This story is about a teenager named Hagane Gekido, who had a decent personality and looks. Blue hair, green eyes, and glasses that were in front of them.
According to him, he was a decent person, but outside he is quite a popular man for being a student who is quick to socialize and yet impossible to become complete friends for a while.
(Reference Image, not to be taken in full consideration)
Strangely enough, his life isn't that average.
It's just.....
"The concept of misfortune and what seems to be calamity barely seems to affect me because I am manipulating it? How strange."
He wasn't aware of this ability of his until 19 years of his life, and due to this nothing happened other than a mere realization that it was just strange.
Hagane could do anything without much of a consequence, other than what might happen in the outside world.
For example, if he ever wanted something like, for example, 3000 yen, it might flow to his hand mysteriously at some point between 5 to 10 seconds.
And abusing this ability isn't even necessary, knowing that it could corrupt him by using common sense is something neat for a steady life.
The way his ability worked is that, if he wanted or needed it, then he will get it.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Not much, really. Because once he meets trouble (technically it's the Vice Versa), calamity strikes the trouble with necessary force. Simple as.
This ability is also quite potent, and brought trouble for anybody aside from the intended target since calamities happen.
Eh, that happens quite a lot, to the point where it seems normal for him to socially stay at a considerable distance to anybody, with some exceptions.
Close friends, childhood friends, parents and cousins, or generally anybody who is close to him. Of course family is better than friends, somewhat.
But anyway, back to what is happening now, he sat on a gaming chair, in front of a computer on which he plays videogames and read E-manga, webnovels and even Manhua and Manhwa for entertainment purposes.
While browsing through the internet, he found an advertisement popup that was about a new game called "4 Heroes Online RPG" which was simply a multiplayer online game.
When he clicked on the advertisement, he was shown a webpage about the game.
Surprisingly, it's still in an Open Beta state, and it's been months in the making.
"Let's see here..... Huh, it really is an open-world Beta game, with mixed reactions and reviews from the player base that's just a few thousand, not even reaching 10k." He commented, shifting his glasses and further scrolling down the website.
Finding out that around 75 percent and more liked and enjoyed playing the more offensive classes than the more defense oriented classes is pretty neat.
The shield hero also seemed completely unbalanced as a starting unit since it's attack is.... Just one.
- "The shield hero has a good enough starting point, I guess. But the stats.... I can't say I'm not impressed at the unbalanced attack to defense ratio. This is the only thing that makes Shield Hero users need allies all the time." - Ryujin769
- "There's things that the developers nor the team would reveal, but there is a lot to explore about the systems of each hero, and they're somewhat connected to each other." - Regalia_Kyuun
- "UWWOOOOOH~! FITORIALS ARE THE BEST PETS IN THE GAME~!!! They can be- (FILTERED) - and they have a great appetite, just be careful around them, they hate dragons, now, back to UWWOOOOGH~ (FILTERED)" - EnjoyCunny333
These were just some of the 32 reviews of the Shield Hero class. 13 of them are just blatant spam like "Shield Hero is trash lol", "Virgin class lol", and "Dumb class for weaklings" even though they haven't even tried playing this class.
Since our protagonist was curious about how the shield works, he decided to expand his knowledge about the game's lore since he's a natural completionist.
And challenges can never be boring, but fun at most times. So, why not download the game?
Well, it's just open beta so the required data is just around..... 45 GB?!
".... How unsurprising." He said, sighing afterwards before taking out his credit card. "Guess a bit of sacrifice of money should be worth it."
He has enough money to get the data needed to download the game, and while he begins to spend his time exploring the site for various reasons, he found some.... Peculiar things.
Peculiar things that mildly interested him.
"This red-haired princess.... If I was inside the game, I can fix her."
"This game has several world maps? Now I see why the game is that large, and due to this, It's actually looking promising."
Several hours of contemplation and spending thousands of yen later, the game was not just downloaded but also installed.
He has gained enough meta knowledge for certain things, and due to it he feels prepared, even though some things were pretty much spoiled such as the fact that the game has an incredible AI that adapts to every action the players do.
Now what?
"Guess I'm booting the game."
He later regretted it when he was summoned to another world, meeting the king who was in disbelief and silence the moment he saw Hagane, three other heroes who act like NPCs that he couldn't care more than enough.
Why was that?
Eh, he's a good reader of people. And he knows playing along would just be better though.
He and the other NPC heroes supposedly came from other parallel versions of Earth, so he decided to ask them all something.
"So, do any of you have any innate abilities or something?" He asked, laying sideways on his bed and facing them.
Motoyasu and Ren shook their heads, not knowing what he was speaking about.
But only Itsumi- Itsuko - Suzuki - Kawasaki- ahem, Kasumi...... Let's just call him Bow Kid had answered him.
"Oh, me? I have the ability to always hit anything I want to hit. It's ave- I mean, really good for me now that I have an ideal weapon for myself!" The bow kid replied, scratching his hair while he smirked at the three.
"What about you, err.... We haven't asked your name yet, can we know it?"
"Me? I'm Hagane Gekido. A Sophomore and I have the ability to absorb misfortune from anybody, healing them."
This was just one part of his ability, since knowing that all his actions will affect the surroundings and eventually the world, he decided to start with a simple white lie.
He didn't tell them that his ability grows stronger the more misfortune he absorbs from people, though. He can also convert "Misfortune" to raw energy that could literally power things and make a drill out of that energy, something he never publicly tried due to paranoia.
Anyway, the reactions of the other three were pretty much expected.
"Woah, really? Did you use it for everyone?" Itsuki replied, looking quite relieved.
"No. Not really, I'd rather live a normal, quiet life than be some wannabe hero." Was his reply that almost shattered the Bow Kid's hopes.
"W-What....?"
"I mean, I did use my ability for good, but since my world's at an era of peace it's not really that useful."
Shaking his head, he decided to chuckle shortly since he believed he was probably dreaming.
So he began to go to sleep, not before hearing a few words from the Bow Kid who approached him.
"Oh, I see.... Sorry, I won't let that happen again."
This time, the Bow Kid somewhat sounded a bit more feminine. Strange.
"Really?
Next day would be the time where they would find allies that would accompany then in the journey, right?
Thing is, our protagonist knew that this is Melromarc, a Matriarchy/Queendom, not a Kingdom. And he was already being conspired against.
He knew what precautions he would take, though for some reason, someone who would rightfully be renamed into a derogatory name may become his asset.
Being the luckiest man in the world who could bring calamities made him know it wouldn't be much if a stretch anyways. The right words would only convince her.
Though unaware that in two days he might be betrayed, he still wants to try.
[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]
Author's Commentary: This dude's abilities are based out of several characters, like Wonder of U (from JJBA Part 8), Fuuko Izumo (from Undead Unluck), and Zerofuku (from Shuumatsu no Valkyrie) but....
Let's just say it's the ability to quite literally manipulate fortune, misfortune, and calamity subconsciously and consciously.
Note: This ability can grow stronger.
Note II: Genderbent Itsuki Kawasumi. More genderbent characters will come for no reason.
Don't like it? Don't care lol. Just tell me how you would cope about it.