“...Name: Dark Reaper 666...”
I see, so I’m Dark Reaper 666. It’s a familiar name. I recently used it on a crappy MMO I played as a joke. I think Help and then Change my name towards the search bar. No, even I wouldn’t settle for this crazy edgelord-tier name. I can’t have people call me that.
—Search results: 1—
—About changing Names: Testers have their names decided pre-summoning... It cannot be changed...—
I skim through the entry. I see, I see. Can’t change huh. This must be one of those joke worlds. Where some weird God is messing around with the populace. Of course, the hero is a joke too. I must be here for the big guy’s entertainment... I kind of want to cry. But let’s rewind a bit.
~•••~
I was lying in bed reading My Life is Super Awesome after coming to Another World where my Cheat lets me have an Unlimited Harem. The genres are Adventure, Comedy, and Tragedy among others, with a myriad of tags like Anti-hero, Gore and of course Harem. It was 5 AM, Tuesday, the sun was starting to enter my dark room. I have class in the morning, but 3 hours of sleep is only normal for us veteran Web Novel addicts.
But my throat was getting dry. I roll out of bed and fall off— It’s only a mattress with no box under so it’s fine— and I roll towards the mini-fridge at the corner. 3 full turns, grab and gently open the door so as not to let that irritating yellow erode my eyes, grab a P*psi and...
~•••~
“Welcome oh hero, to our great kingdom of...”
They’re big— no wait. Suddenly, there was a beautiful— no, let’s be honest— crazy hot lady talking to me. This is... a lucid dream, right? But I’ve never had one and it feels very real. Calm down. Too late. I’ve never been good at my poker face, and my eyes must be bulging wide and I feel sweat starting to form on my forehead. That big-boobed lady looks really worried.
It wasn’t too hard to guess. This is a fantasy world, and I’m being summoned. The lady’s words Hero set it in stone. From the faint particles of light floating around me, to the cloaked people sitting there wheezing— Are you guys alright?— to the beautiful woman standing to greet me warmly wearing what was clearly a high-class dress from the Medieval Europe genre. I’ve seen all this in at least 5 different stories.
I thought this was a lucid dream, but it may as well not be. Devil’s proof? Or was it Pascal’s Wager? Anyway, since I’m here, why not believe in it just in case. If it’s a dream, I’ll wake up at some point, surely late for class, and carry on with my day. If it’s not, my greatest adventure begins!— Not. I don’t know what kind of plot this will be. Overpowered protagonist? Tragic Anti-hero? I’d prefer the former, but first things first.
“He,llo...”
Greetings are important. As are first impressions. Even if they are evil people, they won’t attack right now if I’m not hostile. I ask to make sure if this is another world. The woman answers super excitedly and speaks fast, but I sense a tinge of nervousness there. That’s cute. Please let this be the OP harem MC type! The first girl should be the main heroine right? Bring it on!
Wow, she’s really laying it on me. I can’t process this much information all at one you know. You gotta have pacing... I see, so her name is Cleph. It’s a nice name. She gave me a lot of other information, but I don’t really care. I’ll keep it in mind, but making sure myself should be the staple. And, Crem? Oh, she’s pointing to the man beside her. Minister, and she’s the aide huh. The man’s attire looks high class too. This guy’s important. Key character level. Maybe a mid-boss or even a final boss after the demon king (lol). Anyway, for now, I’ll say hello..!!
“Welcome, esteemed hero. I am Crem Tonn...”
W-What the fuck!? Who, what is this guy. He’s seriously scary. Final boss, definitely final boss. Maybe he’s the demon king in disguise too. Demon God? God-level boss right after summoning? Hahaha, I see. Either I die here, or we go the Suffering, Suffering, Suffering pattern, those niche writers do.
I can’t give up and say this is a dream. I might die for real. Alright, escape it is. I need a door or window somewhere. Wait, I just realized, it’s really dark in here! I can only dimly make out the figures of people close enough, and the light particles aren’t allowing my vision to adjust. Everything else is black. In the first place, I can’t even move from the spine-chilling fear...
A few seconds, maybe minutes passed, in silence. I listened to and processed the Demon Minister’s words. His tone was awfully gentle, but that made it even scarier. Ok, I need to be cool and collected here. Lose my head, and we’ll have to tack on Tragedy to this generic novel of a story my life seems to have become. I’ll ask him a trick question.
“... ... Is this supposed to be a fantasy world?”
“That is probably correct...”
Whoa! They really answered. This other aide? January? His presence is really thin. But He’s not the scary demon old man, so I’m ok talking to him. He sounds really stern, like a diligent spectacles wearing guy. I bet he can handle money well... Monsters and Magic. They even know the term Fantasy, though the pronunciation is off. Which can only mean... there are others right? Previous summons? I shouldn’t be their first one.
Fighting monsters huh. I’ve thought about this. It’s not something I can handle right off the bat. Telling me to take a sword and slay a goblin... it’s like telling me to take a gun and kill a chimpanzee. I couldn’t do it. Not because of aversion to killing— though that is a factor— but because I’ve never held a gun, and because chimps are crazy strong, or so I’ve seen on TV.
I’ll probably have to fight monsters sooner or later. Heck, as a hero, they’ll probably send me off to fight dragons. I... better train. If this is a fantasy world with magic and what not, there’s gotta be methods to quickly gain combat experience and conveniently get stronger. I’m a hero after all. I don’t know how or why I’m a hero, but Hero = Cheat. Yup, gotta be that.
That reminds me. There’s magic, so non magic users would... not be left out right? That means Skills. Like shooting sonic waves from a sword, or punches so fast, it’d look like there are dozens of fists. Skills, HP, level system... Wait, what’s...
“Ahr-Pii-Gee! It’s the Ahr-Pii-Gee Gehm right? That green icon is the First-timers Dot...”
A-Ahr-Pee... Ah! RPG, I see. RPG Game is a bit redundant though, but I won’t correct it since it’s cute. Hm, think Menu huh. I just thought Menu but nothing happened. Well, I’d be hard pressed if a screen or something came up every time I thought of the word. It must be a system that understands intent. Ok. Menu...!
F-Fantasy worlds sure are great. I suspected something like this, and I’ve played Virtual Reality games that make it come close to reality. But this thinking mechanism made me let out my voice nevertheless. This is... really cool. Let’s see. There’s 3 big horizontals bars: HP, MP, SP... their numbers are at 100. HP hitting 0 means I’m dead, obviously. MP at 0 means no more magic, perhaps fainting from mana depletion. SP... I’m not sure, maybe for skills? Or, physically strenuous work will decrease it too. Something to find out from now.
There seems to be a... next page? The bottom of the menu has 4 white and one black dot. The black is the first one, current page I guess, so I have 4 more pages of menu to look at. I reflexively swipe with my finger like I would a phone. There’s a slight tactile sense, but my finger seems to go through. It’s strange. Ah, these are stats: Atk, Def, Luk... I’ll look over these later.
Next page is, equipment huh. Cotton pajamas. Well, it’s not wrong. I seem to be wearing the same clothes I was rolling around in a few minutes ago. The P*psi is gone though. Well I should be glad I wasn’t butt naked like in T*rminator. I’m certainly not as high spec as Mr. S**warzenegger. I have a few questions, and I’m a bit embarrassed showing all these people my jammies but,
Next page is, Skills and Magic. There’s nothing there. No wait. a Title category is there too. I have one!
—Title(s): Tester—
I don’t... no, let’s see. Fantasy world, RPG, game mechanics... Test player! Beta or alpha testers. I have some experience with that. They were small-time online games, but I at least have some clue on it. So under the game world premise, I’m a player — hero— testing it. Since it’s tester and not Player, there must be bugs I guess. Reminds me of the M*trix. As a good Herobeta-tester, I’ll make sure to exploit all the glitches! But first,
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I swipe to the last page. There is... a horizontal bar and above it, the word Help. What’s help? Is it—
—Search results: 20—
— Auto-selecting best result—
—The Help Menu: The Help menu is a menu provided to all intelligent users on the planet. It facilitates understanding and comes with tips for better survival. Information can be made available by manually collecting it from sources in the world, or by unlocking access tiers—
—There are varying tiers of access which come with more information on each tier. General information on the world and some details on the birth or spawning location is made available on tier 0. A simple map and menu manipulation tools, as well as information on slain enemies and eaten plants is made available on tier 1. Further information on tiers is currently unavailable due to your access tier being 1—
... I was about to make a guess, but it seems like I invoked the help function. I was thinking it could happen in the back of my mind, so it must have read that intention. I see. I have appraisal. No, it’s pretty much G*ogle isn’t it!
Let’s see, tier 1 access. I wonder what the people here have. And what’s this Menu Manipulation thing... this must be—
“Esteemed hero! Please tell us your name”
...!! Whaaa, old man, please! This isn’t good for my heart. N-Name, was it. Yeah, completely slipped my mind in the greeting. No, how long was I meddling with the menu anyway? I wonder if you can see another person’s menu. Hope not. It disappeared when I focused my attention elsewhere, but that would be a serious flaw in the system. I’d have to report it to the GM and... Name? I’ll answer I guess— is what I thought but, I couldn’t remember. The corner of my lip twitches.
Wait. wait-wait-wait-wait! What’s my name? I’m from Earth and not this Fantasy RPG world, I’ve been summoned here as a hero, I’ve lived life and was in my senior year in college, Mom, Dad, I remember them, their names too— Only first names. What? Last name— is the same as mine— forgot too. What is this, some cheap gimmick?
Wait help, Heeelp, what’s my name??
—Status inquiry received: Finding Name—
~•••~
And so, we get to the present. The Help opened up, did its search, sent me to the first page of the menu, and highlighted the name part. It was just above the HP, MP, SP bars. I didn’t notice at all, the green, red, and yellow bars took away all my attention. No, perhaps I simply didn't want to notice.
There are other things besides name too. Level: 1. I, guess. Exp: 0/100. I guess I need 100 experience point to get to the next level. Speaking of which— No, let’s stop. I... shouldn’t ignore it. Name huh. Dark Reaper 666. How nostalgic. I had that on all my accounts when I was 14 or so. So, my dark, past has come back to haunt me once more. My left arm, aches to be released (lol)... orz
“H-H-Hero Dark, please c-come this way, we shall make our way to the K-King!”
Cleph stutters like crazy. She’s totally scared— no, creeped out as hell— now. I can almost see the affection points going into the negatives. Minister Crem is silent with a complicated expression..!!— I reflexively look away from the scariness, and Janu— Janr was there. He looked, calm as ever— or so I’d have liked to think but, his eyes are slightly wider and his breathing heavy... what’s up with this guy? Does he... I, I don’t care anymore!
~•••~
We made our way up the long flights of stairs going up from this apparent Hero Summoning Room. The climb was mostly silent, the Minister making some remarks about the world while walking in front. I timidly said “I see” making things awkward and returning to silence, rince and repeat. Cleph and Janr didn’t talk, and the mages... they were giving their all just going up all these stairs.
Which reminds me. We’ve been steadily advancing on these stairs for almost 10 minutes now. I’m no athelete. I... can’t, shouldn’t have this much stamina. So what’s—
“Haaah... we’ve reached. That was a good bit of exercise, wouldn’t you say, Hero Dark?”
..! Scary! But I think I’m getting used to it. He keeps using that name... is it to appeal to me? Or is he screwing around. His tone is totally one of flattering though. Just you wait. I’ll get you back for this someday Demon Minister! Joke’s aside, he briefly explained that his face has a strange curse, that scares people but is otherwise harmless. I find it hard to trust, but that may just be the curse doing its thing. I... will try to lower my guard a bit.
The door opens and light flows in. Sunlight hits my face for the first time in a different world as I walk along with the Minister and the others towards the royal audiance room. The hall we’re walking in is gorgeously decorated with thick pillars on my right, carved with intricate reliefs, expensive-looking flower vases dotted along, and a fine blue carpet extending all the way. As we walked, sometimes a m-maid would walk by and bow as we passed before leaving back to her work.
The sounds of birds chirping come in from my left; the left of the hall is open with only a walled railing. Looking out I could see a townscape below with the bustling of ants— well, people— going about their lives.
Further out, there is a wall perimetering the town, and beyond, vast green hills, gentle mounds rolling off to the distance with lines of green sweeping through them as the grass is carressed by the wind and reflects more of the sun. The hills meld into a nearby forest and river, and transform into mountains on the horizon that connects to a clear blue sku with sparcely dotted clouds. The scenery is great, and my mood livened up all at once. ..! Minister Crem seemed to have noticed my cheerful atmosphere and smiled warmly, but it was, as expected, scary.
~•••~
We didn’t directly go to the audiance, since, obviously, I can’t go there in my pajamas. Janr suggested it and I happily agreed. I was guided to a room with a large array of clothes, and some swords and armor as well. Janr said I can pick a set from here and have it. Maybe this is like their complementary peanuts for the hero.
— Equipment —
— Steel Sword of Embers —
— Chainmail (Endurance +) —
— HiSilk Tunic (blue) —
— Tough Pants (black) —
— Thin Gauntlets of Swift —
— Thin Boots of Swift (Speed +) —
— HiSilk Underwear (Endurance +) —
They left me alone to choose and I got ready in around 5 minutes. Making the royalty wait would be a discourtesy and... well, I hope they’re friendly at least. I chose light armor with speed enchantments because my Spd stat seems to be my highest, so I thought to nurture it.
Sword with fire because it will likely increase damage and cause a bit of burning damage too. I’m going high speed, continuous damage build. Incidentally, the blue tunic is because I want to appeal to the people here a bit. Blue seems to be their national color.
But there was a surprise as well. I had a feeling, but I found this out because there were mirrors in the dressing room. It seems my body has changed. Pitch black hair and eyes, a stoic look from them, my arms and legs were amazingly toned, and... is that a six-pack!? I certainly wasn't like this. There's too many discrepancies in my memory, the God must've cut some corners. Incidentally, my down there is—
~•••~
“Oh! So you’re the Hero! Welcome to my castle, I hope Crem didn’t scare you too much”
“Yes, I wasn't.. The Minister was very welcoming. I, D-Dark Reaper 666, am humbled to meet your acquaintance, King..—”
“Pff... Bron, I am Bron Albama, and this is my wife, Cen. Please raise your head. We are very pleased to welcome you to this world, Hero..pff.. Dark. ”
Of course, I was taught the etiquette of getting on one knee and bowing before the King. No big deal. This is the standard... I’ll ignore him laughing at my name, but that was inevitable. Let’s consider this a curse for the comedy plot or something.
Bending my neck, I see the King in majestic dull gold garb with blue patterning. His hair is, a deep blue, and his sharp eyes are in a lighter shade of blue. His beard and mustache were cut sharply to give a pentagon-like shape and his brows were angled to show a bold and overwhelming expression. He was standing tall and in his hands, he held a cane with a large, blue, unpolished, but seemingly without a single flaw, gem that seemed to have a depth that draws your eyes in, like a whole galaxy is stored inside. This has to be a world-class magic item.
The Queen, Cen, was standing beside him with the same degree of elegance and majesty. Her white and blue dress was slim but weighty. Fair skin without a single blemish, she looked straight towards me same as the King, with her deep black eyes, and swaying long chestnut hair.
Now then. King Bron should be telling me all about my mission here. Is it saving the world? It must be saving the world. It’s saving the world, isn’t it? Well, give it to me straight. Going out with simple equipment and a small sum of money, hunting slime and goblin, slowly leveling, getting to a dungeon, finding hidden treasures, some sudden rare monster encounter, I beat it and use the material for an epic weapon upgrade, finding comrades, saving villages, encountering demons, learning about the underworld and the kingdoms connections with the demon race, overcoming conspiracy, defeating the Demon Lord who I suspect may be the Minister... maybe some romantic encounters along the way~
Ah, let’s leave the daydreaming to here. Though that was a sweet and cliche set of events, a cliche adventure is fine too. I wouldn’t want the tragic anti-hero route after all. They’re cool in literature, but not something I’d like to understand first hand.
“Now, I’m sure you’re aware of the reason we’ve summoned you for. ..! Crem?”
“Yes, your highness. I have informed the Hero of the upcoming war with the demon race, and how he would lead the vanguard to our victory. Though he needs to train starting now, I am convinced that he will soar high above our expectations.”
“If you can say that, then I’m a lucky man!”
Crem seems to be giving me rave reviews. I didn’t do anything though. Must be flattering again. Damn you, Crem. Though yes, I did learn of the perpetual war with demons that has been at a pause while both sides stayed vigilant. There has been intel that the demons have started moving again. I was told an overview, and my daydreaming outline incorporated that in. Though it seems I am to work with an army, and not a small party of trusted allies.
“I have great expectations for you, Hero Dark. But for today let us leave it at that. You must be tired as well so let a maid guide you to your chambers. Ah, this is my wife’s suggestion, so for welcoming you, tonight we shall have a great feas—”
A bang, a crash! I look behind, and the door to the audience hall was knocked off its hinges letting the outside light seep in. It slowly accelerated at the top as it fell on the spot, revealing a silhouette in a kicking pose. As my eyes adjusted, the silhouette morphed into a girl who was returning her leg to the floor. A swaying ponytail of silvery blue hair swayed, as a pair of cold looking eyes seemed to single out me amongst the entire room. Despite that, her mouth was smiling wide as she spoke words that gave me the feeling that, I had somehow or other, triggered an event that would lead me to a ton of misfortune.
“Hero! I’ll have you marry me!”