Chapter 1: Fire Crybaby Hero
by fnovelpia
I wanted to get isekai’d into my favorite game world and live a happy life with my favorite character.
…Well, that was the plan.
“Wow…”
“I actually got isekai’d…”
I was reincarnated as a game character.
A character from my all-time favorite medieval fantasy game, Prophecy RPG—the one who handles the tutorial.
[Kain]
He’s the guy who teaches the protagonist (the Hero) the basics of swordsmanship, magic, and survival skills… then disappears from the story.
And the face I saw reflected in the lake was even better than I imagined.
“Whoa…”
“Seriously, this guy’s good-looking.”
A ridiculously handsome guy with black hair and black eyes.
He was tall and had a great build too.
Even as a guy myself, I had to admire him.
But that was it.
“Just my luck to be stuck in the body of someone who’s all looks and no substance…”
Kain is a D-rank adventurer.
S-rank is the Hero.
A-ranks are the main characters you can include in the Hero’s party.
B-ranks aren’t main characters, but they’re useful support.
C-ranks are basically expendable soldiers used in battle—background extras.
So if you think about it…
D-rank is just trash.
Kain’s only role is to teach the level 1 Hero some basics.
He’s pretty much useless after that.
…Or so I thought, feeling disappointed at first.
‘Wait a minute.’
‘This might actually be perfect.’
‘If I had been reincarnated as the Hero or one of the main characters, I’d be stuck fighting and getting dragged through hell until I killed the Demon King.’
‘But.’
‘If I’m just Kain, the tutorial guy?’
‘All I have to do is teach the Hero the basics and I’m done.’
That actually sounded great.
“The weather’s nice too.”
A clear, blue sky.
That’s a pretty important detail in Prophecy RPG.
‘You can tell the game difficulty just by looking at the sky.’
A red sky means Despair difficulty (Very Hard).
A black sky filled with storm clouds means Adversity difficulty (Hard).
A grey, cloudy sky means Adventure difficulty (Normal).
And a perfectly blue sky with no clouds means Journey difficulty (Easy).
It was a clear, blue sky.
Which meant…
This world was set to Journey difficulty—Easy.
‘That seals it.’
Journey difficulty means you can travel around like you’re on vacation, and collecting the Demon King’s head is just a souvenir along the way.
There’s no need to follow the Hero around giving them walkthroughs or showing them where the hidden items are.
Still.
I had a job to do.
“Kain is the tutorial guy, after all.”
“I should at least run the tutorial.”
And once that’s done, I’ll bolt straight to the village where my favorite character lives.
Perfect.
This is a flawless plan.
The countryside village of Reuben.
Kain’s hometown.
The Hero’s hometown.
And the village that gets wiped out by bandits.
However.
The Hero narrowly survives.
…That’s the beginning of Prophecy RPG.
‘Now, where would the Hero be?’
‘What, you’re saying I should know that if I’m a veteran player?’
Of course I don’t.
Prophecy RPG changes the story based on the Hero’s gender, personality, and traits.
Depending on what you choose at the beginning, even the starting point changes.
So.
If I want to find the Hero, I’m going to have to put in some work—
***
“Uwaaahhh!”
A girl’s voice, crying.
There’s no one else alive around here.
That has to be the Hero.
‘Oh?’
‘So the Hero’s a girl?’
And her personality is <Crybaby>.
‘That’s actually not bad.’
The <Crybaby> trait is garbage for a male Hero—it’s all penalties and no perks.
But for a female Hero? It’s surprisingly good.
Why?
Because when a super-pretty girl like the protagonist is crying, male NPCs rush to help her, and it triggers all sorts of sweet events.
‘She might be weak in battle because of the penalties, but the other benefits make up for it.’
There are way worse traits out there that are nothing but debuffs.
So <Crybaby> is actually pretty decent in comparison.
That’s what I was thinking as I walked toward the sound of her voice.
Then I saw her.
A crying girl with beautiful brown hair.
‘Wow…’
‘No doubt about it. She’s the protagonist…’
She looked gorgeous even in the game, but seeing her in real life? She was even more stunning.
My favorite character is beautiful too, but this girl really lives up to the title of “main character.”
***
But the monster next to her wasn’t a goblin.
“Kyuu! Kyuu!”
“Kyuu!”
‘A Kyuring slime?!’
‘Kyuring actually showed up?!’
Kyuring.
An unofficial mascot of Prophecy RPG—a super cute slime monster.
There are all kinds of them: Slime Kyuring, Mimic Kyuring, Flame Kyuring, Gift Box Kyuring…
They come in several varieties.
They only have 1 HP, But the gold, EXP, and item drops are on par with a boss-level monster.
They’re basically like the game’s version of a “golden goblin.”
However.
They don’t appear under normal circumstances.
In any of the regular difficulties—Journey (Easy), Adventure (Normal), Adversity (Hard), Despair (Very Hard)—you’ll never see one.
They only spawn in Blessing difficulty.
A cheat-code-tier difficulty setting often nicknamed “Baby Mode.”
‘Which means…’
‘This world isn’t set to Journey (Easy)…’
It’s on Blessing difficulty?
‘No way…’
‘I got isekai’d into a cheat world…?’
Commonly called “Baby Mode.”
It’s like Journey difficulty, but with completely broken features added on top.
Kyuring, the bonus monster, is already busted, but the real game-breakers are the traits the Hero gets.
[Absolute Invincibility]: Any damage over 1 is reduced to exactly 1.
[One-Hit Kill]: All of the Hero’s attacks have the [Instant Death] effect.
(If the Hero doesn’t intend to kill, the [Near-Death] effect is applied instead.)
[Instant Death]: Reduces the target’s HP to 0.
[Near-Death]: Reduces the target’s HP to 1.
[Complete Immunity]: Nullifies all status effects.
Etc.
With this, even a level 1 Hero could grab the Demon King by the collar and wreck him.
This playthrough was already as good as finished.
…Or so I thought, just watching things unfold.
“Uwaaahhh!”
Our protagonist awakened in tears.
She had transformed from a brown-haired country girl into a blonde warrior girl.
Golden hair fluttered in the wind.
She wore a white-and-gold suit of armor made exclusively for warriors.
And—
She held a holy sword, infused with the divine power of a goddess.
Wow!
Our protagonist looks amazing!
Now she can totally wipe out all the Kyurings—
“Uwaaahhh!”
Even after awakening, our protagonist was still getting beaten up by the Kyurings.
-1
-1
-1
“Uwaaahhh!”
She kept getting beaten up while crying.
-1
-1
-1
‘Huh…’
‘This might be a problem.’
Thanks to her [Absolute Invincibility] trait, all damage is reduced to 1.
But her HP at level 1 is just 100.
In other words—
If she takes 100 hits, she’ll still die.
‘Ehh…’
‘There’s no way she’ll just stand there crying until she takes all 100 hits… right?’
-1
-1
-1
“Uwaaahhh!”
Even in her awakened form, she was still getting beaten up by three Kyurings.
Sigh
“Guess I have no choice.”
Slaaash! Slaaash! Slaaash!
I quickly swung my sword and sliced through all three slime Kyurings.
“Ugh!”
I could feel my body getting stronger.
‘Oh…?’
‘Is this what leveling up feels like?’
Feels pretty good.
As expected of Kyurings.
They’re generous with XP—like mini-bosses.
Thanks to them, I leveled up a lot.
“Huff…”
Next to me, the protagonist was also letting out a weird groan as she felt herself getting stronger.
Come to think of it, she played the tank, and I played the DPS.
So it’s natural for us to share the experience points.
…That’s what I told myself as I reached out my hand.
“Are you okay?”
“Can you stand?”
“Aaah…”
“Y-Yeah…”
Our protagonist took my hand and stood up.
‘Looks like she stopped crying.’
Hic
‘Ah.’
‘Nope, she’s still crying.’
“Moooom!”
She cried out for her mother.
I paused to think.
‘Well…’
‘That’s a normal reaction.’
She watched her mother get killed right in front of her.
If she were totally fine after that, that would be the real problem.
Besides, she has the [Crybaby] trait.
Crying is to be expected.
But—
In the game, Kain was a cold, heartless man.
He’d say, “Crying won’t change anything,” and tell her to grab her sword.
He’d urge her to get revenge on the bandits who killed her mother.
That’s how the tutorial began.
That was the game’s story.
But honestly…
‘Was it really necessary to be that cold?’
I know why Kain acted that way.
He came back from a quest to find the whole village slaughtered.
His family, friends, lover—all dead.
A man like that wouldn’t have the heart to offer kind words to a crying child.
He just couldn’t.
But I’m not Kain.
I have enough emotional room to reach out and help a girl who’s grieving over her dead mother.
‘Of course, deep down, I want to go meet my favorite character as soon as possible.’
‘But this protagonist is one of my favorite characters too.’
I’d rather see her smile than watch her cry.
So I made a decision.
‘Time for baby mode.’
This difficulty is easy enough that I can casually beat the Demon King even if things get a little messy.
‘So how about I tweak the story just a tiny bit?’
In the game, you could never choose this option.
Here it is—
My secret move: Spoil the ending.
“Ria.”
“Moooom…”
“Ria!”
“Mooom… Huh? Wha…?”
Ria blinked and looked up at me.
“My name…”
“How did you know?”
Because if you picked a male protagonist, it was ‘Rian’, and if you picked a female, it was ‘Ria’.
…But I couldn’t exactly say that.
So I glossed over it.
“That’s not important.”
“I’ve got something really important to tell you.”
“S-Something important…?”
“Your mother is still alive.”
Ria stared at me in shock, like she couldn’t believe what she just heard.
So I explained in more detail.
The mother who died in the village was like a decoy—a copy.
Her real body is somewhere else.
I told her her real mother was alive and well.
“A… a copy?”
“You mean… Mom’s alive?!”
“Yup. She is.”
“T-Then…”
“Where is she?”
I pointed toward the sky.
“Up there.”
“Up… there?”
“The realm of the gods? The heavens?”
“The heavens?”
“She’s in the heavens?!”
“Exactly.”
“T-Then…”
“Is my mom… an angel?”
“No.”
“She’s way more than that.”
“T-Then what is she?”
“The Goddess of Light—Serena.”
“That’s who your mother really is.”
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