Chapter 1- Welcome to the Swordland

A/N A huge, HUGE, rewrite of chapter 1.

Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Sunday, November 6th, 2022, 12:40 am

(The first Line Break!)

Iriamu Yūsutasu (E-Ri-Ah-Moo You-Sue-Ta-Sue) raced home has fast has he could on his bike, a bag in the front basket. This was it, the day had finally come for the release of Sword Art Online! He hadn't been more excited in his life! With some convincing from his hesitant parents, Iriamu had convinced them to let him buy, has a early birthday present, Sword Art Online and the NerveGear.

The panting 14 year old glanced down at his watch, about 20 minutes till the game servers opened. He leaned the bike slightly as he turned onto his street, pedaling as fast as his feet could carry him. Once he reached his house's driveway, Iriamu threw his bike to the side and sprinted into his house.

He closed the back front door and walked by the kitchen, where his mother is preparing lunch.

"Oh, hey Mom." Iriamu stated hurriedly.

"How's it going, you were gone for some time." His mom asked

"Yeah, the line at GameGo was hours long, I'm glad I left when I did." Iriamu replied while taking off his shoes and putting on his slippers.

"Hey, Iriamu, are you hungry? I'm making curry!" His mother asked Iriamu

"Nope, I'm heading upstairs to setup my new game." Iriamu answered while preparing to sprint upstairs.

"Okay honey, have fun. Be down by 6:30 or I'll skin you!" His mother jokingly stated.

"Yeah, yeah mom. Tell Riku I said hi!" Iriamu called has he jogged upstairs, bag in tow.

The excited teen entered his room and gingerly set down the bag on his bed. He glanced at his watch

12:48

Taking in a brief scan, Iriamu saw the contents of his glorious room. At the far left, stood his double monitoring PC set up. His bed was pushed to the far right, next to his window which the noon sun shone through. The closest was located to left and a dresser was was to his right. The room's walls were of greenish blue color, and besides a couple of his favorite anime posters and shelves, his room was empty.

He still had time. Iriamu quickly dug into the bag and pulled out a box, the box. The title of the game, Sword Art Online is on the front cover of the game in front of what looks to be a giant floating castle, he had heard it was called Aincrad.

Iriamu went to work, his hands a blur, as they opened the game case and put the CD into his computer's CD drive. The game shortcut then soon opened onto desktop, which he promptly clicked.

After signing in to his already made account, Iriamu hastily went to work on the actual NerveGear. Grabbing his pocket knife which lay on his shelf, Iriamu was able to roughly get the box open and catch a glimpse at the gorgeous piece of hardware.

Iriamu carefully lifted the NerveGear out of its container. When Iriamu saw the device, he squealed like a stereotypical anime girl and hugged the device. It kinda looked like a pilot helmet, but more complex and with holes all in it. After pulling out the wires and quickly flipping through the manual, Iriamu went to work plugging everything into his computer.

When he, finally, got to put on the helmet, even more work was required. On the HUD in the helmet, a video popped up which said he had to calibrate the gear. The video played and it was a video of someone patting themselves down while wearing the gear.

Iriamu did the same and when that was over with, he laid down on his bed and glanced at the clock.

13:01

Crap! Iriamu quickly stated the words that would seal his fate for 2 years. "Link Start!"

Everything went white for a second, all of a sudden, colors started to shoot by him. Once everything returned to white, circles then appeared with the five senses on each one, the lit up green with okay and once they all were green, they fell away. He could feel his senses slowly leave has he entered this new universe. A bar appeared that said Language: Japanese, that soon disappeared and yet another window popped up which signed him in. Would you like to create a new character? His eyes hovered to yes and a basic character appeared with a window on the right with options.

One character later!
He looked at name character, he didn't know what to call himself. Iriamu was tempted to use his usual username of AnuseBABY, but this was a new game. New game, new name. U-m-a-i-r-i, Umairi (Oo-Ma-E-Ri). He looked at Done. The game then showed the words Welcome to Sword Art Online, blue light then started to fly by has he entered the game. Light returned to his eyes. He blinked a few times and looked around, he seemed to be in a giant plaza. Yes, he was no longer Iriamu, he was now Umairi.

This is a HUGE rewrite to the original version which I didn't realize was bad. This was written by the time of the 16th chapter.

A/N And that ends part One of the chapter, Town of Beginnings. I wanted to keep writing but I had decided to stop halfway because reasons. I know, I know, Iriamu's character name is just his name backwards, I did that on purpose. Here are some answers to questions you may ask.

Q/ What is Iriamu supposed to mean, it's a strange Japanese name.

A/ What I did was put my first and in Google translate and saw what the Japanese translation was. My name is William. The last name will always be mysterious!

Q/ What is with the signing in and calibration stuff, is it canon?

A/ In the anime, they don't specify how you would sign in so I had to make it up. I couldn't find much on it besides what was on the SAO wiki. I'd say mostly.

Q/Why choose that specific place for Iriamu to live?

A/I just chose a random place in Japan

Q/Why does it say that the NerveGear is Iriamu's early b-day gift

A/If you hadn't realized, I based Iriamu loosely on me, my b-day is November 7th

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