Lets Make Believe We Are Free

It's All Fun And Games, Right?

Ashlee's POV November 6 2022, floor 1 Field

I equipped my sword and started running down the path watching monsters spawn, Tahlia, on the other hand was walking down path, looking quite scared actually.

"COME ON TAHLIA! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!" I yelled out to her.

"I-I'm coming!" Tahlia replied, she started running over to me,

"you haven't ever equipped you sword yet?!" I said to her, a little bit angrily.

"Sorry" Tahlia replied, she opened menu and whet though some stuff, and looked a bit frustrated.

"You don't know where it i-" is all I managed to get out before Tahlia cut me off,

"Wait,.... How do we log out..." Said Tahlia, scared, really scared.

"Dude, how much of a noob are you!" I said, laughing, I opened my menu and went to settings, "see it right he-"

It wasn't there.

"It's probably just a bug, you know it's launch day. There's bound to be one" I said, trying to calm down Tahlia.

"But... how could they forget the log out button, like, come on, ITS THE LOG OUT BUTTON!" said Tahlia

"True" I replied, trying to thing of what we should do.

"Is there a way to contact the administrators?" I said

"Maybe, how am I meant to know" said Tahlia

Suddenly a bell started to ring it sounded like to was coming from the town.

"Huh?" I said

Then a light surrounded Tahlia and she disappeared,

"TAHLIA!" I yelled

Then the same thing happened to me.

When I woke I was back in the town of beginnings, in a place that look like the town square, or something similar.

"Ashlee!" Said Tahlia, happily

"What happened?" I asked

"I'm not sure, but I think it might of been an automatic transportation, or something along those lines" said Tahlia.

There where a lot of other people around too, all being transported here.

"Maybe it's a tutorial, or they want to thank us for buying Sword Art Online or something like that" I said

"Yeah, probably" replied Tahlia.

"Huh? What's that up there" said Tahlia, pointing up at the sky.

There was a red long hexagon looking thing flashing in the sky, I'm not one hundred present sure, but I think It had "warning" written in it.

Suddenly the red hexagons multiplied and covered all of the sky,

And red gooey stuff, almost like blood started oozing out, forming into a cocoon looking thing, then a giant person a appeared wearing a massive red thing, almost like a oversized kimono with a hood, we couldn't see his face.

I have it admit that I was started to feel a bit scared.

"Attention players, I welcome you to my world"

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment I am in control of this world"

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus,

The log out button"

"Let me assure you this is not a defect of the game, I repeat this is not a defect, this is how Sword Art Online was meant to be"

"What.." Said Tahlia, she looked extremely scared, so did everyone elce too

"You cannot log yourself out of SAO,

And no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nervgear from your head, if anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nervegear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life"

"Despite my warning, the family and friends or some of the players have attempted removing the Nervegear,

An unfortunate descision to say the least, and as a result the game now has 213 less players than what it began they have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world"

"213!?" I said,

"No way" Tahlia replied

"This can't be happening" she added.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point it's safe to assume the likely to the Nervegear being remove it minimal at best"

"I hope this brings you a little comfort, to clear the game it's important to remember the following

There is no longer anyway to revive someone within the game if you HP drops to zero your avatar will be deleted from the system,

Forever."

"And the Nevergear will simultaneously distory your brain"

"What!?" I said...

"It can't be... This can't be happening!" I added

"There only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game.

Right now you are all gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad, if you can get though the dungeon and beat the boss you may advance to the next floor defeat the boss on floor one hundred and you will clear the game"

"That's impossible..." Said Tahlia

"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of all of you, please have a look"

"Huh?"

I opened the menu and looked at my item storage.

"A mirror?" I said

I clicked and it and out popped a mirror, it wasn't really doing anything I could just see my reflection

I heard Tahlia scream

"TAHLIA!" I yelled

She was covered by the blue light again, then it started happening to everyone elce to, inculding me.

"Huh?" Iooked at my hands and feet, I didn't seem that different

"Ashlee?" Said Tahlia

"Ehh!" I said to her

"You look the same as you do in the real world!" We said in unison

"Haha your short again!" Tahlia said, laughing

"Shut up!" I said, blushing

"Right now, your probably wondering "why?" Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nervegear do this? Ultermatly my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online, was to control the fate of a world at my desire, as you can see I have archived my goal, this marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online, players I wish you the best of luck"

Then he disappeared and the sky went back to normal, and everyone started streaming.