Chapter 1-First Floor but You're Not Getting Off!

The evening sun shore gently onto the grasslands down below, penetrating through the threes, a summer breeze swept across the large chunks of land mass. Hostile growls could be head from a small pack of grey coloured wolfs, saliva escaping from their bared teeth as they glared at the two adolescents standing defiantly in front of them and had cut the pack down to only a quarter.

One of the teens let out a whistle of amazement. "I still can't believe how realistic this all looks, Gramps and Kayaba did an amazing job." The boy that spoke was rather tall for his age, he wore the same clothing his companion was wearing which was the standard items given to everyone at the beginning of Sword Art Online, a VRMMORPG. The teen had electric blue eyes which seemed full of energy and mischief, his wild golden-brown hair seemed to spike up naturally, a scabbard was strapped to his back, a common sword griped in his right hand. A smirk plastered on his face as he got ready to attack his foes before him.

His accomplice didn't reply to his remark, his crimson eyes were locked onto the wolfs before them, a serious expression on his face, they complete opposite of his blue eyed friend. Pitch black hair that hid his ears reaching half way down his face and at the back it went below his chin. A scabbard was secured against his waist, his sword was drawn and ready for battle too as he stood by his friend side only slightly smaller.

The larger of the wolfs let out a bark, seeing this as a command the two slightly smaller ferocious wolfs charged forward with great speed. They blued eyed teen rushed towards the two, sword at the ready; the first wolf pounced planning to bite into the brown haired gamer in front of him but its razor sharp teeth met with the blade of the spirited boy, stopping it in his tracks.

Pushing forward with all his might, he pushed the wolf into the second one's path. "Switch!" his red eyed companion dashed past him, his blade covered in a red aura, he swung his sword forward catching the two wolfs in one strike, ending their life's as the exploded into a data like substance before disappearing, leaving no trace of them ever being in the virtual world, but he didn't stop, he charged towards the last remaining wolf, his blade still with the deadly red aura around it.

The two clashed, mostly with the black haired teen on the defensive against the insanely big wolf, the young male weaved and blocked all strikes that came his way, this continued until the crimson eyed teen managed to parry, sending the monster in front of him of balance, he made a quick gesture with his hand and within seconds his partner had jumped over him, ready to unleash the final blow on their enemy.

His sword began to glow a bright blue in hue as he activated a sword skill, "It's over!" With that declaration the young teen began to spin as he descended, his now glowing blade cut through the giant wolf like butter, ending the beast's life. A small congratulations sign appeared before the two showing that their battle had come to an end.

A separate screen appeared for each of them, showing the experience they gained slaying the wolfs. The brown haired teen turned around to his friend, intending to bag on the experience he got, but he caught sight of the amount his companion had gained in their recent skirmish. "Woah, Red, how did you get all the EXP?" The red eyed teen, now known as Red began to make gestures with his hand.

His gobsmacked companion stared at him as a translation scrolled across the bottom of his friend's view, translating his sign language. "I simply killed more than you Blue." The boy now known as Blue snapped out of his shocked state, "That's not fair, next time I get kills. We have to share the amount of EXP equally, I'm not letting you beat me in another game!"

Red rolled his eyes at his friends childish behaviour, though he guessed it was who he was, they had been like this since they were toddlers, always trying to best each other in competition, from sports to any game, no matter what they did they always tried to prove who was better. The raven haired teen gave an 'ok' gesture to his friend. "Good now let's continue forward."

The two began to move down the path the had started since entering the virtual world, Blue had been a beta tester for the game, after all his grandfather, Samuel Oak, helped develop the game, they had been gone the best routes to level up quickly, under the directions of Blue. The two had been into video games for quite some time now and were strangely good at whatever the played, usually being the best in those games.

The two simply excelled at whatever they put their mind too and always came out on top. They had already gotten pretty far into the first floor gaining a few levels each, they planned on beating this game first.

Sword Art Online or known as SAO for short was more simplistic than most VRMMORPG's, while it had vast amount of items and compatibility, you had your stats which went up with each level and skills which you unlocked depending on how you played in the game, and then you levelled them up.

The switch mechanic was a simply concept to, the enemy or enemy's you faced would focus more of their attention on the main party member than the other members of the party. The rest came down to how you controlled the weapon you held, swords weren't the only weapon that could be used, axes, hammers, spears and daggers where just some of the many weapons one could wield within the game.

Then there was keeping your body in shape by sleeping, eating and so on and so forth, it was like having a second life, it was like a real life within the game, don't eat your character would have a lower performance, same thing applies with sleep.

The sun was setting as they entered a forested area, while they could have stayed near the town of beginnings and gained EXP there, the father you go into a floor the stronger the enemies are and in turn more EXP to level up and get stronger. Anyways there was less people this far into the floor, meaning no one got in their way.

The two gamers stopped as they heard a faint sound of a bell ringing in the distance, they turned on their heels to look back at the way they came. "It sounds like its coming from the town of beginnings." Before they could ponder on why a bell was ringing a blue aura enveloped both of them as the disappeared from the forest surroundings and found themselves back at square one. The main square in the town of beginnings.

Blue let out a groan of annoyance "All that work just to be brought back here." Red agreed with his friend's statement, he was a bit peeved at the stunt that was just pulled, they had gotten pretty far. everyone else who was dragged here seem confused at what was going on. The two friends where no different, they were curious as to what was going on.

"LOOK; UP THERE!"

The random shout came from somewhere within the crowd, a few seconds later the sky began to be flooded by red hexagons, one with 'warning' plastered on it, while the other had 'system announcement' littered the sky as well as blocked the view of it. A blood like substance began to fall out between the hexagon signs.

It all met just above the square full of players and began to morph into a cloaked figure, its garment was mainly a dark red, with golden strips here and there. There was no face on it, under the red hood was complete darkness.

"Attention, players. Welcome to my world."

The voice was calm, the complete opposite to what you would expect from the large being floating in front of millions of gamers playing the game, though it held authority.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I'm sure you've already noticed, that the logout button is missing from the main menu, but this is not a defect in the game. I repeat this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."

As the creator of the game spoke several thousand people began to check out the logout button but couldn't find it on their main menu, including Red and Blue, who found this development a bit unnerving.

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

People began to panic at that statement while others thought it was a load of bull crap. People began to make their way to leave the packed out square but found it impossible to do so, an invisible wall stopping anyone from leaving.

Kayaba continued "Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players ae gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."

Several screens came to life around the creator of SAO, showing news from the real world covering the events of the deaths that had taken place, one caught the attention of the rivals. On one of the screens was a nervous and worried looking Samuel Oak speaking in front of reporters.

"As you can see, News organizations across the world, are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is to a minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game, but I want you to remember clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will forever be lost and simultaneously the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. Complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

Red began to search through the crowd, worry etched on to his normally indifferent face. A tap on his shoulder snapped his attention, it was Blue. "I know your worried for her but we'll find her later, right now let's make our way to the back." His voice held a serious tone, one that the brown haired male very rarely used.

The crimson eyed teen gave a quick nod, pushing his worry's to the back of his mind as he and Blue began to make their way to the back of the crowd, he already knew why, Blue didn't need to tell him that. Once the barrier was let down it would be time to rush to the next town, level up as much as possible while most of the crowd would break out in hysteria, causing panic amongst the crowd as everyone tried to think on what to do o breakdown, giving them ample time to level up and do quests to have the best chance of completing this game of life and death.

"Finally, I've added a present to your item storage. Please see for yourself." The two stopped the way to the back once the heard the words come from the now 'God' of this world, the quickly pulled up their item storage to find mirrors, the two took them out. Before the two could inspect the mirrors a blinding blue light began to envelop everyone.

The light left as quickly as it came, revealing a much different looking crowd, complaints from players lying about their gender and age could be heard now and again. Blue let out a sigh of relief as he looked in the mirror "Thank god, I'm still good-looking." Red couldn't help the smile that came to his face, even with the situation they were in, he'd laugh if he could at his friend's remark but even in the virtual world he was still a mute.

He took a quick glance at the mirror in his hand, his appearance the same as his crimson eyes were reflected back at him. This was bad, his eye colour was very rare and usually scared or freaked everyone out that he met.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason. I wanted to control the faith of a world of my own design."

Blue let out a small chuckle, "So Kayaba has a God complex. Who would have thought." Sarcasm dripped from his voice as he finished his last sentence. He turned to Red, His electric blue eyes showing his eagerness to go. "Guess we'll have to teach him a lesson." A cocky smile formed on the teens face, and it spread like a disease to Red's face.

"And now it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online Launch. Good luck players." With his final words Kayaba as the game master vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

A moment later, the shield which had been keeping everyone trapped within the towns square dropped, several players noticed this and began to make a hasty exit, Red and Blue being among them.

Havoc began to break out as panic and fear sunk into the gamers still in the square, what had been an exciting day for most would most likely be the worst in their life's, as everyone was trapped, trapped within a game with escape seemingly to fa away to reach.

Red would not give into defeat so easily. He and Blue no matter what video game they played they always ended up on top, and this game was no different, the would finish it and hopefully go back to the real world.

As long as friends fought side by side, they wold be a force not to be taken lightly.

A\N: Yet another new story, hope you guys and gals enjoy and please tell me what you think or if you see any mistakes, it would help if you did so.