When a gamer from the far future is flung back in time to the day Sword Art Online first opened, he, along with a group of scientists and gamers thrown back with them, have the opportunity to stop the original tragedy from ever happening, but they s...
The year is 2122. The internet is still as advanced and dominant as it was 100 years ago, but in the gaming and virtual-reality world, times have changed. Companies, platforms, services, or servers that specialize in making or maintaining virtual-reality games and software have been relegated to mostly small and independent companies after larger companies in charge of those games and services taking a major hit over the course of the last century. Not everyone can pinpoint the exact same point in history where this decline began, but many believe that it was the result of Kayaba Akihiko's infamous creation "Sword Art Online," which resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Other incidents with later online games have resulted in even further deaths, manipulation of people and their lives, and other medical or general anomalies such as comas. While some consider later incidents to not be nearly as deadly or controversial as SAO and a different real-world scenario years later, the people of the world eventually decided that virtual-reality games, worlds, and technology are too dangerous for the entire world and any person to have access to, especially given how complex and advanced yet accessible they have become.
In this new century, if you want to get involved in various online games akin to SAO, you have to obtain a certificate proving that you will not use the games or the technology involved for malicious, murderous, or similar intent. To further enforce this, every user and their personal info are tracked, and there are moderators watching over every game and server for 24 hours every day. While the moderation and careful planning have prevented any hacking or theft of personal info from happening too often, many players, as well as their parents if the players were young, thought that it was not worth the risk. Thus, online VR games became niche to some outsiders or gamers who were not involved in the genre anymore.
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The savior of SAO and other games from its era of gaming - Kazuto Kirigaya, otherwise known as "Kirito" - has been seen as a hero and role-model to many, and there is little argument that SAO and later game incidents would have gone much worse if it weren't for him. However, due to the inevitable passage of time, he couldn't save the day in VR and online forever, though he wished he could have saved more people in the games he has been in, especially in SAO. No other gamer or individual had the courage and bravery to follow in his footsteps and become the next hero and protecter of online games.
