Chapter 1: The City of Beginnings

A huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky.

That was all this world was.

It took a varied group of craftsmen one month to survey the place; the diameter of the base floor was about 10 kilometres, large enough that the entirety of Setagaya-ku would fit on it. Above, there were 100 floors stacked directly on top of each other; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.

Inside, there were a couple of large cities, countless small towns and villages, forests, plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways were in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed, so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone broke through and arrived at a city in the higher floor, the <<Teleport Gates>> there and in every city in the lower floors would connect, making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.

The name of the castle was «Aincrad»; a floating world of battles with swords that had claimed the lives of approximately six thousand people. Otherwise known as...
<<Sword Art Online>>

This is my story, a story of brothers in arms... brothers in mind and not in blood. The bond between comrades in battle is an unbreakable one, it strengthens with each passing struggle. You would never have caught me saying something like that two years ago, but experiencing the trauma the events within the so called game <<Sword Art Online>> inflicted on the minds of so many people… it’s safe to say it’s changed me… I sound way too cheesy but even I can’t deny what happened within the stone and metal walls of that monolithic castle known as Aincrad.

*Scene Break*

“Come on Dorian! When are we going to go hunt some real monsters?” I groan after dispatching yet another Wild Boar with one strike. These monsters are supposed to be similar to slimes in other games, in other words; WEAKLINGS! Dorian, my friend, sighs at me again. His face tells me he’s annoyed but I know he’s bored of mindlessly killing Boars too.

Dorian's avatar is nothing like what he looks like in reality. His avatar has long, dark blue hair tied into a pony tail and he has a small blue goatee hanging from his chin. When I first saw him like this I couldn’t stop laughing! It was so ridiculous!

“For the last time Naga-Chan…” I give a slight growl at that name… I’m ashamed to admit this but… it’s my Username. I lost a bet to Dorian a day before SAO’s release… I don’t want to talk about it… “Sword Art Online was only released today and we aren’t even level 2 yet. Everyone starts somewhere! There’s 10,000 other players in the same situation so just suck it up” He practices some swings with his sword and then activates a simple sword skill to slash at the umpteenth Boar… I almost feel sorry for the little weaklings, they get endlessly butchered for EXP and they can’t do much about it. If I were them, I’d at least try some crotch shots…

I slouch my shoulders and kick at the ground. This is boring… so much for the “Must-Have” Sword Art Online. These starting swords are puny too! I’m surprised they haven’t shattered already. I prefer bigger, two-handed blades. They can deal way more damage than weak little one-handed swords. Of course I’m not completely ignorant to the usefulness of a one-handed sword user, they are great for support. They can dip in, deal a lot of damage very quickly and dip out before the enemy has any idea what hit him. Dorian prefers the one handed route and I respect that… he’s always been a supportive character… weak and lousy in an all-out fight but he’s very useful in a big skirmish. I can’t wait to get stuck into the real game!

“Dorian, let’s get back to <<Starting City>> maybe there’s some low level specialist equipment going cheap in the item store” I suggest. To be honest, I just don’t want to slaughter boars any more. I wonder if there’s any novice quests we can do… anything’s better than this. Dorian sheaths his sword and exhales heavily. He gives a nod and we begin walking towards the giant walled city in the near distance.

From what we’ve seen of <<Starting City>> it’s pretty heavily inspired by a medieval city with tons of back alleys and alcoves. Market stalls line nearly every street but most of them aren’t open for player use… in other words they’re aesthetic stalls. At the centre of this city is the <<Black Iron Castle>> I’m not really sure what purpose it serves but I’m pretty sure that there’s a pretty cool secret to it, maybe a really high level dungeon… or maybe even the first floor boss is somewhere in there. The probability of that is next to zero but one can wish at least.

As we arrive at Starting City’s main gate something manages to catch my eye. Two boys are walking towards the Boar Fields Dorian and I just left. The one on the right is wearing a blue starting outfit and has styled black hair. If I had to hazard a guess at his age… it’d probably be somewhere in his twenties… of course it’s just a customized avatar, he’s probably a similar age to me. The guy on the left has a slightly more… rugged look to him. He’s mainly dressed in red and has long, straight red hair with a bandana tied around his forehead. His chin sports a small patch of stubble too. The red head is talking excitedly and walking with a big stride and hands behind his head. The black haired boy just smiles and occasionally gives a small chuckle.

“If you’re going out into the Boar Fields, don’t bother, it’s boring out there” I convey to them. They simply stop their conversation momentarily to acknowledge my statement then continue walking… rude… I’m simply trying to save them a wasted trip! I wonder why those two in particular caught my eye… probably just a strange act of nature.

The back alleys of Starting City really confuse me. You’d need to have a photographic memory to get around this place without getting completely lost. Luckily there are town maps everywhere so it isn’t that bad. We manage to get to the Player’s Marketplace and find a small little shop that is labelled as an Item Shop. Inside looks a lot like an old antique shop but swords and shields replacing dolls and clocks. I think I’ll go browse the two-handed section… wow…

(Well this is underwhelming…)

These blades look just as feeble as the one I already have! Well… I guess that’s to be expected… I’m not even level 2 yet so I probably won’t be able to get a good sword until I’ve levelled a bit. Dorian comes up behind me and pats me on the shoulder. I turn to face him and in his hand are two small leather bound books. He has a smile on his face for some reason.

“These are a free give away item. It’s a guidebook filled with tips from the beta testers!” Great… reading…

“This is an RPG… not a library…” I can’t exactly refuse… a guidebook is always useful for beginners. Maybe I’ll thumb through it later. Right now, all I want to do is fight something big! “Thanks for picking me one up though. How about we go get a quest?” I ask. Dorian nods enthusiastically. We might as well get something productive done on the first day.

*Scene Break*

“Well that was a waste of effort and time…”

That completely sucked. The only quests we could find were those generic tutorial ones that you can find in most RPG’s. Kill X number of Boars, Bake a loaf of bread, Deliver this quest item to this shop owner… crappy little errands for stupid NPC’s. I love RPG’s but I hate the beginnings of most of them. At first, it’s fun slaughtering innocent Boars but then it dries up and begins to get a little boring… no pun intended. Once the character specialities become available to me… no one will be able to pull me away from the Nerve-Gear.

All we’re doing now is sat on the outskirts Starting City looking up at the setting sun. I still can’t believe this is actually a game! Kayaba Akihiko is a pure genius!
Kayaba Akihiko is the development director of <<Sword Art Online>>. He is also the designer of the <<Nerve-Gear>> and the <<VR Seed>>. Aside from research and development, Kayaba's hobbies are cooking and Go (the board game). The first RPG Kayaba played was an old RPG known as Wizardry. It apparently played an influence on the development of Sword Art Online.  I’m a little bit of a fan of his and I know pretty much everything there is to know about him! I’m a little ashamed about it but… I’m a serious RPG gamer so who cares?

I open up the SAO interface by swiping my right hand downwards. The small white menu box follows my fingers and floats in front of me. A clock also appears on the right of the small box… it’s almost 5:00pm… maybe I should call it a day.

“Hey Dorian… we should log out. It’s a big pain in the ass but I still have a ton of homework to get through for tomorrow” Dorian sighs and I grunt

“What have I told you about getting homework done before you play games?” wow… he sounds like my older sister… “I’m pretty sure that’s what your parents would say… if they were…” he trails off and I know why… he’s still a little uncomfortable talking about that…

“Still alive… yeah, I know. I have my older sister to take care of me so it’s not all bad. But my little sister all ways wants me to play with her when I’m not linked into the Nerve-Gear… she can get a little annoying at times” it’s true. My parents are both dead. They were killed in a pretty bad car wreck quite a long time ago. I didn’t get to see my Dad a lot because he worked late and my Mum was usually busy with her Neurology MD work. In fact the only real parental figure in my early life was my older sister… and now she is the only parental figure in my life. Dorian chuckles warmly.

“You should consider yourself lucky! I’d give my front teeth to trade places with you! You’re living with two cute girls and you don’t even think that much of it!”

“Ayumi is 21 and Chizuru is 14, Dorian… get your mind out of the gutter…” we both share a laugh. Dorian is always trying to hit on my big sister, Ayumi, it usually results in Dorian being hit or kicked… sometimes both. I click on the little button that says “Options” and scroll down to where the… wait… what?

(It’s not here…)

I shake my head frantically and close the menu. Then, with another downwards sweep of my hand, I go back into the menu… it’s still not there… a bug? I turn to Dorian. “Is your <<Log Out>> button working?” he gives me a confused look and opens his own menu. A few seconds later his face turns worried.

“No… it’s not there”

(What’s going on?)

I try to search though the different menus in the interface to try and find some sort of emergency log out button… I can’t find anything though. Within a Nerve-Gear game, A player can only exit the game via the <<Log Out>> button in the Options menu… if it’s not there, then…

“So… we’re trapped?” I ask… I have to admit, I’m kind of getting worried

“It’s probably just a bug. SAO has only just come out of beta testing… there’s bound to be a few bugs and glitches” Dorian tries to remain calm. If it is a bug then it’s a pretty huge bug. 10,000 people are currently logged into SAO… if a bug is causing the Log Out button to not function… that’s 10,000 people trapped within a game!

“Should we call a game master? Maybe they can fix it?” I suggest

“One step ahead of you!” I can see on Dorian’s small interface that he’s making an in game call. A few seconds pass and still nothing “no one’s answering…” well that’s not exactly surprising. If people are finding out about this bug, the Game Masters are probably drowning in phone calls and messages.

(This doesn’t make any sense!)

Suddenly, blue light begins shine around the both of us. It shines brighter and brighter and I feel myself being lifted off the ground gently… this must be a teleportation, but to where? I suddenly feel like my stomach is being squeezed from the inside and I get the feeling of being forced through a tight plastic tube as my vision is engulfed by the bright blue light.

“Whoa!” I hit the floor with a thud and it sends me into a small roll… if that’s what SAO’s teleportation feels like… I want to avoid that at all costs! I look around to try and figure out where we were teleported to… wait… this is Starting City’s main plaza! There’s loads of people here as well… and more keep teleporting in with a similar fashion to me… what’s going on? Maybe it’s an emergency mass log out… I hope so…

Dorian helps me up and he looks just as confused as I am… actually… so does everyone around us. Just what the hell is going on?

“What do you suppose is happening?” Dorian asks with worry seeping into his voice. I put a hand on his shoulder

“My guess is; they’re going to force log out everyone… I hope” to be honest… this might be just a scheduled opening event… if it is that… then the game masters don’t know about this game-breaking bug!

“Whoa,” suddenly the whole plaza seems to glow an ominous red. Small, blood red, elongated octagons start to appear in the sky above the plaza. They spawn until not a single piece of sky can be seen through the barrier of crimson shapes. I look a little closer at the shapes and I can just about make out the phrases [Warning] and [System Announcement]

“So they do know about the bug…” I say to myself. Nothing happens for a few seconds… wait… a liquid starts to pour out of the spaces between the octagons, it is also red and it oozes out rather than pours out… wait… is that… blood!?

The dark red liquid pours… or oozes… out with increasing speed and then it starts to form a big lump in the middle of the air within the dome. It grows bigger and bigger until it suddenly starts to morph into a somewhat humanoid figure. Then, a dark red robe seems to just… appear around the figure… completely out of nowhere… what the hell is this? Is it a GM? I can hear the concerned voices around me voicing their thoughts

“What’s happening?”

“What is that thing?”

“It’s a GM… isn’t it?”

“Why doesn’t it have a face?”

“Dorian… don’t suppose that guidebook has anything in it about a giant, over-the-top, robed figure?” I ask. Dorian simply shakes his head and then gulps. I can feel a lump form in the back of my throat… this robed figure unsettles me and I can literally feel the fear of everyone around the both of us. Suddenly the assumed GM spreads it’s arms wide open. Pure white gloves form around its hands as he does so.

[Players, I welcome you all to my world]

That booming voice completely takes me off guard and I feel myself jumping… and that declaration, <<my world>> doesn’t help settle me either. I can see the worried looks around me too. Everyone has their eyes practically glued to the floating faceless GM.
The anonymous robe lowers its arms and continues on with his speech

[My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.]

Wait… did I just hear that correctly? That’s Kayaba Akihiko? Wait… taking from my vast knowledge of Kayaba, I know he stays behind the scenes and I hear he wasn’t a GM in the beta test despite being the development director of SAO. So… why is he here? I feel a wrenching in my gut… something bad is obviously about to happen…

[I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is a feature of <<Sword Art Online>>]

“What does he mean by feature?” I hear Dorian ask over my shoulder. I shush him quickly but the players around me are all starting to get a little riled up… Dorian raises a good question… just what does he mean by feature, what kind of game features a lack of a log out button?

Kayaba continues his speech like he isn’t even aware of the worried chatter. The booming voice seems to cut right through it.

[Until you clear the 100 floors of Aincrad, you cannot log out of Sword Art Online from your own free will]

I freeze up…

[...Also, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted…]

I can’t breathe…

[The signal sensors in your Nerve-Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.]

I feel sick… if I understand that correctly… if someone tries removing the Nerve-Gear… our brains will be microwaved!

“Is that even possible!?” I hear someone shout… I don’t even know… it’s true that the signal sensors in the Nerve-Gear do work a little like the nerve impulses inside or brains… but to emit an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to destroy the brain… it doesn’t seem plausible… but this is Kayaba Akihiko, the genius that designed the Nerve-Gear… but… why is he doing this?

[To be a little more specific, disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to: unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve-Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the Nerve Gear. The result...]

A short and oddly regretful breath sounds from the void inside the hood…

[...regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever.]

I hear a high pitched scream from somewhere in the vast crowd… but no one even moves a muscle. They all stand and stare at Kayaba with slack jaws… I… don’t believe this… this is crazy! I want to be able to not believe it… but why would Kayaba just lie to us for no reason… so… he’s telling the truth? 213 players have already died? Voices around me become panicked… I’m starting to panic too… and I’m sure Dorian is feeling the same way… my mind becomes clouded with all the information I’m being presented with… it’s too much for anyone to even bare.

[Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve-Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game.]

Is he… serious? He thinks we can relax!? He’s told us we’re trapped inside this game with no means of escape… and he wants us to relax!? My admiration towards Kayaba is quickly turning into hatred… I’m still unable to put my thoughts into words… the shock has just… frozen me in place…

[But I ask of you all to understand that <<Sword Art Online>> is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality.... From now on, any forms of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time...]

… I can tell where this is going…

[… Your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve-Gear.]

Suddenly I can’t stop thinking about all the times I’ve died in other games… I’d just re-spawn and get back to the fight, that’s how most RPG’s work, you die and learn and retry… but with these conditions… why would anyone want to go out of the city gates again?

(Once you are killed… that’s the end…)

A green bar appears at the top left of my vision with the numbers 342/342 next to it… it’s my HP bar. If that drops to 0, I’m dead!

Going back to my original thought… wouldn’t it be easier if we all just stayed in Starting City?

As if reading the minds of everyone in the area, Kayaba continues on

[Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word.]

Silence… the silence of 10,000 dumbstruck players…

However much I try to accept all this… something at the back of my mind tells me this is impossible… Just five or six hours ago, I had eaten the meal that my big sister made, shared a short conversation with my little sister, then walked up the stairs of my house.
Now I can't go back to all that? And this is now the real reality? Impossible… how is Ayumi going to handle this? She’s way to protective over me… she might ignore the warnings and try removing the Nerve-Gear! No… she’s not that stupid… I’m thankful that she’s got a good head on her shoulders.

[I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this.]

I unconsciously open up the menu and look into my inventory… what’s this? A single item is listed in my inventory… a game item known as <<Hand Mirror>>. I click on it and a small square mirror with a blue border appears in my hands… what’s this supposed to prove?
I cock my head and look at Dorian. My friend is also looking at the mirror in his hand with a blank expression... Then.

Suddenly Dorian and the avatars around us are engulfed in white light. As soon as I take this in, I am surrounded too and all I can see was white. What the hell is this!?

Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been... except… everyone looks totally different…

“Dorian… that’s how you look in real life!” I point at him. Instead of the long blue hair and goatee, Dorian now has his real neat black hair and hairless chin. He points at me too

“You to!”

So this is what the Hand Mirror does… I bring up the mirror to my face and I’m shocked to see the all too familiar face. Wild, chocolate brown hair that hardly ever gets brushed, hazel eyes and a moderately toned jaw. It isn’t too different from what I set my avatar to be but my avatar had forest green hair.

“Wait… how does it know our heights and sizes?” I ask, I know that the Nerve-Gear does do a full head scan but that doesn’t explain how it knows what we actually look like.

“Remember… we had to calibrate the Nerve-Gear by touching our body all over” Dorian starts to touch his elbow, shoulders and other joints. I guess that would make sense… this technology is amazing… but I’m instantly reminded by the one soul fact… we’re trapped here with no means of escape! I scratch my head… only one thought resides in my mind

“Why the hell is he doing all this? There must be some motive towards it!”

Dorian shrugs then looks up at Kayaba. “He’ll probably explain it shortly…”

[You will all most likely be wondering, “Why.” Why am I, the creator of both the Nerve-Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?]

Terrorism? Hostages? Anyone with common sense wouldn’t come to that conclusion… he’s created a virtual world and trapped 10,000 people inside it. It’s simple!

[None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only that, but now, for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.]

In other words… he wants to play god…

[...Now, I have finished the official tutorial for <<Sword Art Online>>. Players, I wish you luck]

Kayaba’s voice trailed off into a murmur with that final statement. Then… the red robe sort of explodes and Kayaba is no longer floating around. The red hue that covers the Plaza slowly returns to normal and the red octagons quickly disappear. Everyone remains silent… this can either go one of two ways… 1; A full scale riot or 2; We quietly disperse and...

“Dorian… we need to go, this powder keg is gonna blow” I grab Dorian by the wrist and pull him with me. We quickly make our way out of the Plaza and into Starting City’s back alleys. Behind us… I hear a real reaction… in other words 10,000 panicked yells and cries… it’s evy man for himself back there… It looks like it took the full scale Riot route…

After a few minutes walking at a quickened pace, we eventually stop. Dorian hasn’t spoken a word… to be honest… I’m cracking up. Kayaba has pretty much just committed mass homicide…

“This… is a joke right?” Dorian asked feebly “it has to be a joke… right?” I can see in his eyes he’s losing it… but I can’t sugar coat it…

“No, Kayaba Akihiko would nev…”

“IT HAS TO BE A JOKE!” Dorian screams at me… there’s nothing I can do. Anger bubbles in the bottom of my stomach… I need to hit something!

“GRAGH!” I launch my fist into the nearest wall with a satisfying thud. A small, purple, elongated octagon pops up saying <<Immortal Object>>. I ignore the pop up and punch at the wall repeatedly. More of the stupid octagons show up… they only manage to make me more angry. “This isn’t a game! Not anymore… it’s a game of life… or…” I choke up…

“A <<Death Game>>…” Dorian says quietly…

“GOD DAMN IT!” I yell and slam both of my fists ant the wall… “God… damn it…”

I recover from my rage a few seconds later and my mind clears up… time to think logically… “Ok…If what he said was true, in order to survive in this world we have to strengthen ourselves. You know that MMORPGs are a battle for resources between the players. Only the people who can acquire the most money and experience can get stronger.... The people who've realized this are going to hunt all the monsters around the Starting City. You'll have to wait forever for the monsters to re-spawn. Going to the next village right now would be better… let’s find our way there as soon as possible!” I know this because of my vast experience of playing MMORPG’s. Dorian hangs his head… he’s losing resolve.

*Crack*

My hand makes contact with his cheek. “Listen! We are going to survive! We are going to get strong and we are going to bust out of this game! If you give up now, I will never forgive you!” Dorian just stands there with his face angled slightly to the left. A few seconds later he shakes his head as if to shake something off… has he snapped out of it?

“You’re right… let’s just… get out of this city…” he then gives a small smile “maybe we can kill some boars on the way too” I laugh

“Good to have you back Dorian!” I pat him on the back and we head off… the Death Game has begun… and so has our Chronicles…

We run down the dirt road on the plains around Starting City. Our minds are focused solely on becoming stronger! Determination is the only force driving us forward… we will get through this… we will survive…

“Naga-Chan, Wolf up a head!” we both charge up our sword skills and give a resonating battle cry. The wolf shatters into beautiful shards of light after a few seconds… we continue to run… to the future! I sound way to cliché…