•NOIZ Online•

"The First Expansion : The Chronicles of Zen"

FOREWORD : Firstly, greetings and my devout appreciation to you dear reader whom have given an indulgent perchance to this obscure aspirant. I had dabbled on the realm of fanfictions at the past but this is my first aria towards an original works of ficton. This was conceived on a 320x420 cheap china brand smartphone for my laptop had finally fallen due to tedious long hour's of labour with no salary nor rest. May you rest in peace, my dear compadre.

Writing on a phone is a pain, but writing on a cheap phone is a total hell. It's like you have a powderkeg for patience and you're writing on an open fire. Mix those two together and watch as your brain go Hiroshima on you. As for the beta and proofreading? Pfft, even Satan wouldn't go to that hell. Anyway, This novel contains Extreme acts of violence, brutality and suggestive themes so proceed as if you're walking on egg shells.

— Prologue —

- I'm no Hero -

• [ Virtual Settlement November 13, 2045 - 8:46 am ] •

What makes a great hero?

Is it their firm beliefs in life?

Or is it perhaps an unwavering courage that neither wavers nor sways even at the face of adversities?

Is it their eternal belief in the goodness of men?

Or perhaps being a hero is just all about having good looks, a brilliant sparkling armor and a dashing white stallion to ride and show off that can swoon any damsel in distress that may come in one's way.

Nonetheless, it's a general consensus that to be a great hero, one must have a least one or two positive traits and a good or lawful morality towards life. A hero must never do wrong onto others and must serve and live entirely for the benefit of the poor and needy.

Lastly and most important of all, a hero can never act villainous.

Hence, that is precisely why Aizen never once in his entire seventeen years of existence dreams of becoming a hero.

In fact he absolutely loathes heroic idealism.

However it seems that fate has a knack for humor and has a different plans for him.

"Ah it's Sir Zen!" A nameless bystander exclaimed happily as he spotted our protagonists walking the streets.

"It's the great hero Zen-sama!"

"Our benevolent hero."

Nerves throbbed in annoyance on our hero's forehead as his name and the word 'hero' keeps popping out of the mouth of every citizen he passed by. Finally, Zen's patience had ran dry and snapped out after some boy ran towards him and asked him to sign the miniature action figure modeled after him.

Mini Zen has a charismatic heroic smile that you wouldn't ever see in the real live version and was wearing a T-shirt with the words 'Hero of Heroes' embedded at front in all caps and bold font with exclamation on top.

Seriously, Zen promised himself that he would hunt and kill the idiot who designed the damn toy.

The male teen turned around to face his growing admirers with an agitated expression.

"STOP WITH THE DAMN HERO WORSHIP IT'S CREEPY! DO I LOOK LIKE A FRIGGIN' HERO TO Y'ALL!?"

The crowd might say that he's just being humble and modest but he really do mean it when he says that he's no hero.

Bleached wild hairstyle.

A lit cigarette hanging on his lips.

Pierced Ears.

A black shirt that says "Born to be Wild" with a skull jolly roger at the chest portion.

And to top it all off, a face that could even scare the most battle hardened criminals with one glare.

Yes, Aizen Ryumanagi is not your stereotypical kind of benevolent protagonist. Crude, blunt, ruthless, deceitful and a hopeless gambler that has a huge penchant to flirting with women.

Not to mention his colorful criminal records that seemed to have it all which practically made him rather infamous with the local enforcement authorities.

In layman's term, Zen's a scum.

Your typical dregs of society.

The list goes on and on but the main point is that he looks more fit to be the antagonist in both physical and mental aspects of his lifestyle. If there was a contest on who's the most villainous person in the country, Zen would've made a grand slam on such event.

Nonetheless despite how he looks or acts and no matter what anyone thinks, to every netizens of the virtual city he currently resides, the bleached haired, chain smoker, pretentious asinine failure of a gambler, is their one and only hero.

To hell with stereotypes.

Zen broke all the norms of society.

He's a villainous hero who even after gaining such fame and power still remained at base level one.

Yeah no kidding.

Indeed perhaps you mightn't thought that he had gained such power despite his pathetic level just because he had found a secret special job class or acquired a cheat item or maybe he exploited some unnoticed loophole in the gaming system and raked in lots of fortune but Zen didn't have nor done those things.

In fact, he's totally broke (again) at the moment due to gambling so he sold most of his item.

But don't assume that he's financially inept. The bleached haired teen is frugal and prudent despite his addiction. Zen just love the thrill of betting. The rush of adrenaline and the tension as you place your hard earned earnings on the line. Now that's what really gets him loony about gambling.

Well, even if the teen lost, he could always kite mobs to earn money...

–or not.

One might think that Zen has a combat oriented jobclass because of his bad-ass features but that's another curve ball against atypical preconceptions.

Well what's his job?

A priest.

Indeed it is, and it's not a typo for those of you who have bewildered faces right about now.

Despite his appearance, Zen really is a priest.

The kind of priest that most people picked as a 2nd character after they got bored with their main combat-type ones. The kind of a support cleric that you will rarely see be given a lead role in novels or games.

One might be thinking that it's a special type of priest but really, it's just your average run of the mill support class healer that can only heal then provide assistance from the distance and can't solo play on their own.

Now yes reader, your skepticism is totally warranted.

First a villainous hero, then a powerful level one character, and now a paltry boring priest job? you might be thinking this Zen character isn't real and just a gag character born out a prank gone wrong but hate to burst anyone's bubble, he is not.

To understand everything, let's go back to the very start before all this hero worship even started. Even before Zen became a legendary level one priest that everyone admires.

Let's go back to a point in Aizen's life where you wouldn't ever believe that he would end up to be one of the greatest hero in the virtual world.

Let's go back to the root of all legends,

The childhood.

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