Like I said last chapter, Chapter Eleven focuses on Joshua Hardin, the hero of the Crimson Warrior Chronicles, during the time before SAO. Although I'm doing my own take on him, he'll stay true to his roots and maintain a close similarity to his CWC counterpart. Anyways, I'm going to start writing stuff for Origin Story's sequel, The Wolf of Blades, since I'm getting closer and closer to this story's completion and I want the starting chapter for The Wolf of Blades to kick off better than Origin Story's did. Thank you for reading Origin Story, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Hardin Residence, Tokyo Outskirts

Japan, Real World

May 28, 2022

Joshua Hardin

The Hardin residence was a generally calm environment, despite the fact that they were the family in charge of Japan's biggest A.I. research company, RoboTelligence Industries. Today, the house was even more quiet than usual, with the only two residents being the middle-aged caretaker, Mr. Eji, and the fifteen year old son.

Joshua Hardin was the heir to the entirety of RoboTelligence. Having been born into wealth, the boy was practically given everything. Money, good grades, his own personal caretaker, the boy had it all... at a glance, at least. In reality, he hated having this wealth. Thanks to having such wealth, the boy was not only subjected to all kinds of unwanted coddling and business training, but he was also subjected to major dehumanization, being seen as a walking, talking dollar sign by others rather than a human being.

Up until a year ago, Joshua had a way out of the pain his wealth brought him: a Japanese girl named Momiji Takamine. Just like him, the girl was also wealthy, but hating it, and she was the only person who saw Joshua as an actual human being. However, his family had decided to move to Japan by surprise, thus separating him from Momiji, who was still in the US as far as he knew.

Why? Because business was booming in the land of the rising sun, yet that meant nothing to Joshua. He didn't care about A.I.'s, or RoboTelligence, for that matter. Although people would have thought he was nuts for thinking this, he would do anything to get a shot at life as a normal, unwealthy citizen. That was all he wanted.

Earlier in April, Joshua started playing online games to deal with his frustrations that his life brought him, because as long as he didn't say anything, people would never know he was wealthy and he would actually be treated as a human. That ideaology was what drove the young heir to online gaming.

Joshua was a unique individual. Having moved to the US in his younger years, his father had gone through college with degrees in just about everything involving technology, but rather than allowing his parents to arrange a marriage for him, he ended up finding his own significant other during college, a beautiful African American girl named Natalie. Under normal circumstances, the Japanese looked down on African Americans, so she was scared that she wouldn't impress Suzaki's parents.

But the Hardins were not a normal family. They were incredibly laid-back individuals who were very open people, and despite the factors that normally got people like Natalie looked down upon, they were rather impressed that their son found love in such an exceptional girl.

After that, they married, and a little bit later, Joshua was the fruit of their labor. While he had inherited his father's posture, facial structure, and general laid-back manner, he had ended up with his mother's dark brown hair, chocolate eyes, and a skin color that was akin to coffee with a moderate amount of creamer in it.

Personality-wise, alongside the boy's hatred of his lifestyle, he was incredibly sarcastic and snarky, and he seemed to enjoy an offensive playstyle in games, normally using a sword and shield combo in fantasy MMORPGs and a Hand Cannon-Shotgun combo in Destiny 2, along with the Titan class.

To his true friends, Joshua was kind and open-hearted to them while maintaining a protective demeanor around them. This trait was hardly seen, since Joshua was basically friendless, save for two players he met in Destiny, and even then, they weren't close enough to him for that.

Joshua sat in his room, the light from his monitor illuminating the living space as he fought against his friend Kirito's newest buddy, It'saPOSSUM. Playing on The Burnout, he had somehow maintained an even match against the player he was fighting, who had played Destiny since the first game's beta test.

"Nice one, Possum." Joshua complimented as his Titan fell to the ground, a stream of light following his punctured head.

"What can I say? I like to snipe." the American on the other side said in response, taking his special ammo and reloading his Sniper Rifle.

"Yeah, I can see that."

After respawning, Joshua ran out into the east tumbler area, Hand Cannon ready. Waiting for the rotating wall to rotate to a point that he could shoot through it, a blur of black and silver flew over it, launching an ability combo at the Titan, who had no chances of escape.

"How many times have you done that to people?" he chuckled.

"A lot. I've even got it down to a science." Possum replied.

Respawning again, Joshua circled around the map's interior and finally managed to catch the Warlock off-guard, the Shotgun pellets hitting the black robed torso head-on.

"Good shotgunning." Possum commented, his Ghost appearing as his avatar fell and Joshua took his ammo. After a few seconds, a sniper shot sounded off, followed by a dead Titan hitting the dirt.

How he manages to do this stuff, I don't know. Joshua thought as his opponent hit the ground and took his ammo, the vapor trail of his rifle indicating an airborne shot.

"That kind of shot actually takes a lot more practice to pull off than normal shots do."

Joshua groaned, somewhat irritated at his opponent. This was gonna be a long match.

When the match ended, the final score was twenty nine to sixteen, with Possum coming out on top. Feeling a little bitter over the loss, the boy took off his headset and got himself some water and washed his face off at the bathroom sink, making sure his caretaker didn't notice. He wanted to do things himself, rather than force the older man to do them on his behalf.

After returning, Joshua put his headset on to hear Kirito on the mic again.

"Hey, Kirito."

"Oh. Hey, Jaymes." Kirito said. "Where did you go?"

"I had to get water and wash my face off." Joshua said, intentionally not telling the other boy that he had to avoid his caretaker, who was essentially a butler. He needed the human treatment, not the walking, talking dollar sign treatment he hated so much.

"That's fine. So, you want to do strikes or something?"

"Um, sure th--"

A few sharp knocks on the door of his bedroom alerted Joshua to it, a feeling of bitterness in his gut.

"Mr. Hardin, your parents are home. They would like to see you at the front yard." Mr. Eji apoke through the door, eliciting a quiet "Fuck my life" from Joshua.

"Okay, Mr. Eji." Joshua said, now completely irritated. "Sorry, guys. I gotta go."

"Okay, have a good day." Kirito said as Joshua left the fireteam.

Removing his headset, the boy stood up and walked to his door, waiting a second before opening it and following his caretaker down the winding stairs of the Hardin residence.

"That was not enjoyable, at all." the boy said as he collapsed onto his bed, groaning from the headache he now had.

In an effort to teach him more about the business world, Joshua's parents decided to take him to what was basically a training simulator for conducting business. He performed admirably, of course, since he had to do so, but it was very headache-inducing. And knowing his father, Joshua was told that business was filled with headaches and incompetence, and that he had to be wary of incompetence and things like that to lessen the headache.

This advice would have helped, if Joshua wanted to inherit the company. And the worst part was, he had to do that again tommorow, after school closed.

"Yeah, why can't someone else take over from you, Dad?" he asked, rubbing his temples. "I don't want to enter the business world, and I sure as hell don't care about A.I.'s!"

Joshua sat up and threw an empty bottle at the wall, watching it impact with little force thanks to the lack of density.

Just like my complaints. Joshua thought bitterly. He had complained about his life multiple times, each complaint having little effect on his hard-headed parents, who wanted him to appreciate what he had and what he was going to get.

Unlike most kids, he wasn't going to be able to leave home and start a new life when he turned eighteen. Instead, he would go through university, undergo further business training to make sure he could run RoboTelligence, and then he would be married off to some rich girl who didn't care about him. He truly had terrible opinions on the wealthy.

Fortunately, he wasn't going to be bothered for the rest of the night, so he was free to do whatever until tommorow. Picking up and turning on a laptop, the boy ventured to Discord and sent Kirito a message.

JaymesTheFirst: Hey, Kirito. Are you up?

Kirito: Yeah, impatient. What's up?

JaymesTheFirst: I'm not going to be able to get on tommorow. Family stuff.

Kirito: I understand, Jaymes.

It'saPOSSUM: That sucks, dude.

JaymesTheFirst: It'saPOSSUM?! What're you doing here?

It'saPOSSUM: I went back home and used my brother's laptop to friend Kirito on Discord. Then I decided to join this group chat you're in.

JaymesTheFirst: Okay...

It'saPOSSUM: Yeah, I'll let Kirito talk to you, now.

JaymesTheFirst: Um, aren't we able to all three talk if we're in a group chat?

It'saPOSSUM: Oh, yeah.

Kirito: It's fine, guys.

JaymesTheFirst: Okay, what do you want to talk about?

It'saPOSSUM: So... how do you apply for the beta for Sword Art Online?

JaymesTheFirst: Well, first, you need to get your hands on a NerveGear.

Kirito: Next, you go onto the official website for Argus, the developing company, and select "Apply for the Beta" on the bottom of the welcome page.

JaymesTheFirst: Finally, you give them your NerveGear account info and you get a chance to win an invitation to the closed beta.

It'saPOSSUM: Is there going to be an open beta?

Kirito: No.

JaymesTheFirst: No.

It'saPOSSUM: Let's just hope that I get lucky, then, because I'm waiting until the sixth of November to see if the NerveGear's worth buying.

This is probably the second shortest chapter I've eaten, only beaten by Chapter One, and I don't think I got what I wanted with the chapter, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Anyways, here's some basic Destiny 2 knowledge.

The Guardians are immortal warriors who fight for humanity. Resurrected by 343 Guilty Spark-like Ghosts, they are immensely powerful.

The Light is the power all Guardians use. It is a powerful paracausal element granted by the spherical Traveler.

Titans are like knights, for the MMORPG players, or Spartans, for the Halo players.

Warlocks are space mages who use the Light to bend the laws of space and time to decimate their enemies.

Hand Cannons are single-action revolvers that have a lot of damage per shot, but are harder to use than other guns.

Scout Rifles are DMR-like semi-auto rifles that don't really have a place in D2's Crucible, thanks to map design.

Shotguns and Sniper Rifles are self-explanitory.

Special and Heavy ammo are meant for Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Fusion Rifles, Grenade Launchers (Special), Rocket Launchers, Machine Guns, Swords, Grenade Launchers (Heavy), and Linear Fusion Rifles.

The Burnout is a remake of the Destiny 1 map "The Burning Shrine."

Please remember to check out my Discord server, Be an 1an's FF Server, and please DM Mr. Lonely#6306 to get an invite. Thank you for reading Origin Story, and I hope you all have a good time.