Long ago, the world was protected by two divine trees — the Black Sacred Tree and the White Sacred Tree, whose power maintained balance across all creation.
The Dark Elves, worshippers of the Black Tree, built the Kingdom of Lyusra.
Meanwhile, the Forest Elves, devoted to the White Tree, founded the Kingdom of Calaisal.
Under the blessing of the sacred trees, both kingdoms flourished — their people thriving in peace and magic.
Alongside them stood the human realm: the Nine United Kingdoms.
But one day, the elves grew greedy. Desiring bodies that would never feel pain, they tried to draw the divine sap from their own sacred trees.
That act of hubris sparked a terrible war.
As both sides prepared to unleash their ultimate spells, a cataclysmic phenomenon occurred —
a glowing ring, ten kilometers wide, descended from the sky, cutting the battlefield clean away from the earth and lifting it high above the clouds.
Entire cities — capitals, fortresses, and villages — were torn from the land and stacked vertically upon one another.
From that day on, this event became known as The Severing of the Earth,
and the floating steel castle born from it was called — Aincrad.
That was the lore of Sword Art Online.
---
When Seiya Minamoto's vision cleared, he found himself standing in the bustling plaza of Aincrad's First Floor — the Starting City.
He looked down at his outfit — coarse linen beginner's clothes, the standard for all new players. Around him, flashes of blue light shimmered as other avatars spawned in one after another, each wearing the same novice gear.
The game allowed full character customization — even gender choice — so many players had spent ages designing their ideal look.
But not Seiya.
He already knew that appearances would eventually be revealed for what they really were, so he hadn't bothered. He hadn't even changed his name — simply entered his real one.
As a result, he was among the first few players to log in.
---
The Starting City was enormous, and with ten thousand players logging in at once, finding someone was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Opening his friends list window, Seiya quickly typed in "Kirito" and sent a friend request.
A few moments later, a notification popped up — [Friend Request Accepted] — followed by a message.
Kirito: "Seiya, seriously? You used your real name as your character name?"
Kirito had told him beforehand that his own in-game name would be Kirito — his long-time gaming alias.
Seiya: "Well, thinking up fake names is troublesome. What's wrong with using my real one?"
Kirito sighed as he read the reply.
Kirito: "It's not exactly wrong, just… wait, don't tell me you logged in that fast without even editing your face model?"
Seiya: "Face model? What do you mean?"
Kirito: "You know — facial customization. You can tweak your looks, make yourself more handsome or whatever."
Seiya: "Oh, that? Yeah, I saw that part. But my face already looks good enough. I'm satisfied as is, so I skipped it."
Kirito stared blankly at the message window.
He had been planning to joke about Seiya being a total newbie — but somehow, he suddenly felt attacked.
He'd spent a good chunk of time perfecting his virtual face, yet it turned out Seiya's real one was already better than his carefully edited avatar.
He'd just been reverse-flexed by accident.
Kirito: "You really are a newbie, huh? In a full-dive game like this, most players tweak their name and appearance a bit. That's just common sense.
If you use your real name and real face, and then annoy the wrong people or act like a troll, they'll find you easily in real life!"
Kirito couldn't help but lecture him — a veteran gamer passing on wisdom to a clueless beginner.
Still, deep down, he was secretly enjoying this.
From Seiya's casual replies, it was obvious — this guy was a genuine newbie, not one of those "pretend beginners" secretly hiding max-level skills.
Kirito had worried earlier that Seiya might still outperform him in sword combat, even in-game.
But now, seeing Seiya act like a clueless rookie, his confidence soared.
If he couldn't outplay someone this green, he might as well quit gaming altogether.
Besides, there was something strangely satisfying about being the mentor for once.
In the real world, Seiya was the prodigy — the "big shot."
But here, in the world of Sword Art Online, Kirito was the expert.
---
The plaza was packed, and more players were materializing by the second.
For safety, Kirito told Seiya to stay put until he could locate him using the friend-tracking feature.
"Don't wander off. I'll come to you," he said.
"Got it," Seiya replied, closing his map. "I'll just… wait here like a good newbie."
Waiting, however, was dull.
The official launch was still in progress, and many players hadn't even finished customizing their looks yet. The game's creator, Kayaba Akihiko, had yet to make his infamous appearance.
So while waiting for Kirito, Seiya started exploring the system menus.
Sword Art Online was, as expected, a sword-focused action RPG, with a vast array of skills — nearly half of them sword techniques.
But what truly impressed him was the unique skill system — players could create original techniques through their own manual input.
If the system recognized a sequence of movements as valid, it would automatically record it as a player-created skill, allowing custom naming and registration.
It was a level of freedom he hadn't seen in any game before.
Then, as he flipped through more menus—
"Wait… is this a microtransaction interface?"
To his surprise, he discovered a purchase menu hidden among the options.
Apparently, SAO supported real-money transactions.
Of course it did — developers had to make money somehow. Even games that claimed to be "completely free" eventually fell to the 'Pay-to-Win' temptation.
"Guess even Kayaba needs to pay the bills," Seiya muttered.
Since Kayaba hadn't yet locked the system or triggered the death game incident, SAO was still just a normal VRMMO — and yes, the top-up system worked perfectly fine.
Seiya stared at the shimmering purchase window for a few seconds.
Then he smirked.
"Whatever. Let's just top up first and think later."
Without hesitation, he entered his account credentials and confirmed the transaction.
A cheerful chime sounded as his balance updated.
The era of full-dive gaming had truly begun.
---
(End of Chapter 4)