November 2nd. The day people started lining up for SAO game. Sales began on November 5th. At 1300 on November 6th, the game begins!

Shakuntala had the best brothers in the world. They had camped out, and gotten her a copy of the game, and the nerve gear. An now, at exactly 1259, she was set up, settled comfortably, the nerve gear on. She had cleared the whole day, just to be able to play the game as long as she wanted.

3...2....1....

"Link Start!"

She quickly set up her avatar, going with something quite similar to her real looks, but changing hair, eye colour and skin colour Black hair, green eyes, and lighter skin as opposed to her dark blonde hair, blue eyes and skin tanned by hours out in the sun.

She looked about, and soon found out that the town she was in was aptly named 'The Town of Beginnings'. She went to a merchant, and found that there was a free guidebook, so she grabbed that, as well as a health potion, before heading out the town. She encountered many Frenzy boar, and began to interact with them, soon figuring out how to atacck with t he beginners sword that had been in her inventory.

She had fun attacking them, learning how to fight as well as managing to level two levels to level three. She checked the time, seeing that is was getting close five pm. Figurng she had had enough training for now, she headed back to the town of beginnngs, where she sold some of the meat she had gotten from drops, and sold the beginners sword, purchasing a sword that was a bit better quality.

And then she simply spent some time in the town, reading the guidebook. After a while, she looked at the time, seeing that it was getting close to 6. She needed to go home, to help with dinner, and then she could return.

She went to go log out, but with some confusion, saw that she didn't have a log out button. She blinked, and frowned, looking about, and was just about to ask someone if they were having trouble with that, when light seemed to engulf them all.

She gave a yelp, and then blushed at herself, looking about seeing shocked faces all around her.

And that's when Akihiko Kayaba appeared and told them that they couldn't escape the game. If they died, they died in real life. If they wanted to be free, they had to beat all 100 floors. Suki was staring at him in shock, and fear, when he said there was a little gift in their inventories. She opened hers, finding a mirror.

She took it out, and her own reflection, her real life reflection was there after a quick shimmer.

As people began to realise what was happening, she pushed her way out the crowd. She knew what she had to do, get to the next town before people really began to panic, she needed to be away, and to figure out the best way to survive, but something caused her to stop.

She couldn't' just run off, leave people behind. She swallowed, hesitating. Make friends now, or later?

- Ritaka -

12:55...

12:56...

12:57...

12:58...

12:59...

Ritaka quickly gulps down the rest of his drink, and puts on his NerveGear...

12:59...

12:59...

13:00!

"Link start!"

Welcome back to Sword Art Online... Ritaka smiled with a stretch. He pulled out his default sword and took off for the fields. There were quite a few people there, but still enough boars for everyone.

Ritaka played in beta, so he already knew how to fight. He stood stance, held while the boar came towards him, then shot forwards. He skid to a stop, whipped around, and attacked for a second time. The boar broke into pieces of light, and disappeared. Despite having done it before, Ritaka smiled when the pop up came up. It had been a while since the beta test, and Ritaka had all but lost the feeling of a sword in his hand, and the sparkles of a dead enemy.

Ritaka trained for a while, almost nonstop until the clock in the corner of his vision said it was about 5:00. He headed back to the village, sold some drops he got from the boar, and began browsing. He had been planning ever since the beta test ended what he wanted to do. First, he bought a new sword. It wasn't all that much better, and it certainly looked just as normal, but hey, all the extra damage you can get. He also bought a message recorder crystal. There weren't really screenshots in this game yet (despite the flood of screenshot-relating suggestions he and a bunch of other beta testers posted on the SAO website), so he decided that he'd use message recorder crystals to record memorable moments.

He bought a couple health crystals as well, of course, then headed back to the fields. After killing a couple more boars, he decided that it was time he left and got something to eat. One could starve to death just by playing this game. Eating in game would only satisfy, and make one think they weren't even hungry. Play with caution, all ye little irresponsible children.

Just as he was about to open the menu, light began to swirl about him, and he was transported to the Town of Beginnings.
Supper can wait a few more moments, I want to find out what this is... Ritaka thought. Thinking maybe it was a special event (and they didn't really have "events" in the beta test), he decided to bring out his message recorder crystal to record it.

"...as I'm sure most of you already know, the quit button in your menu is missing..."
Really? What? Ritaka thought in alarm, and pulled it open. Sure enough, there was no quit button. Good thing Akihiko Kayaba was here, or they would all be in a bit of trouble.
"...This is not a bug."
What, do they have exit points in towns and stuff? As irritating as that would be, it would make sense. It would keep people from logging out in dungeons if they're almost dead, and wait until the monsters are either killed or move off somewhere else...
"...Furthermore, if you die in the game, or someone attempts to forcefully pull the nerve gear off your head while you play, you will die in real life!"

Ritaka's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. These weren't just ordinary changes, this is insanity!

After the announcement, Ritaka just stood there dumbfounded for a second, looking into his mirror, with his message recorder crystal just floating beside him, finished recording the announcement.

"..."

Ritaka got a hold of himself, just to see a girl {@CaitsSuki} dart off.
Where is she going? She could get herself killed if she goes alone! Ritaka thought, and darted after her.

"Hey, wait up!" He called to her. She eventually stopped and turned around.
"Hi, my name is Ritaka. Um... I think it would be best if we stayed in at least groups of two." Ritaka said, gripping his sword a bit tighter than normal.

Rey

Late, on November 5th, Hatsumi got the game plus the NerveGear as a gift from her elder sister. She had always been pestering her about it, and on the day of the sales - Hana waited in line ever since November 2nd - she bought them. Hatsumi had cheered loudly and embraced her sister in a tight bear hug. Since she had graduated from high school a few months before, she was practically dying to get the game and play it. Her sister helped her with setting it up in her room just moments after giving it to her.

November 6th. It was the day. . .

"I'm going to go play now, sis!"

The female ran all the way up to her room in excitement. She was finally going to play-! It was 12:58, so she decided to take off her glasses, put on her NerveGear and lay down in bed in a comfortable position because she knew she'd be exploring for awhile.

One minute had ticked by and it was 12:59. She closed her eyes, took in a big breath of air and exhaled. You've got this, 'sumi.

Another minute and it was 13:00. Her eyes snapped back open, and. . .

"Link Start!"

She quickly made her avatar. Her height and weight was the same, but she changed her appearance a bit. She changed the color of her hair to black, her eyes stayed hazel brown, and she made her skin a tone or two lower.

Once finished, she found herself in 'The Town of Beginnings'. What a nice name for the town.

Moments after arriving, she had received some free things as she roamed around town. A free guidebook and a potion. She left the town and ran into several Frenzy Boar. After she read parts of the guidebook, she thought it was best to try and level up. Using her beginner's rapier, Hatsumi slowly but surely defeated the Frenzy Boar and got some of their meat in drops.

As she reached level 3, and realized it was time to head back into town since it was already 5:30. Time really goes by when you're having fun.

By the time she made it back to the Town of Beginnings, it was close to 6:00. Hana would probably kill her if she stayed any longer in the virtual world. Standing in the square with many people arouns her, she opened up her menu, and looked for the 'Log Out' button. Only. . .there was no button.

There was a blinding light and soon, the creator of Sword Art Online himself had appeared to explain why there was no Log Out button.

. . ..

No escape?

You die in real life if you die here?

Beat all 100 floors?

It was. . .insane.

When they were told about the gifts in their inventories, everyone opened up theirs and pulled out mirrors. Looking at her own reflection, she realized that her appearance looked like hers in real life.

Around her, she heard the people panicking. Anger bubbled up inside her. Akihiko Kayaba. . .he trapped them in here. Grinding her teeth together, she soon found herself yelling aloud, "DAMN YOU! HOW DARE YOU TOY WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES LIKE THIS!"

She didn't care what people thought of her. She wanted to give him a piece of her mind.

Tsukiko did one last sweep of her forums, making sure nobody wanted her attention before signing off. wheeling her chair in a semicircle, she pushed herself to her bed and, with a little skillful maneuvering, lifted herself into it. She held the Nervegear for a moment, admiring it, then settled it on her head. The day was finally here, the day she could feel whole again.

"Link Start"

---

Her avatar was already preloaded into the system, since she was one of the lucky few who had gotten her hands on a Beta Key. For the most part, her avatar looked nothing like her. Her normally short cropped black hair was long and starch white, her eyes were a bright silver, and her features were sharper.

As soon as she got into the server, she took off running. She had to start farming fast if she wanted to get ahead of everybody else. Hopefully the spawn areas hadn't changed too much with the public release.

---

After killing boars endlessly for five hours, she finally took a break. She moved out of the aggro zone she had marked off and lay down on the grass, enjoying the feeling of the sunset on her closed eyelids. Even if this world wasn't real, she knew she would have no problem staying here forever.

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn't in the field anymore. She was standing in the main square of the Town of Beginnings. At least I won't have to run back here, she thought to herself, pushing upright. She stared up at the sky when the announcement started, her jaw slowly working as she puzzled through what he was saying. Unlike most of the people in the square, she didn't feel angry, or scared, or betrayed. She understood that what Kayaba was doing was wrong, but she didn't particularly blame him. The mirror was a nice touch, forcing everyone to be who they actually were. She fingered her hair, still long and white. There was only so much you could see with such a roundabout method as microwaves, after all.

As the square erupted into panic, Tsukiya calmly walked towards the markets, basically empty now, with everybody running around elsewhere. Luckily, the automated merchants were still functional, so she started selling all the mob drops she had gathered. "Maybe I'll buy a new sword while I'm here..."

Hideki sighed, tapping his fingers as he waited impatiently for the deliveryman to arrive. Waiting for a game to arrive was one thing, but having to import the damn console from Japan? Now THAT was a pain in the ass. It was almost 12:00 over there, so the fact that it hadn't come in yet was a pain. That being said, though, he should've seen it coming- after all, it was an overseas flight to bring the things here and all that.

As soon as he thought that, though, Hideki heard his doorbell ring. Probably a relative coming over to visit or something; they always seemed to like coming at the most inopportune times. Leaving his copy of SAO on his desk, Hideki stood up and walked over to the front door of his home. Looking through the peephole, he noticed it was someone in a deliveryman's outfit. Well, what were the chances? Opening the door, Hideki quickly signed off for the item and paid the money before thanking the deliveryman and closing the door. Was this it? It had to be. Wasting no time at all, he quickly cracked open the box. There it was- a NerveGear in all of its factory-mint glory. The kind of hoops he had to go through to get this thing... Insurmountable probably wouldn't begin to describe them. But that was then and this was now. It occurred to him, though, that he had to go through all of the installation and configuration. Shoot.

One hour and a bowl of rice and fish later, Hideki finally slid on the NerveGear and laid down on his bed. His parents were off doing overtime work, so he probably had a few hours to kill. Two or three at most, but hey, time was time.

"Link... Start."

The character configuration was simple enough; black hair, lean body... Nothing too unusual. Though he didn't wish to idealize himself, Hideki found the end result looking strikingly similar to his own body.
Oh well. Nothing to be done about that. With that completed, Hideki brought up the virtual keyboard and typed his character's name.
Fujiwara. The Fujiwara clan had always been an interesting part of history for him, and the era seemed to fit...

And immediately after, he was thrown into the world on Aincrad. He took a few seconds to take in his surroundings- the new atmosphere, the people, the novelty of it all- before his "gamer instincts" kicked in, so to speak. Grinding. Now.

A few hours of grinding later, Fujiwara slumped down next to a tree. The curved sword he had been messing around with after a drop from one of the monsters roaming around was pretty fun to swing around. It wasn't quite a machete, but the way it moved certainly made it feel like one.

Not like he had use one before, though. But it was getting a bit late... He had lost track of time grinding, which happened more often than not, and it was probably past midnight by not back home. Opening up the interface, Fujiwara looked down where he assumed the logout button would be. None? Huh. Maybe it was nested in another subfolder. Shrugging his shoulders, he began to dig through the menus.

And just like that, he was suddenly standing in the middle of the town square. Some sort of GM-initiated teleport, if anything. Sheathing his blade, Fujiwara looked around. Everyone else seemed to be shocked, but wasn't it common to have some sort of grand opening event?
Then Akihiko appeared. Well, if he was gonna make an entrance, might as well make it grand, right? Fujiwara's smirk slowly turned into a stone-faced frown as the creator explained everything. 100 floors. No easy way out.

Well. Shit.

Noting a little chime in the lower right hand corner of his field of vision, Fujiwara opened up his inventory and pulled out the item that was supposedly delivered to every person there right now. The subsequent flash of light blinded him for a moment, but when he recovered from the disorientation he found himself looking at... Well, himself. At least he didn't waste time on developing an appearance. But now everyone was scrambling about the square, running around like headless chickens. Fujiwara let out a small laugh before turning away from the square and walking away from the town. If he was stuck here, then he might as well make the most of it.

Time to kill some pigs.


Ayame sighed, pandering over the books stacked up on her table. College entrance exams were floating around the corner, which meant she had to go all-out to study. Of course, schools at home weren't the only option- she always had the chance to go overseas to America for college, and given her grades it probably would find a way to work itself out. But that wasn't guaranteed- right now, she had to focus on getting into a college here in Japan. Maybe if she could find a way...

Glancing furtively at the NerveGear sitting on her table, Ayame sighed. To be fair, she did need a break from all of this work, and reading might make her relapse into more studying. She had been wanting to check out what Hideki found so enticing about the world of video games, so it was better now than not at all. Notifying her parents of her usage of the NerveGear, Ayame carefully placed the device on her head. It was roughly 16:00 on the clock. An hour or two would probably be enough for now.

"Link start."

Ayame was taken aback by the sudden change in scenery, the abruptness of it all shocking her for a moment. The world itself felt markedly surreal, but before she could muse any further a screen came up, prompting her for a name. Well, her name WAS Ayame...

Then she was presented with another screen- one designated 'character creation' or something of the sort. Would this be the body she would be playing in in the future? It would feel strange for sure, walking around in someone else's skin... Or, rather, a body of her choosing. A sense of strange curiosity washed over her, but she immediately shook that off. She would take a design from a character from a book- yes, that would work- and model her appearance after that.

Half an hour later, Ayame looked at the end result of her work and smiled. It looked quite like how she perceived the character to be, which was all that mattered at the moment. Completing the character creation form, Ayame waited for a moment before the world went black again. But only for a moment.

Ayame was immediately bathed in a bright light, with the city bustling with energy. She saw other players running to and fro, a sight which reminded her of how she envisioned a town in a fantasy novel would appear to be. It was a nice change of pace from the usual panicked vigor that people in the city usually gave off. Instead of heading out of town as everyone else seemed to be doing, Ayame began to walk around it instead. The NPCs- as she heard they were called- seemed quite humanlike and friendly, an interesting thing to note. The progression of AI truly had progressed in the last few years...

Just as she found herself getting completely lost in the town, Ayame (and many others, apparently) were moved to the town square. Though it was convenient, the spontaneity of it all was shocking. The giant robed figure floating above everyone was just as jarring, but not more than what came after.

Ayame's face immediately went pale. No. Nononononononononono. What about her classes? Her college? Her future? What would this mean for all of the effort she had put in for the last few months? Was it all for nothing? The figure mentioned something about a 'present'. Though afraid to look at it, Ayame felt as if she didn't ahve a chice in the matter- as if she would have to use it one way or another. A mirror. What good would that do?

The sudden flash of light caused her to flinch, and when she recovered Ayame found herself looking at her as she was normally. That was just plain mean- after all the work she had spent setting up the character, too...

Everyone else seemed to be walking about, looking for someone else they knew or trying to make new acquaintances. Maybe it was best if she did the same. Immediately, a picture of Hideki popped into her head.

Right. She had to find him. But where was he in this dense crowd? She didn't know how he acted in games, and she couldn't predict where he would go or what he would do now. Looking around the crowd, Ayame searched (in vain) for any sign of Hideki.

Could he be here at all...? Was she stuck here alone...?

November 5th, the day in which every child, teen, or adult, was at some store in order to buy the newest and coolest game, SAO.

Despite that fact, Lao had no idea what the hell was going on. He had heard of the NerveGear, he even had one. But he never played it. The system was a gift from his mother, probably hoping to get rid of his depression, or that's what she thought it was. Lao lay in his bed, simply waiting for the day to go by. He had a fairly large room with mahogany walls, a feather soft queen sized bed, and a TV lateral to the bed, mounted to the wall, but that was rarely on anyway.

This was how most of Laos' days were spent, laying in bed, eating, sleeping, thinking. He had been doing this for about a month, and he was actually getting bored of it. Unfortunately, things like this, habits like that, we're hard to break. He wished his father was here this autumn morning. But that's not how things worked, how he wished that he could walk his way to his father. Unfortunately, he lost his will, his happiness when his father left, and he continued on. He would continue through the year, sitting on his bed, watching the flowers dance in the spring breeze, watching the sun rise in the summer horizon, watching the moon during th autumn's chill, and waiting in the cold winds of winter. He was just all around to depressing, he just breathed sadness, which was actually not like him at all.

A knock on his door through him out of his sad thoughts. His mother entered the room, carrying a small package. Lao stood up and greeted his mother out of respect. "Here, take, this is for you." she said with a bright smile, hopefulness was literally bursting out from her eyes. Lao took the box and opened it, inside was a copy of SAO. Lao chuckled to himself, and his mothers smile wavered a bit. He was here at home, doing nothing, while kids were waiting for 3 days to get this same game, yet his got it without as much as lifting a finger. He really did not want to play the game, but his mother must if went through a lot to get it, or a butler did, either way. It must have proved difficult.

"I thank you mother, I will certainly play this game, I am greatful." he said bowing slightly to his mother. She patted him in the head and walked out of his room. Lao sighed and through the game on the floor next to him, he had changed his mind, he was not gonna play that game.


@ItsToppyTippers

Lao woke up the same way he always did, lazy, tired, and depressed. It was a routine he had grown all to used to. Despite him knowing this, he could not break the habit, why, he did not care to no. It was the same cycle, day after day, even him thinking about this was a cycle, he was pretty sure he thought about this yesterday. Lao had to change this, it was starting to get to him. He sat up and glanced be down at the game SAO, he had the ability, no, the opportunity to do something else. To escape into a virtual world, were he did not have to worry of the changing seasons, the time he would have to live without his father. Lao raked his hand through his hair, the game started in a few minutes, might as well join in.

Lao set up the game, and lay in bed with the Gear in his head. The game would start in a few second, this was his last chance to back out, before he became addicted to a fake world.

3....
He would not choose to back out!

2....
This was a place were he could be himself again, or more.

1...
A place, were he did not need his father.

"Link Start!" Lao proclaimed, suddenly, he was he was thrown into another world. He was given the ability to create his avatar. Lao simply made him look similar, maybe his virtual character was a bit more muscular that his Real Life self, but it was close enough.

Lao found himself in a place called 'The Town of Beginnings', which was a pretty unique name by his standards. He was greeted by a merchant who gave him a guide book, which was convenient for a person like him, he was playing the game for the first time. He found a bench and took his time studying the book, slowly accumulating knowledge on the game.

Before Lao knew it, he was fighting beasts in the forest with a curved blade. Spinning, dodging, and cutting up any enemy who walked his way. For once since his father death, he was having fun, he was happy, excited, glad, free, for once, he wished this would go on forever. Unfortunately, he got his wish, when he went to open the interface, there was no logout button like was said to be in the Guidebook. Something was not right, the developers would have sent out a waring to all the players, at least that would have been common sense, unless that's what they were playing at.

Suddenly he was teleported to a large courtyard were hundreds of other players were stationed also. They were told by the developer that they were stuck, and that they could not leave until they finished all 100 floors. Defiantly not a way that it was going to be done quickly. Lao sighed, but his wish had come true, but in...a manner that was too... he did not have a word to describe it.

Some were yelling, screaming, and other changing? Before Lao could comprehend what was happening, he was given a mirror, and in a flash of light, he became what he really looked like, less muscular. It was not much of a change in his book. But anger bubbled up in his chest, this man, had toyed with them, took their trust, he was a horrible man, and leader, one that Lao disspised.

He noticed on girl who felt the same way he did. She was screaming at the top of her lungs at the ghost that was air. Lao walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder, doing his best to calm her down. "Yelling will do us all no good. We should probably do our best to end the game, so we can get out as fast as possible." He said with a genuine smile on his face. Despite what he said, he really did not want to leave this game, but he was not gonna stay in a shell for the rest of this game, he was already staring to get back to his old self.

November 2nd was when the majority of people had lined up for the official release of SAO. Hardcore gamers had lined up days before. Sei was one of them. Although he had school, Sei let his parents know about the game, letting them know what he was going to do, and that he had all the schoolwork done before hand. He had done so much extra work to prepare for this moment.

Failing to get a beta release, he had a friend who had obtained a copy. Having trialed it on his account, Sei was excited. Only getting a few hours of play, he learned how to attack and how to complete one of the best quests for the first floor. However, that was all he got to do. His friend, however, did not opt to get a full release, as he was a senior and needed to prepare for exams.

Waiting in line, he wasn't the first. There were a few people who started to line up before November started. It was the first of November when Sei lined up. How anxious he was to feel that world once more. The adventure, the excitement, the land, the world.

The day he got back home, the day he got the NervGear and the SAO game, Sei calibrated the settings for the night, and had a good nights rest. Waking up at 1200, he had a big meal and got ready for the start of his day in Aincrad, the land in SAO.

Creating his avatar , and his IGN, Umichi, Sei spoke the words, "Link Start!" With that, it was time to have some fun.

Getting the default equipment, Umichi found a few extra items, one was a guide book. Could come in handy he thought, picking one up. Equipping his default skills, <<One-handed straight sword>> and <<Blade Throwing>>, he head out for the fields, excited for the adventure to come. Making sure he still remembered the way to fight, Umichi, unsheathed his blade, in front of him a Dire Wolf. Holding his beginner's sword on his shoulder, a blue hue appeared. The sword skill,<<Vertical>> activated, cutting down on the Dire Wolf. With a low post-motion, and the Dire Wolf being left on low health, Umichi quickly initiated another attack, killing the Dire Wolf.

A pop up box came up, telling him of his col and his drops collected. Smiling to himself, he thought Ah, this is amazing. I only got to try a little before. He quickly rushed to the next town, Horunka Village. He wanted to get there before the rush for this quest. A quest, that only a hundred or so of the beta testers had finished it seemed. Using a teleportation crystal, with the little col he had, he started the quest, <<Secret Medicine of the Forest>>, speaking to an NPC woman, who sought help for her daughter.

Heading to the forest, Umichi prepared himself. The enemies in the forest were Little Nepents. Much stronger than the Dire Wolf. But the exp was worth it. He found a Little Nepent. He observed it. It was just a normal one. Umichi knew what to look for and what to avoid. He also knew that, unless he was the first one, it was unlikely he was going to complete the quest quickly.

For hours and hours on end, he fought the Little Nepents. He had was avoiding all of the attacks, and cut with both sword skills and non-sword skills. Of course, he was still losing health, he could not always react and avoid, and at times needed to block. Being able to throw a pebble with <<Single Shot>> helped him out, in disengaging the Little Nepents attacks. However, he had still not found it. It was not until 1745, that he found it. After going through all of those other Little Nepents and avoiding the Little Nepents with Fruit, he found the one Little Nepents with Flowers.

YES! I must be the first one! Beta players had a hard time finding one excluding the first three who took the quest apparently. I wonder if it will be as hard this time Excited, he forgot he was in a place with other monsters. Getting hit in the back, by another Little Nepent, he fought it off, before turning to the one with flowers. It was stronger than the other ones. Taking more hits to kill. Taking one blow from it dealt much more damage than the other Little Nepents.

Umichi had used the last of his potions, before he finally finished off the Little Nepent with Flowers. 1759. With that last one, he just reached level 4. Looking at the pop up box, he saw it, the <<Little Nepent's Ovule>>. YES!!!! I did it! Well, now I guess I should put use my stat points he thought, going through his stats window and putting his points into the two stats available, Strength and Agility.

Finishing his points, he started to head back, before being engulfed in a white light. "WHAT THE!?" he wondered curiously, as he was sent back to the Town of Beginnings. He noticed around him what seemed to be 10000 other players. Suddenly, there spoke Kayaba Akihiko. He spoke about the inability to leave the game. What? Umichi thought, searching through the menu. He didn't notice it before at all. It was missing, the logout button. Kayaba also spoke of death, in reality and in the game, it was all the same, was pretty much what he said. No way! But how .... The microwave chip... Then ... damn it! Umichi had taken apart and looked at the components of the NervGear and the programming involved in it. He didn't get through all of it, it was much more complex than he had expected. Well it was not like he was a professional to begin with. Soon after, he received the present, a mirror. Looking into it, his body glowed, and what he saw, was his real self. His real height, face and build.

With the ending announcement, Umichi stayed calm, and looked around. People were crying and panicking, there were few who knew what to do. It's going to be impossible to stay here. Too much competition for the limited monsters, and it won't be easy to co-ordinate this many people. Maybe I'll meet people in the next town. He thought, heading to the NPC shops. He quickly sold many of his drops, holding onto that one rare drop he had just managed to get, the <<Little Nepent's Ovule>>. He stocked on some potions and a couple of crystals. Rushing out, he ran around a corner, and bumped into a girl, who had stopped. Well, crashed is probably the more correct term.

"Ow ..." He said, looking at the girl. She was quite small, and had beautiful dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Her skin seemed tan. "Are you alright? I am sorry about that, but I was just trying to head to the next town." Umichi spoke, while getting up. He offered his hand to the girl whom also fell on impact. " It will probably get chaotic here soon. It's inevitable that it will get chaotic. But it will be difficult to help them all. The more people that stay, the more chaotic it will get. So, would you like to come with me? To the next town, Horunka Village. If we see others along the way, we can ask them to come along." If she took his hand, he would help her up. " My name is Ke.... Umichi. Your name is?" he asked her.

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

As Makoto silently walked home in his usual attire, he looked around the general area, finding myriads of people smiling and giggling for the most part. Some of them spoke about what plans they had for the night while others were heading straight for home. Makoto inhaled the air around him, the familiar scent of salty sweat filling his nostrils as he traversed down the streets with a few of his friends and rivals who were in Kendo. From what he could easily discern since they had no inside voice was them excitedly talking about SAO. Makotos eyebrows slightly cocked up as he bared his teeth in irritation. He felt that this was sort of pouring salt on the wounds or letting an infection fester. He disliked the though of frittering their time a way, and his most nonchalant voice, he spoke out against their conversation.

"Ch, playing this games is nothing more than a waste of time for anyone to the most part. We could be doing something more productive at the moment than diving into such paltry numbers and algorithms which are meaningless in the real world. Honestly, I wish you guys would actually start acting serious and log off for an regulated amount of time so you can admire the world around you... Anyways, we are heading to his place right now, correct? Well, lets get a move on it, we don't want t keep the others waiting."

*A few hours later.*

Makoto was sitting in his room, gritting his teeth for an elongated period of time. The day was so young as he enviously stared outside while his sister began to see everything up. Yui was happily humming to herself as he watched her connect all the wires to his computer while setting everything up. He had to calm himself down as they really never did specify how long he would be online. Makoto would play, he the heck off and then let his sister take the reigns for the rest of this game. He could only wonder what tho would be like since he never had experienced this before. Eventually his older sister had finished setting up everything in his room and plunked the helmet onto his head.

"Alright, looks like you're the one who is going to be taken your first steps into Aincard brother! I'm so jealous of you! Ugh, why did your pride have to show through this time?!"

"Yui, its because I didn't think they would ask me to go on a date with you! Ugh, lets just get this whole thing over with so I can play, log out, and go back to reading or something!"

As the nervegear was on, he lied down on his bed, and looks upwards as if there was a solemn sky ahead of him. He eventually took a deep breath and started the whole thing up with one swift word which quickly faded out of existence as his own mind entered the game. He dove through the shining lights around him, each dancing in it's own sense and felt too surreal for the most part. As he looked around, he found himself at a character creation screen. Since he was going to turn this over to his sister, he began working on intricate details to make the avatar look like her... sort of. He didn't exactly have the measurements for her chest so he couldn't exactly tell if it would work. Eventually, he just scrapped the whole idea, sorely recalling that she came up with this plan and created the avatar in his own image to an extent... He chuckled to himself, feeling he outdone himself in the character creation. Makoto could only hope that she enjoyed being a dude with heterochromia, two inches from his regular height, and a slightly beefy body.

...

The boy stared down the face of a boar as it rushed towards him in an attempt to take his life. His friends watched from the sidelines, giggling at what would come if he managed to lose to such measly prey. Thankfully, they managed to teach him the basics on hiw to survive, and he easily picks up on the rest. As he silently bided his time, the enemy continued to rush on forward, reigning its ugly head as it almost bashed itself into Aikoto. He had enough sense in him to quickly pivot around and dodge the unrelentless assault and make a clean slice through the most with was. His friends cheered as they congratulated him on his progress, cheering for him since this was his first time playing a video game.

"Not bad Makot-, I mean Aikoto. I mean, you're easily picking up on this whole thing with little ease! Seriously, you should of starts playing games sooner, I bet you would of been a frickin' champ!"

"Just shut up Kazuki..."

"Hey, it's Kazanova to you my friend!... Heh heh, anyways, I've got a little idea since I'm obviously the better at Kendo than you, this should be no sweat. All of us will have a contest to see who can get the highest level the fastest! Whoever does is obviously the superior swordsman. Here, lets add each other; I'll call you all back to this field in thirty or more minutes! Don't chicken out on us now Aikoto!"

Even though he could easily discern this as a way to force him to play the game longer than he expected, his shattered pride wouldn't handle such dishonor. He would make sure to beat them out swiftly and show them who was better in Kendo. He could sir of use his skills from the outside to help him a bit, however he for one had to real on the mechanism of such an eloquently crafted game. Looks like the race was on, and with she's determination he powered through rather quickly. Earlier on be for he started grinding, he noticed simple patterns in monster hordes and was able to easily find the biggest amount of monsters in quantity that he could and cut them down in seconds. It wasn't long before he found himself immersed in this game world, slicing, dicing, and mincing monsters to bits. Eventually time was up and they all recalled themselves to the field where they first met.

"Ugh, I've barely managed to make it to level two, I just needed a little more exp..."

"I know, Kazuki and I just barely managed to make it to two, however I have a higher amount of exp than him... I have seven percent started on level two so far while he has three... Hey Makoto, how well did you fare?"

As the boy quietly read a guide he procured earlier before encountering his friends, he snapped back to the real it before him. He silently pocketed the book, and with a smug smile that would put a snake to shame stared at his friends as confidently stared each of them down. His grin elicited a frown from each of them, and he could easily discern that they were nervous despite them not showing any emotion. Aikoto then pointed his chin upwards, stark at the sky above him be for announcing the progress he managed to make at a rather quick pace.

"I'm already level three and I need forty-two more percent to level up from what I know... Next time you guys should memorize the patterns of where each monster goes, otherwise you may never level at a quick pace and beat this game... thing. Anyways, I'm going to get off and let my sister play... Consider this the first and last time I'll play a simple game... maybe... Time to log off, see ya guys on the morrow!"

As the boy openness up his menu, he began to search for a way to log off before asking where the log off function was. They chuckled slightly as they looked for it, only to abhor whee silence as they stared at these things in dismay. There was no way to log themselves off. They thought of this as a sheer bug, and frantically explained that the creators of the game must of forgotten to intigrate it in.

What Aikoto... no, Makoto heard next was the stuff of nightmares.

Apparently the creator of this whole ordeal search it so they could never, ever log off. Most people thought of this was a joke. As Makoto looked around he noticed everyone, including his friends, panic level started to rise up at a swift pace. He could also easily suspect that most might of disconnected at this point in an attempt to escape... the only problem was what he heard next. This guy thought of everything in a sense to keep people from ever leaving this world. His sister Mus of saw the news that was appearing, and knew what must of become of her and his parents... And the only way out was to make it to the top floor, and kill this man. While his friends stood there in disbelief, he stayed calm, understanding that going into a mass panic would only bring more trouble. He pivots around towards his friend, and in an instant found themselves with the same appearance they had in real life... which made this whole ordeal even more awkward since one of his friends was in a battle skirt. He let out a sigh before pushing up the glasses on his face and looked at his friends, a commanding aura coming about him.

"I've studied what I can about the game while wandering around be for running into you. We need to form teams and make friends with other people to win this survival game... otherwise, we may spiral out of control. The bigger and stronger the teams the better... maybe. If you can't find anyone, go it out solo. If someone is in need, help them. I'm... we are going to make it to floor one-hundred and make it out of here alive, got it?! Now get to it!"

As soon soon they heard his call, they felt reinvigorated as if they had been endowed with relinquishing power from mere words. As they scattered into the crowds, he gave a slight huff as he analyzed the crowds, searching for potential partners. As he was going about, he stayed calm in the chaos of the storm. Eventually, he took note of two people. One trying to calm the other down while another tried to escape in a frenzy out of the world. Others soon joined up with the motley bunch, which made it a lot easier to spot a group. Thanks to him allocating himself properly, he dashed through the crowds towards the bunched up people in an attempt to converse with them so he... they could win this survival game. As he managed to catch up with them since he darted fate them, he eyed them and spoke to them cooly with a mundane voice, showing no signs of fear to them.

"Hey, it seems you all are rather in a hurry to get to the next town... As much as I would love to go solo, it's better to group up. The more company the easier it will to take care of business... so it's best to recollect yourselves and come up with a plan. I don't know why this man came up with a plan which would cause such madness, but we can't let this be the better of us... So could both of you stop being so tense? A lion with acute senses could smell that a mile away."

"... By the way, the name is Aikoto... Mind if I team-up with you guys? The bigger the party, the better... maybe. (A blonde guy and young looking girl he I can assume is my age, along with a couple of others. I wonder what coursed through their heads to make them play games... Then again, we all nerve one it would lead to this.)"

Rey

Upon feeling a pat on her shoulder, Hatsumi gave a squeak and jumped a bit at the sudden contact given to her by another. Slowly turning around, she noticed that the person who had touched her was a man who was probably in his early 20s. Releasing a sigh at hearing what he had to say to her, she had to agree with him. Yelling at Akihiko wouldn't make their situation any better. It wouldn't do a damn thing.

I really should calm down. . .

She felt her face flush and she soon gave him a small smile. "He-he. . .sorry about that. I guess I got into the heat of the moment after what Akihiko told us all."

"I just. . .don't like it when people's lives are threatened, when people have to die at such a young age, and when people forcefully control how others die," she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head in slight embarrassment.

She usually never lost her cool, but in situations like this, she just explodes. Which was why she never really left home. There were many crazy people out in the real world. She was afraid she'd get attacked like many of the people she had seen on the news.

Regaining her composure, she reached a hand out towards him and introduced herself with a bigger grin than she had before. "Before I forget, I'm Rey-!"

. . .I really hope I can see Hana again. I want to thank her for everything after Mom and Dad died.

Suki was still debating what to do. It seemed better to be in a group, but she didn't know anyone here. As far as she knew, no one in her little community played games, well at least not anything like this. Her brothers played, but they hadn't wanted to play this. Underdtandable, her oldest brother couldn't waste so much time on a game, when he had children of his own.

It now seemed like an even better excuse, for if she really could get out, how long would they be trapped here? She bit her lip, thinking. Could she go up to someone, really, and say something, ask to pair up with them? She looked about, but that wasn't an option. She could talk to people. She just wasn't good about being the one to initiate it.

Someone had called out for her to stop, and was approaching her. She let out a relieved breath, well, that solved one problem. They introduced themselves as Ritaka. It amused her mildly that a guy had been the one to approach her, did, even in here, guys feel the need to protect her? She couldn't remember a time when one or even all of her brothers wrrent there to prevent her from being hurt.

She supposed it was the fact she was small, and looked younger then her sixteen years. She would find it fun, to-someone crashed into her, sending her falling to the ground. There was a small amount of pain, but nothing it would have been in real life. The guy began to speak, as he got up, and soon, had offered her his hand. She took it, using it to help herself up, but then he helped her, creating a little bit too much momentum, causing her to stumble against him.

She stepped back hurtiedly, blushing, Nd just barely heard him ask for her name. Had he said his? She quickly cast her mind back. Umichi. She gave a small smile, and managed to address them both. "S-Suki" she said "I planned on going to the next town, it's just...there's si many people" she knew she couldn't help them all. It didn't stop her wanting to. Would there be children here? They must be so confused, so helpless. "and I didn't think I should go alone. Even before this, I planned on finding people to team up with so may as we'll be you two!" she said, with a bright smile, as some one else approached them.

They immediately annoyed Suki. He seemed a tad condescending, if not a little full of himself."then I guess it's a good thing that there aren't any lions nearby, isn't it?" she said quickly," and have you actually thought that maybe Kayaba doesn't even know what's happened?" that came to her, frightening and she swallowed. And then sighed. "I'm Suki. I guess all of us teaming up would be good"

@Savo@Little_ninja@Ebil Bunny

- Ritaka -
Before the girl could answer, a boy rammed straight into her. Ritaka's eyes widened, and he brought his hand to his mouth in surprise, before holding it out to her, and the other to the boy. However, the boy got up without help, and helped the girl up. The boy then introduced himself to the girl, and the girl replied to the boy, but both seemingly ignored Ritaka.

I guess I'll... Go... Over there. To that side of town. By myself... Ritaka thought, feeling utterly insulted by the entire ordeal.

Then another boy walked over. He acted very... Prideful, but at least he didn't act like Ritaka was nonexistent.

"I guess we're a party, then? If you guys-" Ritaka then motioned towards Suki courteously, as his mother had taught him, "-And girl, want, then I can lead the way. I was a beta tester, and know a bit about the area."

@ItsToppyTippers

Lao was not surprised to see her jump when he had touched her shoulder. In fact, it made him chuckle, she must have been so frustrated, that she did not notice him walk up. She was slow to turn around, as if she was expecting a monster to be behind her. Lao assumed it was normal behavior, with such news on her mind, and a person she did not know talking to her, it would have scared anyone.

"Don't sweat it, I guess we all were." he said grinning. Her apology really should have not been directed to him, or anyone. She did nothing wrong, actually, she was right to be angry, that would have been the normal reaction, but Lao was not angry about the situation anyway.

"There is no reason to be embarrassed. I understand were your coming from, he is a leader, people look up to him. But he is destroying the lives of thousands, he has lost the world's trust, just because of his greedy endeavors. he said sternly, patting her back once again. He could relate with her, she felt what he felt in some ways, weird.

"Its nice to meet you Rey, you can call me Lao'Jax. he said grinning at her. This was actually the first person he had a meaningful conversation with in a month, it was, very refreshing. "Hey, why don't we make a party, the more people you have working together, the faster we can beat the game." he said as he opened the interface and sent Rey a Friend Request, and Party Invite. But a voice in the back of his head told him something that actually made Lao frown. He really did not want to leave this world, he did not want to beat the game, he wished to stay in this world forever, and that thought, scared Lao.

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

The boy slightly frowned as he felt she absent mindedly said in a rather awkwardly cheerful voice that there were no lions around. However, he also decided to stare at it from a positive angle and assumed she just wanted to lighten the mood. He shook his head slightly and me out a brief sigh as he pushed his glasses upwards before focusing his attention on the girl. Eventually his interest waned as eyebrows cocked up. The boys eyes lazily drifted about the group, blinking as he analyzed each of them for the most part. Even though they didn't look particularly outstanding, he had a slight hunch that they might understand this place better than him. With that little act out of the way, he returned his gaze to the girl as he silently spoke to her in a mundane voice.

"It was a figure of speech as being tense makes you liable to myriads of pitfalls, however you're probably trying to sort of lighten the mood a bit because of what we heard. Thanks... and yes, I have thought this all out completely. When my sister was helping me set this whole stuff up, she explained how this all works out and what I want supposed to do. I'm sure you remember that you had to perform one intricate feat before logging on completely or something. Add that in with the fact that we all look like what I assume is our real forms and what we saw, I'm not taking his words for granted. Until someone can find substantiated claims against our concurrent knowledge, the things he explained and showed, I have to sort of believe his words. I'm not taking any chances here... Er, apologies if I was rather rude with my assertions, not a great way to make friends. It's a pleasure to meet you Suki, I look forward to working alongside you guys."

As he responds to the girl, he gave her a pleasant smile, one which didn't further exhibit his pride. Even though he held himself with an arrogant air at first, he was quick to drop the partial act for now as it would probably be disconcerting travelling with a person who made the air thicker just by being in their presence. He wasn't going to distort their views of him so quickly, and further discerned that the levels of panic attacks wern't going to subside for the first day. It would probably increase over time if naught was completed. Even though it was selfish, he knew it also gave them leeway to getting ahead of the groups that were ensnared in a trance of life and death. He opened up his guide book and began reading over it so he could further procure unknown information about the game, as well as studying the menus. Eventually one of the few in the group piped up just as he was learning about how the inventory system properly worked along with the currency this realm used. He eventually pocketed the book and temporarily closed the menu to listen to what he had to say. Aikoto quietly contemplated on this and soaked up the information he gave them, which meant he knew the best ways to level up, the best places to grind, the best places to get stronger and finish this whole thing. One way or another, he needed to get to floor one-hundred, he had to.

"So that means you know things about the game that we don't know about. My friends explained to to me that you had to either 'grind' or quest to get experience to level up. If that's the way we get stronger here, then I'm all for it... but first, we need to form an actual party, don't we? Lets see if I can remember what they told me... also, we should also friend each other just in case we get cut off and may need anothers assistance. Since you know more about this place than us, you should be the one to lead for now... Also, I only caught Sukis name, mind giving me yours beta-tester guy, and yours too black-haired guy? We need to begin our journey postehaste, otherwise we might not be able to escape."

As he spoke to each of them, he pulled up his menu and set himself onto the menu in which he can add friends he can chat with or invite to a party. Immediately he punched in Sukis name into the console, sending her a friend request. He patiently awaited the two to give give their names to prepare for the ordeals ahead. As he did so, he thought about how many people from his school were affected, how many around Japan were affected. This was absolute pandemonium as people were being crushed metaphorically by this world. He only do what he could to stay calm, but he felt that maybe it was inevitable that his mind, along with the others would be crushed if something horrid happened. Something was pounding into his head, telling him not to fall to this world.

"Also, beta-tester guy, don't do anything reckless. Same goes for you two, unless it is completely necessary and you know you can live through it... and please explain everything we need to know while were moving please as we need all the help we can get... Heh, funny how this is the first game I play in my life and its a life or death one. The irony stings me so brutally, but not as in a volatile manner as others who are sadly drowning under this information by the creator... erm, anyways, names please!"

@Caits @Ebil Bunny @Little_ninja

Rey

Hatsumi - er - Rey nodded at what he had told her. It was nice to have someone by her side at that moment. If she didn't, she wouldn't know what to do. Well, she would have probably ran around out in the wilds, recklessly killing everything to get more experience to become more powerful. Rey would probably get herself killed. Yeah.

She smiled as she received yet another pat on the back from him. It was also nice to see that he seemed to relate to her. Especially with how she felt just moments before, with the whole announcement about not being able to escape unless they had beaten all 100 floors. She gave out a sigh. Taking in all of this news was kind of exhausting.

Then Lao'Jax had suggested that the two join up because it would make it faster to beat the game. Rey couldn't be anymore happier. "Right!"

Soon enough, a window had appeared.


Right away, the female had accepted by pressing on the blue button that had a white circle in it. And then another window had appeared.


She did the same thing as before, pressing on the same button.

After doing those actions, the young woman looked over to the upper left side of her vision. She saw her own name and Lao'Jax's just below hers. She grinned.

Awesome.

She soon noticed him. . .frowning? Tilting her head, she raised an eyebrow and questioned him. "Is there something bothering you?"

@ItsToppyTippers

It was amazing what the world could do to a person within a few hours. Before Lao knew it, he was stuck in a game, that if he died, it was over, made a friend, and was finally getting out of his depression. A human was supposed to play with the hand dealt to him, even if it is a bad one. And that is exactly what 10000 players of this game were given, a bad hand. But for Lao, he had to make the best of this hand, and he would make it a good one.

Rey had readily accepted his friends and party request, and her health bar appeared under his. Lao recognized it from the guide book, he could monitor her status, as long as they were in the same party. It was pretty amazing to Lao, the interface, the scenery, it all impressed Lao, despite the situation that they had been presented, he was still impressed.

Lao glanced up at Rey when she asked of his expression. Should he tell her? How would she react? It sounded like she wanted out quickly, but Lao, not at all. But, in reality, Lao did not care what she thought, it was not in his personality. "I don't have the same goals that you have." he said, glancing up at the sky. "In fact, I don't have any goals, I wish to stay here, in this game. It serves as any escape from the evils of the real world." he said despondently, he looked weighed down, as if he was carrying a large object on his shoulders. "But, you have a goal. If so, then it is my goal, I'll assist you in your endeavor to leave this game." he said grinning back at her. "We should head out, it's gonna take a bit of fighting for us to reach the second floor, I think there's a boss we have to beat or something." he said, suddenly perking up, as if he forgot all about the previous conversation.

Cam-Cam

The time has finally arrived! It was November 6^th, the day Evan was finally going to be able to play <<Sword Art Online>> that he got as a gift from his twin sister Lily. He had prepared everything for the big day and planned on staying up all night playing the game. There were different kinds of junk food and soda pop neatly assembled on his bed. He kept his eyes on the clock waiting for the time to reach...

13:00!

Time to play! Evan quickly placed the nerve gear on his head and laid down on his bed, making sure he was in a comfortable position. He took a deep breath and braced himself for this new experience. It would be the first time for him to be playing any kind of virtual game.

"Link Start~!"

It didn't take long for him to set up his profile as he just went with a similar look matching his real life appearance...he maybe...just maybe buffed his physique a little bit. As soon as he entered the game itself, the first thing he noticed was his outfit. His faced turned red and quickly tried to cover himself up with his hands.

"Good lord! I'm naked! Where are my clothes?!" He exclaimed, being over exaggerated about the fact that he lacked some coverage, ie. His outfit. All he wore is the starter gear that he and everyone else received when entering the game, but it just wasn't suitable enough for his tastes. He overheard some random players wishing to go kill some boars not far from the starting area. Maybe he could use their pelts to craft a replacement outfit! With no hesitation, Cam-Cam went off to follow those random players he eavesdropped earlier and made his way to the outskirts of <<The Town of Beginnings>> where he would find himself in the center of some field with frenzy boars roaming about. He scratched his head trying to figure out how he was supposed to take on a boar without any weapons, then it had occurred to him that he had a little notification on his screen. He reached out to it and managed to bring out the menu interface. After playing around with it for awhile and getting used to the controls, he found a guidebook already in his inventory.

Reading through multiple pages of the guidebook, he got to the combat section on how to fight against monsters for experience, gold and items it may drop. Eventually, he had taught himself the basics of combat with his beginner's sword by successfully taking down a couple of boars and taking their drops. It will take awhile to master his weapon of choice, but at least he knows how to properly defend himself now. His level has increased to level two from all the training. Then all of a sudden, there was a flash of light and Cam-Cam was directly transported to the square where the creator himself informed everyone that they wouldn't be able to log out unless they complete all one hundred floors.

Everything startled Cam-Cam with the instant teleporting, the announcement, and the mirror that he took out which showed his own real life reflection. It was just too much to take in all at once as he just had to get out of there. He stormed out of the square and wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out a plan by himself. Okay...So I'm trapped here...beating one hundred floors huh? How hard could it be?...Surely this game isn't that bad! I just need to get new clothing and I'll be all set! He thought trying to calm himself now and was figuring out where he ran off to, there was no attempt to even bring up the map. His pace decreased gradually as he took his time exploring the first floor not yet believing that this was a bad situation to be in as people made it out to be. Who knows?! Maybe it will be fun!

Rey

For a few moments, she had waited for his answer. Once he explained his reason for frowning, she understood how he felt. Rey, too, did not like the real world, for there were many bad things there. Even if her sister was around, taking care of her, she feared the world outside of her home and barely ever decided to leave. She liked staying inside, where she felt safe.

She gave Lao'Jax a lopsided, reassuring smile. It was time for her to do what he'd done for her. Reaching her hand out, she gave him a pat on the shoulder and replied, "I know how you feel, Lao'Jax. I've always stayed inside ever since I was younger, and now, I kind of regret never giving the real world much of a chance after my parents died."

"You can stay here for as long as you'd like. It would probably take us all awhile to successfully beat all one-hundred floors. You'll eventually have to face the real world soon. So, if and when we complete this game, I'll do the same. Okay?"

She walked forward a bit and turned to face him with a bright smile. Waving over at him, she told him to follow her. "Let's go kick that boss' butt!"

We can do this-!

@ItsToppyTippers

It was more than usual to Lao. He had just met this woman, and yet, he found that they had more things in common than he did with his own mother. Lao could not help but burst into laughter, the irony of the situation. They were stuck in a death game, and yet, he was having fun, it actually amazed him. Lao smiled and nodded to Rey, "Thank you, for understanding. We will face the world together, bit for now, we make the best of a bad hand." he said grinning at her.

Lao walked after Rey, she seemed excited to defeat the boss, but they would need to level up before that was possible. As they walked, Lao opened up the interface, and looked at a map of the first floor. It was the largest in the game, obviously because this world was basically a cone. Grasslands surrounded the the city that they were in, to the northeast was the forest, and past that was were stronger and stronger monsters resided. "We should head to the Grasslands, we will have a better chance of reaching a level capable of fighting the boss there." he said glancing at Rey.

Despite her will to stay in the game, Lao would still help her beat it. For some reason, Lao wanted to help her get out, why, he did not know. They would need more people though, two people could not fight a boss, they would need more people to fight the boss and move on. "I was thinking, we could send out a party invite to every player on the first floor, anyone who wants to help beat it, can met up in the Grasslands! he proclaimed, a smile forming on his face, they may be able to beat the boss and open the door to the next floor if they had a large party. But how would Rey react, did she want more people in there party, did she want it to be just him and her?

Makoto runs into his room, jumping into bed. He was already mad that he was late for the opening hour, but that wasn't going to ruin his mood. He reaches for the NervGear, and grabs it with both hands. "This is it." Lincoln said, lowering the helmet on his head. Once he puts it on, he lays on his bed. "Link start!" Lincoln unnecessarily yelled.

Lincoln felt the excitement build up as he "warped" into the new world. He quickly built his character and accepted. He was finally inside the new world of endless possibilities. "Dang!" Lincoln exclaimed as he admired his surroundings. He was given the starter book and everything. He was strolling on down the streets, looking at the shops and the sky, until he noticed the grim looks on people's faces. A couple was gripping on to each other tightly in between two shops, and Lincoln couldn't believe his eyes. Lincoln slowly stepped forward to them, and knocked on the wall of the store they were sitting up against, gaining their attention. "Why are you guys so sad? Do you need anything? I couldn't help but notice everyone here is-"

Lincoln was interrupted by the girl, "We can't leave or we die!" Lincoln was nothing but confused, "What do you mean?" Lincoln queried. The guy went on to explain about everything that happened. The girl was still tearing and rocking back and forth. "She has been like this for hours," the guy said, "I feel so helpless."

Lincoln face was cold and void of all emotion. He didn't know what to think. Lincoln made his way out of the Town of Beginnings to the fields, walking like he just made it out of a WWII battle. He saw some guys out in the fields killing the low-level boars. Lincoln sat down in the middle of a field and fully took in what just happened. "Wha-" Lincoln couldn't talk. He fell flat on his back, not believing the facts he knows is true.

He opened his menu, no logout button.

Jack grinned somewhat guiltily, he finally had it. He could finally prove himself as someone more than average. He plugged the helmet into the outlet next to his bed and laid down. The guide he looked up on the internet said you just turned it on and waited right? Then there was a countdown and you had to say linkstart to activate it. Jack put the helmet on and laid down waiting for the system to activate, a mechanical voice said in a monotone voice, "3... 2... 1..." Jack took a deep breath and shouted "LINK START!" and his vision exploded in a burst of color and distortion.

He selected a premade avatar and looked at the name selection, a name to make for himself, a whole new persona to forge himself around. Jax. It may not be different, but Jack didn't want to be that different, he just wanted to be better. He swallowed nervously and his vision blurred again until he suddenly found himself in a town square. Jack looked around and moved his body in wonder. This was a game? He looked around and a menu popped up prompting him to pick start equipment. Somehow unsure of himself he grabbed a spear, medium armor, and a shield. Jack spent the first five minutes simply looking around and moving, this place was amazing, if anything it looked better than real life. While experimenting he accidently brought up the menu and spent a bit of time pursuing that. Looking in his inventory he found an item in it, a guide of some sort. Jack found somewhere to sit down and read through it. It was quite expansive and soon he found himself immersed in learning all about the game.

After absorbing quite a bit of information Jack decided to test out some stuff, the book had given example sword skills, although in this case they were spear skills but whatever. He made his way out of town into the starter area and viewed the frenzy boar cautiously. So according to the book if he just lined himself up like this... Jack's eyes widened as he felt the way his body should move and it did just that rapidly moving forward and stabbing the boar 3 times in rapid succession.So that was <<Jab>> Jack thought fascinated. No, he mustn't think of himself as Jack anymore, here he was Jax. Here he would become exceptional. Jax quickly mastered two other skills through experimentation on other frenzy boars and grinned. He was getting better; he could get good at this. He was about to attack other monster when suddenly a flash of light enveloped him, "AHH" he cried out surprised as a glimmer of panic shot through his mind, had he triggered some sort of trap? To his surprise he found himself back at the start, only with thousands of other people.

A giant figure appeared in the sky explaining the new rules. Jack sat down heavily on a nearby bench thinking it over. They were stuck here? Well in the extremely short term view of things at least he wouldn't get in trouble for stealing the nerve gear. On the other hand was he really prepared to risk life and limb just to survive? Playing a game was fun and all but this? Jack shook off the feeling, he was Jax now, a soon to be hero of Aincrad. He wasn't going to let this stop, no this just meant he wouldn't have to leave to go back to his boring life. The game had like a 100 floors, he could be here practically forever. Jax resolutely stood up and looked around; it seemed people were getting into groups, or parties. He should probably find someone to group, he still didn't know much about this game yet so he should find out as much as he could. Of course he could just leave, keep killing stuff, and figure it out on his own. Thinking about it more there would probably be other people thinking the exact same thing, so if he just waited he would find somebody. If not then he could hoof it on his own. Either way Jax would wait here for a while before deciding what to do next.