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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Three Reasons Why I Can't Be Optimistic
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Good morning— bba-bba-bba-bam-bam—♬
Seven in the morning.
The obnoxiously cheerful alarm grated on my ears.
I frowned and opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
"It's an unfamiliar ceiling... I thought there wouldn't be a ceiling here..."
These idiotic mutterings had been going on for three days now.
Which meant today was my third day of being transmigrated into a game.
By now, it was enough time to grasp the situation.
"Tsk, it's really transmigration, not a dream."
Right, after two days of denying reality, it was time to accept it.
The fact that I had fallen into the world of "Velvet School Life!", or 'VelvetSL' for short.
"Ha, but even thinking about it now, it pisses me off. How could I transmigrate in such a ridiculous way?"
The absurdity of it made me let out a hollow laugh just thinking about it again.
To explain why I ended up in this world,
I had to go back to the day before I transmigrated.
*
The day before transmigration.
At that time, the VelvetSL community was on fire.
This was because the release of the 'Limited New Character,' which the VelvetSL developers had been teasing for three months, was finally just one day away!
That fact alone was enough kindling to set the community ablaze, but the developers went a step further, pre-releasing the illustration and combat animations for the new character, [Sword Blossom Alice].
Alice on the screen had silver hair and blue eyes.
She was a beautiful girl with a cold face who wielded a sword.
[Wow, holy shit, she's insanely gorgeous. Absolutely amazing.]
[Is she good? (Seriously asking)]
[Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out? Alice coming out?]
[Come on! I've got enough bullets, let's go!]
[But honestly, make a pity timer, you sons of bitches at VelvetSL ㅠ]
[Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss! Pure! Bliss!]
[Hmm, is she really that good?]
The majority of people expressed excitement for the revealed character.
A few expressed disappointment, as she wasn't to their taste.
Among them, I was on the side expressing excitement.
'Wow, damn, the developers really went all out this time.'
The illustration looked as if the artist had poured their soul into it, with delicate brushstrokes even in a single strand of hair.
The combat animations showed her moving across the screen, her short skirt fluttering.
And on top of that, her character even had a shy blush that broke her cold facade.
Alice was truly a character that perfectly hit my preferences.
Without even realizing it, I was opening my wallet.
Why open my wallet when she hadn't even been released yet?
Well, I had to prepare in advance, didn't I?
My girl was coming in as a freshman, so shouldn't I make sure she's well-equipped and not intimidated by her seniors?
I scoured websites and posted questions to the veteran players in the community,
identifying and acquiring all sorts of items, equipment, weapons, stats, skills, and more that Alice would likely need.
And then came the long-awaited release day.
The new character gacha pull began.
As always, as a courtesy to the gacha, my first attempt wasn't a 10-pull, but a single pull.
In other words, I sacrificed a single pull.
Praying that Alice would appear and I'd still have enough money for dinner.
But perhaps my desperate wish was heard too well.
"Whoa—!?"
My eyes widened as I stared at my phone screen.
From that single pull I had sacrificed, a dazzling rainbow light burst forth!
[Sword Blossom... Don't call me that so casually. I am merely doing what I must.]
Then, a cold, indifferent voice emanated from my phone's speaker.
I rubbed my eyes several times, checking my phone.
[Sword Blossom Alice ☆☆☆☆☆]
A beautiful woman with silver hair, blue eyes, and a cold expression filled the screen.
"She... appeared."
That's right.
With just a single pull in a gacha with no pity timer,
I had successfully pulled 'Naturally 5-star', 'Limited', 'New Character', Sword Blossom Alice.
"She appearedddd!!! Holy crap, what is this...! I would've been grateful just to get a 3-star on my first pull, but a 5-star? A limited new character?"
At this point, it felt unreal.
The feeling I experienced then was quite striking.
It was like all the long years of humiliation and constant bad luck,
the days of being oppressed by those gacha snobs who had no conscience, melted away, and I was being rewarded for everything all at once.
"Hmm. Is this... good?"
Yeah, I should have ended it with that braggart's line.
But then, I,
caught up in the moment, said something I shouldn't have.
"Ha. VelvetSL, you crazy god-tier game. I'll dedicate my soul. Fucking take it. Take it all!"
.
.
.
Absurdly, with that one last remark, I was transmigrated.
"Crazy."
Even thinking about it now, it's ridiculous.
Usually, don't you have to curse out a game in a review, or dedicate ten years to become a super hardcore veteran, or at least leave your name in the rankings to qualify for transmigration?
Or shouldn't I have at least had a life-or-death debate with the developers about what a shitty game this was?
I was just a low-spending, casual player, enjoying the game quietly, and my only 'crime' was praising the game after a good pull.
"To transmigrate me for such a reason is really too much..."
I clasped my hands over my face.
* * *
"Haa, whatever. It's spilled milk already. First... right, let's organize what I've figured out over the past two days."
I got out of bed and headed to the desk in the corner of the room.
There, I found a laptop, paper, and a pen – none of which were mine.
I opened the notebook and began to scribble with the pen.
"Actually, the world of VelvetSL isn't all that gloomy... is it?"
Although destruction was fated, the overall atmosphere was quite bright, as the main content involved watching cute and bubbly pretty girls.
And the game itself wasn't particularly difficult.
Even low-spending users like me, and even free-to-play users who didn't buy monthly subscriptions, could clear the final chapter if they saved up attendance rewards.
However,
there were three reasons why I couldn't be optimistic about my current situation.
*Scratch, scratch—*
[Three Reasons Why I Can't Be Optimistic About This World]
1. Jin Yu-ha
2. Gender Reversal (a bit ambiguous)
3. No Gacha
First reason.
This guy I've transmigrated into.
I looked at the desk mirror placed on the table.
The face of an unfamiliar man was reflected in the mirror.
Pale skin.
Black hair and black eyes.
A tear mole beneath his eye added to his decadent impression.
Honestly, he was ridiculously handsome.
"Jin Yu-ha, of all people... it had to be this guy."
I glared directly at the man reflected in the mirror and said.
Jin Yu-ha.
This bastard was an exceptionally trash character, even among the 1-star garbage characters.
His notoriety was such that if Jin Yu-ha was even included in your first pull when you started the game, people would recommend resetting your account because it was bad luck.
"...Status Window."
As I uttered the words, a translucent blue window appeared before my eyes.
━━━━━━━━━
Name ─ Jin Yu-ha
Gender ─ Male (20)
Stats
Strength ─ 3 Spirit ─ 3
Magic ─ 6 Durability ─ 6
Speed ─ 9 Charm ─ 19
Specialization ─ Swordsmanship [ Rank : E ]
Title ─ Flower on a Cliff [Aehwa (崖花)]
Skills ─ [ None ]
Traits ─ [ None ]
Exclusive Weapon ─ Worn Straight Sword
──────────
"Flower on a Cliff," my ass.
The average stats of students admitted to Velvet Academy were around 30. Jin Yu-ha's average stats, on the other hand, were 7.
"3, 6, 9, 3, 6... What, is this a 3-6-9 game? Fuck. And his Charm being 19 is infuriating."
Even kids who took swordplay lessons as a hobby had a Swordsmanship rank of C.
But this guy, who was 'specialized' in swordsmanship, had an E rank.
He didn't even have any skills, let alone traits.
Looking at him, it made me wonder how on earth this bastard got into the Hunter Academy.
Honestly, until recently, I just thought he was a trap character created by the developers to squeeze money out of users in the gacha.
But yesterday, while rummaging through my phone, I discovered the reason.
[Congratulations! You have been selected as a student for the Velvet Hunter Academy 'Male Quota System'.]
"..."
Fuck.
The reason this idiotic bastard could become an academy student was, truly, an idiotic reason.
*
The second reason why I couldn't be optimistic about this world.
The ambiguous gender reversal.
"It's a good thing I looked into it because it was weird that Jin Yu-ha got in with some unheard-of male quota system. I would've been completely flustered if I hadn't known."
Still, this was somewhat understandable.
I'd always been a bit curious.
In VelvetSL, the pretty girls protected the world, so why were all the guys so weak?
Why, during special event wars, were the men just sitting around while only the women were called to fight?
But, if it was a gender-reversed world?
In my original world, it was the unwritten rule for men to go to war, so if only the gender roles were flipped, it wasn't incomprehensible.
The reason I called it 'a bit ambiguous' was because not all the pretty girls in the game had masculine personalities.
'They'd blush if they were embarrassed, and they'd use cute speech patterns.'
So, while playing the game, I never really thought that VelvetSL had a gender-reversed world setting.
Honestly, in a game appealing to pretty girls, if all the characters acted like men and just screamed 'sex,' would the game even sell?
Of course, it wasn't like there *weren't* any walking obscenities...
Women were strong in action, men were strong in domesticity.
Women went to the military, men did not.
Women confessed first, men received confessions.
Women were the breadwinners, men were the homemakers.
Women were physically strong, men were physically weak.
Just general common sense, widely held beliefs, things like that?
Their speech and behavior were no different from typical women,
but only those specific aspects were reversed, making it a world of extreme convenience.
"Right, I just need to keep the gender reversal in mind. It's not like it wasn't there originally; it's just a hidden backstory that gives plausibility to the pretty girls protecting the world. And it's not particularly bad for me, as a man."
However, there was one more reason I couldn't be optimistic about this world.
The third one.
This last reason was truly serious.
"Gacha."
If there was a flower of a bonsai game,
it was, of course, the gacha system, which emptied users' wallets to supply them with various characters, items, and resources.
"Originally, VelvetSL was a game with no 'mother' (referring to a pity timer) and no pity timer, so... I used to complain endlessly that they should just remove the gacha entirely..."
But it's gone.
It's really gone.
Now that the game had become reality, character pulls, item pulls, and weapon pulls were all completely dead.
"I have a status window, so why no pulls? There's magic and monsters, so it's not impossible for items to just appear out of thin air...!"
The reason I said VelvetSL was an easy game a moment ago was because
it was easy to upgrade character stats through gacha pulls.
But a bonsai game without a gacha system?
That meant I had to run around, farm items, acquire resources, and even learn combat skills manually.
"Ha, this is truly awful..."
I sighed, looking down at my notebook.
[Reasons Why I Can't Be Optimistic About This Reality]
1. Jin Yu-ha
2. Gender Reversal (a bit ambiguous)
3. No Gacha
"Can I... even do this?"
My vision blurred.
It was a tough world with just one obstacle, but now there were three.
"Honestly, since I transmigrated into a handsome man in a reversed world, I considered just quitting everything and making a fortune by becoming an internet streamer at home."
The Academy.
Still, I had to go.
Since I had already been accepted into the Hunter Academy,
which treated its students on par with soldiers, if I didn't go, I'd end up in jail unless I went through the proper procedure to be expelled.
I couldn't go to prison just because I didn't want to go to school, could I?
Well, that was half a joke.
There was another real reason I had to go to Velvet Academy.
The game's atmosphere was bright,
a romantic world filled with the jokes and laughter of cute pretty girls.
But ultimately, it was also a world destined for destruction.
Velvet School Life had also shown an 'IF' version, a gloomy future where the user didn't care for the students.
The children the user had lovingly nurtured.
All of them met ruin.
Friends died, seniors died, juniors died, instructors died, and the world was destroyed.
Scenes full of regret, devastation, and obsession continued in short videos.
Back then, a lot of people complained about internal injuries and PTSD because of it.
Did they really have to go that far just to make sure users didn't quit, showing them, 'If you're not here, it's doomed'?
In such a world, I couldn't just sit idly by and watch the world go to hell, could I?
I steeled my resolve inwardly.
But compared to my determination, the methods... there really weren't any suitable ones.
"First, I have to do something about this Jin Yu-ha guy. I'll have to fight monsters and demons later. As I am now, I'm just a meat shield."
This body was such utter trash.
Should I go to the gym and lift some weights or something?
"Hoo... Seriously, if only there was gacha..."
It was just as I was sighing deeply.
*Knock, knock, knock—*
Someone knocked on the door from outside.
"Jin Yu-ha-nim, parcel delivery—! I'll leave it at the door!"
A woman's voice followed.
'Parcel?'
*Creak—*
I opened the door, and a moving box, as large as my body, jammed against the doorframe.
"What is this...?"
Jin Yu-ha was an orphan character, so he had no parents. Who sent this?
The delivery driver had just called out my name, so it wasn't a mistaken delivery.
Let's just get it inside first.
"Ughhh!"
The box was incredibly large and heavy.
I struggled for a long time, grunting and straining, as I dragged the box into the house.
"Huff, huff. Who sent this?"
Then I checked the sender's name.
[Velvet School Life! GM]
"...This son of a bitch?"
GM.
Short for Game Master.
In other words, the operator.
The culprit who transmigrated me.
My eyes blazed as I searched for other clues.
But only the sender's name was written; no address, phone number, or even a single message was left.
That meant I had to open the box and check its contents.
"Ugh, this is really suspicious..."
But I couldn't *not* open it, so I had to.
I picked up the worn straight sword that lay neglected under the bed and cut the tape on the packaged box.
"Huh...?"
And what met my eyes was
dozens of books.
a sword.
blue-glowing stones.
various miscellaneous items.
They were all quite familiar to me.
Inside, a list of the items was enclosed.
With trembling hands, I picked it up and began to read.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Master Swordsmanship Manuals x9
Weapon Enhancement Scrolls x 9
Trait Recommendation Scrolls x 3
Skill Recommendation Scrolls x 3
All-Stat Auto-Increase Coupons x 50
Moonlight (One-handed Straight Sword)
Verdant Guardian Armor (Light Armor)
Moonlight Earring (Accessory)
Magic Stone x 99
Forgotten Essence x8
Fragment of Lechnitz's Broken Spear x12
.
.
.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...These are the items I farmed to give to Alice, aren't they? And even the resources I couldn't use and had stashed away?"
Perhaps, my school life at VelvetSL...
Might be more manageable than I thought?