Prologue
“Am I late?”
Ryota Takamori glanced at his watch, breathing a sigh of relief as he found out that he still had 20 more minutes.
Pausing for a minute, Ryota stared at his own reflection on the glassy door panels of the building.
Taking a deep breath, he whispered to himself “just do it” and entered the building.
“Hi, I’m here for the interview may I know where the interview is held?” Ryota politely asked the receptionist.
“No you may not” She answered with a stern face
“B-but I got the letter for the interview” He replied in a panicky voice as he began to nervously search through his bag for the letter.
“I’m just kidding, you can wait at the holding room, it is the room down the hallway” She said as she tried to suppress her laughter.
His face immediately turned red, flustered at how much he had overreacted. Shyly, he gave a deep bow as he mumbled a thank you, and quickly walked towards the holding room.
“Hey!” the receptionist shouted.
Ryota turned his head around, fearing the worst.
“All the best!” She said cheerfully, with a wide smile on her face.
Ryota’s blush deepened, as he bowed once again.
He had reached the holding room, and the room was packed with well-dressed people. He could even recognize some of them as popular game magazine writers or bloggers.
Realizing how little a chance he stood, he quickly found a seat, and sank into despair, pondering about what caused him to be in this sure to fail situation.
*********
Ryota Takamori is a 19 year old NEET, who until recently forced to, did nothing but stay at home and play video games or watch anime all day long. But he wasn’t always a NEET.
Ryota Takamori was the third child born in a well to do family. His father was the CEO of a successful international company. Needless to say, his father made sure that his family wanted for nothing, be it the latest smartphone or branded clothing. His father however was a stern man, who expected Ryota to like his elder brother and sister to perform as well academically.
When Ryota scored a B for his English exam, his father berated him for hours before ensuring that top notch tutors were hired to ensure Ryota obtained an A. His father was that kind of man.
By the time Ryota was 14, he was the top student in his cohort in terms of academics. In addition he was also considered a kendo prodigy, having been made to learn kendo from a young age at his father’s request. He was even considered to be blessed with good looks, and was often the subject of crushes by his female schoolmates or of admiration by their male counterparts.
He lived what many would have considered to be the perfect life, but then came the incident which would change his life forever.
Ryota was to participate at the highest level national kendo competition, after winning several other competitions, he finally made it to the top. If he won the competition, he would have been selected to represent Japan in the Youth World Kendo Championship.
But unfortunately luck was not on his side, he was sick with diarrhea and for some reason, the medication he took just didn’t seem to work. Just a few minutes before his match, his stomach started to act up, and he was forced to go to the toilet. After scrambling to wear the armor, he managed to rush out to the stage area, only to learn that he was disqualified.
As one of the few people to have ever been disqualified at such a high level competition, the media sought after him like bees to honey. When asked for his reason for being late, he simply told the truth, and was offered the sympathies by some of the news reporters.
Children on the other hand can often be a bunch of hateful creatures, often reveling in the feeling of tormenting someone who is different or worse off than them, and if the person was once superior to them? The better the feeling.
Many of his schoolmates had watched the news, and learnt of Ryota’s unfortunate incident. Jokes started to circulate around about how he was the “shittiest” participant of the competition. Rumors about how he lied about having diarrhea as an excuse because he was too afraid of losing also began to spread. And between his devastated state of mind after the competition and his schoolmate’s remarks, he was unable to pay heed to the people that tried to cheer him up and eventually fell into depression.
Eventually his paranoia worsened to the point where he would constantly imagine people insulting him. As a result he stopped going to school and became a complete shut in. At first his parents and siblings tried to comfort him, telling him stuff such as “be confident in yourself”.
After giving it much thought, his parents decided to send him to an international school, in a different prefecture.
But even in the new environment, he was never able to cope, always imagining people whispering to each other about his unfortunate “shitty” incident. Eventually he broke down, and reverted to being a shut in. The shock that came from having his world crumble around him was simply too much to bear for a 14 year old kid.
When his dad tried to force him to go back to school, his mother defended him, saying that he just needed time to recover. The argument over Ryota escalated to the point that his mother threatened to divorce, and it was only then that his father relented.
Weeks turned into months and months into years.
During the long time span, Ryota discovered various internet forums where he developed interest in anime and various games. His mother who often blamed herself for letting her husband push Ryota too hard, was more than willing to provide him with a generous allowance. As such Ryota was able to live a life of a NEET.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Because of his lack of obligations, he was able to dedicate a large portion of time into playing online games, often allowing him to be one of the best. Games were like Ryota’s safe haven, nobody knew his identity, which meant that nobody will ever insult him over that incident.
But it all changed when his mother died in a car accident. His mother was walking across a road when a drunk driver unknowingly swerved and hit into her. The impact of the car killed her immediately. His father received a large sum in insurance compensation, but what good is money when it can’t bring back a loved one. His father made sure to take his revenge, hiring the best lawyers that money could afford to ensure the driver was jailed for a while and that the driver will never be able to drive again.
People who are coping with loss tend to make rash decisions.
The day after the funeral, Ryota’s father kicked Ryota out of the house, saying that Ryota did absolutely nothing to contribute to the family. Almost as though he regretted the decision immediately after the words exited his mouth, Ryota was given the keys to a small apartment and a sum of money. And so at the age of 19, Ryota was kicked out of his house, and began to live a separate life from his family.
At the start, Ryota seemed to live his life as usual, watching anime the entire day and ordering home deliveries from fast food restaurants.
But as days went by Ryota’s monetary reserves began to run dry, he was forced to eat cup noodles for all his meals and soon he realized he needed to find a job. Through internet forums, he was eventually able to find a job offer.
Zero international, a famous game company was looking to hire people to play their latest game and at the same time promote it. With his lack of prior work experience and education qualifications, Ryota immediately saw this as the golden opportunity he needed.
And for the first time in forever, Ryota took the first step to escape his life of a NEET.
****************
While he was daydreaming, Ryota noticed neither the remaining seats being filled up nor the presenter walking up to the stage.
The sudden loud voice resonating from the speaker however quickly snapped Ryota out of his daydream.
“Good afternoon everyone! My name is Takeshi Irie, and I am the director of the games development department of Zero International. And on behalf of Zero International, I bid you welcome to our company, and would like to thank you for coming to our office today. “
A loud applause followed his greeting.
As the clapping subsided, Takeshi continued his presentation.
“As most of you may know, our company unveiled the “Oculus” gaming machine last year, which is the first virtual reality gaming device created in the world. Since then, we have spent countless of hours perfecting our technology in order to develop our first Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Guardian Online, which was officially released two days ago, had all copies of it sold out in less than a few hours”.
Ryota grimaced as he recalled himself wanting to buy the game, only to remember how limited he was funds were.
“As a gaming company, we recognize the importance of the role of celebrity gamers, which is why all of you have been gathered here today. From over 30000 applicants, we have reduced the number to 200 candidates. Out of which around 40 of you are either celebrity gamers or game bloggers, while the rest of you were picked by random in order to diversify. So to the 200 of you, I offer you my congratulations.”
Thunderous applause filled the room, many sighing in relief that they had secured a job.
“But before we get carried away, let me get straight to the point and tell you what you are required to do. Each and everyone one of you will be given a copy of the game and an “Oculus” gaming device to play the game. In addition you will be given an allowance of 400000 Yen. But in return, you will be promoters for the company and try to promote the game through game play videos or blog posts or any other means. And at the end of 50 days, you must submit to us your website details and viewer statistics. From the data provided we will then select 10 people with the largest number of viewers or most interesting content to continue working with us, with a salary of 800000 Yen a month subject to contract renewal every year. With that I wish you all the best!”
“800000 Yen is more than enough for me to live a nice comfortable life and at the same time allow me to buy all the anime merchandise I want” Ryota thought to himself as he began to imagine all the anime figurines and body pillows he could buy with the money.
After collecting the items from the company, he immediately rushed back home to set up the Oculus machine.
And soon, Ryota found himself enveloped in a dazzling white light, as he entered into the world of Guardian Online.
Author’s Notes:
Thank you for choosing to read Guardians Online, as it’s my first attempt at writing a story, please do offer me your advice on how I can better improve my story or story writing skills. I will also include a short note at the end of each chapter including details of character stats, and some other notes to help you understand the story better.
I’m not from the US, but according to google, 800000 Yen is roughly USD 6670, so hope that helps you put stuff into perspective.
I’ve personally never participated in any sports or martial arts before, so please do offer me some leeway when it comes to me describing anything related to kendo ect.