- The Swordsman Chronicles -

A Story By Twisted Films

All rights reserved, SAO is the property of Reki Kawahara

The phenomenon known as Sword Art Online has long acted as quite the source of inspiration for me, as evident by my countless (failed) attempts at writing a story set within its universe. Most of these stories were written back when I was a horny 14-year old, and as such, the quality of my writing was about as horrible as you would expect. But now, after multiple all-nighters and several horrible plots thrown to the wayside, I think I might have finally come up with something worthwhile.

So let me start off by providing you with some quite important details about this story, and where I plan to take it. This is crucial information, so I urge you to take your time reading this little segment.

This story will be a completely different beast than that of the canon version of SAO.

This is by no means a "re-telling" of the original story. What I aim to do here is essentially rewrite the entire Aincrad Arc, introducing new plotlines, new characters and a bunch of new elements and game mechanics as I go along. Thus why I call this a "reimagining" instead of a "re-telling" or "redo". I want to portray a different version of SAO, a version that we never got to see in the original novels. This, however, does not mean that old characters like Klein, Lizbeth and Silica will be thrown to the wayside. They will still play a huge role in the story, just in a different manner.

This will be a mature fanfiction, which means that it will include mature themes such as excessive violence, swearing and hints at sexual behavior.

If you are not comfortable with that, I recommend turning around right now, because this will undoubtedly turn you off. Whilst the story itself is T-rated, I intend to push said rating to its limits, which might prove to be too much for some people.

I will also be making some changes to the Sword Art Online game and its mechanics.

1. The pain absorption meter will be dialed back quite a lot. Whilst an attack won't hit just as hard as it would in real life, cuts, bruises and taking damage in general will hurt. However, the feeling of pain will subside much faster than it would in real life.

2. Player-Killing has been revamped. Now, I don't want to spoil anything here, but trust me when I say: PK-ing just got a whole lot scarier.

3. Blood is a factor here. If you cut someone, blood will (naturally) leak from the wound. Dismemberment therefore becomes a much more gruesome possibility. Dismembered limbs will still regenerate, although at a much slower rate than in the anime.

4. Multiple new status effects have been added to the game, the first of which you will encounter in the chapter you are about to read. I did this due to the belief that it will add more flair to some of the in-game systems, and generally make it a more interesting experience.

5. The hidden "Ethics Code" option buried deep in the player settings is always set to off. Yes, that means that there will be sexual themes showcased in this fanfiction. There will also perhaps be "lemons", or detailed descriptions of sexual interactions in this story, but if such a thing is ever introduced, the story will change its rating to M to reflect this.

6. And finally, the Player-Housing system has been drastically expanded. You will realize what I mean by this later on in the story.

MMORPG TERMS EXPLAINED FOR NEW READERS

(SKIP THIS IF YOU HAVE PLAYED AN MMO IN YOUR LIFE, OR KNOW THESE TERMS FROM BEFORE)

This part is dedicated to informing new readers about all the different terms used in an MMORPG. If you know this from before, feel free to skip this section.

EXP – Experience Points. You collect these by doing quests, killing monsters, utilizing your skills and so forth. Once you have enough, you will advance to the next level. This will give you more health and Skill Points you can use to improve your current stats. Simple as that.

Cor - The type of currency used in the world of Aincrad. You gain Cor by killing monsters, completing quests and selling items.

Mobs – Mobs is a term used to define multiple monsters. If I for instance write: "Kirito saw multiple mobs wandering about in the forest", that means I'm referring to a group of monsters walking around.

Skills – Different things you can train yourself in and level up. Example: fishing, cooking, smithing and so forth.

Guild – A Guild is a group of players playing together under the command of one (or multiple) "guild leaders". Can be small or large, depending on the amount of players currently in the guild. Members have to follow rules set by the leader.

Stats – Statistics displaying your current level in different skills, your armor rating, total damage output and so forth.

That marks the end of the informational chapter. I honestly do hope you enjoy the story, as I have put a lot of time and effort into writing this. Hopefully, I'll be able to create a version of Sword Art Online that we've never seen before!

-Twisted