Chapter 1: Reincarnated as an absolute strong man
He had always loved worlds of swords and magic.
Ever since he was a child, he had only ever played fantasy games.
Even the novels he read were almost exclusively fantasy.
If it was a story set in a fantasy world, he was confident he could enjoy it for days on end without sleep.
—Such was the young man known as Ren Shiina.
Of course, that didn’t mean his life revolved solely around gaming.
He was a fourth-year university student, spending his days attending classes while preparing for the job hunt that loomed ahead.
On top of that, he worked part-time four days a week to support his gaming lifestyle.
And this weekend, he had cleared his schedule for three whole days to devote himself to a highly anticipated new game.
The moment the clock struck midnight on Friday, he downloaded the game and started playing.
Two days passed in a blur.
By the time he finally reached the end, he had barely slept a wink.
As the ending played on his TV screen that evening, Ren let out a triumphant cheer.
"I did it! The ending! Hell yeah!"
The game he had been playing was an RPG.
There was no competition involved, yet the sheer excitement of having pushed through without even taking proper naps made his victory all the sweeter.
Wanting to share the moment, he snapped a screenshot of the ending screen and posted it on social media.
He made sure to avoid spoilers, of course—
That was just common courtesy as a gamer.
"Wait a sec… Could this be a world record?"
Almost as if responding to his words, a message appeared on-screen after the credits finished rolling.
[System: Congratulations on completing the game. Would you like to record your clear time on the server? Yes / No]
"Of course I do!"
Ren immediately selected "Yes."
Not a second later, another system message popped up, confirming his suspicions—
And sending his heart racing.
[System: As the first-place player in the clear ranking, you have received a special downloadable content reward. Would you like to download it? Yes / No]
"Special…? Hell yeah, I do!"
He eagerly pressed "Yes" once more.
A small progress bar appeared in the corner of the screen.
1%… 2%…
He had no idea what this so-called special DLC contained, but the message clearly stated that it was a reward for ranking first.
In other words, no one else would receive this content.
For any gamer, this was the ultimate thrill—
A sense of superiority washed over him.
"…Okay, deep breaths."
Trying to calm his pounding heart, Ren leaned back against the couch.
With nothing to do but wait for the download, he picked up his phone and opened the official website of the game he had just finished.
[The Legend of the Seven Heroes]
It was a fantasy RPG officially announced as the first in a three-part series.
The story took place several hundred years after seven legendary heroes had defeated the Demon King.
Their descendants, now students at an academy, faced countless trials and hardships, growing stronger along the way.
With an extensive amount of side stories and the ability to pursue romance with one’s favorite heroine, it had become one of the most popular games in the world.
The protagonist of the story was a boy born in the countryside to commoner parents.
As a child, he awakened a hidden power, earning him a place at the greatest academy in the Imperial Capital.
There, he met six young men and women said to be the descendants of the Seven Heroes.
Together, they embarked on a journey to stop those plotting the resurrection of the Demon King.
At the end of the first game, it was revealed that the protagonist himself was the last surviving descendant of the Seven Heroes—
A bloodline thought to have perished long ago.
Ren had just finished playing its sequel, The Legend of the Seven Heroes II.
"Man, that was amazing."
Unlike I, which focused on school life and the protagonist’s growth, II threw the characters into the biggest conflict the story had ever seen.
<How ridiculous. Are the so-called descendants of heroes truly so weak that they can't even stop me?>
Ren could still recall the moment he was so shocked by those words that he put his controller down.
The boy who said them had been the protagonist’s classmate—A close friend.
But that same boy went on to kill a girl known as the Saint…And even took the life of the academy’s headmaster, the greatest sorcerer in the world.
<You should understand by now. Even if you stake your lives on it, none of you can reach me.>
When confronted by the protagonist and his friends, he effortlessly defeated them before disappearing without a trace.
From that moment on, the Empire was plunged into chaos.
The friend would occasionally appear at the scene of incidents, speaking cryptic words or even fighting against the protagonist’s group.
But neither his true motives nor his connection to those plotting the Demon King’s resurrection were ever revealed.
The game ended with the Emperor issuing a decree—
A command to hunt down and eliminate the protagonist’s former friend.
The rest of the story was left for III.
—Just thinking about it was enough to get Ren excited all over again.
Unable to stay still, he put down his phone and picked up his controller instead.
The special downloadable content still hadn’t finished installing, so he returned to the title screen to refresh his mind.
"Guess I’ll kill time by searching for hidden skills."
It was one of the game’s extra features.
In the second playthrough, players could change the protagonist’s skill names into Japanese.
They could also combine up to three existing skills to create their own original abilities.
Of course, some balancing adjustments had been made to prevent the game from breaking.
Unique Skills—those reserved for special individuals—Could not be recreated or used.
But hidden skills were different.
By combining specific skills, players could discover new and secret abilities.
…And so, Ren spent the next several dozen minutes experimenting.
He tried tens, then hundreds of combinations—
But no matter what, he couldn’t find anything.
When a hidden skill was successfully created, its name would automatically appear in the skill slot.
It should have been obvious the moment he got it, and yet—Nothing.
"Ugh… No good."
Finally exhausted, Ren reached for his phone and searched social media to see if anyone else had beaten the game.
That was when he came across several posts that caught his attention.
"He's definitely gonna be the final boss of III."
"The mastermind is him. He’s the one trying to resurrect the Demon King… (probably)."
"Toward the end, he felt like the ‘Black Ranger’ of a sentai team. Honestly? Kinda cool."
Ren spotted several posts from people who had also reached the ending of II.
Some of them were gamers he had chatted with before on social media, so he figured it was safe to ask.
"Did you guys find any hidden skills?"
He barely had to wait a minute before replies started rolling in.
Unfortunately, no one had found anything yet.
Ren let out a small sigh of disappointment—
But at the same time, his determination flared.
He would find one.
After refreshing himself with some eye drops, his gaze drifted back to the screen.
There, the download progress bar now read—
99%.
"Oh, finally!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the percentage hit 100%.
A brief message flashed on the screen—Download Complete!
—Only to disappear almost instantly.
Ren slumped back, deflated.
He had been looking forward to this… But nothing seemed different.
For a moment, he even wondered if it was a bug.
Letting out a deep sigh, he resigned himself to continuing his search for hidden skills.
And then—Several more minutes passed, and by sheer coincidence…
He found one.
"Magic Sword Summon?"
The skill combination that triggered it was Swordsman, Black Magic, and Summoner.
Ren tilted his head in confusion.
It wasn’t an unusual combination.
In fact, it was a pretty standard one that he had tried several times before.
So why had he ended up testing it again?
Simple.
He had messed up.
After hundreds of combinations, it was inevitable that he would accidentally repeat one.
That was all there was to it.
…And yet, Ren couldn’t help but smile.
Finding a hidden skill was always a thrill.
Excited, he pressed the confirmation button—
[System: “Magic Sword Summon” is a Unique Skill and cannot be used in Normal Mode]
Ren’s forehead hit his desk with a thud.
He wanted to yell, Are you kidding me?!
But before he could, something on the screen caught his attention.
"Wait… ‘Cannot be used in Normal Mode’? What does that mean…?"
Normally, if a skill was locked due to being unique, the system simply said so outright.
This was different.
Puzzled, he switched the game’s difficulty settings, but the same message appeared every time.
His curiosity deepened as he scrolled to the skill’s description.
“Allows the user to summon a Magic Sword. By using Magic Stones, the sword’s proficiency can be increased, enhancing its abilities. Additional Magic Swords can be unlocked by fulfilling special conditions.”
Magic Stones were in-game items found inside monsters.
They had various uses, but most were simply sold for currency.
Still, Ren couldn’t recall any characters who used a skill like this.
Frowning, he stared at the screen for a few more minutes—Until he finally noticed something in the corner.
A message, glowing faintly.
[System: Would you like to start a special story using the skill “Magic Sword Summon”? Yes / No]
Ren blinked.
Then, remembering the special download, he hesitated only briefly before selecting Yes.
"…Huh?"
The next moment, his vision was swallowed by a blinding white light.
His consciousness blurred.
He barely had time to collapse onto the couch before—
Everything faded to black.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Warm water cascaded over him.
The sensation was the first thing Ren became aware of.
He tried to open his eyes, to take in his surroundings—But no matter how hard he tried, his eyelids refused to budge.
Worse still, his entire body felt weak and unresponsive.
"The young master sure is lively, isn’t he? Wouldn’t you agree, madam?"
An elderly woman’s voice reached his ears.
"Yes… But I’m relieved. It looks like he’ll grow up strong."
A younger voice replied—one tinged with exhaustion.
(What the hell is going on?)
Baffled, Ren sharpened his other senses in an attempt to make sense of the situation.
The warmth of the water. The weightlessness of his limbs. The gentle hands supporting his tiny body.
It all felt too real to be a dream.
And yet, the absurdity of it all—being a full-grown adult one moment, only to wake up as an infant—was impossible to grasp.
A ridiculous thought flickered through his mind.
(A special download… for a special story…)
It was too bizarre to be dismissed as a simple dream.
(Did I… reincarnate?)
Ren had always been a fan of fantasy stories.
It was only natural that this possibility would come to mind.
Whether he could accept it or not was another matter—
But every fiber of his being, every heightened sense aside from his sight, was screaming that this was real.
(…I see.)
Now this was special content.
A truly special story.
Ren muttered to himself, trying to stay calm.
And then, belatedly, a wave of embarrassment crashed over him.
If he was an infant, then right now—
He was completely naked, being bathed like a newborn.
The thought alone made him want to scream.
But all he could do was flail his tiny limbs in protest.
(I need to figure out more about my situation…)
What surprised him most was how composed he felt.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t true composure.
Maybe it was just his brain shutting down any unnecessary panic, since his body was completely uncooperative.
(At the very least, I need to hear my name.)
Ren kicked and squirmed, as if praying for an answer.
As if in response, the elderly woman spoke.
"Madam, have you chosen a name for the young master?"
"Of course I have."
"That’s wonderful. Now, madam, please hold him and call his name."
Soft fabric wrapped around his tiny body.
Then, he was lifted—only to be enveloped by warmth once more.
(She must be holding me now…)
Ren waited.
Waited to hear his name.
Surely, he had to be an important character in The Legend of the Seven Heroes.
A hidden skill leading to a special story—there was no way he’d be some nobody.
"His name is… Ren."
"Ren Ashton."
Ren froze.
His mind went blank.
And then—
A voice echoed in his head.
"Hah… How pathetic. Are the descendants of heroes truly so powerless that they can’t even stop me?"
A lone figure, effortlessly cutting down the protagonists.
An air of mystery, an overwhelming presence.
Androgynous yet strikingly dignified features.
The protagonist’s former friend.
The very man who plunged The Legend of the Seven Heroes II into chaos.
—That was Ren Ashton.
A man shrouded in secrets.
An absolute force of power within the world of The Legend of the Seven Heroes.
A character who had left countless players in shock.
And to top it all off—
His name was pronounced the exact same way as Ren’s own.
He had always felt a strange connection to him, even admired him in a way.
There had been times he wondered—If I were Ren Ashton, how would I live my life?
But never—not even in his wildest dreams—
Had he imagined this.
(Reincarnated… as a walking disaster of a character?!)
Panic gripped his chest.
He had no idea what to do.
And worst of all—
He still couldn’t move.