Asuna Yuuki is on course to ace her high school entrance examinations, both socially and academically. Misumi "Mito" Tozawa, a classmate and friend, invites her to take a vacation from studying and join her on the debut day of Sword Art Online (SAO), the highly anticipated online virtual reality multiplayer game. Asuna accepts her offer and soon finds herself in the game with her. Asuna, Mito, and every other player who has logged into SAO have been forever stuck in the game. To make matters worse, dying inside the game kills the player in real life. With SAO transformed into a nightmare death trap, Asuna and her friends