Chapter 1 – The Awakening
When the game Sword Art Online finally released Doug quickly purchased the game and the Nervegear required to play the game for both himself and his girlfriend Rachel. It was not set to start until the following day but luckily Doug had managed to pre-order the game to get it in time for the release. They were both immensely looking forward to it because it was the first game to take full advantage of a virtual environment. All of the senses you have such as taste, touch, smell etc. were put into the game as well as your consciousness using the device called the nervegear. Once he bought them, he got a hold of one of his old friends named Derrick and learned that he had also acquired the game and Nervegear so they made a deal to meet up in the game after they learned each others usernames.
Rachel was home alone in her bedroom, drawing and waiting for Doug to get home. She heard her boyfriend had a surprise for her and she was excited to see what it was. He always surprised her with the best gifts, but he was such a mysterious being that she could never guess what they were. She heard the door swing open and she lightly tossed her drawing of the view from her window onto her bed. As she was making her way to the door, she saw him with a black box with misshapen wrapping. The box had its own little idiosyncrasy of simplicity that Rachel found adorable. Doug closed the door and set the box on their couch. Rachel reached for the box, but was stopped by the powerful hands of her boyfriend who picked her up by the waist and carried her back to her room.
"Uh, uh, uh, that's for later," he stated as he gently placed her on her bed.
"But.. but... but... You know I love your surprises, and surely both of us are too impatient to wait," she responded.
"Nope, you have to wait," He grinned mischeviously. Rachel rolled her eyes in response.
"Ooookkkaayyy. I will go make..." She started when she was interrupted.
"I brought home some food. You go wash up and I will heat it up." He went back to the kitchen as Rachel rummaged through her drawers for some comfy clothes and entered the bathroom.
Doug preheated the oven and placed the pizza he had picked up onto the bottom rack. It was just regular old cheese pizza but that's what he liked best.
When Rachel came back downstairs he had already gotten the pizza out of the oven and sliced it.
"That was quite the shower." He commented with a grin.
"Shut up, you always take longer ones than I do." She responded
"Touche. Are you ready for your dinner? I brought home some pizza"
"Let's dig in!" She exclaimed.
They both sat at the table full bellied and with happy grins on their face until Rachel broke the silence, "Ok, so now can I see what you got?"
"Yes, but you have to promise to play," He answered. She thought to herself quietly, 'To play it? Huh, must be some kind of game...' Rachel loosened the wrapping and opened the black box. A big smile was immediately etched upon Rachel's face.
"OH..MY..GOD, a Nervergear!"
"Yeah and I got one for myself as well," Doug said.
"Can we play now? What game did" you get? Are they safe? How much were they..." Rachel trailed off.
"Whoa calm down my love. I got Sword Art Online, have you heard of it?" Doug answered.
"Heard of it? I wanted to play this so badly! Can we play right now? Please, please, please..." Rachel responded. "Not quite yet we can't. We have to wait for it to release tomorrow at 1" Doug said.
- *
The Next Day
Doug hooked up the nervegears and they laid on their backs on their bed.
"Ready?" Doug asked.
"Yes," Rachel responded. They hugged and turned on each other's nervergear. Little did they know that they were about to enter the most dangerous experience of their lives. As the clock hit 1 they could hear eachother say the last words they would hear in the real world for quite some time...
"Link Start".