John Saltier suddenly awoke, yawning as he sat upright in his bed. His mother was probably at work again, leaving him home alone.
"It's Saturday...." John said as his brown eyes suddenly drifted towards the window to his left.
"It's snowing?"
---
Ruby jumped around excitedly.
"YANG! HURRY UP! WE'RE GONNA MISS OUT!!!!" Ruby shouted up the stairs. Yang however snored her life away, deciding that it was best that she didn't wake up.
"Uh. FIne. I'M GOING WITHOUT YOU!" Ruby shouted after several more tries to wake her sister. She didn't dare take a step into Yang's room just to wake her. Only their mother, Summer Rose, would do that. Ruby quickly ran out of the house, the money already in her hands as she quickly ran her way towards the game shop closest to her home.
The words "Sword Art Online : Released TODAY!" were in large, colorful letters above the small gameshop.
---
John lazily walked down the stairs, yawning as he opened the fridge and pulled out a glass of milk.
"John." A very annoying female voice called out behind him. He poured himself a glass of milk before responding.
"What is it this time, Kara?" John asked, turning around and facing his little sister who, like him, had black hair and terrifying red eyes.
"Sword Art Online came out today!" Kara shouted, practically shoving the game disc into his face as he drank.
"That game Mom was helping to make?" John asked. Kara nodded her head excitedly.
"Cool. You gonna play it?" John asked after swallowing the milk.
"Nope. We are!" Kara shouted. "Mom bought us two VR helmets to use! Come on!" Kara shouted playfully, putting one helmet on the table in front of John and quickly grabbing her own.
"I even got two copies of Sword Art Online for us!"
"Sure, why not? Let me eat first."John said, quickly opening the fridge again and thinking nothing of the harmless game.
---
Ruby quietly opened Yang's door, hearing a quiet conversation going on between her and another unknown person. Her silver eyes peaked into the room, spotting Blake Belladonna, Yang's best friend.
"Oh. Hi Blake." Ruby said, quickly jumping into the room and throwing the VR helmet and game at Yang.
"Thanks for waking up!" Ruby shouted at her sister.
"Sorry Rubes. Thanks for getting me the game though!" Yang said, pointing a thumbs up at Ruby.
"Well. We playing or not? Blake got one as well!"
---
John suddenly landed in a dense and beautiful green field. He turned his virtual model's head around, finding that the sensation felt like he was in his own body.
"Not bad." John said, smiling as he suddenly opened the menu and noticed that the logout button was missing.
"Probably just a glitch. It'll be fixed soon." John said, opening the player chat and attempting to send a message to his younger sister. He'd called his character "Jhinson", taking the name of his deceased father. His sister had taken the name "Caitlyn", after their mother.
He learnt the game quickly. He easily found out how to farm for levels, not just merely killing monsters and doing quests but also training his skills for the class he'd chosen.
"Brawler Type 1" were the words highlighted at the top of his screen, just above his name in the top left player indicator. HIs level was 5, already having leveled from merely practicing his skills. The "Brawler" class was given two gauntlets, increased strength and defense stats, and even a few starter potions.
His sister suddenly showed up, walking casually towards him. He looked the same as real life, making it hard to not notice him. HIs hair was till black, his eyes still the epic red that ran in their family. His skin was a pale complexion, but that also ran in the family. Her character, however, had purple hair and violet eyes with slightly darker skin.
"Ney, John!" Kara shouted, running over to him.
"Hey, Kara. What class did you choose?" John asked, getting straight to the point.
"Umm...... Archer." Kara said after some thought.
"Cool. We'll work well together. Accept the party invite." John said, calling upon the 3-D model menu and sending the invite.
"Um.... How do I do that?" Kara asked, sheepishly.
"Wait for it to pop up in front of you in a 3-D window. Click accept when it does."
---
Ruby found Yang easily. They, for some unknown reason, kept their models the same as their appearances.
"Yang! This game is SOOO COOL!" Ruby exclaimed, tackling her older sister into the bushes behind her. The two fell down, laughing yet struggling to get up. Blake watched with amusement, turning around and quickly killing a "Bloodgore Wolf, which was really just an overgrown wolf with red fur, that had snuck up on them. Yang saw what she had done.
"Cool! That assassin class must be really strong!" Yang complimented, dusing herself off and standing up. Blake had opened her Stats window and was now gazing over them.
"Not much defense or health though." Blake said, shaking her head.
"Rubes, what class did you choose? I chose Brawler Type 2." Yang said revealing her gauntlets. Ruby had a confused look on her face.
"Type 2? What about Type 1?" Ruby asked.
"Type 2 had more health, Type 1 had more speed."
"Oh. I chose Reaper, the scythe looked really cool and I was thinking about going into that Swordsman class, the Dual-Swordsman which was really hard to level, the Archer class, the Mage Class, the Healer Mage class, Axe-Wielder class, Spear user, and there was even the-" Yang suddenly clasped her hand over Ruby's mouth, wanting her to stop.
"So you picked Reaper, cool. What stats does it give you?" Ruby opened her own Stats window after Yang released her.
"More speed and high damage. Low defense, higher than normal health."
---
(I'm am not going to repeat the events of Sword Art Online, you can just watch it for yourselves. Long story short, the creator teleports every player to the Town Of Beginnings, the first town in the first level, hence the name. Here, he tells all of the players that there is no logout button and that the only way out was to defeat the 100th floor and if you die in this game, you die in real life.)
Ruby suddenly started crying. Blake's eyes widened at the news. People around them rioted, some breaking down in tears and some merely fighting amongst themselves and yelling at the creator as his caped figure disappeared.
Yang held Ruby in her arms, tears falling down her own eyes.
"Why...?" She said, pulling Ruby and Blake into a nearby alley.
"Listen, we need to stick together. It's the only way we'll get out of this game, alright?" She said, making sure both the bawling Ruby and the shocked Blake heard her. The two girls nodded their heads, both hugging Yang.
"I never asked for this...." Blake whispered.
"None of us did."
---
"This is just what I wanted!" John shouted a month later. He'd just reached the level of 36, one of the fastest leveling players in the game. He found that his gauntlets also had a special function, as the gauntlets themselves would level up as well the more he used it. They had become level 14, the stat increases suddenly skyrocketing as well. He quickly lifted a new armor cloth, then paid for the item and left the store.
Kara was spending time alone in the fields, farming the easy monsters that granted very little experience but a vast amount of money and coins. The forest was behind her, her back turned and facing the town her and her brother had walked to yesterday.
She suddenly heard a large monster behind her stomp the ground furiously. She slowly turned around, fear in her eyes. The beast roared, raising it's bloody axe into the air. Kara was frozen with fear and unable to move. She was helpless as the beast's arm was brought down, the axe blade almost touching her. A loud metallic sound exploded as someone leaped in the way and blocked the axe.
"Better move." Yang said, laughing as she shoved the enormous Minotaur away from Kara. She checked her right gauntlet which she had placed over her head to block the Minotaur's axe. The durability was extremely low, but it would last her the fight. She smirked, noticing the Minotaur's level was 72.
"This'll be fun." She said, moving backwards along with Kara.
"Rubes! Blakey! Get over here!" Yang shouted. Once the Red Reaper and the Black Assailant arrived, she quickly pointed at the Minotaur storming around in the field.
"It's a boss mob, probably the king of the forest." Yang said, smiling.
"What's it doing here?" Blake asked.
"Probably a glitch in the system." Yang replied.
"Sooo..... how much should we bet?" Ruby asked, skipping even their battle plan. Their levels were a mere 34, although Ruby held the lowest level of 32.
"On how much experience we'll get? 50,000 zen, and i'll bet 6k experience for everyone. " Blake replied.
"Deal, and 5.5k for everyone." Yang said.
"7k." Ruby said, activating her scythe skill and blinking forward. Yang and Blake quickly followed, charging forward as well. Blake had drawn her Blake sword and jumped behind the Minotaur as Yang and Ruby kept the beast distracted. She quickly lashed out at the beast's neck from behind, landing several critical strikes before leaping off the shoulder and meeting her party members.
"It's health barely went down..." Blake said as Yang rushed in, activating a Brawler skill.
"Brawler Skill, Golden Lion Fury!" Yang shouted as her gauntlets lit on fire, not only raising her strength stat significantly but also adding a burning effect to each attack she landed. The Minotaur roared, swinging its axe to knock her away. Yang quickly jumped over the large blade that would have easily cut her in half and killed her, landing two quick and powerful punches to its chest. She took both of her fists and slammed it down on the Minotaur's chest, causing the beast to fall backwards and crash. Yang had leapt off, shouting orders at Ruby and Blake.
"Ruby! Do your weird scythe thing! Blake, hit the neck!" Her orders were sloppy, but after executing the strikes the two girls quickly retreated as the beast stood up from the ground. It's health was still relatively high, but the repeated strikes had brought the beast's health below half.
"This is easy!" Yang shouted, her gauntlets suddenly lighting themselves again. Before she could leap forward, a male with black hair and red eyes suddenly dashed forward, his gauntlets giving off dark red flames.
"What the-?" Yang exclaimed as the male's fist suddenly crashed into the Minotaur's head, knocking down the beast again. The male then charged another strike mid-air and quickly brought his strike into the beast's belly. He realized his mana was low, prompting him to jump off quickly.
The Minotaur stood up, angered and glaring at John.