Chapter 1: I am a Canceller
My name is. .h.i.tto [1]. Well, that being said, it’s actually the “Player Name” that I used in a game. The truth is, while playing that game I suddenly found myself inside the game world itself.
In my original world, a giant meteorite about two-thirds the size of Earth was about to fall down. There were rumors that the world was already doomed.
Regardless, the people of j.a.pan were relatively calm. Surprisingly, everyone accepted their fate as if it was natural. People spent their last days with their family and lovers would whisper to each other words like “Let’s be together in the next life, okay?”
As for me, I spent my time playing a game that I liked. If I was going to die anyways then I thought that I might as well die playing a game.
It was an Online Game but I remember seeing a surprisingly large number of people logged on. Hmm, it must’ve been a coincidence
In the chat named『The meteorite is about to hit 』, I saw messages like “Good bye”, “Let’s get reincarnateeeeed!” and “The meteorite is coming~~~!” These kind of words completely covered my screen in an instant. Then, everything in front of me became pure white and when I regained consciousness I found myself in a forest.
I checked my surroundings but the environment had become exactly like the game.
Also, inside my head my status was being displayed.
Job was “Canceller” and main skill was “To Cancel”.
This was exactly like in the game I was just playing.
In addition, when I examined my face by touching it I discovered that it was identical to my original face. Well, my game character was made to be to look similar to me so that may be the reason but with black hair that felt short in the back and long, narrow eyes. Small features were deeply engraved that made it look like a half-j.a.panese person.
My original height was quite tall but I don’t think my field of vision has changed much from before. I haven’t measured my height in a while but last I checked it was 178 cm[2] and I doubt it has changed much since then.
But, isn’t this body’s build a little different?
It was quite well-toned. In other words, it appears I’ve turned into a strapping young man[3].
The game’s power lead to this sort of outcome, huh?
Oh, now that I think about it my equipment the same as well.
“Wind Cross” armor with breastplate wings.
For the arms, I have “Speed Gloves”.
As for the leggings, I was wearing “Mach Greaves”. I ended up wearing any equipment that would up my speed.
That being said, it was not like I wanted to be faster than everyone else saying “I’ll become like the wind!~” or something like that.
The reason was because of my current job. The so-called “Canceller” job was able to cancel various things if you improved your skills enough.
In fighting games, “Cancelling” in a fundamental skill that involves making it look like you started a combo or technique and then shortening the action halfway through. But in this game you can make it so that the action never even happened even if it seemed it would follow through.
For now I place my hand on my waist. Yup, my specialty dual swords were right where I left them.
In addition, the throwing knives I used as a sub-weapon were also within arm’s reach. It appears that my game state was left as it was before.
The bracelet and ring I used for reduced stamina use and automatic recover were also still there.
Regardless, even though I had seen something like this before in a web novel experiencing something like this for yourself is still pretty strange.
Well, whatever. The Earth was destroyed anyways. I have to continue living in this world no matter what.
Anyways, it’s time to experiment. Let’s see whether “Cancel” works properly.
I find an appropriate tree trunk and threw my knife at it. I pretty much knew how to throw it correctly. Because of my equipment’s effects, I was able to throw it quite effectively.
The game’s power were probably effecting my physical capabilities. Cutting through the air, the knife I threw struck the trunk right were I aimed it. It was dead-on, but that wasn’t the major issue right now.
The moment my knife hit the trunk I activated “Cancel”.
Afterwards, with a poof, the knife that was stuck in the tree disappeared and returned back into my hand. It appears that “Cancel” works exactly like how I remember it.
Incidentally the marks where the knife had pierced the tree trunk still remained. Even if I cancel that I threw the knife it doesn’t mean that I can cancel the fact that the tree actually got hit.
Let’s see, for now I throw the knife one more time. It hit the tree trunk again.
This time I wait for a while before activating Cancel but it doesn’t activate.
Exactly like I thought. When using cancel with this sort of weapon, there is a certain “cancel point” that exists. If you pa.s.s this point then Cancel will not activate.
By the way, the cancel point is from when you throw the knife up until the moment it hits the tree trunk.
If your proficiency in Cancel is too low then you pretty much can’t cancel anything.
This is the reason why this job is considered the worst occupation.
That’s right, Canceller was a terribly mistreated job. The development team probably thought that the Cancel Skill was way too strong.
Because of that, Cancellers start out with extremely low base attributes.
Their status growth was not that great either.
In addition, not being able to do a job change was a pretty big deal. Canceller was a character added just a little before the meteorite declaration was made after all.
We were told that the development team was dedicated to creating a high-cla.s.s job but, even for the calm and composed j.a.panese people, after hearing about the meteorite it was impossible. Or rather there was probably not enough time for that.
But I didn’t particularly regret it. Without a doubt, Canceller had very low capabilities but the job still had some enjoyable characteristics.
Especially, out of all the jobs this cla.s.s was unique as it specialized in combos.
This was the reason why I chose equipment that specialized in agility.
Being able to move swiftly was convenient for combos.
Even if you use Cancel, if your movements are too slow then there’s no point.
Although, thinking about that sort of stuff right now is pointless.
For now let’s decide what to do from now on.
This forest is probably the Great Konbo Woods. Also attached to my waist is a “Magic Bag”.
It was a magical bag that can store items up to a maximum of 1000 kg. There isn’t anything like an unlimited item box but this is still good enough.
From within the bag I pull out a map. It was a magical map. This game’s interface, instead of always displaying a map, required you to pull out every single item in order to check things.
It was a pretty strange way to do things. Though you could pretty much tell what your status, job, and skills were but everything else on the interface like your character’s condition or physical changes was pretty much guesswork.
Furthermore, there was no numerical data available. But despite that, we understood general capabilities thanks to volunteers who had to establish a database online.
Although this world doesn’t have any connection to that.
Anyways, I pulled out map from my bag and looked at it. The magical map was displaying my current position. I might have noticed because it’s my first time in this sort of situation but this map is pretty convenient.
My current location was slightly around the south-southeast region of the forest.
To the East the Konbo River was flowing.
Since there wasn’t much of a hurry, should I go and take a look?
I believe there was a trail that ran along the riverside as well. My throat was quite parched too.
Alright, it’s decided then.
「Iya~~! Please stop it~~」
「Shut up! Don’t struggle so much!」
「Hey, hold her down!」
「Ok!」
「Geez, you’re a slave anyways right? You must’ve been wagging your tail around every night for that guy.」
「Seriously, just let us have a little fun too.」
「Screaming Gya~ Gya~ like that, if you don’t do it properly then we’ll beat you to death.」
「Oh man, that’s pretty harsh of you」
「「「Gyahahahaha!」」」
Well then……when I came to a place near the riverbank, how should I put this… basically I came across this sort of situation.
Mmm, if I remember correctly there were certainly times in the game when you would be escorting a wagon when a bunch of robbers would appear for you to defeat but seeing it happen in the real world was pretty graphic.
After all, lying a little bit away from the three robbers was the body of a well-dressed middle-aged man on the ground with his entrails hanging out. What about the surrounding adventurers that were brought along as bodyguards? They were all scattered on the ground.
There was a wagon around so does that means the one they killed was a merchant?
If this was still a game, the bodyguards would’ve been Players who would be returned back to town even if they died.
Still, I doubt it works like that in the actual world.
Thus, the person that the bunch of robbers were holding onto was a female slave. A young girl who was probably around the ages of 15 or 16.
I don’t know if it was her previous owner’s preference but she was wearing a pretty thin outfit and the robbers were tearing it to pieces. You could clearly see her underwear by now.
Hmm, she has quite the large pair b.r.e.a.s.t.s huh. Wait, this isn’t the time to be saying those sort of things.
「Ohh! So soft… I can’t get enough of this!」
「Oi oi, I can’t wait any longer! Let’s do her! Let’s finally bang her!」
The man who lost his cool began pulling down his pants. That’s disgusting, your a.s.s is hanging out you know?
As for me, I want to have a look at that young woman’s body too. But in my original world, as you would expect, looking at a 15 to 16 year old to definitely be out of the question.
Well, even from a distance I could tell it was a pretty cute young girl. Since I found myself in this situation I guess it can’t helped.
So then I grabbed a knife from the belt on my waist and threw it towards the bunch of thieves.
「Alright, hehehe, show me what you got ther…..gihiiii!」
Ah, the knife magnificently pierced into his b.u.t.thole. You’re got to be kidding me. I performed Cancel and the knife returned back into my hand but it smelled horrible. That’s seriously gross.
「Aaa gyaaa! It hurts! This really hurts~~~~!」
「O, oi! Anaru! What’s wrong, suddenly you’re holding your a.s.s!」
「What is it, huh? Did the excitement finally make you go crazy?」
……Anaru[4] was his name, you know. Can’t it be used both ways, though?
That being said, he’s really rolling around quite a bit. While holding the so called hole in his rear-end, he’s tossing and turning around while screaming. Since he was plump he looked like a giant meatball.
Because of that, the worried man next to him just watched without getting closer to him. As I was concealed in the brushes, the knife that was cancelled and returned to my hand was left unnoticed.
But really, I should throw this knife away. I wasn’t particularly attached to this knife anyways.
Also, I also wanted to try out another weapon this time.
I plunged my hand into the Magic Bag and took out the rather crude weapon.
That weapon was the “Spiral Heavy Crossbow”. It’s the type with a considerably long body that you carry on your shoulders. Well, it was still a good item if I do say so.
Naturally, the bolts it uses are quite large. Compared to a regular crossbow they were several times bigger.
Even so, the true worth of this weapon is that, if you shoot it in a special way, the bolts shot by this crossbow spiral through the air.
So, in other words, it can fly through the air similar to how a bullet does. Because of that, the trajectory is stable and its penetrating power is high.
Well this sort of crossbow is…… The crossbow I’m holding is a rare weapon but in this game there weren’t many people interested in crossbows.
The reason is because even if the firepower is high it couldn’t be shot repeatedly.
Even if you change the capabilities and type of crossbow or even if you stay away from the high-powered ones that I’m using the fundamental characteristics of a crossbow won’t change. No matter what abilities a high level player uses, after one shot it would be necessary to perform the unique reloading actions every time.
That is the weapon known as a crossbow. Furthermore, the types of Long Bows and Composite Bows where you pull back the bowstring with just your hand had the ability to increase the rate of fire depending on the technique used. In addition, there were jobs that had skills specifically used for the bow.
Because of that influence, despite being high-powered the crossbow that couldn’t rapid-fire and couldn’t use skills gradually became obsolete but――
But for me this crossbow was the only weapon that I needed to use.
I raised the crossbow to my shoulder and fixed my aim. This will probably stand out a lot, after I shoot I’ll probably be discovered as a result.
As the giant meatball was rolling around, the shorter man bent over to look at his a.s.s.
Then he stood up after noticing the wound and turned his head in my direction. He must have guessed from what direction the injury came from.
But in that instant I pulled the trigger. The wire that was used as a bowstring propelled the bolt forward with a tremendous force. I could briefly feel my hair shake and the wind pressure on my face.
Bang[5]! The bolt tore through the air with a much more intense force than the knife. The spiraling arrow pierced through the wall of air in front of it and followed its aim towards the robber and splendidly bore a hole through the middle of his forehead.
Is it because of the bolt’s large size? His forehead fell off as if it were just an illusion.
The size of the hole surprisingly huge.
And, after I confirmed what had just happened, I activated Cancel on the bolt and it returned back where it was.
I turned my gaze over to the crossbow leaning against my shoulder. The bolt had returned and was set firmly in its original position.
The bowstring was also pulled back to its ready position.
This is the reason why I chose the crossbow.
The truth is, if it was a normal bow then the bowstring would not have returned to its drawn position.
Only the arrow would have returned into my hand.
The arrow would not be wasted but it was necessary to pull back the bowstring a second time.
On the other hand, the crossbow would return into its set position.
This was the special trait of a Canceller from the game I was playing.
By raising the proficiency enough, the Cancel Skill could be used during combat. By using Cancel you could return things to the state that they were previously in.
In other words, you can say that it allowed you to rewind time for a bit. But only for just a moment.
Also, just like when I tested the knife earlier, any damage that was dealt would remain.
In reality, the one who received the arrow had die just like that.
「Who! Who was it! Co, come on out! 」
Whoops, as expected, anyone would notice if they saw the dead body.
Well, thanks to that it looks like they let go of the young woman.
Would the woman start trying to escape now? I thought she would but with a “gusuu gusuu”[6] she seems to be snuffing her nose and looks like she’s about to cry.
Well, even if this world is based on a game the she is currently a real-life human being.
Of course I can sympathize with that.
Nonetheless, is this world an exactly duplicate of the game world? Or maybe when I died, since this game world was nearby, Kami-sama[7] did something and sent me over here? I don’t know the details but, regardless, I can’t forgive that bunch for making a young woman cry like that.
Especially since she was cute.
Well then, there was no reason for me to listen to that robbers stupid demands. It would be easy to continue shooting arrows from here but―― rather, with an opponent of this level there was still some things I wanted to test out.
That’s why I came forth from the thicket and showed myself to the remaining thieves.
1.
TL note: Originally his name is ヒット which translates as just “Hit”. Since that sounds lame I went the the phonetic “Hitto”
2.
TL note: 5’10’’
3.
TL note: Hitto originally said Hoso Macho or “a thin, muscular man”
4.
TL note: Anaru can also mean a.n.a.l/a.n.u.s… lol
5.
TL note: Originally バシュン or “Bashun”
6.
TL note: sound of crying/sniffling
7.
TL note: Kami-sama means G.o.d