Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
[Your Status will be reset. Is that really okay?]
When Lanpeach muttered [Reset], he heard the voice of a girl somewhere, and got frightened and stood up.
He hurriedly looked around, but he was familiar with the tone of that girl’s voice, so he somehow managed to calm down and sit down again.
“Libra, huh. Don’t frighten me like that.”
[Your Status will be reset. Is that really okay?]
It seems like the relief of Lanpeach didn’t reach her, but the person he called Libra just repeated the same robotic words.
“Aah, is it a ‘Iesu’** in this case? I feel like it was ‘Yes’ and ‘No’… Or was it ‘Hai’** and ‘Ie’**.” <Different ways of saying yes and no in Japanese.>
But Lanpeach didn’t hesitate and repeated it again.
He knows the identity of the other party, and the only thing that’s different is the impression of the game screen with reality.
[All of your Stats, Skills, and EXP will be reset. You can only Reset once. Is that okay? You also won’t be getting any bonus points for redoing your character.]
“…Yeah, Ies, Hai, please do it. The future looks dark with this Status after all.”
[Reset] System.
When you don’t like the arrangement of your skills, you can bring them back to their initial values. It is something a Player can only do once.
It may sound nice to call it a rescue feature, but it is actually a feature you can’t use after advancing the story to a certain degree.
Your EXP will be reset and you will be brought back to initial values after all.
If you were to do that with a high level character, it would be questionable whether you will be able to clear the game. Even if you try to power level with your comrades, there will always be a gap in EXP, and you will become useless.
In other words, this rescue feature can only be used when you mess up in the very beginning stages like the tutorial.
—Also, this Reset has a pretty big downside.
[Understood. Lanpeach Kouza’s Status will be fully reset.]
Lanpeach heard the voice of Libra, and was thinking about the Skill composition he was going to use…
“Guwa… H-Hot… Kah, my body is burning… What’s this? Guwaaah!”
His body began to smoke as if melting. He was writhing in pain as if he were being melted by acid, and rolled on the ground.
He thought he would seriously die here, prayed to wake up quickly, and scratched on the ground with enough strength that it could pop his nails off.
He felt as if ten or so minutes went by, but it seems like it was actually just a few seconds.
The pain went away, the smoke calmed down, and he laid down with all his limbs spread out and a hazy mind. His breathing was rough and he was drenched in sweat.
“T-To think there would be this much pain. I-I certainly wouldn’t want to taste this twice.”
If he knew he would be tasting pain that could kill, he would have just done his best with the Status of the current Lanpeach, and would have definitely not done a reset.
But he succeeded.
Lanpeach raised his hand and called out the Status Board so that this pain he suffered won’t be in vain.
———
Lanpeach Kouza
Experience Points: 5,000
HP: 10
MP: 0
Endurance: 5
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 5
Mind: 5
Mana: 0
Inherent Skill: None
Skill: None
———
“Haha, you normally get your initial stats at 10 and have 5 bonus points to allocate, but there’s nothing, huh. It may be a dream, but it is based on a game after all. I would have liked max value stats or unlimited EXP though.”
Lanpeach chuckled at how terrible his Status is.
This is one of the reasons Reset is not used. The Status drops sharply.
He is so weak he would probably lose to the boy from before.
[Please choose your inherent skill.]
He heard that voice again.
He was relieved this part is also based on the game while touching the window with his finger as a substitute of his cursor, and checked the list of inherent skills.
What was lined up there was: [Sword Genius], [Descendant of a Legendary Alchemist], [God of War Talent], etc. There’s close to a thousand.
Inherent skills are like buffs.
It would raise the damage of your sword, increase the success rate of your alchemy, increase the morale of an army you command, and stuff like that.
They are skills that would make it pretty comfortable to have.
“You can raise a level of an Inherent Skill with 500 EXP. You would normally choose an Inherent Skill that’s easy to use, but…”
He scrolled down more and more as he skimmed through the list of skills.
And then, he found the skill he wanted, and made an evil grin in relief that it does exist.
Then he thought about which to obtain for a bit, and stretched his hand onto one of the skills.
“Well, he is Lanpeach, so this one’s fine. [Minor Villain].”
[Is [Minor Villain] really fine?]
“Iesu.”
[[Minor Villain] has been acquired.]
[Minor Villain: inflicts a Status Down proportional to your level on enemies below you at all times, and lowered success rate in their skills. Also, the affection rate people have towards you will begin at minus.]
“Alright, alright. Now then, increase [Minor Villain] to the highest level.”
You need 500 EXP per level for [Minor Villain], so he pushed the button lightly and made it the highest level that is level 10.
It is a debuffing skill that affects things like the stats, so it may look like a wasteful move.
Skills normally scale like Level x 1,000, so you might end up bricking your character if you don’t take a normal skill.
Moreover, [Minor Villain] is extremely weak and there’s a superior version of it, so there’s no one who chooses this when beginning the game.
But that’s when the game was just released.
The hardcore theory crafters of Powder of Elements published their results on the internet about how to clear the game as per usual with any game.
Within those published methods, there was a method found that was like a hidden trick.
When you obtain useless inherent skills and raise them to their max level…
[Congratulations! You have reached the ultimate level limit! The EXP rewards for your quests from here on have been increased by 5 times, and you can obtain two more Inherent Skills. Also, a new skill has been added to your Inherent Skills, so please confirm it.]
A fanfare rang and a part of the half-transparent Status Board changed into a sparkling golden color.
Anyone can tell this is a special event.
This is the hidden trick.
This must have been prepared by the developers. This is normally a special event that happens when you reach max level on 5 skills.
You can obtain a present that spurs replayability at the end from the very beginning.
This is something that happens only when you max a useless Inherent Skill. That’s the sole way to achieve this.
“The guy that found this method must have worked hard… It must have been a developer who wanted to create the novel feeling of ‘I chose a trash skill, but it ended up being overpowered’.”
There were also other choices like [Goody Two-shoes], [Clumsy], etc, but he thought that this would suit the character Lanpeach, so he obtained it.
He has cleared the game 5 times, so he already has the strongest build in his head.
He has no intention of playing around here, so he obtained the two Inherent Skills while grinning.
[Extraterrestrial: Become a soldier of the Human Galactic Alliance Army. You can obtain the assistance of the Space Library. Your Rank will increase with the level, and the amount of assistance you can get will increase.]
[Trascendental: Break the limits of your level. Increase the Resistance of everything by Level x10%. Nullify ailments like Poison, Parasitism, and Corrosion. Recover HP by a percent of the level.]
These are the newly acquired Inherent Skills. The game becomes pretty easy after obtaining these two.
———
Lanpeach Kouza
Experience Points: 5,000
HP: 10
EP: 0
Endurance: 5
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 5
Mind: 5
Mana: 0
Inherent Skill: [Minor Villain] Level 10, [Extraterrestrial] Level 0, [Transcendental] Level 0.
Skill: None
———
His Status changed as expected. His mana has changed to energon thanks to obtaining [Transcendental].
“Now then…I have finished preliminary preparations, but…what should I do about the battle skills…? There’s a high chance I will suddenly die here.”
There’s advantages and disadvantages.
You can die with this skill composition even if you are careful in the beginning, in a state where you don’t have comrades.
Lanpeach doesn’t have any skills, so he frowned thinking that even small fry would be able to kill him, and…
“Lan, what happened to that appearance of yours?!”
The one who entered while raising what was similar to a scream was Chihiro.
“Hm? Anything weird?”
“Anything, you say… Everything! Your hair is now normal and your muscles are gone! Also…your atmosphere…” (Chihiro)
Chihiro found it hard to say the last words.
She mumbled ‘You feel like a random hoodlum…’.
He looked down at his body as if he noticed just now and it was just as Chihiro said.
His body was thin like a bean sprout and his clothes were baggy. When he touched his chin, there was no beard, it was smooth.
The very existence of Lanpeach Kouza, who is the boss of the team, has most likely been reset.
He grew pale thinking this is probably bad.
The scary part of this game is that you can die in a heartbeat. If he had comrades like in the game, he could have resurrected by fulfilling certain conditions, but…who knows how it works in this dream.
Lanpeach didn’t know that growing pale made him look even more like your average teenager hoodlum, and Chihiro looked distressed.
She thought the position of Lanpeach as a boss was at risk at this rate. This was most likely a side-effect of something, so she tried to tell him to hide for a while and play it off.
If Lanpeach drops from his position as the boss, the position she has grown to like will also be threatened
If they switched to a new boss, she might at worst be told to become a prostitute and get customers at the corner of a street.
She definitely didn’t want that.
“Hey, Lan, it seems like you are not doing well, so—” (Chihiro)
She was about to propose to rest somewhere…
“Haha, drugs are dangerous, don’t ya think, Boss? No, Lanpeach.”
Tsuyoshi entered with loud steps together with a number of lackeys, was surprised by the appearance of Lanpeach, and immediately changed into scorn.
“You are already done for with that body. I’ll have you fork over your position as boss.” (Tsuyoshi)
Tsuyoshi, who is number 2 and has been targeting the position of boss the whole time, laughed with a confident expression, and the lackeys also laughed loudly at the unexpected appearance of Lanpeach.
He seemed to be feeling under the weather to the point of struggling against a young man, so Tsuyoshi was planning on taking away his position as boss, and he had become visibly weak, with the muscles he was so proud of gone.
Tsuyoshi couldn’t stop laughing, feeling like there’s not going to be a better chance than this one.
“Y-You…have betrayed me! Are you planning on biting the hand that fed you? T-Then, let’s have a fight with our fists. I-I will teach you who is the boss.”
The minor villain was trembling profusely as he played a tough front.
Tsuyoshi nodded full of confidence after seeing that classic appearance of a weakling.
“Fine. The title of boss should always belong to the strongest. Let’s move to the hall. We have to call everyone from the team to witness the rise of a new boss!” (Tsuyoshi)
“Yeah, don’t regret it, Tsuyoshi!”
Everyone laughed at the bluff of Lanpeach and began to move to the hall.
That’s why they didn’t notice…the lips of Lanpeach loosening in happiness.
The only one who noticed was Chihiro.
—And so, the story returns to before the battle started.
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
