Sword | Sword Art Online FanFiction

1 Town of Beginnings

Sword Art Online was officially released. Only 10,000 people from around the world would get to buy and play it on launch. They were limiting the number so as not to overload the game servers right away. In two weeks another 65,000 copies were supposed to go on sale. After a month it was supposed to be fully up and running and open to any player that purchased a copy.

Even though it was a Japanese made game and most the sales were going to people in Japan the 2,000 downloadable copies could be purchased by anyone in the world, assuming that person had also managed to get their hands on the NerveGear required to play it.

As a pro gamer, Zorina purchased the NerveGear as soon as it came out, though she didn't play on it too often since the games available were simple and lacked any real action. Still, she was lucky enough to be selected to help test Sword Art Online and it had gotten her hooked. The game boasted full immersion and it had an automatic translation system so anyone could play and communicate with anyone they wanted. It was uniting the gamers of the world more than ever before. The game was revolutionary.

At 1pm in Japan the game would go live for the 10,000 players who had purchased the game. For Zorina it would be 5am.

Zorina didn't mind waking up early to play. She normally woke up at 5 anyway to get ready for work which started at 7. It didn't really bother her to get up a little earlier on her day off when she got to play an amazing game.

She glanced over at the time in the corner of her computer screen. It read 4:40am. She pushed her chair away from her computer and got up. Before spending the rest of the morning in the virtual world of Sword Art Online she would need something to eat. She made herself a cup of tea and grabbed a few bread rolls she had made the other day from the fridge.

Zorina returned to her room and sat back down in front of her computer. Steam curled off her cup of tea as she set it on her desk. She munched on a roll as she moved her hand over her mouse. She opened her game engine and logged in. Drinking her tea, her eyes flickered over the titles of games as she scrolled through the list of games she had played in the past. She paused when she spotted Sword Art Online. A sigh escaped her lips as she took her hand off the mouse and leaned back in her chair.

There was still seven minutes until launch. Zorina finished her tea and rolls before setting her dishes aside on her desk. She clicked on Sword Art Online. Picking up her NerveGear, she moved to her bed. The black plastic was cool to her touch. After pulling the NerveGear on she laid down, finding a comfortable position so that when she got up she wouldn't feel too stiff.

Her eyes watched the clock at the top left of the screen. The time changed from 4:59 to 5:00.

"Link start!" she commanded.

The system started up. It checked all the sense calibrations before asking her to select a language. It was something that Zorina found mildly annoying. She didn't understand why it couldn't just remember that her language was English, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

After logging in a blue box popped up, asked if she wanted to use her character from the beta test. The choice was obvious to her. She had no reason to create a new character.

The welcome screen that followed was one she had missed over the few weeks as the game had gotten it's final adjustments before release.

Zorina closed her eyes and when she opened them again the scene around her was a familiar one. She was in the Town of Beginnings on the 1st Floor of Aincrad. She was back in the game. Gone was the name Zorina. In this world she was Zora.

Other players spawned around her, most of them seeing the world of Aincrad for the first time. The town wasn't the most stunning, but Zora knew it looked amazing when you saw it for the first time; it did to her. Stone pillars surrounded the cobblestone plaza.