Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 1
Page 1
Table of Contents
Cover
Illustrations
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Epilogue
Afterword
Legal
Landmarks
Illustrations
Prologue
You must have heard the phrase "Life's just a bad game" before, right? I'm sure you have. Does "You can't hit the reset button on life" ring any bells? How about "Life's just shovelware"?
It all sounds so depressing, doesn't it? Just hearing those words would drag down any semblance of good vibes, so let's think about it for a moment. If you compared real life to the countless amount of 'good games' in the world, you'd probably be hard-pressed not to discount it as just another 'bad game'. Ah, but there's more to it than just that.
See, life may be a 'bad game'---I don't disagree with you---but it all comes down to perspective, don't you think? You're only going to find one of those so-called 'good games' by going through life itself, after all.
So what if you can't hit the reset button on life? There are a myriad of games without them. It's a little old-fashioned, don't you think? What I'm trying to say is... If you're a gamer who thinks life's just a 'bad game', then maybe you just need to level up a little, and find some new ways to enjoy it. I may be coming off as high and mighty, and maybe a tad bit overbearing; but if you got thrown all the way down to the bottom of a ravine, that was so deep it looked like a natural wonder without any trace of civilization---all while wearing a business suit---anyone would want to escape from reality. It kinda feels like: "Damn, this game's hard mode is tougher than I thought."
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Anyway, let's slow down and take a look around. The guys that panic always die first in movies, novels... and FPS games. Being in a bit of a hurry would be the natural reaction if you fell down a ravine after a car accident or something, but I couldn't help but remain calm given these circumstances. After all, I was a gamer that had spent his whole life playing games, and I intend to keep it that way.
There was one thing that caught my eye while I surveyed the bottom of the valley. A translucent character board, similar to those UI (User Interface) windows you see so often in games, was floating out near my right hand. Even with so much reality right in front of me, the game-like window near my right hand gave me a curious sense of security.
---Well, at least I wasn't thrown down to the center of the earth.
I got a better picture of the situation as I observed the surrounding area. I was at the bottom of an extremely deep ravine that was being bathed in sunlight. Up past the horizon line was a cliff face that went as far as the eye can see. And from what I could tell, the bottom of the ravine ran down about 30 to 40 meters. The walls all around me were also nearly completely vertical. Climbing something that steep was out of the question. It looked to be about 50 meters to the top of the cliff, and I was a good 100 meters down into the valley itself.
The ravine looked almost as if someone stabbed the earth with a giant knife. From where I was standing it seemed to be about 100 meters out to the farthest point off in the distance, and probably went even further. You'd think it'd be difficult for sunlight to reach the bottom of a ravine this deep unless it was right above it, but the smooth polished surface of the ravine's walls acted like giant natural softboxes, and diluted the sunlight through the forest's trees.
The walls themselves were made of hard rock, but the ground was just soft black soil. You could even see a few weeds and a bit of moss here and there. Overall there didn't seem to be that much water, but a small amount oozed out of the walls in scattered places, and created tiny waterfalls and small pods in the soil. The confluence of the tiny water streams created small rivers and ponds that led down into the ravine's floor.
The water looked crystalline and safe to drink, so I wouldn't have to worry about thirst, at least. Curiously, there were a few tiny trees sprinkled about with twisted trunks, and beautifully bright soft leaves spread out over the valley, too. But there didn't seem to be any animals around. It was like the whole place one big walled off garden.
---If this place was naturally occurring, it'd definitely apply for world wonder status. Heck, if it was made by people, it'd be an effort worthy of a god.
If it wasn't for the handmade cabin standing behind me, which disrupted the tranquility of this otherwise beautiful microcosm of nature, I would have believed it if you told me this place was called Paradise or Eden. Between the seemingly randomly generated topography, climate, and vegetation, this idyllic mountain forest almost looked like something straight out of "Forest Simulator 2012 ~Botany Glory~". The sheer magnitude of the overflowing green miracle around me was nothing short of staggering. All in all, I didn't think it would even be possible to replicate this wonder of nature in a game and do it justice.
I turned my attention to the strange translucent UI window next to my right hand. When I touched it, the window started displaying alphanumeric characters based in English.
---Huh? This windows states I'm inside a game... But everything around me looks way too real. It also shows my real name as my display name. I'm not one of those that people who puts their real names in games. This can't be right... Can it?
Pretty polished UI for a game, but it wasn't quite all there still---not newbie friendly at all. It would be so much nicer to look at if it was just a little bit more graphical. It was going to bug me every time I looked at it, surely.
I may have been thrown into a really strange situation, but having fun wherever you find game-like elements was what I would call a gamer's duty. I tried operating the translucent window filled with characters, and pushed my fingertip against a spot that said 'Status'. A window popped up to display:
Aoi Kousaka
Vitality : 21/21 Stamina : 56/58 Willpower : 13/14
Skill(s) :
Pretty standard looking character screen. So standard that it seemed like something designed for an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). No, it was more like one of those tabletop role-playing games (RPG). You know, the ones where you wrote things down on paper and roll a die.
Let me be honest with you, I couldn't care less about the situation I was in right now. Going nuts over a potentially fun element was what being a gamer was all about. If this UI floating above my hand was set to be a menu, then I was used to it already. You could even say it was simple compared to recent games, nowadays.
I opened the configure settings in the UI window.
I sort of relied on my intuition to navigate through all the options, and customized the interface. I managed to come up with something rather similar to an internet browser interface that I was used to, called "WaterRacoon". The UI window didn't have much of a force feedback response when I touched it. It seemed more like a typical smartphone touch screen.
I fixed the status screen in place and brought up a new tab, scrolled through the menu's summary, and clicked on the 'Skill List' option. My heart felt as if it was going to beat its way out of my chest as my fingertip touched the
I'd played countless dungeon, farm, and city management games by now. The goals and objectives may change depending on the game, but the basics were always the same: Raise monsters as guardians of the dungeon to go against the pathetic intruders that dare set foot into it, expand the dungeon with the power of magic to confuse trespassers, install vicious and beautifu
l traps causing mental fatigue of the intruders from the surface, et cetera. Administering an evil dungeon was a genre that really kicked off in recent years.
When I pressed the
---Heheh, so the
I selected the
---Is that an iron pickaxe? And a shovel?
The two items that fell right in front me were a metal pickaxe, and a shovel that looked big enough to wield with two hands. When I took a look at the status screen, I noticed my 'Willpower' had decreased from 13/14 to 3/14. It seemed the magical Willpower thing acted as some Magic Points (MP) of sorts, and was depleted to activate the skill.
---Yep, these definitely are terrain improvement tools, alright. You can change how the world looks with the pickaxe if you keep at it long enough.
More specifically: Digging into the ground, breaking stones, and shoveling dirt.
"I-Isn't this a little too hardcore!?"
My yell echoed out across the sunlight-bathed ravine.
Chapter 1
When you boiled down my profile, it was comprised of about one or two lines: Aoi Kousaka, Age 22; fresh out of some minor science university, and hardcore gamer.
Pretty straightforward, don't you think? So straightforward it hurts, though. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I had spent more than half my life so far playing games. Ever since I touched my first game at the age of three, I'd become completely obsessed, and dedicated my life to playing them. Although games were my lifeblood, I still worked hard to maximize the amount of time I had to play.
When I was a kid, I would set a time limit for playing games on the television because it wasn't good for eye development. Instead, I would either play card or board games. Both my parents liked games and were very understanding, but I knew they wouldn't be so understanding if my test scores dropped as a result. And so I did my best to keep all my grades above average in every subject.
When I got to middle school, there weren't too many jobs available to someone my age, but I managed to find part-time work as a newspaper delivery boy, and saved money to buy the computer I'd so badly wanted---and games too, of course. When I finally bought the computer, I discovered that foreign PC games were cheap, so then I put all my efforts into learning English. In about a year's time, I was able to understand all the English games I wasn't able to get in Japanese. I had seriously lived to game my whole life thus far, but I came face-to-face with the harsh realities of life not too long ago.
Job hunting had started pretty early in the summer for third years at my university. There weren't that many jobs that would let me secure not only a decent salary, but also enough time to still dedicate to playing games. The whole 'large companies and corporations were life-sucking leeches' wasn't a joke. What good was earning loads of money if I couldn't play games? Nevertheless, I managed to get a job offer from a nearby facility as Location Management and Security. The pay wasn't great, but at least I had a lot of free time for my hobbies. I lamented not being able to play a certain MMORPG that came out around the time due to taking certain qualification courses that would benefit said job, too.
Unfortunately, at the end of March, I received news that there was an accidental fire that had occurred at one of the facilities managed by the head company I was working for. As a result, the management staff was held liable, and subsequently downscaled. I was told that after my training period was up I was going to be let go as well since I was just a temporary contractor.
And so, I kept job hunting from the end of March, all the way until our graduation ceremony. Unable to find anything that met my criteria, I became a jobless university graduate.
Life's 'hardcore mode' was so hard that I couldn't even muster a laugh.
I resumed job hunting the next spring, but still struggled with a lack of offers for two whole months post graduation. By then, the rainy season had begun.
One day I came across a random leaflet that had gotten caught in one of the newspapers I usually got at home. It was really small---smaller than the normal advertisements for the supermarket itself, but there looked to be a job offer on that leaflet that said...
Work Details :
- Facility Management position
- Salary: Starting from ¥140,000/mo
- Prior experience not required
- Traveling expenses covered
- Note: People with high stamina and proficient with games will have priority.
The details checked all the boxes I was looking for. The salary was a bit low compared to ones typically offered to graduate students, but it was definitely not low enough that I couldn't live off it. I understood why they would want to hire healthy people, but people with an affinity for games? What did that have to do with managing facilities? Either way, I couldn't have hoped for a better job than one I could use my love of games for, so I immediately got in touch and agreed to have an interview.
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"I trust you're familiar with our institution?"
The briefing and interview took place in an office building across the street from the train station closest to my house. I wondered if the person interviewing me had foreign parents. She had seemingly beautiful blonde hair that didn't look to be bleached or colored at all, but also black-colored eyes. Her facial features seemed more like those of a Japanese beauty than not.
"Yeah, it's an institution that's aimed at building public projects," I replied.
I was wearing my business suit that I had grown so used to wearing. The institution in question built community buildings, libraries, and even auditoriums for events. They used tax money to do so though, and it resulted in fighting over who was going to pay for maintenance costs.
"Yes, that's right. We are generally in charge of the management and property maintenance in regards to the community projects our company develops."
---I see. They would even manage a community building despite problems related to its use and maintenance costs. Interesting.
"So I was wondering... What does this have to do with preferring people with stamina, or those good at games?" I asked.
"Well, since there are a good amount of properties in remote places, having good stamina is beneficial in being able to reach their locations. Now, in relation to games, our company doesn't just go out to perform general maintenance; we carry out managerial duties as well. We're well aware that hiring management experts for our projects won't improve some aspects of our business, though. That's where the proficiency with games comes in. Wouldn't a person who is good at games be more adept at improving our management? That's the idea the company's President came up with, at least."
---Remote places? I guess it was dumb of me to assume it would be something more local just because it was in the advertisement stuck in the middle of the newspaper. Nonetheless, if there's internet and home delivery you can still play all the same.
"I don't have really anything to lose by giving management a try, but would I be able to move beyond that if things went well?"
"Yes. At the end of the day, the job you'll be performing is maintenance and management of the location you're assigned to. If you think maintaining the status quo management-wise is too difficult, then you can change things around as you see fit. And if the situation of the operation improves, you can expect it to be reflected in your salary."
It wasn't a bad offer. The fact that I'd be in charge of administration duties on top of the management was surprising, but I wouldn't mind a salary raise if it went well. Although... it may be a bit presumptuous of me to expect much since they weren't hiring a professional.
"The
trial period before official employment is three months. Salary will be paid out as per the exhibited conditions, but please think of this as your trial period."
The employment conditions weren't bad, and it seemed like the interview was a success after some easy questions, so I decided to sign the contract on the spot. As far as formal employment went, this seemed a bit easy to get in, but since they had this trial period thing to test people, I guess that's how they truly verified applicants.
"There, my signature... and my stamp. Is this the last document?"
"Yes, that's fine. We'll be colleagues from here on out. Let me introduce myself, I'm Karumi. We'll be counting on you, Kousaka-san."
---Ah, getting hired means we're colleagues now. That makes sense.
My first condition with people was that they were gamers as well, so I never had this kind of opportunity before. But it wouldn't be so bad to share a workplace with a beauty like her, even if it meant I needed to cut out any untoward feelings. Her last name was the same as the company name. Maybe it was a family-run management business. That was rather common among smaller companies.
"Thank you very much. Let's get along together."
I shook her hand and returned her smile.
Gamers generally had a bad image as far as personal relations went, and to be honest, I was like that too a long time ago. But there was a vast amount of multiplayer games with player-to-player interaction nowadays; not to mention all the clan or guild events that happened inside them, so I did my best to improve my communication skills.
I hadn't really read any of those how-to books or anything about it. I just had a lifetime of experience meeting and talking to a lot of people. It really came in handy for job hunting and everyday life, so I figured it was a nice skill worth having, even if you didn't like it. But, well, it still didn't help much to overcome the hurdle of dealing with a pretty lady as a healthy young man.