Waking up as a baby and realizing that I was reincarnated into the world of a game I used to play, I fell into despair.

Unlike the peaceful modern society, this is a dangerous world where evil spirits of rivers and mountains called monsters are rampant. The top creatures are not human being, but a gigantic dragon that can cover up a city.

The place where people live is the living sphere called nation created inside gigantic walls.

The adventurers, who are working everyday outside the wall even while being frightened and risking their lives to bring back resources from outside the wall with the magic technology that developed instead of science, support that livelihood.

Although it is a game world, a peace-loving and weak idiot who lived a life unrelated to conflict like me is born in such an eat or be eaten world – is something ridiculous like this real, I wonder?

Someday I will also have to fight monsters with a sword in my hand. When I thought so, the values I had cultivated in my previous life only cause me distress.

However, there are gods in this world as well. I noticed that fact when I was seven.

In any case, I don’t want to die – with that in mind, I practice swinging using a wooden sword to improve my weapon proficiency even by a little.

“Tei… hm?”

A bubble-like ‘+1’ appear then disappear in my field of view.

The identity of the thing that suddenly appear every time I swing my sword is ‘experience point’, and I hear a fanfare in a short one hour.

Yes, I have leveled up.

“Oh, ohh… oooo——hyahooooooooooo!!!”

I dance like crazy. I learn that this world, that I thought was like hell, is actually like paradise.

If I accumulate experience points, my level will go up.

There is nothing more wonderful than this other than being alive.

Unlike the real world where I lived before I was reincarnated, effort is managed by a numerical value called experience point here, and when it exceeds a certain level, a result called level up will appear. That’s what is promised in this ‘world’.

Even if there is a difference in the rate of increase and upper limit due to talent, I’m guaranteed to grow if I continue to make efforts, and I can ‘be aware’ of it thanks to the fanfare that echoes in my brain.

The higher the number of acquired experience points that emerges in my field of vision, means the more efficient my effort is; even the next growth(goal) is clearly shown as the ‘necessary experience points’ that appears at the edge of my field of vision.

Is such a wonderful thing real, I wonder? Is such a wonderful world real, I wonder?

This world where your efforts are not useless, where the objective fact (level) is shown and where you can express your feelings fully – isn’t it a world that every gamer wished for?

“I’m here, Valhallaaaaa!!! Or maybe Shangri-La, uhyooohyahoooooo!!”

My unstoppable, overflooding joy turned into an unstoppable laughter and echoes in the blue sky.

On that day, I kept laughing as I continue to repeat practice swinging and then was dragged to the church by my parents who doubted my sanity.

This game-based world can be called high fantasy in terms of genre.

The outside of the outer wall is a world of survival of the fittest full of monsters outside of human intellect, but the setting in the inside is fundamentally a world view that mixes magic with a slightly old modern era society.

The protagonist (player) enrolls in the National Adventurer Academy with the aim of becoming an adventurer who defeats monsters and brings back resources to protect the living area of humankind. Getting closer with his comrades, beating up bad guys, and preventing evil schemes – it has such a common story.

Although such mainstream world view and story weren’t explosively popular, it become a hit in the customer base who were looking the ‘good old’, of which myself included.

So, if you think that I, who was reincarnated into such a world, is in a special position, you are totally wrong.

I was born in a very ordinary family, even the name ‘Sakurai Tōru’ isn’t the least bit rare.

In addition, there is none among the original work’s characters or the famous and influential characters have the surname of ‘Sakurai’, so it is safe to say that I’m a ‘mob character’ both in name and reality.

In the long run, I’ll ignore the development of the original work and diligently work hard at leveling.

“World crisis, national crisis, and heroines’ crisis – I’ll ignore them all! If I leave those kinds of things to the lot of the original work, it will probably work out somehow!”

Even if I have the memories of my previous life, I don’t think of myself as a special existence.

In the first place, I was a bottom rung of the society pathetic bastard who lived in a world without a conflict. It’s clear as day that if I butt in those matters, I would only get hurt.

And my heart is already set on leveling. I’m going to borrow some items for that, but since they are mostly things for the end contents, they won’t affect the development of the original work.

I’m going to raise my level, so I’ll leave the dangerous things to you, ladies and gentlemen!!!

My heart feels light and refreshed, it’s the best.

Generally, I won’t interfere with the story as long as it is heading toward the happy ending, and not toward game over. If I confirmed that it is progressing as it should, it would be fine to leave it alone and live as I pleased.

“I’d be happy to be involved with beautiful girls like the heroines, but I don’t know how treat them anyway, I would only end up being hated and shunned.”

Do you foolishly think that someone unpopular in the real world would become popular once he is reborn?

In the first place, I will also spend my time for self-improvement on leveling, so there’s no way such a guy would be popular. Being armed with a good theoretical argument complete, my self-defense is perfect even in solitude.

“I’m full of energy today and my body is light too, I’ll raise my level, uhhyohooooi!”

With such a mood, I rush out of my house with a wooden sword in my hand today too. My destination is a bit far riverside.

In this world, if you can do an activity with the purpose of ‘training’ in mind, you will get experience points – what a wonderful world.

For example, just by jogging with the intention of ‘increasing stamina’, you will get experience points for each step, but if you have the intention of ‘getting to your destination’, even if you sprint will all your might, you will not get even a fragment of experience point. In other words, if you keep in mind the purpose of to train yourself in all your actions, you will get experience points just by living.

What happens when you accumulate experience points? You don’t know? You level up.

Now then, what happens when you level up? Let me tell you, you can continue to earn experience points.

“It’s the best…”

While muttering so intermittently, I’m thinking of giving the system of this world a topping of fresh cream to add its artistic value and the best of the best award.

I don’t know what I’m saying anymore, but in short, leveling is the best.

Earn experience points, raise your level, and if you level up, you can enjoy earning experience points toward the next goal. If something like a level cap doesn’t exist, it will be an endless loop like the infinite circle of Ouroboros. For me, who can enjoy the work of ‘leveling’ itself, it’s like continuously enjoying myself.

I’m thinking of going to get an item that can removes the upper limit of your level, but I’m still not strong enough now. The upper limit of my level that I can see at present is 50, and I, who have just started earning experience points, have just reached level 5.

“Every time it goes up by one, the required experience points increase like crazy, so at this rate, I will hit the counter stop in about eight years later when it’s time for the academy’s enrollment.”

I can only obtain the first level upper limit release item by belonging to the academy, so it would be reasonable as my goal for the time being.

Dammit, if I was aware of it when I was about 3 years old, I wouldn’t have lost 4 years’ worth of exp…!

With such regret as a spring, I continue to swing my wooden sword today as well.

Four years have passed, and nowadays I can finally drown out the loss of experience points of when I didn’t realize the splendor of this world when I was 3 years old.

As I’m over 10 years old now, I evolved from the wooden sword to a rusty common sword, so my leveling had evolved further. By the way, I’m level 23 now.

These days, I worked hard on leveling as well as studying and exercising.

My parents also yielded to the leveling presentations I had given many times, and recently, the number of times they brought me to counseling has decreased. It could be said that we have a reasonably good relationship.

“O~u, boy. Seems like you’re at it again today.”

“Ahh—!!! That voice, Uncle Bonus!!!”

“Can you change that nickname somehow?”

Even if I remember your name, I won’t get experience points anyway… half of that is a joke though.

As I continued leveling for 4 years, I was able to make some whimsical acquaintances who were interested in it, and this Uncle Bonus who called out to me is one of them.

I could encounter this person with a random probability once a month. Uncle Bonus with an old-fashioned sword on his waist seems to be pursuing swordsmanship; he corrected my mistakes and thus improved my efficiency in getting experience points, and occasionally he would asked me ‘can you do this?’ and taught me various skills – he is a wonderful personage.

In this game, there are three main ways to learn a skill.

The first is automatic acquisition by leveling up. There are many general-purpose skills that raise the basic abilities of the character in this way.

The second is the acquisition by using items such as skill books and secret books. There are many weapon types related skills such as sword skills and ax skills in this way.

And the last is acquisition by ‘learning’ from NPC characters by instructions, succession events, and the likes. There are a wide variety of skills that can be obtained in this way, and even if you are taught by the same character, the skill that you can acquire will change depending on the degree of friendship and the content of the event.

Normally, acquisition at the third case doesn’t occur unless the required status and weapon proficiency exceed a certain line and the interaction with the target character is deep. Moreover, many of them have secret conditions basically.

Moreover, since there are wide range of skills such as hot spring appraisal skill and skills that are unknown where to use, it can be said that it is essential to memorize who will teach you what skills under what conditions when you clear the game.

On the contrary.

Although the encounter rate with this Uncle Bonus is random, if I encounter him, there is a high probability that he will teach me some sort of skill.

“Today is… well, do you have anything you want to learn?”

“How to increase the efficiency of earning experience points or how to correct the status increase when you level up.”

“I’ve said it every time, but I don’t really understand things like experience point, level, nor the words of young people. For now, I’ll teach you one of the ways of walking, if it’s you, you can learn it, I guess.”

Uncle Bonus’s… or rather, the drawback of humankind of this world is that experience points aren’t reflected in their field of vision.

All the residents of the game world didn’t go through tutorial after all, and they didn’t read the attached manual, so they could hardly understand the game terminology. They are beyond help.

However, I don’t get angry at such a thing. After all, this Uncle Bonus is so useful to the degree that it covers such a drawback.

After all, when I first started swinging, I could only get ‘+1’ experience point, but now that I have been instructed, I can get ‘+25’ experience points with a single swing.

25 times you know, 25 times. Even the paid items in online games wouldn’t have such an illegal amplification.

On top of that, he even taught me skills, so having him is like having an unrivaled cheat.

Although I wondered if our encounter would be stopped or reduced by the world, I didn’t feel that at all. Admin(world), do your job… no, you don’t have to do it after all, I wish you let me meet him every day.

Actually, I would like to call him Uncle Cheat, but since the word cheat has a negative connotation, I call him Uncle Bonus as everyone is familiar with it as well.

Without the cooperation of the Uncle Bonus, it would not have been possible for me to quickly meet the required experience points that increase like crazy every time I level up.

(Speaking of which, I don’t remember seeing this person in the original game… If he were there, the game balance would collapse and he would be deleted, I guess)

Such an idea came to my mind, but I have no intention of complaining as long as I’m benefiting from it. Or rather, anything that is useful for leveling is good.

“Uncle Bonus, we have no time to waste, so hurry up! Uncle Bonus! Please!!”

“Yes, yes, there’s no hurry. You are really an energetic one, aren’t you?”

———

It was a coincidence that Uncle Bonus, Sanuki Shoichiro, caught sight of Sakurai Tōru.

From his perspective, who has his own personal view regarding swordsmanship, it was immediately apparent that Sakurai’s practice-swinging was too unshapely and it was self-taught.

On top of that, what caught his eye was that Sakurai was persistently swinging his wooden sword as if it was fun.

Humankind could only live inside the outer wall, and the reason why people picked up arms was mostly ‘in order to live’.

One day, there was a mass outbreak of monsters invading the inside of the wall, Shoichiro’s parents, who were adventurers, fought them, becoming the shield for the people, and lost their lives. Losing his family, Shoichiro was taken to an institution and he picked up the sword to be able to earn a living in the future.

“He sure seems to enjoy it…”

Shoichiro suddenly saw Sakurai’s figure, and wondered if he had found joy in swinging his sword.

He looked at the figure that kept swinging with a smile, and he concluded that he had no such a feeling.

Shoichiro’s sword was for living, and was only a ‘means’ for enriching his life. The adventurers he had met so far definitely came to the same conclusion.

Perhaps… that was exactly why.

The figure of Sakurai, who was joyfully swinging his sword, one swing after another with a smile floating on his face, seemed to have a ‘passion’ that Shoichiro couldn’t get.

People had a longing for something they couldn’t have, and Shoichiro also felt that Sakurai’s figure was very precious.

“That’s not how you do it, boy.”

“Hm? Who are you?”

“I’m an adventurer who happened to pass by. You, your sword is self-taught, right? If you keep swinging like that, a strange habit would be ingrained in your body, you know.”

When he noticed it, Shoichiro was talking to Sakurai.

He was impressed at Sakurai who listened very seriously and with great interest to the advice that he spat out so smoothly that it surprised himself.

This was the first encounter between Shoichiro and Sakurai.

And when he took occasional holiday once a month, Shoichiro’s feet began turning toward the riverbed.

Shoichiro decided to teach him his own skills as their interaction deepened.

Shoichiro was affected by the passion of the boy, and he thought ‘let’s teach him’ even though he kept refusing the countless people who begged to be his disciple; and he was embarrassed to admit that he did it because he want to leave something of him in the boy’s sword.

Sakurai was clumsy, but he probably had been building up his foundation all this time.

He learned the techniques taught by Shoichiro one after another, and within a month he had mastered enough to put them into practice. Shoichiro was always surprised at his speed of understanding.

However, on the other hand, he was also aware of Sakurai’s lack of talent because his growth slowed down as soon as he crossed a certain line.

(I have to say, it’s mediocre. I don’t to think he has the capacity to achieve greatness, but…)

Nevertheless, Shoichiro decided to let this boy, who he met coincidentally, to inherit his skills.

Watching that figure swinging ‘to enjoy’ the techniques he had learnt ‘to live’ again and again had become a newfound pleasure of the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro.