Another World, Other Problems

"Hold on… Rick Astler? Out of all people, I got reincarnated as my joke character?!"

Seeing the name, I had a clue of what happened but I needed more information to confirm my suspicions.

'If this world is my novel or based on it, then this should work.'

Breathing deeply in anticipation, I spoke out loud.

"Status."

A blue holographic screen appeared in front of me.

-[Status]-

[Name]: Rick Astler

[Age]: 18 Years Old

[Rank]: G-

[Offensive Ability]: ★☆☆☆☆

[Defensive Ability]: ★☆☆☆☆

[Speed Ability]: ★★☆☆☆

[Survivability]: ★★★☆☆

[Strength]: G-

[Agility]: E-

[Endurance]: F-

[Dexterity]: G+

[Stamina]: F+

[Intelligence]: G+

[Mana]: G-

[Luck]: ? (Note: This doesn't mean your luck is SSS or some bs so don't get cocky brat. I'll be checking this error and having a patch ready soon. -Administrator)

[Charisma]: F

-[Profession]-

[Distraction Lv. 5]:

Your singing and dancing skills have advanced to the point of expertly being able to taunt all your enemies without fail because it sucks that badly. You are a great taunter, though you surviving after taunting is another thing.

-[Skills]-

[Dancing - Rank F]

You're a decent dancer, not sure how this skill will play a role in today's society though.

[Singing - Rank F]

You can gather the attention of both friend and foe, though not for the right reason.

['Nigerundayo' - Rank D]

"A tactical retreat is in order," or so you say. Your agility is increased temporarily upon usage. I hope that I don't need to explain how to use this skill.

-[End of Status]-

'Hah, I'm really in another world… my own novel too!'

The 'Status Screen' was something that was provided by the angels of the Heavenly Realm to humanity. That and the blessing of being able to adapt to mana was the only support they gave.

When humanity was invaded by demons and saturated the Earth with mana, humanity couldn't fight back with their current technology and was almost defeated.

Before it was too late, the Cosmic Beings that led the Heavenly Realm blessed humanity, allowing them a chance to fight back. Cosmic Beings could be considered Gods according to human understanding.

In fact, most of the Gods in Earth mythology were real. Major incidents that happened mostly were also because of Cosmic Beings.

The incident that wiped out the dinosaurs? It happened because an Outer Cosmic Being tried wiping out all life on Earth. It was stopped in time, but it was too late for the dinosaurs.

Earth had numerous Cosmic Beings, but there were too many and their numbers drained the planet's Authority. 'Authority' is the source of a Cosmic Being's strength, and because there was so many of them on Earth, Earth's Cosmic Beings ended up being weaker than most existing.

The stories about the world ending because of an apocalyptic event like Ragnorak? That was the world trying to kill the gods and combine their Authority into one, creating a single, extremely power guardian for the planet.

When mana was introduced to the planet in such a huge quantity, plus the invasion, it caused the geological structure of the planet to change. Now, there were five relatively similar in landmass continents.

Back to the story…

'Damn, I knew my joke character was weak, but I never actually specified his stats!'

When I wrote the novel, I wrote Rick like any bland joke character. He was able to crack decent jokes and annoy the hell out of people while being able to somehow run away most of the time. I didn't really focus on his abilities. Actually, I didn't write anything about it.

'But to think he was this physically weak!'

'G-' Strength, literally the weakest classification you could get in this world. But at least he had some decent stats for his age except for his strength, guess he had to for being a joke character.

I was panicking a bit, for a good reason.

'What am I going to do his measly strength?! His skills suck too! I killed him off when I felt that he was getting too obnoxious. Am I going to die in this life?!'

But I shot that thought down immediately.

'I'm a different person than Rick. Just that fact alone improves my chances. I know a lot more than he did for sure!'

'But what's up with my luck?'

It was '?'. From what I remember, there was nothing special about Rick that would cause an error.

It's highly likely that since the owner of this body changed, so did its luck. At least, that was my theory according to the logic of this world that I knew. But my luck should've been readable if that was the case.

'Still, if I don't do something, I'm guaranteed to die.'

If I was in Rick Astler's body, then there was a high chance of me still getting caught up in the events that I thought were going to take place.

Shaking my head, I decided to read the letter again.

"No. That's not it. Nope. Nada. Aha!"

Scrolling through it, I found what I was looking for.

"We hope to see you on Campus on August 30th, 2133."

"What is the current date?"

Checking the calendar on the Holo-Watch, it read: "August 9th, 2133"

"So I got about three weeks before my movements are severely limited, eh."

Once a student was accepted in the Central Gap Academy, they weren't allowed to leave campus during the school week without permission. The Central Gap Academy was known to be the best academy for raising Hunters to fight demons and the lurking threats of the world. It is funded by the Alliance and was located on the center continent. When the first invasion happened, every major government collapsed. But the remnants of each government merged into one giant power that governed the world, at least most of it.

It is this enormous government that is responsible for humanity's future. Despite being one government, the former governments of each country ended up becoming different factions within the Alliance.

Scratching my head in frustration and bitterness, I couldn't help but lament.

"I'm glad that I'll be attending the best academy, but that place is going to be a death trap in the future."

The reason being, the protagonist would start attending there and usually, especially in this world, was a calamity magnet. He literally attracted every major issue or was somehow involved with it. Because of that, the academy was caught up in it.

"Actually, he was there to solve most of the problems now that I think about it. But still, there's a shit ton of casualties, Rick included!"

Rick, despite being weak was somehow able to survive the first and second incursions at the academy, but did not survive the third. As they say, third time is the charm.

"I wonder, with his stats, how did Rick get accepted?"

I shook my head, I had three weeks before I couldn't move, so I needed to prepare before then.

What was I going to do? Take everything the protagonist was supposed to get, become op, and save the world?

Nope!

'Fuck that, I ain't doing something so absurd and stress inducing. That's the protagonist's job!'

I had no plans on playing hero. Sure, hero's usually are op, but they also usually had to suffer to get to that point.

Now I'm not one to shy away from getting stronger with some suffering involved, but the suffering for protagonists is on a whole another level.

For example: the guy whose only ability was to wake up after death at save points, or another guy who goes back a day after dying.

Those are op abilities, but I'm pretty sure most, if not all of their sanity is kinda, well gone to be honest.

I did not want any part of stuff like that.

There is a slight issue though.

'If I want to survive, I need to become stronger, and I know the locations of many powerful things. The problem is though, I can't weaken the protagonist too much or he won't be able to defeat the Demon King.'

The answer is quite simple to this problem, just take whatever the protagonist and his group didn't need.

'If they aren't using it, it won't affect them! But… is there anything I can get within three weeks?'

Rick was an orphan like I was in my last life, so he had no family support. He also didn't have that much money, but was able to attend the Central Gap because of scholarship from the Academy.

"There's also a problem of potential talent, too."

Potential talent is basically the limit your body could grow to. If you had a B rank potential talent, you could theoretically grow until all your stats hit B+.

'Rick's talent, although I didn't specify in the novel, was assumed to be low, prob C in best-case scenario.'

'There's also not much for me to grab that is nearby. I know there's an item that can break my talent limit, but it's on the other side of the world where I am right now. I won't be able to grab it in time.'

I was brainstorming the possible options I had at the moment, when something came to me.

'What if I don't fight head on? What if I instead focus on speed, or in other words, assassinations, scouting, and things like that? I do have an unusually high agility stat for a teen.'

'If I focus on speed and survivability, then there are plenty of ways to get around my talent limit.'

Sure, of course I could apply the same logic to offensive and strength, but I disliked fighting foes head on. I was the type that would rather end it with a single shot and not waste time.

The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced.

"And there's an item nearby that is suited for what I'm planning to do, perfect!"

After getting dressed and grabbing my things, I was walking out of my apartment and couldn't help but gasp. I had described the city in the novel but seeing it for real was a whole other thing. Even though the buildings didn't look that much advanced than my old world I lived in, it still surprised me. The bright sun shining in the sky indicated that it was early in the afternoon, probably around 5 o'clock.

But I shook my head, I shouldn't be wasting time until I have taken care of any urgent matters, which is getting to the location of a certain item.

The city was enormous, and walking through a major street could take hours just to walk one direction. Seeing how far I had to walk, I just called this world's equivalent of Uber.

Once I was inside the vehicle, I couldn't help but inspect it. It was very high-tech from my perspective, being clean and refined. The outside of the vehicle was the same, being compact and efficient.

The driver turned around and asked: "Where to sir?"

Startling me out of my inspection, I responded back.

"To Rocky Street, please."

The driver turned back forward after saying: "Rocky Street, got it."

I sighed in relief.

'Phew, looks like the name is the same. But I'm not sure if everything else is.'

Once the car started moving, I couldn't help but secretly admire the technology. I was experiencing so many new things at once, and to be frank, it was slightly overwhelming.

After 20 minutes or so of driving, I had arrived at the street.

Before getting out, the driver asked me a question.

"You sure you're fine with getting out here? You never really specified the address, just the street name."

I just smiled back.

"It's fine, I'm just going to be walking around here."

"Alright" Then once I was out, the driver drove off.

I then started to walk around like I didn't really have a place in mind. I did this so that if I ended causing a commotion and being investigated, they would only find that I had 'stumbled' and found the item I was looking for by 'accident' and attribute it to luck.

I didn't want anyone to think I had juicy info, which I did.

After taking in the sights after walking for another half hour or so, I finally 'stumbled' to what seemed an old and run-down building. There was a sign leaning up against the building with the text being barely visible. I read out loud the text.

"Phantom Knight Dojo"

This seemingly run-down dojo used to belong to one of the Twelve Heroes, Alistar the Phantom. He was an extremely skilled scout and assassin, with speed and stealth being his strong points. He had nurtured a group, the Phantom Knights and taught them personally in this dojo. Sadly though, they all perished, including Alistar in the fight against the Demon King.

Because of that, the dojo was closed down as all members were dead. But no one knew of the inheritance that Alistar hid within it. Each Hero had prepared an inheritance in the case of their death, so that they could pass along a portion of their powers so that it could be used when the Demon King eventually returned.

The Heroes did defeat the Demon King, but he wasn't permanently dead. He would eventually return and battle against the protagonist in the future.

It was Alistar's inheritance that I was aiming for. The protagonist did find the inheritance at some point, but no one in his group could use it adequately, so taking it wouldn't detrimental to them at all.

Taking a deep breathe, I walked through the door.