My first try at a sword art fanfic. I only go by the anime and it isn't finished airing yet I might be missing some info, because I don't know it yet either, but it will be told later.

A sword art online fanfic. At the moment of this chapter writing, I have only seen up to episode 5, and I don't read the manga, so I might be missing a few things from later episodes/volumes but please bear with me for the time being. I do not own sword Art or anything related to it.

Chapter 1 Online

The Nerve Gear, a visual reality helmet that simulates the user's five senses via their brain, with this, people can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. This is where the trouble began. A game called Sword Art Online a Virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) was released with the nerve gear and only 10,000 copies (Not including the beta tester's copies) were being sold. Many people wanted to be one of the lucky ones who played it. Little did they know that by buying the game they were trapping themselves. Once the nerve gear was placed on no one could take it off. I was one of the ones that bought a copy. This is where my story begins.

Well let's start with a description of myself first, I am 16, I have short cut brown hair and blue eyes, I am very skinny and am only about 135lb and am 6 feet tall.

I had just gotten home with my copy of Sword Art and I ran up to my room to play it. I opened the box with the Nerve Gear in it and read the manual...briefly. I opened the sword art box and read how to start it up on the Nerve Gear. As soon as I had it set up I lay on my bed and I placed the Nerve Gear over my head. It took a moment for the start screen to appear, I had to control it with my mind so I thought "Create Account." and it brought me to a screen where I could set my user name and password. I'm not very creative with names so I picked DarkBlade as my user name. After I put my user name and password I pictured my character in my mind and that's how my avatar appeared. Once my account was created all I had to do was think my user name and password and I had entered. A screen appeared and on it in big letters were "WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE!".

I opened my eyes in the visual reality and I looked at my hands and clenched them. I smiled and looked around and saw I was in sword art's world, Aincrad and many others were signing in too. I looked at my body and I had a steel broadsword in a sheath, this world already seemed pretty amazing. I walked through the town, completely amazed at everything that was around me and anything I touched solid, guess that's why it is called virtual reality but still, this was great. The buildings, the npcs, everything is so real. I came up to a sign and in one direction it said, town square and the other said training grounds. I went to the trainings grounds to see what I could fight against. I felt something hitting against my side after every step I take, I reach into the pocket of the blue jacket I'm wearing and I take out a book. On the cover it reads "You're guide to Sword art." I read through it and learned a few things. I placed my hand in front of me and I move my finger down in a sliding like motion and a menu appeared in front of me, there are tabs that read from top to bottom, Profile, equipment, inventory, friends, party, guild, spouse and options. I guess this is how to configure our character and how to message others. This game was still a little confusing, but I'm sure I would learn soon. I got to the training zone and all that were there were boars, I took a few steps towards one and then it suddenly charged at me, I didn't react quick enough and it hit me. A health bar appeared in front of me and it lowered a bit and it had my user name and lvl on it, DarkBlade Lvl 1. I stood up and drew my sword, the boar was watching me. I rose my sword and move closer, it charged again and this time I moved to the side and as it ran by I brought my sword down upon it's back. It out a noise and then broke apart and disappeared into air, a new bar appeared in front of me and it filled up with a yellow bar, on it were the letters Exp, the experience bar. I looked at the ground where the boar was and there was a small bag. I opened it and found a boar tusk and some boar meat.

"My first monster loot. This is pretty cool." I noticed another boar coming closer getting ready for an attack, I remember reading in the book about skills. First focus your strength into you weapon. Then when you feel your power about to explode you release it. The boar ran and I start focusing my strength. The boar was getting closer by the second. When the boar has about 2 feet away I unleashed the strength in the sword and it shot a energy wave at the boar, which cut it in half, and it broke apart again. I pick up the loot again and this time I found a few coins.

"I wonder what I could buy in the first town." I decide to stop playing for now. I bring up the menu and go into options, and look for a log out button, the thing is I can't find one...

I take the manual out of my pocket and look through it, it says that the log out button is in the options tab.

"Is this some sort of bug or glitch? We can't sign out at the moment...well this sucks." I noticed the sun setting "Looks like it's turning night. Hopefully we will get out before tomorrow." I sudden felt something strange and then suddenly I was in a completely different place, a town square, and others were being teleported here too. What's going on?"

I heard some people talking "A mass player tp?"

"Why are we being called here?"

I looked around and there most have been at least 8000 people here and all of them seemed pretty confused about what was going on.

Suddenly something start appearing in the sky, red cloth seemed to come from the sky and then there was a giant red cloaked figure towering over all of us.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online(SAO) players I am Akihiko Kayaba the creator of SAO. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I called all 10,000 of you here and I'm also sure some of you have noticed that you can't log out, well that is not a glitch this is how it is meant to be."

People started talking completely confused.

"The only way to log out of this game is to get to the 100th floor of Aincrad and to defeat the boss that resides there. Remember that there is a boss on each floor you must beat to advance to the next. Also the next thing I have to tell you is, if you die in game you die in real life too!"

"What are you talking about!" A female demanded.

"How will we die in the real world just from this game!?" a large male shouted.

"The Nerve gear is connected directly to your brain, so if it realizes you died in the game, it will instantly melt your brain, thus killing you in the real world. But also trying to take the helmet off will kill the wearer. 213 people have already died like this." New reports and news articles appeared around him "Here is the proof that I am not lying. People have been warned not to try and remove it so you should be safe, but until you get to the 100th floor you are all stuck here. One more thing before I go." He claps his hands and everyone changes, I look at my own body and I realize what happened. "Now you can all see how you really look. Players, enjoy your time in Aincrad." He disappeared.

People started talking trying to form teams and other things, I decided to move while I had the chance, it was going to get way too crowded here. I looked at a map of this floor and decided I would move to the next city before it got to bad here. I went to the gate and started my walk to the next city on this floor.

Chapter 1 Offline