Sayumi rushed down the streets after work at the tea house. She pushed through the front door, waving feigned greetings to her father in the office. She hurried up the stairs and nearly obliterated her bedroom door in her frantic hurry. She saw the packages laying on her bed. Her pupils widened and nearly fainted with excitement. She went to the box and picked it up in her hands and twirling around, clinging to it lovingly to it. Like one would to a significant other. It was her nerve gear and copy of Sword Art Online. It was a dream come true.

She tore open the box and only took a moment before it was all set up. She pulled the helmet on over her head before lying back in bed. “Link, start!” She spoke before everything to go black. Then a flood of white light enveloped everything around her. Without much thought she went through the registration.

[b]Username: Yumi[/b]

Accept. Suddenly a basic, blank female avatar appeared before her. Within moments her mind set up all her appearance. Before she knew it a world began to pixelate around her and extended out infinitely in all directions, or so it seemed. It was gorgeous. Not to mention how real it felt. She looked over her body, clenching and spreading her fingers. She could feel the breeze blow her hair and brush across her face. She was so excited she squealed and hopped around in circles.

Then the realization other players were around and staring at her. She stopped her bouncing and squealing, a deep blush touching her cheeks. Quickly she hurried away and found a shop. Curiously looking through the items she found a guide book. And it was free! She quickly grabbed it without hesitation. She then went to the square of the town of beginnings, sitting on a bench she quickly flipped through the book, reading as much as she could until she felt comfortable with her knowledge of the game. 

Firstly, she knew she needed to get gear that suited her style better. Returning to the store she sold her basic gear and bought herself Medium Metal armor and a polearm. A preferred weapon in most of her online games as it gave good distance. She equipped all her gear and hurried off out of town. She looked around for a spot away from the others to get uncontested mob spawns. There! She spotted a boar. She produced her spear and reproduced what she read in the guide book. Drawing back the spear and delaying, the spear head began to glow with a brilliant violet light. She then struck out, a trail of light following the strike straight across the boar. The boar roared, her skill not good enough yet to strike it down with one attack. She bounced back, getting distance between herself and the beast. As it adjusted to face her once more she readied herself.

The boar charged only to slam into the staff of her polearm, reducing the damage. She shoved the boar back before thrusting several basic pierces into its side. Its health bar fell until it was gone, the boar bursting into a confetti of sparkling pixels. A small screen appeared before her announcing the experience and col. She hooted and hollered, bouncing around excitedly.

“That was awesome!!” She cried out more to herself than anyone else.

She continued on, fighting boar after boar. She eventually raised her level to two which she also cherished with her signature loud celebration. She had gotten into a fight with a few boars at a time, getting ahead of herself. She won the overall fight though she saw her health bar flashing in the red as she panted exhaustedly. She sat for a while, letting her health regain as she had not bought a health crystal, not wanting to spend the money. She got up, brushing the grass from her metallic skirt plates and cloth stockings. She was about to get into another fight with a boar before suddenly she was enveloped in a white light and appeared in the center of the Town of Beginnings. She blinked curiously. [i]’A forced teleport…?’[/i] she thought to herself. 

She looked around, everyone seemed to be here. All 10,000 players. What was going on? She then saw Kayaba appear in the sky. A death game? Her heart sank, the only imagine she recalled was the flickering red light of her health bar nearing depletion. She was so close to dying. She would never be so careless again!

Then she heard of the gift, checking her inventory, producing the mirror and letting it fall into her palm, catching it and holding it up to her face. She saw her face. But it wasn’t her characters face, it was her face in real life. Suddenly she was enveloped in a bright light before it faded. Looking around she saw as everyone’s appearance changed. They must’ve copied their real life appearances and forced it onto into the game.

Then Kayaba vanished and with it the red skies, returning to its natural blue. It was far to peaceful for it to be so horrifying. But she was nauseous with fear. No! Force it away! She had to hurry! She had to beat this! She began to run! Run as fast as she could. She remembered seeing the next town in the guide book. She would head there! Heading there was the only choice. She dashed past people, trying to ignore the screams of terror that filled the square.

She dashed out of the town as fast as she could. Pulling free her spear from her back and readying it for anything to endanger her. She dealt with a few boars before she reached the forest. She heard a commotion off in the distance, sounding like a fight she knew she had to help. Even if they had it handled. She couldn’t live with herself and something happened and she wasn’t there to help.

She hurried to the sound, coming upon a group of three. There seemed more nepents then were safe to handle with only three. She hurried in as the sword wielding male left back to the girl to protect her from a sneak attack. She quickly dashed it, delaying a [b]flurry strike[/b] her spear head burned a bright red aura. Coming in from behind the three left behind Nepents. She then released a flurry of strikes, they were weak but hit all three in the back. Finishing off the little health left after the male left. All three burst into pixels before she turned to the group defending themselves.