LEGEND REBORN : THE SAMURAI WORLD

THE VERY FIRST CHALLENGE

Thick clouds amassed all over the sky, the sun struggled each time to come into sight and each time it did, only few weak beams could break forth. A building stood tall and majestic in the centre of a thick forest, it seemed to pierce the clouds and the forest below seemed like it would engulf the building, the base was already swallowed by the shade of green.

The north of building had an entirely different scenario, the forest had been cleared totally and an endless sea of people gathered by the building, they all struggled against one another to enter and with the head count, it was a very herculean feat.

This was Einko Corp, the herald of the awaited gaming revolution, the creators of the virtual world of myth everyone wanted to be in. This was their building and it had the largest underground extension in the world, large enough to house close to 2 million hibernation pods to hibernate the pre registered gamers for their virtual reality programme.

Somewhere between the crowd was Ben also aiming for the entrance of the building, he was like a ghost who managed to slip through cracks and move faster than every one else around him and why?, he discovered that the earlier you were integrated into the programme, the higher the potential of you character. This was part of his findings from his previous life and wanted to take advantage of that.

Ignoring everyone else and drowning people's protests in his determination, Ben used every shameless methods at his disposal to enter into the building. Curses rained after him and he glanced at his victims with a smug smile. Once inside everything was different. It was much orderly and arranged, Ben drew the conclusion that just a few hundred entered before he did and that was a very good start. From this point he controlled his own destiny, he knew virtually how everything would go. So far events would repeat themselves, he knew how to handle himself.

They would all sign an undertaking, they were applying of their own free will and the risk to their lives is all theirs, they would have to agree to various terms and conditions, Ben had already decided. The last aspect before the hibernation was the creation of his character which he did speedily. You had a wide range of choice, you could choose to be a samurai or a ninja, either way just one thing was constant amd that was martial Arts. He changed nothing about the character from his past life and at this point, determination could almost exude from his body.

Finally he was placed in a pod, a self sufficient life supporting structure that keeps him asleep in an induced state of comatose, also referred to as stasis pods. His consciousness was dragged into the augmented reality and with one last smile, Ben lost consciousness.

With a slight head ache, Ben arose from his bed, he observed his surroundings and he smiled. He was back here again, the world where everything was possible. He was back in the samurai world. Practically, all he had to do was just to achieve an height where he can declare himself undeafeatable and he would be crowned the Lord of this universe. Achieving this would cost him a lot of battles and wars.

"The first time was troublesome and I wasn't even successful." He massaged his forehead in fatigue. "But now with my knowledge of events and insights from my past life, I can quickly rise from a being tadpole to becoming a Dragon." Ben clenched his ts and decisiveness shone in his eyes.

"Matero, emissaries from the clan are here..." A voice called from outside the room.

Matero was the name of this body and therefore Ben had become Matero, infact his name became Zhao Matero. Born by peasants in the branch Zhao family, he was always classified as average and no one had high hopes for his future, even his parents didn't expect anything extraordinary, but now....

Matero (as we will call Ben henceforth) rose to his feet, from his past life he already knew the message they brought and he couldn't waste anymore time. All players were still of equal rank, higher leveled humans were all programmed characters but then he needed to rank up as quickly as possible. Finally arriving outside their home, Matero met with the emissaries and the message they delivered was heartbreaking, even though it was expected.

The Samurais ranked one another based on levels they referred to as realms, in the Zhao clan and that continent entirely, it was believed that just three realms existed and Matero now knew their knowledge was limited. Each realm had five steps and the difference in the strength of each step was unfathomable, difterence between realms was something else, all these were already merged into the mind of each player. It became their reality.

Increasing in steps took months at first and increased in difficulty drastically with each success in achieving new steps, crossing realms could be at a stand still for years and some where no longer successful at some points. Matero was still at the first step of the first realm known as the Human realm, he was still a learner of the samurai path.

"The elders of the family have decided that to participate in the forthcoming screening examination, the participant must be at the second step of the Human realm. Failure to do so means disqualification." The youth announcing gave a smug smile and left immediately with his colleagues.

Murmuring could be heard from every corner, the entire street was quickly thrown into an uproar. Even Matero's parents couldn't hide their worries.

"Outrageous!!! This is just too outrageous!."

"Those old goats, they don't want branch family geniuses to have a chance at cultivating as a samurai."

"Impossible, the exam is just four months away...."

"Doesn't it take at least six months to attain the second step of the Human realm...?"

In all the disruption, Matero was unmoved. He remained expressionless, he already knew this would happen and this time he knew what to do. He wouldn't just attain the second step, he would be the very best in that examination. With clenched fists, Matero charged back into their house.

"It's time I went to work!" This was Matero's very first challenge.