Sword Art Online: The Unsung Heroes

Chapter 1: Launch

In 2015, when David Mason was seven years old, his family moved to Japan from Seattle, Washington in the United States. The company his father worked for had multiple offices in Japan, and he would be paid higher for working in a foreign country, so naturally, he accepted. As such, David and his younger brother Cecil where raised bilingual.

David had always been interested in computers and video games. Not interested, actually, but rather engrossed. Virtual worlds fascinated David, and when he wasn't at school or with family he was usually playing video games or reading. He managed to maintain equilibrium between social life and video games, the price being a general lack of adequate sleep. Imagine how low the number of hours he would get each night when Sword Art Online closed beta was announced, and when he got the email that he was selected to participate.

NerveGear was nothing new to David; the technology for VR had been around for a couple years now, and he had used NerveGear for educational games and such in school. The major source of excitement was the fact that this was a hyper-realistic MMO designed for NerveGear that was going to give World of Warcraft a run for its money. David was skeptical at first on how detailed the game would be, but that was all blown away once he logged on for the first time.

Without going into specifics, the beta test could only be described as amazing. The player feedback was akin to a bunch of elementary schoolers being told that they had extra recess: Cheering, profuse thank-yous, jumping up and down, a bit of crying, and happy nervous breakdowns.

So, when the game was finally released on the cloudy afternoon of November 6th 2022, the excitement was at an all time high. David had been lucky enough to click on the <<ORDER>> button days before online fast enough; about four seconds after he clicked and bought it, it sold out. The game shipped to his house within the day.

David plugged the NerveGear into the wall, and then into the router in his room. He put the game cartridge in, and the system on his head. He lay down on his bead, more excited than a five-year-old on Christmas, though his demeanor wouldn't tell you that. He was tall and skinny with light brown hair and blue eyes. He had white skin that was not pale, but was not tan either. His hair was short-ish, and combed to the side. If he had blonde hair he might have looked like a German Military Officer. He kept his cool, friendly demeanor under most circumstances, but was mostly a quiet person, usually only talking if talked to.

The time read 12:57. 12:58. 12:59. 13:00.

David smiled to himself. He was about to go back to the virtual world he had come to love.

"Link start!"