Repeated Play Volume 1 Chapter 1

 Chapter 1: Reincarnation

I seems to be dead. I say seems because I still don't feel like I've actually died. I think I was in the middle of a grocery run, if I remember right.

And now I'm being reincarnated to carry out a mission the Goddess has given me.

In the Goddess's world, world-ending crises crop up on a regular basis. She's been staying ahead of them and stamping them out as they come but it seems her own resources are starting to run thin.

Apparently, she used to handle it by seeding the world in advance with so-called heroes or magical prodigies destined to become turning points in history. But that eats up alot of resources, so she needs a cheaper way to get the job done.

And the result was me getting the call.

Why me, though? When I asked, this is the answer I got──

「You have the aptitude for it. The aptitude essential to fulfilling my wish──no matter how many times you're driven to the point of breaking, no matter how much you want to let go of everything, no matter if it means fighting against endless suffering. Without fail. You will always rise back up.」

「I know you have a soul that won't break.」

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no memory of possessing that kind of unbreakable will or soul. If I had to point to anything, it would definitely be that I was the kind of person who went all in on video games.

No matter how bad a game I bought turned out to be, I'd collect every item, fill out every entry in the compendium and grind my level all the way to the cap. There were even times I spent hours unable to fill in one specific compendium entry and ended up contacting the developer directly about it.

Even in Dark Souls-style games that came close to breaking my spirit, I always went for the platinum trophy and in games that were just poorly made, I always played through to the very end no matter what.

Even so, handing over the fate of another world to a guy who just really likes video games is a little hard to wrap my head around. Maybe even gods struggle with a staffing shortage.

Part of the reason why I play games that thoroughly, down to every corner, is out of respect for the people who made them, and partly it's just a gamer's pride.

And honestly, the rest of it was just because my allowance was small so it was about being frugal, plain and simple. Though these days, with gacha games and all that, it's a bit different.

As for dying, I feel awful about it for my mom, my dad and my little sister.

The condition set for sending me back to my original world was to resolve that world-ending crisis I mentioned earlier, the 『Calamity』.

I'm to be reincarnated so that my age hits its prime right around when the Calamity strikes and deal with it then.

Once I finally deal with whatever's causing the Calamity, I get to go home to modern-day Japan.

As for why everything's so vague, apparently even the Goddess's side doesn't have a full picture yet, and I was told that explaining too much risks running afoul of something called the 『World's Compulsion』.

I don't really understand what the World's Compulsion is, but I was told that, in any case, there's simply no room left to spare for a detailed explanation.

It's an awfully hazy arrangement all around, but in the end, I don't have veto power or any say in the matter. This is basically a shady backroom deal. I'd at least like to see a written contract.

That said, I'd hate to give up a life back in modern Japan stuffed full of entertainment and dying before my parents isn't something I can just shrug off. So for now, my goal is to clear out every last one of these Calamities, get the Goddess to bring me back to life and return to my original world.

Well I mean technically I'm already dead though.

Anyway, one way or another, I'm about to start living in another world.

The Goddess gave me two things.

The power to be reincarnated timed to each Calamity and the power to freely decide my own talents and aptitudes.

If all I'd been handed on top of this was a crappy wooden stick, I would've started a boycott right then and there but thankfully they'd actually thought that part through.

Right in front of me now is something like a skill board and a status board. Magic, miracles, swordsmanship, spearmanship, archery, physical enhancement and all sorts of other things. If I tried to look through every single one, the day would be gone before I finished.

These only exist because they've been tailored to match how I perceive things. In the actual world over there, things like stats and skills don't really exist. Magic exists but it's really nothing more than one technology among many in that other world.

Skills and stats let me set values representing raw aptitude.

Aptitude is strictly potential. It's not something I start out already possessing.

The stats side covers how much I have of things like physical ability, meaning strength and the like, along with intelligence, mana, and so on.

I confirmed that the values run on a base of 1, with 5 as the max and 0.1 as the floor.

Hold on, what happens if I mess with intelligence? Could I actually become an Einstein?

When I brought that question up, I was told the change would apply but there's a chance my personality could shift as a result. What, that's terrifying.

Getting smarter sounds great but if there's a chance my original personality gets blown away entirely, then no thank you. If at all possible, I want to go back to my family while still being myself.

……Though whether a version of me who's been through all sorts of experiences still counts as the same person is another question.

Well, maybe when I go back, they'll adjust my memories into something nice and tidy.

Anyway, I'm getting off track.

With skills too, the higher the value, the easier it is to get proficient. But easier to raise is all it is. Everything after that depends on effort put in after reincarnation. No matter how much magical talent I have, it means nothing if I never get the chance to actually touch magic.

I've been calling it a skill in gaming terms but really it's just talent. To put it in real-world terms, it's like being able to freely allocate points into things like baseball or shogi talent and grow them.

Here's the important part: obviously, I can't max out every single one of these values.

There's a fixed pool of points I can freely allocate. That pool seems to be affected by something called 『Soul Strength』. The higher my Soul Strength, the more room I have to assign points into both stats and skill aptitudes. Apparently, if I try to grant aptitude beyond that limit, my soul will break.

My soul is a bit below average. I guess a strong soul, in modern terms, would make you good-looking, highly educated and athletic across the board. Still, this is Repeated Play. In other words, I was told that every time I reincarnate, my soul gets tempered and its strength rises, so it gets a little easier each time.

After getting a long explanation from the Goddess about the situation over there and some basic common sense, it's time to decide on the talent build for the body I'll be reincarnating into. I've already got a rough policy locked in, though.

That policy is: specialize in physical ability and swordsmanship.

There are a few reasons for that. First, my Soul Strength isn't especially blessed.

That alone rules out being an all-rounder. And stopping something the world treats as a Calamity is going to demand power to match. So someone below average like me needs to give up on some things and specialize instead.

That's technically possible as a backline mage too but it means nothing if I build a body that can't take a hit and end up dead.

If I narrowed things down to a single element, living as a mage doesn't seem completely out of reach but whatever I pour into magical talent would come straight out of my physical stats.

Not being able to use magic wouldn't be any different from before but I figured a weak body would be a real problem for actually surviving.

That world's the kind of place where man-eating monsters and dragons are just a normal part of life. A body that could keel over and die from one wrong move is a genuinely scary thought.

Apparently, even if I die, I get reincarnated again as fast as possible but because my prime has to line up with when the Calamity hits, I'd end up having to fight it while still half-formed. If that happens, my odds of winning obviously drop and the fight could easily drag out.

On top of that, I won't even know what the Calamity actually is until the moment arrives. Depending on the era, it could be a demon lord, a tyrannical emperor, an undying dragon or even a natural disaster in the form of some phenomenon.

If I fail the very first job, I'd feel awful about it toward the Goddess and a world in crisis on top of that would be a real problem. Also, I want to get back to my family.

I still have to deliver the pudding my little sister asked me to pick up while I was out shopping.

So, with all that in mind, I wanted to go with the most stable option I could.

Honestly, it'd be a lie to say I have no longing for magic. But this is a game I can't ever fully play out. And it's built around Repeated Play from the start, so there's no need to rush. Besides, a world where you can cleave straight through solid rock with a sword is already basically magic as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, that other world has all kinds of races besides humans. Elves, dwarves, and a race that gets lumped together as beastfolk, even though there are finer distinctions within it.

Apparently I could've become something other than human but I was told reincarnating as a non-human doesn't sit well with the soul and puts too much strain on it,so it wasn't an option for me.

This time around, it's a Sword Saint build. I dumped almost every point I could into physical ability, dynamic vision and dexterity. Thanks to starting out average, I couldn't quite hit the cap but the Goddess herself vouched that, physically at least, I'm not far off from the heroes of ages past.

As for skill aptitude, I put swordsmanship, essential for any swordsman, right up near the max and put a bit into a few other things that a swordfighter would probably need too.

Magic-related stuff, I left completely untouched and intelligence ended up about the same as it was in my past life. I didn't want to drop it so low I couldn't think straight or end up with my personality drastically changed.

Then there's appearance, but……honestly, I don't have any particular attachment to how I look.

Well, sure, looks matter. They matter but any disadvantage in appearance should be something I can cover for with the strength I gain in exchange.

More than anything, dropping appearance all the way to the floor lets me bank that much more in points.

The points I get from dropping it from 0.2 to 0.1 are overwhelmingly bigger than what I'd get from dropping 1 to 0.9. And with that many points, I can push swordsmanship all the way up to its cap of 5.

I wanted to shave down everything I could shave down, right to the limit, to maximize stability.

It'd be a real problem if some stubborn attachment kept me from saving the world and getting back to my family. I want to take out as much insurance on strength as I possibly can.

Besides, when it comes down to it, a man ought to carry a sword.

Even back when a certain strategy game had sword masters at a stat disadvantage, I stuck with sword units through it all.

In any game that lets you pick from different weapon types, my first pick is basically always the sword.

Everybody wants to do it, right? Slashes that can cut through space itself.

「Alright.」

I made up my mind, set my appearance to its lowest value and pushed swordsmanship all the way to its max.

Then I called out to the Goddess and told her I was ready.

My life in another world was about to begin.

For this historic first reincarnation of mine, I'd decided: it will be a Sword Saint build.

──I would later come to regret this decision so much that I could die.