Author's Note: A New Year, a new fic I to post up. And it's a Sword Art Online story. But this time, I wanna do something different. This is more focused on sports.

After reading Black-Asp's "A Match For Their Lives", which is mainly focused on rugby and also some sort of a thriller, I decided to make a sports-focused SAO story. Not to mention that I rediscovered the sport of association football after watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia 2 years ago and I began watch the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A, the Spanish La Liga, and the French Ligue 1. Not to mention about UEFA's most popular competitions like the Champions League, the Nations League, the Europa League, and the Super Cup. I finally gave up on a sport that I fawned over for many years and I decided to go with football since I find it more intriguing and more compelling. And then, comes this story.

However, Kirito and Asuna won't be the main characters in my story. Instead, it's the two of the most popular characters in the Alicization arc of the series: Alice and Eugeo. While watching Alicization, I became interested in the whole arc and its characters. But I chose the sport of football for this story. And I'm using a popular football simulation video game.

This is a prologue to the main story. Enjoy!

I never owned Sword Art Online and even PES. It is owned by Konami.

Prologue: The Beautiful Game

June 20, 2026
PES Virtual Stadium
4:30 PM

Sweat.

Air.

Noise.

Sweating, or perspiration, is common in humans. That is when someone is experiencing nervousness, or fear. People also sweat when doing any physical activity, which results in fatigue and can also cause physical and mental stress when doing any kind of activity without any breaks or rest.

Oxygen is essential for living things. People will die without oxygen. Depending on the atmosphere or environment, one can feel if something is going to happen whether it's good or bad when he or she is breathing air.

When a sound becomes too loud, it becomes a noise. Either it's the horns that you hear from cars or shouts from a lot of people or loud music, noise can also either lift your spirits up or annoy you.

But for the two of best footballers inside the virtual realm playing against each other, they have the same views regarding these three things.

At least, from the world they came from.

Back there, they're sweating not because of nervousness or anything else, but the rush of adrenaline mixed with fear. It is the fear of death. A wise man once said, "Courage is fear holding on a minute longer." Not to mention that it's not only sweat, but blood, toil and tears. And it's a battle. War. They are doing everything they can with all their strength and resolve to defeat their enemies and in order to survive, to defend their realm.

Back there, in a battlefield, the atmosphere can be something dreadful. Still, violence and war can give you a dreadful feeling. One can smell the foul air of of the corpses of dead soldiers. Indeed, war is hell.

Noise is also common in war. In modern times, you can hear the sound bullets, guns, missiles, cannons, and bombs raining at each other. In medieval times, you will hear the clanging of swords and shields, and the bloodied screams of those who perish by the sword.

But hearing these three familiar things once again in a different place is something that they never expected to.

It's neither the Human Empire nor Centoria. Not even in Rulid Village and lastly, it's not even inside Underworld.

They were inside a large stadium.

Inside it is a wide field full of green grass; with two nets on both sides; and two opposing teams.

Players are sweating because of their physical activity through playing a sport.

The atmosphere is totally different from the horror and chaos that is war. The air is more like a different feeling; of excitement, tension, and passion all rolled into one.

The noise is also different. Instead of screams of anguish and despair, you can hear the whole crowd cheering, waving their flags, and singing for their favourite teams.

The team of four players, lining up like a wall, were clad in dark blue uniforms, or kits, as they call it.

At the opposing side is another team, clad in red. However, there is one player that faced the so-called wall.

That lone player is female. She is a young woman, in her early 20s in appearance, with blue eyes with long golden hair that is tied to both sides of her head, and a braid running down from the back of her head. Around her forehead, she wears a red lace, with the inscribed words: "Mia san Mia". It is the Bavarian variation of the German quote, "Wir sind wir" – which means "We are who we are" in English. She is also clad in a red football kit while wearing a red long sleeved undershirt inside, while wearing red socks and personalized football boots, clad in blue and yellowish gold. At the back of her jersey bears the name "Bayern Munchen" on the top, the number 30 on the center, and in the bottom is a surname: Zuberg.

Alice Zuberg, the former village girl of Rulid village, the former 3rd ranked Integrity Knight known as Alice Synthesis Thirty and now her past memories is restored, who faced the armies of the Dark Territory to protect their world, is playing as a football player for one of the best football teams in Germany; however, it's more like she is in another virtual world; inside of a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online eFootball (VRMMOeF) game.

And here she is, facing a wall of players, setting her eyes on the goal. And beneath her is a soccer ball. She is going for a free kick.

Taking a deep breath to keep her calm composure, Alice ran forward and performs a free kick; she kicked the ball with her powerful right foot and as the ball get past from the wall of defenders trying to block it but to no avail. The goalkeeper prepares himself either to block or catch the ball and-

Someone blocked it, using the left foot.

And it's an opposing player, clad in navy blue. The opposing player is a young man; also as the same age as Alice. He had flax-brown, slightly wavy hair, green eyes and a cream color skin. He wore navy blue gloves and sky-blue football boots. On the back of his jersey bears the name on the top: Eugeo. In the center bears the number 32.

Eugeo, a young man who grew up with his two childhood friends back in Rulid village, trained by his best friend Kirito to become a swordsman to bring Alice back home, faced many battles against the Axiom Church and the Dark Territory alongside Kirito, Alice and Asuna, is also a football player for one of the most well-known teams in Sweden... still inside this virtual world.

With his powerful kick, it made the ball hoisted upwards.

The green-eyed player called out his teammates when he saw the ball falling, "Get the ball and go for the attack!"

Alice widened her eyes as the lone opposing player called out his teammates. However, she heard another voice and it's coming from behind her.

"Go for the attack, everyone! Don't let them get the ball!"

She turned behind and saw a female player who had the same uniform as her, carrying an armband on her left arm; signifying that this female player is the skipper, or the captain of the team.

Hearing this, Alice decided to rush forward and looked upwards as she set her sights on the ball.

"I'll go for the header." She mumbled.

Standing in position, Alice caught the ball with her knee and start dribbling it. As she goes for the strike, the flaxen-haired young man suddenly goes for the tackle. And as time had stopped, the two opposing players stared at each other...

Both of them came from a world where magic and technology exists; a fantasy world from the inside, a virtual simulation from the outside.

They both came from a small village: one became a swordsman with the help of his best friend. The other is a village girl who is taken away by committing a crime yet they turned her into a knight. And after a series of events, the two are reunited and fought together to protect those who are precious to them. Now they are presently in the real world, learning new things.

And that includes the sport of football.

Now, here they are, playing the said sport on a competitive level as the two faced each other. They're not clashing with swords but their wit and skill with a simple bouncing ball.

However, someone may ask: where it all began?

Author's Note: This ends the prologue.

And yes, you guessed it: it's PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER! If you want to ask me why I chose that game for the basis of this fanfic, I'm going to explain but that will be a later time. There are a LOT of reasons why I love PES.

Read and review. Just remember: Playing is Believing.