Second Draft - Reincarnated Into a Game in Impossible Mode

Chirp chirp. The sound of birds singing in the morning awakened the young boy lying in that ideal hut. The youngster opened his eyes slightly and looked around. Before him was a pile of wooden branches placed close together, with only a little light coming through the gaps to illuminate the inside of the hut, helping him observe more easily.

'Ah, I'm still in the hut... that means... I'm still in this damned world?' - Ryoshu realized this undeniable truth and looked quite disappointed.

Yesterday was Ryoshu's craziest day when he discovered he was in the virtual reality world of the game Rainfall Disorder. He had thought that if he just slept, when he woke up, he would realize everything that happened yesterday was just a dream.

Ryoshu felt rather frustrated, so he lay there lazily and tried speaking into the empty space as if he were actually begging.

"System, can I log out?"

But contrary to his expectations, no one, or rather, no System here, responded to his words. Ryoshu sighed and sat up from his bed, carefully crawling to the entrance of the hut as if afraid it might collapse.

Ryoshu opened the hut door slightly, and the morning light from outside took the opportunity to enter the hut. Inside, the previously dim hut was now illuminated in every corner.

He stood up and immediately put the pillow and bed sheet into his ring as if tidying up his bed like he would in the real world. Ryoshu looked around the camp he had made last night.

Perhaps waking up had helped Ryoshu realize how bad the current situation was. But his not being fully alert, instead of making him panic, made him rather dazed. Ryoshu dismissed unnecessary thoughts and tried to focus on what needed to be done now.

"I'll brush my teeth first." - Ryoshu opened his mouth and sniffed, so he decided that brushing his teeth was most essential.

He went to the stream where he had bathed yesterday to brush his teeth. He had walked this path thousands of times in the game, so it felt more like a habit than him trying to remember and follow it.

Approaching the stream, Ryoshu suddenly remembered something extremely important, which made him quite cautious about getting close to that stream.

"I... must face the present only. I can't hide forever."

Ryoshu went to the bank of the stream and looked down at the reflection instead of a mirror. There he saw the face of his character.

"To be honest, my face doesn't look much different from yesterday, or rather, it's perhaps gotten a bit worse?"

He pondered thoughtfully: 'Perhaps the Charm stat doesn't directly change my face but rather some atmosphere or aura around me. Yes, that makes more sense, otherwise what would my Intelligence stat be evidence of?'

"I hope so, otherwise when I enter the academy, I might get driven away."

Ryoshu took out his toothbrush and applied toothpaste. Once done, he brushed his teeth and took the opportunity to look at his status panel once more, especially focusing on the Charm stat.

[Charm: 1 (Unranked)]

Ryoshu recalled his previous Charm stat and felt quite envious. Because if it were in the old era, he would have been almost like famous movie stars.

But in the new society where Awakened ones could advance in rank, anyone could become more beautiful. Therefore, social standards had changed a lot more: from rank F to D would all have potential to be models, from rank C to B would all be ordinary idols like before the war, and from rank A to S would all be movie stars of this world. But from rank SS upward almost didn't exist.

Although the Charm stat wouldn't affect the outcome of battles too much, when thinking about having to interact with others with this much of a stat, Ryoshu couldn't help but be afraid.

'I think I should increase my Charm stat quickly. Because at the academy, the lowest person must have at least 15 units of stat, and the highest is 68... I'll definitely encounter unnecessary troubles... Perhaps I should complete that dungeon challenge sooner than I thought?' - Ryoshu pondered and looked toward the Temple gate while his right hand was rapidly brushing back and forth.

From afar, it looked quite discreet, but since he had unlocked his Magic potential, he could sense a terrifying magical aura emanating from it and spreading to the surrounding areas as if it were releasing sound waves.

'Should I do it? It's a C-rank, not a joke... But I don't have many options right now when I only have one Teleportation scroll left.'

Ryoshu still couldn't help feeling fearful about having to go in there to fight. The Temple before was purely about solving puzzles and avoiding traps, so he just needed to remember shortcuts to pass easily, but here he would have to fight real monsters.

'Just being overgeared won't be enough to get through the Finale... I need to learn how to fight properly.'

Ryoshu had originally chosen this area because although the monsters inside were C-rank, they were only Slime species. Slimes are liquid-like, sticky monsters with a Mana core in the middle of their bodies, so they're quite weak depending on how he handles them. And of course, most importantly, Ryoshu remembered the positions of all those chests too.

'But now is too early for me to go in there... I don't even know how to use either of the two weapons I have.'

"Then today I'll practice archery. My goal now is to quickly advance to rank F... oh, System, what's my Mana stat now?"

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[Mana]: 17 (F) (!) 

Core: 1 (Unranked) 

Circle: 1 (Unranked) (!) 

Circuit: 12 (D+)

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"Good, I'm at the final stage of rank F and about to reach F+. If all goes well, just making two more Mana Circles will raise me to rank E- in the next few days."

Thanks to Ryoshu's gaming habits, when he absorbed Mana into his core, he also automatically created temporary Circles to help himself transform Mana more easily.

"But this way, I've already completed one prerequisite to advance to rank F."

To advance to a higher rank, many conditions must be met, and Ryoshu had already completed the hardest one. Additionally, he had just completed another condition last night, which was creating a Mana core.

Of course, other things were also difficult, but they required diligence more than talent.

Another criterion was to get all Primary stats to rank F- or above, which would take quite some time, but he had some ideas to speed up the progress.

After finishing planning, Ryoshu summoned the pale white bow from his outfit. A bunch of sand flew around him, looking quite pleased. Ryoshu couldn't resist its adorable innocence, so he tried to caress its "body."

"At least... I still have you... thank you very much."

Although not knowing if this weapon could understand what he just said, Ryoshu felt much relieved to still have someone to share this loneliness with. Somehow, the weapon's soul seemed to understand what he said, so it clung around him even more.

"Come on, now we have to practice..." - While speaking, he paused and thought about what to call it. And while Ryoshu was pausing mid-sentence, the sand showed confusion by drawing a question mark.

"Hmm... Fumei?"

The sand shook its head vigorously... at least that's what Ryoshu was seeing.

"Tough, huh? Well... I'll call... you Fumiya, okay? Because my family name is also Amemiya...?" - Ryoshu tried to explain it somewhat hopelessly because he was just a child and might not even be Japanese.

Just hearing the name Fumiya, it rushed to him and hugged him tightly.

"So, Fumiya, today I will learn how to use a bow properly before starting to enter this Temple..." - Ryoshu pointed to the distant Temple from his camping area and then continued.

"Can you help me a little? We'll play more after training... but now I want to focus a bit. Because just one mistake, and I'll be done in that place."

Ryoshu had quite a bit of difficulty choosing appropriate words to communicate with the childish soul of his weapon. But it didn't misbehave at all and obediently transformed into a bow and fell into his hands.

Ryoshu gripped the bow firmly in his hand and didn't forget to admire it from different angles.

'It looks so beautiful. Should I try the Archer profession?'

Archer is also quite a good profession, but after thinking carefully, that wasn't the direction he was pursuing. Ryoshu needed skills to help him survive longer in this game world.

And he immediately thought of a profession that was both powerful and mobile. Moreover, it met the requirements to help him survive and escape quite well.

'How about... assassin?'

A profession that's not the strongest but has quite many benefits; skills like Stealth or Ambush are very powerful skills that belong exclusively to the Assassin profession.

But Ryoshu still had Enomoto's strange mask, so the Stealth skill wasn't that necessary anymore.

Concealment: When "Mana" is channeled into the mask, the wearer will have part of their existence erased.

With this ability, he would be able to survive longer. Of course, only for the early stages of the game. Because no matter what, one of the first disasters would strike quite soon.

So having the ability to conceal himself, he wouldn't need the Assassin profession anymore.

'Choosing just one profession is so difficult... I'll think about it more.'

Now Ryoshu's top priority was to improve his combat ability. Because not always can one run away when they want to, and sometimes situations force one to fight to survive.

"Alright, whatever, let's practice, Fumiya." - Ryoshu looked at the bow and unconsciously smiled. The bow also trembled in his hand as if supporting what he had just said.

Ryoshu stood about 7 meters in front of an oak tree where he had used a red pen to draw a rather crooked target. And it would be his main target today.

First, he used his wristwatch to go online and watch some videos teaching how to use a bow with titles claiming even an idiot could learn. That hurt his self-esteem quite a bit.

After watching for about 10 minutes, Ryoshu felt like he understood the basic steps, partly because whenever he wondered about something, they would automatically explain those details quite thoroughly, as if they could read his thoughts.

'Surely they can't read thoughts... right?'

Next, Ryoshu stood in position and assumed the correct posture while trying to adjust the areas they specifically noted. He raised the bow to his shoulder level and held it there with his non-dominant hand, then used his right hand to take an arrow he had just summoned from his ring and placed it across the middle of the bow.

Then Ryoshu used his thumb placed on the bow to hold it firmly so it wouldn't fall down and used his other hand to place the bottom of the arrow in the correct position on the bowstring.

Next, Ryoshu pulled it back, and the more he pulled, the tighter the bowstring became, making pulling increasingly difficult.

'Yet on TV they can hold it for several minutes... I've only held it for a moment, and my arms are already exhausted.'

Although it was quite simple to perform the action, sometimes he encountered quite a few difficulties with this process of pulling the bowstring. Ryoshu pulled the bowstring as tight as possible and tried his best to hold that posture, but it seemed just holding it was quite strenuous for him.

Next, Ryoshu had to aim at the target in front of him. Aiming is an important step that requires focusing on the target and maintaining his archery posture. Focus was perhaps one of his only strengths.

He aimed carefully and reviewed his archery posture. Then he made some adjustments here and there to make it more in line with what the video had said.

"The expansion during the release is very important because it allows the archer to shoot better by letting the string move smoothly." - He mumbled while trying to recall what the person in the video had taught him.

Ryoshu released the arrow but accidentally relaxed and lowered the bow right after shooting, so he unintentionally shot straight down to the ground.

'Oh. I lowered the bow a bit too early, didn't I? That's why my arrow weakened quite a bit there.'

Then it was a repetitive process. After shooting 12 arrows, he went to pick them up and shot again from the beginning.

'I hope the arrows won't break too quickly... because I'll need them for the Temple challenge too.'

Ryoshu even spent quite a lot of time before he could hit the tree, let alone the target. Mostly because he made many mistakes typical of beginners learning to shoot a bow.

But thanks to his SS+ rank Alteration extra stat and Super Memory and Godspeed Reflexes skills, his familiarization process was much faster. It seemed like with each mistake, he remembered more clearly how to adjust his archery posture.