Alice woke up extra early that day. Excited that the break between the beta and the full release was finally over. She had the Nervegear set up next to her couch. The couch definitely wasn't as comfortable as her bed, but that was where the Ethernet was so she had no real choice. She wrapped her hair up in a ponytail because it gets very messy otherwise, and combing it was not an enjoyable activity.  She lied down in her favorite hamburger covered onesie and put on her Nervegear "Totally worth skipping class. Link Start!"<br/><br/>She smiled as she bounced up and down on her feet with her custom made avatar. She looked like an esteemed queen complete with a massively over proportioned body and perfect skin, a far departure from her extremely freckled body, a trait that she didn't really care for. Her hand ran over the soft frills of her outfit, again something fit for a queen to wear. She as very glad to have been in the beta, it even allowed her to make a sort of name for herself. She was a duelist, in essence she thought of herself as an honorable PKer. Though as she would soon learn her style was not something she could keep up anymore. Her unusual choice of weaponry however, while not especially good PvE was not something she would be willing to give up. She thought arm-blades were just too cool.<br/><br/>She took a deep breath through her nose, noting that it wasn't a perfect representation of country air, but it was also more pleasant then the air in the heart of Tokyo. As she opened her eyes the assault of light forced at least one of them to close. A lot of people were staring at her, probably due to the lack of starting gear. She gave an ice cold glare to everyone around her as if to say 'back off.' She first had to go to the town shops, because only cosmetic items and select items like crystals were allowed to transfer. She smiled "Time to restart the journey." She said to herself as she walked off to buy a starting arm-blade. The town was pleasantly familiar, made all the better by the new players checking it out. She noted the slightly update blacksmith as she purchased her weapon, and read its beginner text "Useful for PvP." She sighed and mumbled to herself "Not entirely true, it does really well when you put points into unarmed." She pouted just as her body seemed to be whisked away by a forced teleport.<br/><br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>No, no this was not right. Why did his friends talk him into this? Yuuta felt nothing but fear as he watched the sky go a light with error messages. Who was this man in the sky, talking about having no ability to log out as if it were a feature. That wouldn't make sense... Who would want to be trapped in a video game. This was bad, and it was made worse that none of his friends were here with him. The news stories and pictures filled his head, names of families affected by the fact that trying to log out was apparently fatal.  Out of all those names one stood out. His face filled with horror and disbelief as he saw the names of a family he knew. This couldn't be real. He tried to shake it all off, but the last words he heard were "If you die in the game you die in real life." He trembled, his eyes flickered around hoping to see someone that wasn't afraid someone that could tell him everything was okay, and that he would be okay. Then the mirror, a present, from the devil himself. Ironically Yuuta when he reverted to his normal slightly short but bigger self he looked better, where as most people tended to lose their perfectly made character. Yuuta absolutely failed at character creation. Something about seeing his own face calmed him somewhat, even if the only thoughts in his mind were "Someone please help me."<br/><br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Saya stood stock still staring at herself in the mirror. It was like something stopped in her brain, like time itself had stopped for her. Her body seemed to slowly loosen. First was her mouth as it gaped she slowly started to mouth words as if the wheels of thought were restarted in her head. "We..." She whispered "We have to get moving, we need to be stronger... the more stats... the more numbers the less likely we die... stats, numbers, people, safety, equipment..." Her panicked words reflected the torrent of thoughts rolling around in her head, and even if she was saying these things her legs trembled as if unable to move.<br/><br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Alice grit her teeth and sweat dripped down her now freckled face, she didn't even have time to be mad at her wasted hours in character creation, before she bolted away. At first her running was sporadic no goal in mind. Just fear, and the will to get away from everyone. The faces of those around her haunted her. As she ran she saw people jumping off the sides, some looked like they were convinced that Kayaba was lying and others just looked defeated. Alice gagged into her hand as she continued away. She was a solo player other people would just make this game harder. She needed to use her knowledge to get ahead and make sure nothing could kill her. She ran through the town, which now seemed like a maze. In her panicking she was making the wrong turns to leave and generally just exhausting herself, forcing her to eventually stop in a random alley way to get the dizziness out of her head.