A player has been killed inside a safe zone and not by the known means. Asuna and Krito take it upon themselves to find out how and why this is happening.

Kirito has figured out the how and now he has to figure out the why.

A man in a beat-up cloak watches Kirito fight his first battle and demands to know if he's "the real thing". The man has the tattoo of Laughing Coffin, a murderer's guild that existed within SAO. He tells Kirito that he'll kill him someday, and vanishes.