There are many reasons why someone would want to get away from their day-to-day life. For Fritz Carlton, it’s the experiences promised - the days kicking back with the perfectly crafted cold one, watching the clouds drift over those fantastical landscapes. For Lucia Mills, AKA Lady Lucia, it’s the freedom - the ability to go anywhere, see anything, to simply be without restraint! For Maxwell Power Colt, screenname Percival, it’s the need to get out of a house that is slowly suffocating him - to get away from the empty hallways and silence left behind in his now-empty home. Enter: Project Dawnfall - Live as you never have before! Utilizing ‘full-dive’ VR technology, Project Dawnfall promises to deliver unrivaled immersive fantasy adventure without leaving the comfort of your own home. Quest through a beautiful handcrafted world, fight fantastic monsters with no fear of pain, hone your skills to craft anything from simple tools to entire buildings, or simply thrive in a place of inephemeral beauty (and without cheating on your diet!) … At least, that’s what the advertisements say. When the server is cut off from the real world with no way in and no easy way out and they are pitted against the game for survival, well… Between internal politics, the challenges of the Citadel, and the agenda of those responsible for the game’s creation, they get much more than they bargained for… but that doesn’t mean it isn't what they wanted. --- This is a reimagining of something I wrote many years ago. It’s a straightforward piece that asks the age-old question: What if SAO was a conspiracy by the US government to train MiBs for service in an extradimensional war? Also, a note on what ‘AI-Assisted’ means here. I write the first draft by hand, then ask an AI for alternate ways of phrasing things, typically descriptions. The second draft is then written by hand considering both what I originally wrote and what it gives me.