its master… its god. My reason for creating Sword Art Online was to become the master of my own world and the people in it. And you, my beloved players, are now those people. As long as this world exists, you cannot leave it."

"Has he really trapped us here… unable to escape…?" Kirito asked mentally.

"That is not all," Kayaba continued, putting a stop to the gossip that had started as a result of his last statement. "In order to create an authentic world, its mechanics must be authentic as well. As such, the penalty of death in Sword Art Online is… final."

Silence. There was only silence as the idea sunk in. Soon, however, it was broken—a girl with deep orange eyes and hair a mere few steps away from Kirito shouted up at the man in the sky. "What's that supposed to mean? Final how?!" she demanded.

The hooded figure seemed to turn toward the girl to address her directly, but with the hood obscuring his face, it was unclear exactly where he was looking. "In order to project this virtual reality world to you," he began, "the NerveGear headset you all wear intercepts all electric nerve signals going to your brain and interprets them as actions you perform in this game. That functionality, however, also comes with the capability to manipulate your brain's electric currents. In essence, all NerveGear headsets can functionally stop all brain activity in the wearer. Normally, this capability is hidden behind multiple safeguards to prevent its abuse, but deep in the code of Sword Art Online is the programming necessary to bypass those restrictions. If you die in the game, the NerveGear headset you are wearing will also halt all of your brain function outside of the game, stopping your heartbeat and ability to breathe and rendering you brain-dead."

"In addition," Kayaba continued, "the removal of the NerveGear helmet, or the depletion of its backup battery should its power be lost for an extended period of time, will result in the same fate—it will halt all brain function before it leaves its wearer's head or loses power."

"The families of all ten thousand players have been informed of the risks involved in attempting to remove the NerveGear helmet, but some persisted despite my warning, resulting in an already unfortunate fate for some two hundred players so far."

"Now, to answer the question you are all no doubt wondering... in order to safely escape Sword Art Online, you must beat the game. There are one hundred floors to this world of Aincrad, each with boss fights and dungeons that must be conquered in order to advance to the next floor. Defeat all bosses, including the one at the hundredth floor, and you have cleared the game, after which all players still alive will obtain the ability to log out safely."

It was all the nearly ten thousand players could do to stare up in awe at these revelations. Every one of them was trapped, at the whim of Kayaba's mad god complex.

Once again, Kayaba's booming voice broke the silence. "There is one more thing. In your inventory, you will find a gift that I left each of you. If you do not use it, it will automatically be used within the coming day… and the results may not be kind to you. And it is with that that I leave you all to your own devices. Good luck to all, and may you reach the hundredth floor and prevail."

With a finality fitting to that of a god, Kayaba's hooded figure dispersed once more into the red liquid it began as and floated back upward to the broken crimson sky. Gradually, the liquid disappeared and the sky returned to normal, now past the sunset as a dark night sky. All eyes remained upward, expecting—no, hoping—for something more. But nothing came. There was only the silence of the night upon them.

It occurred to Kirito that Kayaba said he had left something in everyone's inventory, a realization that many others came to at the same time. With a swipe of his hand, he navigated through his inventory to find a "Mirror" item. "A mirror?" he wondered to himself. "What's this for?" Reluctantly, he selected the item and pointed to "Use" the item… and his vision went white as it had only minutes ago. "Not again…" Kirito lamented as he lost consciousness.

When he came to, Kirito's vision remained blurry for a time. As he looked around to understand what happened, he heard Klein's voice come from behind him.

"Kirito? Is that you?"

Kirito turned around, but who he saw was not the Klein he knew. Though there were similarities, like the bandana and red stubble—his hair had changed to be short and spiky, and his build revealed him to be quite a bit bulkier than Kirito had initially seen.

"Yeah, I'm Kirito…" he responded, "but who are you?"

"Seriously? It's me, Klein!"

Kirito gasped. "So it is you…" Glancing to his left, Kirito realized he was holding the Mirror he had used earlier. Had he only lost consciousness for a few seconds? He raised the mirror to his face and his mouth dropped as he realized what he saw was not his character avatar, but himself. Short black hair with bangs that nearly obscured his eyes, a slim but muscular build, with a height quite a bit shorter than his character avatar had depicted him.

"So… that's what this Mirror item does…"

"Makes us look like ourselves, huh?" Klein finished.

"But not just that. My body is the exact same as I remember it, too… how does it know what my body is like?"

Klein raised a finger. "It probably has to do with that NerveGear setup. Remember when you had to pat yourself down and do some weird exercises? That's probably how it found out," he said.

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense," he agreed. As Kirito looked around, he saw chaos had descended on the plaza; the rules of the game combined with everyone's true identities being revealed—even the ones that had player avatars of the opposite gender—caused the players in the town center to become a heated mass of panic and conflict. Kirito turned toward Klein.

"Hey, Klein, follow me," he said. "It's too crowded and chaotic here."

Klein merely nodded his understanding and followed his lead.

They made their way through the crowd, eventually leaving the plaza entirely and meeting in a side alley.

"So, what do you think?" Kirito asked once they were alone.

Klein shook his head. "Sounds like a nightmare come true to me, man."

"Yeah, that's the truth," Kirito admitted. "But we need a plan of action."

"Man, you're really on top of it, aren't you?"

"Well, we can hardly be up to anything better now that we're trapped here. Besides, our lives are on the line…"

"Not even gonna stop to rest?"

Kirito brought a hand to his chin in thought. "No, it's not that I don't need rest… it's that I want to be somewhere other than here. Remember how I said things in this game will be on a first come, first serve basis? We need to get to a more useful area before others beat us there…" Before he could continue, Kirito noticed Klein's troubled expression. "Klein? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Kirito… how far did you get during the beta?"

"The sixth floor was as far as the beta testers could get, but that was when the game was new and with a lot less people. I'm sure we could get farther now. Why?"

"It's just that…" Klein started, pausing to breathe and then looking directly at Kirito. "I've got friends back in that plaza that are probably scared and confused. With what you've taught me, I could be the difference between life and death for them. I've got to go back and help them out," he said.

Kirito hung his head. "Oh. I see…"

"I know you said that lots of people would just cause you problems, but you're welcome to join us," Klein offered.

"I appreciate the offer… but I think I know why you asked me how far I got. You know I'd be better off on my own."

Klein sighed. "Yeah, I was worried I'd just drag you down. Listen, Kirito… if you want to go on your own, I won't stop you," he said. "Just… our lives are on the line now. Stay safe, you hear?"

Kirito looked up and met eyes with Klein. "Yeah, you too, Klein. Remember you've got me on your friends list… if you're in trouble, just message me. Besides that… until we meet again, you better keep your friends, and yourself, alive."

"Hey, you didn't teach me for nothing, right?" Klein said with a smile. "I'll be seeing you, Kirito."

With a nod, Kirito turned and ran down the alley, disappearing from view around the corner on his own path. "Yeah… I better see you again, Kirito…" Klein thought to himself before turning back toward the plaza.

A few moments later, Kirito ran through the doors to the Town of Beginnings and left it behind. Before long, he was running through the rolling fields of grass to the next town, the place he had marked as the best immediate source of experience and money. He had to get there as soon as possible… he could rest only when he reached his destination.

Suddenly, a wolf jumped out of the tall grass in front of Kirito, intending to block the path. "Nothing will stand in my way…" Kirito resolved. Without hesitation, he drew his sword and rushed past it, cutting it in half before it could react. "I'll beat this game… and get out of here alive!"