*Somewhere in a japanese room in Japan a boy writes his day in his journal...*

March 20, 20XX

It's been 13 years since my japanese parents adopted me. They raised me like their own child and I swore that I'll make them happy as repayment. Now I'm turning 18 tomorrow and honestly, I'm excited because they said they will give me something I have never touched or done before or even something something. I hope it's a big book about the history of Zhuge Liang though. Father always tells me stories about the Three Kingdoms in ancient China.

I remember when they found me in the Philippines, I was in my younger days of course. I was a beggar, stealing stuff just to make days end. They found me lying outside their gates in their Philippine house somewhere I can't remember. Now I'm here, in Japan, in their mansion. I don't need to play because all the stuff I only need are books. They are more interesting than games though I wish I know how to play games though. Never tried playing video games before. The day is ending so I'll end it for today.

*With that the boy closes his journal and goes to sleep and as always wakes up in the morning before 7. He didn't expect a big capsule like thing which he only saw in the movies in his room though. As he got to the dining table he asked his parents.

"Mom, dad, I umm just saw a weird looking object in my room. Not just weird looking thing but more like a capsule or escape pod from those sci-fi movies we watched the other night."

"Son, that was your present for your birthday. I know you love books than video games. For the first time, I want you to have fun on your own." said his dad who is devouring his 5 pancakes made by his mom. "It's called a capsule Shige. They use those things to play in this virtual online game called Royal Road." dad continued

"Son since you have nothing left to do, why don't you give it a try. Ever since we adopted you from the Philippines, you've done nothing but read, read and read to the point of cramming all of those knowledge in your brain." said by his mother as she makes another batch of pancakes with the assistance of the maids.

Turning back into the past for now, Shige was not his real name though his full name was Shigetsu Oda. When he was adopted by his foster parents in the Philippines, his biological name was April. His foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Oda found him lying just outside of their Philippine house and the mother of the house which was suppose to go grocery shopping with the maid found him and brought him inside their house and nursed him back to health. When he woke up from his nightmarish life, he found smiling faces which he never met in his life. He sprung up from bed and went into a corner and Mr. Nobunaga Oda, the father of the house, which was a coincidental name from the name of thee Nobunaga Oda of the Sengoku era, calmed him down and said they found him just outside their home. The mother of the house, Mrs. Jennifer Oda, which was the one who nursed him back to health came closer and just hugged him. April for the first time know what it feels to feel warmth from parents. They explained how they found him lying unconscious outside their home and they said that he has been unconscious for over a week. He felt embarrassed that he was unconscious so he thanked the people and tried to leave the house and be on his merry way but Nobunaga and Jennifer stopped him. They said that he could stay until he recovers completely and said that he should join them for dinner. He was relunctant to accept since they had done already too much for him but for some reason, he got a cold chill down his kiddy spine and Nobunaga came closer to him and whispered something in his ear. "Word of advice kid, err don't try to say no to my wife. She's got umm tendencies when somebody declines for food time. Trust me, I err learned it the hard way not to say no to her." April looked at Mrs. Oda's face thinking he's just scaring him since he was a kid but he saw an angelic smile with something creeping out of her back. It was an devilish facial ghost or something and he immediately said yes to her proposition to eat with them.

When he got into the dining room, food was all over the place in the long table. His eyes were sparkling, drooled and gulped down his saliva in his throat and the Oda's saw him drooling over the food. Jennifer said to April that he can eat to his hearts content. He looked back into the food again and wolfed down every food he could grabbed hold off. When he finished eating dinner, he was very happy for the first time in his life. The Oda's saw his happy face and he saw them looking at him. He properly sat in his chair and drooped his head down because of embarrassment. They laughed at his action and told him to don't worry about it. The coming moments though he never expected to come out from the Oda's.

"What's your name little kid?" asked Nobunaga while wiping his mouth with a table cloth.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Now, now dear. You are scaring the little child." said his wife Jennifer

"Umm it's April sir." replied April to Nobunaga's question

"April huh. You do realize that's a girlish name for you right?" said Nobunaga to April

"Yes sir." he replied

Silence intrude for the first few minutes until Nobunaga spoke again.

"Do you wanna be our child kid?"

"Yes sir...wait...huh!?" replied April until he caught hold of Nobunaga's question saying does he want them to be his parents. It was what people call a sudden late reaction to the not so out of strange question for him.

"Yup, you got it right kid. We want you to be our adopted child." said Nobunaga to his sudden dumbfounded face.

"But, I'm just a nobody sir. You don't even know me very well." replied April

Instead of Nobunaga, Jennifer instead answered him. "That's true child, but we saw the spark in your eyes we had lost before. Warmth, happiness, joyfulness."

It turns out that the Oda's had a child of their own 15 years ago and lost in an accident when he was going home from school. The Oda's were stricken with grief, despair and sadness from losing their son. The Oda's are now in their 40's and could not bear another child in their old age. This was the simple truth of the matter but to April, he was a nobody. He got passed on from relative to relative when his parents died in a bus accident with him. He was the only one that survived the accident. He escaped from his oppressive relatives and has been living in the streets ever since. He was traumatized not to trust adults because of what happened. The Oda's sensing his despaired look didn't push any further and asked him to think about it for now. In truth, he wanted to say yes but his traumatized conscience hold him back to say what he wanted to say. The Oda's goodwill must be repayed. That was the first time he have thought of a goal and said to them that he'll be happy to be their adopted child. They gave him a new name and called him Shigetsu but it was so long and hard for him to pronounce so they named him Shige instead.

Ever since then, he made them proud by winning awards like quiz bee, math challenges and such things. He graduated early from high school at the age of 10 due to his great diligence and goal and just like high school, he also graduated early from university at the age of 14 and was the top of his school. He was the youngest to ever be graduated in university and was scouted by many prestigious companies due to his high intelligence but he declined their offer. His reason at the time was, "Sorry but at the moment, I can't be in your company because I'm too young". And so he further improved his knowledge by reading books from his father's vast library in the house. This continued to 4 years when he finished all of the books his father's vast library could give to him.

And now back to the present day, Shige couldn't understand their logical reasoning. The logic reasoning would be playing like this in his head. "Why the heck did I have a huge chunk of metal bed with a headgear for my 18th birthday? I thought it's gonna be a book about the 3 Kingdoms of Ancient China. How the heck am I suppose to even use this useless heap of metal junk?" but his father crushed his logical reasoning in just one sentence.

"Oh by the way son, they said this Royal Road game has their own virtual reality library like buildings too. The books are of course game based information." said his father who took a glance at his wife Jennifer talking with their eyes saying "works every time right Jennifer? and the mother replied of course with her eyes saying "honey you do realize just duped our son into playing Royal Road you know".

"BOOKS!" Shige thought and replied without a moments notice. "Thanks for the gift mother and father. I'll play as soon as I finish my breakfast".

He ate his pancakes with lightning speed and drank his glass of milk in one breath and dashed forth to his room leaving his mother, Jennifer, and his father, Nobunaga, in the long dining table.

"And gone like the wind. My son is growing up so fast honey." Nobunaga crying his heart out as he continued to eat his pancakes.

"Oh stop it dear, it's like you're sending him to the aisle for a wedding. He's just gonna go and play his birthday gift." replied his wife.

Shige quickly arrives in his room and donned on the headgear like helmet in his head and proceeded to play his first ever video game. As he closes his eyes, he heard a ding like sound in his head.

"Do you want to connect to Royal Road?"

"Yes." he said quickly

And as he connects to his first ever video game of his life, he realized that he forgot to read the manual of the game.