Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online, anything of Rick Riordan's, or really anything else you see. For example, I'll probably take some monsters, equipment, quests, and maybe even NPCs from games I used to play such as Adventure Quest and Runescape.

Warning: angst, death, non-graphic murder (not yet, anyway), violence, etcetera

Yes, a re-write! I wasn't happy with the original version of this story, and realized I'd half-assed it a lot, so here is my second attempt.

Enjoy!

In 2016, mankind finally built a full virtual environment.

Nico felt a small smile tug at his lips as he carefully opened the package in his hands.

'Damn tape.' He thought, too stubborn to get a pair of scissors and open it the easy way.

Still, what kind of demigod would he be if he couldn't even open a cardboard box?

And so after a few moments it was finally open, no scissors or other blades needed.

Feeling accomplished, Nico took the item outs out of the box…to see what looked like a strange motorcycle helmet, along with a DVD case for the game Sword Art Online, otherwise known as SAO.

There had only been 10,000 copies released so far, but Nico had some rather high up connections in the world, so it hadn't taken long to get himself a copy, and he couldn't wait to try it.

All the adventure of a quest—or, really, just going outside of the camps if you were a demigod—monsters and all, but without the risk of dying.

Besides, as someone whose experience with any kind of game was limited to retro games in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, war games like Capture the Flag, and Mythomagic, which was only a card game…this would be an entirely new experience.

Should be interesting.

"Nerve Gear…" Nico murmured quietly to himself, examining the helmet that had come with the game.

The things that mankind had managed to create since he was a child growing up in the 1930's really amazed him, sometimes.

Anyway.

The Son of Hades followed the directions, struggling slightly due to his dyslexia, though considering that the game had been released in Japan he was lucky that he had managed to get the instructions in English in the first place.

He put the helmet on, ignoring the odd feeling, since this wasn't the same type of helmet he (occasionally) used in battle, and pat himself down so that the Nerve Gear could calibrate his body measurements.

He couldn't help but wonder why it mattered.

After all, he would be using an avatar the entire time.

"Link Start!" he used the verbal command once the Nerve Gear was finished assimilating the information.

Nico inhaled sharply as he saw the loading screens sync his senses to the game.

Or he would have, had he still been in his body.

This was…trippy.

Seeing that he would have to create a profile, Nico answered the questions when prompted.

Language?

English.

Ancient Greek would have been a better choice, but of course they weren't options.

He could speak Italian just as well as English, of course, but since his problem was reading anything but Ancient Greek characters, that wouldn't help. And even if he could understand and, for the most part, speak Latin, he couldn't read it either, because of course that wasn't written in Ancient Greek characters.

Nico went through the process, creating his avatar (black hair, dark eyes, and healthier looking than he actually was) before being prompted to choose a name.

He pondered that one for a few minutes.

He didn't want to use his real name, which was always a bad idea for this kind of thing.

Son of Hades?

Bad idea. There might be other demigods, or any number of 'mythological' creatures playing the game, though at least the larger ones wouldn't be able to put on the Nerve Gear in the first place.

Ghost King?

Lame.

Something that he could learn to respond to quickly, but still paid homage to the Greeks…

He typed in the name as it came to him, and was then assaulted by bursts of color.

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

He blinked as he found himself in the middle of what he supposed was the town square of wherever the game had spawned him.

He blinked slowly as he glanced around, breath catching quietly as he took in his surroundings.

It seemed so…real.

He would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this world and the real one.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as a familiar feeling made itself known.

Why could he still feel people's life forces?

That shouldn't be possible, considering this was all virtual.

And why had they acted up, just now?

Sure, people died all the time in video games, but they didn't actually die.

That…was more than a little worrying.

Nico groaned, realizing that, like every other demigod on the planet, things were probably about to go to hell. 'I need to get out of here…'

But when he pulled up his menu, the log out button was grayed out, and the Game Master didn't respond when he tried getting a hold of them.

"Fuck…" Nico breathed out.

Here he was, stuck inside of a game for however long, and he could feel people's life forces fading from existence every once in a while, something that should be impossible.

Something big was about to happen.

And so Nico found himself working much harder than he normally would have to gain experience and 'col,' the money in this world, trying to ignore the occasional pang he felt as someone died.

His weapon quickly wore down, since the equipment in SAO only had so much durability, but his armor and other clothing was good as new.

After all, he had more than a little experience fighting with monsters, so it wasn't like he couldn't evade attacks as basic as the ones the opponent's he'd had so far had been giving.

Deep in the Cardinal System of the game, a small girl watched what was happening to every player who had logged onto SAO, humming to herself as she contented herself to wait to be needed by those same players.

Glancing at one screen in particular, her eyes widened in awe and surprise as she saw the player's stats, which were listed beside him on the screen.

He wasn't a beta tester; that much she knew.

But he was so strong!

Oh, but it wasn't his level that had caught her attention. No one had had enough time to get very powerful in that respect.

But the physical capabilities that his stats displayed!

He was strong, very strong, and quick, too. Agile, and able to both attack and defend without the game's system helping him out. Half the time, he didn't even bother using a sword skill, but still managed to deal his opponents' relatively devastating blows.

…Wow.

She didn't know very much about humans, outside of her specialty as a sort of in-game therapist, but she'd been under the impression that the larger ones usually had more power.

So how did this small teenager get to be so strong?

She contemplated sending a message to the Game Master informing him of the anomaly, but decided against it.

After all, the player himself was an anomaly.

It wasn't some sort of glitch, so he likely wouldn't care, and he had more pressing concerns than a curiosity of hers.

"Implement the Forced Transport." As she thought of her creator, his voice rang throughout her 'home.'

"Yes, sir!" she said with a cheerful salute, snapping her fingers and causing everyone still logged into the game to be teleported back to the town square in the Town of Beginnings.

She wondered what he was planning.

Some sort of welcome event, maybe?

Nico stared into the distance as he processed Kayaba, the Game Master's, words.

They were unable to log out of SAO until they made it through all one hundred floors of Aincrad and beat the final boss.

If you were killed, the Nerve Gear would kill you.

If someone from the real world tried to remove the Nerve Gear, it would kill you.

Hundreds of people had already died, and the people in the real world had been told first, since those news reports were already up and Kayaba had assured them that it was unlikely that anyone would remove the helmets, at this point in time.

So his Death Sense hadn't been wrong.

Those people whose souls he felt fade really had died.

He wished he could say he was surprised, but if there was one thing he had learned over the years, it was to trust his abilities.

A thought struck him, and he flinched as if it were a physical blow.

The people in the real world already knew.

Did his friends?

His sister, Hazel, or honorary siblings, Jason and Reyna?

What about his father, Hades?

…Did Will?

As he thought of the blonde Son of Apollo, he calmed slightly, muscles slowly relaxing.

Well, assuming they knew not to remove the Nerve Gear, his real body would be fine.

After all, there was a child of Apollo, the god of medicine, who irritatingly seemed to have a vested interest in Nico's health, though he was still baffled as to why.

Now he just had to worry about surviving in the game itself.

Of course, as he thought that, he saw two males, one who looked to be slightly older than him and the other who looked to be in his twenties, sneak out of the square.

He followed.

As per Nico's thoughts, his friends in the real world had indeed heard about how Akihika Kayaba was holding 10,000 people hostage in the game Sword Art Online.

But only one of them knew that Nico was one of the aforementioned hostages.

In California, a young dark skinned girl with cinnamon-colored hair and gold eyes felt faint as she watched the news report.

SAO. Hostage. Brain destroyed.

Nico.

She wondered why her body seemed so heavy, why her vision was blacking out slightly.

Why was Gwen frantically shaking her?

And then she realized.

She couldn't breathe.

Try as she might, her lungs weren't following her commands.

Luckily, there was a daughter of Apollo nearby, and air was soon forced back into her lungs.

Now that her body was obeying her again, Hazel abruptly stood up, startling the people who surrounded her, and they all stared at here worriedly.

"Where are Frank and Reyna?" she demanded.

The others stared at her in bewilderment as Gwen tried to get Hazel to sit back down, since she apparently wasn't feeling well.

The Daughter of Pluto waved her off impatiently. "Where. Are. They?"

"T-the armory, I think." One of them answered hesitantly. "Taking inventory."

Hazel nodded sharply before breaking through the wall of people in front of her and running towards the armory, pulling out her cell phone and calling Annabeth as she went.

Cell phones were dangerous for demigods, true, but she was safe at camp, so it didn't matter.

"Hazel!" Annabeth asked as she picked up. "Have you seen the news?! I wonder if the creator is a demigod. Athena or Hephaestus, maybe…"

"Annabeth, get to Cabin 13." Hazel demanded. "NOW. Bring Will, and don't let anyone else in."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Hazel, what's wrong?" Annabeth asked worriedly, and Hazel could hear the other girl's feet pounding on the ground as she (presumably) ran to the infirmary to find Will.

Hazel's throat suddenly felt dry as she finally got to the armory, and Frank and Reyna turned to her with curious eyes.

"Nico planned to log into Sword Art Online earlier this afternoon."

She was prepared to explain to the others, who were obviously busy, but it was unnecessary, as her friend and boyfriend had been watching the news before deciding to distract themselves with work.

Reyna dropped her clipboard, the usually stoic praetor's eyes widening in shock and horror, an expression matched by Frank, and Hazel was sure Annabeth, though she couldn't see her.

She heard a tinny sound as Annabeth gasped. "Oh my gods."

Hazel had a feeling the blonde Daughter of Athena was running even faster, now.

"Whatever you do, don't remove the helmet!" Hazel begged into her phone, tears in her eyes as Frank immediately wrapped his arms around her and Reyna ran outside to arrange for them to have a 'leave of absence' to go to Camp Half-Blood all the way in New York.

Please review!

Next Chapter: Will finds out, and Nico meets Kirito!

Nico won't be feeling people die quite as often now that people both in the game and in real life know about the dangers, but given how many people died before Kayaba's announcement, you bet he was feeling it early on.

Also, I adjusted the very first sentence, changing it from the year 2022 like in canon to 2016, which of course is this year, and I figured if I want Nico to still be younger than Kirito, and I don't imagine the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus books take place that far into the future, I'd better change it.