Second Draft - Reincarnated Into a Game in Impossible Mode

Clink!

The sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the underground chamber. The knife flew out of his eye and landed among the weapons on the ground, creating a cacophony of jarring noise. That sound was enough to jolt him awake from a death-like state that wasn't real.

Then, Ryoshu felt his heart tighten, as if a fresh breath of life had been pumped into his seemingly exhausted body. Only then did he realize that old man Atsuta had appeared beside him without him even noticing.

And somehow, a large, three-colored cat was sitting on his shoulder. Before Ryoshu could fully process what was happening to him, the voice of Atsuta filled his still body.

"Do you know how to handle a weapon properly?"

"Uh?" Ryoshu was still dizzy from the rapid sequence of events, and before he could even comprehend what had happened, Atsuta was standing directly in front of him.

Ryoshu looked into the cat's eyes, searching for some answers, but its indifferent gaze wasn't much help. 'Well, at least it's cute… even if a bit fat.'

Somehow, Ryoshu noticed the cat's eyes became more intense after his thought.

'You're so fat...' Before he could finish his thought, its sharp claws extended from its chubby paws.

'So it's not just a regular cat… huh?'

The arrogant calico cat turned away, no longer paying attention to him, and jumped back to its previous resting spot.

"I can't believe I trusted you, you idiot." Atsuta muttered again, his face as calm as ever, as though nothing unusual had just happened.

Compared to his original version, Atsuta's personality seemed a little more irritable in this virtual reality. Ryoshu couldn't help but admire the developers of Rainfall Disorder, whose game was more realistic than the previous one. Even though the previous version had been praised by many game critics for its character depth in the main storyline.

While Ryoshu was still lost in his thoughts, Atsuta interrupted:

"Forget it. It's over now. The weapon that almost killed you is quite a rare one nowadays. You might've never seen anything like it."

Atsuta pulled on a chain, and it flew smoothly to him. But unlike Ryoshu's amateurish handling, the blacksmith swiftly grabbed the blade with two sharp edges attached to the end of the chain. That very knife was what had almost taken Ryoshu's life, but instead of feeling fear, Ryoshu was impressed by how Atsuta controlled this strange weapon.

But that wasn't all. The blacksmith started to dance with it. The blades flew around him as if guided by some kind of magic. Even Ryoshu, who had never used a weapon in real life, could feel that the blacksmith was at a level far beyond his own.

"Ancients used to call this weapon the Dart Rope."

As he spoke, Atsuta continued his mesmerizing display. Ryoshu remained silent, mesmerized by the performance, trying to absorb every movement of the martial art with greedy intent. But of course, his mortal body could never replicate such mastery.

"It's a powerful and deadly weapon, in the right hands."

After saying that, Atsuta controlled the blade to stab into the wall. But instead of bouncing back as Ryoshu had expected, the blade pierced through the wall and slowly cracked the surrounding stone. It was as if the blade was puncturing Ryoshu's limited thoughts, expanding his perspective.

The cat, who was nearby, suddenly leaped up in fright and ran behind a door. It stared at its owner with a glare full of distrust.

'Hmm... Forget the cat for now... What the hell was that? How could the blade be that sharp?' As Ryoshu pondered the weapon's potential and usage, it was now Atsuta's turn to monologue.

'Maybe he's still mad about earlier.' Ryoshu thought about the time he had monologued like an idiot. His ears burned with embarrassment for not realizing that he had done that in front of someone else. His thoughts became a reality when he was now witnessing someone else's monologue firsthand.

"This weapon is powerful, but its practicality is low. It's very difficult to use, requiring great dexterity and stamina."

Ryoshu sat deep in thought.

'This weapon uses centrifugal force or direct impact on the knife to inflict damage... But it's quite easy to predict since its trajectory is fairly obvious. On the plus side, its reach is longer than a spear, making it useful for close combat, but...'

"And there's another major disadvantage. Once it's launched, it's hard to retract quickly."

The blacksmith had already figured out what Ryoshu was thinking.

Brushing aside his earlier embarrassment, Ryoshu swallowed. He furtively eyed the Formless Bow, then asked Enomoto:

"Uhm... Could I borrow both weapons...? Is that alright for you?"

The old man picked up the bow that was placed on the ground and, with the other hand, he held the dart on a string that he had just demonstrated.

"This dart rope, I don't mind giving it to you because it's nothing special. It's just a weapon I made for practice. And this bow, it's not even a perfect bow to speak of. Moreover, what I want you to do is difficult, so when I give you these not-so-good things, you might end up dying in some corner for no reason."

He sighed and then stretched out his arms, reluctantly saying:

"So I can give you both of them."

Especially the Formless Bow, he gripped the beautiful weapon tightly. Ryoshu couldn't guess what emotions were on that aging face, but he also felt a bit sad because it was the first time he was learning the story of Atsuta's friend.

"And don't return them, just take good care of them for me." - He emphasized each word, particularly the words "take care" and "really well." But Ryoshu didn't even notice that he also clearly said, "Don't return them."

Even though that weapon was really good, his conscience tried to stop him from accepting it. However, his hand still couldn't help but grasp the weapon as if unable to resist the desire.

"But, Mr. Atsuta, this..."

"Don't change your mind!" - Atsuta firmly pushed the weapons into Ryoshu's arm and then released them so he wouldn't try to return them. Since Atsuta was so strong, his push nearly made Ryoshu fall over.

Despite still feeling hesitant, Ryoshu subconsciously held onto them.

"Take them, and give me your phone number so I can contact you. When I call, you must come immediately!"

"Yes, sir."

'This is amazing! At first, I just wanted to learn the skills of Good Memory and Quick Reflexes, but now I've even been lucky enough to get some extra gifts.'

But the most important thing was that he had met a very influential character in the game's storyline and obtained quite a bit of resources, and even two high-quality weapons.

'Maybe this is one of the best starts I've had in a game… if only I had Mana… It was almost perfect.'

But whether these things would help him was... the answer was very little. With six years of experience playing games, Ryoshu could identify the locations of rare items. However, they didn't help him much in completing the game.

'But if I didn't have these small advantages, the early game would have been much harder for me…' - Ryoshu shuddered as he remembered the powerful bosses he would encounter later.

"Hey... take this too... consider it an extra gift."

Atsuta then surprisingly handed him three identical scrolls. They were scrolls imbued with teleportation magic, and of course, they already had Mana in them, so Ryoshu only needed to speak the incantation to use them.

'Perfect for someone like me who doesn't have Mana!'

The old blacksmith wasn't finished with his instructions:

"Now you can use this teleportation scroll to leave. It's safer than wandering around in this godforsaken place. I don't want my investment to fail for no reason..." His voice lowered to the point that Ryoshu had to strain his ears to hear.

"Although it's already risky trusting someone as unreliable as you..." After a small cough, Atsuta tried to cover up his discomfort as Ryoshu stared at him with piercing eyes. "Ahem, but anyway, don't worry, this place is free, because it's cheap."

Although he called it cheap, it was still worth over a thousand RC. But compared to buying a teleportation gate, it was fairly cheap. Ryoshu refrained from looking too eager and stored the two scrolls in his spatial ring, then borrowed the blacksmith's pen.

At first, he was planning to go home to check if he could use a game glitch, but he realized he didn't know his address.

'Damn it, no wonder I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something. How the hell am I supposed to get back?'

After thinking for a moment, he came up with an even better idea. Ryoshu, like a child learning to draw, eagerly started scribbling the coordinates of the place on the paper.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Enomoto! Goodbye." - Ryoshu waved goodbye to the blacksmith with his usual irritated expression. But this time, the old man's lips curled up into a slight smile. Even though it was just a tiny one.

Soon after, the cat arrived to join in and bid farewell to the weak boy. It slowly climbed up behind its owner and then sat on top of the blacksmith's head as though sitting on a throne.

However, Enomoto Atsuta didn't care at all and just let out a deep sigh.

'He's probably used to it by now. Haha.' - Ryoshu instinctively reached out and scratched the adorable cat's chin. The corners of his mouth unconsciously formed a bright smile.

The blacksmith just remained silent and let him play with it for a while before pushing his hand away.

...and reminded him once again before he left.

"Be careful and remember what I've told you."

Ryoshu looked at the old man one more time to make sure he wouldn't forget his face. Although that was impossible, since he was very good at remembering people's faces. It was one of the abilities he was extremely confident in.

And of course, he didn't forget to turn his attention to the suspicious oversized tricolor cat sitting proudly on top of the blacksmith's head.

'Next time I'll ask him about this... But for now, I'll make sure to remember this old man, Enomoto Atsuta. I'll never forget his favor.'

Though the old man couldn't hear his thoughts, he nodded as a gesture and waved his hand to signal Ryoshu to leave quickly.

'Even at the last moment, still like this. What an irritable old man... Take care, old man... We'll meet again soon.' - Ryoshu smiled at the old man and nodded at him, then quickly tore the paper into two.

From space, magical characters suddenly appeared and flew around his body. After a while, they started to glow, forming different circles. These circles gradually contracted and enveloped his body, the light growing brighter and brighter until it became blinding to others.

----0w0----

And immediately after, Ryoshu felt nauseous once again. After a short while, he found himself standing in front of a gate to some temple. Right now, he was in a rocky area, with sunlight streaming through the leaves of the forest and wild grass.

The rotten smell from the Black Market was soon replaced by the scent of a cave and wet wild grass. Ryoshu's sense of smell had somehow become unusually sharp.

'Must be because I'm used to the filthy smells at the Black Market... so this fresh air feels completely different.'

In the game, temples were places where players fought monsters, overcame challenges to receive rewards, and gained experience to level up faster. Although Ryoshu didn't have levels because he wasn't a Player, anyone could still receive rewards from the temple after completing its challenges.

Earlier, in the blacksmith's basement, he had written down the coordinates of this Hidden Temple. There were many bugs in the game that could be exploited using the temple's gate.

First, Ryoshu took out two Memory Orbs and used them to interact with the temple gate. In this case, interacting meant rubbing the orbs against the gate for a while. But what happened afterward completely stunned him.

== [New error detected!] ==

== [Assessment: potentially serious impact on the Grand System!] == 

== [Starting the error correction process immediately!] == 

'Is the system talking about me?'

== [Error has been completely deleted!] ==

'What the hell?'

== [System has detected an entity not belonging to this world] ==

'What the hell is happening?'

== [Unable to access specific information about the entity!] ==

[...]

Ryoshu felt as if someone was staring at him from nowhere, like a child being caught breaking a neighbor's window with a soccer ball.

== [You have been granted a new Authority: "System"!] ==

== [You now have access to a very small portion of the Player System] ==

'So it's good... right? Because now I'm sort of a Player… right?'

However, he still felt something was off about the so-called System. It felt more like a living entity with intelligence than a simple, mindless machine. But it definitely couldn't be an ordinary creature. The System controlled and maintained the balance of the universe.

'Don't think too much about it, focus on the task at hand.'

"Status screen"

== [Your information has been added to the World Data] ==

A blue window appeared in front of Ryoshu, but it didn't come from his wristwatch.