Fifteen-year-old Shou Sakai was staring out through the window. His teacher's voice drowned in the background. He watched as the birds fluttered through the sky. All he wanted was to go home or read and play one of his VRMMORPG's.

Shou was startled when his teacher slammed her hand down on his desk. She scowled at the boy, "Sakai, you're not paying attention!"

Shou looked at her for a minute before returning his gaze to the window, "Don't care."

Smoke could be seen coming out from the teacher's ears, "That's it! Sakai, you have detention."

Detention. That was Shou's least favorite word. Spending any more time than necessary in school meant less video games. Shou turned back to his teacher and bowed his head down begging for forgiveness, "No please no! I'm sorry!"

"Oh, so now you've changed your tone huh?"

Shou clapped his hand together and continued bowing his head. "Just please don't give me detention."

The teacher sighed and adjusted her glasses, "Fine but just this once."

"The school bell rang throughout the building signaling the end of the day. Shou grabbed his backpack and started out the door in a hurry."

"Alright! Thanks!"

"Yeah yeah, just remember to do your homework."

Shou rushed out of class and eventually met up with Kazumi. Kazumi smiled sheepishly at Shou, "So we're still having our date tonight right?"

"Yeah, of course! I just gotta go raise my level in Golden Fleece and then we can go."

Kazumi sighed, "Didn't you already win that game, Shou? Why do you still play it?" Kazumi loved Shou and all but his ridiculous obsession with video games tended to get on her nerves.

"Because it's a VRMMO and those never stop being fun." The young gamer said matter of factly.

The two continued their conversation as they walked down the road home. "I still don't get what the big deal is," Kazumi said. "I mean they're all just a bunch of mindless video games."

Shou gasped at this, "Mindless video games? Remind me why you're my girlfriend again?"

"If you don't shut it, you won't have a girlfriend."

Shou laughed while rubbing the back of his neck, "Sorry Kazumi, but they're so much more than just video games. They're a gateway to true freedom. A place where you can truly be anything you wanna be."

Kazumi began chuckling at Shou's words. Shou raised his eyebrow, "Hey what's so funny?"

Kazumi tried to restrain her laughter "You sound like some retired poet."

Shou blinked, "But I didn't even rhyme." The teen was perplexed by how he could sound like a poet without rhyming.

Once the two came to their separate paths home they said their goodbyes and continued home. Shou walked into his house and slid off his shoes. "I'm home."

Shou immediately headed up to his room. He got into his Gamer's Pod which rested on his bed. He shut the lid of the pod and grinned. "Finally. It's game time!"

In the kitchen, Shou's mom was cooking dinner when her husband walked into the house. "I'm home!" The man said acknowledging his presence to his household.

The brown-haired woman looked up from the stove, "Jun, you're home early." She knew her husband usually got home fairly late, so she was surprised to see him home as early as he was.

Jun set his briefcase down, "Yeah, we finished fixing all the bugs in that new VRMMO."

The woman sighed as she returned to her cooking. "Honestly, you're the reason Shou is so obsessed with those games."

"Come on Aya, they're just some harmless games. I don't see what the big deal is."

Aya started stirring the rice, "You know what they call Shou now?"

Jun nodded and grinned proudly, "Yes, they call him the Gaming Lord."

Smoke sizzled from the pot of rice, "Apparently because he was the only one to win some game called the Golden Fleece."

Jun suddenly fell to his knees and hung his head down in shame. "Just some game huh?"

"Honey, what's the matter?"

Jun sobbed as he answered his wife, "You don't remember? Golden Fleece was my first project when I became head of the company."

Aya sweatdropped, "You get upset over the littlest things…"

"Little?!" Jun shouted as he quickly rose to his feet. "I'll have you know that game took me six years to complete! It's why no one was ever able to beat it!"

"No one but Shou..."

A couple of hours passed and Shou, Jun, Aya, and Shou's little sister Miyu were eating dinner together. Aya had to lift the Gaming Pod's lid just to get Shou to come down to eat.

Shou scarfed all of his food down at an unbelievable pace. "Oh man, this is good!"

Miyu ate her food unenthusiastically and groaned at Shou's behavior, "You say that every meal, Shou."

"Yeah, well that's because every meal is always good." Shou then turned to his parents, "So Mom, Dad, there's this new VRMMO coming out tonight. Can I get it?"

Jun was about to say yes when Aya coughed signaling him to keep his mouth shut, "Did you finish your homework?" she asked suspiciously.

Shou's heart skipped a beat when he realized he did not do his homework. Still, he decided he'd test his luck and lie, "You bet I did. It's one-hundred percent done!"

Shou's test of luck failed when his mother responded, "So your homework was to go and play in your Gaming Pod?"

Shou didn't have a response to this. He instead opted to slump down in his chair. Aya sighed, I told you I'd only let you out of detention if you did your homework, didn't I?"

"You're not gonna give me detention now, are you?" Shou asked worriedly. He really wanted to avoid detention. He had to play that new game as soon as it came out.

"Well, I don't have a choice, Shou. It was homework or detention, remember?"

Shou clapped his hands and bowed his head the very same way he did earlier in the day. "No please! Anything but detention!"

"It's your own fault. If you'd just done your homework, you would've been able to play your stupid video games." Miyu said as she got up from the table.

"Shut up, Miyu! No one asked you!" Shou yelled pointing his chopsticks at her.

"Being mean to your little sister won't help your cause," Aya informed her son.

Later on in the night, Shou snuck out the house and ran down to the game store. He chuckled to himself, "No way in hell am I gonna miss out on getting that game as soon as it is released."

Once Shou finally arrived at the store he was greeted with an extremely long line of gamers. The line stretched all the way through the store. Shou's jaw dropped more and more as he walked to the end of the line.

Once he was at the end of the line, his back was literally pressed against the wall. A guy a little older than Shou cocked his head backward, "Hey long line huh?"

Shou nodded, "Yeah. But it is the most hyped up game of the year, so it's no wonder." Shou got more and more excited as he talked about the game. "And since there are no levels, your real-life skills are translated into the game. But you can still train to improve your skills! I can't wait to get my hands on it."

"It better live up to its hype though. 'Cause I sure as hell ain't waiting in this line just for a game that's gonna turn out to be complete shit."

Shou smiled, "Don't worry, I'm sure it will. It's made by the same company that made Golden Fleece."

"Oh yeah, I remember that game. It definitely was epic. But it was so freaking hard too."

"Yeah but I won it. So it's not an impossible game."

"Wait a minute, you won it?" The older teen let the fact think in for a couple seconds, "No way! You're the Gaming Lord."

Shou crossed his arms and nodded while grinning proudly, "You bet I am!"

Shou and his newfound friend continued their conversation until they were the ones at the front of the line. They both brought their games and made their way out of the store."

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Gaming Lord. By the way, name's Len."

"Thanks, Len, but you can just call me Shou."

Len smiled at Shou and waved, "Alright then, see ya, Shou."

"Bye Len."

Shou bolted home ready to play his new game. He couldn't have been any more thrilled. Once he made it back to his house, he quietly walked upstairs to his room. Shou inserted the disk into his Gaming Pod."

The eager gamer was about to jump in until Kazumi kicked the door open. "SAKAI SHOU!"

Shou waved his hands in front of his face defensively. "No Kazumi, you have to be quiet. Everyone's sleeping."

Kazumi made a humph sound as she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "Well excuse me if I'm angry because you forgot about our date. Again."

"I'm sorry, Kazumi." Shou apologized. "But my mom wouldn't let me get this game, so I had to sneak out to get it."

"What game?"

"Oflilia's Game," Shou answered simply. "It's a new VRMMO."

"Oh joy," Kazumi said rather sarcastically.

"Oh, you wanna play too? I didn't know you liked video games Kazumi."

Kazumi moaned, "I don't." Sometimes Shou's stupidity was too much for her to handle. "It was sarcasm, Shou."

"I don't know what sarcasm is. But you still wanna play, right?"

Kazumi decided it was better for everyone if she just gave up and played the game with Shou for a while. "Fine. But only for a little while."

"Alright!" Shou exclaimed gleefully as he pulled out another Gaming Pod from his closet and hooked it up to the one on his bed. "There. Now we can both play."

Someone's footsteps could be heard as they were rushing up the stairs. "Uh-oh! Someone's coming! Hurry jump in the pod!" Shou said in a panic."

Kazumi stared at him and questioned Shou, "Why?"

"Because if my parents see I snuck out to get this game, they'll take it away! I have to play it at least once first!" Shou then jumped right into his Gaming Pod as did Kazumi.

They both shut the lid and the game started. Shou was in an empty void when a menu appeared before him.

Are you a boy or a girl?

Shou contemplated playing as a girl for a while but eventually decided against it and clicked boy.

Please pick your starting class.

There was a choice between Warrior, Mage, Archer, or Cleric. Shou instantly chose Warrior, he always chose that one. He felt it fit him best. He was then asked to customize his character. He gave himself light blue spiky hair and violet eyes.

After that Shou was prompted to pick a name for his avatar. He usually used BlueSlayer but because of his new title as Gaming Lord, he opted for a new name, Jiran.

Is this character okay?

A 3D image of his avatar appeared before Shou. He pressed his finger on the accept button and with that his body was teleported outside of the empty void.