chapter1 · 001-ep1

While the World Goes Wild Over Levels and Dungeons, This Hardcore Gamer's Just Gonna Keep Hunting Achievements Nobody Told Me Unlocking Achievements Came With World-First Rewards

Kogaryu

Chapter One: The World's Anomaly

Episode 1: A Gate Appeared in the World

They say that if you go to sleep after seventeen straight hours of gaming, you can fall into a seriously deep sleep.

At least, that's how it was for me.

When I woke up in bed, my first three thoughts were: my throat is dry, my stomach's empty, and my head feels heavy.

As wake-ups go, pretty standard stuff.

That's about what a high school guy's day off looks like, I'd bet.

Except for one thing that wasn't standard at all.

There was something like a translucent panel floating at the edge of my vision.

"...What is this?"

I rubbed my sleep-fogged eyes.

It didn't go away.

Rubbed them again.

Still there.

Something like a transparent window.

Text lined up on it.

What looked like a name, what looked like numbers, and some weird frames.

Looked like a game UI.

"Maybe I'm finally done for."

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Could be eye floaters.

Could be eye strain.

Could also be that seventeen hours of gaming had finally pushed my brain into some uncharted territory.

So this is "gamer brain," huh.

People used to say that all the time.

Play too many games and you'll lose your mind, they said.

I picked up the phone by my bed and checked the time.

12:40 in the afternoon.

"Ugh."

I'd overslept.

And my notifications were a disaster.

Family group chat, class group chat, social media, breaking news, even what looked like some kind of emergency alert, all stacked on top of each other until my lock screen was scrolling-long.

Genuine horror material.

Right then, my little sister's voice came flying through the door.

"Aniki! You're up!? Finally!?"

"I'm up, but..."

"The world's gone nuts since yesterday!"

"Isn't that a really dumb way to explain it?"

"Whatever, just hurry up and get down here!"

Trying to sum up a worldwide change with nothing but the word "nuts" — yep, Rin was being Rin today too.

Sloppy.

Sloppy, but there was something pretty serious in her voice, so it got my attention.

I got out of bed and opened the curtains.

Outside was unusually bright.

Springlike, slightly dry midday light.

The residential neighborhood looked the same as ever.

But there was something that wasn't the same as ever.

Far off, in the direction of the park, maybe.

A black sphere was floating in the sky.

Hard to tell how big it was.

It was too far away.

But it had a presence I couldn't just write off as my eyes playing tricks on me.

Black.

Quietly black.

Oddly eye-catching.

"...What is that?"

The weird window at the edge of my vision bugged me.

The black sphere outside bugged me too.

Way too much information to process right after waking up.

"Anikaaa!"

"I said I'm coming!"

Still half-asleep, I headed down the stairs.

I could hear a news program coming from the living room.

They were putting on a calm act, but it was the kind of voice anchors use when the content is anything but.

When I walked into the living room, Dad, Mom, and Rin were all lined up in front of the TV.

All three had oddly stiff faces.

Not the normal weekend-afternoon family atmosphere.

"Ren, where were you yesterday?"

That was the first thing out of Dad's mouth.

"My room."

"The whole time?"

"The whole time."

"Doing what?"

"Gaming."

For a second, the air in the room just stopped.

I could tell I was on the receiving end of some judgment.

But it was the truth, so nothing to be done about it.

No point putting on a front here, and yesterday, without a doubt, I had been in my room gaming.

Completely unaware of whatever was happening to the world.

Rin shrugged, exasperated.

"Aniki, you're incredible. The world seriously turned upside down, and you were gaming and then sleeping through it."

"The way you put that, I sound like the one clueless idiot of the family."

"Because you basically are."

Not being able to argue back hurts.

On the TV was a map of Japan, covered in a massive number of markers.

This wasn't some cute little "one per prefecture" count.

『The government is continuing its investigation into the black spheres confirmed across the country since late last night.』

『This phenomenon, commonly known as Gates, had appeared at several thousand locations nationwide as of this morning—』

The footage changed.

A residential district.

In front of a station.

A riverbank.

A shopping mall parking lot.

That black sphere was floating in all kinds of places.

The same thing I'd seen from my window.

Then came even more incomprehensible information.

『There are also mounting reports that a portion of humanity has awakened to special abilities. Testimony is pouring in from around the world — people seeing game-screen-like displays in their vision, being able to check their own level and attributes—』

"...Huh?"

On screen, a man was excitedly waving his phone around.

『It's really there! Right next to my name — "Awakener"!』

A different woman said, her face a little pale:

『It says I have the fire attribute... I don't know what any of this means...』

And in the ticker at the bottom of the screen ran words like Awakener, Level, Attribute, Dungeon Interior, Monster Sightings.

That's when I stared hard at the translucent window in my own vision.

"...Wait, this thing was the real deal?"

I'd said that out loud.

Rin answered instantly.

"That's what I've been telling you all morning!"

Practically on reflex, I left the living room and headed back to my room.

My heart was racing a little.

The words from the news and the weird window in my vision had just clicked together.

I sat down in my chair.

When I turned my attention to the edge of my vision, sure enough, there it was.

A translucent window.

What looked like a name display.

Numbers.

A few different fields.

"...You've gotta be kidding me."

This time I couldn't even pretend it might be floaters.

Gingerly, I read through the window.

Himuro Ren.

Awakener.

Level 1.

Below that, Status.

Skills.

Items.

Those were the kinds of fields I could see.

"Whoa. It's literally a game."

Muttering quietly to myself as I went.

The skills field was empty.

The items field too.

That much was about what I expected.

Which is a weird thing to call "expected," I know, but there's no other way to put it.

Below those was a field I didn't recognize.

【Achievements】

"...Achievements?"

What are those?

Level and attributes, sure, I understood those.

They're presumably a measure of strength. Straightforward.

But achievements? What's the idea there?

They're one of my favorite elements in games, but having them implemented in real life is pretty terrifying.

I opened it.

And there, I went a little stiff.

Because the conditions listed were far, far worse than I'd imagined.

Stuff you'd never, ever get fighting normally.

All but impossible by accident, too.

The basic concepts didn't even make sense.

And they were lined up in droves.

【D: Punch the same monster 100 times in a row using only your non-dominant hand】

【C: Complete 10,000 squats inside a dungeon】

【C: Spend 12 or more hours together with the same monster, without either of you dying】

"...Who came up with these?"

Awful.

Awful, and yet weirdly fascinating.

Any sensible person would just ignore them.

But show this kind of thing to a certain sort of person, and it lights a fire under them instead.

Someone like me, probably.

Leaning forward a little, I scrolled through the achievement list.

Made no sense.

Made no sense.

Made no sense.

But it looked oddly fun.

"...Oh, this is bad!"

It slipped out before I knew it.

Attributes and levels, the obvious stuff — sure, that all matters too, I'm sure.

That's where everyone on social media had their eyes.

Fire attribute this, lightning attribute that, leveled up, went to a dungeon.

Tons of people were having a blast yelling about it.

But as for me, this thing had completely run off with my heart.

Achievements.

You don't get them unless you go for them.

Ordinary people wouldn't even try.

God, I love stuff like that.

I woke my phone back up and went to social media again.

I'd only skimmed it before; this time I had a real objective.

I wanted to check one thing: what happened to the people who'd gone into dungeons.

There were more posts than I'd expected.

Ones saying it was terrifying.

Ones saying there were monsters inside.

Ones saying they bolted straight back out.

Ones saying they got hurt.

And ones who went in and came back out just fine, too.

No telling how much of it was true, of course.

Some of them were surely hyping things up for attention.

But at the very least, it didn't sound like a "one step in and you're dead" situation.

"...Eh. I'll be fine."

As evidence goes, that was pretty sloppy — but not zero.

With this many accounts of people going in and coming back, it probably wasn't some blind, first-try, instant-death game.

Trusting in that "probably," I stood up.

I dragged out my backpack and stuffed in water, Calorie Mates, a power bank, and a towel.

A flashlight, too.

And while I was at it, I grabbed the metal bat propped in the corner of my room.

A relic of the days when the old man and I did batting practice — not playing catch, actual swings.

Nowadays it was basically decoration, but it beat bare hands a hundred times over.

"Couldn't exactly go empty-handed, though."

I looked at myself in the mirror.

Not in my uniform.

Just loungewear, plus a backpack and a metal bat.

Highly suspicious.

The exact type you don't want to spot on a dark street at night.

But now was no time to worry about that.

Just as I was about to head out the front door, Rin poked her head out of the living room.

"Aniki, where're you going?"

"Just a little walk."

Rin's gaze dropped to the metal bat in my hand.

"...A walk. With a bat. Lol."

"Rude."

"What are you, the world's most devoted little leaguer?"

"You know what they say — better safe than sorry."

"That 'safe' of yours is looking pretty dangerous, though."

Well, I couldn't argue there.

It really did beat going in bare-handed.

Still wearing her done-with-me face, Rin watched me put on my shoes at the entryway.

"You're seriously going."

"Well, Iso○'s waiting on me, probably."

"Don't go acting like you're the real ○jima."

I got hit with a sharp one.

The fact that a deep-cut reference only certain people would get actually landed on her — that's my little sister for you.

"...But still. Be careful out there."

"Yeah."

With those words behind me, I stepped outside.

It was a sunny Saturday, early afternoon.

The black sphere that had appeared at the park earlier.

Something that had absolutely, positively not been there yesterday.

An alien thing that Awakeners all over the world were still in the middle of arguing over how to handle.

Normally, I figure you'd phrase it differently — going out to raise your level, going out to get stronger.

But that wasn't where I was at right now.

Achievements.

I was going to go hunt down those incomprehensible conditions, on purpose.

The kind of thing a normal person would glance at, go "what even is that?", and be done with.

Being able to seriously think "there's definitely meaning behind stuff like that" — that's probably because I'm a hardcore gamer.

It's not like I wasn't scared.

And it's not like it wasn't dangerous.

But more than either of those, right now, I was honestly a little thrilled.

"...Alright, then. First question: which achievement do I start with?"

Turning that over in my head, I set off toward the dungeon in high spirits.