"Life's so boring... just thinking about it gives me a headache." 

My name is Haruto Akechi, I come from Japan and I moved to the United States, spending my life in Western Washington. My English isn't all too good, even though my parents say I can speak it fluently.

I'm currently 18, this is my last year before I graduate and get thrown out into the real world. 

Yep, the crazy, crappy, real world.

Working 9 to 5 jobs for the rest of my life until I die, and no one will miss me. 

That's pretty much how I summarized my entire future. 

I have no cravings for things such as creating my own family or finding a girlfriend, I love to spend time by myself, stuck up in my room, by myself! To eat, by myself! To watch anime, by myself!

I'm 100% introverted... man... I really do have a shitty life.

"What's the point of it all? It feels meaningless."

I was walking home from school, I usually ranted like this whenever the day was depressing or bland. Do you ever notice how school sucks the energy from your body? Yeah, that's because it does! The entire school system is shitty to me. I can pull up YouTube and watch videos on my phone and learn more from that than I ever would from my school.

If you wanna have students get invested with the subjects you teach, at least approach them in an entertaining way, rather than chalk and chalkboard. 

"...May as well jump back into Isekai World Online and see what's going on. I've been grounded an entire week, so I definitely missed a lot of my login bonuses."

Yeah, grounded from my report card.

I had straight F's in all of my classes from my lack of care in school. But can you blame me? Half the stuff they teach us, we'll just forget in the future. At least teach me about stuff that'll make me successful or rich in life.

"Yo, Haruto!"

I could hear a voice coming up from behind me, it was my friend, Johan.

"Oh, Johan, hey."

"What's up, man? You just walked off without saying anything. We usually stay after school and talk to you know who!" 

"Are you talking about those two girls?"

"Dude, you forgot their names already? It's been a few months now, you should at least remember."

"Listen, Johan, I know you're trying to help me out and all, but I'm not interested in any girls right now. It's unnecessary stress, and getting my heart broken is the last thing I want on my list of worries."

"You gotta live a little bro, you can't grow up without experience, that's what my pops told me at least! Ahahaha!"

"...You're far too open-minded man."

"Isn't that a good thing Haruto?"

"—Uh yeah, I guess it is, but... it's whatever, I'm good."

"Hey, let's give it a try tomorrow. Me and you after school, we approach both Sarah and Rachel, then we have a little conversation with one another. And this time, make sure you talk. Each time we visit them, you stay silent and say half-assed words to their questions."

"...This is peer pressure man..."

"C'mon Haruto, don't try to be so sensitive about it. Think of this as a way of growing your character!"

"The only character I need to grow is the one in Isekai World Online." 

"For once, let's not talk about that game. Me and you need a realistic talk, regarding real life. Games are just a way to escape from reality, but you can't do that forever."

"...You are such a... whatever that word is called."

I don't know the word I'm trying to say, but it would fit someone like Johan!

"Hey, no reason to start calling me names, I care for you, bro. I'm just trying to get you prepared for the real world."

"You're acting a lot like my dad, Johan, but I appreciate it."

We eventually stopped by my house after minutes of walking. I didn't live far away, it was only a twenty-minute walk from my school, but he managed to catch up with my fast pace after running.

"...Sorry if it's bothering you, Haruto, I just don't want you to be isolated in the future by yourself. Hey, how about this, we can hop back onto Isekai Online tonight, sound cool? I know you were grounded so we didn't get the chance to play together, but I found some sick ass gear I wanna show you." 

Even after saying he didn't wanna talk about the game, he brought it back up.

"Oh hell yeah, now that's what I wanted to hear! Wait... did you just say you were on this week when I was grounded?"

"Yeah, why? You're acting like I don't play the game just because you aren't on."

"Did you not see the message I left at the guild?"

"Oh... uh no, I didn't read the inbox."

"Seriously Johan?!!"

"W-What? Was it bad? What did I do?"

I facepalmed.

"Guild members of the Phantom Mutiny aren't meant to leave the guild until the next update was complete! We were supposed to keep our characters in the guild, so we could get the guild rewards when the update finished."

Johan looked to the side, cringing.

"Oh... that's right, I totally forgot about the new update that's coming out, and the event included. Man, I screwed up! It won't affect everyone else will it?"

"...No, it won't. I'm assuming the devs for Isekai Online were preparing something big for Guild members across the world, but for the Guild members who didn't follow their orders, they won't receive anything for it."

Johan crossed his arms, questioning Haruto;

"So the orders for guild members was to not kill other NPCS and mobs, and to stay inside the guild until the update finished right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. But if you're confused as to why, then we're in the same shoes."

"I guess we'll see when we log back on. The update should be finished by now."

"Yeah, I guess so. Alright, peace out Johan, take care, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have a good one dude, see you at school tomorrow, in person rather than in the game."

I opened the fence to my front yard, made my way to the door, and walked straight in.

"I'm home!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, waiting to get their attention... but nobody answered, "Mom, Dad?" I waited again and got no reply, "Huh, they didn't tell me they were gonna be gone when I got back. Oh well, guess that means the house is free to me!"

...This was such a wonderful feeling, having the house all to yourself, without the worries of anybody else.

It was like a breath of fresh air unless you were someone who could get paranoid fairly easily.

The first thing I did was go straight into my kitchen to grab a soda from the fridge which I popped open, chugging a quarter of it.

"Tomorrow is Friday, which means the weekend is right around the corner, I can have Saturday and Sunday to grind Isekai Online without having to worry about school. Hell yeah!!"

I walked out of the kitchen and made my way upstairs to my room, opening the door to my "office" as I call it.

Yeah, that's right, I call my room the office. But besides that, my room looks foreign compared to everything else in the house; anime posters hung on the wall, mangas stocked on my bookshelf, action figures placed on my dressers, and cringy body pillows of anime girls.

Woah woah! Saying what I have makes me feel like a complete no-life! Well… then again… I kinda am.

"Another day, another rival."

In Isekai Online, I'm something known as one of the Four Kings of Terra; the four kings were individual players who made it to the top leaderboards and are known as the strongest.

They have the strongest items in the game and are practically unbeatable, that's why they're regarded as the Four Kings.

My Race class is known as a Human, yep, no monster, no cool-looking demon, no sort of hybrid, or any of the sorts. 

Just a human.

Do I sound boring? Maybe. But so many people go into some open MMORPG and choose something nonhuman to become the strongest with.

I find that boring, how about we have a human that's the strongest for once? Ya know, something that we're naturally.

"Alright, let's get to cooking!"

Sitting down in my gaming chair which was creaking like crazy, I grabbed my Virtual Gear.

It was a headset you put on around your scalp that covers your eyes, and ears, and connects to the nerves in your brain. That way, if you decided to eat something in the game, you could actually taste it from the facial nerves responding to the flavor.

Or at least it was something like that. I'm not so good with this science stuff.

"Okay, logging in. I wonder how everyone's doing, it's been an entire week since I've been in.." I reached forward to turn on my computer, and suddenly, my consciousness was transported into the game database.

["Welcome Back, Star_Light69, you have two responding messages from player "Daddy_Ken1106", five received messages from "Wave_Protocol", and five responding messages from "Astral_Wrath22"."]

As of now, my consciousness was nothing but floating data, kept stagnant in front of the loading screen.

"Uhhh, open Daddy Ken's messages, what did he say? I know I texted him that I was grounded."

["Affirmative. Opening Daddy_Ken1106 messages."]

In the vast empty darkness around me, a hologram of my messages showed up in front of me.

{Message List

Ken: "That's fine, if you're grounded because of report cards I completely understand that, parents suck, but I'll always be here if you need to talk, just message me on discord."

Me: "Thanks Ken, I appreciate it. While I'm gone, make sure no one attacks our guild will ya?"

Ken: "Lmao, who's dumb enough to attack our guild other than one of the Great Four Kings and their armies!?"

Me: "Just a precaution man."

Ken: "Yeah I understand that."

Ken: "See you until next time Star."

Ken: "Take care, man."}

"Oh, he was just saying goodbye in those last two messages. Okay, uhh, open Wave Protocols messages."

["Affirmative. Opening Wave_Protocols messages."]

{Message list

Wave: "Our guild is cooking, I think we're one of the strongest in Isekai Online. Phantom Mutiny is badass!"

Me: "We're the ghosts who rebel against the authorities of Isekai Online, of course, we're badass!"

Wave: "Though, you must be pretty lucky light, to get early access to the beta and grind your character before we all could. You're one of the Four Kings bro, that's fire."

Me: "Yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm overpowered as shit though, and it's hell running a kingdom."

Wave: "Me personally, I would've started a harem"

Wave: "A harem of cat girls, muscle mommies, milfs, and all sorts of things!"

Wave: "Oh yeah, by the way, I might take the new quest that the devs put out. Apparently, it's a dungeon quest, you wanna go in with me?"

Wave: "Oh wait, you're grounded, I forgot. L bozo, I'll talk to you in Discord then."

Wave: "Peace Light."}

"Was one of his last messages really 'L bozo'?!!"

If I had hands right now I would've flipped him off.

Too bad I'm floating consciousness.

"Okay, open Astral_Wrath22 messages now!"

["Affirmative. Opening Astral_Wrath22 messages."]

{Message list

Astral: "Before I say anything, 1: I hope you're okay, 2: I love you, and 3: fuck your parents for grounding you."

Astral: "I wanted to let you know Kuma has joined Isekai Online, he wants your tag. Do you mind handing it over?"

Astral: "You used fonts for your name in the game, so I can't just write it down for Kuma unless I know what fonts they're."

Astral: "I'll wait for you to come back, I'll help him grind for a bit to level up."

Astral: "He says he's gonna surpass you."}

"Love you too astral, and wait… surpass me?! I'll like to see him try. Alright, you can close messages now, I'll send my tag later."

["Affirmative. Closing messages."]

"Continue."

I said to continue since the game was done downloading now. I was just stuck on the Home Screen reading all the messages I received.

["Processing Login bonuses. Day 730 of playing Isekai Online, two years have officially passed. From your hard work, you will be receiving a gift from the devs."]

"730 days?! Holy shit, has it really been that long ever since I started playing?"

["Player, Star_Light69 has received 5,000 WG (World Gems)"]

"F-Five thousand? I didn't see this in the reward list during the last login bonuses, is this some sort of hidden reward?! Holy hell."

World Gems were this world's currency to unlock certain areas, summon certain weapons, conduct tradings, and even summon certain NPCS for your kingdom, or your party.

To do all of that, it usually costs 30 World Gems, and I got 5,000!!

"Okay, send me into my avatar, Emperor!"

["Sending player, Star_Light69 into Emperor."]

My consciousness was finally transported from the Home Screen into the actual game. 

I was sent into my avatar, also known as Emperor. I last kept him waiting in the Guild for the update. Not to mention, I was also grounded, so I had no other choice but to keep him here.

"It's good to be back."

That was Emperor talking. His voice was deep and sexy, he sounded better than I ever could, and even his posture was so cool.

In this world, I had a completely different persona, I was known as Emperor, but my avatar's real name was Maverick Lionheart.

"Now then, it's day 730 of Isekai Online, it's time I make myself known again! My AFK is no more! Hahahahaha!"