Prologue

The man's name was Yamada Kenichi. He was a 35-year-old salaryman. He was single.

“It's over, huh? Shutting down after just three years...”

The man muttered to himself in his one-room, eight-tatami apartment. It was the middle of the day on Saturday. Instead of going out, he stared at his computer screen and lamented.

On the computer screen was a fantasy castle, with a stylish “FIN” displayed in the lower right. It seemed to be an online game, and the characters were making farewell gestures as if to say, “Thanks for playing.”

“Well, I guess this was an easy game, too. Easy as they come. Maybe it's for the best that it ended. At least I didn't sacrifice too much time or money.”

He had poured his bonuses and salary into gacha pulls and paid items, but he didn't seem sad to see the service end.

He'd started the online game three years ago, but its settings and gameplay were too easy, and he was dissatisfied. Even so, he kept playing, believing that someday an update would add more content to sink his teeth into.

But perhaps because the number of users hadn't increased, the game publisher decided to end the service.

“Oh? What's this? ‘We're launching a new service’?”

He closed the game and opened the homepage of its publisher.

There was a link to a new game that was about to launch. It seemed to lead to an introduction page, so he clicked it.

“What's this... Huh?”

Yamada Kenichi was stunned. Words that seemed certain to fill him with despair were lined up before him.

・Level up automatically while you're logged out!

・You can reset your Job with ease!

・AI will handle battles automatically!!

・You can pull the gacha three times and are guaranteed to get a Legendary item!!

“This is hopelessly easy. This isn't just an easy game—it's practically an idle game. Since when did things get like this...?”

The man covered his face with both hands and thought back to the good old days of gaming. It was twenty years ago, when he first experienced an online game.

Leveling up had been a struggle, and gaining a single level often took an entire month. He still remembered the thrill of changing to an advanced Job after six months.

When you died, there was a death penalty: your equipment dropped on the ground, and you lost 20% of your experience.

Bosses had unbelievably high HP, and even with a fifty-person raid, you had to beat on them for over an hour before they died. He'd even spent three hours once. His keyboard often broke from all the rapid-fire button pressing, so keeping a spare on hand was essential.

And even after all that effort, they dropped only one item. Then the fifty players would start killing each other over it.

The online game he'd devoted himself to for hundreds—or even tens of thousands—of hours had ended its service more than ten years ago.

He'd played all sorts of games in search of the excitement he'd felt back then.

But times had changed. People had begun to hate the kind of deep, demanding content they hadn't even asked for. Big companies and new game publishers alike had shifted toward easy games.

Levels flew by, and weapons, armor, and Skills became easy to obtain.

“Guess I'll look for another game.”

He gave up on the game publisher he'd been using and searched online for games with plenty of content to master.

He typed “games hardcore settings replay value” into the search bar, looking for the sort of game he wanted.

Then a site with no publisher listed and no game title appeared at the very top of the search results.

“Oh? What's this? ‘We invite you to a game that never ends’?”

The screen was full of enticing phrases like “a never-ending game” and “a game you can never play to the fullest.”

“I see, a Western-style fantasy world of swords and magic. I might as well give it a try. Let's see... I set it up directly on this site's page?”

Yamada Kenichi was intrigued, so he decided to give it a try.

The game wasn't available as a download; you made all the various settings on the website, so he moved to the settings screen.

“First, difficulty. There's Easy, Normal, Extra, and Hell. Easy Mode would be copping out.”

Apparently, users could choose the game's difficulty. It also clearly explained the differences between each difficulty.

・Easy Mode

You can obtain and improve Skills ten times faster than in Normal Mode.

You can draw up to three Extra Skills from the gacha.

This is the most popular mode among gaming beginners and those who hate grinding levels.

・Normal Mode

This is the standard mode.

You can draw up to one Extra Skill from the gacha.

This is the most popular mode, allowing for a decent amount of character development.

If you're unsure which mode to choose, select this one.

・Extra Mode

Leveling up, obtaining Skills, and improving Skills take ten times longer than in Normal Mode.

However, you can develop your character to a point unreachable in Normal Mode.

You can draw one Normal Skill from the gacha.

This is the ideal mode for experienced gamers and veterans who find Normal Mode too easy.

・Hell Mode

Leveling up, obtaining Skills, and improving Skills take a hundred times longer than in Normal Mode.

There is no growth limit. You cannot draw from the gacha, so at the start you'll only receive the Skills associated with your chosen Job. You can't undo your choices. Despair will appear before you.

If you can overcome that despair, you're sure to discover a single truth. This is a mode the development staff made for their own amusement.

As the settings went from Normal Mode to Extra Mode to Hell Mode, Skills became harder to obtain and levels harder to gain.

But it seemed that the growth limit was relaxed, allowing you to keep growing without limit.

“Hell Mode, huh? I can choose a Job?”

He selected Hell Mode without hesitation.

The screen switched to Job selection. There were Jobs he often saw in games.

The options were Swordsman, Martial Artist, Thief, Merchant, Mage, Sage, Sword Saint, Saintess, and Archmage.

Apparently, Jobs also had different difficulty levels. Clicking on a Job brought up its difficulty rating.

“There are quite a few Jobs. The further down the list, the harder they are to develop. They even have Hero and Demon Lord?”

The Jobs listed lower down seemed rarer and stronger. Their difficulty, representing how hard they were to use, was displayed with stars.

Swordsman and Martial Artist had one star.

Sword Saint and Archmage seemed to have three stars.

Hero and Demon Lord had as many as five stars.

“Huh? Between Swordsman and Sword Saint, Sword Saint seems better. Why let me choose?”

Sword Saint seemed like an obvious upgrade to Swordsman. If that was the case, wouldn't everyone choose Sword Saint?

For now, he selected Swordsman to check it out. The screen changed, and he was prompted to select a social rank.

“Commoner, Baron, Count. I see, your social rank is decided by gacha. There's even King. Is it the same for Sword Saint?”

The available social ranks seemed like something you'd find in a story set in another world.

Yamada Kenichi had read all sorts of stories set in other worlds, so he understood the ranks without trouble.

He clicked the reset button to return to Job selection and chose Sword Saint instead.

“It only lets me choose serf, commoner, or baron. I see, the stronger the Job, the harder it is to develop, and the lower your social rank.”

When he selected Hero, the options were limited to serf and commoner, with the final choice determined by gacha odds.

The gacha odds were displayed as well, and your social rank was determined by luck. The stronger the Job, the more likely you were to end up with a low rank.

He understood that Jobs with the potential for greater abilities started at a lower social rank.

“Which one should I try? I've played Swordsman and Mage before. Maybe I'll try healer this time. Come to think of it, I've never played Demon Lord. A Demon Lord who's a serf sounds kind of fun... Hm? There's another Job.”

As he wondered which one to choose and was about to select Demon Lord, which he thought was the last option, he noticed there was another Job listed below it.

“Summoner? Is that harder than Demon Lord?”

Summoner was the last Job on the list. Its difficulty was displayed as eight stars.

When he selected Summoner to see what happened, the only social rank available was serf.

“A Summoner, huh? I haven't played one much, but it'd be cool if I could summon a Divine Dragon or something.”

The man had played countless games—not only online games, but countless console games as well. He remembered one of Japan's hugely popular games, where a Summoner called forth mythical creatures straight out of Greek mythology.

“All right, Summoner it is, and social rank: serf. Is that all the choices?”

He had selected Hell Mode, Summoner, and Serf, and it seemed there were no further choices.

He wondered if there would be options for appearance or gender, and looked over every corner of the screen, but could only find one clickable button.

The only thing displayed on the screen was a large button that said, “Begin?” When he clicked it, a message appeared.

'The Summoner Job has not yet completed its trial run, and there are currently no users. Do you still wish to begin? Yes / No'

“Huh? So it's still in testing? Then why can I select it? But that makes it more interesting. I see, I'll test it for you!”

Yamada Kenichi selected 'Yes' without hesitation. The screen flashed, and the one-room, eight-tatami apartment was left empty.

Yamada Kenichi had vanished from the real world.