Strategy Guide Chapter 1

Why am I the lowest in this game world?

What in the world is going on? 

Even though I finished my accursed high school life just recently, for some reason, I am in the middle of a high school entrance ceremony all of a sudden. 

Furthermore, it is the entrance ceremony inside the game that I was thinking about playing. 

After I graduated from high school, I was thinking about working part-time to buy a VR set and play this popular game. I am currently in the beginning of that game. 

Of course, I don’t remember having begun that part-time job, and I haven’t even seen an expensive VR set with my own eyes. 

However, I had already bought a strategy guide for the game and flipped its pages, so there should be no mistake that this is the beginning point of that game. 

At the stage before my eyes, the curtains for the Cherry Blossom High School’s entrance ceremony were pulled back, the characters that appear in the game were lined up around me, and they are listening to the Academy Principal who is talking with a serious face on the stage, so there’s no way to deny this.

Even though the curtains have Japanese writing, the people around me have a wide array of hair colors. 

This sight that I could only call a prank was on the verge of stopping my heart. 

The Principal is saying stuff like ‘I welcome you all who are willing to put your lives on the line for your country’.

If I remember correctly, in the early Showa Era (1926) a dungeon that leads to the underworld suddenly appeared, and the Cherry Blossom Academy, which serves as a sort of military school, was built on top of that. 

Time passed, and the Imperial Army pulled their hands away from the Kanto Dungeon. As such, the military school changed into an exploration academy. 

That’s basically the backstory of the game. 

It was built in order to fight off the unknown threats at first, but with the explorers increasing their levels and the magic crystals and items that could be obtained from the dungeon monsters, it turned into a location that could shake the power balance of the nations, and its importance changed.

Since then, the academy has become the stage for a bloodbath of self-interest. 

Several dungeons appeared in Japan in the early Showa Era, but this academy is the one that’s on top of the dungeon in the Kanto Plains.

It is the dungeon that has the most tourists and common explorers in Japan.

The whole world is currently tussling to get the resources that can be obtained from dungeons.

That’s why explorers that can obtain magic crystals and items are treated pretty favorably by the nation.

Because the magic crystals that monsters drop had outstanding power concealed in them, energy had switched almost completely from oil to magic crystals, and the weapons coming from the dungeon replaced the weapons of the outer world.

At present, even the attempt to bring those items out of the nation is not forgiven. 

Also, the power you gain from defeating the monsters of the dungeon is shown as levels, so you could say levels have already become so important they are practically everything in your social status.

The explorers that clear several floors are applauded as heroes, and there would be times when they would be given peerage which still exists in this world, and there’s also occasions where you would be appointed in the Imperial Parliament. 

If you get assigned as a noble, you will have a strong influence in society for 7 years. 

In exchange, there will be cases where you will be conscripted as a reserve soldier. 

I think that’s what was written in the strategy guide I bought. 

It had more info about the side stories than the main story, so I remember that backstory pretty well.

Even though it is a world that’s a combination of Dating Sim, RPG, and other elements, it had the reputation of having an awfully grand story.

By the way, the ‘lives on the line’ that the principal spoke of is by no means an exaggeration. People easily dying when fighting monsters is pretty much common sense in this world now. 

That said, this is also a world where you can die even more easily if you don’t fight monsters. It is kind of an apocalyptic world in that way. 

There’s no way I would be happy about entering a game world, and because of how sudden this was, I was pretty much dumbstruck here. 

I would gaze at the ceiling, would look at one of the heroines diagonally from me, Ayano Jinguji, while doing my best to accept this new environment I am in.

The event was moving on on its own as if mocking my efforts. 

They were leaving in order with Class A being the first, and I am the very last of the last class.

Meaning that I am obviously in the Class D admission group in high school, and the worst thing is that my seat order is at the furthest back which denotes the lowest within the class.

Class A to Class C are the escalator group that have been in the academy since middle school, and have already experienced dungeon diving. 

There’s students in Class D who have raised their levels, but if you are below 16 years old, you can’t even enter the dungeon unless you have special qualifications, and the number of those people is not high.

Even so, we would still be considered elite who have gotten through pretty strict filtering. If it is just in raw potential, this Class D shouldn’t be below the other classes. 

However, my seat order shows that I have the lowest grades within the class in the examination we had after enrolling. 

I casually put my hand inside my desk once I arrived at my classroom, and there was an awfully thick book inside.

I brought it out wondering what it was, and it was the strategy guide of this game that I bought a few days ago: The Strongest, Complete Guide to NeverQuest Perfect Clear -Omega Maniacs.

The color print front cover has characters in this classroom shown there as well. 

I was looking at that front cover for a while there, dumbfounded, but I felt a gaze and raised my head. 

The gazes of the whole class gathered on me for some reason.

What’s happening?

“Hey, Takashi Takasugi, respond.” 

I was told this by the teacher standing on the platform and I hurriedly responded. 

When I did, I heard the people around saying things like ‘what a weirdo, staring at a completely blank book’.

It seems this strategy guide looks like a blank book for the students around.

I immediately open the strategy guide and search for the person called Takashi Takasugi within the list of characters. 

Takashi Takasugi .

An unlucky student that has the lowest grades in 1st Year Class D.

He will eventually face the protagonist, lose, and leave the academy. 

As you progress the story, you will hear rumors about him having died in the middle of dungeon diving after he left the academy. 

His stats are low, and he is barely a threat as an enemy. 

When thinking about it, he is a pitiful student that entered this academy despite not having any noteworthy abilities. 

D-Don’t joke around. 

A life is at stake here, there’s no way you can wrap this up with just being unlucky. 

Wrapping it up with just calling it pitiful. Also, if I am going to be reincarnating, it normally has to be into the main protagonist, right? 

Why am I a character that’s not blessed with abilities and is a target for immediate expulsion as the lowest of the academy? 

Even though I was given this opportunity to get into the game world, why do I have to die in such a boring manner? 

No, wait. 

Just think about it.

Doesn’t that mean I just have to not go against the protagonist? 

In the first place, I have no reason at all to go against the protagonist anyways. 

This is a game world anyways, so it should be fine to just leave the protagonist on his own device.

Let’s direct my attention at what’s in front of my eyes instead. 

It is not like it is set in stone that I will lose here, so isn’t it just fine if I win? 

Maybe I should stealthily become the strongest? -is what I was dreaming up as I smirked.

At this time, there was no way for me to know that a confrontation with the protagonist couldn’t be avoided. 

The strategy guide in my hands felt comparable to a shining bible. 

I can’t see a future where I lose with something like this. 

Not only the protagonist, couldn’t I become super popular and be the strongest? 

Gallantly appearing in the crisis of a pretty girl, or something like that. 

There’s a lot of beautiful game heroines in this academy. 

Moreover, even the way to conquer them is written in this book. 

No, would it be better to assume that, if I were to put a hand on such events, the scenario might change and I won’t be able to take advantage of the strategy guide anymore? 

Honestly speaking, I was being super easy-going until the homeroom teacher distributed something similar to a smartphone, and I saw my status that was shown there. 

The students gathered around a male student that seemed like the protagonist and seemed to be making a ruckus. 

From the pieces of information that I could pick up from there, I felt like there was no factor I could win against no matter how much I struggled.