Solitary Sword Sovereign

Chapter 1: Death of the Peerless Loser (Edited)

When they became part of the Chamberlain family, the competitive atmosphere thickened. Everything became a competition to see who could achieve the most to gain their parent's approval. The family seemed to naturally divide into two groups, the guys against the girls. Michael and Dillan had an intellectual bond and started their own company. Jane and Lisa became allies over a love of martial and classical arts. They aimed to help each other exceed in their goals. Will's father focused on the sons and his stepmother pandered to the daughters. Will was expected to keep up with the high standards set by his parents and siblings, but couldn't. He slipped through the cracks and was left on his own.

Will struggled with depression, but eventually reached a numbness towards the people he called family. Because he went unnoticed, he had an independence and freedom to do whatever he liked. Will developed many hobbies and focused on them during his free time. He indulged in online games, which lead to an interest in anime and comics. He spent the majority of his time reading web novels. He especially had a fascination with Chinese and Japanese novels. They gave him a sense of happiness in a fictional world that took him away from the troubles of his real life. Will soon became an Otaku. He became so engrossed with these web novels, that he taught himself how to read, write, and speak Mandarin and Japanese. He had dedication and after three years, he was almost fluent in these languages.

Will had a deep interest in history, mythology, and ancient fighting styles, especially in the Orient. He was constantly researching and reading about these topics. Will eventually reached above the level of an average native speaker in reading in Mandarin and Japanese. It did not matter what the media, whether a game, novel, comic, if it was related to ancient eastern warriors, or eastern philosophies and religions, Will had to see it, play it, read it. He was particularly drawn to Xuanhuan or Xianxia novels, particularly ones that dealt with concepts such as immortality or supernatural powers.

Though Will was involved in the world of online gaming, he was not particularly well known. He did not stand out or have any special skills. He was average at best. When it came to his gaming life, he didn't care about reaching new levels or gaining new weapons, etcetera, he did have an obsession with 'grinding' his skills. He was convinced that this was the closest he would ever be to martial arts. Will only played online games that had a warrior class such as a Samurai class. As long as he could use a sword, especially a katana, he was happy. He dreamed of becoming a skilled swordsman, but he knew he would never have the endurance for the training that it required. He was lazy, though he idolized the skills of swordsmen, he knew that the romance of the image was more than just beautiful techniques and life philosophies. It took years of training and effort to master the simplest of techniques. He was disillusioned of his dream by the expectation of sweat, blood, and broken bones. To fulfil his underlying dream, he immersed himself in his fictional worlds of mysticism, magic, and power. In his worlds, he was able to destroy mountains and crossover into different dimensions. His reality was a hell, but in his fantasies he was in Utopia.

Will was often mocked and bullied by his peers at school. They called him names and yelled out, "Geek" or "Nerd" as well as other insults as he walked past them. He paid them no attention; he didn't care what they called him. He learned from his family that he was never going to live up to the expectations of others, so why bother? It is just a waste of time. Will was happy living in his own world, a world of worlds. He wasn't offish and didn't go out of his way to be an outcast, but it just happened that way. Rather, he was an open and honest person who spoke his mind. Will was always open to new ideas and theories. People at school just didn't understand him. He didn't follow the trends and didn't go to parties or chase girls as his popular older brother did. Will didn't pander to the norms of society. Will's reasoning was that normal is relative; one person's normal is different to another's. The idea that there is normality in any group of people or society is just an illusion propagated by people who blind themselves from truth. He did have a few people who liked him, but they were very few.