I.

Naruto couldn't wait for more. Today, a new game that had been pre-paid for over a year was finally supposed to launch worldwide. This game was supposed to be a revolution in the world of games and presented new possibilities.

In addition, since he bought it earlier, he has the opportunity to log into the game before players who did not do so and received a special package for the game and a special edition of the necessary accessories, which consisted of glasses and special gloves.

Naruto put on his gloves, checked everything to ensure it was on, and finally put on his special glasses. A forest spread out from the blackness around him with a view of the beautiful city. Everything was first made up of pixels, which gradually focused until they created a perfect illusion of the world.

The creation of the character involved both control and synchronization between the computer and the gloves with the glasses. Naruto had to do a few minor tasks, including coordinating movements and the length of the control points. Everything was tailored to the player. Subsequently, accordingly, a figure very similar to his real body was created for him.

Naruto was able to customize the character afterwards, but he didn't change much. He was one of the few people who was happy with himself and it didn't affect the game in any way. After that came the hard part. He had to choose which class he wanted to play as. He had a few basic options to choose from and then a few more that he got with the pre-sale.

The base consisted of a knight, archer, thief, cleric and mage. However, he also had an alchemist, berserk, bard, druid, monk, ranger, paladin, necromancer, shaman, dragon slayer, ninja, and beastmaster. Each of these classes had a special suit, attributes and abilities.

Naruto went through them all, trying to see which class suited him, but once he came across a ninja, his mind was made up. He was instantly intrigued by this class and knew there was no point in looking any further. He didn't like the black ninja suit, but that's it for now, he won't do anything about it, as it was the fate of all beginnings. When he gets some money, he'll buy something better.

Once he was satisfied with the creation of his character, he could start the tutorial. He mastered basic information, movements and the first basic missions like nothing. At a certain pace, he reached a crossroads where his class split into smaller clans. His task was to join a clan.

He walked over to the gate of the first clan named Uchiha, where he could see a lot of figures standing and their status was rapidly filling up. Despite that, there were plenty of free seats. Naruto skimmed through the basics before deciding to investigate a few more clans.

They all had something to offer and each offered great new and unique abilities. There was, for example, the Senju clan, Sarutobi, Kaguya, and many others. Somewhere among them was the nine-tailed fox guardian clan.

This clan didn't have a lot of members. Their description was as mysterious as the building itself. He didn't learn anything important at all from the description. He got a few attacks out of it that sounded amazing and were probably the most interesting overall. In addition, he was confirmed in this decision by several NPC characters from other clans who were so hostile that they completely discouraged him.

That's why he ended up registering there. He went through the gate that separated him from the starter map. There was darkness in the clan, which was illuminated here and there by a candle, and all the figures were covered by dark, long hoods. No one was paying attention to him so he headed to the task board. All he found on it was a flyer that read "Soon…"

That made him a little sad, but whatever. After all, it was a game that was constantly evolving. He, therefore, decided to go out, to the capital by name Konoha where all newly registered characters spawned at the start. Konoha was a starting city from where you could get anywhere.

Naruto watched the other players gather in front of the town's quest board where quests from around the game world were located. There were quests from both Konoha and Suna, Amegakure, Kiri, Takigakure and other places. The players were studying something there and at the same time flipping through a book that they all had the same.

He tried to look over their shoulder to find out why they all had the same book and what they were looking for in it. He had no idea where they had taken it. When he clicked on their character, he didn't see a book on anyone. He was pretty confused by this. As he tried to figure out what it was about, he noticed a red-haired young man in a cloak standing to the side and also studying something in a book.

"Hi, what book is this?" Naruto asked flatly as he came closer to him and tried to get a look at it.

"This is a hero's book. Every hero has one," he said, continuing to look at it.

"Each? Where can I find it?" and yet he was passing through all pockets and checking inventory. The young man eyed him before walking closer to him, hiding his book under his cloak and tapping the ninja's heart. A light appeared from this, which subsequently formed a table of states and there was also an inscription The Book of Heroes.

"Oooh, so this is it?" and click on the title. In an instant, the same book everyone else had materialized in his hand.

"Nice," he marvelled at it and began to look through the book. There were stories in it that he could complete and for which he could get special items and achievements. He could repeat some tasks and thus he could raise his level and improve on them. In addition, there were also time-limited tasks. It was a perfect overview.

Naruto focused on the first task story that followed the tutorial. He completed the first three tasks, which were mostly about defeating enemies, but failed at the fourth. He was to look for signs of the enemy and find survivors in the nearby forest. The survivor found everyone, the problem was finding clues. Try as he might, he couldn't find a single one.

Finally, he gave up on the mission this time and returned to Konoha. He was passing through the city and researching where what functions are located. He came across the friends directory and noticed that Shikamaru had already made a character too, but was now offline. Even if he could call him at any time.

"What do you want Naruto? Do you know what time it is here?" a sleepy Shikamaru picked it up.

"Hey Shikamaru, do you wanna play? I see that you already created a character," he went straight to the point and he didn't care how many hours it was. There was silence for a long time and Naruto was beginning to worry that his friend had fallen asleep again.

" Give me five minutes. I'll meet you at Ichiraku's pub in the underground," he finally answered tiredly before hanging up.

"So how is London?" Naruto asked Shikamaru when they finally sat down at the table. Shikamaru chose an elf mage as his character. He had carefully considered this choice, including the direction in which he wanted to develop.

"Boredom. Not much weather…" replied the mage and placed his book of heroes on the table and opened it. He already figured out a few things and wanted to tell the ninja about it. The mage said a little about the permanent opportunities in the game before getting to the main one.

"…He's the strongest enemy I've come across so far. No one here has that kind of power yet. None of the heroes has been able to come close to him by force yet," he began to explain and saw in Naruto that he immediately acquired his attention.

"This is the most complicated mission series out there. Before you even get to the boss, you have to complete countless missions and defeat…" before he could say who or what he should defeat, a countdown appeared above their heads warning of the upcoming battle.

Both of them were curious about what it was about. They only nodded to each other before being teleported to the venue of the duel. They appeared in the desert that surrounded Suna. Naruto and Shikamaru climbed the dune from where they had a perfect view of the event and at the same time were far enough away not to be engulfed by the fight.

A kilometre away, the strongest players were already ready for the arrival of the desert monster. As the timer hit zero, the sand not far from them began to collapse in on itself, nearly pulling several players into it before a dragon emerged from it with a deafening roar. The dragon had sand-coloured scales with black tips that glistened red in the sun.

There was an intro dedicated to the dragon, during which none of the players could do anything. Meanwhile, the dragon revealed several of its attacks that revolved around the sand. He created a wall of sand around him, followed by several sand missiles.

Finally, the dragon roared, signalling the start of their fight. A group of about thirty heroes attacked him, but not one of their attacks could leave a scratch on the body of the dragon. Those who were lucky enough to avoid the first attack as it instantly eliminated three-quarters of the players and sent them to the underworld.

Some of them were still reeling from this when the dragon attacked again and there was no one left to fight him. The lizard straightened proudly before letting out a triumphant roar of victory that shook the sand before it took off into the air and disappeared headlong into the sand.

The ninja and the mage just watched the carnage in awe before returning to the pub. There they exchanged a few observations over beer and decided that the best tactic would be to wait and level up stats.

Together they completed several smaller missions, one of which they could extract as much as they could before saying goodbye, as it was time to finally return to real life.