Hellmode ~Gamer Who Likes to Speedrun Becomes Peerless in a Parallel World with Obsolete Setting~-Chapter 1Vol. - - Prologue

Chapter 1 – Prologue

His name was Kenichi Yamada, a 35 year old salary man. Single.

“It finally ended, huh? After 3 years.”

He muttered to himself in his half-kitchen, 8 tatami room. It was the middle of the day on a Saturday. Instead of going outside, he was grieving in front of his computer.

The screen showed a fantasy castle scene, with the word “FIN” written in a fancy font on the bottom right. Even though it’s an MMO, the characters in the game are waving goodbye.

“Well, it was just another a casual game. A super-duper casual game. It’s good that it’s over. This way I’ll stop wasting my time and money.”

Although he was been spending his salary and bonuses on in-game items and gatcha pulls, he was not sad about the game getting canceled.

He had started this MMO 3 years ago, but he wasn’t satisfied because it was too softcore, and online guides made the game too easy. Although he was dissatisfied, he didn’t give up hoping that there would be an update that added more replay value.

However, probably because the player base plateaued, the game company decided to shut it down.

“Oh? What’s this? They’re going to start a new game?”

He had exited the game, and was on the game company’s website.

There was a link to the new game. It seemed to lead to a page introducing the game, so he clicked it.

“What? Ugh….”

Kenichi was shocked. The words on the screen caused him despair.

・Level up while offline!

・Reset your class with ease!

・Auto battle system!

・Join now, and get 3 item pulls with guaranteed legendary rarity!

“Another hopeless casual game. This isn’t even a casual game anymore, it’s a baby game. When did it get this bad…”

He covered his face with his hands. He reminisced about the golden years of gaming from back when he first started playing MMOs 20 years ago.

Back then, it would take a whole month to gain one level.

When you died, you’d actually get punished, dropping equipment and losing 20% of your experience.

The bosses had incredibly high HP, and even with a raid party of 50 people, they would take more than an hour to clear. Some even took 3 hours. You had to have a spare keyboard because the keys would break from the heavy usage.

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And even worse, after you went through such a desperate struggle to defeat the boss, only one item would drop, and a 50 person battle royal would begin.

MMOs used to take thousands of hours to clear, instead of hundreds of hours. They would only be canceled after at least 10 years.

Searching for the excitement of those bygone days, Kenichi had played many games.

Times have changed. People dislike hardcore elements now, and stopped asking for them. Both old and new game companies have shifted to more casual games.

Nowadays, you leveled quickly, and it was much easier to get weapons, armors, and skills.

“Should I look for another game?”

He gave up on this game company, and searched online for games that would be more hardcore.

In the search bar, he typed “hardcore game retro settings”.

The top result was a site without a game or company name.

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

The screen was covered with interesting phrases like “never-ending game” and “infinite gameplay”.

“I see, a Western swords-and-magic fantasy world. Why don’t I check it out? Hmm, do I just sign up here?”

Because his interest was piqued, Kenichi decided to try the game.

The game didn’t require any downloads. Instead, it seemed that there were a couple of settings on the site, so he clicked onto the settings screen.

“First is the difficulty. There’s easy, normal, hard, and hell modes. You’re spoiling people with the easy mode, y’know.”

Apparently, the player got to choose the game’s difficulty. There was a explanation of the differences between the difficulties.

Easy Mode

・Acquire and level skills 10 times faster than normal mode.

・Draw up to 3 rare skills through the gatcha.

・This mode is popular with beginners, and those who want to level up quickly.

Normal Mode

・The default mode.

・Draw up to 1 rare skill through the gatcha.

・Develop yourself in your own unique way in the most popular mode.

・If you don't know which mode to pick, this one is recommended.

Hard Mode

・Acquire and level skills 10 times slower than normal mode.

・However, you can grow past the limits of normal mode.

・Draw 1 common skill through the gatcha.

・Ideal for experienced gamers, and those seeking more of a challenge.

Hell Mode

・Level up, and acquire/level skills 100 times slower than normal mode.

・There are no caps to growth.

・You cannot use the gatcha, and only start with the skills of your class.

・You will regret choosing this. Despair is inevitable.

・If you can overcome the despair, you will discover one truth.

・The developers made this mode as a joke.

As the difficulty increased, it became harder to get skills, and harder to level. However, you could get way stronger because there were less caps to growth.

“Okay, Hell Mode. Do I get to pick a class?”

He picked Hell Mode without a second thought.

Then the monitor showed a class selection screen. The classes shown are ones you often see in these types of games.

The choices included Swordsman, Brawler, Thief, Merchant, Mage, Sage, Sword Saint, Priestess, and Arch Mage.

It seemed like you ccould click on each class to see its difficulty level.

“There’s a lot of classes. The lower on the list it is, the harder it is to play. You can even be a Hero or a Demon King?”

The classes lower down seemed to be rarer and stronger, and the difficulty of the class was indicated by the number of stars.

The Swordsman and Brawler were one star difficulty.

The Sword Saint and Arch Mage had three stars.

The Hero and the Demon King had a 5 star difficulty.

“What the? Isn’t the Sword Saint obviously just better than Swordsman? Why did they even include this choice?”

The Sword Saint seemed to be an advanced version of the Swordsman. Anyone would pick Sword Saint.

For now, he selected Swordsman to see what was next. The screen changed, and the next step was to choose a rank.

“Commoner, baron, count…. I see, the rank is randomly selected. There’s even a chance to be king. Is it the same with the Sword Saint?”

You can get a rank straight out of an isekai light novel.

Kenichi had read a lot of isekai light novels, so he had no problem recognizing the ranks.

He clicked the back button to return to the class selection screen and selected Sword Saint.

“Only serf, commoner, and baron are available. I see, if you choose a stronger class, it’s harder to play and your rank is lower.”

When he chose Hero, it seemed that the rank gatcha could only pull from serf and commoner.

The probability distribution of the gatcha was also displayed. So your rank is up to luck. It seems that the stronger the class, the lower the rank.

So the classes that could grow to a higher level most likely start at a lower rank.

“Which one should I pick? I’ve played Swordsman and Mage before. Maybe I’ll play a healer this time. Ah, but I’ve never played as a Demon King. A Demon King serf sounds pretty fun…… Hmm? There’s some more classes.”

While he was pondering his choices, just as he was about to click on what he thought was the bottom option, he realized that there were more classes.

“Summoner? And it’s more difficult than Demon King?”

At the very bottom of the class list was Summoner. The Summoner was marked with 8-star difficulty.

It looked like Summoners could only get the serf rank.

“Summoner, huh? I’ve never played one before, but it would be cool to summon a dragon or something.”

He had played a number of games – not just MMOs, but also console games. He remembered that in one of Japan’s most popular games, a summoner could summon a beast that looked like something out of Greek mythology.

“Alright. Summoner, as a serf. Is that everything?”

He chose 『Hell Mode』, with the 『Summoner』 class, and the 『Serf』 rank, and there didn’t seem to be any further options.

He looked around to see if there were options for looks or sex, but he could only find a single button.

It was a big button with the word “Start?” on it that filled the screen. When he clicked it, a message appeared.

『The Summoner class has not yet been tested and has no users. Would you still like to start? Yes/No』

“Huh? It hasn’t been tested? Then why can I pick it? But this makes it more interesting. Alright, let’s try it out!”

Kenichi clicked 『Yes』 without another thought. The screen glowed, and the half-kitchen 8 tatami room is left without a soul in sight.

Kenichi Yamada had disappeared from the real world.