A/N: Hi everybody, welcome to my new project Hellsreach, I was thinking about while I was playing SAO Hollow Fragment and I will be using the character I created in that game. So yeah, Read! Review! Enjoy! … LIES! THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 2016 AS OF NOW I'M UPDATING THIS CHAPTER ALONG WITH THE NEXT TWO (why am I using caps?) Anyway this character is inspired a character I drew back in 2016 so the Hollow Fragment is a lie, I tried to start a small manga series with that character but somehow eventually it integrated into this. I want say too much now, bye for now.

HELLSREACH: 1 – And so it Begins

(First Person POV, Itsuka Kyouhei room)

I stared at my Nervegear, it's been eight months since the beta test where 1000 lucky players got to try the first of many VRMMORPGs or Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Sword Art Online created by a genius Kayaba Akihiko. I look at my computer screen beside me, a small tab popped up in the corner, Message from Kirito, I move my cursor to the message and click it,

U diving soon?

I decide to text back just so he knows that I'm in the real world.

Yea I just told my two sisters.

They gonna join us in SAO?

No, big sis' said she's busy with university entrance exams and my little sister says she's gonna wait for next year's game if there is one.

K, I'll see you in game.

I close the message tab and plug in the wire and activate the battery. I look at the case of Sword Art Online on my desk then smirk as I put the Nervegear on and lay down on my bed. I look up with my eyes at the time, 12:59.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

5...

4…

3…

2…

1!

13:00.

I close my eyes, "Link Start!"

There was rainbow lines shooting past me until a bunch of blue circular objects appeared, touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell, they all turned green and the words were replaced with ok then vanished.

Language Japanese then the log in tab appeared, I entered my username and password, and then a new tab popped up, Beta test data available. Would you like to use it? I tapped yes.

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

I was sent into a vortex like place with different shades of blue flying around me before I finally re-entered the game. I opened my eyes and looked around 'Yep definitely the Town of Beginnings' as I looked around I saw players flooding into the town every second already interacting with other players and their surroundings. Focusing back on myself I swipe downwards using my middle and index finger, 5 small circles appear in front of me, I tap the circle with a player icon and new tabs appeared, I moved my finger to the skills tab and find that half my sword skills were gone 'Well they did reset most things from the Beta so that's not that surprising', I look at my health bar top left corner of my vision: NAME: INFERNO-LV 1

After dismissing the menu I run towards the outskirts of the town towards the fields to get away from the crowd and to gain some exp.

FLOOR 1: TRAINING FIELDS

The familiar sound of exploding particles flew into my ears, a small window appeared in front of me: Congratulations: You are now Level 2

Items gained: 1x Boar meat

I quickly dismiss my menu to move onto the next hill with grazing boars, when…

"Hey!"

I turned around to see a tall player standing at 7 feet with messy platinum blond colored hair and eyes of the same color with a Starter's Sword strapped to his belt. "Hey, what was that?" he asked.

"What do you mean? It's a sword skill," I replied waving my sword around.

"I know that much, but what sword skill is it, I haven't seen someone whack a boar into the air and killing it at the same time,"

"What? Oh that, it's called Rage Spike it's more of a counter attack then a front on attack," I explained.

"Sweet, so could you teach me?" he asked.

I sweat dropped "Teach you? It's a basic skill that every sword user has and should already be in your skills bar, if you follow the instructions you can activate it."

"Ha ha! Oh yeah that's right," he laughed, "By the way, the names Shuujo,"

"Inferno," I replied, the sound of respawn filled the empty hill, and three boars appeared "So…you wanna take them?"

"Hell yeah," Shuujo replies unsheathing the sword at his waist before charging at the newly spawned monsters.

2 Hours Later

After two hours of grinding exp, we finally took a break from killing boars as the virtual sun of Aincrad began to set.

"It's funny," Shuujo muttered while staring at the town of beginnings below them.

"What is?"

"Technology," he replies.

I stare at him with clueless expression of my face.

He sighs and starts to explain, "Its funny cause only six years ago, we were still using consoles and controllers and the VR headsets would make you vomit every time you turn. But now, after 6 years of testing, we're in a new stage of gaming."

"Heh, I guess you're right,"

…

….

….

DONG!

DONG!

DONG!

The sound of a bell echoed throughout Floor 1, I looked at Shuujo, who disappeared in a veil of light, I looked down at myself, but before I could say anything the same light engulfed my body. When the light cleared, I realized I was back in the Town of Beginnings with other players also being force teleported in the town square.

"H-Hey, what's that?" a random player cried out.

In the middle of the sky a small red hexagon with the word warning the middle appeared. Followed by more hexagons but some with system announcement instead. Soon the red shapes covered the entire area, forming a dome shape around the town square. Crimson liquid started to fall from the sky. 'Blood?' I thought, little did I know, it would be the last time I would see the red fluid for a long time. The blood started to mold into a shape, as soon as the last few drops fell, a large faceless hooded figure in a red cloak was floating in front of all the 10 000 players. I heard some of the players mutter things about GMs and Events. The hooded figure spreads his arms apart. "Attention Players! Welcome to my world, my name is Kayaba Akihiko, I am currently the one and only person who can control this world."

'Kayaba…? Akihiko…here?'

"I'm sure that all of you have noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed," He confirmed the fact by opening his own menu and showing all the players that haven't realized, "However, this is by no means a mistake, I repeat, it is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online. You are all unable to log out of SAO, and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt its operation. Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."

I looked over at Shuujo, like everyone else, his mouth agape and his eyes wide, trying to take in what's been said to the players.

"Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear, as proof of this, 213 players now cease to exist, in this world and the real one," various windows of news about the 213 dead players appeared around Kayaba, "As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide. Thus, it should be safe to say that the danger of removal attempts has become minimal, I hope you will all relax and focus on completing the game. But I'd like you all to keep this in mind, from this point on, all methods of revival in the game will no longer function. If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

'W-What no way, I'll die, for real?!'

"There is only one condition you must meet to be free…You must clear SAO! You are all currently on the first floor, the lowest point in Aincrad, if you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may continue up to the next one. Assuming you manage to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, the game will be cleared, and all of you will be free."

'Clearing…Clearing a MMO, has anyone ever done that?!'

"And lastly, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages, take a look."

Without wasting any time I quickly opened my menu and head to the item storage, "A mirror?" I muttered as the item was summoned into my hand. I looked into the small rectangular mirror, for the second time that day, I was enveloped in light again, so were the other players, soon the whole town square was covered by light. I blink twice.

"Inferno?"

'Huh?'

I look to my left, instead of the tall blond avatar, it was replaced by a slightly shorter body with brown hair, with green eyes instead of yellow.

"Is that you...Shuujo?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's me, like actually me," he says looking down at his hands.

I quickly look back at the mirror in my hand.

'What?!'

Instead of my original avatar's silver eyes and sky blue hair, they were replaced with my real body's black disheveled mushroom hair, and black eyes.

"Right now, you're probably all wondering why? Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear do such a thing? I have already achieved my goal. I created Sword Art Online solely for my personal entertainment. And now the preparations are complete. This concludes the tutorial for the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck!"

With that Kayaba collapsed and was absorbed by the hexagons, and the red dome dispersed. Silence covered the town square for around 30 seconds, then someone broke, then another, then another.

"Shuujo!"

The brown haired player turned towards me.

"Do you have any friends that are also in SAO?" I ask. Shuujo nods, "Then find them, form a party or guild move to the next town after you all hit level 5…"

"What about you?" He cuts me off.

"Sorry Shuujo, I'm a Beta Tester, I think I might attract too much attention, and that will be slightly burdensome for me" I say.

"Then we'll take you with us," he argued back.

'Sorry about this Shuujo' I say mentally, I force my face to make the best death glare I could do, "You think I really care about you or any other players here? If Kayaba didn't force us to this location I would've killed you and taken whatever drops you gained. I don't want or need any weaklings following me, and if I find out you have, you're dead."

"H-Hey…w-what?" he stutters, as I walk into the crowd escaping his vision. As I walk away I see a familiar mess of black hair in an alleyway talking to a red haired player, before running off. I quickly run off in the same direction but in a different alleyway hoping to cut him off. After running for around five minutes I reached the market stalls area, I do a sharp turn sliding slightly and running through a smaller side alleyway and appearing in front of the fellow beta tester surprising him.

"Kyouhei,"

"Kazuto,"

"You're off to Horunka Town aren't you?" I ask.

"Yeah, I am…lemme guess you're gonna head east instead of west?" Kazuto replied with a question.

"The first eight floors should be rather the same so let's just use the same tactics and back then, and meet me in Tolbana in 2 weeks," I say, he nodded before turning away and was just about run towards the gate.

"Wait!" I shout.

"What is it?"

"Call me Inferno from now on, until all the floors are cleared that'll be my new name," shout.

"Heh, fine, but in return you have to call me Kirito until then," he replied.

"Deal," I put my fist forward, Kirito acknowledges by bumping it with his own fist before sprinting away. I turn and run the other way towards the east gate.

After doing some light stretches, I started to head towards the Eastern gates.

'100 Floors huh? Seriously, why couldn't it be 75?'

A/N: And that's that chapter done, right, so I might update every 2-3 days, I have more free time now than I use to. I can't think of anything else to say. BYE!