My BF and I are very fond of this anime series Sword Art Online and unfortunately the Season I had just ended last week. The Good thing is, when we researched about this series, we found out that Sword Art Online is actually a Novel, which means.. There's a lot more coming! (Yay can't wait)
But before that, since i am excited to know whats next, I've downloaded the full copy of Sword Art Online Series and is now reading it. This is a great light novel i should say although the order of events is quite confusing. There are certain books or episodes that are just flash backs, Example, Book 2 is just a flash back because the events in Book 2 actually happened in between the beginning and ending of Book 1. Readers will really get confused if they did not read the all the books.
Credits to wikipedia for below :
Plot and Characters
In the year 2022, the Virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online
(SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality Helmet that
stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can
experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and
subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then
informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be
free and log out of the game, they must reach the 100th floor of the
game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die
in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows
Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the
game progresses, Kirito eventually befriends a female player called
Asuna who becomes his partner and lover. After the duo discover the
identity of Kayaba's avatar in SAO, they confront and defeat him,
freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
Upon returning to the real world, Kirito learns that Asuna and a
small group of SAO players are trapped in another VRMMORPG called
Alfheim Online (ALO). Their imprisonment in ALO was part of a plan
devised by Nobuyuki SugÅ to subdue Asuna and marry her, in an attempt to
take over her family's company. With help from old friends he met in
SAO along with new allies, Kirito thwarts Nobuyuki's plans and finally
reunites with Asuna in the real world.
Soon after, Kirito plays another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online
(GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between the game and
deaths occurring in the real world. He eventually discovers that the
culprits are former members of a murderous guild he has previously
encountered in SAO.
After solving the murders in GGO, Kirito is recruited to assist in
the development of a state-of-the-art game, UnderWorld (UW), which has
an interface that is far more realistic and complex than that of the
previous games he had played. In UW, the flow of time proceeds thousands
of times faster than in the real world. However, Kirito ends up falling
for a trap and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out and he
starts looking for a way back to reality.
Setting
The light novel series spans several virtual MMORPGs, not exclusively the titular world of Sword Art Online.
- Sword Art Online
- The first virtual game world, as well as the setting of the first arc of the story. The world takes the form of a giant floating castle called Aincrad, with 100 floors in it. Each floor has medieval-themed setting and a dungeon with a boss. The boss at the end of each floor has to be defeated before players can advance to the next higher floor. Like most RPGs, it implements a level based system.
- Alfheim Online
- The setting for the second arc of the story. It is a large world, divided into separate 'homelands' of each of its fairy races. All players have the ability to fly and have wings on their avatars. In the center is a very large tree called Yggdrasil, and the goal of the game is to reach the top. It implements a skill based system with players increasing their stats by developing both their combat and non-combat skills, in a fashion similar to the latest installments of the Elder Scrolls game series. Aincrad, the castle of the first game, is later accessible to ALO players as well.
- Gun Gale Online
- The setting for the third arc of the story. It is a virtual game world with a main focus on guns, although melee weapons like lightsabers and knives also exist.
- UnderWorld
- The setting for the fourth arc of the story. According to Kirito, it is graphically the most realistic of all VRMMOs to date. The flow of time in UW is much faster than the real world's (probably a prototype of the accelerated world). Even so, it seems that even Kirito was misled as to the actual rate of UW's time flow, so it is still unknown. However, in the "There is but one ultimate way" side story, the rate is said to be 10000 times faster than that of the real world.
