Broadcaster - An SAO Tale

Prologue #1 - Kanji

August 31, 2022 - 5:39 PM - Kanji's Room

"FUCK!" Who would've known that Terraria could be so hard? The graphics are misleading, I thought this would be simple. I grabbed my controller and threw it at my wall.

It smashed into the wall, broke into several pieces, and left a very suspiciously controller shaped hole in the wall. Oops. Should've seen that coming. I wonder if I have any spare posters in my closet to hide it.

Whatever, at least chat doesn't know the extent of my misjudgement. I looked over to my second monitor, the one with all my streaming stuff set up.
I took note of the bright red "VIEWERS: 72" text sitting at the top right of the screen, before looking down to read some of the messages my loving* community had sent.

Plapocourse - XDDDDD

oktv263 - CLIPPED LMAOOO

Modavan - bro, cmon. again?

SuperSkyy - HAAAHHAHAHAHAAA

(MOD) Poxyblitz - kan, you're a dumbass

(*not at all)

The messages my supportive* community were sending didn't necessarily ease the blow of having to pay $100 for another controller. Whatever, without a controller, no real reason to keep the stream up for tonight. Why am I like this?

"Alright, guys." I cleared my throat, attempting to make my voice sound as solemn as possible. "Due to unforeseen circumstances, it appears that I'll have to end the stream for tonight."

The mockery didn't get any better, so I decided to keep going. "Remember, you guys suck, leave me alone, and good night."

With that, I clicked the "End Stream" button, pushed my chair back, and stretched my legs. I looked over to the hole in my wall and sighed. This'll take a while.

August 31, 2022 - 6:15 PM - Kanji's Room

It did, in fact, take a while. A good 45 minutes of my time, to be exact. Thankfully, the newfound hole in my wall has been transformed into a brand new stylish Hello Kitty poster.

Shut up, it's the only one I had. It's only temporary, ok?

Anyways, I don't think I've properly introduced myself yet, so time for a good ol' fashioned info dump!

So, the name's Kanji. At least, that's what people call me online. My real name isn't important, because nobody ever refers to me by my name besides my family and friends. My parents hate me, and I'm lacking in the friend department, so Kanji it is. No buts.

Yeah, my social life is kinda sad. Don't really have any IRL friends, so to speak. I can't tolerate anyone at my high school, they're all obnoxious 6th graders dressed up in the body of 17 year olds. The type that that moan in the middle of a class and laugh about it to their friends. That type.

My family also hates me. They've always had really high expectations for me. They want me to have good grades, a prospering role on a school sport team, and a job.

I have none of those. It's just not me. I hate school. I hate sports. I hate work. I just want to be left alone sometimes.

However, there is one thing that I really do enjoy. You've probably guessed it by now, so I won't bore you by dragging it on any farther.

Video games. I love them. To me, video games are my life. Don't know what I'd do without em'.

If I had the chance to be locked inside of one for my entire life, I'd take it.

Everybody I enjoy speaking to on a regular basis is online. Once again, depressing, but it's how I live my life. And I actually like my life a lot, despite everything I've been telling you.

Why? Simple answer, actually. Everything I need is online. Interaction with other people? Check. Entertainment? Check. A steady income source? Surprisingly, check.

For some odd reason, people do enjoy my streams. I started doing them a few months ago, and I've s a nice little community over on Twitch. 3,000 followers isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but most people never go past 100, so I consider myself blessed with what I have.

I checked the time on my monitor's clock. 6:27. Shit, time to get on.

I hastily scrambled out of my dusty gaming chair and ran over to my cabinet, opening the bottom left drawer. I dug around for a second, before pulling out a shiny, grey tinted helmet.

My precious NerveGear. I got mine on the day it became available. May 11, 2022. I sat in line for hours to get it. As such, I was one of the first 10 people to ever get one.

That probably aided me when I applied to be a beta tester for Sword Art Online. The application form only asked a few questions.

How old are you? Why do you think you'd be a good beta tester? What's your address. Those were the only questions.

"16, I'm a tryhard that'll probably get farther than everyone else, [REDACTED]." That's pretty much all I wrote. I did elaborate on the tryhard part a bit, but that's the gist of it. I put absolutely zero effort into it at all.

So, imagine my surprise when I wake up two weeks later to find a copy of SAO sitting at my doorstep. Naturally, I hauled ass up to my room and spent all day masterfully constructing my plan for gamewide domination.

Fast forward another week, and the game comes out. I've spent nearly the entirety of August either grinding my life away at the SAO beta test to gain an advantage on everyone else when the game is released, or streaming to my not-so adoring audience.

Homework? Never heard of em'.

Myself and the other tryhards managed to make it all the way to Floor 9, where we hit a road block. The floor boss got much harder. It seems like every 10 floors, you get hit with a mega boss of sorts.

Today, however, everything's on the line. It's August 31, 2022. The final day of the Beta Test. We have one last shot to take down Kagachi, the Samurai Lord. If we fail, who knows what'll happen. Everything comes down to this.

"Link start!"

- AN -

And that's a wrap for Part 1/3 of the Prologue! I know it was pretty short, but the Prologue chapters are planned to be that way. The chapters will get longer as the book progresses.

By the way, please leave some feedback in the comments. I'm fairly new to the fanfiction scene, so any and all help will be appreciated!

Finally, as mentioned in the previous chapter, the upload schedule at the beginning will be pretty awkward, as I'm in the middle of school myself, and I don't have as much time as I wish I had to be working on this fic. I already have the three prologue chapters laid out, though, so thankfully it shouldn't be too long until those are out. All I have to do for those is actually put pen to paper.

So yeah, that's about it for the first chapter. Maybe one day I'll come back and rework it. Anyways, if you like what you just read, why not give me a follow? I need it for self-validation.

So that's about it, then. Thanks for checking this story out, it means the world to me, and remember, no matter what happens, the Flame shines bright!

Word Count - 1,248