A small boy sat beside the white hospital bed, trying unsuccessfully to hold back his pitiable sobs. The boy felt a hand wipe away the tears on his cheek and looked up to see the smiling face of his uncle.

"Hey, I thought you were a big boy now, what are you crying for?" asked the man in a tender voice.  

"I-I'm not crying! I just have something in my eyes!" protested the boy, wiping away his tears.

"Hahahaak-" the man broke in to a coughing fit open laughing and quickly covered his mouth to hide the blood from the child. "Don't worry, kid, everyone has to go sometime, one way or another. No point crying over it. Besides didn't you always say you were a greater man than me?" he continued after his cough stopped.

The boy almost broke up again at the mention of his impending death. "O-of course I am!"

"You little brat! How can you ever be greater than me? I am Tadashi Ryouma, the man known all over Japan as the Conqueror of Wealth!"

"So what? If you only conquered wealth, I'll be known as the man who conquered all of Japan! No forget that, I'll conqueror the whole world!" yelled the boy, jumping out of his seat meeting his uncles amused expression with his own determined one.

Suddenly he felt his uncles hand land on his head and fondle his hair. "Oh? Is that so? You know a real man never goes back on his word. I leave everything I have to you. Make me proud and live up to your dreams," replied his uncle causing the boy to resume crying again.

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Toyotomi Ryouji woke up in a cold sweat. He had that same recurring dream again that he would ever few weeks or months. He got out of bed and walked across his small apartment to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face as was his habit to clear his mind. He was nineteen years old now and living alone. He fixed his stubbornly messy and strangely colored dark gray hair. Almost black, but not quite. His eyes on the other hand were jet black and as reflective as the mirror itself. 

He was quite skinny, although toned from his harsh life. He was born into a middle class family, however his father passed away shortly before his birth and his mother not long after it. His maternal uncle, Tadashi Ryouma, a wealthy business man who started with nothing and made his way to the top, took care of him thereafter. The man was very generous and often donated vast amounts of his wealth, earning him the title of "Conqueror of Wealth," as he never let it sway his morals. He raised Ryouji alone since he didn't have a family of his own after his wife died. Unfortunately the man was diagnosed with an incurable disease that took his life eight years later. He had left his tremendous wealth to Ryouji. Afterwards Ryouji was sent into the care of his paternal aunt, a financial lawyer, and her family who treated him horribly and only took him in for the money. They used various means and channels to steal all of it from him and kept him as practically a slave since he was too young to defend himself.

After five torturous years at the age of thirteen, Ryouji finally ran away from them. For the next five years, he lived on the streets, finding any work that could keep him alive. He had to resort to joining a gang just to stay alive and keep the other street thugs off his back. Every day was a battle for survival.

However, through it all he spent any extra money and time he could spare on books to continue his education which his uncle had ingrained in him to be of utmost importance. He was always a brilliant child and easily kept up with and indeed got ahead of normal kids his age.

It was only a year ago that he found a steady job at a large electronic company where he used his talent with machines to fix or upgrade their stock. It was a well paying job and he made enough to finally get off of the streets and into a small apartment. Leaving the street life behind him to the spite of some of his former gang, he applied into a proper university where he was accepted and expected to start in a few months.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Ryouji shook his head and splashed some more water on his face, clearing away his thoughts. He walked back to bed and tried to force himself to go back to sleep. After all tomorrow was going to be the first major step on the road to his dream. Tomorrow the capsule he'd ordered for Legend of the Conqueror would arrive. LoC was a virtual reality rpg game based on the ancient warring states of China or Japan, but set in a completely separate fictional world. It was the first of its kind. There had been 'virtual reality' games and headsets before, but none to this level. This was the first truly immersive system where one would lay in a capsule and have their consciousnesses put into the character and the world. It cost a fortune but Ryouji had been saving up for it from the start of their advertisements for the game a year ago and had finally had enough money to order it a month after it's launch with the discount of working for one of their retailers. Luckily he was off on the weekends so he had a full two days to get started.

Now one might wonder how playing a virtual reality game would be any step to his dream of world conquest. However the one thing Royal Road was most popular for was their promise of a whole new world where the goal was to become the emperor. The player to achieve that goal would be granted a huge amount of money. Ryouji immediately realized the potential for the game. If he could become emperor there, it would be all the easier to so it in real life. He also foresaw that the game would be a huge success and revolutionize how the world worked. Soon many people would be putting it on their resumes because if they learned certain skills in virtual reality, surely they could perform them in reality as well. Of course he wasn't thinking about magic or sword skills, but rather skills such as cooking which would give one a job in any restaurant or rather for him, or other crafts such as art or sculpting. If one could learn those skills in a virtual reality system acclaimed for it's 99% impressiveness, there should be no reason one could not use those skills in real life. He however was more focused on obtaining skills of leadership and politics that he didn't have a chance to obtain in reality. To be an emperor one needed massive leadership and charismatic skills. If he could achieve that in the game, then people would automatically be more comfortable in letting him rule over their nation, thus putting him all the closer to his ultimate ambition. And the large monetary reward would definitely help as well. Growing up in the lap of luxury with his uncle, to the torments of his aunt and later to the harsh streets, Ryouji had quickly learned the power of money.

With his mind raking up plans on how to achieve his goals, he finally fell asleep.

It was afternoon already by the time he got the capsule set up. After a quick lunch he immediately hopped in.

Connect to Legend of the Conqueror? 

Yes | No

"Yes!"  

Finally he was on the road to his dreams.

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Hope you guys liked the prologue, the chapters will get longer when he gets started in the game.