<1 - Oknodie>
Even if my physical abilities are lacking, I want to gain something through luck.
Even if luck is cruel, I want to overcome it with physical prowess.
Among the games born with the needs of the players, there was a notorious virtual reality game called [Graduating from Academy with Luck].
“Hah… What kind of game is this that I’ve played for thousands of hours?”
If I had played a simulation of having a harem, I’d at least be pondering whom to gather it with by now.
When my friend suggested playing an eroge, I should have just done that.
I chose the wrong game to play before experiencing sudden death.
But this isn’t the worst scenario.
In this world, there are ruthless skill-based games like [Stealth][Action][Assassination][Yokai Fantasy] that require extreme physicality.
Of course, [Graduating from Academy with Luck] is no easy game either.
If the three elements of physical power, intelligence, and luck don’t align perfectly, one can’t graduate from this game— not even a veteran like me can let my guard down.
If you are lucky, things can go quite smoothly, but if not, who knows how the game will throw unexpected challenges my way?
“A method to slightly control my luck was rerolling…”
And through that rerolling, I ended up in this world.
“Save. Force Exit. Logout. Status Window.”
Even if I talk to the air like a lunatic, the system message doesn’t show up.
It’s a game world that has become a reality.
In short, it’s a realism patch.
If I were going to be reincarnated into a game-like world anyway, wouldn’t it have returned me to the muscular male character I usually played? Instead, I’ve become a small girl’s body that I have never played before in my life.
– But you only play male characters.
– There’s no better build than that.
– Really? If the damage is good enough, wouldn’t it be fine for a female character? Even if she has no muscles, is really short, has pale skin, and looks pitiful?
– Of course!
The conversation I had while drunk with my childhood friend Sia comes to mind.
Is it a simple coincidence?
“It must be a coincidence.”
Sure, this body is lacking in muscles and is very short, but doesn’t how I act depend on me?
A veteran player seems pitiful?
Even if I tried hard to look pitiful, it would still be tough.
For a brief moment, I clutched my head which was throbbing.
I got up vigorously from my seat.
If I stay gloomy like this, wouldn’t I really become a pitiful girl?
[Tutorial Event]
You set out on the path to the capital with dreams of grandeur in your heart for entry into the academy! A letter from your father has arrived in the inn room where you were staying.
What kind of gift did your father prepare for you? Open the letter and find out!
There’s good news too.
The system message that I thought was completely useless became activated when I visually captured a specific object.
It’s exactly as it was in the game— not a letter changed.
It’s a tutorial message.
“Somehow, it will follow the same storyline as the game.”
This is good news.
The information I know about the game and countless veteran techniques are an immense asset.
To put it bluntly, even if I start the game as an ordinary commoner, as long as I don’t face any unexpected hardships, by the time I graduate from the academy, I’ll be at a level that can stand shoulder to shoulder with a great noble of the land!
“The problem is that I might have a start worse than an ordinary commoner.”
The first gate of the game that has become a reality is the tutorial event, known among players as the random father’s letter event.
The random element of the first gate is the identity of the father who gives the letter.
The father changes randomly in each game.
The protagonist could be the child of a peasant, the child of a hunter raised by the mountains, or even an orphan taken in by a knight during the war.
<1 Gold>
[Dim Sounds of a Seashell]
[Guardian: None]
For instance, here’s the result right before experiencing sudden death.
Support fund 1 gold, lower class.
Sea field-related item, fisherman.
No guardian, left all alone with no ties.
As a clueless beginner, this character would have been nurtured through sheer will, but after discovering rerolling, I wouldn’t look back and would simply dump it.
<50 coins>
[Old Teddy Bear Leather Helmet]
[Guardian: Nick the Butcher]
Such specs are also ambiguous.
Support fund under 1 gold, orphan.
Animal hide armor, from a hunter village.
Guardian is a butcher, with fast growth rate in hunting and slaughtering-related skills.
Growth rate in hunting and slaughtering?
That kind of thing is long gone since graduating.
Even if you flaunt how well you can do without it, it’s completely useless.
Get the wrong draw and it’ll be hard, but get the right draw and it could lead to a prosperous start, the first threshold of luck.
Expectations for helpful specs are low.
The support items and buffs are mostly at a modest level that can be solved through the player’s own abilities.
“Usually, that’s how it is.”
To see the normal ending where human rights are guaranteed, one must graduate from the academy with excellent grades.
To see the guaranteed happy ending, one must graduate with top grades.
Inferior students might end up as the administrative official of a territory while being a concubine, or, if things go awry, betrayed by party adventurers and end up as a sex slave— a typical bad ending.
Expulsion?
That’s something I don’t even want to think about.
Now that I’ve awakened in a world where the game’s worldview has become reality, expulsion equals death— a dead end.
The tutorial is the first branching point that separates human rights and success from failure and death.
It’s like a fortune-telling tarot card.
60% chance of a commoner father. Bad ending.
30% chance of an orphan. Dead end.
9.9% chance of a successful father. Human rights guaranteed.
0.1% chance of a noble father. Success exists here.
“For a veteran player like me, as long as I’m not an orphan, I should consider myself lucky.”
Luckie! Prosperity! Upper-grade graduation.
The shortcut that connects those three is precisely nobility.
But how common is 0.1%?
There’s no need to even aspire to nobility.
A successful father, or even a commoner father, would be fine.
As long as I’m not an orphan, I believe I can squeeze efficiency from even the smallest rewards to the max.
Jingle jingle.
On the table in the inn room, there lies a money pouch.
The weight of the support fund is quite hefty.
I was about to grin, but suddenly halted.
The quantity of the contents of the money pouch is random, but the types of coins it contains are also random.
It’s not a time to let my guard down yet.
I must remember the rule of 600 to 300 to 99 to 1.
Is there a gold coin in here (0.1%), a silver coin (9.9%), a copper coin (60%), or a stone (30%)? Only opening it will tell!
Slide.
As I untied the string of the pouch, the colors became visible.
That brilliant hue was golden.
“It’s a gold coin!”
Less than 1 gold is an orphan.
1 gold or more and less than 10 gold is lower class.
10 gold or more and less than 100 gold is middle class;
100 gold or more is like a ticket to success, equivalent to acquiring a noble father.
This support fund I received is 100 gold.
I hit the noble jackpot!
“Luckyy♪”
Along with the support fund, the support items are also awesome.
I was given a necklace adorned with jewels.
A jewel accessory is likely to be an artifact, and even if it’s not, it’s still a valuable support item by itself.
Crackle.
I tore the seal and opened the letter.
Inside the letter was a luxurious sheet of paper along with a whistle.
A letter filled with the love of a noble father.
What does it say?
Contrary to my expectations, the content was bleak.
xxxx年xx月xx日
Academy Entrance Exam Registration Day
I flipped the letter over.
Nothing was written on the back.
I held it up to the lamp.
There were no hidden messages glowing in the firelight.
What is this?
Is dad the entrance examiner?
There’s astonishingly little content, and I can’t find any traces of paternal affection.
Crackle.
Such things are found within the money pouch.
I felt the reality of paternal feelings from that hefty money pouch.
It’s nice there are no annoying strings attached.
This means there will be fewer events that complicate things later regarding noble father family matters.
If there’s not much of a problem, then the name Oknodie reminds me of my foolish past.
“What was dad thinking when he gave me this name?”
It’s okay, I’m not dead.
Typically, a father wouldn’t give a name like this to their child.
Just like the unfamiliar name, the unfamiliar body also leaves me feeling uneasy.
Glance.
Stretching my neck down to look at my chest reveals… more volume than it seems at first glance.
If I pull my t-shirt hard against my back, the level of combat power revealed is extraordinary.
My chest hides combat power.
For a moment I had such trivial thoughts, but I quickly became gloomy.
No matter how much combat power my chest may hide, if it’s my chest, it only makes me distressed.
“Ugh, I don’t know.”
I should look in the mirror first.
Fortunately, the letter included a whistle.
A connection item that appears at an extremely rare probability in the game.
The butler-calling whistle.
This item, with the ability to automatically obtain necessities and automatically sell loot, is extraordinary— not quite an SSS rank in the guardian tier, but definitely an S tier!
Oknodie has all the elements of luck: support funds, support equipment, support connections.
“Maybe the space is a bit cramped for summoning?”
When using the whistle in the game, a bang sound would occur along with smoke bursting into the air as the butler was summoned.
Recalling that memory, I carefully stacked everything on the desk onto the bed like Tetris, and climbed onto the empty space on the bed.
Fortunately, the allocation of stats didn’t get messed up either, so I didn’t break a sweat or feel fatigued.
Beeep.
When I blew the whistle, a crisp sound echoed.
It was the entrance door.
“Did you call for me, my young lady?”
With a bang of bursting smoke, the butler appeared through the entrance door.
A strange silence followed his mundane entrance.
Why is a person walking out from there making me feel awkward?
“Um… well…”
The butler, clad in what is popularly known as traditional butler attire.
His stiff collar matches the strikingly sharp slicked-back hairstyle.
With a face and eyes that look more intimidating than a mafia, I wondered if he might be one.
On his chest, there was a name tag.
[Jonna Wahyhiemhai]
What a weird name.
Recalling the origin of Oknodie, I can’t help but be on guard.
Following the exotic naming convention, I read it aloud.
Jonna wiheomhae.
Super risky.
“……”
“It seems you are exhibiting symptoms of anxiety.”
“That’s not it… just a little… the hand mirror…”
“Do you need medication?”
“N-no. I just need a compact mirror…”
It’s not out of the realm of possibility for a person to be named [It’s okay, I’m not dead].
If the parents wanted a strong daughter, they could have done that.
But how is it possible for a butler’s name to be [Super risky]?
The gaze that looks down silently.
This is making me feel an eerie tension akin to facing a sociopathic terrorist or villain, rather than a butler.
“May I have a moment of your time?”
“Uh, yes?”
“If you’ve read the letter, you’d know. The master wishes for you to enroll in the academy.”
“Master? Papa?”
“Papa…?”
Now, this isn’t a game but reality.
Is there a different title I should call him by in truth?
The butler must have felt quite awkward with the title he used, or maybe he just overlooked it.
“My lady, I’ve prepared training for you to pass the entrance exam. No need to inconveniently go hunting and rolling with adventurers. And you have a full-length mirror here, right?”
The butler’s gaze turned towards the desk piled with the clutter of the bed, chairs, and various other items.
With not even a single spot left for a person to lie down on the bed, it looked like the only space allowed was just barely leaning against the furniture.
There weren’t even commonplace pressed impressions on the bed that might suggest someone had been sleeping there.
“It’s likely a more comfortable environment than staying at an inn.”
A bed absent of signs of someone having slept in it.
This isn’t a scene that looks like a normal person’s room.
I realized a fact I hadn’t noticed before.
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
“You don’t need to say anything.”
Despite the terrifying name and appearance, there was a strange look of pity directed at me.
I felt like I’d seen that look somewhere before.
After reflecting for a moment, I finally recalled.
It was the expressions of TV show panelists when they see a puppy rescued from a shelter, cowering in a corner, trying to avoid a person’s hand.
“……”
That guy views me as a tremendously pitiful child.
