Episode 6

se valuable slots was nothing short of a miracle. Not only that, being a beta tester gave me priority access to the retail edition of the game when it hit the market.

The two months of the beta test were like a fever dream. Even at school, my head was swimming with thoughts of my skill loadout and equipment, and once I got home, I dove into the game until dawn. In no time at all, the beta test ended, and when my character data was erased, it felt like I had lost a part of myself.

The day was Sunday, November 6, 2022.

At 1:00 PM, Sword Art Online would finally go live to the public.

I was ready a full thirty minutes early, of course, logging in without a second’s hesitation and checking the server status to confirm that more than 9,500 lucky purchasers were brimming with anticipation just as I was. The major online retailers had sold out of their initial shipments in seconds, and brick-and-mortar shops had made the news with crowds lining up three days early to get copies of the game. In other words, everyone who managed to secure a copy of SAO was almost certainly a serious gaming addict.

My first interaction with Klein seemed to support that assumption.

As I logged in to SAO and marched down the familiar cobblestones of the Town of Beginnings, I ducked into a backalley heading for a particularly cheap weapons dealer. He must have noticed my lack of hesitation and pegged me for a beta tester. “Hey, spare some advice?” Klein hailed me.

Impressed by his utter lack of restraint, I tried to pass myself off as a helpful town guide NPC with a feeble, “H-hello…Are you looking for the weapon shop?” Soon we were grouped together into a party, followed by some hands-on combat lessons outside of town—and here we were.

Frankly speaking, I was at least as antisocial in the game as I was in real life, if not more so. I grew familiar with many other gamers during the beta test, but there wasn’t a single one of them I’d have called a friend.

But this Klein fellow had a mysterious ability to slip past one’s defenses and latch on, and to my surprise, I didn’t really mind. Thinking that I might actually be able to stick around with him, I opened my mouth again.

“So, what now? Want to keep hunting until you get the hang of it?”

“You bet your *** I do! Or…normally I would…”

Klein’s shapely eyes darted to the right—he was checking the time readout displayed in the corner of his vision.

“But I need to log out for a bit to eat dinner. I scheduled a pizza delivery for five thirty.”

“Now there’s a guy who comes prepared.” I sighed.

Klein straightened up and continued as though he’d just thought of something. “Um, so, I’m gonna go back to the Town of Beginnings after this and meet up with some friends I made in another game. If I introduce you, would you want to add them to your friends list? It makes it easy to send messages to each other.”

“Uh, hmm…” I stammered.

I found it easy to get along with Klein, but there was no guarantee I’d hit it off with his friends. In fact, it seemed all too easy to envision feeling uncomfortable around them, which might make things awkward with Klein himself.