Sword Art Online Episode 01

World of Swords (剣の世界) is the first episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation and its first season, as well as the first episode in the Aincrad Arc. It aired on July 7, 2012.

Plot
By the year 2022, humanity had fully developed a Virtual Reality Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG). On Sunday, November 6th, Sword Art Online (SAO), the highly anticipated and renowned online fantasy game of the year, had already sold 10,000 copies in its first batch with players forming huge lines at every game store 4 days before the sale of the game even began.

The episode began with the protagonist, a young 14 year old male player, accessing the game at 13:00 (1:00 p.m.). Using the commonly known helmet game console identified as the NerveGear, he entered the online virtual world of «Aincrad» using his game avatar «Kirito» from his beta-version gameplay after the «NerveGear» had finished calibrating his virtual body.

Once inside, he found himself in the main town of the 1st Floor: the «Starting City». Kirito maneuvered himself through the city's central market while heading towards the city gate, until a new player, called Klein, asked for Kirito’s help in learning the game's mechanics after deducing that Kirito was a beta tester due to him knowing his way around.



While Klein was fighting against a level 1 monster called a «Frenzy Boar», he was having trouble killing it due to his wild swings on the boar. Kirito taught Klein about the necessary motion for the use of «Sword Skills»; the essential feature of the SAO. Another feature of the game that Klein learned was that the player could not feel any actual pain; instead there would just be an unpleasant feeling in its place, alongside the depletion of the player’s health gauge when hit.

Even though eating the virtual food in the game world would get rid of the unpleasant hungry feeling when playing, it did not dispel the hunger in the real world. Therefore, Klein decided to log out when the time was nearly 17:30 (5:30 p.m.) as he had ordered for a pizza and ginger ale to arrive at about that time. After saying their goodbyes, Klein opened the menu to use the «LOG OUT» option to eat the pizza that was about to arrive, but failed to find it. Kirito suggested calling a GM to disconnect them from the the game, but Klein could not get into contact with them. After a few of Klein's failed attempts to log out, both decided to wait for a GM, thinking that it must be a glitch. At that moment, the town bells from the 1st Floor's central town started ringing. All of the players were transported back to the «Starting City» via forced teleport.



On the virtual screens at the sky, there was a system announcement that drew everyone’s attention. Suddenly, a giant, robed, faceless figure appeared, identifying himself as Kayaba Akihiko; the creator of the game and the only person with control over the game. Addressing the problem of the missing «Log Out» option, he announced to the players that he had purposely removed it from the game as another one of its features and thus, trapping them in the game.

While all the players were alarmed by his announcement, he continued on to point out that trying to forcibly escape by removing the NerveGear would result in the player's death by having the player's brain fried by the NerveGear's transmitter, which functioned like a microwave and used the internal battery of the helmet as a power source, thus cutting off the power was not a solution. Having informed the outside world of the situation beforehand, he reported that friends and family members of some of the players had already ignored his warning, causing the death of 213 players, showing images of the SAO incident.



Kayaba also told them that he had also removed the revival system in the game. Therefore, when a player died in-game, their game avatar would be forever lost, and, at the same time, the NerveGear would fry the player's brain, thus killing them. He then told them that the only way to escape the game was to complete it, which meant clearing all 100 floors of «Aincrad» and their bosses much to the players' shock.

As he finished his announcement, he left a "gift", a «Mirror», in everyone’s inventory, which they took out. At that moment, a huge blinding light changed the players to their true appearances; sharply dropping the amount of female players by revealing that many male players were masquerading as female characters (though some female players were also masquerading as males). Afterwards, Kayaba revealed that his only goal was to create the game and intervene in it. Finally Kayaba vanished after his «Tutorial» is finished.

As everyone started panicking after Kayaba’s departure, Kirito quickly took action and tried to bring Klein with him to the next nearby village, stating that the surrounding resources would be limited. However, Klein told him that he could not come with him, as he has some friends in real life somewhere in the plaza, and he did not want to leave them behind. Kirito realized that he could only protect one player at a time with his current skills, meaning that if Klein or one of his friends died, he would be blamed for their deaths since he was the one who had suggested to leave.



Klein noticed Kirito’s worries and politely told him that he should go ahead by himself, as he planned to go back to lead and protect his friends with the lessons that Kirito had taught him. He then tried to cheer Kirito up with a joke about his slightly feminine appearance, to which Kirito retaliates by stating that Klein’s unkempt face suited him better. They then parted ways. Alone by himself with no one else to depend on, Kirito ran through the town and outside the gate, vowing that he would survive in this game world and be free from the virtual imprisonment while swiftly taking out a wolf standing in his way.

By December 2, 2022, approximately a month later, 2,000 players had already died, their departed name being crossed out on the Monument of Life simultaneously, while the 1st Floor had yet to be cleared.

New Characters

 * Kirito
 * Kirigaya Suguha (Cameo)
 * Kirigaya Midori (Cameo)
 * Klein
 * Kayaba Akihiko (in his game master avatar, and on the magazine)
 * Asuna (Cameo)
 * Silica (Cameo)
 * Lisbeth (Cameo)

Named Monsters

 * Frenzy Boar
 * Wolf

Inventory

 * All Players
 * Hand Mirror - Received from Kayaba

Known Sword Skills

 * Reaver - Klein

Locations

 * Kirigaya residence
 * Akihabara
 * Aincrad Floor 1: Starting City - Teleport Gate plaza, central market, alleyways; West Field, Path to Town of Horunka

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Volume 1, Chapters 2 and 3


 * The anime does not mention that the release of the SAO game was still limited to Japan, and not yet allowed global.
 * In the novel, Kayaba announces to the players that if one of the following happened: being disconnected from a source of electricity for 10 minutes, cut from the system for more than 2 hours, or dying in-game, the NerveGear would fry the player's brain, killing them in the real world. He also told them that his crime was being broadcast all over the world, with the location of each player, thus the authorities would be moving them into hospitals to put them in better care during the 2 hours he had allowed the players to be disconnected from the system. In the anime, he only told the players that upon reaching 0 HP, the player would die. Kayaba does not mention anything about moving the players into hospitals during his "tutorial", although it is shown later on that he did spread the word to put the players into better care.
 * Kirito, in the novel, had reached the tenth floor during beta testing period rather than the eighth floor as mentioned in the anime. However, originally the number of floors passed was 6, and the number was later retconned to 10 in the novel, so this is more-so a change in continuity, than an error in the anime.
 * In the anime, the players are just wondering what happened when they were teleported back to the city. In the novel, a few were angry when they were teleported back.
 * The design of the Monument of Life has been simplified in the anime. Unlike the novel version, the anime version does not include descriptions of each player's death.

Quotes

 * "In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. And even though it's a virtual world, I feel more alive in here than I ever did in the real one." - Kirito
 * "Make your way through each dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, and you will advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss of the 100th floor, and you will clear the game." - Kayaba Akihiko
 * "Why would Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I wanted to create this world and intervene in it. That is why I created Sword Art Online." - Kayaba Akihiko
 * "This is a game, but it's not just something you play." - Kayaba Akihiko
 * "If I die in this world... I'll die for real." - Kirito
 * "I'll definitely survive... ...in this world!" - Kirito 

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