Chapter 3

"Damn, I've never spent this much time on character creation before..."

I stood in front of the mirror, looking at my character. Satisfied with the tall, slender, feminine-faced (biologically male) character, I let out a sigh of admiration.

I was really surprised by the wide range of character customization options. The character was more feminine-faced than me in real life, and with this, other players would likely mistake me for a woman. Hehehe, just wait, Raijin, I'll make you pay for using me.

"Well, the last thing is the player name. Hmm, Mercenary A is for FPS, and this is an RPG, so..."

I operated the semi-transparent keyboard and entered my player name.

"‘Villager A’... Good, no one else has it."

It's an incredibly straightforward name. If I had come up with a more elaborate name and it ended up as a joke in Raijin's video, I would have been in trouble. This way, it won't be a joke. An example of someone who became a joke is a guy with a chuuni name.

"Alright, done... Whoa!? It's already one o'clock! Shit, Raijin must have finished the tutorial by now..."

Checking the time, it was 1:19 PM. The service had been running for over an hour.

According to Raijin, beta testers could carry their characters over to the full version, so they didn't need to do character creation. Therefore, they probably finished the tutorial by now. ...The fact that I received 20 new notifications is a good sign.

"Recognition complete... Fixing recognition in space... Starting materialization..."

The eye in the middle of the shadow sphere blinked and emitted light, and my body, which had been in a semi-transparent state, solidified and appeared. Due to the job I chose during character creation, a wooden bow was equipped on my back, and I could feel its weight.

"Wow... The wind and the clouds flowing in the sky... It really feels like I've wandered into another world."

Looking up at the sky, the clouds high above slowly flowed, making me feel calm.

Aims had excellent graphics, and the reproduction of natural phenomena was very close to reality. This game's texture was almost another reality. It was that realistic.

Turning to the shadow, it was floating there as if waiting for me.

"Master, let's go. On the journey to recover your memories."

"Thanks for the guidance, Shadow."

The notification sound for new messages made me feel rushed, so I started running towards Faust with Shadow.

◇

Hunter (Archer). With skills like "Eagle Eye," which allows you to clearly see distant objects, "Wild Instinct," which makes you less detectable by enemy mobs and removes your icon from the minimap, and "Withdrawal," which gives you agility bonuses the closer you are to enemy mobs, this initial job has excellent skills despite being the most unpopular.

"Ah, damn! I heard the stories, but this is really bad!?"

The reason for its unpopularity is this. The process of loading an arrow is fine. There's an assist system that naturally guides you through the process when you choose this job. The problem is what comes next.

The arrows don't hit. For an archer, is there a more fatal flaw? If it flew straight like a gun, even with wind resistance, it would be fine, but a bow is heavily affected by the wind. Besides, I'm not particularly good at handling a bow since I've never done archery.

While reloading the next arrow, I glared at the slime that was bouncing and attacking me.

"Alright! Then I'll use you as a test subject until I get used to it! I'm a man who became the best in Japan through effort and self-improvement!"

You said you don't need honor, right? Shut up! That's a different story!

"Hit, damn it! ...Huff."

My fifth arrow also missed the slime, and its counterattack reduced my HP to zero.

"Master... If you get that beaten by a slime, the future looks bleak..."

After respawning for the third time in front of the slime, I was taunted by Shadow. Grr, slime...

"Well, you could ignore the monsters and head to Faust? It's better not to push yourself..."

"I absolutely don't want to lose to a slime! I at least want to win and run away!"

I will keep challenging until I win. My motto is to taunt back with all my might if I get taunted after being killed!

"Hmm... Another miss, damn it!"

While picking up and putting the missed arrows back into the quiver, I thought, is there a way to make the arrows hit...?

"Or, do I even need to hit with the bow?"

I came up with a solution by changing my approach. That's right, I didn't need to use the bow from the beginning.

"Die, you bastard!"

"Peek!"

I picked up the arrow and thrust it into the slime with my hand. The slime shuddered and then disappeared in a blue light, turning into polygons.

"Hahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha! I won, I beat the slime!"

Raising my fist high in the air, I celebrated, ignoring the strange looks from other players walking towards Faust. It had been a while since I tasted defeat. Well, the opponent was probably the weakest monster in the game, so it's a bit complicated.

"This is the true way of an archer... Using the arrowhead to physically attack. What a wonderful thing, being an archer!"

"Master... I don't think this is the intended way to fight."

While basking in the afterglow of victory, the result screen appeared.

——————————————

【Battle Result】

【Enemy】 【Slime】

【Battle Time】 30:42

【EXP Gained】 2 EXP

【Money Gained】 3 Money

Your proficiency has reached a certain level, and you have gained a skill and leveled up.

【Archer Lv1→3】

Your bow handling has improved. Range has increased.

You have gained a special title.

【Wild Hunter】

You have gained a skill from the title.

【Close Combat Lv1】

Your close combat power has increased.

——————————————

"I spent over 30 minutes on a single slime!?"

I spent over 30 minutes on just one slime. Why is this game so difficult! (Choosing another job would have taken about a minute, but let's put that aside)

"Phew, damn, Raijin and Ponta must be angry..."

Notifications stopped coming after 30 messages. They probably wrote something like, "You spent two hours in the tutorial area, hahaha!" I'm scared to check.

"Damn it! This is all your fault, you slime!"

"Peek!"

Out of frustration, I shot an arrow at a slime that was bouncing around, and it hit perfectly, turning the slime into polygons.

"...Huh? Did they secretly patch the game without telling me?"

The arrow flew straighter than before, making me blink in surprise. That's strange. It wasn't hitting at all just a moment ago.

"Could it be that the skill level-up added some correction?"

I shot another arrow, and although it didn't hit the slime, it stuck into the ground nearby.

"Hahaha... Hahahaha..."

It's here. My time has come. Once I can hit with the bow, I'm in control.

"I'll hunt all the slimes in the tutorial area, hahaha!!!"

Forgetting my goal of heading to Faust, I enthusiastically focused on hunting slimes.

◇

"...So? You spent three hours in the tutorial area, noob? Do you have anything to say to us who have been waiting here all this time?"

"Well, I spent an hour on character creation... Ah, yes, I'm very sorry, it's all my fault, I'm really sorry."

It was 3:10 PM. I had been so engrossed in hunting slimes that I lost track of time. Thanks to that, my level had gone up by 3, and my Archer skill level had reached 5.

As a result, I was sitting in seiza in the fountain square of the starting town, Faust, being lectured. There were quite a few players, but apparently, the number had decreased from the peak after three hours of the service starting... The gazes of the surrounding players were painful.

"Um... Where's Ponta?"

"He's out buying equipment and items. Because someone was so late..."

"I'm really, really sorry!!!"

Lifting my face from the dogeza position, I noticed that Raijin's equipment had changed from the initial gear to leather armor. ...Wait, this guy.

"Hey, Raijin, can you buy a full set of equipment with the starting money?"

"Huh? Ah, yeah, sure (looking away)"

"Hmm (suspicious look)"

"Ah, yeah! We went hunting! With Ponta!"

"Did you wait for me!? You cheater!"

"Why are you getting mad!? You were also hunting in the tutorial area the whole time, right!? It's even!"

While arguing with Raijin (a pointless argument), I noticed a player approaching us.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Raijin! This job has poor cost-effectiveness. It would be better if there were more rewards... Ah, could it be Mercenary?"

"...Who is this girl? A friend of Raijin's?"

The only person who calls me Mercenary is Graponmaru, but he uses a tough-looking old man character, so it's probably not him. Hmm, I don't know this person.

"Ah, right. Mercenary doesn't know. This is—"

"Mercenary, you're so late! The tutorial area can be cleared in ten minutes! I'm a fireworks master, so it was hard to fight, but I didn't struggle with the slimes."

Hmm? A fireworks master who calls me Mercenary and Ponta...

It must be, it can't be anyone else—

"Ah, I'm late with the introduction. I'm Graponmaru. In this game, I decided to play as Ponta!"

"Haaaaaaaah!?!"

A player name "Ponta" appeared above the smiling girl's head, and I let out the most surprised scream of the day.

Graponmaru (♀) [Heroine]

Unable to use a gender-bending avatar in this game, she decided to play with an avatar that didn't differ much from her real self after feeling sad about it.

By the way, the archer still doesn't hit at all at level 3. It's just the protagonist's PS that's off.