fantasy world of whereabouts in another VRMMORPG called Alf- heim Online (ALO), Kirito also enters the ALO's about sao mainframe. Helped by his cousin Suguha Kiriga- ya, known as Leafa in the game, he learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan conceived word Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality by Nobuyuki Sugō to perform illegal experiments on Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing their minds to put them under his control, including Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. With S , whom he intends to marry in the real world in the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimu- order to take over her family's company. After Kirito lates the user's five senses via their brain, players can foils Nobuyuki's plans, he finally reunites with Asuna experience and control their in-game characters with back in the real world. their minds. Soon after, Kirito plays another game called Gun On November 6, 2022, the players log into SAO for Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious the first time, and later discover that they are unable connection between it and to log out. They are then informed deaths occurring in the real by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's cre- Imagin being stuck world. Assisted by a female ator, that if they wish to be free, player he meets in the game they must reach the 100th floor called , he identifies of the game's tower and defeat in a fake world... and exposes the culprits, the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, who include some former members of a murderous their bodies will also die in the real world. One of guild he previously encountered in SAO. these players is Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, who was chosen as one of the 1,000 beta testers in the closed Kirito is later recruited to assist in testing a state-of- beta. Since he had previous experience and knowl- the-art FullDive machine, Soul Translator (STL), edge of the game, he felt that he could beat the game which has an interface that is far more realistic and easily. As a result, he set out to beat the game on his complex than the previous machine he had played. own. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito He tests the STL by entering a Virtual Reality world eventually befriends a female player named Asuna created with The Seed package, named UnderWorld with whom he ultimately falls in love. After the duo (UW). In the UW mainframe, the flow of time pro- discover the identity of Kayaba's avatar in SAO, they ceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world, confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the and Kirito's memories of what happens inside are other players from the game. restricted. However, he is attacked by one of the mur- derers from GGO and wakes up inside UnderWorld, Upon being sent back to the real world, Kirito learns leaving him unable to remember how he ended up that 300 SAO players, including Asuna, still have there or to log out, with his real self left in a coma- not awakened yet. Following a clue about Asuna's tose state.