Death Game Begins

8:30 a.m.

It was Aincrad's official launch time.

Quite a few players gradually appeared nearby.

Akasaka sat on the grass beside a large tree. He had been here for a while already.

After all, Kayaba Akihiko had let Akasaka in half an hour early, both to get him into the game and to lower his guard.

Akasaka opened the game menu and lightly swiped his finger through the game system interface floating in midair.

His top priority now was to find help—or teammates.

Being alone in Aincrad was simply too dangerous.

The person Akasaka thought of was Kirito, the male protagonist.

But they did not know each other, so he had no reason to add him as a friend.

That meant the only person he could ask was probably Asuna.

After all, they attended the same school.

Akasaka opened the search bar.

If he remembered correctly, Asuna's in-game name was an abbreviation of her English name: Asuna.

So when entering her name, he had to type the romanized homophone "Asuna," not "Asuna" in Japanese characters.

Akasaka quickly found Asuna's name through the world search and sent a friend request. He even sent her a message to make sure she would add him.

The message read roughly: [I'm Akasaka Ryunosuke! I got into Aincrad too. I'm a total newbie, so I'd like Lady Asuna to show me the ropes.]

The friend request was accepted almost immediately, and a message soon came from the other side: [Where are you? I'll come find you. Send me your location.]

Akasaka sent over his location. Before long, Asuna arrived with a purple-haired middle-aged man.

Asuna's outfit was the same as in the original work.

It was the appearance of the starting gear.

Red boots, white one-piece tights, a red skirt, a red jacket, and a