Two months after the 10,000 players were trapped in Sword Art Online, Erios found herself alone on the 20th floor, living among the player and NPC houses. Mason had disappeared one night; he left to go XP grinding, but he never returned. Erios assumed that he had been killed, and that only sent her into a worse state of fear. Not only was she trapped in this death game, she was now without her protector and love. She'd searched for him for almost 2 weeks straight; during which she had leveled up her hiding, searching, and sprinting skill. She found it easier to outrun and hide from the monsters than to fight them one-on-one.
Erios wandered from the house, out onto the streets of the town. She made her way to the cafe, and sat herself down inside, placing her order to the waitress. She sat in silence and looked around; players of all shapes and sizes occupied the cafe. She spotted a short, scrawny kid, younger than her, looking like he'd not eaten anything in his life. Across the table, speaking the kid, sat a tall man with well toned muscles, almost the opposite of the kid. Erios observed that the kid looked taller than her; which was not impressive, considering she came in at a whopping 5'4".
She saw a group of players walk in, all of them armed to the teeth. There had been rumors going around about an alleged attack on level 20's boss to clear the floor today. Erios wondered if this was true. She hoped it was, as it would bring everyone a floor closer to going home.
When they'd first started the game, Mason had told her that she should turn herself into a speed fighter and help the frontlines like he planned to do. She resorted to not do that. She would only get in the way and get herself and someone else killed...