November was it? Yes, It was November 6th when Sword Art Online was released to the public. Every person (Including myself) who pre-registered for it got our hands on it first, hence we were the first to launch into the game that would keep us there for Two Years.

I was in my bedroom when I launched Sword Art Online, I was nervous at first but it slowly began to subside when I had enough courage to say the words that would keep me in there, Link Start. I was then shot into the game of Sword Art Online, my beta character materializing in the Town of Beginnings. My username was quite the sore sight for me as I hadn’t touched my beta character since the first beta launch.

Grimmous was my beta username, but I had changed it the day before, Kirin was the new username. I looked around with mixed emotions, seeing how clean the game was, how much the game looked so close to reality and how it could be sold as a reality experience.

My hud was a whole new experience for me to get used to, completely different than the beta but still some similarities. I began testing out the menu to see if anything else was different, sure enough, It was different with a whole new menu system. I quickly equipped an Iron Straight-sword and headed over to the fields, still a little wonky on walking in a Full-Dive game.

I almost tripped a couple of times and saw the fields flourishing with boars, wolves, and some rabbits. I didn’t set my sights on the fields, rather I set my sights on the forest not too far from the fields.

Boar Forest it was called, I headed over to Boar forest and noticed a bunch of beta players here as well. I unsheathed my straight-sword and ran towards an unexpecting boar.

Before my attempted attack could hit the boar, I was suddenly teleported to the Town of Beginnings, Falling face first into the ground and slightly damaging my sword’s durability onto the concrete floor. I sighed in disbelief as I began getting up from the ground.

“You gotta be kidding me..”

I thought to myself as I stood up and put my sword back in its sheath. I looked around quite confused at what was going on, seeing other players being teleported back to the Town of beginnings as well. I saw a female player who was in-front of me as I tapped her shoulder.

she turned around as I asked her “What is going on here” with a confused tone. She replied in a panicked tone, stuttering on her words “I-I don’t know, W-We were teleported back here like y-you” as I had a solid hunch on what was going on.

In about Two minutes, all the players within SAO were teleported back to the Town of Beginnings, I myself was also confused at the situation. Why would all the players be teleported to the Town of Beginnings? Then we all hear a couple of voices shout from the seamless, confused and scared crowd…

“Look! Look up at the sky!!”

“What the hell is that?!!”

Those were some of the voices I heard from the crowd as I also looked up at the sky. My eyes widened in horror, seeing the sky blood red with red hexagon warning signs covering it.

From the hexagon warning signs, came oozing out a red substance that then formed a gigantic entity with a red hood over their face floating above the entire Town. The entity then began to speak as we, the players, were forced to listen.

“Attention Players, My name is Kayaba Akihiko, You are in my world now. I'm sure you have already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. This is not a bug. I repeat this is not a bug. This is a feature of Sword Art Online. You can't log yourself out from the inside nor from the outside. If this is attempted the transmitter inside the nerve gear will emit a powerful microwave frequency, destroying your brain in the process and thus ending your life. Several players have attempted this, ignoring the warning and promptly killing the person. As a result, Two hundred and Thirteen Players are now gone from both Aincrad and the Real World.

As you can see, The news, and organizations all over the world, are now reporting this, thus the danger of removing the nerve gear is now at a minimum. Remember this, There is no longer a way to revive yourself or others in this game. If your HP drops to zero your avatar will be erased and simultaneously destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape, beat the game.

Currently, you are at the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you will be able to advance to the next floor. There are 100 floors in total, beat the boss on floor 100 and the game will be cleared.”

Everyone stood there silent, Horrified at the news that was shown to us, terrified at the fact that our lives were at stake, scared that we may never see our loved ones ever again. The Avatar that represented Kayaba then spoke,

“I have given you all a present, look at yourselves.”

Suddenly some beams of light began engulfing individual players, then kept it going, beginning to engulf all the players present. When the light went away, I was slightly shorter, I could see my bangs and people began to scream around me. I pulled up the item that was given to me, a mirror.

The item materialized in my hand as I looked at the mirror, seeing that my avatar looked like a replica of myself in the real world. From my brown hair, down to even my eye color, it was like I was looking at myself. I was horrified just as the other players were as Kayaba had more to say.

“The nervegear has copied your physical appearances into the game. Thus ends the tutorial of the game, Good Luck players."

Kayabas avatar then left the Town of Beginnings as the skies began to light up slightly as the hexagon signs faded off to obscurity. I began to tone out some of the commotion, hearing people crying and people regretting buying this game. I was scared, Scared that I myself could end up like the others that had perished already.

“Am… Am I going to die like them…?”

I thought to myself, scared to the point where I didn’t want to move a muscle out of the town. Even my beta experience didn’t prepare my mentality of the game being a game of life and death.

I clenched my hands into a fist as I was going to walk out of the safezone, I then heard a voice behind me.

“Oh hey!”

I turned to see a woman standing behind me, I looked at her confused as she said to me “You’re going to Boar Forest right?” as I nodded a bit confused. “Great! I can take you there!” She said excited as I was just even more confused at her enthusiasm, following behind her as she walked over to Boar Forest.

“I didn’t get your name back there, Care to tell me your name?” She said to me as I replied “It’s Kirin..” as she had a small smile on her face. “That's a nice name, My name is Rina” she said with a positive look, she turned around and put her hand out to me, I stopped to look at her hand and then looked back at her. “A Handshake to show that we’re on good terms” she said to me with a confronting voice, as I shook her hand. After that we headed into the forest, “I won’t be long, go and do what you need here while I’m still here.” Rina said politely as she headed on her way and I began heading out as well.

“That was a nice conversation..? Small talk??”

I thought to myself as I walked and heard hooves step in the way, I lost my train of thought as I looked and saw the wild boar. I quickly unsheathed my sword and swung at the boar, hitting it and dropping its health down, but it merely brushed it off and began rushing towards me.

I dodged out of the way to the left as it charged right, I got back up and swung again and again, dropping its health down more and more, into the yellow area. “I don’t remember these boars being this tough..” I thought as I blocked a ramming attack from the boar, knocking me off my feet. I fell back as I rolled out of the way of an incoming attack and got back up, picking up my sword and charging up a sword skill.

The boar began running towards me for another ramming attack as I sidestepped out of the way and vertically slashed down onto the boar's head, decapitating it. The boar's body then rammed into the ground as it fizzled and then dispersed into polygons. A small menu opened up showing the amount of EXP and COL I got out of it.

“Alright, I’ll just venture deeper..” I muttered underneath my breath and walked down a dirt pathway. As I walked down the dirt pathway, I looked up at the branches and saw the light go through each individual tree branch, “Such a beautiful world, but a cruel one beneath it..” I said to myself as I turned my attention to what was in-front of me, a passing player.

I waved at the player as the player waved back saying “you heading down that way?” as he was pointing behind him. “Yeah, do you know what’s down that way?” I said to him as he chuckled a bit.

“Yea, down there is just a bunch of Beta players tryna farm. No point in going down that way” The player said as I looked down the dirt path. He then looked at me and asked “Hey, what’s your name by the way?” as I looked back and replied.

“It’s Kirin.. What’s yours?”

The player looked at me and said “It’s Sato, Nice to meet you Kirin” as Sato and I shook hands. “Speaking of which, you got time on your hands?” Sato asked me out of the blue, I replied “Sure, what do you need?” as he opened up his menu. Sato closed his menu as he held up some herbs, “Can you help me pick up some more of these herbs?” Sato asked as I nodded, “Sure I can help” I said as we left to go look for some herbs.

After some time picking up herbs that were nearby, I looked up at the sky to see that the sun was setting down over the horizon, seeing the orange and reddish sky falling onto the world. I looked at Sato and handed him a couple more Herbs, which completed his quest.

“Thanks for helping me on the quest Kirin” Sato said with a smile on his face, I looked at him and nodded as I began to head down a different dirt path. “Hey wait for a second Kirin” Sato said as I stopped to hear a chime in my menu, I opened my menu to see a pending friend request from Sato.

I accepted the friend request as Sato then waved at me saying “Alright, I’m heading back to the Town of Beginnings now, You’ll find me at the Inn!” as he rushed off. I watched him run all the way down the other way as I turned and headed down my own separate path. Walking down that path I heard a scream and turned my attention towards it, stopping in my tracks.

I stood there trying to listen to the scream again, hearing nothing but the sound of the wind. “Must have been me..” I thought to myself as I turned my attention away from it, for more than a second I heard a scream for help. I then blitzed down the hill, making my way down to see if I could pinpoint where the call for help came from.

Hearing the scream once again, I made some tricky maneuvering around trees and bushes, using a beta maneuver exploit called Strafing, making sharp turns. The sounds of Boars eventually got louder as I pulled out my sword, reverse gripping the sword.

“HELP ME!!” A voice cried out as loud as possible, A female player had been running from a group of wild boars through the forest. She had tripped and fell down into the ground, dropping her weapon and braced for impact from the Boars.

“Hey…you alright!!” A voice shouted as I had made it in time to block a double ram, taking one head on and blocking another with the reverse grip sword. The female player looked at me as I grew irritated shouting at her “HEY! IF YOUR GONNA STAY HERE OR NOT!!” as she snapped out of it and got up, grabbing her sword and pointed it at them. “At least she has some fight..” I thought to myself as I pushed back both boars, leaving my health in yellow.

I flipped my sword around to get into a fighting stance, waiting for the boar to attack. Hearing a little whimpering from the girl, I turned my attention to her as she was shaking from fear. “She might be red if she’s this scared…” I thought as I turned my attention back to the boars and barely dodged a slam attack.

I then swung my sword and killed the boar in three hits, Getting caught off guard by the second boar. I fell to the ground with my health dropping down to red, I got back up on my feet and gripped my sword. I then heard something drop, turning my attention to the girl who was shaking moments before. She had fainted from a possible panic attack or something that would cause her to fall so abruptly.

“Great…” I thought to myself again as I dodged and slain the second wild boar quite easily this time. Healing up from the battle using my only potion left, I looked at the girl and walked over to her, patting her cheek lightly.

“Hey, Hey!”

I shouted a little trying to get her to wake up from it, seeing no progress on it. I carried her thinking to myself “think of this as the time you carried your little sister from scraping her knee…” as I carried her back to the Town of Beginnings.

I stopped by the Inn to lay the girl on a bed and headed over to the Tavern that was a street down. I stopped by the Tavern to spot Rina there, sitting at a table by herself. I looked at her as she seemed a bit saddened by something, I walked over to her and pulled a chair as she looked at me.

“Oh… It’s just you Kirin…”

Rina said to me in a sad tone, looking back at the table with her head close to the table as well. “Did something happen, Rina?” I asked her curiously, to my surprise she gave an answer I wasn’t expecting.

“Yeah… A good friend of mine jumped off the end of the map…He…He…-”

Rina tried to continue her sentence as she began to break down into tears, a couple of people looked at us as it was common to see people breaking down on the first day. “Collect your thoughts Rina.. how about we get some fresh air?” I suggested it to her as she looked at me with sorrowful tears in her eyes.

I stood up as I tried to comfort Rina out into the front of the tavern outside. I looked up at the sky as It was already night, the stars in the sky were out alive on a mournful night. I was amazed by the stars in the skies, as I looked at Rina. I took her to a bench nearby as we sat there, where Rina would continue her chat from earlier.

“He was a good and close friend, he was like a brother to me…I tried to stop him but he insisted…He wanted to leave…and I let him after he said he’ll come back for me…”

I sat there listening to her story, mortified by her explanation and understood her reasonings for breaking down into tears earlier. I looked up at the starry sky then back to Rina, sitting up right. “Rina..” I said to her as she looked at me with her eyes still a bit watery, I then told her “Your friend must have done it with a good intention..” as she looked down at the floor.

“Maybe…”

Rina said as I got up from the bench, she turned her attention to me as I said to her “You should stay here in the Town… I don’t think you’ll be fit to fight out there..”. She looked at me as she looked down again saying in her saddened tone, “Yeah… I think you’re right…” as she held her hands together and gripped her hands a bit.

I then put a small knife onto her head as she looked at me, putting her hands onto the knife and looking at the sheathed knife. “Don’t listen to what I have to say about you, Go if you want, your choices are your own.. Like your friend” I said trying to cheer her up.

She smiled a bit as she looked at me and smiled through her sad vibes saying “Thank you…Thank you so much Kirin…” as I smiled slightly and turned away, heading back out into the wilderness of the first floor. “I shouldn’t decide what people should and shouldn’t do… They can choose who they want to be.. But I’ll have to intervene once every while…” I thought to myself as I stopped at the front of the gate.

I swiped my hand down to open my menu, clicking on the bag icon as it opened my inventory, I clicked onto an Item named Celestial Coat. Equipping a white coat with a few black line patterns and a large black star on the back of the coat.