October 31st, 2022, the day his world changed forever. 15-year-old Yuichiro Tachibana scrolled through his phone and read the myriad of tweets talking about the newest in VR games; Sword Art Online. It was Argus' biggest release. Their newest peripheral, the NerveGear, was miles ahead of CC Corporation's Face Mounted Displays that were used by their last MMO, The World R:X, as it actually made you feel like you were in the game.
He checked his clock before turning off his phone. Seeing that the game had finished installing, he plugged in his NerveGear to keep the battery from dying, inserted the game into the cartridge port, slipped on the headset, and laid on his bed. Once the NerveGear's clock hit 13:00, he logged in.
Yuichiro: Link, Start!
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After a successful login, he looked around a bit and clenched his hands. A smile crept onto his face as he thought of all the grinding he was gonna do. His avatar consisted of a red-haired young male with grey eyes and standard beginner equipment. He was sad that he couldn't transfer his data over from the closed beta test, but, it made sense, as the game balance would crumble like a cookie that's been soaking in milk for too long.
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Player name, Setsu: All right. I wonder how far I can make it this time...
Suddenly, a lot more people started logging in. The Town of Beginnings was being flooded with players as tons of players logged in, eager to start their journey in the floating castle called Aincrad.
A World of Swords
Setsu: HAAAAA!
Setsu slashed a Frenzy Boar in half, killing it and causing it to burst into pixels. He was currently out in the field of Floor 1, West Field. He had bought a standard Iron Blade and some HP Potions, which cut into a big chunk of the 1,000 Col he started with, and headed out to grind. During the three hours he was farming, he managed to hit Level 3, which was rare on the lower floors as monsters only gave minimal amounts of Experience Points and would only decrease the stronger you got, until you were only earning 1 EXP per kill. The real EXP earnings were the amount you got from Quests and Metal enemies, which were damn near impossible to find and were considered a myth, even among beta testers.
