My Isekai Life in Hard Mode

Chaos

Ryoshu is still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. Somehow, he's ended up in the world of Rainfall Disorder, the game he's been playing for over five years.

After waking up in this strange place, Ryoshu's first instinct is to figure out when his memories stopped.

"Okay, so if I remember correctly, I deleted the game yesterday before going to bed. And when I woke up, boom, here I am. Did I get transported while I was asleep?"

He scratches his chin, deep in thought. Eventually, he comes up with a wild idea.

"Could it be that I've reincarnated into this world?"

Realizing how absurd it sounds, he gives himself a little slap. Rubbing his cheek, he continues pondering.

"Let's say that hypothesis is true! It still doesn't quite add up."

Being inside his house makes the whole thing seem even more implausible.

"Maybe a bunch of trucks crashed into the house... Or perhaps I had a stroke?"

Considering his lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits, the stroke theory seems somewhat believable, especially after spending a whole day and night playing Rainfall Disorder.

However, when his girlfriend suggests going to the beach, he takes a moment to pause.

"Just when I thought I'd been scammed."

But he also considers other possibilities, like falling through a time rift and ending up here. However, when he looks in the mirror, he sees an entirely unfamiliar face. This completely disproves his second hypothesis.

But putting aside the question of right or wrong, Ryoshu notices something peculiar - his face has become more handsome.

"Much better. Is this the face I always dreamed of... Wait, am I even dead?"

"Hello, System? Status check?"

He calls out for a while, but there's no response. If he were the Player, the system should have appeared to guide him.

Staring back at the mirror, Ryoshu ponders some more. After a while, he approaches and touches the glass.

"I... am not the main character. Nor am I the antagonist. And not like any supporting character... I... am nobody..."

He starts to formulate a new theory, one that's terrifying.

"No, no, please don't be... just a background character."

But the longer he looks, the more accurate his theory seems. Cursedly, he remembers the faces of all the main and supporting characters in this game. And only the background characters change their facial features, names, and appearances after each new playthrough.

"I'm a background character... Damn! As if the game wasn't difficult enough?!"

But now he has another question.

"So how did I transfer into this body... or rather, it's more reasonable to assume that I'm playing the game, but the version has been edited. Who could have a VR version of the game and even bypass one of the best anti-editing software?!"

He grabs his head and sits back against the wall.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Ryoshu sits in silence for a while, reflecting on his dull life. Finally, after a moment, he stands up and rushes to the study table. He believes he's in a game that has edited some things. But who forced him here and why, he has yet to learn.

"Next, I should figure out how to exit the game..."

He raises his hand to gesture downwards, but there's no hope. Then he tries using commands.

"Log out? Exit game...?"

"No luck? Well, it doesn't hurt to try... So someone removed the feature to exit the game? So my hypothesis of being kidnapped seems more plausible... What the heck is going on?"

Feeling quite unnerved by his own theory, Ryoshu immediately flops down onto the study table with an indescribable gloomy mood. He can't help but think about why he has to be here.

"Am... I crazy, right?"

He stands up and starts pacing around this so-called "apartment." There's hardly any decoration as if nobody ever lived here. It's so ordinary and mundane that everything he's seeing now feels unreal. Even the bedroom looks freshly bought. The most notable difference is the Katana sword made of ordinary steel with some rust in the middle of the living room.

He guesses his previous character must have been a swordsman. And perhaps his circumstances were quite poor.

"And it's likely that this kid is also an orphan because... it's a common pattern, right?"

He looks around the house again, realizing that everything in the house is practically for a single person's use, except for the living room furniture.

"Back to the main issue, what should I do now?" - Ryoshu thinks while biting his finger.

Being reincarnated into this world might be the worst thing ever for Ryoshu because he knows better than anyone how dangerous this world can be.

"I don't know what I want to do, but I... know one thing for sure."

Ryoshu closes his eyes and thinks about his biggest desire right now. A small flame begins to flicker somewhere within him.

"I want to survive."

He doesn't know if he has a second life or not... especially after coming up with such a crazy and serious theory:

"If it's just a scam, no one would invest so much... I can't die just to test it. I still want to keep my pathetic life."

He never wants to die as a failure who hasn't done anything for life. Especially when Ryoshu has just decided to change his life.

"It's just a virtual reality game after all! Although I don't know how to get out of here... if I'm the kidnapper, I'll want..."

He looks out the window. In the sky, dark clouds are moving towards here, signaling the end of summer with a drizzle.

"It's about to rain... Of course... it's the climax, isn't it?"

Something inside Ryoshu is pushing him to act faster.

"If I need to survive, I can use some speedrun tricks to develop a strategy. Not to mention... I know the storyline..."

Ryoshu feels luckier than ever to have such vast information about a game like this. Whether it's a gift or a curse, he doesn't know.

Ryoshu rummages around for the hour hand on the watch. When he presses it, a window appears in front of him, like the admission letter from earlier.

"So the first line will be my name." Ryoshu opens the notebook to prepare to write while staring intently at the line of text in.

Name: Amemura Ryoshu

He blinked in surprise, his expression reflecting his astonishment.

"So, this is my Rainfall Disorder account name, huh? Why did they opt for this instead of my real name?"

A multitude of theories raced through Ryoshu's mind.

"Do they... know my in-game name? But I haven't crossed paths with anyone, have I?"

Shaking his head slightly, he refocused on the task at hand.

"Overthinking won't get me anywhere now. I need to check my stats."

Mana: Non-existent

"I figured as much," Ryoshu sighed audibly, jotting it down on paper.

For speedrunners, Mana is a must-have; without it, they'd just reset the game. However, Ryoshu doesn't seem to have that luxury, or at least he believes so, as he hesitates to take his own life.

"Thankfully, there are still some ways to tackle this issue, even if it takes some time."

He jotted down both solutions in his notebook, intending to pursue both.

"The first option is to utilize scarce resources, more of a long-term fix. The second one's quicker but involves exploiting game glitches, although..."

He leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling.

"I... don't seem to be the Player."

If he couldn't utilize glitches, it would significantly impact his plans since most speedrun strategies rely on exploiting game bugs, big or small. So, if he couldn't leverage these glitches, his odds of completing the game or surviving in this world would drop significantly.

Yet, uncertainty lingered in his mind.

"Who says only Players can exploit glitches? I've got to give it a shot to find out. Now, let's focus on checking the primary stats."

The second most crucial thing was the Main Stats.

-Main Stats

Strength: (F-)

Endurance: (F-)

Agility: (F-)

Intuition: (F)

With such dismal stats, he was only marginally better than average, and certainly not particularly strong even compared to other kids his age. Typically, those kids would boast stats around F+ or E-, making his character seem like trash in comparison. Fortunately, these stats were easily improved through diligent training.

Next, he glanced at the Secondary Stats, expecting little.

-Secondary Stats

Charisma: (Unranked)

Regeneration: (F-)

Intelligence: (F+)

"Great! So, the trick is viable."

One trick to excelling in the game's early stages was to invest in passive skills to accelerate the acquisition of Skill Experience, thus leveling up combat skills faster. However, those skills also had specific prerequisites, like requiring an intelligence stat of F+ or higher.

Ryoshu's watch could have been better quality, preventing him from viewing his current skills. Consequently, he planned to purchase a new watch to replace this one later on.

For now, though, he decided to head to the Adventurer's Guild to appraise his skills tomorrow.

"I've overcome the toughest hurdle! Now, it's just a matter of securing enough funds."

Account balance: 103.5 RC

His reaction was simply a heavy sigh.

"Poverty is my middle name, even in the virtual world."