In a suburban area in Chicago, Saito Masaru was far from an average resident. All of his neighbors' knowledge of him were shattered in mere moments.

When Masaru first arrived in their small community, many townspeople hosted a party for him, believing him to be a family man with a wife and kids from what they saw him move in with, including many video games, what appeared to be big gaudy jewelry, and a playground-like obstacle course. When they actually invited him, all they saw was a serious man who silently walked about his party, refusing any attempts at communication.

Many single women thought he was dashing and mysterious and attempted on asking him out on dates. However, he blew them off in instants, shutting the door in their face. He quickly was known as some grouchy old man, and he did look old, with graying hair growing by the years and withered skin.

They never knew what those games were for, until one day when the mailman found him playing intensely on the computer. People started to ignore him, believing him to be just overall a jerk and a burnt out man.

Few years later, when other people moved away and the new move in, the new townspeople went around introducing themselves. When they got to his house, many wondered if people were actually living in there. Introducing themselves, they were bluntly turned away. The people started to talk about the crotchety old man down the street, finding responses from some of the veteran residents living about to find out he possessed many things, such as trophies. Some of the teenagers were listening, and thought they could rob some old man of his stuff.

That idea was quickly discarded, as he sent three teenagers who broke in to the emergency room in self defense using only his fists.

Nobody bothered him after that.

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Masaru's hands were shaking in anticipation as he opened the box that the delivery man gave him. His eyes shown of a youthful vigor that was never felt since a decade ago as he felt the engraved metal letters spelling out Royal Road.

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When Masaru left his home at the age of seventeen to travel the world to learn martial arts, he was searching for adventure. His entire life was based around his sense of passion and wonder, seeking friends and excitement. he went around, learning aikido in Japan, to learning kung fu with the shaolin monks, to learning muay thai in Thailand, all the way to places such as Korea and Brazil. His dream was to go to the world tournament and make his family proud.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans. While being a prodigy in martial arts, he was still young and inexperienced, miraculously going all the way to the finals of the Tenkaichi Kachinukisen, a name coming as an honor to Japan and the former K-1 competitions among other past ones. In the finals, he was against a prolific veteran of fighting named Morihei Ueshiba after the founder of Aikido. Despite all his training and efforts, he could not win. In the match, he was dealt a blow that knocked him clean out, as well as temporarily paralyzing him. It took him six months to recover, and by then, he had lost much of his spirit and happiness.

Secluding himself, he moved to America and became a recluse, playing video games and rarely leaving his home. By then, he slowly faded from news and disappeared. He was becoming more and more of a vegetable by the day, isolating himself further and further as well as exercising less and less.

That all changed when he found out about Royal Road. Finding a new world to explore and adventure, his vigor slowly arose back up. The burden he had and his overall sluggishness reduced. He made sure that in the first few days he would buy one of the capsules and be a player from the start. Now, with the capsule in front of him, he entered with only one goal.

To earn the title he lost of Tenkaichi.

Welcome to Royal Road

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