"Why must this world be so boring, I just want something to happen for once. An apocalypse, sure. How about an alien invasion, cool. Monsters coming out of portals, fantastic. But~, nope, life's just me, sitting here, trying to relieve my own boredom by talking to myself and watching anime. Hmm, speaking of anime, I wonder when the next season of Overlord will come out... Oh well, guess I'll grab some groceries from the store real quick and make up some instant-food."

 

After Ryuji finished talking to himself, he got up from his bed and walked over to the door, before opening it and walking down the hallway. Living nice and neat wasn't really his style, and he was quite poor, so Ryuji lived in a one-room apartment with a bathroom attached, just perfect.

 

Rent for such a room was only 20,000 yen a month anyway, and most of the time, he ate was instant-food, so he just lived his life living in a one room apartment, entertaining himself with whatever he could find.

 

Watching anime, flipping through manga, and reading novels was practically all he did, so other than sweeping floors for 1000 yen an hour a couple times every few days, Ryuji spent most of his time trying to sweep away his boredom with entertainment.

 

Ryuji walked out of the small apartment complex with his hands in the pockets of his black hoodie, as he made his way over to the grocery store around the corner. A hand slipped out of one of his pockets as he walked, and he brought it upwards, ruffling his own jet black hair a moment, before pulling up his hood and turning the corner.

 

Walking to the end of the street up ahead, Ryuji stopped at the red hand, and pulled out his flip-phone from the pocket of his denim cargo pants. The time was 9:42PM, and it was November 11th of the year 2020.

 

He stuffed his slick flip-phone back into his pocket and looked forward with his dark-grey eyes, as the red hand turned to a white walking stickman. Ryuji took a glance both ways as he took a step forward and started to walk across the street, the silence of night around him, and the grocery store in front.

 

Suddenly though, without any warning, a truck came out of nowhere, blasting into Ryuji's side at full speed. His only reaction to the speeding truck was the motion of his eyes, and a small smirk.

 

Death. Ryuji died instantly upon impact with the truck, and his body was flung far like a ragdoll as the truck sped on with a care in the world. At the same time, Ryuji instantly found himself looking and around in abyssal darkness.

 

"Ah shit, am I not going to get reincarnated or something, I thought that was the job of truck-kun, c'mon~."

 

The next second however, a holographic screen appeared in front of him, fully noticeable in the pitch black void.

 

==========

[Create a character.]

Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Height: 5.7
Body Type: Ectomorph 
Age: 20

==========

 

"Heh, now that's more like it. Hmm... let's go with white hair, red eyes, a height of 6.2, a body type of uh... mesomorph, and an age of 21."

 

After Ryuji entered his choices of appearance and age, a multicolored wheel appeared and started spinning at a fast speed. A couple seconds later, it stopped abruptly, and what it stopped on made Ryuji smile widely.

 

[World Reincarnation Commencing.]

 

A second later, countless streaks of white light tore through the infinite darkness, and soon, it took up the entirety of Ryuji's vision, forcing him to close his eyes. Then, he felt absolutely nothing.

 

...

 

Without knowing how much time had passed, Ryuji jolted awake and looked around. He immediately noticed the change in both his appearance, and surroundings.

 

Raising his arms into his own vision, he found them muscular and slightly toned, along with the fact that he's wearing clothes similar to the ones he had worn before he died. A black T-shirt, a black hoodie, plaid black and grey boxers, and a pair of black denim cargo pants.

 

"At least I've got clothes, and it seems that whole thing wasn't just me hallucinating after-death."

 

Ryuji found himself sitting on a pile of trash bags in an alley, and if his thoughts were correct, he should be in the anime world: Sword Art Online. His thoughts caused a small smirk to form on his newly defined face as he stood up off the trash bags and headed to the light of the street on his right.

 

It was night right now, and the moon was a crescent beacon slowly moving across the sky, it's light shining partially through the clouds as Ryuji made his way to the end of the alleyway and onto the sidewalk. He had already pulled his hood over his now ice-white hair, covering it's scruffy style as he looked around with his ruby red eyes.

 

The street was empty for the most part, and other than a place called Dicey Café, the place looked a little barren. The next moment, something clicked in Ryuji's mind, and a holographic box appeared in his vision.

 

==========

{Status}

Name: Ryuji Kusei
Level: 0
Title: None

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10

Skills: (Appraisal), (Map)
System Inventory: Starter Pack
Proficiency: None

Gold: 0

==========

 

"Well this is quite the treat, but before any of that, isn't the Dicey Café Agil's café bar in Okachimachi, Taito Ward? It seems to be open, might as well go see what's up before I mess with any of this."

 

Ryuji waves at the screen then walks over to the front of the Dicey Café and looks at the emblem situated on the wooden door for a moment, before grabbing the handle and walking in.

 

A bell at the top of the door rung as Ryuji walks into the café bar and sees Andrew Gilbert Mills, who will also be known as, Agil. Andrew's a massive and bulky African-American man with a brown goatee and brown eyes, he's bald and also wears two silver earrings on his left ear.

 

"Welcome to the Dicey Café, what would you like on this fine night."

 

Andrew spoke out in his deep voice, looking almost identical to his anime appearance as he stood tall with a slight smile. Ryuji had his head low, so even with the lights above him, his ice-white hair and ruby red eyes were unseeable.

 

He walked forward to Andrew and the counter with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, speaking on his way over.

 

"Ah~, I'll have a regular ole stout." Andrew's eyebrows rose a bit at my voice and request, but he went and grabbed a bottle of dark stout off the shelf and set it on the counter where I just sat down.

 

At this time, I lifted my head up and flicked off my hood. "Hey~, the name's Ryuji, how about you? Oh, please don't mind my appearance, I've had some bad comments about it before."

 

"No problem. But say, how old are you? I don't wanna be giving alcohol to a minor." I huffed a small laugh in response as I grabbed the bottle of stout and took a swig, speaking in kind shortly after.

 

"Here, let me fully introduce myself. The name's Ryuji Kusei, 21 years old, and currently, I'm unemployed." Andrew nodded lightly, before picking up a glass and wiping it off.

 

"About your earlier question, the name's Andrew, Andrew Gilbert Mills, 27 years old, and well, as you can see, I run this place. Oh, and I've got a beautiful wife I ought to add." Agil, or rather, Andrew, smirks as he says the last part, inciting a brief smile from Ryuji.

 

Ryuji takes another swig from his stout before lightly pointing the tip of his beer bottle at Andrew, speaking out a moment later. "Say Andrew, do you mind telling me the date? I don't have a phone and have been wandering throughout Taito for a couple days, so..."

 

"Yeah, no problem. It's July 31st of 2022, 1:18AM."

 

An invisible smirk appears on Ryuji's face as he remembers some information about Sword Art Online.

 

One is that the beta-test for Sword Art Online comes out on August 1st of 2022, and it ends on September 1st of 2022.

 

Two is that the Beta-Testers will be given the opportunity to pre-order the game before it's actual release date.

 

Three is that Sword Art Online will officially start server service at 13:00 on November 6, 2022.

 

'Since it's 1:18AM, and Andrew said today is the 31st of July, this gives me all of today to figure out how to get the beta-test, and a little bit of tomorrow to actually get the beta-test.'

 

Ryuji thought that as he took another swig and decided to try and pull up the status screen of the system.

 

'Ah, let's see. System? No wait, how about just Status.'

 

Immediately after Ryuji's mental command, the same system status screen appeared in his vision.

 

==========

{Status}

Name: Ryuji Kusei
Level: 0
Title: None

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10

Skills: (Appraisal), (Map)
System Inventory: Starter Pack
Proficiency: None

Gold: 0

==========

 

'Hmm... system, open the starter pack.'

 

Right then, a holographic pack similar to that of a Pokémon sleeved pack showed up in Ryuji's vision, before it started to shake violently, exploding a few seconds later. A moment later, 5 cards came out and displayed themselves in front of Ryuji's vision.

 

[+10,000 Gold]
[+Quest Function]
[+Disguise Skill]
[+1 Level]
[+Lucky Reincarnation Title]

 

The screen that showed Ryuji's status changed a bit, with his previous 0 gold becoming 10,000 along with new skill added next to the Map skill. Also, the None that was displayed in the Title section now shows the Title: Lucky Reincarnation, which apparently gives +5 to all attributes.

 

'Since all of my stats are 16 instead of 15, I assume the level up increases all of my stats by one, so that's that. Anyway...'

 

Ryuji looked over to Andrew who didn't seem to notice any change and shrugged, before swigging the last of the stout and setting it down on the counter. He stood up off the stool the next second and spoke to Andrew a bit cryptically.

 

"Hey~, Andrew, I gotta go for now. I'll see you around..."

 

With that said, Ryuji walked directly out of the Dicey Café and into the barren street.