By the year 2022, humanity had fully developed a Virtual Reality Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG). On Sunday, November 6th, Sword Art Online (SAO), the highly anticipated and renowned online fantasy game of the year, had already sold 10,000 copies in its first batch with players forming huge lines at every game store four days before the sale of the game even began.
The episode began with the protagonist, a young 14 year old male player, accessing the game at 13:00 (1:00 p.m.). Using the commonly known helmet game console identified as the NerveGear, he entered the online virtual world of «Aincrad» using his game avatar «Kirito» from his beta-version gameplay after the «NerveGear» had finished calibrating his virtual body.
Once inside, he found himself in the main town of the 1st Floor, the «Town of Beginnings». Kirito maneuvered rapidly through the city's central market while heading towards the city gate, until a new player, called Klein, noticed his knowledge on the layout of the city and asked for Kirito's help in learning the game's mechanics after deducing that Kirito was a beta tester.
Traveling to the west field outside the Town of Beginnings, Klein experienced some initial difficulty fighting against a level 1 monster called a «Frenzy Boar», and had be reminded that the player could not feel any actual pain. Instead there would just be an unpleasant feeling in its place, alongside the depletion of the player's hit point gauge when hit. Kirito expounded to Klein about the necessary motion for the use of «Sword Skills», the essential feature of SAO, and demonstrated one such Sword Skill. Klein carefully listened to Kirito's explanation before finally killing the Frenzy Boar, much to his delight, though was surprised when he learned of the monster's actually weak power level.
Even though eating the virtual food in the game world would get rid of the unpleasant hungry feeling when playing, it did not dispel the hunger in the real world. Therefore, Klein decided to log out when the time was nearly 17:30 (5:30 p.m.) as he had ordered for a pizza and ginger ale to arrive at about that time. After saying their goodbyes, Klein opened the menu to use the «LOG OUT» option to eat the pizza that was about to arrive, but failed to find it. Kirito suggested calling a GM to disconnect them from the game, but Klein could not get into contact with them. After a few of Klein's failed attempts to log out, both decided to wait for a GM, thinking that it must be a glitch. At that moment, the town bells from the 1st Floor's central town started ringing. All of the players were then transported back to the «Town of Beginnings» via forced teleport.
On the virtual screens at the sky, there was a system announcement that drew everyone's attention. Suddenly, a giant, robed, faceless figure appeared, identifying himself as Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the game and the only person with control over the game. Addressing the problem of the missing «Log Out» option, he announced to the players that he had purposely removed it from the game as another one of its features and thus, trapping them in the game.
While all the players were alarmed by his announcement, he continued on to point out that trying to forcibly escape by removing the NerveGear would result in the player's death by having the player's brain fried by the NerveGear's transmitter, which functioned like a microwave and used the internal battery of the helmet as a power source, thus cutting off the power was not a solution. Having informed the outside world of the situation beforehand, he reported that friends and family members of some of the players had already ignored his warning, causing the death of 213 players, showing images of the SAO incident.
Kayaba also told them that he had also removed the revival system in the game. Therefore, when a player died in-game, their game avatar would be forever lost, and, at the same time, the NerveGear would fry the player's brain, thus killing them. He then told them that the only way to escape the game was to complete it, which meant clearing all 100 floors of «Aincrad» and their bosses, much to the players' shock.
As he finished his announcement, he left a "gift", a «Hand Mirror», in everyone's inventory, which they took out. At that moment, a huge blinding light changed the players to their true appearances, sharply dropping the number of female players by revealing that many male players were masquerading as female characters, though some female players were also masquerading as males. Afterwards, Kayaba revealed that his only goal was to create the game and intervene in it. Finally, Kayaba vanished after his «Tutorial» was finished.
As everyone stood in silent shock after Kayaba's departure, Kirito, hallucinating the papercut on his finger he had acquired just prior to entering the game, decided that since Kayaba was the genius behind the creation of NerveGear and SAO, everything the man had said had to be the truth. Dropping her Hand Mirror, a young girl reacted in fear and bumped into the player next to her, prompting everyone else to finally start panicking. While many of the other players pleaded to be released from their newfound prison, Kirito quickly took action and tried to bring Klein with him to the next nearby village, stating that the surrounding resources would soon be limited. However, Klein told him that he could not come with him, as he has some friends in real life somewhere in the plaza, and he did not want to leave them behind. Kirito realized that he could only protect one player at a time with his current skills, meaning that if Klein or one of his friends died, he would be blamed for their deaths since he was the one who had suggested to leave.
Klein noticed Kirito's worries and politely told him that he should go ahead by himself, as he planned to go back to lead and protect his friends with the lessons that Kirito had taught him. He then tried to cheer Kirito up with a joke about his slightly feminine appearance, to which Kirito retaliates by stating that Klein's unkempt face suited him better. They then parted ways. Alone by himself with no one else to depend on, Kirito ran through the town and outside the gate, vowing that he would survive in this game world and be free from the virtual imprisonment while swiftly taking out a wolf standing in his way.
By December 2, 2022, approximately a month later, 2,000 players had already died, their departed name being crossed out on the Monument of Life simultaneously, while the 1st Floor had yet to be cleared.
Rating: 9/10
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