Hideki smiled brightly as he walked into his room, a medium-sized cardboard package firmly grasped in his hands. 

"If this thing actually works as everyone says it has been, then I think I may have found a new favorite game on my hands..." he trailed to himself as he sat in front of his desktop and opened the package he had been holding until then. Inside was what was deemed a 'NerveGear' and a copy of the new 'Sword Art Online' game. He quickly got to work, methodically installing the game and setting up everything necessary for the game to run at top quality before putting the machine on his head and strapping it in.

"Okay, everything's optimized... Let's do this. 'Link Start'."

Hideki recoiled a bit at the sudden transition, but when he opened his eyes again he saw that the world of Aincrad was a lot more than he had expected- it was more vivid that anything he had ever imagined the game to be like, and moreso to be doing so in person excited him immensely. With no hesitation, he jumped into the body of his avatar Fujiwara and entered the game's world itself. But rather than marvel at the surroundings he was in when he entered, Hideki- no, Fujiwara went through his basic MMO starting routine- test out controls, menu options, inventory, and anything else relevant to his knowledge. Not being one for visual marvels, Fujiwara immediately opened up his map and moved, almost instinctively, towards the outskirts of the town. The massive amount of players already beginning to grind on the monsters there didn't faze him, but their numbers caused him to move farther away from the town and towards a more open area to train. 

After a few minutes of traveling, Fujiwara came across a large field, populated by an abnormal amount of Frenzy Boars. Glancing at the size of the horde, he sighed and looked at his equipment.

"If I aggro one, I think they might all aggro onto me... I guess I'll just have to bait and kill them, if anything..." he muttered to himself as he tested the starting sword's weight in his hand. "Assuming, of course, this thing even hurts them a little..."

Looking at his inventory once more, Fujiwara found that a health potion was sitting there right in the middle of his inventory. Smacking himself for his ignorance, Fujiwara cast away all worries about going down and dashed towards the boars. The usage of a one handed sword felt slightly off to him as he attacked, though, and Fujiwara accidentally plunged his blade into the middle of a boar's head. As he predicted, the entire mob of boars aggroed onto him and began charging.

"Ah... Crap. Maybe I should've tested combat a bit more beforehand..." he said to himself as he began to dash around the boars, attempting to cut them down with what he considered to be an 'inefficient' weapon. After an hour or so of cutting down the seemingly-unending wave of boars, Fujiwara glanced at his health bar, which was by then almost depleted. As he opened up his inventory to grab the potion, another boar jumped in the air and almost ran into him. Had he not been spontaneously warped back to town, Fujiwara was sure that he would've been KOed, and to him that just meant more grinding. However, when Kayaba Akihiko's announcement was broadcast over the town he breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing that he could very well have been dead... Assuming the man was right, of course. Glancing at his extremely low HP bar and his sword, Fujiwara massaged his head in annoyance before taking out his health potion and downing it in one gulp.

He didn't care that his life was at stake in here, but to him Akihiko's statements felt like a challenge to his experience as a gamer, one that he would enthusiastically accept. No matter if he had to spend days, weeks or even years playing this game- he would conquer it. But the panic of the people around him was unnerving, so without a word Fujiwara opened up his map and walked towards the nearest NPC shop he could find to stock up on goods. What he had now definitely wouldn't suffice if he wanted to climb to the top...

---

Two days had passed since the initial announcement from Akihiko, and Fujiwara had spent the time almost always on the move. The constant drive to be better than the players around him had made him not hover around the Starting City, and the allure of stronger mobs meant that grinding was simpler the farther he went. He had since sold off his old sword in favor of a katana from a traveler who had gained it from grinding. Fujiwara had made full use of it, spending hours at each new location he reached by cutting down all of the nearby hostile creatures for more experience. Eventually, he made it to the third city, at which point he decided to take a break, sharpen his blade and rethink his strategy to look for a more efficient way to level up. Opening his character stats, Fujiwara sighed and shook his head.

"Forty-eight hours and only level six... I thought nonstop grinding would be more efficient than this..."