Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Sword Art Online

"Ahh… ha… uwahh!"

The sword, swinging to these strange shouts, swished around cutting nothing but air. Right afterwards, the blue boar, which moved surprisingly quick considering its bulk, charged fiercely at its assailant. Kirito burst into laughter after watching him fly through the air after getting hit by the boar's flat nose and roll on the hill.

"Hahaha…not like that. The first movement is important, Klein."

"Argh…that bastard."

The complaining assailant, a party member called Klein, got up and glanced at him while answering plaintively.

"But Kirito, even if you say that. . .I can't do anything about the fact that it's moving."

Kirito had met this person, who had reddish hair held up by a bandana and simple leather armor worn over his thin body, a few hours ago. If he had revealed his real name, it would have been hard to omit the honorifics, but Klein and Kirito were both fake names. Made up for their characters in the game. Putting "-San" or "-Kun" at the end of them would sound comical more than anything.

The legs of the person in question started shaking.

Seems like he's a little dizzy. Deciding to enter the fight himself, 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, his left hand almost moved by itself and the pebble went flying, drawing a straight line of light and hitting the boar between its eyebrows.

The boar squealed in fury and turned towards him.

"Of course they move. They're not training dummies. But if you start the right motion, the system will put your sword skill into motion and hit the target for you."

"Motion. . .motion. . ."

Nodding and muttering the words like a spell, Klein raised the cutlass that he had 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 while getting hit by the boar's counterattacks due to his wild swings.

Well, even if he died he'd just respawn at the «Starting City» near here, but coming all the way out to this hunting ground again was somewhat annoying. And I'm not going to be here waiting for him if he does die. Kirito decided. He had logged on to play SAO after all, not train a noob.

It seemed like there was one move left before the fight reached its conclusion. So he would give Klein a few more pointers before letting him try one more time.

Blocking the boar's charge with the sword in his right hand he started his last lesson.

"Hmm, how should I explain. . .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?"

Klein grimaced as he leveled his sword with the middle of his body.

After taking a deep breath, he lowered his pose 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!"

With his low yell, he jumped off the ground with a movement that was completely different to 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 the rest of its HP, which, like Klein's, was about half full quickly fell into yellow, and then red before the bar above its head vanished.

-it screamed a pitiful cry and its large body shattered like glass and purple numbers appeared, showing how much virtual experience points Klein had gained.

"Whoooo!"

Klein struck an exaggerated 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."

Klein's smile faded.

"Eh, really? I thought it was some sort of semi-boss or something!"

"No chance of that."

Kirito's smile became a little forced as he sheathed his sword on his back. Even though he was teasing Klein, he understood what he 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 by his own hand.

Klein started to use the same sword skill over and over again yelling as he did so, perhaps as a way of practicing.

Deciding to let him be Kirito 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 he could just make out the walls that surrounded the city to the east. To the west, there was a limitless sky going on forever with golden clouds drifting by.

They were at the plains that stretched to the west of the «Starting City», 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.

Seeming finally 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 a game!"

"Well even if you say 'inside' it's not like our souls were sucked in or anything. Our brain's just seeing and listening instead of our eyes and ears. . .with the signals that the «Nerve Gear» is sending."

Kirito explained with a shrug.

Klein pouted his lips 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? Really. . .it's a relief that I was born in this era!"

"You're exaggerating." Kirito laughed.

But he totally agreed with him.

«Nerve Gear».

That's the name of the hardware that moved this VRMMORPG— «Sword Art Online».

The basic structure of this machine is totally different from the older ones.

Unlike the old-style man-machine interface hardware like "flat screen monitors" or "controllers that you used with your hands," Nerve Gear only had a single interface, a streamlined interface that covered the whole of your head and face.

Inside, there were numerous signal components, and by using the numerous electronic signals these sent, the gear accessed the user's brain itself. The user didn't use their eyes or ears to see and listen but took in the signals that were sent directly to their brain. In addition, the machine could access not only sight and sound, but also touch, taste, and smell as well—that is to say, all five senses.

After slipping the Nerve Gear on and locking the strap on your chin in place and saying the initiation command «Link Start», all noise fades away and you're standing in a world of white. As soon as you pass the rainbow-colored circle in the middle, you're in another world made entirely out of data.

A «FullDive».

It was a total seclusion from reality, fitting of the word "full."

The reason for this is that the Nerve Gear not only sent fake signals to the five senses but it also blocked and rerouted the orders that the brain sent to the body. To keep players from getting out of bed or wherever they were using the Nerve Gear and running into a wall when they «Ran» in the game.

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 Nerve Gear that you've played?" He asked not mentioning the tears.

Klein, looking like a calm warrior from the Sengoku period, turned his head my way and nodded.

"Yeah."

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 from adjusting a bunch of options.

Not that I'm one to talk. His avatar looked like some 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. There was only ten thousand 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!"

"I suppose."

Kirito scratched the back of his head as Klein kept staring at him.

It was uncomfortable, but again, he didn't say anything. He remembered the excitement and enthusiasm that «Sword Art Online» created when it was announced through the media like it was yesterday.

Nerve Gear had realized the future setting for gaming with FullDive. However, due to the innovation of the actual machine, only unremarkable titles came forth for the all-important software. They were all puzzles, education-related or environmental type games, calling forth discontent from game addicts such as myself.

Nerve Gear could render an entire virtual reality.

But in those games, you could only go a hundred meters before hitting a wall. They were all letdowns to hardcore gamers like him. So he, and others like him waited.

Waiting for a network response game—a game that let millions of players log in and raise, fight with and live as a character of their own.

Waiting for an MMORPG.

And when it finally came. The first VRMMORPG, «Sword Art Online». It was everything he had been hoping for and more.

The stage for the game is a floating castle consisting of 100 floors.

The players lived in a world with forests and lakes, relying on only their sword and drive to discover the route to the upper floors and defeat countless monsters and make their way endlessly to the top.

«Magic» which was considered to be an indispensable part of fantasy MMORPGs had been boldly cut out and an almost endless number of skills called «Sword Skills» were made. It was part of a plan to let players actually feel the experience of fighting with their own bodies through FullDive as much as possible.

Skills were varied including productive skills such as smithery, leatherworking, and sewing, and everyday skills such as fishing, cooking and playing music, allowing the player to not only adventure the huge game but also actually «live» in it. If they so wanted, and if their skill levels were high enough, they could buy a house and live as shepherds.

Information about the game was released steadily building up to its launch and Kirito had read and watched everything he could about SAO.

Then the Beta was released.

The beta test only recruited a thousand testers; it's said that one hundred thousand people, the number of half the Nerve Gear sold at that time, volunteered to be a tester. Luck was the only reason that he got through the narrow gap and was picked. Also, beta testers received the additional benefit of being given the priority when the game officially came out.

The two months of beta testing was like a dream. At school, he thought endlessly about his skill set, equipment, and items, and at the end of the day, he ran all the way home as soon as school ended and dived till dawn. The beta test ended in the blink of an eye, and on the day his character was reset, he felt a sense of loss. Like he was losing part of himself.

And now—November 6, 2022, Sunday.

«Sword Art Online» after all the preparations had been finished and at 1pm officially started its server service.

After he had logged onto SAO, he had started running through the nostalgic stone-paved roads of the «Starting City» to go to the weapons shop. Thanks to his participating in the beta test he knew the shortcuts and alleyways that would get him there in the fastest alotted time.

Klein had noticed and after realizing I was a beta-tester had followed me.

He had begged me to show him the ropes of the game. And Kirito still didn't know what it was about the guy but he had agreed.

And now here we are. After hours of roaming the countryside and fighting boars, they were just sitting on the grass looking out at a world that felt too real to be anything but.

During beta testing, he had gotten to know a couple of people but didn't get close enough to anyone to actually call them a friend. Truthfully, he wasn't a people person in game, and even less of one IRL.

But Klein grew on you after awhile. He didn't feel uncomfortable around his new friend anymore, which was a shock, but not an unwelcome one. So he opened his mouth.

"So. . .what do you want to do? Do you want to keep hunting till you get used to it?"

"Sure!. . .is what I want to say, but. . ."

Klein looked at the bottom right of his vision, obviously checking the time that was displayed.

"I should log off and eat. I ordered some pizza for 5:30. The game can until after I get my pizza on."

"I guess."

Kirito said looking back at the world around them.

"Hey," Klein said. "I was going to meet up with some people I know from another game. I don't know what you're up to after this so if uh. . .you know if you want you can friend them and hang with us."

"Errr. . ." Kirito glanced at the ground subconsciously.

Sure he got along well with Klien, but that was no guarantee that it would be the same with his friends. There would be a higher chance of not getting along with them and as a result, fall out with Klein as well.

Seemingly understanding the reason for my not-so-confident answer, Klein shook his head waving a hand in front of him.

"Hey, it's cool if you don't want to. No pressure. I can always introduce you to them another time or something."

". . .yeah. Sorry. Thanks anyway."

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

"No way, I should be doing all the thanking. One of these days I'll pay you back for all your help. Virtually that is."

Klein smiled and took another look at the clock.

"Well, I'll log off for a bit. Thanks a lot, Kirito. Be seeing ya."

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

"If there is anything else you want to know, message me." Kirito offered as their hands split.

"Sweet, I'll do that."

Klein stepped back a bit and put his right index finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. This was the action that was done to call the «main menu window». Straight afterward, there was a ringing sound and a shining purple rectangle appeared.

Kirito moved away a bit and sat on a rock and opening his menu too. He started to move his fingers to organize the items that he'd gotten after fighting with the boar.

"Eh. . .where'd the log out button go?"

Looking over at his friend Kirito frowned.

"It should be there."

The swordsman opened his eyes wide beneath the bandana and pushed his head closer to the menu. The rectangle, which was longer sideways than high, had a bunch of buttons on the left and a silhouette showing what equipment you had on on the right. At the bottom of the menu, there was supposed to be a «LOG OUT» button that allowed you to escape from this world.

As Kirito was turning his head back to the item list that listed everything that he had gained over hours of fighting, Klein started speaking again.

"Hm. . .nope. It's not there."

"It should be at the bottom of the main menu." Kirto clicked on the button on the top left to go back to the menu screen. The inventory window on the right closed and it went back to the main screen. At the left of the silhouette, which still had quite a lot of empty spaces, there was a long row of buttons.

He moved his hand down in a movement that had almost become a habit and—

-His body froze.

There was no log out button.

As Klein had said, the button that had been there during the beta test—no, even right after he'd logged on—had disappeared. He stared at the empty space for a couple of seconds, then started looking through the menu, making sure that it hadn't just changed its position.

"See, not there."

"It's not."

Kirito nodded, although it felt slightly annoying to agree. Klein smiled and started rubbing his chin.

"Well, today's what? The first day out of beta? There's bound to be some bugs. I bet the server people are freaking out right now."

"You will too." Kirito teased pointing to the time displayed. "It's five twenty-five."

"Ah, oh my god! My teriyaki may pizza and ginger ale!"

Throwing away a couple of items he didn't need from his inventory, which had been getting to full with so many items inside, Kirito walked over to Klein who was freaking out.

"Why don't you just contact the Game Master?"

"Yeah, I did that. But nothing is happening. He's not picking up. Do you know if there is another way to log out of this thing?"

Let's see. . .to log out? To get out of this virtual reality and back to his room, he'd 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 the procedure above Kirito wasn't aware of any other way of logging off.

Looking up at Klein's face, which was situated quite a bit higher than his own he shook his head.

"No. Whenever a player wants to log out of SAO, the only way they can do it is by going through the menu."

"That can't be right. There's got to be some other way out."

Klein suddenly starting shouting as if he was denying my statement.

"Return! Log out! Escape!"

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

After shouting this and that and even a little jumping around Kirito spoke stopping Klein from doing anything else.

"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.

Kirito totally agreed with him.

What was happening to them was impossible. It was complete nonsense. But it was indisputably the truth. And there was nothing they could do.

"Wait, I know, I'll just pull the «Gear» off my head."

Watching Klein move his hands as if he was trying to take off an invisible hat Kirito shook his head.

"Don't bother. Once you're hooked in you can't move your body in the real world. The «Nerve Gear» intercepts all the commands you give from inside the game using an interface built. . ." Kirito tapped the base of his neck. ". . .the rig and reroutes them to move our avatars here."

"Seriously? So now what? We have to wait until someone gets around to fix the bug!"

Klein slowly closed his mouth and put his hands down as he realized that was exactly what they would have to do. Until that happened they were trapped, inside the game.

"That. . .or until someone in the real world comes along and takes the «Nerve Gear» off our head. That's it."

"But I live alone. You?"

"I got a mom and sister. And I'm pretty sure they will notice by dinner time. . ."

Klein suddenly lunged forward grabbing him by the shoulder, his eyes sparkling.

"What? H-How old is your sister?"

"She's into sports and hates games, so she's got nothing in common with people like us. . .!" Kirito kneed Klein in the crotch.

Jumping back Klein cupped his groin as he fell to the ground groaning in-

"Oh, right. Getting kicked in the balls doesn't hurt."

"Get serious. Don't you think this is weird?"

"Yeah, totally. But it's just a bug."

Kirito looked around at the world of Aincrad.

"This isn't just a bug. If we can't log out of this world. It's gonna cause some serious problems for the game. I wonder if the developers even know what's happening. Because they could just shut down the server and log everyone out. But…it's already been 15 minutes since we've noticed this, but there hasn't even been a system message, let alone putting the server down; it's just too weird."

Ding, ding, a chiming noise like a bell, or perhaps a warning bell, sounded loudly, making both players jump in surprise.

"Ah..."

"What's this!?"

Looking at each as they both shouted at the same time their eyes went wide.

Each of them was immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in their vision blurred steadily.

Klein didn't know what was happening, but Kirito who had experienced this a few times during beta testing knew what it was. It was a «Teleport» initiated by an item. Only he 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 us?

As my thoughts raced, the light around him pulsed stronger and then there was only darkness.

When the blue light faded, the surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the plains lit with the sunset anymore.

They were standing on a large road paved with stone. Medieval streets surrounded by streetlamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.

This was the starting point, the central plaza of the «Starting City».

Kirito looked at Cline who had his mouth wide open next to him. Then at the bustling layers of people that surrounded the two of them.

A bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colors, they were no doubt, other players. There were about a few thousand—ten thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.

For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without a word.

Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.

"What's happening?"

"Can we log out now?"

A forced teleport. The other beta players must have known what happened. But none of them were saying anything to calm the crowd. Not that I'm one to talk.

Kirito looked around as the comments about what was happening grew harsher as the players started to get more annoyed.

"Is this a joke?"

"Get the hell out here, GMs!"

Then suddenly.

Somebody shouted, louder than the rest.

"Ah. . .look above!"

Kirito and Klein almost automatically turned their eyes upward and looked.
There, a strange sight greeted us.

The bottom surface of the second floor, one hundred meters up in the air, was checkered in red. Kirito could just make out the two phrases crisscrossing each other.

The word that was written in red was [Warning] and the other [System Announcement].

Oh, the operator's going to begin informing us now. Breathing a sigh Kirito let his shoulder relax.

Around him, the chatter died down as everyone in the plaza waited to hear what was going on.

However, what happened next wasn't what anyone had expected.

From the middle of the pattern, a liquid similar to blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscid it was, but it didn't fall down; instead, it started morphing into another shape.

What appeared was a twenty-meter tall man with a hooded robe draped around him.

No, that wasn't exactly right. From where he was looking, Kirito could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. The inner cloth was clearly visible. and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe; all he could see inside the rim were shadows.

Kirito had seen the actual robe before. It was the outfit that the Agas employees who had been working as GMs during the beta test had always worn. But then the male GMs had had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. They might have used the robe due to lack of time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space beneath the hood gave him an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.

The countless players around him must have felt the same as they began murmuring.

"Is that a GM?"

"Why doesn't it have a face?"

Numerous whispers like these could be heard.

Then the right hand of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.

A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, wasn't connected to any sort of body.

Then the left arm slowly lifted upwards, too. Then with its two empty gloves spread out in front of ten thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth—no, it felt like it did. Then a low and calm voice of a male resonated from high up in the air.

"Players, I welcome you all to my world!"

«My world»? What's he mean by that? If that red robe was a GM, it certainly had godlike powers in this world, enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?

Kirito looked at Klein who was staring back at him just as dumbfounded. The anonymous red robe lowered its two arms and continued talking.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world."

Gasping Kirito stared up at the avatar. Kayaba Akihiko.

This person, who was both a game designer and a genius in the field of quantum physics, was the one responsible for raising Agas, which even a few years ago was just one of many small companies, into one of the leading companies in the field.

He was also the development director of SAO and, at the same time, the designer of the Nerve Gear.

As a hardcore gamer, Kirito respected Kayaba deeply. Buying all the magazines that featured him and had read every one of the few interviews Kayaba had done until he almost knew them all by heart. Even now, while staring at the giant red avatar he could almost see him in the white overalls he always wore by just hearing his voice.

But he had always stuck behind the curtain. Kayaba was notorious for refusing to be exposed to the media; he had never even been a GM in the beta. So why is he doing something like this?

It didn't make sense for someone who stayed out of the spotlight to do something as grandiose as this.

"I think that by now most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a defect in the game. I repeat. . .this is not a defect in the game, this is how «Sword Art Online»'s was designed to be."

"He's kidding. . .right?"

Klien muttered; his voice breaking up. The announcement continued as if to cover the sound.

"Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will. And no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will emit powerful microwaves, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

Destroy our brains? In other words, kill us. Kirito's mind was refused to believe what had just been said. But Kayaba's short statement, there was nothing false about what he said the Nerve Gear could do.

Klein raised his right hand slowly and tried to grasp the headgear that would be situated there in the real world. As he did this, he let out a dry laugh and started talking.

"Haha. . .what's he saying? Are you listening to this crap? he' gotta be nuts, right? Right, Kirito?"

Klein stared at him hard, but Kirito couldn't nod in agreement like he knew his friend wanted him to.

"He's not. He' right that transmitter signals work just like microwaves. If the safety were disabled, it could fry your brains."

"Couldn't someone cut the power. . .or-"

Kirito shook his head.

"That won't work. Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery."

"But. . .this is crazy! It's totally crazy!"

Kayaba started explaining as if he had heard what Klein had shouted.

"Unfortunately, there have been several instances where players' friends and families have ignored the warning, and attempted to forcefully remove the Nerve Gear. As a result, 213 players have been deleted permanently from both Aincrad and the real world."

Two hundred and thirteen. Kirito stumbled back a few paces on weak knees but managed to keep himself from falling. Next, to him, Klein wasn't so lucky and fell on his backside.

213 players.

The number kept echoing in his mind as many in the crowd shouted up at Kayaba's avatar.

While he and Klein had been playing the game over two hundred people had died.

Among them, there might have even been some of his fellow beta testers. He might have even known some of their character names and avatars. Those people had had their brains burnt and. . .died.

"I. . .I don't believe it."

Klein, who was still sitting on the floor looked up at him.

"He's just trying to scare us, right?"

Inside, Kirito wanted to believe the same thing.

But as if to dismiss their hopes, Kayaba's avatar put his right index finger and thumb together and pulled downwards as his businesslike voice continued restarted the explanation.

"As of this moment, all TV, radio, and internet media are all repeatedly reporting this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared."

Proving his point to those watching windows appeared in the sky showing news channels reporting the deaths.

"In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax. . .and concentrate on beating the game."

"What. . .?"

Beat the game? Is he crazy? Kirito glared up at the avatar. This wasn't a game anymore.

"It's important that you remember the following. There is no longer any function to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever. And the Nerve Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Looking up at the top left corner of his vision, at the long horizontal line that was shining Kirito focused it, on the numbers 342/342 overlaid it.

His hit-points. His life.

"Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one-hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word."

Ten thousand players stood in silence.

"We can't clear all hundred floors. That's freaking impossible." Klein stood up and shouted at the sky. "Even the beta-testers never made it that high!"

The red robe that had trapped them in this death game swept its right glove and started speaking with a voice void of all emotion.

"I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this."

Kirito pressed his finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells.

He selected the item button on the menu that had just appeared at the top of his belongings list.

«Hand mirror»

Why did he give us this? Even as he asked himself that question Kirito tapped the name and pressed the "make into object" button. Immediately afterwards, there was a twinkling sound effect and a small rectangular mirror appeared.

Grabbing the mirror as it fell into his hands he looked at it but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that he had created for the game.

Suddenly Cline and the avatars around him were engulfed in white light. And then he was surrounded, and all he could see was white.

Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been. . .

Except.

The face in the mirror didn't show Kirito's avatar anymore. His face. . .his real face was staring back at him.

Looking over at Klein he didn't recognize the man staring back at him. The armor made of metal plates sewn together, the bandana, and the spiky red hair were all the same. But the face had changed into another shape altogether. His long, sharp eyes had become sunken and shone brighter. His nose had become hooked, and a slight beard now appeared on his cheeks and chin. If the avatar had been a young samurai, this one was a bandit.

"Who are you?" He asked momentarily forgetting the situation.

The man in front of him echoed those same words back at him.

"Hey...who're you?"

"Ah. . .it's me. . ."

They both stared at each other and shouted at the same time.

"You're Cline!?" "You're Kirito!?"

Our voices! Kirito pressed a hand against his throat. They had changed too, perhaps the voice effectors had stopped working.

The mirror fell from his free hand and hit the ground, being destroyed with a quiet smashing sound.

Looking around he saw that the crowd was no longer filled with people who looked like characters from a fantasy game. A bunch of normal looking young people had now taken their place. It was like something you'd see if you gathered a bunch of people in real life at a game show venue and dressed them up in armor. Distressingly, even the sex ratio had changed greatly.

How on earth was this possible? The face he could accept. There are high-density signal sensors in the Nerve Gear that scanned their entire head as well as their face.

"B-But, how can it know how our bodies look like. . .like how tall we are?"

The answer came from Klein who snapped his fingers.

"Ah. . .wait. I bought the Nerve Gear just yesterday so I remember, but there was a part of the set-up. . .what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it touched your body here and there, maybe it was that. . .?"

"Ah, right. . .that's what it was."

Calibration was where the Nerve Gear measured «how much you had to move your hand to reach your body». This was done to reproduce the sense of feel accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the Nerve Gear had data about our exact figures saved inside itself.

It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was also almost too clear now.

". . .reality," Kirito muttered. "He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar. . .and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this, he's produced a perfect copy of us. . ."

Klein scratched his head roughly and the eyes beneath his bandana shone as he shouted.

"Why? Why the hell's he doing something like this. . .?"

"I think he's about to tell us."

Kirito pointed to Kayaba's avatar.

"Right now your probably wondering why? Why am I—the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko—doing something like this? My goal was a simple one. The reason I created «Sword Art Online», was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch for «Sword Art Online». Players, I wish you the best of luck."

This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.

The huge robe rose soundlessly and started sinking, hood first, into the system message that covered the sky, as if melting.

Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and legs merged into in the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterwards, the system message that had covered the sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared

The game had returned to its normal state, apart from the fact that a couple of rules had been changed.

Silence reigned over the plaza for a brief moment, before thousands of players panicked.

"It's a joke right. . .?"

"What the hell is this? It's a joke right!?"

"Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!"

"No! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!"

"I don't like this! I'm gonna go home! I want to go home!"

The most anticipated game of the century had turned into a prison for all those lucky enough to get their hands on a copy.

In the midst of the chaos, Kirito grabbed Klein's arm and dragged him away through the crowd.

"C'mon, Klein! Over here."

Having been close to the edge of the plaza they made it out fairly quickly and Kirito ducked into the shadows behind a wooden cart hiding them from view as best he could.

"Klein. . ."

Klein still had a somewhat blank expression on his face like he wasn't listening but Kirito continued talking, trying his best to sound serious. But like his face, his voice was now his own and the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy wasn't what one would call inspiring.

"Listen to me. I'm going to get out of this city and head over to the next village. Come with me."

Klein opened his eyes wide under the bandana and Kirito kept talking in a low voice, forcing the words out.

"If what he said was true, in order to survive in this world we have to strengthen ourselves. You know that MMORPGs are a battle for resources between the players. Only the people who can acquire the most money and experience can get stronger... The people who've realized this are going to hunt all the monsters around the «Starting City». You'll have to wait forever for the monsters to respawn. Going to the next village right now would be better. I know the way and all the dangerous spots, so I can get there, even if I'm only level one."

Considering that it was him, that was quite a long speech. But despite that, Klein stayed silent and right as Kirito began to slowly panic that his only friend was brain dead and the only reason his avatar was still here was because of a glitch in the game Klein's face scrunched up.

"But. . .But y'know. I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game. They would have logged in and most likely they'd be in the plaza even now." Klein looked over his shoulder at the panicking masses still in the plaza. "I can't. . .go without them.

". . ."

Kirito let out a sigh and bit his lip.

He understood all too well what Klein was trying to tell him through his nervous gaze.

Klein. . .was bright and was easy to get along with, and he most probably took care of other people pretty well. The older player was most hoping that he would take all his friends with him.

But he just couldn't nod.

If it was just Klein, he could get to the next village while protecting them from aggressive monsters. But if there was even two more — no, even one more person coming along— it would be dangerous. If somebody died along the way, they'd die IRL as Kayaba had announced. The responsibility would undoubtedly fall on him, who suggested setting out from the safe «Starting City» and failed to protect his comrade. It was a burden too heavy to bear, he could never do that. It was just simply impossible.

Klein seemed to read all these worries that flashed through his mind. A smile appeared on his slightly bearded cheek and he shook his head.

"No. . .I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. And. . .there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village."

Klein gave a thumbs up and a smile but it didn't reach his eyes.

Kirito opened his mouth but words wouldn't come out.

He was speechless.

Klein knew how good he was at SAO, how much he knew thanks to the two months he spent playing the beta. The chances of whoever his friends were surviving would skyrocket if he agreed to take them with and show teach them like he did Klein.

But he gave me an out. And he should've taken it. Alone he would progress much faster. Without having to worry about any other than himself he could focus on leveling up, becoming strong enough to survive. That was what he should've done. He didn't have the social skills to lead a group of people.

And yet.

"Find your friends, meet me at the Northwest gate."

Klein's eyes widened and tried to open his mouth but Kirito shut him down.

"Hurry!"

Visibly flinching at the shout Klein recoiled but recovered quickly grinning as he turned around.

"Thank you, Kirito."

Kirito nodded and watched as the brownish haired play ran out of the alley they were hiding in and disappeared into the crowd.

What am I doing? He dropped his head into his hands when his friend was out of sight. Why did he say that? He was fifteen, he couldn't be responsible for the lives of other people.
And I don't even know how many friends Klein has.

For all, he knew Klein could show up with a dozen other people all looking to him to keep them safe. How was he supposed to deal with that?

He should have said no. Taken the out Klein gave him.

But would it have made a difference? If he had left and stuck out on his own the death of Klein and his friends still would've been on his hands. They would have died because he didn't help and that made it his fault. Because he had a choice and decided not to help.

You have the power, it's your duty to help. With great power comes great responsibility.

Kirito groaned shaking his head. Great now his conscience was Uncle Ben.

But it's not wrong. At least now if he failed and Klein's friends died, at least he could say that he tried. It wouldn't ease the guilt of failing but he would have those two words to cling on to if the time ever came.

My take on the SAO Aincrad Arc if Kirito had chosen not leave Klein and his friends in «Starting City».