November 6^th 11:00

Mashai leaned on his cane as he watched one of the younger employees from his old business hook up his newly bought NerveGear to his computer. Which he still barely knew how to use. After the young man finished hooking up it up, Mashai paid the man and said, "Thanks you're a life savior, I'm still confused how these things work." When the young man left, he decided to do some work around the house.

---

November 6^th 12:30

Mashai grabbed his drinking glass and walked into the kitchen. He walked up to the kitchen sink and held his cup under the faucet. Then he turned on the water; after the drinking glass was filled to Mashai's liking, he turned off the water. He walked into his living room and sat down in his chair, setting his drinking glass and his cane on the small table next to him. Mashai picked up his glass and took a sip of water. He set the glass and picked up the phone that was on the table and called to his daughter's house to talk to his granddaughter Hanako, who was his favorite grandchild but he didn't let anyone know that, about what the plan was for Sword Art Online.

---

November 6^th 12:53

Mashai walked into his bedroom, which he had just rearranged so his computer was next to his bed, and sat down on the chair in front of his computer desk. He turned on his computer by pressing the button on the front of the tower. Mashai wished everything involving computers was that easy, but sadly for him they weren't. Then he put the NerveGear on his head and calibrated it by patting all over his body, following what he was told to do. After he finished what he needed to do he noticed it was 12:59, so he laid down on his bed. When 13:00 arrived, Mashai said, "Link Start," which his granddaughter reminded him to say while they were talking on the phone. After he said that all he could see was white, then a lot of different color cylinders 'flew' past him. Then circular things saying one of the five senses appeared one by one, after a second each said "OK". Then the all disappeared and was followed by a blue box saying "Language" then another one branched off from it and said "Japanese." After that was a log in box, which he logged in. Next was character creation, which he made to look like himself only younger, by quite a few years. Mashai completed character creation and then a screen saying "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" appeared.

Then he was in the game, Mashai or Ojiisan as his gaming handle was, which was a phrase he picked up from some kids playing another game. He had to blink a couple times, because his vision was blurry. Ojiisan looked around, after his vision cleared up, and said, "Wow this looks so real." Ojiisan snapped out of his trance and started to look for his three grandchildren. After searching for his grandchildren in the Town of Beginnings for awhile Ojiisan decided to look for them in the fields surrounding the town. While searching for the them he was attacked multiple times by Frenzied Boars and Dire Wolves. With extreme luck Ojiisan survived all of the attacks for a couple hours. Then all of a sudden he was enveloped in a light. 'What the hell is going on," thought Ojiisan. Then when the light faded, Ojiisan noticed he was in the same spot he first arrived in the game. Ojiisan didn't really understand what was going on, but he got the gist of it, like that they were stuck in the game until they beat and that if they died in the game they died in real life. Ojiisan opened his inventory like everyone else, and looked at the mirror. After doing that he was enveloped in light yet again. After it faded, he saw his normal face looking back at him in the mirror. Ojiisan was wondering how it knew how he looked, but his thoughts where cut short when he heard a voice that sounded like his granddaughter, Hanako. So he rushed to where he thought the voice was coming from, somewhat shoving people out of his way, while yelling "Hanako... Hanako... Hanako!!!"

November 6^th 12:30

Receiving a call from her Grandfather, Hanako spoke happily about the new game her parents got her. The chance to play the newly released Sword Art Online. She explained the details of how the game started, seeing the advertisements for it. After they spoke, she went and had her lunch with her parents.

---

November 6^th 12:57
Turning on the computer excitedly, Hanako put on the NervGear, and jumped into bed. Lying down, in a comfortable position, she spoke the magical words, "Link Start!". With the flying colors, and words passing by, she was excited. There, upon character creation, she created her character, to look like her idealised future self. She also had to create a handle name. Unable to decide, she joined her name, to create YukiHana. Snow flower. With such a name, she decided to giver her character long white hair, and be 165 cm tall.

Entering the game, she was so excited to feel with her new body. The world seemed so different from this height. Her reach felt so much longer. She looked through the menus and the items available. With only the beginning equipment, she equipped her armor and starter sword to her waist. She roamed and roamed around looking at all of the different stores, the different buildings. The Town of Beginnings. It really did feel like where something new will begin.

Eventually, she wondered off into the fields, where she was suddenly attacked by a Frenzied Boar. Taking some damage, she cried out "Ow!". It didn't hurt her though. The pain was more like a prick. Nothing painful. She tried to strike the boar with her sword, but it did hardly any damage. "What is going on?" she cried. Running from the enemy, she did not know what to do. YukiHana then saw someone else's sword, start to glow, as he went to strike the boar. She noticed the position he was in, and attempted to imitate it. Raising her sword to her shoulder, it started to glow. Following through, her body stepped forward, and cut downwards at the Frenzied Boar. It took much more damage this time. She tried to repeat, but did not know about the ability's cooldown period. She ended up being attacked again, and before she was finally able to defeat it. "Phew" she sighed with relief.

Finally, she remembered about her grandfather and her cousins. "Oh that's right, I have to find my ojii-san!" she said, rushing back into the town. YukiHana tried to search for her grandfather, but could not find him or her cousins. She could not see any handle names, nor could identify them. Unsure of what to do, she was caught in a glow of light.

Suddenly being transported, YukiHana looked around surprised. So many people were there. It looked like there was something that was about to happen. Then, a giant cloaked shadow appeared from the sky, telling everyone about how if they are trapped in this game, and how they will not be able to leave without defeating all 100 floors. That if they die here, they die in the real world. Becoming scared, the young girl, started to cry.

A gift notification came up, and it was a mirror. YukiHana looked at it, and suddenly, covered in another light, she saw her own face. Looking down, she was so much closer to the ground. Her clothes, were much too big for her now, her armor and sword were of a large size as well. YukiHana started to bawl, "OJII-SAN!! ONEE-SAN!! ONII-SAN!!". She repeated it over and over, crouching into a ball, and crying. It was hard to hear her over the chaos in the crowd.

Suki for now was content to follow what everyone wanted to do. While she agreed going through the forest at night would be dangerous, she thought that Horunka might be a better choice. But if they wanted to go to Geniku, she would go. Mostly, she figured people would go to Horunka because it was bigger. So, if they went to Geniku there would be more monsters to kill, more experience to gain.

So she nodded.

At the mention of a map, she smiled brightly "theres a basic one in the guidebook, but I brought a better one for a little bit of col" she opened her menu, and searched for the map, bringing it up "it's based on the beta testers, like the guide book" she said, studying the map, her eyes roaming over it.

She looked to the three boys, feeling more at ease. They did seem like okay people, and if she was going to team up with them, then she should find aspects of them to like. 100 floors could take a long time. But it had always been like this. She always got along better with the guys in her xlases then the girls. Mostly because she liked stuff they did.

@i think we have stood around talking enough. We should probably get moving" but she looked around at the crowd of people, her heart aching, wishing she could help them. An old man seemed to be shouting, maybe for someone he knew. But then, everyone was shouting in one way or another. Some children were cryingng, the closest she could see a small girl.

What would become of the children? And then she voiced that question"the children....what's going to happen to them?"

@Little_Ninja

The sun set slowly in the horizon, the clouds turning dark in the orange sky. In less than half an hour, it was going to get dark...yet the girl paid no attention to it. The game felt far too real, the conditions of the game far too real. It angered her even more.

Masae let out a small sniffle and wiped her eyes, before seeing a message pop up right in front of her:



She stopped for a moment and just stared at the message.



Masae shuffled on her seat excitedly, holding her Nerve Gear with her finished rice bowl next to her. She had waken up especially early today to finish her school homework and get ready for the SAO launch. Many gamers had lined up on the streets of Tokyo for this game, but she was lucky(?) enough to acquire one out of ten thousand of them by conveniently lining up in one of the shorter lines someplace else. Still, it took her half a day of waiting...but it was worth it in the end.

And now here she was, prepared to try one of the most recent innovations in the world of video games. And with the minute hand ticking towards end of the twelfth hour, she was ready. Tick...tick...tick... She leaned readily, sitting on her reclining chair.

"Link Start!"

Almost suddenly she was thrown into an entirely white world, while brightly read: "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" Shortly afterward, a screen appeared in front of her, asking of some simple statements: "Do you agreed to the Terms of Use? What language would you like to use? What is your username?" She merely skimmed through most of them, choosing the name "Aero"...which sounded cool but a bit generic at the same time. It didn't matter. At least she wasn't calling herself Doom-Bunny or anything. Masae remembered how her mom tried to help her make her username when she was younger.

And surprisingly, the name wasn't taken. It was also convenient that she didn't need to set up a password or some kind of security question. She had heard that the NerveGear identified the user's facial features upon its first use and no one else can access the NerveGear without the initial user's authorization or after a reset. The wonders of technology...

Then she went on to create her character, which initially looked like herself. Masae was never one to doubt her own looks; she thought she already looked good, and didn't change her appearance much, save for adding a ponytail and shortening her height by a few centimeters. She then assigned her skills, which only took a few minutes - Masae didn't like over-thinking decisions and wasting time, and soon enough, the screen was replace by a bustling city square...the Town of Beginnings.

She couldn't help but comment. "W-wow. This is SAO? Everything seems so...real," Masae dashed around the massive town, staring at the shops that lined the road. "It...it feels bigger than Nashiwa..."

A flashing notification popped out right in front of her, and she pressed it, which revealed her inventory. It included the starting armor she was currently wearing, a regular dagger, thirty standard throwing picks, a guidebook, and 1000 Col. They didn't look like much, but she did need to start somewhere. The guidebook was also flashing, and she read it for the sake of learning the controls.

The guidebook was concise, showing what hand motions to do to open up the menu , as well as setting up certain stances and gestures to hot-keyed items. Masae tried that as well, setting up the "Open Equipment" action to a three-fingered vertical swipe.

After all those small issues were dealt with, Masae decided to fight a few of the wolves to the plains in the northwest. She expected some of the mobs to be easy enough for players to at least defeat, and she excitedly dashed out of town to try to fight them.

Masae was quickly shown that her assumption was wrong; while the wolves had the same level as her, they were dealing good damage. She soon found her health in the yellow after a serious knockback, and there she knew she needed to act quick. Wait...aren't there special attacks that weapons can do based on your skills?

She tested that theory out, inhaling and going into one of the stances available for her as shown from the guidebook, bending her front left foot and holding her dagger back. Almost automatically, her body thrusted forward with the dagger and did a quick, regular Slant attack; unlike the One-Handed Sword Slant, however, the dagger attack was much faster and took less time to charge, but the attack wasn't hard hitting enough to bring it down in one hit, and instead went down to a red health bar. The wolf tried to run off this time, but Masae spared the mob no mercy and took out her throwing pick, flinging it at the wolf and finishing it off.

"Yes!" she exclaimed with a sense of achievement. The wolves were quick and dealt some good hits, but they couldn't take one themselves. She decided to get more used to her dagger skills, and grind at the same time.

It took her some hours, but she finally leveled up afterward; leveling seemed to take a very long time in here. This game was going to be hard as they said it was...Masae decided to call it a day for now and log off. It was nearing dinner anyway. Swiping open the menu button with two fingers, she moved down before pausing. Wait...where's the log out button?

She was then promptly teleported back to the spawn, standing inside a crowd of confused players. A system announcement notification then appeared in the sky, and a massive figure that was suggested to be Kayaba revealed to them the most shocking of news. They were all trapped in this game until they can beat the 100th floor, and if they died in this game, they would die in real life. He also mentioned they had a "gift", and indeed, she received another flashing notification, reluctantly tapping on it and revealing a mirror...and a look into it changed her body back to her regular self.

But that was the least of her matters. She realized how impossible it would be for them to finish all 100 floors...and began to miss her old life before. Damn it...why did I put that on!? Why, damn it!? she shouted internally to herself, feeling her legs turn weak as the commotion went around her; Masae was hit and pushed against many times...but she didn't care. She couldn't get hurt in a town, anyway.



Masae slowly raised her finger on the friend screen, reading the message over and over again; the sky was already dark now, but the moon let out a good amount of light during the night.

It was then that she decided to press the accept button and sigh. The immediate attack on the first floor was rather ambitious, not when there was very much the possibility of death. Even the beta testers didn't go far with the time they had. But...they needed to start somewhere. Anywhere. As long as it was one step closer to bringing them back home.

Masae stood up and drew her knife, looking up at the dark sky. If she was going to get out of here...she was going to train herself. But...wait. If dying was going to be a very likely possibility, then it was best if she partied with some of the members here to increase her chances of survival. Plus, she could rally up a group to the grasslands. Maybe there is still some people back at the square.

With that in mind, Masae ran back toward the square, looking at the time. She was only an hour in, and the lessening of commotion meant that the crowd from before had mostly went off, save for some people who were yelling for some of their friends and family...but mostly, her focus was placed on a crying little girl.

Masae bit her lip again. She didn't know exactly why, but she had a soft spot for children. And now that they were trapped in death game, Masae needed to help them. "Oji-san! Oji-san!" the girl yelled, and Masae went to coax her. "Hey, hey, calm down there. What's going on?" Masae asked.

Rey

After the two came to a stop at the edge of the Grasslands in front of the city gates, she had wandered off a bit, away from Lao'Jax. Rey would go back over to him after she had some time on her own to think. She wondered if anyone were to join their group after he had sent the huge amounts of invitations to everyone on the current floor. Would there be anyone? Maybe. . .just maybe.

The woman released a soft sigh and looked at her surroundings. The world, it looked beautiful. . .even if it was all programmed. It was simply breathtaking and looked so real. Just being here made Rey imagine how it would be like if she were to do this in real life -- standing out in an open field of grass and feeling the gentle breezes of air brushing against her hair and skin. If she did manage to get out like she told Lao'Jax, she was determined to go through with it.

After a few moments of staring silently, she felt herself smile. I should. . .probably head back.

Rey went back to where she left Lao'Jax. She saw him still sitting on the ground, and a young woman who was bowing towards him. So, someone did join up with them.

"I'm back."

Minako had left the gates of the Town of Beginnings behind her some time ago. On her way to the next settlement, she took the time to kill a few more boars and finish leveling up to level 3. After all, one can never be too cautious, isn't it?

She also searched around to see if she could find any aro nodes lying around, to no avail. "Someone else must have picked them up already." she said to herself. It was then that Minako heard someone yelling "look ou-" from the top of his lungs, the sound appeared to be aproaching her fast.

She didn't even had the time to dodge it, when she noticed that there was a boy rolling down the hill behind her, she was already on the ground lying on her back, next to a small crater caused by the boy impact against the ground. "That makes it the second time today, haha." she laughed to herself while standing up and brushing the dust off her clothes.

"Anyway, I might be lucky." She thought, while the boy apologised for the incident.

"Don't worry, I haven't even been hurt. Anyway, I was looking around to see if I could find some ore to practice my craft. But these plains have been picked clean, but the marshes to the... south of here, I think look promissing. I didn't saw anyone going there yet, perhaps it's too dangerous to try and solo it now." As Minako said those words, a merchant's smile found its way to her lips as she considered her plan carefuly.

"So, what do you say... you help me search for raw materials and I'll craft whatever weapon you like for you, free of charge, of course." Minako said as she extended her hand to the boy.
@PKMNB0Y
"While we're at it, it'll be better if we find at least someone else to help us. Who knows, we can even score a rare drop, or two?" Minako said as her eyes fell on a girl wearing a hooded cape that had just finished killing one of the nearby wolves.

Asking her wold be companion to wait a little, and running away before he even nodded, Minako approached the girl and explained her plan to her, offering the same payment as she did to the boy.
@Asuna Yuuki
Minako had no doubts that if they were really the frist to arrive at that place she would be able to find a good anough amount of ore to forge better weapons to everyone as well as raise her crafting skill by a steep amount in the process.

Then, before the othe girl had time to react, Minako started to walk in the direction of the swamps, "Come on, aren't you going to come?" she shouted to her new business partners.
She knew that acting that way towards people she had just met was a little harsh, but this was a salesman technique she learned with her father consisting on overwhelming a potential client, or partner's, mind with fast talk and then pressing the deal she wanted to do while they had their guard down.

@KoL

Before Asuna could answer the strange girl, she began to walk towards a swamp."Come on, aren't you going to come?" The girl called. Asuna thought for a minute. Hm, perhaps a new rapier would be useful. Or a new blade. Maybe if I help this girl she could make me both? Free of charge is definitely a good deal. I have made a lot of money already though... I suppose I will go with this girl, if only for a small amount of time. Maybe it could help me level some more.

"Very well! I shall go with you. Asuna hurried to catch up with the girl and began to walk alongside her towards the swamp. "I trust you are at a significant enough level to be going to the swamps?" Asuna asked her new companion. "I've heard they are more challenging than the fields."

It was a strange feeling, the bodiless void one found when launching Sword Art Online; a brief moment of floating without sensory input before suddenly flying through a tunnel of speeding light and color. Akira had never quite felt anything like it and for a moment he felt his heart begin to race in panic as he instinctively reached out for any sort of stability, though he had no hands with which to grab even if he did find something. He wasn’t even sure how he could feel his own heartbeat without a body to speak of but was actually comforted by that sensation.

After a moment the world began to slow and soon he was being bombarded by loading messages. They passed quickly by his vision, system checks according to what little text he caught as they flew past, and then a singular login screen appeared hovering before him. His mind was slowly becoming used to the Nerve Gear system and he found he could type as he would on any computer keyboard, quickly entering his credentials he’d made on the game’s website not thirty minutes ago. Next was the character creation screen, but Akira paid it little attention: he didn’t come into this game to be some other person.

Did he?

He chose a preset, a tall olive-skinned warrior with a handsome appearance, long graceful limbs and flowing black hair tied into a long ponytail. Next came his ‘starting kit’ selection, though Akira wasn’t sure what half of the names were alluding to. Myrmidon? As in the ancient Greek nation? He settled on ‘rogue’ simply because it sounded classy enough and as soon as he accepted his selection there was a tingling sensation as his avatar was created by the system. Looking down at himself he was once overcome by the strange sensation of seeing, and feeling a body that wasn’t your own. The system prompted him to touch his own arms and legs, to bend in certain ways, as some sort of calibration and when that was finally finished a single message was left before him.

“Welcome to Sword Art Online!”

A soft breeze was blowing across the main plaza of the starting zone and Akira marveled at the feeling of it knowing full well it was nothing but a computer simulation. He could taste spring in the air, feel the sun warming his skin, and hear the calls of unknown birds in the distance: sensations so carefully sculpted by the game’s designers that he would never have known them to be fake had he simply woken up in this place. Akira’s dark eyes blinked as his HUD loaded, several displays and colored bars appearing in the corners of his vision and just as a test he reached out and poked one of the icons. He hesitantly scrolled through the system settings but didn’t change anything and finally closed the window with another flick of his finger. There was an inventory screen and he noticed he was given some starting equipment: “Starter Leather Armor” and “Starter Dagger”. He could see the armor was nothing more than a thick leather chestplate over a simple blue-linen shirt and dark linen pants, clearly ‘starter’ as its name suggested, and there was a small straight-bladed dagger sheathed on his hip. He didn’t notice any other weapons and scrolled through again just to be sure. Maybe his equipped sword was in another screen? Exiting the menus he glanced around and saw there were many other new players logging in, more and more every minute. He wanted to get away from the crowds and so walked down the main street, eyes taking in every distinct building and shop along the road. There were more people here as well, shopkeepers and stall owners, but Akira wasn’t sure if they were overly-enthusiastic role players or incredible computer simulations. He passed through a massive stone gate and took a sharp breath as he saw the starter fields spread out before him. It was an amazing sight, so full of color and life vastly different from the crowded streets of Tokyo, and he couldn’t help but stand agape. Shaking away the moment feeling embarrassed for himself though none of the people around seemed to notice or care, he walked further from the walls until he saw a handful of other players moving around killing the large boars which were milling about.

Moving down the bluff towards one of the creatures he noticed a floating red crystal over a thin green bar. Stepping within a few feet of the creature, it turned to him with an angry grunt, its glowing red eyes regarding him angrily. “Sword… start?” he muttered to no effect and without waiting for another attempt the beast charged forward with a squeal. Akira cried out, holding his arms up in defense, as the boar barreled into him and sent him flying back onto his behind. “Ouch…” He muttered instinctively, though he was amazed at the lack of any pain sensation from the headbutt. The boar went back to its milling about as Akira picked himself up, face red with the humiliation of being bested by a pig. Drawing the small knife, he looked at his reflection in the blade wondering if the game really expected him to fight with such a puny thing. He wasn’t going to back down, give up and let this world win just like the real one had, and with an angry growl he charged forward with an attack of his own.

Thirty minutes later he picked himself up for the twenty-seventh time, gasping heavily as the unscathed boar chewed on some tall field grass. A flashing indicator showed one of his HUD bars had gotten smaller and was now nothing more than a tiny sliver of red. “HP…?” He panted, wiping a few beads of sweat from his brow. He swiped the flashing indicator away, eyes glaring at the creature that was mocking him in its own way. Never in his life had he been stopped in such a manner, hit such a wall as this pig was representing, and up until this point Akira had truly believed there was nothing he couldn’t overcome.

But this stupid pig!?

The rage seethed inside him but he pushed it down, bringing some form of calm back to his mind so that he could focus on the challenge at hand. He raised the small dagger carefully, planning out his next attack well before the attempt, and as he held there a strange humming sensation trembled from the leather hilt, spreading down his arm. With a final burst of effort Akira dashed forward, body guided by the system, and his now glowing blade pierced straight through the creature’s flank. The thin green bar quickly shrank to yellow then red before winking out of existence, clearly some sort of life bar, and with one final groan the boar toppled over and exploded into a shower of pixelated blue sparks. A small victory screen appeared and informed him he’d apparently gotten a piece of ‘boar hide’ and one ‘chunk of boar meat’ along with 24 ‘XP’ and 5 ‘Cor’, though he had no idea what those were. He took a long moment to bask in his victory, and to catch his breath, before searching out the next creature to attempt the same attack on.

The hours flew by and before long Akira had killed a few dozen of the boars and had even reached Level 2 according to a message from the system. He had no idea how the strength and agility stats worked in the game so he distributed his three points at random. It was just as he was debating logging off for the night or going back into town to try and trade his collection of boar pieces for a real weapon when he suddenly found himself back in the starting plaza. It was crowded, thousands of other players standing about and looking as confused as he felt, and after a long moment the massive figure appeared in the sky to address them. Though it was a bit too much for Akira to fully understand, They could truly die in here?, he could read the fearful gasps and cries of alarm echoing through the crowds well enough and there was certainly no log-out button in his menus. The mirror in his inventory had the same effect as it did on everyone else but, in a way, Akira was more relieved to be back in his regular body: it was a body he could trust and one he could rely on in the coming days. He slipped quickly out of the plaza and headed again for the main gate just as the chaos erupted. Though he had no idea where he was going or what he was going to do he determined getting out of the city would be best. People were in a panic, a frenzy, a regular riot, but there had to be someone around who knew what was going on, someone who he could use to survive this game which was feeling more and more real every second.

Ignore. ^_^

Panicked screams.

Terrified expressions.

Fear and despair.

Well this was not what Natto had expected when he first bought «Sword Art Online». He, Natsume Araki, was anticipating fun filled days making new friends and rivals in the first VRMMO of its time. He was supposed to finally wash his hands off his part-time jobs and focus on things that people his age was doing.

As if mocking those innocent dreams, Kayaba sent him alone thousands of other players into chaos with his revelation of his true plans for «Sword Art Online». This was no longer some game. At least for all its players, it was reality. To further emphasize that, Kayaba had even destroyed the façade of everyone’s avatars. Their real faces and forms were exposed. Although unintentionally, this dispersed some of Natto’s stress slightly when cute girls were turned into panicking obese men. The sight was rather amusing.

…

Was he scared?

It would be a stretch to say he wasn’t but Natto was surprisingly calm. The gravity of situation hadn’t yet fully sunk in.
He pondered over what to do while observing the others in the town square.

There were those who quickly formed parties so they could head out into the fields. There were those who did so alone. Some people were trying to restore order whilst there were those who just broke down and cried. Here and there, people were all doing what they thought was best.

Yet it could only be described as chaos.

The best course of action would be to gain information. While he was confident that he was a fast learner, Natto did die the first time he went against a «Dire Wolf». He considered the actions of the masses rushing onto the fields foolhardy considering what they’ve just heard. That and he could help out some of the despairing players in the meantime.

Just as he was thinking that, an old man shoved him aside whilst screaming for a person named Hanako. Instinctively, Natto reached out and tapped him.

“Ojii-san, by any chance is that the girl you’re looking for?”

Natto pointed at a little girl crying to his far right.

@Thanatos

Jax looked around for somebody who seemed to be in the same boat as him but so far it seemed either everyone was very coordinated and in a group or very panicked and basically acting like headless chickens. A friend request popped up from someone named Lao'Jax, well he didn't play many games like this but one thing he did know was not to accept random friend requests.

Rejecting the request his eyes locked on a small child that looked like she was barely in elementary school bawling her eyes out. He walked over and tried to comfort her since he didn't know what else to do and he couldn't just ignore her even though there was another player helping her, after all two heads were better than one right? "Hey now, I'll help you find your ojii-san, can you stand up and help us look for him?" Jax asked attempting to be friendly. Gosh he didn't know how to talk to kids, he didn't even have any brothers or sisters, or many friends at all for that matter. The other girl seemed nice enough so she would probally help him look. "Hope you don't mind me helping." he said shooting a friendly smile her way@Little_ninja@Stale Pizza

Skills, huh ... Umichi thought to himself. He did not give any thought to the profession related skills, for now he just wanted to focus on his combat related skills. Using three fingers to swipe down, he could see his two equipped skills. <<One-handed Straight
Sword>> and <<Blade Throwing>>. Scrolling, he found <<Acrobatics>> and equipped it in place of <<Blade Throwing>>. Only two at a time.

As Aikoto asked about skills, Umichi started to approach to start to explain. "Well the skills, I believe, Suki was referring to are the Profession related skills. These are skills that allow a user to perform certain tasks, such as cooking, playing an instrument or blacksmithing. There are also the combat related skills and passive skills. Combat related skills are the ones that will help you fight. Things like the default <<One-handed Straight Sword>> skill, which enable you to use certain abilities. The <<One-handed Straight Sword>> skill allows the user to use <<Sword Skills>> for One-handed straight swords. Remember if you use another weapon, you need to change your skills or you cannot use those abilities. It's in the menu options. Passive skills allow users to have an enhanced ability of sorts. <<Listening>> allows a user to hear better and further when they strain their ears, and eventually can listen through doors. Using the abilities of the skills, will give the skills exp and level them up. To master a skill, it requires to reach level 1000. Does that help?" Umichi spilled out contents about the skills in SAO.

Concerned, Aikoto was definitely fustrated. "Don't call yourself an idiot. I hear a lot of beta testers took a long time to learn anything about the skills and how they worked. It's a bit unique to SAO, this swapping of skills like this. Plus SAO is the first of it's kind, it is unlikely people will know how to most things on the first day. Umichi consoled him.

Suki spoke up, answering Aikoto's question about the map. Looking through his own, Umichi saw the distance between Horunka village and Geniku. I should be able to go from one to the other and back within the night. He thought to himself. He knew the size was 10 km in diameter for the 1st Floor. He should be able to get through the fields running without much of a problem, the distance was probably just a couple of kms difference. The problem might be enemies, but he was feeling he could handle them.

"I think we have stood around talking enough. We should probably get moving" Suki said, but looked around at the crowd. Umichi's eyes followed. "the children....what's going to happen to them?" He could hear her ask. A flash of his sister came to mind momentarily, seeing the little girl. Umichi's active hearing, in real life, was better than most people's. He could isolate the noise a little as well. "Ojii-san, Onee-san, Onii-san" he spoke quietly, repeating after her. "I don't know about all of the children, but I think most of them would be in the game with a relative of theirs. It seems she's searching for hers. Umichi said, taking a step, to almost go to help, however, someone else had already arrived and helped the crying girl. Looking around there were still some children around, but they were crying with someone. "I think they will be fine, there seems to be someone with them. They will probably look after them." he smiled a little, seeing the humanity in others, to take care of these children. Even though, they were just thrown into a death game.

Ever changing, henge ... A thought echoed in his mind momentarily. "It should be fine here, let's get going, before it gets too dark.Umichi suggested to hurry along, turning around to start walking out of the city.

@Caits @Savo @Ebil Bunny

---

"OJII-SAN!! ONII-SAN!! ONEE-SAN!!" YukiHana continued to cry. The crowd started to thin out a little, but the chaos still occurring. People left for the fields to try to train, but they tried to argue over the limited resources so close to the city. None wanted to leave the safety of the city, but they also didn't want to never get out, thus they tried to stay close to the city walls and trained just outside of them, limiting the ability to train effectively.

She was then approached by a girl, much taller than herself, with light brown hair and eyes. Turning to her, YukiHana's face was covered in tears, snot and even saliva, running down her face. The girl asked YukiHana, what was wrong. She tried to reply cohesively, however, all that came out was "UWAH!!!! O-- OOO --- OO!! UWAH!!!". Her crying and wailing, she attempted to say Ojii-san, but couldn't get the word out.

Soon after, another person approached, a guy. About as tall as the girl, with dark brown hair and blue-ish eyes. He said he would help her find Ojii-san. Still crying out, she turned to him, unable to say anything else. She was trying to take deeper breaths to calm down, but they were not of any help. Her vision was quite blurry due to the simulated tears. Instead of continuing to cry out, she shut up, and tried to focus on breathing. What remained was her sniffles. However, she still didn't speak, more like, she felt that if she spoke, she would cry again.

@Stale Pizza @Eklispe

'Wait a minute, where am I even going?' Dar thought as he reached the main gate. It suddenly occurred to him that even though he had decided to go meet this boss killing group, or rather a "suicide group" as it may be, he didn't really know how to track down where he was going. It made him feel dumb, but Dar hadn't really explored much of the UI in this game yet.

He stopped by the main gate to take a quick look through his interface. It seemed like he could send friend requests to other players over large distances, even mass party invites like the one he had gotten. That was a given obviously. Still, what was he trying to accmomplish right now? Should he really go all the way to where the group was by himself? Now that the stakes had been raised, everything seemed so much more dire. What kind of terrible end would it be to be ganked by a group of low level mobs?

It was then that Dar noticed that he wasn't alone. He looked up and saw someone else wandering about nearby, apparently with the intent to leave town as well. He seemed a bit shell shocked, not that Dar could blame him. After what they had just been told. They were all apart of this death game now. Some cruel, twisted virtual reality that was created just so some man could play God. How could you not have an adverse reaction to that.

"I don't know about you, but I'm expecting a refund when I get out of here." Dar joked to the other player. As soon as he would have gotten his attention, Dar would give a shrug and an awkward smile.

"It seems like some people aren't taking it laying down though. I'm not sure if I want to join them, but I want to get out of this town, away from all this chaos. How about you?" Dar asked. He took a step forward toward the other player before stopping him. He realized he was being very rude all of a sudden.

"Oh uh, sorry. Name's W...Dar. Dar, that's my name. Who are you?" Dar asked. He had almost given out his real name. It was weird, but when he was speaking like this it was harder not to act normal. In a regular MMO you could easily avoid giving out your real name, but here if you wanted an alias you had to actively use it verbally as well as through text.

@lupusintus

Akira someone managed to clear the crowds, though he could still hear the faint cries in the distance. People really weren't taking this whole 'trapped in a death-game' thing very well and he couldn't blame them. This man, Kayaba, was surely some sort of psychopath and if he ever managed to escape he would see that his father used every resource available to ruin the game developer and everyone associated with him.

If he escaped.

The thought was not a pleasant one and Akira felt his heart-rate increase at the prospect of facing creatures far worse than boars with nothing but a virtual knife and his wits. 'No.' He steadied himself, his mouth drawing into a thin line of determination. 'Even my wits would be enough.' In a way, Kayaba was the same as his own father; a man bent on forcing others into his vision and one with enough power to make it so. The comparison brought a taste of bile into his mouth and the young man knew he would not surrender to these people who sought to control him. He was the one who would be in control. He was smarter, he was faster, he was better and he would not so easily submit to his own death; physically or mentally.

Akira passed through the gate and once again stepped out into the open fields around the starter city, though in the fading light the muted colors seemed far more intimidating than before. He wasn't sure exactly how the game's day/night cycle worked, though he did see it appeared to be based on real-time, but he suspected he'd find more than just boars out there once the darkness really settled in. He was debating on the best course of action when a voice suddenly drew his attention. It was a tall brown-haired man, close in age to himself by his appearance, and Akira's dark eyes quickly sized him up before responding in a calm and collected manner, so well spoken it sounded like someone reading from a script. "Yes, well I certainly expect to receive quite a bit of... compensation after this." This person, 'Dar' as he was called, could be exactly what he needed to get out of the city and ahead of the general mess of other players. "Geist." He said with a slight bow of his head. "In times like these ignorant people tend to react negatively to the situation, and I was hoping to get away from that as quickly as possible... Do you happen to know where the next, eh... 'level' of this game is? Another town, perhaps?" Geist cursed himself for his lack of understanding video game lingo and SAO's overall structure; if he'd known he'd be trapped he'd have done a sufficient amount of research so as not be ill-prepared when dealing with these sorts of people. Of course, if he'd known he'd be trapped he probably wouldn't have played the game to begin with.

@Grayscythe

Lincoln made his way out of the bar. The Town of Beginnings streets were busy. It seems like most players decided to stick to Floor 1 and just give up. Lincoln couldn't think of starting a life here. He pushed himself through the crowds, even saw some players creating a party to go out and fight. When he finally got outside the walls, he forgot he had a bunch of crap he needed to sell. Back inside. Lincoln pushed his way back inside the city and to the nearest vendor. "Well how'ya doin'?" The man at the vendor blissfully said. "Good. I am here to sell some things." Lincoln opened his menu, checking all the things he wanted to sell. Once he sold it, the man in the vendor was even happier, if that is possible, "Thanks for the business, have a nice day!" It is crazy how the players all of a sudden are just living life here. And wishing people nice days.

Lincoln pushed himself out of the town once again, and this time, he followed the path to the next town. On the way, he of course killed some Boars. It feels good killing the animals and walking. It made himself feel like he is actually doing something. After walking for a good amount of time, Lincoln's feet began to hurt. After a while, he decided to take a rest and sit on the side of the path. He found a rock and sat on it. Opening up his menu, he got some food that he paid someone to cook back at town. Lincoln wanted to savor this beef, so he took bite-by-bite, slowly eating it.

@Savo@Caits@Little_ninja

- Ritaka -
As Umichi explained what skills were to Aikoto, Ritaka looked back at the center of town. The people were clearing, either going off to train, buy supplies, or just go to the inn. Looking, Ritaka realized how many children were trapped in this game. Surely nobody would make them fight. What was going to happen to them?

It wasn't until then that Ritaka realized how much of a death game this was. It might take months for them to finish. Then Suki voiced his thoughts.

"The children... What's going to happen to them?" Suki asked.
"We need some people to stay behind and watch our for them. We can't just have fighters, we'll need all sorts of people if we're going to survive." Ritaka answered grimly. How were they going to organize ten thousand people? They needed a leader, but there was no way someone would be able to lead this chaos.

"We need to move on if we want to get Geniku before it get's too dark." Ritaka said, but he didn't move. He was still watching the people in the square, deep in thought.

@ItsToppyTippers
@PKMNB0Y

Before Lao knew it, some one had already accepted his call. It surprised him, he did not expect someone to actually believe him. Lao glanced at were he thought Rey was, but she was already gone. Lao glanced at her Health Bar on the left side of his view, it seemed to full. He assumed that if she were to be attacked, she would survive, hopefully. A small chime rang about once again, another person had accepted, Dar. An unusual name, but he knew better than to talking about others choice in titles.

Lao was suddenly thrown out of his own thoughts when he heard a small voice call out to him. Was he hearing things, was this a glitch? It was not, it was Ayame, the Player that accepted his friend request first. She had introduced herself, despite already knowing that, Lao struggled to hold his tongue, not wanting to comment on how he had already knew her name. It scared him a little to know that she pretty much expected him to protect her, but he was the one that called her over. "Nice to meet you Ayame, as you know I'm Lao'Jax." he said the a smile.

Another small chime rang out, a third had accepted his request. They would have a party of 5, almost a full party of 6, if any more came, they would just make another, if need be. Lao could not help but wonder if because people assumed he was going to fight the boss at the moment, they thought they were gonna die. The message was not very detailed and assumptions like that could be made. Lao shrugged stand up, opening the interface, he equipped his <<One-Handed Blade>>, and his armor, it was a short yellow shaw that came down to his elbows, underneath was a tight leather chestplate, his blade strapped to the small of his back, and he was set. Right then Rey appeared, "Glad to see that you are back! Now, looks like your are the only person who accepted and came, anyone else can still find use...I think. That's Rey, and this is Ayame." Lao said scratching that back of his head and he introduced one another. "Alright! We need to hit a higher level to take on the boss. With that said, grinding would be our best bet. But Quests will give us better items work with. he explained, most of his knowledge was from reading the guide. "We should head to «Tolbana», we could probably make it before night, there should be a quest their also. On are way their we are gonna have to go through the Field of Crossroads, another place perfect for grinding. So how about it? he proclaimed, grinning, he was pretty happy about his plan, they may be able to hit level 5 or six with all the enemies that are their. "But if we cannot make it by nightfall, we should pass Geniku on out way, we could stop their and rest.

"Yeah I know what you mean..." Dar said solemnly about the "ignorant" comment. When in a panic, people could react in really crazy ways. His mind flashed back to all of the people who thought this was some big joke and had thrown themselves off a ledge back at the plaza already. It was impossible for Dar to figure out if they were right or not, but could he really take that chance?

'No, I can't. I have to survive. And I can't do that alone.' Dar thought as he snapped back to listen to the rest of Geist's statement. It didn't sound like he was super familiar with how this game worked. Then again he wasn't one to talk. While Dar had kept up with the beta progress and various review sites that had talked about SAO before launch, he was still a noob himself. Still, he wondered how many people had been drawn in who weren't super familiar with video games to begin with? That was also a scary thought, what if there were children here? Young children, and now they were stuck in this horrible situation. The thought made Dar sick to his stomach.

Still, he kept a level head as he brought up his map.

"Let's see.....we're here so..." Dar mused as he went through the map. He needed to set a clear goal. That group wanted to meet at the edge of the grasslands, but it looked like Geniku was the next closest town. It didn't seem that special but it might get him away from the chaos. Wait just him? Maybe he should team up with Geist. But he was already in a group, should he ditch that one? Did Geist even want to team up with him? He had just met this guy.

"Geniku. It's here, see?" Dar said as he moved over to Geist with his pulled up map so he could view the screen.

"Nothing special, but it's away from here at least. The next major town is probably...this way. But you don't want to go that way yet. Not when it will be dark soon. That'll take you through the forest, it'll be too easy to get ganked there." Dar said, drawing his finger across the map up to Horunka would be. He remembered reading a blog from a beta tester about how Horunka was the first town of interest. It was a hunting village, that would be a good place to go to get some good quests and possibly farm for materials to make better gear.

When it was all said and done, Dar put his map away and turned to Geist.

"Pardon me for saying this, but you don't sound like you're super familiar with MMOs, am I right?" Dar asked. It was blunt, but he didn't really know any other way to ask it at this point. He was no expert himself but if he could help this guy, maybe they'd both be better off.

@LupusIntus

-Makoto Aiko/Aikoto-

As the boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, absolutely clueless and irritated, Suki and Umichi were incredibly polite enough to give the boy a detailed explanation of both sides to his question. Suki spoke of a basic one in his guide book, and promptly openned up his menu and procured the guidebook he gained a few hours ago. He eyed the one map she had while searching for his own, eventually coming upon his own regular map. Aikoto compared his own to hers, finding it to be a bit more advanced than the one shown. At the mention of col, he did recall something along the lines of that appearing on his screen, along with xp gained. The boy really didn't know what it was truly for, but now he could resolutely come up to the conclusion that it was this worlds currency. He did manage to get some through the enemies he managed to slay, although most of them were unneccesary risks in that challenge which caused him to blow off most of these potions that healed you. It was sort of worth it in the end since he managed to outdo them in leveling, but he probably couldn't take more risks in letting his health become red as now there was a chance of death.

The boy swiftly closed his guidebook, and stored it back in his inventory for later use as their were much more important things to attend to. Umichi thankfully gave him an explanation on skills which evoked him to opening up his menu yet again, and began his search for the tab. He easily came upon it, and opened it up to find that he had two skills on him at the moment, one saying <<One-Handed Straight Sword>> just as he made mention of it before, the other being <<Battle Healing>>. Finding the <<Battle Healing>> to be of no use to him currently, he went into another tab and took note of the other abilities he currently had on him, replacing it with <<Sprint>>. He didn't notice any of these things which could be considered profession skills which meant to him that they would probably learnt at another time. He quickly exited the tab, smiling to Umichi and Suki as his way of showing appreciation and exited out of the skills tab. Before he could take a further step forward he was interrupted by a child crying along with Suki questioning what would happen in a melancholic way.

This provoked sudden thought in his mind over the current predicament over those who couldn't defend themselves in this realm. He heard their frail cries, pleading to reunite with their parents, relatives, friends in the life beyond the machine. Suddenly with another swipe, he opened up his menu, not even silently uttering a single word to them. Aikoto then pulled up his friends list and looked through the list of six he added and found his real life friends. As he clicked on Kazunova, Yuki, and Hibiskus a console was opened up, and from what anyone could discern he was sending a message to each of them, questioning them on their status of if they found a group yet or not. He could only hope that his friends would go along with his idea and trust him. As he awaited for them to return his message, Aikoto pivoted around to face his group of allies, finding that everyone else except Umichi was paralyzed by this thought. As he exited from the menu, he decided to tear them from their trance, knowing full well that there was only one thing they could do for now.

"Suki, Ritaka you guys don't need to worry about that as I've got a plan for the future. Don't worry over the children, nor having an abundance of fighters as there will be a correct amount of people playing for each role. I'll attempt to set up jobs for some of my friends that they will do, ranging from gathering, caring for the children, etc. The only thing we have to worry about is ourselves now as we will be playing the role of fighters, mercenaries, you name it. We can also go our own ways, either being a cook or whatever at times, but we will play that job mainly for the sake of others. I don't know about you, but that's the way I'm going to go since I'm very efficient at times... Lets go guys, we have no time to waste here. The quicker we make it through this floors, the quicker everyone can leave this game, including the children."

As he finished his statement in a calm and serious fashion, he beckoned them to follow him, finding no need to linger around this city. As Aikoto was walking away, a few received messages appeared on his screen, and he clicked to find that they were all less than successful in this ordeals. He let out a partial sigh, slightly glad they wern't in a party yet. As he followed after Umichi, he began inputing another message to them about roles, Aikoto hoping they would go along with his idea as they were the only people he knew that he could rely on other the people in his party currently. As he finished the message, he closed out his menu, and continued moving forward, drawing his sword in preparation for any battles ahead. As he moved forward, he pondered on the possibilities, slightly looking down and sighing to himself before uttering something silent to himself.

"Please guys, I know I can count on you, so please go along with this..."

Fujiwara opened his mouth to comment on the abruptness of her request, but instead decided to keep quiet and massage his forehead as the girl ran off to go recruit someone else to go do a pseudo-fetch quest for her. Like... That kind of reaction wasn't the kind of thing he'd ordinarily expect if they were knocked down out of nowhere like that. Maybe some lecturing, some shouting, some yelling... But not a sudden commission like that, no.

"Geez... What the heck was that all about?" he muttered to himself as he walked over to his weapon and pulled it out of the ground. Examining it for any damage (luckily, there wasn't anything that threatened the weapon's integrity or anything), Fujiwara quietly sheathed his blade as he glanced over at the two girls about to head over to the swamps... Or, well, what they supposed to be swamps.

"Well... Guess I've got nothing to lose. 'cept, y'know, my life and all that. But sure." he said, shrugging as he followed behind the pair. "Though I do have to ask... You guys think there's any place to rest once night hits? Guard duty's a pain in the ass, especially in hostile PvE environments..."

@KoL@Asuna Yuuki


Ayame bowed towards Rey in standard introductory fashion before turning towards Lao'Jax as he began to go into details about his plan. Though she could understand his schedule for the most part, Ayame made a mental note of herself to start learning some of the terminology that wasn't commonplace in everyday language. What she did catch, she only remembered from her brief conversations with Hideki as he went on and on about what he played whenever they chatted online. Well, it wasn't as if she wasn't going to learn this eventually.

"I... Think that's a good idea..." Ayame trailed off, pulling up her map and beginning to calculate some things in her head. "It... Shouldn't take much more than a few hours to do all of that, I believe, but given the relative distance between locations, the mobility of a group of three, and the detours we'll likely take along the way..."

Closing her map, Ayame sighed and looked back at her two party members. "Geniku seems to be the most reasonable place to stop for the night. Not entirely sure if we can reach Tolbana before things become too dark tonight."

@LokiLeo789@ItsToppyTippers