A month has elapsed since Akihiko Kayaba's lethal game commenced, and the death toll keeps climbing. Two thousand players are already dead. Kirito and Asuna are two very different individuals, yet both wish to fight alone. Nevertheless, they find themselves drawn together to confront challenges from both within and without. Since the entire virtual world they now inhabit was created as a deathtrap, the surviving players of Sword Art Online are becoming desperate, and this desperation makes them dangerous to loners like Kirito and Asuna. As it becomes evident that solitude equals suicide, will the two be able to overcome their differences to find the strength to trust each other, and thereby survive?