A man sat on the brick wall opposite the group watching. He witnessed them party up, before grinning. “Yes.” He dashed forward to them cutting them off completely. “I don’t know what you are all so happy about. Either you’re foolish or have no sense of time.” He opened his menu and scrolled down. “Look. There is no log out icon.” He frowned. “I knew there would be bugs... but come on!” He laughed, almost evilly, but in a dark humorous way. “I can’t believe this. We’re stuck here... At least until the admins help us out. Although I doubt they’ve noticed... this is deliberate... i’m telling you.” He sighed, before cracking his knuckles. If you had just met him, Bachus would look and sound insane. “The name’s Bachus.” He frowned again. Bachus was a towering man piled with muscle and a booming voice. He was frightening and intimidating.

Karen jumped in fright as Bachus jumped in from nowhere. As he spoke, she panicked and opened her menu. There was no log out button. But he was right, it was probably a bug and the admins were working on it.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the ground, and every player in the game was hit in the stomach by an invisible force. Also, they all would start to glow a bright blue colour, before being teleported to a dark building. Whilst players discussed what had just happened, whether it was an ‘event’ or not, a bright red light flash rapidly above them. A resonating laugh echoed around the room, everyone was blinded with a bright light. When they could see again, they would see a shady cloud, it was black. When it spoke, it brightened and dimmed with each word. “Welcome, to SAO. I would like to say how thrilled I am to see your characters.” It paused. “Pain... threshold... level 0...” a loud beep sounded, and an automated voice confirmed the change. “Many of you will have noticed by now that the log out button is missing from your menu, this is no error. There never was one and this is a deliberate intended feature of the game.” It paused again to see the look on players’ faces. Once again, an invisible force punched every player, but this time in the chest. “That is the pain you shall experience in this ‘very real’ game. Therefore, if you die... it shall be... excruciating.” It laughed satanically. “Oh, and I forgot to say, the nerve gear on your head right now is designed to pulse a very powerful microwave through your brain, should you die here. I think this should be a great way to test your abilities.” It smirked. “There are two ways to log out. Method 1, beat the 100 floors and castle. Method 2, play my game. ‘what is that you ask?’ I’ll tell you. 1 player out of all of you, has the game shut down code installed in their copy of the game hardware. Figure out who this player is and kill them. The remaining survivors will then be able to log out. Players... good luck... and welcome to MY WORLD!” The cloud disappeared and then reappeared. “By the way, I left you all a gift in your inventory. I think it would be unfair to try and win a game without any knowledge, wouldn’t you agree?” It laughed and vanished, before the lights brightened again. They were in the town square. If a player checked their inventory, they would see an item titled, ‘book of truth’. The description said, ‘a guidebook for everything important needed to learn the basics for SAO.
Chaos let loose.

Karen held her chest in agony at the punches. They hurt just like in real life. Attacks weren’t supposed to hurt in SAO. This... this was real... she... she could die... no... it couldn’t be... 

Bachus towered behind her. “I told you so.” He boomed. “Do you know how to play game like this?” She shook her head. He frowned a little and felt bad for her. “Alright.” His voice grumbled. “Come with me.” He crouched down to her level. “I wont let you die.” The truth was, Bachus needed someone to be with too if he were to survive the initial outburst. He helped her up, and they stood by the wall, just watching everyone panic and flee.