On a certain house, a man was playing a game.

He was quite huge by all proportions, at 1,90 meters tall and with a body with many muscles and scars one could tell at a glance he was not the peaceful type.

With his slightly tan skin, a buzz-cut black hair, and his green eyes he made for a striking appearance. However, despite that, he was just playing a game at this moment.

Emerald Online, the world's largest MMORPG at the moment.

The man's eyes were bloodshot as he was on his 45th hour of uninterrupted game as he and his guild were about to defeat a considered impossible raid quest. He was sending command after command, piercing through enemy after enemy as he continued crushing everyone in his path.

Finally, after much work and effort, he defeated the enemy.

With a war cry echoed in more than 450 other houses across the globe, they defeated the game.

He finally let his head drop back and relaxed his tense muscles. He thought back to his guild, he only started the game two years ago to pass time, after taking over most of the criminal underground work of the entire city and setting it to a less terrible path. It was less of a shit city now, crime still happened but still, worlds apart to how it was growing before.

Since he started the game he ended up deciding to make a guild as he liked to lead others, it came very naturally for him to be honest. His guild started small but as he never refused others and continuously beat seemingly impossible quest after impossible quest making his entire guild grow the results were that, before long, he was commanding the number one guild of the whole game with 60% of all top 100 players of the game being with him, him being the number one in the entire list.

Resting his head he was about to rest when he heard shouts from the outside. Moving quickly he took out his machine gun and got ready to deal with whatever may come his way.

He got ready to deal with anything, but he did not expect that his enemies would be too cowardly to try and kill him head-on. They instead blew up the house he was in.

Pain coursed through his being as he coughed blood after the explosion, injuries, and burns across his body as he laid underneath some rubble. Looking at the people that had done this to him he saw that they were gangsters of the neighboring town, probably not enjoying the fact that his reforms in the criminal underbelly on his city were starting to spread to other cities too.

He chuckled seeing this, before rolling his head back and laughing loudly. Those criminals stared in shock as he stood up again, he was clearly closer to death than to life but he still was standing now.

"All of you, if I am going to go down to hell I will first make sure you go first to cushion my fall!" He yelled as he moved, guns blazing as he entered his last fight, of this life that is.

Elsewhere on another world entirely...

"Hmph, easy..."

Surrounded by darkness in a dimly lit room, another young man, this one whom looked to be in his late teens, 19 at the latest, sat on his bed with his computer in his lap. Sounds of typing were the only sounds that dominated the room, their sources being the hands which moved like blurs over the wireless keyboard, a device of which he had inserted into the Laptop from its side port, one which also had a Mouse connected to it too. His bed, if one were to look from a bird's eye view, had been placed in the bottom left corner of a cube-shaped room, with a small wardrobe on the opposite wall to the left. on the wall in front of his bed, there lay a circular table which had a small TV on it, with a bench and a chair beside it that looked so much like a workstation one would see in a mechanic's room... although in this case, the bench had stacks upon stacks of books, each stack belonging to different genres.

The young man looked to be about 170cm tall, if he were to stand up straight, with almost ghostly pale skin color. His hair, as white as the purest of snow, remained unkempt and frizzy due to lack of care, whilst his dull grey eyes gazed almost blankly at the Laptop Screen before him, his lips set in a firm line. For clothing, the teen wore some simple clothes for once instead of his 'usual' attire, although hanging beside his bed on a coat hangar one could see his 'true' attire as clear as day. His simple clothes consisted of a dark hoodie with some baggy military pants, his feet being bare to the world, his hoodie's hood currently covering the majority of his hair whilst his ears got covered by some headphones, allowing him complete immersion into his gaming experience.

Silence remained his response as, after a while of gaming, the teen managed to beat yet another Raid Boss without much issue, having performed another one of his Solo Conquering exploits, causing him to nod to himself in satisfaction. 'A true Edgelord masters the art of being competent solo...' he thought to himself, almost as if chanting a mantra as he clicked off the recent MMORPG game called 'RAID: Shadow Legends', apparently some sort of popular gaming app for one's phone as well as a PC game. Though now, it'll be added to the... rather extensive list of games which he had completed alone, as the world's best Solo Player.

That title of his was NOT a bluff by the way, if one looked at his Steam Account, they'd seen an extensive list of different games he'd completed as a Solo Player, games such as MMO's like WOW, the Diablo Series, Starcraft Series, the Dark Souls Trilogy, its Demon Souls Prequel, various games similar to this formula like the Surge Series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Code Vein, Darksiders series etc... essentially, he'd completed these games on their hardest difficulty without taking any deaths...

Even did no death run lets plays of them for YouTube.

Shizukana Kodoku: That was his real name, means Tranquil Solitude... pretty much described his entire life up till this point anyways.

As a Gamer, the label 'Solo Player' could be applied to him, and it'd still be an understatement of his loner-like ways. If one were to compare his behavior to that of an animal, then a Wolverine which can claim hundreds of miles worth of territory would be the best case. To him, gaming was an important part of his life, way more so than something meaningless like making friends or putting oneself out there for social purposes. Gaming had taught him many valuable lessons as he had grown up, from the start of his gaming sessions at a young age of 4 up till his current 19 years of age, these lessons stuck with him, as well as helped him garner the reputation of the best Solo Player out there... one who stayed away from official tournaments by the way.

Just thinking of entering official tournaments made the male want to puke, a look of brief disgust flashing over his face. Kodoku didn't fancy himself as a social person, hence his current way of playing Games, and as such he generally avoided those kinds of things. Whenever there were Raid Boss events on some of his favorite Games, then the gloves came off as he would make sure to prepare himself fully before going in and taking everything out by himself, before any other player could get the chance to do the same. It had been his MO for years now, and thanks to one time wiping out an entire Guild (after pretty much analysing everything about them from their habits, log in times, classes, etc like a freaking supercomputer) when one of them mocked his loner ways, he had his pride and joy that sparked much debate in the gaming community:

Ryūketsu no akuma kōtei: The Devil Emperor of Bloodshed.

Yeah, normal people would call that cringy, edgy, chuuni whatever...

He found it awesome, especially with how it helped him gain the vicious reputation he had currently in the gaming world.

Currently, Kodoku just finished another no death run of Dark Souls III, mostly for nostalgia's sake since he wanted to end his gaming session off light. Once he did so, the male stretched his arms up above his head after taking off his headphones and lowering his hood, letting his rather... masculine features out into the darkness that was his room. Well, it WAS night time currently so his parents were in bed, though he wasn't sure of the time. Checking out the time on his laptop, Kodoku saw that it was about 3 AM, causing him to momentarily gulp in surprise. '3 AM? Usually, I play from 8 till 5 AM... well, I did get my classes finished early, and it's not a school day so I'll be good...' he thought to himself after closing his Laptop and getting off his bed, putting his gaming equipment onto his Desk.

'Best get some shut-eye, mom might kill me for spending more time gaming than sleep today, especially since we're going to meet my aunt whose celebrating her 44th birthday today...' the male thought, furrowing his brows in dismay. He never liked celebrating anything social, not birthdays, not Christmas nothing, mostly because those events took away his gaming time, but since they were mandatory according to what his parents had told him, he had no other option but to go. Thus, with these thoughts bringing him out of his earlier gaming thrill, Kodoku made to head back to bed for some shut-eye...

SHATTER!

Until he heard the faint sound of glass being broken.

Surprise and concern filled his mind, as well as confusion. What was that? Why did he hear something like that just now? 'Ugh, I'm too tired for this...' The male soon thought as he felt the heaviness of fatigue on his shoulders. Still, if there was something wrong here, and his gut feeling told him there was, then he had to wake his parents up so they could get to safety. Them staying asleep (it had happened multiple times before, his parents can literally sleep through almost anything) when the house could literally be potentially threatened was NOT something which Kodoku wanted... not for what they've done for someone like him.

As such, after grabbing a torchlight that he had in one of his desks' draws, Kodoku proceeded to head outside his room to see what was going on...

Something which he did not realize would be his very last action in this world.

If either of these two men thought that this would be their end... well, they would be right.

Sort of.

Like one mummy movie said: death is only the beginning.

Four grown men appeared within a flash, first in the air as bright humanoid forms of light, until a few seconds later when they fell unceremoniously onto the ground with four loud THUD sounds. Their forms became human ones as light particles fell down upon them like rain, condensing around them and forming a series of weaponry.

"Guh!"
"Gah!"
"Urk!"
"Grk!"

By the four sounds they made, each of the men got forcefully YANKED out of the unconscious land and into the land of the living, something which two of them found ESPECIALLY alarming as they spent a few seconds groveling on the floor from the sudden impact.

The first one to speak...

"The heck?! I know Fifty-Cent survived a bunch of bullets but how the hell am I still freaking alive?!" turned out to be the tallest one of the bunch, carrying a spear as he yelled out into their surroundings. He looked like he had gone through some hell too, with his clothes looking torn in multiple places, as well as looking riddled with holes formed from bullets too, adding to his previous claims. Didn't help that he only noticed the Spear in his hands after a few seconds of checking himself over for injuries, only to find none of them, adding to his own confusion.

This drew SEVERAL reactions from the other three:

The one with the bow fell onto his backside, looking up with wide, fearful eyes at the appearance of someone who clearly was not of the more 'law-abiding' type. The attire that he wore some sort of academy uniform, which didn't really help his case any and made him seem like one of those posh, rich boys who had only seen the bright side of the world, the exact OPPOSITE of the Spear user.

Second, the one with a sword, took only a couple seconds to comprehend this as his gaming instincts kicked in, which allowed him to dart his eyes around to scan their surroundings. It didn't take him long to notice that he had a sword attached to his person, one which looked like a typical fantasy-style sword he'd seen in almost every standard light novel ever, but other than that he found that they each stood within the center of what... looked like some sort of ritualistic circle, one similar to those satanic worshippers used to try and summon something. He figured this to be the case since he'd seen areas in Dungeon Raids which had stuff like this, and judging from the fact that they looked to be inside some sort of man-made chamber, the sword user assumed they were in some sort of building.

Finally, the one with a shield looked at him with wide eyes, not understanding a single thing about what was going on, or why this guy was so loud.

Just as all this stuff went down, shouts of exaltation could be heard from a corner of the room. Turning to look they saw a group of people wearing grey robes with yellowish outlines looking at them all with fervor. The sword user quickly noted in his mind, and he got the feeling the others did too (or rather, the one with the Spear did, he didn't get it himself why he just had that observant feel to him), that each of them had their hood up, the one who seemed to be at their head having his down likely to show that he wasn't a threat.

"Oh, Heroes! Please save our world!" They all said with passion whilst lowering their heads in front of them, but the immediate they got in return...

"No."

Came from the sword user himself, his eyes scrunching together slightly in annoyance as he got to his feet. He did look down at the sword at his feet in contemplation for a moment, before deciding to pick it up and keep it in a defensive posture that he'd seen in one of his games, all the while addressing the strange hooded people in this chamber. "I see no reason to do that. Especially since I don't know what is going on."

At first, every one of the hooded people looked stunned at his first answer, some looking like they lost their last lifeline or something like that, until the leader quickly realized something else from the second answer the sword user gave. Thinking about it, that response was actually only natural, especially since they were pretty much strangers, so why should they help without a good reason? Thus, he made to clarify for them, "There are many complications in this situation, but to offer a simple answer to your question, we have just completed an ancient ceremony and summoned you, four Heroes."

"Summoned?" The Shield user asked.

"Our world teeters on the brink of destruction. Heroes, please lend us your strength," said the robed man, bowing very deeply to the four young men with his companions.

At first, it looked like none of them looked to be particularly too fond of this idea, especially since it didn't really answer any of their questions regarding what was going on, not to mention two of them were still reeling from their recent... experiences, pretty traumatic ones actually.

All this changed though when, under a flash of inspiration, the leader of the robed men stood up tall and gestured to his followers to start piling out of the chamber in single file. When noticing this, the four men looked even more confused, until the leader addressed the situation at hand. "If you have any questions our king may be able to answer your doubts. Please, follow us."

"Yeah, yeah, we will follow you but I damn well hope you have some good booze! I just survived an explosion and at least 30 shots, so I damn well need some booze to celebrate that I am alive, HAHAHAHA!" The one carrying the spear said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

He saw how the others looked at him as if he was crazy for the first thing he demanded when he had just been summoned was booze, but he couldn't give less of a shit about it. He had just been gunned down, blown up, and stabbed a few times while taking at least 18 idiots with him, not to mention he did that while sleep deprived for more than 50 hours, so he damn well wants to celebrate that he is alive!

Once he yelled that out, the sword user recovered first from his temporary surprise, and then began shaking his head with a slight grunt escaping his lips, although nobody noticed. Great, a drinker, those guys were ALWAYS a particular annoyance that he had to deal with in his Gaming sessions, they usually fucked up the 'strategies' their parties employed due to their lower cognitive functions, and what was worse was that this guy sounded like he'd be a heavy drinker too, which did NOT bode well for his patience. The Sword User did believe that he had... more patience than average, but he also had a limit to how much BS he could take, why else would he prefer the solo player life after all these years? 'Glad this thing can stick to me though…' the male thought when he looked to his Sword. Apparently, when he had idly made to sheathe it like those one-handed swords he'd seen in that game Skyrim, his sword then stuck to his hip on its own like glue, a feature which could come VERY handy in the future.

Afterward, the group left to follow the robed people to wherever they would be taking them.

Whilst walking through the corridors, each of the four males took it upon themselves to look at everything that they passed by. The corridors seemed to share similarity to medieval European Castles, due to the stone floors, walls and ceilings surrounding them, with there being some instances where the stone got arranged into windows, which again looked similar to said Castles, allowing them to briefly look outside. This allowed them to briefly see the outside world, and any doubts the men had about this place being like their world quickly got doused... as well as doubts that some of them had about these people being satanic cult worshippers since it became clear that some people in high positions of power allowed this to happen.

'Hmmm... this so far seems like some typical fantasy world...' the sword user thought to himself, curiosity in his being as he spends the majority of the walk-in silence... all whilst the ones with the Shield and Bow simply looked around at everything like two children in a new environment. As for that Spear guy, he looked like he too was checking things out, but the sword user could tell just by looking into his eyes that he just wanted to do what he had said he would before: get drunk. Perhaps he considered that to be more important than gathering information? The sword user felt like this was the case, and it only irritated him inside even more. Sill, he remained composed since whatever he wanted to do was his business, and it had nothing to do with himself, so he would instead focus on more... productive things. 'If I'm correct, then the standard tropes that I saw in lots of fantasy games and stories will be applied, like Demon Kings, magic etc. They've already gotten the heroes and monsters tropes down so far...'

A while later, the men in robes soon stopped walking when they faced a tall, ornamental looking door, one which in accordance to traditional fantasy novels as well as the basic structure set up for medieval castles, meant this would be the entrance to something like a throne room. Something which got confirmed moments later when two robed men went up towards it upon a hand signal made by their leader, then pushed it open to allow the rest, as well as the four men, to head inside.

Upon doing so, they came face to face with a HUGE ass throne room, decorated with everything one might suspect there to be inside such a room. A single red carpet with gold outlines that lead to the two thrones at the centre, with portraits of various royal figures on the walls, ornamental and lavish curtains, the works.

Though soon, the four men got their attention hooked by the figure sitting on one of the Thrones, practically happened the exact SECOND they all laid eyes on him. The man had the form and posture of a leader, which combined with his aged appearance, the golden crown with a purple jewel in its centre, as well as his purple, cape and long black and white robes, quickly helped the men identify him as the so-called 'King' they had mentioned.

"My Liege, we have brought the Four Cardinals here, as we informed you of." The leader of the robed men mentioned, having walked up to the middle of the walkway and then kneeled before the King in reverence. At this point, it became known to the men that there were a whole bunch of people in the room, not just them, the King and the robed men, all assembled in a mighty looking crowd. Each of them looked to be a mix of people used to walking long distances due to their gear, as well as people under Nobility as seen thanks to their rich looking robes and ornaments.

The King nodded silently, and with a hand gesture, the Leader of the Robed men was ushered into the crowd, allowing the four summoned Men to step forwards.

"Speak your names heroes!" Declared the King in a loud, booming voice which reverberated throughout the entire throne room, as he threw a hand forwards in their direction in a grandiose, heavily dramatized fashion. Definitely had the presence of a commander down pat, so his ruling ability seemed legit so far. "So that we may know who the each of you are."

After his words were spoken, the sounds of footsteps resonated through the room, the cause of them being the spear hero. After a couple of steps, the tall male stopped moving and, after a moment of silence as he stared into the King's eyes... shouted out in a voice which matched if not exceeded the King's. "MY NAME? FOOLS, CLWAN YOUR EARS AND HEAR ME WELL AS I DETEST REPEATING MYSELF! I AM OUKY YUKI: LEADER OF THE OU GANG AND LEADER OF THE KNIGHTS OF BLOOD GUILD! I DEFEATED MULTIPLE FOES IN MY TIME, BOTH WITH MY MIND AND MY BODY! I AM 24 YEARS OLD AND IF THIS IS WHAT I'M THINKING IT IS, HERE'S WHAT I'M SAYING!" He took a moment to take a deep breath, meanwhile, everyone in the room nearly fell back from the force and might that his voice produced. It almost felt like a literal shockwave overturned everything in their vicinity, as the portraits and even the curtains fluttered about as an aftereffect of how loud he had been.

To say NOTHING about how the other three so-called 'Heroes' felt about the whole thing as they had been just as stunned as the rest of them, perhaps even more so.

Finally, he declared once more in that same voice, however compared to before his voice had even more of a blindsiding effect, nearly making people topple themselves over from the force. "WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE? FAME?! GLORY?! POWER TO PROTECT WHAT IS PRECIOUS TO YOU?! IF SO, THEN JOIN ME AS WE WILL SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE'RE MADE OF! JOIN ME, AND I SWEAR TO YOU THAT WE WILL STAND PROUD, PROUD IN THAT WE MADE A DIFFERENCE, AND WE SHALL BE REMEMBERED AS THE TRULY GREAT!" He declared, fisting his chest where his heart, which should have been shredded by gunfire, lay.

All around him, the people whom listened to his speech felt their breath get stolen from them, used as fuel to fan the 'flames' which seemed to circle around the man before them. His eyes burned with the conviction and resolve one would have to see things through to the very end, one who walked their path with their head held high... it somewhat reminded them of the days when their King himself stood on the front lines, leading vast armies against the Kingdom's enemies. The sheer passion, the presence and the strength behind his demeanor and not just his words, it stirred the hearts of everyone present, making them feel like they could trust this man with their lives, that they would be able to follow him even into the infernal pits of hell themselves.

…

…

...

"Also, WHERE THE HELL IS MY BOOZE!?"

And just like that, everything vanished with those words, everyone nearly falling over when something so... outlandish in the silly sense came out of his mouth. After everything else, THAT was something he had followed up with? That had been something which appeared in everyone's thoughts, the King, the Three Heroes, and every spectator present. Yet, it didn't look like the male is known as Yuki would be any caring towards what they thought of him at this moment. No, not when the chance to celebrate cheating death the way he had was right at his freaking fingertips!

"A-Ah..." The first one to compose himself, as one would expect, turned out to be the King, who slowly returned to his usual position on the Throne he sat on and cleared his throat. "W-Well... quite an introduction there. Very well, after the interlocutions are cleared, I will have a Servant take you to our cellar." he declared, much to the tall man's glee. As long as he got to celebrate with a drink, he wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer, especially since he would be able to see who these other people were. Some of them, like those sword and shield guys, piqued his interest in their own ways after all.

Once everyone managed to recover, the second person to introduce himself stepped forwards...

and almost IMMEDIATELY the entire atmosphere changed.

"My name... you may call me Shizukana Kodoku, though I don't care if you forget about it..." began the Sword User as he cast his gaze across the spectators. His eyes caught sight of a lone red-haired woman who, according to his analyzing pf her features, resembled the King slightly so he felt she was his relative, a daughter or niece. Whatever the case, the instant he saw her he immediately didn't trust her, more so than many others here. She just had this... fakeness about her, but he instead opted to continue this tedious introduction thing instead of wallowing on THAT. He could do that later. "I am a Solo Act, I fight on my own, and I win on my own. Don't underestimate me, for many have done so in the past and they all regretted it, evident by my nickname: the Ryūketsu no Akuma kōtei, the Devil Emperor of Bloodshed."

The more he spoke, the colder the Throne Room became as it extinguished any lingering 'flames' from the Spear Hero's introduction like a barrel full of water. Not only that, but nobody even dared to breathe, as it felt almost like there were sharp blades just under their neck's, one small motion away from slitting their throats. This, combined with the icy, no-nonsense gaze and 'unhinged' aura the male generated, resulted in his appearance becoming HIGHLY intimidating. Almost as if they were in the presence of someone who would exterminate them all for even the slightest misdeed.

This went double for the three Heroes, where the Shield and Bow Heroes nearly wet themselves from sheer terror, the Spear Hero grinned excitedly to himself. As someone who lived in the criminal underworld, he wasn't intimidated by this guy in the slightest, only amused that he had sussed him out perfectly in his head. Looked like an Emo edgelord Solo Player in the making, and judging by how he handled himself it seemed there may be more bite to him than one might expect.

Right then and there, he too distinguished himself in their eyes, but in a much different way compared to Yuki.

Where Yuki resembled the flames of passion, Kodoku resembled the bone-chilling deathly grip of ice.

"I may be 19, but I am not afraid to kill, so if any of you think you can BS your way around me or try to boss me around like your superior, I will not hesitate to shred you to pieces. I have defeated many foes just like that loudmouth just now, those who were stronger than me, I beat with knowledge, and those who were smarter than me, I beat with strength. That is all." Now finished with his introduction, Kodoku took a few steps back, drew his sword (which caused several Guards to look in alarm, even a majority of the Nobles) and began to look it over, fiddling with it and proceeding to lose himself in seeing how it worked.

Up next once the effects of Kodoku's aura vanished, was the Bow hero. Said hero slowly but surely stepped forward, despite the mild level of embarrassment which he felt inside but hid from his facial expression as much as he could, trying to not show any inferiority before those two who clearly got way more attention than he did. Though, just remembering the effects those two had on not just him but the crowd as well REALLY made things difficult.

One thing DID help though, and that was the Sword Hero's lack of interest in the situation, made it slightly easier since he didn't have his icy gaze down his neck.

By the time that he had stepped forth the same amount as the others, the Bow Hero proceeded to try and speak using the calmest tone he could muster. "My majesty, my name is Itsuki Kawasumi. I am 17 and fresh out of highschool." That was all Itsuki could say, since unlike the previous two, he didn't have much he could say to his name. That revelation really made him want to hide himself away from the gazes aimed at him, but regardless the boy stood his ground.

Even so, he expected to be looked down upon, but instead, someone gave him a hearty slap to the back. "Come on, put some spirit into it! You are alive for fuck's sake, show off! Speak your mind and show everyone here who you are!" The Spear Hero proclaimed joyously with a wide grim that made the bow hero grimace and decide not to speak just to spite the spear hero. He reminded Itsuki way too much of the popular kids in class who were nice to everyone but were also a giant pain to deal with. Also, he looks like some of his bullies before and he was definitely not interested in getting along with anyone who reminds him of them.

Seeing that the bow hero was not speaking anymore Ouki shrugged. "Suit yourself, I guess you will let your actions show who you are." Ouki said as the king coughed to bring attention back to him.

The shield hero was about to walk forward when the king spoke up, addressing the three Heroes with a happy look on his face. "It is good to meet you all, Itsuki, Ouki, Kodoku. Now, as to why you are here-"

"Wait a sec." Ouki said, making the King groan.

"What?" The King questioned exasperatedly, not liking the fact he was being interrupted so much.

"You are forgetting the Shield Dude." Ouki said. "I don't know if this is your old age or whatever but I would rather know who I am working with." Ouki then turned to the Shield Hero and spoke. "Then? Who are you? What's your name and everything. I am in a festive mood so I am feeling like making friends, so how old are you? I need to know if you can drink or not since bowie here is too young and whitely there is too edgy to be fun to celebrate with." Ouki said, not carrying if he offended others or not.

A few twitches of the King's brow told everyone exactly what he felt about this situation, and just when he made to say something the cold, icy feeling from before returned in full force. It not only forced him to shut up, but was aimed SOLELY at him, and when he looked to the source he saw Kodoku's piercing gaze directed right into his own, as if DARING him to speak up against him. He would have done so if these were normal civilians, would have had them executed for such disrespect, but in this case, he feared that this Sword Hero, someone whose actually revered by him and his associates along with the Spear and Bow, would do well on his previous words. Thus, he relented and wordlessly gestured for the Shield Hero to speak.

"Ah, um..." Seeing as most of the attention now was focused on him, the Shield Hero began to speak, fumbling over his words at the beginning but eventually saying coherently. "I'm Naofumi Iwatani, and I'm a sophomore College Student. I'm 20 years old, and whilst I haven't really done much fighting, I do have a bit of experience virtually." The mention of this garnered the attention of the other three heroes at least, whilst the others remained apathetic and, dare he mention it, uncaring. Regardless, Naofumi then addressed the Spear Hero Ouki with a wide, positively radiant smile on his face. "Though I will say I'm a good drinker, though, so if you're drinking and inviting I wouldn't mind."

"BFT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GREAT! SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO DRINK, PRECISELY WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!" Ouki quite happily shouted, proceeding to look like a fool whilst playfully smacking the Shield Hero on the back. Whilst Naofumi chuckled in amusement and slight pain thanks to those actions, he didn't necessarily mind too much. After all, as strong as he was the Spear Hero definitely showed himself as a fun individual to be around. He may have been loud, boisterous, spoke louder than anyone but despite it not being his intention he was already making everyone think of him positively despite him talking in a friendly manner to the Shield Hero.

After a while, his laughter calmed down, allowing things to proceed onwards. "Now then, I shall begin with an explanation." The king began to say, changing the subject. "This country, no, this whole world is on the brink of destruction!" Taking a pause after his loud declaration, the King glanced and saw all four paying attention, albeit with little reaction to his drama which mildly irritated him, but he kept a lid on that in favor of continuing to speak. "There exists a prophecy about the end of the world. Many waves of monsters would appear, and they would wash over the world, again and again, until nothing remains. Unless the waves were repelled and their accompanying calamities avoided, the world was certain to be doomed. The prophecy was from long ago, no one is certain of when it was said it would happen but it is certain that this prophecy was made and that across history other occasions of the waves happening are said to exist."

Here, he took a small breathe to regain the oxygen in his lungs before he could continue, unaware of the slight brow twitching two of the Heroes had begun to do. "In the beginning, the citizens of the land mocked the legends since most registers are untrustworthy at best and grossly exaggerated at worse. However, when the sands in the hourglass finished falling, a great calamity visited the land. A fissure appeared in the skies, a fissure to what we can only assume is another dimension. Terrifying and horrible creatures crawled out from it in great numbers. At the time, the country's knights and adventurers were able to repel the advance of the creatures after many sacrifices, but the next wave was prophesied to be even more terrible and it should arrive within three weeks. At this rate, the country was doomed, having no way to ward off the impending disaster. Considering the situation nearly hopeless, we decided to summon heroes from another world to follow the prophecy to save us all."

At this point the King looked at each Hero individually, his look hardening when he glanced at the Shield Hero for a brief second, before he finally finished with a heartfelt' plea for their help, thinking that he had convinced them. "Please, help us save this world. Only you four, the four cardinal heroes, can do it." The king proclaimed.

…

…

…

"...PFT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..!"
There was a huge silence before someone exploded in laughter.

... It was the spear hero.

Indignant shouts could be heard all over and, to silence them, the King beat his Cane against the ground to shut everyone up before glaring at the hero. "Mr. Ouki, care to explain why exactly you laugh at our predicament?" he questioned with a hard edge.

By the time this happened, the large male then suddenly stopped laughing, his body posture changing just as abruptly into something which threw everyone off, even the edgy Sword Hero. Incredulity. "Wait, you are not joking when you say you are in a predicament?" Ouki asked.

"Of course not. Why would you think we are joking at something of such grave importance?" The king said, he expected a quip or something but instead he received a glare as an answer.

"Why?! WHY?! AND YOU STILL HAVE THE GALL TO CALL YOURSELF A KING WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE HOW RIDICULOUS YOU SOUND?!" Ouki shouted, or rather he exploded with so much fury that he could put volcanic eruptions to shame. This reaction caused the King's face to begin to redden in anger at his insinuations. However, just when he made to respond, Ouki did what he did several times already today: cut him off before he could speak. "IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TO SUMMON US, WHY THE HELL DID I NOT SEE ANY PREPARATIONS BEING DONE IN THIS CASTLE?! NO GUARDS TRAINING, NO SIGNS OF PREPARATIONS BEING DONE, NO APPARENT SIGNS OF YOU ALL ACTUALLY TRYING YOUR BEST TO BEAT WHAT YOU YOURSELF JUST SAY MAY JUST BE THE END OF YOUR FREAKING WORLD!"

His words, heated as they were, felt more like vicious meteors slamming into the earth that was their logic, but oh boy was Ouki not done yet, no way in hell was he finished until he got EVERYTHING he wanted to say out the window. "WHAT? DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT MAKING YOUR ARMY STRONGER, ACTUALLY PREPARING FOR WHAT MAY BE COMING, WAS UNNECESSARY BECAUSE YOU CAN MAGICALLY GET SOMEONE TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS JUST LIKE THAT? IS THIS CITY READY IN CASE MONSTERS BEGAN ATTACKING IT? ARE THERE OTHER CITIES READY FOR THAT? DO YOUR CITIZENS HAVE ANY MEANS OF DEFENCE EXCEPT HOPE THAT THEY DO NOT DIE BY MONSTERS OR FAMINE WHEN THE CROPS ARE DESTROYED?! THAT IS SIMPLY PATHETIC! I MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A KING, BUT I DID COMMAND A GANG AND A GUILD AT THE SAME TIME, AND IN DOING SO I FOUND THAT PREPARATIONS ARE KEY, SO WHAT THE HELL KIND OF PREPARATIONS ARE YOU DOING TO NOT LET EVERYONE FUCKING DIE UNDER YOUR DAMNED WATCH?! HUH?! COME ON, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU HAVE IN MIND TO MAKE SURE THE WORLD IS NOT DESTROYED?! I MEAN, IF YOU NEEDED ONE WAVE TO HAPPEN AND LIKELY KILL WHO KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE FOR YOUT O GER OUT OF YOUR ASS AND WORK, AND EVEN THEN YOUR INTENTIONS ARE TO SIMPLY GET FREAKING PROBLEM SOLVERS, THEN YOU EITHER HAVE SOME OTHER PREPARATIONS BEING DONE SOMEWHERE OR YOU ARE GROSSLY INCOMPETENT AND UNFIT TO COMMAND!"

By the time that he was finished, Ouki looked to be breathing heavily from his rage-filled rant, his heavy breathing releasing tuffs of air from his lungs whilst he felt a bit hotter than normal, although this didn't really matter as much to him since he had more important things to be concerned about.

After a few breaths, it soon occurred to the tall man that he had perhaps spoken a bit more than he needed to. Calming down from his previous ranting moment, the big man straightened his back and proceeded to at least give an explanation on why he had acted like this, not as if he cared about how they feared him though. It mostly had to do "Sorry for the outburst, I do not deal well with people in power that misuse it. The cops back in my city were like that and, well, it was not pretty." Ouki admitted while calming down, and seeing as how the atmosphere around the Throne Room wasn't so suffocating no more, people could not help the relieved sighs that escaped them.

Seeing that he now was calm the king coughed in his hand and motioned for them to be taken to their room. There would be adventurers selected by the king the next day to help them in their journeys.

Something which did NOT go all that well with a certain someone.

'Tch, annoyances... no way will I let any party with me, I'm a Solo Player through and through...' Kodoku thought in irritation, his fists twitching since he had attached his sword to his hip. He didn't think that things would be ending very well for him tomorrow, with his brain already conjuring images of potential fights with the Castle Guards. Thanks to him getting a decent feel of his sword whilst listening to those talks, Kodoku felt... somewhat confident that he would be able to at least escape the Castle, though if he were forced to fight directly that would be another issue. After all, not only was this his first time holding an actual weapon, but it was also the first time he actually fought against something in real life.

The one time he DID have to fight someone...

'Stop, don't think about that right now, maybe later when your alone and more secure, otherwise people might think you'll show weakness...' instantly recognizing that his thoughts and feelings were, Kodoku madly shook his head to clear them from his mind. He didn't need to think about that stuff right now, he was still here alive and well and... not actually dead.

In any case, while moving out the sword hero moved a bit to the side as he pulled out a small rock from his pocket. He intended to use it to try an experiment with his sword at his hip, something he got inspired when, upon the rock nearing the Sword's jewel, Kodoku noticed a faint suction sensation. Of course he'd pulled back before it could get nay stronger, but right now he wanted to test this out whilst nobody was looking. see what the deal was. To that end, held the rock close to the sword's Jewel, his eyes intense as he awaited the result... for the rock to suddenly get sucked inside the Jewel the exact SECOND it touched the jewel.

For a moment, his eyes widened slightly in surprise at both the sudden loss of weight in his hand, and then the thing that followed:

Granite Sword - Unlocked
Rarity (Normal)
Atk - +3
Def - +1

… What looked like a holographic screen one might see in some sort of futuristic city suddenly appeared over the sword with those details written on it. Furthermore, the sword itself turned into one similar to its base form in shape, but made from the same material that the Rock had been made from. 'Holy... what the hell? This Sword, it... it just absorbed that rock!' the male thought in awe at this discovery just as the screen vanished and the sword returned to its default form. 'Okay... Okay, just calm down Kodoku, and think. You're going to be the edgiest Solo Player ever, so you can't let people see you lose your cool like this. You're better than this...' he thought further, proceeding to calm down afterward as he began pondering on this new discovery throughout the rest of the journey to the rooms.

Getting into the rooms it was to the sight of multiple bottles of wine prepared and ready for the spear hero.

The guard that took it there expected him to show appreciation for it, after all, he was complaining about alcohol basically since he got in here. However, Ouki looked at the wine, delicately took one bottle in his hand, and threw it at the wall. "The fuck is wrong with you all?! I said I want booze, not some fancy little shits! If I wanted to drink fancy stuff I would say so. I asked for BOOZE! You Know what? Forget it, just point me to where I can buy some and I will go to a bar or whatever." Ouki said.

The guard protested, he was under orders to not let the heroes go just like that, but instead of getting the expected result the guard felt immense pressure as Ouki stood before him. His impressive build and appearance added to his natural aura made the guard unable to stop Ouki as he just pointed at where the exit of the castle was.

Grinning like a fool, the oppressive aura vanishing completely, Ouki left with a happy go lucky smile.

The guard did not give him any money, but Ouki didn't much mind it as he stole it from the guard when he was passing him by just as he stole some of the fancy jewelry that was being used as decorations in the castle.

'If I am going to save these people then I will damn well get some extras out of it!' Ouki thought, leaving the other heroes stunned that the spear hero just up and left. Well, not really left as a few seconds later he popped his head back on the room, looked around, and stretched a hand to pull Naofumi with him. "Come, tonight we celebrate life!"

After moving for a while Naofumi could not help but think that this is amazing. Ouki had pretty much waltzed out of the castle despite the guards all around, all giving way of him.

Moving across the city the two walked, Ouki did not speak much until he got to a bar and walked straight to the bartender, he then took out some fancy-looking silver forks, spoons, and knives. They all were more works of art than anything else but the spear hero did not mind it. "How much booze can you get me and my friend for these?" He asked.

The bartender, used to thieves doing similar things, ignored the fact that these were definetly stolen items. He examined them for a bit before speaking. "I can get you both enough for the night... if you can eat one of these that is." He said as he pushed forward a jar filled with strange fruits. Ouki looked at them suspiciously but shrugged, he wanted to celebrate life so doing something reckless was in order.

He took one of those fruits and popped it in his mouth. Instantly he felt a great rush and could sense he became slightly tipsy, which meant a lot for him since normally he could drink through an entire two days and nights before he got to this stage. "This is some good shit! Old Man, get me some booze and snacks now, would you!" He said as he turned to Naofumi just to see the Shield Hero eating those fruits in bulk without any difficulty.

Ouki's eyes widened, his lips opened in a large smile as he laughed. "My man! You have to have a liver of freaking steel! I like you alright."

Hearing his laughter prompted a small chuckle out of the Shield Hero. Naofumi smiled sheepishly at the Spear Hero, rubbing the back of his head after swallowing what remained of his latest fruit. "Heh, told you I could hold my liquor. Though, in all fairness I never had the chance to go out drinking too many times, not with others at least." he admitted, recalling how... strict, his parents had been about being a responsible adult to him before they'd allowed him to remain at home with an allowance, mostly due to how he'd met their expectations and had his life together.

"Hey, now that IS good!" Ouki exclaimed as he patted Naofumi on the back, grinning broadly which prompted another smile out of the younger man. The two men sat together at a bar-like table on their Stools, chatting about like two old seasoned war veterans, or something along those lines due to the vibes of companionship that they gave off. "You can drink even better than the other one, the second Great Heaven! If you are anything like him, then I am sure we can get along just great." Ouki said, making Naofumi raise an eyebrow.

"Great Heaven? What is this all about?" He asked.

Now, THIS got the older man's attention, enough for him to lose his dumb drunkass look in favor for a more confused, if not befuddled one. "What? Don't you know of the Three Great Heavens of the Knights of the Blood?" He questioned, looking at his pseudo drinking partner like he had grown a second head or something along those lines. He did this all whilst keeping his drink on the table, longer than a few seconds at least which pretty much broke the record he had for keeping himself from drinking into a stupor. "We were very famous amongst players, how come you never heard of us?"

"Sorry, I really haven't heard of any of this." Naofumi admitted sheepishly.

Ouki put a hand to his chin and started to think about that, his guild was extremely famous and the game of Emerald Online was equally famous. To never have heard of it one would need to not enter a PC at all, and possibly never watch TV since many of the Guild Wars were watched in the television as if sports. 'Hmmm... interesting, if that's the case... ah, perhaps THAT could be why, as unreasonable and illogical as it sounds. Bah, all this shit's been out of our logic for some time now, so what else should be so surprising?' he mused internally, but just to be sure he needed to ask Naofumi a confirming question. "Hey, tell me, what is the name of the prime minister?"

"It is Shiguchi Zabuki, why?" Naofumi answered, rubbing his head whilst taking another shot of his fruit. The question itself threw him off sure, but knowing what this guy was actually like, aside from being a heavy drinker, he believed that this guy had some sort of idea or plan in mind. One that had hinged on his answer.

Hearing this Ouki got to his conclusion. "Yep, we are all from different worlds, or rather seems that we came from alternate versions of the same world." Ouki said before shrugging. "Not that it makes much of a difference, but just for curiosity was there any game you played that relates with this world? I mean, it seems pretty similar to Emerald Online to me but who knows." Ouki was the first to admit, the moment you believe yourself infallible is likely the moment you will lose. He had just confirmed that he and Naofumi came from different worlds so perhaps Naofumi's system might be unlike his own.

"Sorry, never much of a gamer myself. But I do find this world somewhat similar to a book I was reading before being sent here." Naofumi admitted.

Whelp, that explained a few things about this guy then, Ouki mused in his mind, like how his family must have been one why he seemed so much more... normal, compared to the rest of the summoned Heroes. Ouki was of the opinion that the deeper an otaku was into the culture, the more... weird, the habits they develop. Plus, the kid looked like he had his head on straight, so he likely didn't do any shady business, probably didn't need to. Lest he remained likable, judging by what he'd seen so far. "Oho, why not tell me more of it, then? It may prove useful." Ouki queried with interest, and Naofumi explained what he knew. Admitedly, it wasn't much, but the mention of a woman that would sow trouble and betray each of the four heroes was more than enough for Ouki to see that he should be careful with women that were bad news.

Their conversation continued like this for the rest of the day...

Smirking to himself he could only think that if this person really was out there she was lucky that the third Great Heaven was not around. That woman was beyond scary when she found cheaters or other females who try and disrupt things using their looks.

Just remembering her reaction to the betrayal of one of the core members of the guild that moved to another while stealing information from us, it gives Ouki chills just to think about this. The Third Heaven might have died, much like the Second Heaven, but they were just as good gamers as Ouki was, at the very least.

"Hey, how about we exchange some information about how our weapons work? I mean, we are from different Earths so maybe our weapons work differently and, if so, maybe we could copy one another." Ouki said. "Finding loopholes is essential to getting stronger, after all."

"... Okay, but I do not know anything about this you mentioned about how our weapons work." Naofumi said and Ouki nodded his head.

"Understandable, but easily fixed. Check on your menu the Help Menu, there you probably will find the details regarding your weapon." Ouki said, thus starting an exchange of information with Naofumi about weapon's enhancement methods.

Elsewhere...

With the dominance of night and day sliding to the former, one Kodoku lay back-first with his gaze looking upwards and his hands behind his head, upon the... rather lavish bed which had been assigned to him for the duration of his stay in the Castle. The night could be seen outside the window of his Guest Room, allowing him a rather... nice view of the many stars in the skies. If he were in a comfortable setting, then he likely would have gone outside for some stargazing, or perhaps even went out to do some exploring/scouting for additional information. As a Solo Player, he was used to doing such things on his own, gathering information about a Quest so he could develop the optimal strategy to take it down whilst incurring the least amount of damage. This approach had been something that he'd used to take on entire Raid Dungeons at first, but then he'd apply it to the generic quests as well just to be on the side of caution.

One can NEVER be too overly cautious after all, an example being that one hero who ALWAYS kept double checking things for even the tiniest of inconsistencies.

However, since it had been said that till tomorrow there wouldn't be anyone allowed outside the Castle, likely so that they knew where everyone was for the (and he shuddered at this next bit) party selection, he couldn't do as much as he had wanted. There were SO many things that he had wanted to experiment with, regarding this fantasy-like sword he had on his chest. Speaking of his body, his clothes had been shifted into a set of nightwear provided to him by the Castle maids, with his regular clothes hanging on a rack nearby... though if he were honest, Kodoku wanted to at LEAST look the part of what kind of archetype that he aspired to be both in game and in real life. That would be the FIRST thing he did, if anything.

With a glance down at his chest, Kodoku grasped the sword's hilt and held it in front of his gaze, allowing the light shining through the windows to illuminate the weapon. Now that he got a good look at it, Kodoku examined the weapon thoroughly: a set of angel wings forming a hilt, a blue jewel in its center, a double-edged blade leading to a V-shaped tip... not a traditional sword by any means, according to his knowledge of different sword types. 'This sword... earlier, it absorbed a piece of material and formed a new version of itself from what I saw...' he thought, mentally commanding it to shift into the [Granite Sword] that he had discovered was possible recently, which resulted in the sword taking the form of one similar to its base form, but slightly shorter AND made from Granite entirely... save for the blue jewel, that stayed the same. 'So far, I'm aware that this blade can shapeshift depending on the materials it has absorbed. This can open up some... interesting options depending on the situation at hand, furthermore, no matter how far we are separated, the sword returns to me, though I can switch its position depending on my preference. I don't play too many Net Games, but this DOES feel similar to an MMO kind of world...'

Although if he were frank, Kodoku felt that if he were to apply too much game knowledge in this world, then he may miss some important details, so he held back on THAT assumption until he could garner more information.

Furthermore, he did NOT like anyone in this Castle, especially the King as well as that bitchy looking Princess. He didn't know why, but the moment he had seen her, he had the urge to yell out 'BEGONE, THOT!' instantly... and those kinds of things were usually reserved for pretty much anyone who he didn't like... which was usually most people. What that drunk had mentioned about the King's incompetence... Kodoku didn't think much of it was unwarranted nor wrong, so many things he analyzed right now instead of before due to the chaotic situation made Kodoku want to get away from this Capital as soon as possible. However, he'd withhold judgment for the time being... again, until he got more information.

If there was ANYTHING his Solo Player Lifestyle taught him, it was the value of knowledge and resources. Those two things made his lifestyle OH so much easier, and it had been a bitch to learn them.

'Now then, better get some rest... I have a LOT of annoyances to deal with before I am able to leave this Castle and gather what I need...' Kodoku thought, huffing as he closed his eyes and lost himself into slumber.

Chapter end

Hello, this is hunterxkiller87, writing his first ever shield hero fic. For anyone who don't know, I helped another Shield Hero writer King Carlos with some of his shield hero fics, and in this fic's case we're co-writing it. So if you like this story and his writing style, check his stuff out, he's got way more than me after all.

Anyways, whilst he's the veteran of the two of us for this series, this is my first time writing for shield hero. Opinions and recommendations would be really appreciated.

Hope you like this.

Peace Out!