"Come on man! VR gaming isn't even available stateside for another six months!"

I laugh into my bluetooth headset, "I don't even know why I decided to get it Kev. You know i'm not much of a gamer."

Kevin laughs on the other side of the phone call. Kevin is one of my few friends. We met at my martial arts dojo, and bonded over our drive to become better. He was better at trick techniques, but I was better in a more practical sense.

I'd come to Japan as a part of my college program with Tesla Innovations. They transfered me here to work for the Japanese branch of the company, and they were going to pay me too. I worked the engineering and design division.

"Anyway Mike, what made you decide to actually try the game?"

"I'm not quite sure." I reply as I unlock the door to my rented apartment, "It just seems more like it would be real life, and not really a game."

"Alright man." He responds, "Just make sure you log out and tell me what it's like."

"I promise. Later man."

"See ya dude." He cuts the connection.

I open up the bag im carrying. Inside it is a disk case. The words Sword Art Online are printed across the front of it. The back has a bunch of information about the game, but I don't bother reading any of it. Instead, I open up the box I was carrying and start pulling out hardware. There's the NervGear headset, obviously, along with all of the wires and an instruction packet. I flip through the booklet quickly. Photographic memory sure helps in times like this.

I set up the headset, open up the game and boot up the system.

"Alright, here goes nothing." I take a deep breath and put on the headset, "Link start!"

A bunch of colors flash by and a login screen appears. I select 'new player' and begin the process of creating a new player.

I think a minute about my unsername. Initially, I wasn't sure what I wanted my username to be, but now I think I know. Azrael. Yeah, that sounds good. I'm the Harbringer of Death. I then use my usual password for this account. Next comes the charater creation.

Before any of that starts, the NervGear has me calibrate it, making me move my hands around my body, probably to get an idea on how my body responds to brainwaves so that it can replicate that.

The calibration test finishes and I'm returned to the create player page.

The first thing I do is make sure the gender is male. I've heard from some people that it's not unusual for people to choose the opposite gender, but I find that really weird. I then select a body-type that is very similar to mine in the real world. I wouldn't want to make a mistake because my body is larger or smaller than I'm used to.

I've always liked black as a color, so I choose my starting clothes based on that. The final step is to decide on my initial weapon type. I don't know all of the advantages and disadvantages of the different weapons classes. I was about to select single-handed blades when I notice a different class at the bottom of the list: scythes. Cool. Scythes are a pretty obscure weapon that you don't oftern come across. Besides, I'm the Harbringer of Death, so I might as well have Death's weapon. I select the scythe and all of the option menus disappear.

There's a flash, and suddenly I'm in the middle of a giant town centre. All around me, people were appearing in flashes of blue light. People who'd logged in earlier than me were already talking to each other, setting up parties, and so on.

'Town of Beginnings' appears in the top left corner of my vision.

I curl my fingers, and watch as they actually curl in the game.

"Awesome." I breathe out slowly.

I let my arms drop and feel them brush against something at my hips.

"Ow!" I pull my hands up and look down.

Strapped to my hips, is a pair of weapons. My experience with martial arts allows me to recognize them as kamas, a weapon generally used as a pair. I frown. I thought I'd chosen scythe class weapons. Then it hits me and I grin. Of course. Kamas are pretty much really small scythes. Clever game developers.

I take an uncertain step forward, and find that it's not any more difficult than walking around in the real world. After a few practice steps, I find that I can move around as easily here as I can in the real world. I still am not quite sure what is going on in general.

"I should probably logout and read the instruction manual..." I mutter to myself, "But it's probably better if I actually learn, and not just read."

"Who are you talking to?"

I turn around. Standing behind me is a random girl. She is wearing mostly red, with a few blue highlights to her clothes and leather armor. I look down and realize that the scythe weapon class did not come with armor. She has a hammer hanging from her side.

"Um, no one." I say, and turn around.

I start waving my hand around, trying to access the menu and a map. Much to my irritation, I doesn't pop up.

"Having trouble?" She leans over my shoulder.

I jump and turn around, "Holy Zeus! Where did you come from?"

"Two feet that way." She smirks, "Let me guess, you're new to the game."

"Yup."

"You didn't read the manual."

"Wow, are you a mind reader." I say sarcastically.

She laughs, "Sarcasm, I like it." She holds out her hand, "I'm Alakshmi, and you are."

I shake her hand, "Azrael, but you can probably see that from my cursor."

"Nice to meet you Azrael. Say, why don't you come with me, I can show you some basics of the game."

I weigh the pros and cons, and shrug, "Sure, why not."

"Ok, the menu is opened using your left hand index finger. You swipe straight downward in a quick smooth motion."

I do what she says, and the menu appears,"Great, thanks."

"No problem. Why don't I gbring you outside the city so we can go fight stuff."

She grins, "Awesome, come on."

Alakshmi grabs my wrist and drags me through the town.

"I was a beta tester, so I know my way around the lower levels."

"Thanks for helping, but why exactly are you doing this?" I question her.

She shrugs, "I don't know. I like helping people."

Another five minutes and we reach the outskirts of town. a giant gate marks the exit.

"So, there are a lot of level one monsters in the area. That means that this is the perfect area for someone to shake of the newbie grease." She points, "Look there's an easy one now!"

A boar walks past the two of us and she charges forward. I just stand there.

"What are you doing?" She calls out, "Why don't you give me a hand!"

"How does combat work?" I ask back.

"You're pretty much controling your own body, so just move your body around like you normally would."

Move like I normally would? Sweet. I drop my hands to my hips and draw my kamas. I charge forward towards the boar, quickly overtaking Alakshmi. I'd chosen to put most of my initial points into speed and agility.

I swing my left hand kama down and it connects with the side of the boar. As it hits, I feel resistance, which surprises me. The developers apparently had put a lot of time into making sure all five senses operated and interacted with the world properly.

Unfortunately, the single strike doesn't kill it, and it wheels around and charges towards me. I sidestep the boar and catch its risk in my left kama, hooking it and driving it to the ground. I bring my right kama up and swing it downwards. The kama connects and the boar dissolves into a mass of pixels. A screen pops up, telling me how much experience I'd earned.

I turn towards Alakshmi, who is staring at me, mouth agape.

"Where did you learn to do that? And without sword skills!"

I shrug, "I'be been taking martial arts for years." I reply, "Most of it is instinctive."

"If that is instinctive for you, then you'll have no trouble mastering sword skills."

"So, how exactly do I perform a sword skill?" I ask.

"It's pretty straightforward." She says, "You just got to set, focus and when you feel it totally charged, release it. If you do it right, you'll never miss."

"Never miss huh?" I raise an eyebrow, "That's useful. Thanks for the tips Alakshmi."

"Hey, not a problem." She waves it off, "Just remember that you own me."

"Yeah sure. I can't do that now though. I'be got to logout and deal with a few things in the real world."

"Ok, well, I'll see you later."

I access my menu and go to the settings section.

"What the..."

"Something the matter?" Alakshmi asks from over on the side.

"Yeah. The logout button isn't there." I reply.

"What do you mean the logout button isn't there?"

"Check your menu. It's not there."

I hear the sound of a menu opening, and then, "What the hell?"

"Told you, no button." I say in response.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would the logout button just not be there?"

"Hey, don't ask me, you're the beta tester." I shoot back.

Out of nowhere, I feel myself dissolve into a mass of pixels.

"Wha-" Is all I manage to get out before I reform, back in the town centre. I'm not the only one there either. It seems that every player has been transported here.

"Someone must'be activated a mass transport." I hear someone next to me say.

"Ok, whwat the heck is going on?" Alakshmi demands from beside me.

I point up, "It looks like we're about to find out."

Above us, the sky begins to turn red and something begins to leak out. It looks like blood. The red ooze forms together into the shape of a person.

"Welcome players." The giant person says, "My name is Ahihiko Kaiyaba, and welcome to Sword Art Online.

[A/N I could go into the first episode of SAO and rewrite that crazy man's speech, but honestly, I don't feel like it. If you want the exact wording, then look it up.]

I listened to the creator of the game rattle on about creating his own world and whatnot, but honestly, I don't care about his logic. The first important thing in his speech is the mirror.

I looked into the mirror, and suddenly started glowing. All around me, everyone else starts glowing as well. When the  glow disappears, everyone looks slightly different and I begin to hear random cries.

"You're not seventeen!"

"Wait, you're a girl?!"

"What do you mean what happened to me, what happened to you?"

"Yo, Azrael, you ok dude?"

I turn, standing where Alakshmi was is now a girl, slightly shorter , but a few of the features were the same. She still had red hair and blue eyes,. Actually, other than being slightly shorter, she was pretty much the same.

"Ok, everyone else changed, except you." She scrutinized me, "Wait, I take that back, your eyes are no longer purple."

"You didn't change much either." I respond, "I didn't really feel like creating an entirely new body for myself. I thought I was fine the way I was."

"I admire your ability to be content with yourself." She sighs, "How do you think that guy knows what we look like?"

I listen in as a person next to me explains a few things to another guy in red, "Maybe It's because of the camera in the NervGear and that calibration thing it made you do."

"That makes sense, but why would he do this?" Alakshmi asks.

"You're probably wondering why I, Ahihiko Kaiyaba, inventor of Sword Art Online, would do this." The giant red blood dude booms out.

"Damn right I am." I mutter under my breath.

The maniac starts talking. He says something about two hundred and thirteen people who have already died, because family memebers have decided to try and unplug the NervGear. Apparently, we're stuck here. We cannot leave the game, and if we die in the game, we die in real life. The only way to escape is to beat the entire game.

"Impossible." A guy mutters next to me, "There's no way we can clear all one hundred floors. Even the beta testers find't get that far."

"He really has created a world of his own." Alakshmi mutters under her breath.

"The tutorial is now over. Welcome to Sword Art Online." With that, the blood man disappears and the sky returns to blue.

"To think I'm stuck in a game." Alakshmi mutters.

I shake my head, "This isn't a game. Not anymore."