This is a story from before "Lightning" and "Black Swordsman" were known by their nicknames... Asuna was still a third year high school student when she first started NerveGear, having no experience with online gaming. November 6, 2022 marks the release date of the world's first next generation VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online. Excited by the first login, players are trapped in a virtual world by the Game Master, who has deprived them of any possibility to leave the game until it is finished. Game Master gave players a warning: "You can't log out of your own free will, if one of you dies in the game, you will also die in real life." Panic set in and pandemonium reigned. Asuna, not knowing the rules of the game, sets out to conquer the first floor of Aincrad's flying castle. In a world where death lurks around every corner, Asuna is destined for a special encounter. And a painful goodbye... At the mercy of the new reality, Asuna fights with all her might to survive, until at some point on her way she meets a certain distant swordsman named Kirito...