Author : Yuumikan ( 夕蜜柑 )
Illustration by Koin ( 狐印 )
Published by Kadokawa Fujimishobo ( 富士見書房 )
Intro to The Story
In the future Japan, there was a VRMMO game cal-
(RO, what is VRMMO?)
Okay, let me start from the basic stuff. I’ll just quote Plarium.com as before:
MMO is a “Massively Multiplayer Online” game. To put it in simpler terms, an MMO is an online multiplayer game which a large number of people can play simultaneously. You don’t play with or against just a handful of players, but thousands, sometimes even millions of them at the same time
https://plarium.com/en/blog/difference-between-mmo-and-mmorpgs/
And, VRMMO is an MMO game which is using the feature of Virtual Reality although even until last year (2018), there are no such game made into realization yet. But hey let’s be optimist! The world has already made VR candy feeder and VR a**** video so let’s believe that the future is already near, guys!
(I still don’t get what’s an VRMMO)
….Watch “Sword Art Online”. Period.
Back to the story,
In the future Japan, there was a VRMMO game called “New World Online” and our main character, Kaede Honjou is a Hard-Core Novice Player. She’s just asked by her bestie, Risa to tag along with her in this new game. Just when Kaede already got the game, Risa got grounded and can’t play with her (It must be sucks for Kaede). So Kaede decided to try play this by herself until her Risa can join the game.
You have just logged in into the world of fantasy! Adventure awaits you, but before that, you have to do the usual drill. The “Character Creation”. A process where some people might took an hour or more because they cannot decide the boobs size or which type of ears to pick. But not Kaede, she is a so much beginner for this kind of game so she doesn’t think much about “the best/ideal build”. Heck, she even set the ID name as “Maple (derived literally the english translation of her name) instead her concern is more to the weapon and build which is,
“Hmm…If I raise the Vit, then I will feel less damage apparently! That’s cool. I guess I’ll set all of my stat points to the Vit then ” (Title Drops)
And off her go entering the “New World Online”!
What is the Charm Point of the Series?
1) It’s a Gamer Thing
In order to understand Maple’s full-of-miracle-experiences, you have to be at the most a gamer/an RPG gamer/if possible an MMORPG gamer, or at the least, you have a knowledge of games to a certain degree. Because, the author clearly knows what are the “stereotypes” or “ortodox” play style in MMO games and Maple don’t do those kind of things. Let me try to state it in a simple way.
Imagine that you started to play an MMORPG. Nowadays, the games usually provide a “Tutorial Quest” which allow you to understand the basic controls and what’s the meaning of this screen, this bar etc. And eventually, you will learn that regardless of the story/premises it has, your basic policy is to “fight enemy” > “get loots/item drops/cash” > “make stronger gear/equip” > “fight stronger enemy” > “get more rare loots/item drops/cash” > “make MORE stronger gear/equip” > “fight MORE stronger enemy” > repeat.
But Kaede err… Maple don’t follow those routines. You know what is the first thing she did when she encountered her enemy in the field? Let me describe it for you:
Maple encountered a “Horn Rabbit”!
What action will you take?
A. Attack B. Magic C. Item D. Flee
Regardless of which you picked, Maple chose… E. Play around with them.
…
It’s so funny reading that she’s getting excited by herself “Awww she’s so cute! So adorable!” while the Horn Rabit is keep attacking her but due to the high VIT, it didn’t inflict damage at all. She keep playing around with the enemy until she got an announcement by the system:
“You’ve aquired the skill “Ultimate Defense”.
Requirements: Receive attack without damage and also not attacking the enemy for one hour.
“I Don’t Want to Feel Pain so I Set All of My Stat Points to Vit” vol 01
That’s what differs Maple to “normal players” because normal players will usually kill their first encounter and begin grinding levels or off to the next map or something.
Maple’s unique behavior is what makes this story is VERY interesting. Maybe to some readers, it’s ridiculous or it doesn’t make sense. But to me, her behavior and action made me blurted out “What the hell are you thinking, Maple?” in the middle of reading, numerous times. If I want to compare Kirito of SAO to Maple, Kirito is what you called experienced player and he’s even a “beater” (pffttt beater…beta tester+cheater… what the heck SAO) therefore he follows the common-sense of any MMORPG player. Meanwhile, Maple is not but her novice-like yet out of the box act is what will lead her into an upgrade event over and over and eventually raised her into a SUPER ULTRA SHIELD HERO! (Same publisher coincidentally).
A part of me which is a gamer actually can’t accept such Miracles occur to one player over and over, but then I just go “Oh what the heck! As long as I enjoy reading it why not!”
2) Maple is OP… in A Different Dimension
As I have mentioned above, Maple will eventually keep triggering Level-Up or Rare Item or Rare Skill events which is turning her into a Famous Player within the game. There is a group of anonymous player who is secretly admiring her from her first debut and they often gather in a chat group talking about Maple’s “growth“. Let me show you a piece of their conversation.
Nameless sword : Anyone got any update about Maple?
Nameless shield : I do.
Nameless bow : Spill it.
Nameless shield : Okay. I saw Maple returned from exploration the other day and she’s a….
Nameless staff : Aww come on.
Nameless shield : … … …She’s an Angel.
Nameless sword : Look, bro. We all agreed that she’s adorable like an angel.
Nameless shield : Wait, wait. What I mean is literally, she suddenly grew white feathers, hair turned blonde, eyes turned emerald green and a halo ring pops above her head.
Nameless staff : What in the….? You jest? surely you jest.
Nameless sword : What did I tell you! You look away from her for a bit and she turned into something different!
Nameless bow : You saw the effect of that form?
Nameless shield : I heard from her party member that when she’s on that form, all party within a certain distance will be “covered” automatically by Maple. So as long as Maple isn’t down, no one can defeat her party.
Nameless sword : Even inflicting damage to Maple is already near impossible. Oh my god….
Nameless bow : Mark my word. She will evolve again! She will get 3rd form, 4th form…haha..hahaha
Nameless staff : What is she? A secret Boss? No kidding!
…
“I Don’t Want to Feel Pain so I Set All of My Stat Points to Vit” vol 02
And by reading this conversation from another player POV, makes us realized that this kind of character development is not a common sense in that game.
3) Birds a Feather Flock Together
Later on, Maple will establish her own guild and don’t forget her bestie I mentioned in the intro. She will later join the game and made a character completely different build than Maple. She’s what we call as Experienced Hard-Core Gamer so she knows the moves alright, the moves of an assassin. Yea, then there’ll be other players joining the guild but I won’t spoil too many details about them yet.
Conclusion
If you”ve played MMO games before, I recommend you.
If you want to enjoy a story of an online game without trapping anyone in it, I recommend you.
If you support “Screw anime with RPG concept but has DPS as its’ MC, give me a TANK!” kind of thinking, I recommend you.
Other Media
Maple encountered a Horn Rabbit and playing around with it 
Manga Cover
This series also released a manga,which is drawn by Oimotojirou ( おいもとじろう ). I’d say the artwork is fine. It fits the atmosphere brought in the Light Novel. So I’d give it a thumb up. Although Kadokawa Comics Ace have released vol 01 only so far.
Kadokawa has also announced green-lit anime for this series! You can read the details on Animenewsnetwork article on the link below:
or you can see the announcement by Kadokawa on youtube. Just click the link below:
Let’s pray it’s gonna be good!
Links
Light Novel is currently released vol 01 – 06 by Kadokawa, Fujimo Shobo ( 富士見書房) under the label of Kadokawa BOOKS. You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here.
Manga is currently released vol 01 by Kadokawa Shoten under the label of Kadokawa Comics Ace. You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here
All images in this page are owned by Kadokawa.
Reading Otaku 
Leave a comment