Kirito's POV...

I really don't know whats going on here. Why..why would the famous Kayaba Akahiko..the inventer of the NerveGear..the creator of SAO..would.. do this..?

"As YoU cAn SeE, nEwS oF mY wArNiNg AnD tHe NuMeRoUs ViCtImS aRe BeInG sPrEaD wOrLdWiDe.."

As the red robe giant said this, who've name himself as Kayaba Akahiko, showed us the news, outside the game. He really wasn't kidding when he said 213 players died and from what he showed us, proved to be true. All the players around me and Klein were dead shocked at the results before them.

"ThUs.." he continued, as the picts and videos he showed-case to us, vanish, "It ShOuLd Be SaFe To SaY tHaT tHe DaNgEr Of ReMoVaL aTtEmPtS hAs BeCoMe MiNiMal. I hOpE yOu WilL aLl Be At EaSe AnD fOcUs In CoMpLeTiNg ThE gAmE."

Completing the game..?

"BuT, i'D LiKe YoU aLL tO kEeP tHiS iN mInD. FrOm ThIs PoInT oN, aLL mEtHoDs Of ReViVaL iN tHe GaMe, WiLL nO lOnGeR fUnCtiOn. If YoUr HP HiTs ZeRo, YoUr AvAtAr WiLL pEriSh FoR EtErNiTy AnD aT tHaT mOmEnT,

tHe NerveGear WiLL dEsTrOy YoUr BrAiN"

All of us stood there in horror, not letting a word of complain nor any signs of wanting to fight back. Even for me, I can even

feel myself questioning how it was unfair to lose ones life in only a game where you can revive.

But our situation is different, with no ways of revival, this feels like a life-and-death situation. I can imagine myself being hit by a low level boar. My shattered body..vanish to existence..this is..why..why is this happening?!

"ThErE iS oNlY oNe CoNdItIoN yOu MuSt MeEt To Be FrEe:

The Completion of this game"

With a wave of his hands, a hologram of a certain map came into view.

"YoU aRe All CuRrEnTlY oN tHe FiRsT fLoOr, ThE lOwEr PoInT iN AINCARD. IF yOu CoNqUeR a FloOr'S dUnGeOn AnD dEfEaT tHe FloOr BoSs, YoU mAy CoNtiNuE uP tO tHe NeXt OnE.

AsSuMiNg YoU mAnAgE tO dEfEaT tHe FiNaL bOsS oN tHe 100th fLoOr, ThE gAmE WiLL bE cOnSiDeReD cLeArEd.."

"Clear all 100 floors..how the hell can we do that?!" Klein exclaimed, "the beta testers couldn't make it anywhere near that high!" Of course, all the players are complaining to that the same.

"AnD lAsTlY," he continued, as if he wasn't listening to our rantings, "I'vE pRePaReD a PrEsEnT fOr All Of YoU iN yOuR iTeM sToRaGeS. TaKe A loOk"

The word 'present' soon made me wonder, eventhough I have a bunch of questions to ask in mind. But, I soon got curious and followed the red robe, facialess man's instructions. With a swish of my hand, white cicles are seen in view with icons in each. Clicking one of them, I opened my item storage. When I did, I saw one item, titled Mirror.

Thinking thoughts what it could be, I instinctly clicked on it. When I did, a bouncy square-like mirror, appeared in front of me. With a mirror floated up in the air, I calmly took the object in my palms and slowly inspect it. It seems to look like a normal mirror, nothing out of the ordinary. As I look straight in the mirror, I saw my avatar's reflection, but in it, it soon changes to my actual self. My true face was reflected in there. I stared at it in question. Why was my face reflected in there?

Just then, out of this unexplainable sight, I heard Klein yelled.

I instinctly turned to him. "Klein!" I shouted, shocked at the appearance of a light instead of my companion's face. He was surrounded by a blue-shade light, both above and below. Covering all the traces of his appearance. Looking around for a source, in my view, I saw all the players surrounded by the same light.

In my panic mood, I dont know what to do in this situation, yet some part of me is curious. Just then, a sudden burst of blue light shown beneath me till it stretches above my view, leaving my vision with only blue-shade colors. With all this lights around us, the mixture soon reflected to a white, bright light, blinding us.

After seconds, in a blink of an eye, the bright light slowly faded, giving back my vision of the usual scene. When the light was completely gone, I instinctly checked myself, by looking at my hands, to see some changes. But to my surprise there was none and of course, this made me more curious. Looking around, I saw different people wearing a girls outfits and unknown faces I've never met before and all of them are questioning to one another after using the mirror they had.

That's odd..what was that light for? And who are these people? And why does some of them dresses weird?

"You okay Kirito?" Klein asked me. Hearing his concern tone, I turned around. "Y-Yeah.." but when I did, I saw a completely different person. "Huh? Who are you?" I asked straight away, Wanting to know who he is. Who is he anyway? and how does he know my name?

"That's what I want to know.." he responded as I was once again, curious to what he meant by that.

Okay, why is he talking to me casually?

I eyed at him warily and he did the same thing by looking at me intently. His voice sounded just like 'him' plus, this person is wearing the same as 'Klein'..wait- could it be..

"Then that means.." I muttered under my breath, surprised of my discovery. Looking at him again, he seem to get my message and his eyes went wide.

"Your Klien!?"/"Your Kirito?!" We both yelled while pointing towards each other. I didn't see that one coming. All the clues was already in front of me yet I didn't notice such a thing!

"Wha..why?" Klein questioned, asking how did we turned up like this. Although, I think I know how.

"The scan.." I lowly responded, "the NerveGear covers your entire head with a high-density transmitter. So it can calculate what your face looks like..but our height and body.." I question myself but Klein gave out the answer.

"Ah!" he snapped, turning my thoughts away and listened to him, "When we first put on the NerveGear, it made us touch all over our body for "calibration", remember?"

"O-Oh yeah..I see. So it was collecting data that time"

During from my small deduction, Klein scratch his head due to irritation, I can tell he wants answers. "But...this is...why? Why's all this happening?"

I pointed my finger towards the red robe giant, "I'm sure he'll answer that soon enough.."

"RiGhT nOw, YoUr PrObAbLy All WoNdErInG "wHy?"" He said, right on cue, as he tries to imitate whats in our thoughts about this situation. ""wHy WoUlD i,

KaYaBa aKiHiKo, ThE cReAtOr Of SwOrD aRt OnLiNe AnD tHe InVeNtOr Of ThE NerveGear, Do SuCh A tHiNg?"" By nudging his head, he looked above as if hoping something would come down. "I hAvE aLrEaDy AcHiEvEd My GoAl. I cReAtEd ThE wOrLd Of SwOrD aRt OnLiNe

SoLeLy FoR mY pErSoNaL eNjOyMeNt" I was shocked to hear this from him. Did I just heard that right? He only made this game just to trap innocent people for his personal play thing?!

"Kayaba.." I muttered in rage. Turning my palms into fist.

"AnD nOw, ThE pRePaRtIoNs ArE cOmPlEtE. ThIs InClUdEs ThE tUtOrIaL fOr ThE oFfIcIaL lAuNcH oF sWoRd ArT OnLiNe..." then he looked down towards us with both arms raising , giving off a welcome feeling to his introductions. "PlAyErS, i WiSh YoU tHe BeSt Of LuCk"

Glitching noises are heard as he collapsed to nothingness of red blood, going backwards to how he appeared and the warning error bricks in the sky was gone, along with the red robe giant. In this unsettling moment, biding us farewell, it left all of us in terror and in a question manner. It was quiet, till..

The first shout was heard, and in domino, it affect the others. They begin to scatter about, wanting to save their skins from danger. Being surrounded by many players in the plaza of Starting Town, they all started to complain. Questioning why this is happening to them and demanded to know why they needed to be here. As for me, I too wanted a solid answer to this. But if what Kayaba said was true, then I got no choice but to follow his rules in this game he set up in making.

During some thorough thinking, I finally raised a conclusion. Just when the force field that surrounded us vanished, I instinctly took Klein towards the place where we first met. What choice do I have left? It was the only place I can think off that it can be on privacy. For now, I can only say this to Klein. His almost the only person I can trust.

"Listen up. I'll be heading to the next town as soon as possible, you should come too. If everything he said was true.." with a swish of my hand, I showed him a simple map on how the plan should go, he was quiet although i can see that his listening. Which is good actually.

"If we want to survive in this world, its vital that we get stronger. The resources available in a MMORPG..In other words, money and EXP, are limited in number. The fields around Starting Town will soon be wiped clean of mobs. The best course of action would be to quickly move to the next town. I know the way there and any dangers we might encounter. So even if I'm only Level 1, we'll make it there safely.."

As soon as I told this to him, wanting for him to join, but it made my expectation to a waste. I ended up getting rejected when he mentioned about his friends and was now in a panic that they might be in the plaza and it painfully hurt me when, he begged for me to go alone. My heart was racing fast, as a sudden emotion soon took over me.

"I'll be fine with the tricks you taught me!" he cheerfully bid. Making me remember the fun times we had even it only took hours. It was worth it. But I'm still a stranger to him, and I know that deep inside, he really wants to be with his friends. I let out a sigh. Seriously..why am I so selfish?. With calm look at him, "I see.." I finally answered, which held understanding. "Then I'll leave you.." I bid to him farewell by turning around and slowly walking away from him. Why did I even ask for him to come with me any way? When did I even decided that? Well..I guess some things isn't want you wanted it to be.

"All right!"

"Then... see you, Klein.." walking a bit faster than I normally should, wanting to get away from this. Till I heard Klein called, "Kirito!" Hearing this from the narrow like alleyway, I stopped my tracks, but didn't turn around to look at him.

"Hey..Kirito. You..have a pretty cute face.." Wow..does he really need to joke at a time like this? I finally turned, wanting to know what he'll say next. "you're just my type" he teasefuly spoke, with a wide grin on his face. Seeing how this turned up, I smiled the same. " That unkempt face of yours suits you ten times better!" saying this to his face, I ran off. Till I stopped and turned again, looking for the red haired Klein, but he was no where in sight. I felt loneliness soon consuming me. He really did left me.

With this feeling of loneliness, I ran off towards to where my destination should be. Running pass a empty store, going out through a large gate, I kept on running till I was out of the town and was now running along the open grassy fields. Since, I'm out in the open, I look around if any monsters were in sight. Then, while looking out for danger, right in front of me was a flock of white hair, who looked amazed at the scenery before him. From my pause, as I came to a halt, he noticed my presence and turned his head towards me. A misty grey eyes looking quietly at me. Our eyes met.

"Who are you?" he asked and I have no idea how to start up a chat with him.

Book original in Wattpad~