Game Start!

''Oya?''

Rory returns to the place where Kirito, Klein and Silica were, and sees that the three are still playing together.

''Kuuuh! I'm so jealous, Kirito! You bastard!''

''Sniif*, thank you onii-chaaaan~''

''Si-Silica-san?! Could you let me go please?!''

Silica, who was saved by Kirito, is hugging him while crying, it seems that fear instinctively made her call Kirito 'Oni-chan', and Kirito looks very embarrassed because Silica's big (fake) breasts were being squeezed on him, and Klein is on all fours on the floor with an envious expression on his face as he stares at Silica hugging Kirito,'' You guys seem to be having fun~''

Hearing Rory's voice, the three turn to her, ''O-Oh, Rory-san, how was your training?'' Kirito asks as he tries to free himself from Silica's embrace.

''Hm~, it was good enough.''

''Rory.....'' Silica looks at Rory with a frown on her face, she looks really angry.

Rory looks at Silica who called her, and giggles, ''Oh my oh my, looks like my little Silica has found her knight in shining armor~''

''Nah?!'' Silica then realizes that she is still hugging Kirito, she blushes so much that steam comes out of her head and then she quickly backs away from him, ''Awa-awawawa-It's-It's n-not what you're thinking!!''she gesticule with her hands desperately as she tries to explain to Kirito.

Rory looks at Kirito, ''Fufu~, looks like you got rejected, O-ni-chan~''

''Well, I think this is the case, haha...'' Kirito laughs awkwardly.

''S-Stop teasing me you guys! Moh!!''

The four continued to play, the sky starts to turn orange, the sun is below the horizon, indicating that night is coming, and so the four of them hear a distant sound coming from the city.

*DONG*

*DONG

*DONG*

''Huh? What is that noise?'' Klein looks around trying to know where the noise is coming from.

''It is the downtown bell, at a specific time in the late afternoon, it starts to ring'' Kirito responds.

Hearing the bell, Rory approaches Silica, ''Silica~!''

''What is it, Rory? And don't think I'm not mad at you for not helping me with the boar, hmph!'' She crosses her arms, puffs out her cheeks and looks away.

''Come on, don't be mad~, why don't we hold hands like good friends~?''

''Eh? H-Hold hands? Friends do this kind of thing?'' Silica only have a few friends at school, and none of them were really close to her, friends that go hand in hand is something new for her.

''Yes they do, and also, it's just to make sure you don't run away, after all, Silica is so chicken-hearted~''

''W-Who are you calling a chicken?! All right then, as we are friends, let's hold hands!'' with a confident smile, she takes Rory's hand and squeezes, but quickly she starts to blush, and becoming embarrassed, she looked down so she wouldn't meet Rory's eyes.

'She's so easy~' Rory thinks. She smiles and also hold Silica's hand.

Rory wanted to make sure that when they are forcibly teleported, Silica is on her side. Rory wouldn't admit it, but she started to enjoy the child's company, and she had a strange desire to protect her, maybe because of Rebecca, after all, without the interference of Rebecca's memories and personality, Rory wouldn't know who is Silica and wouldn't even try to get close to her, let alone want to protect her, of course as an emissary of the God of Death, she doesn't care if Silica dies, but still she feels she must protect her....at least until the end of first floor.

''Female friendship is so cute!'' Klein has his hands over his mouth and is holding back tears, he looks at them both as if the image of two cute girls holding hands is the most precious thing in the world.

Kirito watches the shenanigans of the three with a smile on his face, he hasn't had fun with other people in games for a long time.

*Growl*

''Oh? Looks like I'm getting hungry, well guys I gotta go! I ordered pizza for 5:30 pm, hehe!'' Klein says while holding his stomach.

''Heeh, you are really prepared'' commented Kirito.

''See you around, Kirito, Silica-chan, Rory-chan!'' he waves to the three with a smile

''Hm, see you around, Klein.'' Kirito nods his head.

''Go away and don't come back, you pervert!'' Silica hides from Klein behind Rory, still holding hands.

Rory just smiles and says nothing.

Klein is a little sad that the two girls didn't seem to care much about him, but as he's used to it, he didn't care too much.

''See ya!'' He opens the status menu and is about to leave, but then he looked with confusion at the status panel in front of him, ''Hm? Strange, there is no logout button...''

Kirito raises his eyebrow, ''Try tol look again, it's impossible not to be there.''

Klein looked again at the status menu options, ''No, there isn't...''

Kirito sighs and opens his status menu, ''It's under the main menu...huh?''

''See? There's nothing''

''Yeah....''

Rory and Silica just listen in silence, and seeing Kirito tense, Klein shrugs, '' Well, it's the first day of the game, it's normal to have bugs. The players must be going crazy now!'' he says with a giggle

Kirito snorts, ''I think in a few minutes you will be too.''

''Huh? What do you mean?''

Kirito points to the internal clock in his status menu, ''It is 5:25 pm now.''

''Gah?!Nooooooo!!M-My Teriyaki Mayo and Ginger pizza!!!'' Klein falls to the floor in depression and starts mumbling under his breath about his pizza.

Kirito and Silica laugh at Klein's, and Rory....well, she's happy, she loves to see people suffering in any way.

But the laughter ended when a blue light engulfed the four.

''Wha?!''

''?!''

''E-Eh?!

''....~''

.

-----[]-----

.

When the blue light has disappeared, the four of them appeared in the center of the beginners town plaza, Rory and Silica are next to each other, still holding hands, Kirito and Klein are just a foot away from them, and the four of them are being surrounded by a crowd of other players.

''Eh? What happened?'' Klein looked around confused.

''A.....forced teleport'' muttered Kirito, getting tense.

''R-Rory....where are we?'' Silica, scared, snuggled closer to Rory and Rory pats her head, ''It's okay, no need to be afraid.'' Silica didn't mind the head pats, not only did the surprise teleport scare her, but she was also afraid of crowds.

''Hey look! What is that?'' A random voice commented from the crowd, and everyone looks up and notices a red sixagonal icon written ''Care'' is flashing in the sky, and suddenly, the icon has started to multiply non-stop, and in just a few seconds, the sky turn red.

And then, between the outlines of the red iconis, a showy blood-like liquid began to fall and take shape in the air.

''W-What is that thing?! Klein says, startled.

The liquid then takes shape, and a large humanoid with its face hidden under a hood appears, it wears large red robes resembling a priest's clothes.

The crowd starts to whisper, startled by the sudden event, of course most were imagining it was a welcome event.

So, the giant humanoid raises its arms, ''Attention players.'' the voice was a normal male voice, but it was loud for everyone to hear.

He continued, ''Welcome to my world.''

''My name is....Kayaba Akihito. Right now, I'm the only person capable of controlling this world.'' Hearing the name of the game's developer, the whispers among players increased even more.

''I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but the logout button isn't on the Main Menu. But that's not a bug. I repeat: It's not a bug, it's a feature of Sword Art Online.'' He gestures with his hand and a giant menu appears, and he shows everyone that the logout button isn't really there.

''F-Feature?'' Silica mutters.

''You cannot log out of the game alone, and no one and nothing outside can turn off or remove your NerveGears. If they try to do this, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and ending your life.''

Hearing GameMaster's announcement, players started to complain, thinking it was some kind of boring joke, some even tried to leave the plaza, but were blocked by an invisible wall.

''What is he talking about? He must be crazy. Right, Kirito?'' Klein comments.

''....He is right that the transmitter signals work like microwaves. If you turn off the security system, the brain could be roasted.'' Kirito responds.

''So, what if we cut the power....''

''No,''Kirito interrupts him, '' The NerveGear has an internal battery.''

Klein looks at Kirito in disbelief, ''What? But...this is crazy!''

''Unfortunately, many friends and family ignored this warning and tried to remove NerveGear.'' the GameMaster continues, ''As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from Aincrad and the real world.''

''As you can see, new organizations all over the world are reporting this... including the deaths'' With a wave of the hand, several virtual panels with news about the deaths appeared and circled the players so that they could all see, ''So you can be sure that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. That said, I hope you guys can relax, and enjoy the game.''

''But I want you to remember this clearly. There are no more ways to revive someone in the game. If HP reaches zero, your avatar will be lost forever. And at the same time, NerveGear...will destroy your brain.''

There was a moment of silence in the plaza, all players looked at the GameMaster in silence and with shock in their eyes, no one could say a word...except for Rory, who smiles from ear to ear, she seemed to be enjoying the whole scene as she hugged Silica who is trembling in her arms.

''There is only one way to escape, and that is by completing the game. You people are present on the lowest floor of Aincrad, the First Floor. If you defeat the floor boss, you can cross to the next level. Defeat the final boss on the hundredth floor, and you will end the game.''

The players' initial shock wore off and they started mumbling amongst themselves again, wondering what the GameMaster was talking about.

''Passing all floors? But... this is impossible! Beta players haven't even come close to that!'' Klein yells at the GameMaster, who ignores him.

''And finally....I've added a gift to your inventory....see for yourself.''

Everyone was curious, and quickly opened their inventories and saw the item named ''Mirror'', then everyone, including Klein, Silica, Kirito and Rory, equipped the mirror and a small rectangular mirror appeared in everyone's hands.

Looking at each other in the mirror, all the players, one by one, started to glow in a strong blue light.

''K-Klein?! Silica?! Rory!!'' Kirito saw his new friends being engulfed by the blue light and was worried, but soon after he was engulfed by the blue light as well.

The blue light then disappeared and everyone could open their eyes, ''Are you okay, Kirito?'' klein approached Kirito, who still seemed to have his eyes closed.

Kirito opens his eyes and turns to Klein, ''Y-Yeah.....wait, who are you?''

''You too, who are you?'' Klein looks at Kirito in confusion.

Kirito then looks into the mirror, and sees his reflection in it...and not his character's reflection, but his real reflection.

Players start to realize what happened and start arguing with each other, and Klein looks over to where Silica and Rory are with curiousity.

''Huh? Rory-chan you....hasn't changed a thing....''

''Oh? It's you, Klein? Of course I've changed, I can feel my breasts getting a little bigger~'' Rory hasn't really changed at all, she's been using her real looks from the start.

''Wait, this child who is hugging you is....eh?! S-Silica-chan?!'' Klein looks at Silica in disbelief, her big breasts are gone, her hair has decreased in size, and even her height has changed, she used to have Rory's height, but now she's almost a head shorter.

''Y-Yeah, it's me....'' she responds shyly.

''So you mean... until now I was looking at a child's breasts?!'' Klein seems to start to despair.

''Heeh~, I thought you knew and that you were a lolicon~!'' Rory says pretending astonishment.

''AS IF!! I may be a scum, but not so much!!'' Klein defends himself, ''Wait...''he turns to Kirito who was beside him, '' So this cute boy over here is...Kirito?!''

''Haha....I'm also surprised that you're a middle-aged guy, Klein'' Kirito responds with a dry laugh.

''Wait, how is this happening in the first place?!''

''The scanner'' Kirito responds, ''The NerveGear covers your entire head with a high-density signaling device. So he 'see' what our face looks like. But our height and body shape.....''

''Well, when we first used NerveGear, it made us calibrate, right? We had to touch our whole body'' Klein comments.

''Hm, that must have been how he got our information.'' Kirito nods his head in agreement.

''Now you might be asking yourself, 'Why?' '' hearing GameMaster's voice, everyone turned to him, ''Why did Kayaba Akihito, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been reached, I created Sword Art Online for a reason, that was to create this world and interfere with it....and now, it's complete.''

''Here ends the Sword Art Online tutorial.....good luck players.''

The red liquid that had previously fallen from the sky, left the giant humanoid's body and returned from where it came, and then the sky was clear again.