Hey guys – so this story here, well a prologue really and hardly much of a story is something I wrote up like over a year ago. The problem with it though, is that I never got the chance to continue with it because of work and the like getting in the way – I was in the middle of reading all of the Light Novel(s), when work piled up and I was just so exhausted I forgot all about it.

I was browsing through my one of my many...and I do mean many folders filled with story ideas, story plans and even some folders with stories I've never posted that have multiple chapters – and I saw this little gem and remembered how into the idea I was at the time and decided to try and give it another shot.

...It has nothing at all to do with the fact that I'm working on a new 1 defence pure in Runescape – although, for those interested so far my stats look a little like this;

50 Attack - 56 Strength

71 Ranged – 74 Magic

59 Hitpoints – 83 Hunter

62 Smithing – 53 Thieving – 50 Firemaking

54 Combat

Well, there's more decently high stats, but these are the ones that really mean anything at the moment. I'm aiming for 75 – Ranged/Magic, 60 Strength, 60 Hitpoints at 55 Combat – which a more frequent player would guess comes with a lot of Cannon'ing, Splashing/Alchemy and Barbarian Fishing/Organised Crime

But that's enough about me and my up and coming pure, take a gander at the prologue and I hope you enjoy

It sometimes shocked Naruto just how cowardly people could really be. Honestly, from kids in school being terrified of him because he had bright sunshine blonde hair, to looking the other way when someone was getting bullied or was in need of help.

So he shouldn't have been surprised that after the announcement by Kayaba Akihiko about the virtual world they were all in, Sword Art Online that the vast majority of players would be hiding within the Town Of Beginning.

Well, at the very least they weren't as bad as the complete and utter morons who actually threw themselves off the side of Aincrad and expecting to wake up again.

Naruto spun to the side, narrowly avoiding a head-on charge from the bulky, blue form of a Frenzy Boar - its razor sharp tusks glowing a dull red.

He was literally, the only person in the clearing where this set of Frenzy Boar spawned. Still, he wasn't complaining too much about all the cowards in the game alongside him. It gave him the chance to level up as fast as possible at this point. Since he was new to the game and had no idea if the monsters in the next town over would overpower him or not.

The short-sword held tightly at his side began to shine with deep orange light. With a quick burst forward on his feet, Naruto swung the blade arcing upwards slashing straight through the Frenzy Boar's tough hide and almost instantly draining its HP to zero where upon it burst into poneglyphs.

A small screen propped up in front of Naruto, and his brilliant blue eyes gleamed slightly in victory as he read it over.

Frenzy Boar Lv.2 Defeated!

Rewards: 23 Col – Blue Hide!

Experience Points Gained: 26!

LEVEL UP!

"Finally.." Naruto sighed. He'd been at this all day. The game got harder to grind the more players levelled up. At level 1, all it took was 326 Exp Points to reach level to and from a level 2 Frenzy Boar he gained 78 Exp Points.

It didn't take long at all.

From Level two, to three though. The experienced needed had shot up massively to 1956. Meaning, the experienced gained from fighting a level 2 Frenzy Boar had been divided by three and the Experience had shot up a whopping six times its original count.

It had only taken a half hour or so to level up the first time. Getting to level three though had taken more than three hours. If this kept up, it would take weeks to level up later on.

Kayaba was such a dick, Naruto mused.

Dropping the three Skill Points he gained in Strength. Naruto sheathed his sword on his back and left the area. He was pretty swift on his feet already, so he was putting up his Strength stat as high as possible for lots of damage behind his attacks this early on.

Still, he wished he hadn't chosen Familiar Communication as his second Skill Slot. He'd been thinking along the lines that High-level animal partners would be worth a ton of IRL – In Real Life - money if they were trained up well. It came back to bite him it seemed, since he was stuck in a Death Game and Kayaba had pulled a dick move and removed the trading of Familiars from the game since the Beta.

He'd have to tell that Argo chick he wanted his money back for faulty information.

Naruto Uzumaki was a fourteen year old orphan. He was a bit lucky though in regards to that, if being an orphan could be called lucky at all. Upon his twelfth birthday, he as one of the oldest in his orphanage had been set up in a one bedroom apartment by the government because the orphanage was quickly being over-run.

He'd had to live a rather frugal life-style though despite his seeming luck. His apartment was furnished by the government, paid by the government up until he reached the age of majority at twenty and he gained a stipend every two weeks, paid directly into a newly made bank account.

Still, just over 21000¥ every two weeks wasn't much at all.

He hit pay dirt though one day when he saw a part-time opening at a local dojo. He worked five hours a day, five days a week and earned a nice tidy sum of 732¥ per hour.

It had allowed him to splurge every now and then on something he wanted, as long as it wasn't too expensive. It was upon saving up for over two months that he was able to get his first PC computer. It wasn't very impressive at all, but it was a decent specimen and worked for the small interests he had in the internet.

He was always more of a physical guy. He loved to work out, work up a sweat and play quite a bit of sports.

But it was upon hearing about 'Bots' and people selling game items for rather large sums of money in passing from a few hardcore gamer schoolmates that decided Naruto's path.

It had taken a few months of learning to play a popular MMORPG before he'd been able to set up five bots on his computer, each constantly earning money for him in-game while he was even asleep or working.

It was amazing. Just from selling the in-game money alone he'd been getting on average 46000¥ a week added on to the 18300¥ he made weekly from his part time job.

He reflected that he'd gotten greedy later on. He wasn't even into gaming all that much, but the thought of earning even more money and a lot of it from how many people would be jumping to buy Sword Art Online rare items had gotten to him.

Around 5,200,000¥ had been in his bank before he'd gotten the stupid idea to dive into Sword Art Online and he was getting a 4% interest rate from his bank thanks to the government. That meant he was earning a good 20800¥ a month from his interest alone. And with his part-time job and stipend still going strong along with his botting escapades, Naruto was earning more than most adults made in their jobs.

Now he was stuck in a Death Game where one mistake could spell his end. Meaning, he probably wouldn't even get to spend all that money he'd pain stakingly made.

Well, at the very least he was still getting that 4% interest.

Naruto Uzumaki: LV.3

One-Handed Sword: 4/1000

Familiar Communication: 1/1000

Strength: 7

Agility: 1

Dexterity: 1

Social: 1

Vitality: 1

Luck: 1

As far as bots go, I'm sure you could make a lot more easier. There's a ton of shit in Runescape about gold farming, and while I know some people who stake money have made literal millions in real life from it – I have no idea how much a gold farmer would make.

I'm sure it's much more than what I came up with though – that's fine though, it's only a minor part of the story either way.

All in all, Naruto was earning around 85,300¥ a month, which translates to roughly around £615 or 768$ a month. That's from his stipend, his job at the dojo and botting online games.

His current total in his bank account would be from 5,200,000¥ which works out at £37,480 or 46,780$. On top of that, he would gain his stipend each month still, at 21,000¥ which works out to £151 or 189$ per month. Alongside that, he would gain a 4% interest rate from his bank – and yes, I'm high balling it a bit – which would work out at;

208,000¥

£1,500

1,872$

In total, Naruto on top of his money in the bank would at first gain 229,800¥/£1,657/$2068 at the end of the month, with an ever slowly increasing amount.

Jesus, I might just be stupid nowadays but that's more math than I've needed to use in ages. And switching around all the exchange rates hurt my head. Let's not even bother going in to tax and shit, yeah? It would take too much time otherwise. And I'm unsure if being underage lets you forgo tax in regard to banks.

Hell, I'm unsure just why went so much into his profits in the first place. I could have made up numbers just for the hell of it and stuck them in there – but no, Jordan just had to be thorough and all it cost him was a great giant headache.

Either way, I'm done now guys. Hope, well liked the 'taste' of this prologue, I can't really say enjoy because it was much too short. Either way, I'm off to get a few aspirin and brain myself with a mallet...so yeah – later.