"Ughh…. Not this again".
This was the fifth one in a row. This was the fifth generic comic I read. No. Let me rephrase that. This was the fifth generic slop in the name of comic I consumed in the span of a day.
Why are all stories like this? Do they copy each other? Do they use AI to write filth like this? Do they even make money with these? If not, why bother creating this shit for free? Why the fuck does each and every single one have to be the same? I'm bored and I'm tired.
I'm a 22-year-old man who somehow managed to get a remote job immediately after finishing college. The pay isn't all that good but considering my experience and skill, I should lick their boots for letting me have this. The job however isn't all that much. It's just testing bugs for outsourced projects. The company hires a lot of interns this time around, so most of my work is done by them and all I gotta do is double check their work and yell at them in a zoom meeting. Yeah, it is as boring as it sounds but hey, they do the unpaid labor and I get paid so I'm not complaining.
I use all this free time I have to read comics. I enjoy it or at least I used to. I've read almost all the good ones. I've caught up with all the currently popular ones and the new ones with high potential; I'm letting those marinate. My bookmarks are getting lesser and lesser.
So here I am, consuming slop like a pig. It's always the same goddamn thing. Re-incarnation and transmigration, my ass. The authors can't explain jackshit of how the mc got there in the first place, so they use that as an excuse.
And what's with the system thing? Why the fuck is it everywhere? It's understandable if it has like a game element to it but why is it in romcom or murim or fantasy setting? The first time around, it was fun but now it's everywhere and its exhausting. The whole fucking plot revolves around the system telling the main character to do shit and that's it. It's all just an excuse so that the author doesn't have to explain the whole power system. Pathetic.
Just now, after emptying my bookmarks, I tried to check out what's on my feed but it's just tragic. I'm bored as hell and tried to read something new but it's the same "I was weak as an ant and got beaten to death but here I am reborn with the system. I'm the strongest being in the entire world. Oh, the guy my ex cheated on me with who happens to be a boxer? Courting death??? System! twist his balls."
I'd rather be playing games to be honest but I suck at that too. I don't want to be called a noob by a 12 year old sweaty kid who got nothing better to do with his life.
"Let's see what's on Netflix." Nothing. There's nothing on there. It's either a new show that I'm never gonna watch or a show from the 90s I've rewatched a gazillion times.
I've decided now.
"Doomscrolling it is!!"
.....
"What the?? When did it get so dark?"
I'm not a materialistic person but I possess a few things. I possess a physical form, unnecessary thoughts and a free will which I now realize I haven't used much of. I am conscious against my will but in order to not let my physical form crumble to dust, I gotta eat.
Utilizing my free will, I decided to have noodles and boiled egg for dinner. With some hot sauce, that thing slaps.
It's been a tiring day doing a little to nothing so I'm gonna sleep now.
"Goodnight me! Hope tomorrow won't be as boring as today."
...zzzzzzzzz
...zzzzzzzzzzzzz
....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Huh? Why is it so damn bright?"
I know I turned the lights off. I can't sleep with lights on.
Maybe the cat pressed the switch? No, I don't have a cat.
Is the World War III going on? Did they drop a nuke at the middle of the night? Noooo, not like thiss!!! I haven't got laid yet!!
"Wait, hold on"
Is that.... THE SUN?
I'm in my bedroom, how can… no, I'm not in my bedroom. This is grass.
I'm awake now. I really hope I'm not awake. This has got to be a joke. This has to be a very very unfunny joke. I know for a fact I'm not dreaming because I can walk straight. If this was a dream, I'd walking like an inflated balloon.
I know it now; I'm in a different world. With my very awake eye, I can see the sun is red. The sun isn't red. Well, not normally. If I remember my seventh-grade science correctly, red sun is a dying star and our sun isn't dying. There's probably some radiation or something like that going on too but I'm not really a science guy, I don't know all that. All I know is that the sun isn't supposed to be red.
How did I get here tho? Did I die? Nah, I was sleeping. How can I die in my sleep? Maybe a heart attack? I'm just 22 and I don't even have any heart problems. Sudden cardiac arrest? I just ate noodles, they weren't even greasy enough to cause that!
DING....DING....DING
Bells? Bells! Come on, that's gotta be something. Isn't that when a village is under attack by a monster or something? So, this is one of those worlds where monster attack and the main hero saves the world?
This could be anything. Could it be an otome game where the main character reincarnates as a commoner and saves the heroine. Ooh could it be one of those reverse ones where the villainess is actually the heroine and the heroine is actually the villain?
"System!"
"Status Window!"
"…uhh"
Why is it not appearing? How am I supposed to know what I have to do now? Ooh hair. Hair! I gotta pluck one out to check. Ah damn, it's just the normal black. I'm probably not any important huh? Or I could be one of those self inserts where the main character is the blandest looking guy in the series.
As I'm walking towards the source of the bell noise, I get out of the grassy plain and see the view clearly. It's a bridge and across the bridge is a big wall. Probably a city behind the wall. Something like a starter town? So it's probably not a manhwa world.
A game world maybe? Nah, If I was in a game world I'm used to, I'd either have a shotgun or I'd be riding a hog with a hammer in my hand. Ooh I know! A generic anime world!
It's the classic trope. A city within a big wall surrounded by river.
As I'm crossing the bridge, I see guards. Two of them. Both of them have swords on their hips. Ah, I knew it! It's the anime world! The question is which one of the re-incarnation slop I read is this? If this is the starter town, which by the looks of it, it probably is I'll know soon enough. Either the main character is in there or already left it, either way I'll know some details.
"Huh?" As I get closer to the big door near the big wall I get a closer look at the sword on the guards. That's not a katana! That's just a normal looking western sword!
Does that mean this is not anime world? Is this manhwa after all? Now that I see their faces a little close, this could be murim for all I know. Their face looks like characters that are required to die first to make entrance of a protagonist or antagonist look grand.
"Halt!"
Ooh English, that's convenient.
"Who are you? What business do you have here?"
Where do I say? If I say something like lakeside city and they ask further questions, I got no reply.
One of them grabs the sword. "Answer"
"Oh, pardon me. I'm from the leaf village. I'm here looking for a job."
Ah shit, I fucked up.
"Leaf village? where the hell is that?"
I fucked up big time.
"Sir, it's a rural village pretty far south from here. I doubt you'd have heard of such backwater place like that."
"Looking for a job, you say? Do you have any acquaintance in this town?"
"No, sir. My village got ransacked by monsters. Few survived but I lost my family. There is no hope in that land so I came here looking for some opportunities."
"Monsters?"
Wait what? Are there no monsters in this world?
"Those filthy bandits are worse than monsters. Calling them humans would be insulting human race as a whole."
"My condolences. Since you say your village got ransacked, I assume you have no proof of identity on you?"
Huh? Are they this advanced? They got ID cards?
"Yes sir, unfortunately."
"That truly is unfortunate. In that case you have t….OUCH!!"
"Stop bullying the kid! Are you gonna take bribe from an orphan?" An old burly man with silver-ish white knuckled appeared out of the door and knuckled the lights out of the guard.
"I apologize sir"
Silver hair!! Or is that just shiny white? This man gotta be an important character. Have I seen him before? Well, I've seen plenty of old muscular men. This one looks like all of them. What if it's just white due to old age? He doesn't look that old.
"What's a scrawny brat like that gonna do? You think he's dangerous or something? Hah! Go in kid!"
Wow, rude much? Am I really that scrawny? I can do 15 pull-ups, you know? I got that sleeper build.
"Thank you, sir! Thanks a lot!!"
Anyway, first hurdle complete.
I managed to get in a town on the first day of being in another world. Doesn't look much like a town to be honest. I've been in rural villages better looking than this place. But it does have that fantasy feel to it.