The Parallel World Life Journal of A Sage in His Forties

Intro to The Story

Satoshi, a middle aged guy in his forties got fired from his job as a programmer due to a certain reason and decided to live a quite life as a farmer in the countryside. Although he was quite away from civilization, he can still continued to play a VRRPG game called “Sword and Sorceress“. He was very engrossed in this game due to the high-level freedom of creation features. The game allows the player to customize or create their own magic and maybe due to his line of job, he got really addicted in customizing and creating his original Magic spell, to the point he reached the high-tier profession of a “Great Sage”. The stronger a person become, the more loner he becomes. Thus, the players with the same feat eventually gathered and established a party of FIVE top players with the Highest Fire Power amongt all player, which is called as “The Mighty Morp- *ahem…THE DESTROYER!”. Each of them has their own aspect of the game which they are totally engrossed in, such as: Magic customization, Magic Equipment crafting, Medicine creation etc. And the five fought together against the last boss of the game, the Demon God, without breaking a sweat at all. After the HP bar of Demon God drops to zero, then they warped out of the field while casually saying “buh bye”, “see ya” etc like it’s just a routine farming event. Coincidentally, Satoshi is the last one left in the boss field and just as he was about to warp out too, the Boss spoke to him:

“Curse you, foul humans! How dare you to bring me to annihilation! I shall not forgive your existence!!!”

(What the-! How come? His HP should’ve been zero!)

“I beseech you, cursed Goddesses!… Not only the people who sealed me, but also you people who don’t know anything yet dare to spill my blood! I shall take all of you with me into DEATH!”

Her screams are accompanied by the numerous dark red rays filling the field.

The Parallel World Life Journal of A Sage in His Forties vol 01

Satoshi and some of the players of the game are later to be found as corpse and known as incident of an irregular deaths involving the game of Sword and Sorceress. Those players are the ones to be reincarnated to another world, which is oddly, similar to the Game itself.

Satoshi awoke in a Forest and he soon realized that his appearance takes form of the the game’s avatar he played which is The Sage Character, Zeros Marlin. He also confirmed through “menu screen” that he inherited the status, level and skill of that character from the last time he defeated the Demon God. His first conclusion is that this world is similar to the game Sword and Sorceress to the point that this world has “level” system just like in RPG games and he doesn’t even need to benchmark his level to normal humans in this world to realize how “outstanding” or how “inhuman” his current level is. I mean, there is no way any RPG game will let you start the game with the character of a four digit level and eight digit HP bar, won’t they. (if you know any, please tell me in the comment). Just when he recovered from the surprises of the reincarnation stuff, he realized that the forest he got awake is filled with high-level monsters. And after a week or so of heart-beating survival plus action-packed battle life style in the forest, he managed to get out and found a road, and just as he walked along it, he encountered his first RPG event : “Save the Civilian from the Bandit Attack!” Although Zeros wanted stay away from trouble but he isn’t that cold-hearted enough to abandon an old gramp and a small girl attacked by bandits. After he swiftly wiped out the bandits, Zeros received gratitude from the old man, who’s apparently an Noble. He did decline any kinds of rewards but the old man really insisted to give him rewards due to the pride of a Noble and his personal gratitude for saving the life of his grand-daughter. So he asked for a place where he could spend his life plowing soil and the noble, Cleston agreed and he offered a land owned by him in his town. Then, he was introduced to his granddaughter, Celestine and learned that she has an issue that she cannot perform any magic spells, including the basic ones. Due to this issue, she carried her life with people are pointing her in the back. Even her school-mate marked her as a “talent-less one”. That is where, Zeros stepped up to be her private tutor and will live a laid-back life….or so he thought.

What is the Charm of This Series?

1) Laid Back but Bad Ass

Personally, the title of Sage does really fit Satoshi AKA Zeros Marlin because Sage has a stereotype of living a secluded life and holding great powers and Satoshi ended up being that way but due to a certain reason. Due to this problem, Satoshi lived a life full of tense and stress which made him to adore “a peaceful life”, a life where you only need to farm, engrossed in your hobby and a pack of cigarettes. So what become of this person if he suddenly got transferred to a world of sword and magic and found out that he possess enormous power which could be close to god itself? Nothing. Zeros Marlin is NOT Kirito who came back into a game world again and again while risking his life. He’s already in his forties and has lived enough trouble in the previous life to the point he doesn’t want that to experience that again in this new life. So what now? back to the routines. Find yourself a land to farm, and find yourself a pack of cigarette. There you have it! A True Sage!

Zeros is not a saint or a superman who helps anyone or any soul willingly without asking any kind of compensation but it doesn’t mean he is avoiding completely all conflicts. In certain situation, Zeros will interfere or take initiative in order to keep his community safe, namely his pupil, his friends, the guy who sells him cigarette, the children at the orphanage, the dwarf and the boys of building contractor etc. Anything who will/might/have disrupt this peace will be handled in not a pleasant way. Shall it be human, or even God.

2) Great Teacher Onizuka Zeros

In the beginning chapters, we will see this side of Zeros due to his first job was as a part-timer tutor for Celestine, a daughter of an Noble. In the world where mage has this tendency to develop magic more to military purposes, Zeros didn’t only taught Celestine how to use magic and how to handle them effectively, he also led her to finding “the identity of a mage” within her. This will later significantly change Celestine’s fate from being a bullied one into role model of Mage Student.

3) True to Your Heart

No, I’m not talking about 98degrees. (Wait, did I just spoil my age just now?) I’m talking about Zeros. He doesn’t want to get involved in high-scale conflicts or troubles and, he did his best to keep away from those kind of trouble. BUT, in the end, it will all just came to him. No, it is not planned by anyone but it’s because he lives true to his heart (sub-title drops).

In his past life, Zeros Marlin worked as a programmer, that is why he got engrossed in Sword and Sorceress because he got addicted in its feature,which is “high-precision detailed magic spell customization”. Creating spells in the game was like programming and he likes that. That is why when he was faced with the ineffective basic spell written on the text books, it lit his curiosity. and passion to correct them. Although he doesn’t realize that this will affect to the country significantly. Basic spell revision will trigger the government to overwrite the text book, magic association and atelier found a new path to research magic further more and eventually it will improve greatly the magic civilization, although this will also leads to the confrontation of Magic Kingdom and Holy Kingdom.

Zeros is laid back but he is quite a helpful guy. Many people requires his help, not as a great mage but because of he is realiable. He maybe complains about why should I do this etc, but once he does it, he will get his job done. And because of this reason also, he will sometimes face bigger issue. It’s like when he was asked to support the Dwarf General Contractor to a tunnel digging project, and somehow he stumbled on a Ancient Ruins, where high-level evil entity resides and…you know the drill.

4) Similar to Ains but Not the Same.

Zeros Marlin is very Over Power. I wanted to compare him to Ains of Overlord but unfortunately, I cannot compare them apple to apple due to the difference of respective game specification. Overlord’s YGDRASIL has base level caps so they have limited options to level up which class before reaching base caps of level 100, while Sword and Sorceress don’t (as far as I read). Let me spoil Zeros’ stats when he checked his status for the first time after gor reincarnated:

Zeros Marlin (Job : Great Sage)

Level : 1.827 / HP : 87.594.503 / MP : 17.932.458

The Parallel World Life Journal of A Sage in His Forties vol 01

I won’t spoil his ability list yet but Zeros not only has mastered Wizardry related skill but also has Mastered several category of physical combat skill. And his close range combat skill is proved when he later was in a duel with an S-class swordman adventurer. He used mainly his combat knife to guard and deliver the finishing blow, while magic is for feint purpose only. Not a normal mage can do that. And in another battle against Calamity-class monster, he pops out AoEs just like Fireworks in new year’s countdown.

(So, what’s different between Zeros and Ains?)

I must say it’s “human consciousness”. Zeros clearly still managed to remain his humanity, he did admit that using “The Night Judgement” (His original AoE spell) is just like pushing the button for launching a Nuke Warhead and the guilt remained in his heart for long time. Meanwhile, Ains has stopped becoming human to a certain point which you can refer to the part where he take part in an annual war between Kingdom and Empire where he sided with the empire. There, he executed a spell which caused instant death to err.. 60.000 army? (I forgot the precise number) of the Kingdom and he just don’t feel any sympathy to them. While Ains needs to expose himself more to the world for his purpose, Zeros did the opposite. He just don’t wan’t to distract people’s attention, don’t need any honor, fame and status.

5) Not a Harem

I believe this point is important for some readers (including myself). There is romance aspect in this series too, although it will progress VERY slowly. Come on now, what are you expecting from a guy in his forties? They will have a confession under a legendary tree and live happily ever after? Save it for Hana-to-yume’s manga

6) It’s like a Latte

Have you ever drink a coffee? Have you tried drinking a Latte? If not, I recommend you to try one. No, I’m not starting a culinary blog here. Reading this series reminds me of drinking Latte in one of the coffee shop in my home town. Just like that Latte has an exquisite balance between coffee and milk, this series had a fine balance between slow life and action pack contents. The author does a good job directing the readers up and down, once we thought it was an arc where Zeros is being a shut-in for researching how to plant rice field in the front yard, then suddenly the next chapter, Zeros is already thrown into a forest or dungeon and turning it into a bloodbath. In one scene, it was the usual thing where Zeros is teaching his pupils, the next one, you will find him killing someone consecutively over and over like Uchiha Itachi’s Tsukuyomi. The coffee and milk is all stirred up inside a big cup, and this series is also arranged inside a grand story involving the conspiracy of the gods and goddesses.

And lastly, when I drink the Latte, I always add a bit sugar into it. Only add a teaspoon of it but it is what made it perfect. Just like this series, they put a bit romance and comical joke in here and there, but that what makes it perfect.

Conclusion

• If you like story where its’ MC is so kicking ass, then you should read this.
• If you like grand story involving god’s conspiracy, then you should read this.
• If you can relate to the feeling of becoming a shut-in due to a hobby, then you should read this,
• if you like isekai story related to a certain game premises, then you should read this.

Other Media

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This series has already released manga published by different company. This one is written by 888 and released by Kadokawa Media Factory under the label of MFC.

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This one is the latest version written by Maneki (招来), Composisiton is arranged by Nishino Ryuu (西野リュウ) and published by Square Enix (スクウェア・エニックス) under the label of Manga Up! (マンガUP！) and under licensed by Kadokawa.

Personally, I like 888 art for battle scene but Maneki-Nishino did a good job in describing the arc of “Teaching Celestine” through drama scenes. But, I guess onward, Maneki-Nishino version one which will be released officially.

Links

Light Novel is currently released vol 01 – 09 by Kadokawa Media Factory under the label of MF Books (MFブックス)。You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here.

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Manga is currently released the version written by Maneki (招来), Composisiton is arranged by Nishino Ryuu (西野リュウ) and published by Square Enix (スクウェア・エニックス) under the label of Manga Up! (マンガUP！) and under licensed by Kadokawa. You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here.

All images in this page are owned by Kadokawa.