---

---

I stood there, alone and deprived of my strength and the will to move. The screams in which filled my blank mind as I sat there on the realistically cold ground, even though the rays of the afternoon sun seemingly burned my skin it felt cold as I dropped to it. The sound of loud crying and screaming tore and broke my heart, " Why? " I had to ask it, I wanted to know why Kayaba but us in such a death trap...but obviously he didn't respond. As I sat their the sounds of screams and the loud sounds of crying dimmed down, ' I need to stand... ' My legs were weak and numb, the strength I gained from defeating those monsters were no more. I felt so confident and proud of myself, but in reality that confidence and pride was soon to hit you back, hard. Sighing, the sun returning to its scorching heat as I stare at the ground, my shadow elongating across the spawn, lifeless and simply a black void. Sighing, my composure suddenly returned as I felt an urge of tranquility pulse through my body. Smiling, letting out a large sigh as I stand up, picking up the sword that dropped out of my hand. ' Time to find somewhere to sleep and be depressed about what's happening. '

I sheath my sword to the side, looking at the pillar in the middle of the spawn, " Aish... " I felt so calm and I didn't know exactly why I felt like a Buddhist monk. Shrugging, I turned to the exit and began trekking my way to some sort of accessible inn...if there was one. The steps I took felt so surreal, the distant noises were created naturally by other NPC's, and the natural noise that came from nature itself...felt real. But, I was in a dire state right now, every single player in this virtual world was in a dire state and at any moment many of us could die. Soon I found myself lost within the starter city, attempting to find an inn, I was too focused on the natural design instead of my actual goal...the world was poisoning me! I overreacted, screaming, gaining the attention of a few NPC guards and other NPC's...the mumbled words, " Shit... " I quietly said, dashing off into some building...my shoulder bashing the door open.

Pieces of the doors lock lightly exploded into blue particles, soon fading away as I realized I was in some sort of tavern...but that equalled, ' Inn! ' I was totally oblivious to the fact that I had just destroyed a door's lock and the other fact that a mix of players and NPC's were staring at me...but oddly I really didn't mind. I shrugged, taking a seat at the nearest table and secluding myself from others, pulling up my hood over my head, covering the light afternoon rays.
( WILL EDIT! But still same concept! )

Pulling the girl up, the girl stumbled into Umichi. Being so close to her, he could feel like she felt so fragile. However, in a game, that could be quite deceptive, since she could go for a strength build if she chose to. Nonetheless, being so close to her, he blushed, ever so slightly. As she stepped back, he noticed her blush a little as well. Her name was Suki. She spoke about teaming up with the two of them. Two? he thought.

Turning to the side, he noticed there was another guy, plus someone walking behind him coming around. Suki continued to speak, "Then I guess it's a good thing that there aren't any lions nearby, isn't it? And have you actually thought that maybe Kayaba doesn't even know what's happened?" She then swallow, followed by a sigh. "I'm Suki. I guess all of us teaming up would be good"

Then one of the guys spoke up, "I guess we're a party, then? If you guys-" He then motioned towards Suki courteously, "-And girl, want, then I can lead the way. I was a beta tester, and know a bit about the area." Umichi was unable to catch a name at all in that. He mentally sighed. As he was about to speak, the other person came spoke up.

"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."

"Well..." Umichi was just about to speak, when the person who came in at the end spoke up again.

"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!"

Taking in a deep breath, Umichi calmed himself down. It was a little irritating, having people speak before getting a chance to. "As I was about to say, you should know, it is rude to ask for another's name before introducing yourself. The name's Umichi. Yoroshiku. Anyway, um... sorry, beta-guy, but I don't think you introduced yourself either, so I got no name at the moment. If you want to lead, go ahead."

Umichi could feel some tension. The beta-tester seems like he was annoyed about being ignored earlier, and Suki seemed a little hostile as well. Maybe he had a bad choice of words, or was it the contact from before. Either way, he realized he's personal training was lacking, and wondered how he would continue it appropriately. "I think we should start heading out though. There's bound to be a rush of people to train in the nearby fields. Also, about what you said about Kayaba ..." Umichi turned to Suki. "You pose an interesting question. Can I ask why you thought that might be the case?" He was curious as to what she was thinking. The different points of view of the situation, and hers was a curious one.

While waiting for a reply, he added her to his friend's list and waited for a party request from the beta tester, whom he assumed would create and lead the party. "So, what's the best route to take?" Umichi asked.

@Caits @Savo @Ebil Bunny

@Little_ninja @Savo@Ebil Bunny

Suki listened as the three guys talked, finding herself amused that she had somehow ended up in a group of guys. Did she just attract people that seemed protective? Or, and this thought annoyed her, did she just seem weak and fragile? She never considered that, with her brothers. After all, wasn't it a brothers job to protect their sister?

She decided she didn't much like Aikoto's attitue. He seemed to want to assert himself, and just assumed they were going to be foolish, at least, that's what it seemed to her. She sighed softly. Perhaps she was being too overly critical. Maybe it was just his way of dealing with things like this. Not that any of them had ever experienced something like this. Rikita seemed...almost bashful about his Beta tester Status, and Umichi...she bit her lip in thought. Well, he seemed okay, so far. At least, he didn't seem like a jerk, and so far hadn't assumed that she needed protecting-or at l east hadn't done anything to suggest that.

She jolted when he spoke to her, as if she hadn't been listening. Which, really, she had been half listening. Or barely at all, in her thought. She blinked, and recalled what she had said about Kayaba. "Oh. Uh. Well, I only meant that...the log out glitch could have been in the system from the start, couldn't have it? In all that time, I'm sure the younger users at least would have had to log out, if only at their parents insistence, right? So...maybe Kayaba used that time to figure out something to tell us, to give us a goal so the panic wouldn't be so...bad" She finished lamely, sighing because she figured she wasn't doing a good job on it.

She was silent a moment and then shrugged, as if dismissing her own theory. "I guess it doesn't matter now, does it? Whatever the way out of here, we have to live here now...have to survive, yes, but live here seems to be a necessity now..." She trailed off. For the first time in her life, she didn't have her brothers, or her father's protective influence over her.

What did that mean, for her? Sometimes, her brothers seemed smothering, but now that she didn't have that...it made her feel lost. And that was when she realised how much of her...behaviour, personality, whatever, was influenced by that. She ran a hand through her hair, a nervous habit. "In any case, I agree that we should propably head off"

She smiled, and seeing Umichi's friend request, accepted it, as well as sending one to Rikita and Aikoto.

Rey

The female had never felt so alive. She was always sitting at home and all cooped up in her room. Here she was, in Sword Art Online; a virtual game she never thought would turn out to be a trap. Even if their lives were threatened. . .Rey was kind of happy to not be spending time in real life.

Then, Lao'Jax suggested to send people around the floor party invites.

Send party invitations to everyone on this floor?

Rey thought about it for a few moments, putting a hand to her chin. If they did ask others to join up with them - would they? Would they all be able to protect each other if they were to go against a boss? If someone were to. . .die as they fought, Rey wouldn't forgive herself.

No.

The woman shook her head, wanting to get rid of the negative thoughts. She was going to fight. If someone died in this game, she was going to fight and avenge them. Smiling over at Lao'Jax, Rey replied, "If you want to do it, I don't mind. I am absolutely up for it. The more the merrier-!"

@Caits
@Animus
@Ebil Bunny
@ItsToppyTippers
@PKMNB0Y
@chukklehed
@Little_ninja
@Savo
@Animal
@_Middle_
@Eklispe
@AiyvaGuard

It seemed that Rey was no so sure that she wanted to have an unknown amount of people join their party. Lao could get why she wanted it to be them, but did not at the same time. Maybe she wanted to spend time as a duo first, but she should have known it would have been impossible to beat a boss at there current status. They would need more people, at most, they would need a full party of 8, including them. Each person would play a specific role in the fight, a plan was already formulating in his brain, even before they formed the party.

Lao smiled when Rey finally agreed to having others join. How many people would respond to it anyway, most would think it was still to earlu and would not care for such a thing. Despite that, Lao still believed that there were those like them, those who wanted to beat the game, even if Lao did not. Lao summoned his guidebook and read over it quickly, they had to have some information on the first boss. It could prove fatal to go in blind, without any knowledge of their enemy. That is what his father thought him when they were talking about history. Some combatants of war went into battle unprepared, and died because of it, this was that same predicament.

Lao opened his interface and selected all the Players on the First Floor. He created a party invite that stated the following.



But the Party Invite included and attachment, inside was a message that had had wrote to all, so they did not think he was just being random.



Lao wondered if anyone would come to attack them, but he doubted it. It was to early for Players to start killing one another for fun, what would they get out of it? "We should hurry." Lao said to Rey as he started to jog. At the pace they he went, it was not long that they reached the edge of the Grasslands, right in front of the city gates. Frenzy Boar were grazing of in the distance. Lao took a seat in the ground and sighed, this is were he would meet those who wanted to beat the game.

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

As the boy awaited a reply from one of them so that he could procure their names for easy access, he was rather caught off guard by his response, but he felt it was plausible that he didn't hear his name when talking to Suki. Aikoto tilted his head to the side slightly as he let out a nervous chuckle, and felt that at this point he probably should of gone solo. He was trying to befriend people already, and yet he believed he was already making a bad impression on some of them, leaving them with a possibly bitter taste in their mouths. Either way, from what he could learn, the boys name was Umichi and it seems everyone right now was for letting the beta-tester guy lead. However, he felt it was pressing to make amends right now while he could if he could figure out how they felt truly. With a smile and a voice that was toning down his hubris even further, he spoke to the black-haired boy in a much more solicitous way along with the beta-tester just in case he didn't hear his name earlier too.

"Ah pleasure to meet you Umichi, apologies for acting a bit disrespectful as I assumed you heard my name when I introduced myself to Suki... I won't make any excuses for that. The name is Aikoto, and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Umichi... and yours too beta-guy! I look forward to working alongside with you all in this world."

With that said, he finished off with a smile and decided not to interrupt them for now, but rather study their patterns to possibly avoid striking a nerve with any of them. The boy acquired the guide book to process some more of the information and further harvest knowledge for further use prior to any encounters. He needed to take precautions for the journey ahead to avert any possibility of suffering so early in this "game," if it could could ever be called that at this point.

As he read through the guide, he caught sight of what was to be the boss of this floor which gave a detailed explanation about tactics to defeat it. However, before he could even get started on it, he quickly closed the book due to a screen popping in front of him. It was a friend request from what he could obviously discern, however he found it rather peculiar that Suki didn't accept his when he sent one to her. He cocked his eyebrows up a bit, pondering on if he irritated Suki to an extent, but just shrugged it off for now and poked the he button accepting it. Now that he thought about it, a few seconds ago he was acting a little bit haughty, but it honestly wasn't that bad in his opinion since it was straightforward and sort of the truth. He could only hope she wouldn't hold such a thing against him and quietly pocketed the book. As he did so, he scanned over each of them to see how they were fairing for the most part, looking to find any inconsistencies that needed to possibly be cleared up before heading off. The boy did what he had performed when attempting to add Suki, inputted Umichis name, and sent him a friend request. While awaiting his return, he took the liberty of scanning over over crowd in search of any potential members of this clique before bring his gaze back to the three of them. With Sukis words being said, he nodded to her in acknowledgement to her idea which he couldn't disagree with a sound idea as that.

"With that said, where to we traverse to exactly, and how do we go about it? I know that we shouldn't provide such trickery, however if we are followed it may take us an elongated amount of time to get stronger with people cluster in the same areas from my hypothesis... There are also probably myriads of people who understand where they need to go, and leave others behind in the dust for scraps. We need a few plans just in case something goes awry so we can help others and ourselves without hoarding all the strength... so, how does running and talking sound to you guys? Any problems with that once we form a group... party... thing, or whatever the heck my friends said?"

@Caits @Little_ninja @Ebil Bunny

@Caits@Savo@Little_ninja

- Ritaka -
"Oh, my name is Ritaka. Nice to meet all of you." Ritaka introduced himself with a slight bow. Since everybody more or less didn't mind Ritaka leading the way, he opened the menu and sent all of them party requests. Right after he sent the requests, he got a friend request from Suki, which he promptly accepted.

[color=Silver]"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..." said Aikoto, in the same calm, cool matter he seemed to always speak with.

Ritaka nodded and said, "I suggest we get two more people before we do anything rash, such as take on the dungeon. Though we can take on the forest, and definitely the fields at our strength."

Ritaka had gone to the dungeon alone a lot during the beta test, but he also died a few times. He didn't want to endanger his newly found party-mates, or anyone at that matter. It was a game of life and death, and they needed to treat it like one.

"I know a simple quest in Horunka Village. It could easily be done solo, but I think we should do it as a team to get used to being part of one." Ritaka said, not in a commanding way, but as a suggestion.

Fujiwara let out a sigh, wiping the (nonexistent) sweat off of his brow. Leaving so early had given him a definite lead over everyone else in regards to training grounds... Or so he believed. The fact that nobody else seemed to be cutting through swathes of enemies like he was was probably a good indicator of that, if anything else. The motions for attacks and dodging seems pretty simple too. Slide around, sidestep, swing, slash, slide... This patterns of dodging and hitting was one he was all too familiar with, especially with roguelikes. Though a rogue was the farthest thing he wanted to be given his name, the mobility of the boars was astoundingly low. It made him feel like he was actually fast, though Fujiwara reminded himself multiple times over that this was all in perspective. Maybe he just perceived everything differently in this world.

As the last boar of the herd he was killing shattered into crystalline polygons, a small indication came up on his screen... A friend invite from someone he had never heard of, much less met. Without bothering to glance at the second message on the screen, Fujiwara closed the invitation and pulled up the floor map. The nearest town that wasn't the starting location seemed to be quite a ways away...

Well, now was a good a time as ever to test how long he could go chopping through these things.


Her worst fears confirmed, Ayame slumped to the floor in apparent defeat. Maybe he didn't make it on...? If that was the case, then she really was alone. Nobody else would come and save her; nobody else would lift her out of this mess. She was a stranger in a strange land, and that was what really made it scary.

Or maybe Hideki really did manage to log on, but she just couldn't find him. There was nothing confirming nor denying either argument, so all she could do was try and keep her hopes up. But to feel such depression...

Suddenly, a small chime rang out, and a small indicator popped up next to her in her field of vision. A friend invite and a message...? Carefully reading everything out, Ayame breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was a chance; maybe there was hope in finding people to help her.

"The edge of the Grasslands...?" she asked herself quietly as she accepted the friend request and picked herself off the floor. There was nothing left to lose, so heading over wouldn't be such a bad idea. With that thought in mind, Ayame (after messing with the menus and scrambling to find a map and some equipment in her inventory) began walking to the designated location.

@Caits @Little_ninja

Mayuri Akayo

Mayuri slipped on her NerveGear, excited to be going to SAO. She had researched for months, ensuring she knew as much as humanly possible before beginning the game. She watched the digital clock at the side of her screen count down.

12:59...

Link Start!

She watched the colours flash by her as she reached the startup page. Creating her character, she decided on a girl similar to her own appearance, however with black hair and flashing emerald eyes. Smiling at her new look, she entered Aincrad.

Smiling at the new world around her, she ran to the fields, already knowing what she needed to do. She killed as many boars and other easy creatures as she could, ready to level up as quickly as possible. After levelling up suitably, she walked back into the town.

Collecting a guidebook and a potion from a small stall set up for new players, she walked around a bit, still riding the high of being in a fantasy world that felt so real. Suddenly, she was teleported back to where she had started. She looked around, confused. Why had she been teleported here? Perhaps an event is about to happen, she thought, but there was doubt in her mind.

When Kayaba announced the dreadful news, all she felt was numb. I could die in here... She was worried, and sick to her stomach. I have left a gift in your inventory... Take a look. She looked into the mirror, and jumped as it started to shimmer, morphing into her own face. She looked up to find that everyone was changed. Everyone looked like themselves. The red sky began to dissipate, leaving the ordinary sky behind, and a sense of dread.

Turning and leaving the town, her expression grim, she knew that she would have to fight or die. Surprisingly, she found herself not caring if she was to die or not. Looking at the others, she could tell that they would not dare to leave the Town of Beginnings. They do not want to die. Mayuri set the determination inside herself. She was going to defeat this cursed game, or die trying. Slipping the hood of her cloak over her head, she began to stride towards the next town.

She was no longer Mayuri Akayo. She was Asuna.

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

As the boy began pondering on myriads of back-up plans just in case all else failed, he broke out of his trance when a sudden voice called out directly to each of the members in the general vicinity. Aikoto heard the boy who said he was a beta-tester introduced himself, finally learning each of their names for the most part. It seems someone wasn't offended by his way of acting which was a relief for the most part right now in this precarious situation. He quickly brought up his menu and began inputting Umichis name in and sent the request off before completing one for Ritaka. Once he finished sending off the requests, he exited out of the menu, returning back to the fraudulent reality that they were beseeched with.

The boy stared upwards lost in this horrible nightmare, afraid of what was to come for the others an himself. Even if he stayed collected, he felt his heart pound ever so harder as it did before. The boy let out a soft breath of air as he wasn't going to falter now. Before he could do anything else, he caught sight of a request popping up in front of him. Aikoto easily discerned it as a familiar party request his friends sent him earlier, but this time it didn't say Kazunova. He saw the name of the beta-tester on his screen, and swiftly accepted his request with a smile, pressing the ok button. Once that was finished, he returned his focus on the group, Ritaka explaining the plan to each of them. His ears perked up as he introduced the best route for them to traverse by. As he did that, he shined him a smile, finding nothing to complain about in his methods.

"That plan I find to be rather sound as we could all learn how to work together, plus having extra help doesn't feel at all like a bad thing. If anything, it's symbiotic in a sense as it allows an even larger spectrum of people to properly survive. I'm all for your plan Ritaka, and I can easily confirm that the others will most likely follow suit.. however, does anyone else have any suggestions or concerns before we traverse this forlorn land? Any extra input, ideas, or are we prepared to go? Apologies for this, but it's just extra precau-"

Before he could completely formulate his sentence, he was suddenly interrupted by a party request, along with an extra message. From what he could see, a guy named Lao'Jax wanted him to join his party, however with that little message at the bottom, it wasn't exactly a challenge to figure that it was sent to everyone in the surrounding area. He had a bad feeling about this since he recalled a few things mentioned by his friends, along with some of the words Ritaka said.

He silently thought to himself, remembering the fact that they spoke of harsh brutes known as "bosses" in rpgs. Although he was confused at its meaning at first, he picked it up completely once they fully elaborated on it. Along with the fact that his ally mentioned needing more people before taking it on and the mention of a dungeon made him feel that this would be a daunting task. He could only presume the worst that awaited them all in this place, but he wouldn't give up so easily. As he pondered on what to do, Aikoto decided to seek everyone's way of thinking before taking on a choice. He felt it was better to reinforce and amplify themselves be for daring the depths of death by tapping on his door.

"Er, anyways, what path should we choose since this guy is inviting us to clear floor one? The prospect sounds nice, but from what I can recover with my thought process that it isn't smart to pursue escaping this floor yet, not until we've essentially become stronger. What do you guys say to this? Should we accept his pleas, or should we go with the original plan?"

@Caits (Sith) @Little_ninja @Ebil Bunny

Cam-Cam

After traveling alone for a little while, Cam-Cam discovered a field of boars that was left untouched by players. It was just sheer coincidence that he discovered what would possibly be one of the best grinding spots during beta testing. However, the amount of boars intimidated him as he took a step back feeling threatened by their presence. His knees were trembling and a drop of sweat trailed down his forehead.

That's a lot of pigs...I don't think I will be able to kill them all if they are grouped together like that...but I need their pelts! Ugh...think Evan...think...

Evan shook his head trying to shake off the fear and recompose himself. He unsheathed his sword and raised it up in the sky, letting the sunlight shine upon it in heroic manner. He was pretty much doing a modified Captain Morgan pose. "I am not Evan anymore! I am Cam-Cam! The slayer of boars! I refuse to let fear be the death of me! I will do what it takes to get my hat!...Oh and get out of this game!.." He compassionately shouted into the sky. All of his negativity was turned into positives feelings, but he was most likely biting off more than he can chew. At his skill level, taking on so many boars was just suicide with a low rate of succession...unless of course he attacks them one at a time without aggroing multiple boars that may be nearby. Apparently, luck was on his side, considering he found one of the sweetest grind spots just from aimlessly wandering around the first floor. All it takes is one contact with a nearby beta tester to ruin his fun...or an invite he received from some stranger he never even met.

Just when Cam-Cam was about to charge at the boars, he took one step forward before he got a notification from a player who wishes to party up. "Eh?..." Cam-Cam blinked in confusion as he opened up the menu to check his messages now. He carefully read it to himself quietly and smiled with joy! "I don't have to be alone after all! I'll just accept it and-" He paused after realizing what he had just done. When he raised up his finger to click 'accept', he accidentally pressed 'decline' instead. The expression on his face was priceless, he had a sour look on his face and his skin pigmentation turned white as a ghost. His head slumped down with his finger twitching in disgrace. "No...that was...stupid of me..." He muttered to himself. In the moment of silence, a gentle breeze blew from the north and shifted Cam-Cam's luck just like that. At least he still had his boar friends...

"Wait a minute!" He exclaimed raising his head up and returned to his normal skin color. After rereading the message, Cam-Cam realized he could use the map to navigate his way back to the starting city. He was once again filled with joy and excitement knowing he has not failed just yet! As soon as he turned around, he stuck his butt out shaking it at the boars taunting them. "I will slay you all later when I'm strong enough! So long suckers!" He taunted and quickly took off following his map to the precise location of the meet up. Along the way, he would take advantage of opportunities of slaying solo boars roaming around his path to get some decent experience and drops. There was not much to go on as he only ran into three boars, yet they were enough to delay him from getting to the meeting point than most people. He wondered what kind of players he was going to befriend with, he imagined someone nice...then he imagined that nice person with a head full of food...then he imagined himself eating that person and while he was eating them, he thought about ponies.

It was finally the day.

Wesley had waited in line just like every other gamer, eager and roaring to go, and now it was here. The NERV gear was top of the line. This was what gaming was heading towards now, full on virtual reality. He had been reading about it for what seemed like years but now it was finally in his hands.

Wesley rushed home and tore into the box, setting everything up and hooking up the equipment in his room. It seemed like Dad wasn't home yet, and neither was Suzuka. That meant that nobody could disturb him while he got to experience it first hand. He could already hear his dad lecturing him about it later.

"Virutal reality? As if it's bad enough that these things turn your brains to mush, now the stuff is going into your brain! Why don't you do something more important with your life like enlist?"

It wouldn't be much different than any other conversation. Suzuka was probably picking up her NERV gear after work today. Wesley thought about waiting on her so they could play together but he was too anxious. They could always just meet up and exchange friend codes later and maybe play after dinner. In the meantime, Wesley put on the helmet and lay down in a comfortable spot on his bed.

"LINK START!"

In a rush, Wesley was suddenly in the world of Aincrad. It looked like something out of a fantasy novel or rpg, which was just up Wesley's alley. He removed his starter sword and took a look at himself in its reflection. He had tried to make his appearance as close to his real self as possible, but had thrown in some cool scars just for the heck of it. He had also changed his eye color. Picking a name had been something he had thought long and hard on though. He had been living in Japan for a few years now, but he was still an American. A lot of japanese players didn't get along with American players online. Some didn't care, but the online communities of the East and West played a lot differently in various circles. He had contemplated making some sort of stereotypical Japanese name for himself, but instead just went with "Dar". Short, sweet and easy to form in a group invite message.

With that, it was off to the races. Wesley spent the next few hours fighting boars and trying to learn the ropes of the game. The one handed sword was just too weak for him, he wanted something with more punch and a larger kill range. When he leveled up, he upgraded his strength and went with a two hander. This was far more up Wesley's alley. Enemies would drop in fewer swings and at a slightly farther distance. His defense left a lot to be desired though. Wesley was going to need to invest in some better armor next.

After his fun was done, Wesley decided it was time to log off. It was getting late and he wanted to talk to Suzuka about what he had done so far anyway. Yet like so many others, Wesley discovered a terrible truth; he couldn't log off. Kayaba summoned him and everyone else to the town square and gave them their disasterous news. This was a death game now. The rules had changed, and they were all meat in the grinder.

-----

Honestly, it was hard to believe that this had all happened in just a few hours.

The reactions from everyone varied from subtle to almost insane. Some people ran to the next town to go get more experience. They were the brave ones, or maybe the foolhardy. Others thought they could get out of the game just by letting their characters die and threw themselves off a cliff. They were in denial. But Wesley, he and several others just stood there.

'There's thousands of people...thousands....we're all...we're all going to die??' Wesley thought dismally. He sank to his knees.

'Dad...Suzuka....am I ever going to see them again?' Wesley thought. They had to clear 100 floors to get out of this world. Not even the beta testers made it that far, how could they? It seemed hopeless.

Still, there was a small light of hope in all this. Wesley received a party invite out of the blue. He looked around to see if someone was flagging him down until he read the note at the bottom.

"People are going for the boss already? That's crazy, what level are they? They'll get killed....." Wesley muttered. He read over the note and glanced around again before giving a sigh.

"Still..I gotta hand it to these guys. They're not giving up. Look at me, I'm just a mess." Wesley chuckled darkly before giving a nod and rising to his feet. There was no use sitting here. Those people needed his help. They needed Dar.

Dar hit accept on the party invite and made out for field.

Seeing a smiling Suki and seeing that she accepted the friend request, Umichi smiled a little too. The ideas she threw out, after his question were ... different. The argument lacked substance, but he nodded along, anyway. He then, finally, got the other two players names. Aikoto and Ritaka. As the conversation went, there was a couple of notifications, an invite to a party from Ritaka and a friend request from Aikoto.

Accepting them, he noticed the extra health bars in his UI. Umichi, Ritaka, Suki, Aikoto He looked at the names lined up next to them. Ritaka then suggested to take on a quest. "Well, why not?" Umichi replied, agreeing to Ritaka's plan. Suddenly a message popped up, it was from a Lao'Jax. Someone he had no clue about. Aikoto asked about the idea of joining. "It's nice that they are ambitious, but, they seem to be taking this a little lightly. At least that's what it seems like in the message." Umichi replied.

"Anyway, I'll let you guys decide on what to do." Umichi decided, it was better not to point out too much. They may stay together for a long time, who knows. 100 floors, and dying is not an option. The number of skills in this game are said to be limitless. Umichi thought for a moment, Depending on how this plays out ... it might be better to go off alone for now. A large group huh ... sounds like it could be troublesome. He waited for a consensus to be formed between Suki, Ritaka and Aikoto. "So, what's the plan?" he asked. Waiting on a reply, he follows them, whichever way they go.

@Caits @Savo @Ebil Bunny

Suki listened once more, content for now not to speak up, but she did give a snort as the invite to head to the boss was sent, from someone she didn't know. A little Ambitious, this early in the game. It would have beea good option, if the game was how it was meant to be, but now, with the threat of death, it just seems foolish She shook her head, and hit decline, without even thinking to ask the others. Either way, if they chose to go to that option, she wasn't going to tag along on a death march.

But the others seemed to have reservations about it as well. So, then they weren't foolish. She had read in the guide book that the boss was tough, so, now she wanted to be a good level to fight the boss, and to not die. She wondered if there would be some sort of plan to tackle the boss. But figuring that was way off, she pushed those thoughts away for now.

When she could speak up, she did. "I think we ought to at least get to the next town, before it gets too dark. Before everyone else decides to do that. That way, we can kills boars and things, and gain experience as well as receive more drop items and Col." She said, "A quest sounds good though" She bit her lip, as if nervous of what they would say in return to her opinions, as she opened her menu, and took out the ribbon she had brought before. She had been planning to use it, to tie back her hair, and now, it seemed a necessity to do so. She didn't want to die from hair in her face

She pulled her hair back and tied it with the ribbon as she continued speaking. "trainings important, but..I think we should also look at our skills and ways to earn money. They can help us to survive too. And money can buy us better equipment" She said, almost musing, falling silent as she waited for any replies to what she had said.

@Savo@Caits@Little_ninja@LokiLeo789

- Ritaka -
At the same time, a party invite came to the whole group.
Lao'Jax wants to take on the boss already? I wasn't part of the group of beta testers to take on the first boss, but surely it can't be so easy that a bunch of level threes can take it on... Ritaka thought. He pulled out his guide book and flipped to the part about the first boss.

No, there's no way we're ready. he thought, and denied. He looked up to tell everyone else, but they all had already denied it.

"I think we ought to at least get to the next town, before it gets too dark." Suki said. Ritaka nodded.
"Yeah. We should probably find an inn there as well, maybe get some dinner?" Ritaka asked. He assumed most of them had played since one like he had.

"Though we probably shouldn't go straight to Horunka Village. It's hard enough going through that forest during the day. I'd suggest Geniku," Ritaka said. "It's... about halfway between here and the forest.

"Training's important, but... I think we should also look at our skills and ways to earn money. They can help us to survive, too. And money can buy us better equipment." Suki said, seeming to think aloud. Ritaka had forgot that they now had to unlock the skills. At one point of the beta test, someone got their skills by choosing them during character creation.

"Right. Speaking of skills, what are you all going for?" Ritaka asked.

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

With every one coming to the end of their conclusion, he nodded in agreement with each of them, glad to see that they were being reasonable and not taking the gamble of going against a played hand. He let out a brief sigh of relief as he pressed the x, denying to party up with the reckless player. Most people were bound to make foolish decisions today after what they heard, and we'd probably desperate for a way out. Still, there was one thing that was bothering him, one that continued to nip and bud at the very edges of his skin, irritating him to no expense.

What was the creators objective, motive, reason for creating this whole world? Was it to live, to die, to sleep? The drastic action of ensuring no one escapes through ensnaring them with neurological pathways being intercepted with volts travelling straight to the mind. Aikoto was stumped over the matter, but the more they ascended, the closer they would descend into this mans madness which was filled to the brim with method.

As the discussion between the members continued, Aikoto couldn't help but notice that Umichi didn't feel like contributing anything at the moment. He couldn't tell if it was indecisiveness or another plan he had conjured up, so he just assumed the best for now. The boy didn't feel like second guessing his allies as they were all probably nervous about this whole thing. As Suki and Ritaka discussed plans, he became rather oblivious to what they were talking about upon reaching skills, and lost them at that point in the conversation. He honestly didn't understand if it was a term that meant what it exactly was stated, or if it had a different meaning.

"Er, skills?"

The boy tapped the side of his face, one of his eyebrows hunched upwards as he quizically spoke to each of them. He appeared rather confused at what they possibly meant and pondered on taking the dive of figuring out what they properly were referring to. He recalled his friends talking about skills, but never got the chance to ask them what they meant as they continued to teach Aikoto on how to fight in this game, and eventually was challenged to a "duel" in seeing who was the best swordsman. He racked his brain over how he could of forgotten such an important detail. Aikoto eventually decided to plunge himself into the situation, Hopi he would somehow miraculously hit the nail on the head, even though the probability of that occurring was low.

"Er, you're talking about what we are capable of performing and such, right? If so, I haven't really come to a conclusion on what I'm really going to do. I think I'll figure it out along the way, however I'll just stick with whatever skills I have currently... Er is their a way to check what skills we have or no because I'm a bit confused on this all. It makes sense that we have to train them and that is something I can't argue with, but how do we know what we are training?... Ugh, I sound like such an idiot, don't I?"

With a sigh, and a slight rub to the side of his head, he momentarily stop talking, looking rather frustrated and lost. He shook himself out of that sorry state of mind, cleared his throat, and continued to speak in a calm manner towards each of them. He felt their was no time that needed to be wasted on him as he would either figure it out later or someone could assist him in his endeavors and answer his question.

"Er, anyways, our time is fleeting currently so we should immediately head there to that other village you mentioned... Geniku? Erm, we should get started as we can run, talk, and fight enemies as that would be much more productive for the timebeing than standing around, wouldn't you all agree? Shall we get going?... Also do any of you have a map to our current destination because I don't have one..."

@Caits Sith @Little_ninja @Ebil Bunny @LokiLeo789

November, 6th, 2022

"I guess that's all of it for today." Shouko said after after she finished the las ditch of her homework before looking at the clock and noticing that it was already 3:00 PM.

"Well, what a shame that I missed the grand oppening... I wonder how it'll feel to be able to use them again." She said this while touching her right tigh, after laying in her bed and putting the NerveGear on.

"Link Start."

---

Shouko ran through the character creation menu at a leisure pace, carefully setting her avatar to look as close her real life self as possible, once she had finshed she named her digital self Minako, while it was a pun based on her real name, it was also a common enough name for her to not draw too much attention towards her self.

---

[Welcome to Sword Art Online]

The sudden feeling of weigth on her lower limbs as her body finished materializing on the aptly named Town of Beginnings, made Minako fall quite ungraciously on her own butt, however, she found the sensation so good that she couldn't help but to laugh her heart out. "Ha... hahaha!"

The people around her, likely other players, turned in her direction with puzzled looks in their faces. "What's so funny?" their gaze seemed to ask. Minako could bet that very feel of them would understand her reason.

"Anyway, I gotta start now." She said as stood up and brushed her clothes, even though there was no dust on them. After that, Minako walked through the streets of the Town of Beginnings and, while she did so, some NPCs gave her a lot of free itens, then she exited through the main gate and decided that she would settle for killing the ubiqutous [Frenzy Boar] for a while learning how to handle her weapon nice and slowly before taking more ambitious actions.

---

When the in game clock reached 6:00 PM, she was about to reach level three, but then a strange glow engulfed her and she saw herself back at the main square of the town. There, a man in an ominous black robe, who happened to be the games creator Kayaba Akihiko, declared that they couldn't leave the game until they had cleared all of Aincrad's 100 floors and defeated the boss that waited them at the top of the floating castle. Furthermore, chaos soon spread around as people looked into the mirror that had suddenly popped in their inventories and were reverted to what Minako believed to be their real life appearances, needless to say, it didn't affect her at all.

She couldn't that she was mad, or even sad, about it though, she knew it was a big selfish thought but as soon as she set her feet on Aincrad she didn't wanna leave in the first place so it worked well for her wishes. Plus, she knew that one day, sooner or later this death game would end anyway. So why not enjoy it while it lasts?

With that thought in mind she went to the nearest vendor and sold the drops she got, as well as her beginner equipment, after buying up new goods she decided to put her feet on the road towards the nearest village and, from there, search for raw materials to begin practicing her blacksmithing.

A determined smile broke across Fujiwara's face as he came across a pack of <<Dire Wolves>>, seeming roaming around the plains aimlessly. The grind had been going on well for the moment, and, giving a quick glance towards his EXP bar, Fujiwara gripped the handle of the blade at his side firmly.

"This... Should bump me up to four." he said to himself as he dashed at the wolves. The pack immediately directed their attention to him and began rushing for him. They were much faster than the boars were, though, which threw Fujiwara off momentarily as the first wolf lunged at his neck. Quickly drawing his weapon, Fujiwara ducked as he cut through the monster's underbelly. The remaining few wolves didn't stop their assault, though, which caused one wolf to latch onto his leg with a vicelike grip.

"Ah, shit-!" Fujiwara exclaimed as another two wolves came leaping towards his chest. Bisecting them both with a single strike, Fujiwara turned his attention to the remaining wolf.

He stared at it. It stared back. A moment or so passed before the wolf let go and immediately turned tail to run.

"As if!" Fujiwara spat as he rapidly chased after the <<Dire Wolf>>. The chase went on for maybe half a minute or so, until Fujiwara finally managed to use the downward momentum from running down a hill he had been chasing the wolf up to catch up to it. As the 'Level Up!' indicator flashed by on his screen, Fujiwara noticed that his momentum wasn't stopping... And that he was about to tumble straight down the hill into another player.

"Oh crap, look o-" he began to shout before crashing into the person (a girl, from the looks of it) and tumbling onto the road, his face burying itself in the dirt.

"Ah... That was..." he groaned as he lifted himself out of the small indent he had made and spat a bit to get the taste of earth out of his mouth. "I am... So sorry about that..." he said, holding his head in pain with his left hand. Looking around, Fujiwara noticed that his weapon was lodged in the ground next to the hole he had made. Well, he could go pick it up in a moment.

"You all right?" he asked, still slightly disoriented from the fall.

@KoL


Ayame quickly rushed over to the location that this Lao person had mentioned, accepting the party invite that he had also sent out beforehand. A small map out of the corner of her vision began to flash before a little marker showing where her new acquaintance was. Video games seemed to be so much more convenient than how things actually were in that regard, at least. Getting there by running didn't take very long, though Ayame felt slightly out of breath as she saw the person's face. She was on the track team and all, but with all of this equipment even moving about was a chore.

"H-Hello there." she stated, bowing to the man who was sitting there. If he was the leader, then it was only fair to show respect in return. "My name's Ayame. I'll be in your care."

@LokiLeo789

After thinking a lot about it, Lincoln decided that he wasn't going to pout around. He was going to do something about he. He stood up from the tall grass that he was enclosed by, and made his way to the low level boars. One by one, he killed. At first, he pretty much sucked. Really bad. After a good day of killing and leveling up to level 2, he was proud of himself. Lincoln knew that he would need better equipment if he anted to get anywhere. But right now, he couldn't afford it.

Lincoln found an inn in the Town of Beginnings. When he entered, there was about ten people talking and laughing. It's crazy how the human mind works. One minute, everyone is devastated, and the next minute, people are sharing a drink. He sat down at a table and a waitress appeared. These NPCs are superb, "Hey there. Can I help you?" Lincoln looked up at her from his menu, "Oh yeah, can I get some cooked beef please?" Lincoln found the waitress actually attractive. Too bad she was a NPC. "Right away." The waitress went back to the kitchen. Lincoln looked over the drops he got from the boars he had killed most of the day. He also gained a lot of experience, a whole level, "I could probably just sell these...keep these...this might come in handy..." The waitress came back with Lincoln's food and set it down, "Would that be all?" The waitress smiled. "Yes. Thank you." Lincoln enjoyed his meal, the beef was actually very good and tender.

Asuna

On her way to the next town, Asuna found a field full of <<Dire Wolves>> and decided to gain some more experience, hopefully a few more levels to add to the levels she had gained from before the tutorial. She began to fight them, slashing and slicing through them with ease. "I will defeat this game!" She whispered to herself through gritted teeth as she sliced through the flank of yet another <<Dire Wolf>>.