Lucy's POV

"Lucy, the VRMMO Sword Art Online is coming out this Friday," Erza stated as we sat down at our regular lunch table with Natsu and Gray.

"VRMMO? What is that?" I asked. Natsu and Gray gave me an offended look.

"How do you not know what a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online game is?" Gray recited and scoffed. "It's been all over the news."

"I don't watch the news," it was true. Most of my time at home was spent getting rid of Natsu or writing my story. "I'm always writing."

"SAO is the new full dive video game," Natsu supplied. "Ice Princess and I beta tested it. So did Erza."

"Oh, that game," I remembered now. They used NerveGear to dive into a different world, or something. "The one with the helmet."

Gray's head dropped to the table and everyone groaned. I looked around. "What?"

"Well, I'm going to make you play it with me. On Friday, we're going to wait for the hardcopies to come out," Erza stated as if I didn't have a choice. I stabbed a dumpling and popped it into my mouth.

"Okay, I guess I don't have a choice," Erza gave a nod and turned to Natsu and Gray, who were fighting again. I zoned off, thinking about a dream I've been having repeatedly.

"Hey Erza, do I really have to wait here with you?"

"Of course, it's more exciting this way."

"...Okay."

We agreed to start off in the same room, which was voted to be my house. Honestly, they pretty much live here anyway. It took about half an hour to set everything up, including moving all the couch cushions to the floor to lay on and ordering a pizza for later.

"So do we just… start?" I asked. "No setting adjustments or…?"

"Pretty much," Gray answered and made a grab for his own device. "Let's do it."

"ALRIGHT!" Natsu yelled and pulled his own NerveGear from the ground. "I'M ALL FIRED UP!"

"Oi, keep it down, Tabasco Brain," Gray growled as he hooked the helmet to his head.

"You shut up, Shaved Ice Princess!"

"You wanna go!?"

"Hell yeah, I wanna go! Wait, go where?"

"You two aren't fighting, are you?" Erza was standing over the two boys with her hands on her hips. The two boys latched onto each other.

"We're cool!" Gray yelped, smiling like a lunatic.

"Aye!" I could see the sweat on Natsu's neck.

"Good," Erza sat down and the boys let go of each other warily. I sweatdropped and lifted my own NerveGear from the ground, laying down on the floor.

It was heavy, making my head wobble slightly as I let it sit. "Link start!"

"Link start!" came three other simultaneous confirmations, and burst of color followed by a login screen appeared in my vision.

Username: LucyH

Password:************

You have no character information loaded. Create a new avatar?

Yes.

I created an avatar that looked similar to me, except with longer brown hair and blue eyes and named it after myself.

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

Blue lights flashed, and suddenly, I wasn't in my living room anymore, I was standing in a plaza, with other players running or walking around. There were bars and stats obstructing my vision, and I brought up my hands to stare at them.

"Perfect," I mumbled to myself. I willed my legs to move, and I sprinted past a pair of boys, laughing at the surreal feel this virtual world had.

"Lucy, that you?" Gray's voice broke through my trance and I looked over my shoulder. He looked exactly the same.

"The entire purpose to this is to be someone else, you know," I scolded him. "You look almost exactly the same. The scar on your forehead is missing. And how did you know it was me?"

"Well it's not like SAO gave me the option of putting a scar there," he scoffed, ignoring my question, and looked over my avatar's shoulder. "Is that Natsu?"

"Huh?" I turned around to see- Natsu looked the same. "You too?!"

Natsu turned and he grinned. "Yo, Lucy."

"Am I the only one who changed what I look like?" I threw my hands up in exasperation as Natsu sauntered over. "All Natsu's missing is his scarf."

"I'll have to buy one. In the beta, I found one that was made of a dragon's scales! I'm totally getting that one," Natsu looked… weird without his scarf. My brain kept trying to project the white material onto him.

"Where's Erza?" Gray asked, looking around. "I bet she looks like her beta avatar."

Just then, a girl with red hair and brown eyes walked up. My eyes bugged. "Erza looks the same too!"

"I see we're all here. Good, let's get to the weapon shops," Erza grabbed Natsu by the back of his avatar's shirt and dragged him off, leaving Gray and I to follow after, weaving through the growing crowd of players.

This feels so real, I thought as I followed Erza through the town. I brought my hands back up and stared. Like real life.

Something crashed into me from behind, and I fell forward onto my hands and knees with a,"Kya!"

"Oops, sorry about that," a tall boy with long black hair. He ran off again, but not before I read his gamertag. Kirito.

"You okay?" Gray looked back and held out a hand, which I gladly took as he helped me to my feet.

"I'm fine. Where did Erza and Natsu go?" I asked and brushed my avatar's hair out of my face. Gray pointed to a shop with two crossed swords on the sign.

"Weapon shop."

"Ooh, let's go," I smiled and skipped across the street to the virtual store. I pushed open the door, shivering at how real it felt under my hand, and took a look inside.

Shelves lined the walls, and an assortment of weapons were hung on the walls. Anything from maces to swords to spears to knives. My jaw dropped as I walked through the door, taking it all in. I spotted Erza looking over a collection of swords and Natsu wandering aimlessly around the store. There was an NPC behind the counter, smiling at us.

"How do I open the menu again?" I asked. Natsu snorted and used two fingers to swipe down in the air.

I did the same and marveled at the screen that popped up in front of me. I pressed one of the buttons that popped up, labeled Skills. There was only one.

"What's Celestial Summon?" my eyebrows furrowed. I thought SAO didn't have magic.

"What? I've never heard of that," Gray peered over my shoulder at the menu. "Wait, that's a level 40 skill! How did you get that?!"

"Level 40?!" I yelled, and Erza looked over. Natsu ambled up and looked over my other shoulder.

"Whoa, lemme check the info broker's skill list," Natsu opened his own menu and scrolled down a list. He frowned, and closed the list. "There's nothing called Celestial Summon on the skill list."

"It's a unique skill? You're only a first level player," Erza strode over and pushed Gray over to look at the skill for herself. "This should not be possible."

"You guys check yours, maybe it's a bug and all the players have one," I said hopefully, and Erza checked her skill list.

"The Knight. Let me check the description," Erza double tapped on the skill and read out loud. "The Knight allows the player to change armor without opening the menu. Another feature is to be able to change weapons by calling the name out loud. Sounds useful. What's yours?"

I double tapped and read," Celestial Summon grants the player twelve keys that allow them to summon a Zodiac Celestial Spirit. Depending on the player's level, they can summon up to six spirits at a time."

"That sounds a bit like Beast Taming. Maybe I have one," Gray opened his skill list and read it to us. "Ice Make allows the player to create structures or weapons made of ice by stating whatever the player wishes to create out loud."

"Fire Dragon Slayer allows the player to take on the abilities of a Fire Dragon, including breathing fire, using fiery punches, and eating fire for a power boost of 20%," Natsu read and pumped a fist into the air. "AW YEAH! TAKE THAT ICE PRINCESS!"

"Quiet down," Erza whacked Natsu upside the head and he shut up. I guess he didn't really have a choice, considering he was out cold on the floor. "It seems that we each have Level 40 skills. We should report this to the Game Master. It could be a bug."

"Speaking of which, what time is it?" Gray opened his menu. "Our pizza should be coming. Let's logout."

I swiped my fingers down and looked for the logout button. "Where's the logout again?"

Natsu got up from the floor and looked over my shoulder again. "It's right here." And pointed.

"No it isn't. There's nothing there," my stomach twisted and I frowned. "Did they move it since the beta?"

"Lemme see," I felt Natsu's chin leave my shoulder and turned around, the menu bobbing along after. He peered down at his own menu. "Hey Erza, did they move the logout button? The symbol's here, but it's not doing anything."

"I was not notified, and the GM is not responding. This is a particularly serious bug."

"If we can't logout… " I started and shivered. This would cause huge repercussions.

"Well, I'm sure they'll fix it. They gotta let us out," Natsu smiled easily and put his hands behind his head. "In the meantime, I wanna test out this skill!"

I laughed and closed the menu. "Yeah, pizza can wait."