Reincarnated as a Mob in an Otome Game, but the Characters Were Worse Than I Expected, So I Crushed Them All and Destroyed the Story [Dropped] - Chapter 03: Mob, Completely Cornered

Chapter 03: Mob, Completely Cornered

(Haralua… Of all places, why did it have to be Haralua…?)

Late at night, I lay in bed, replaying the events of the day in my mind.

Out of all the places in the Criminal Kingdom I could have been reincarnated into, this was probably one of the worst.

Haralua was the first town to experience a large-scale monster attack—also known as the Monster Disaster.

In MagiRom, the protagonist and love interests investigated this incident as part of the main storyline.

In other words, no one in the kingdom had ever encountered a Monster Disaster before.

There was no emergency protocol, no standing army prepared to deal with it.

Nothing.

(And even if I wanted to do something about it, my options are pretty much nonexistent…)

There was no way I could take on an entire horde of monsters alone.

And if I suddenly ran around screaming, “A monster attack is coming! Run for your lives!”
I’d just sound like a lunatic.

I had to find a way to save everyone without drawing attention to myself.

But how…?

I had spent the past four years growing up in this town.

I had felt my parents’ love, been cared for by the townspeople, and survived off the food grown here.

At this point, Haralua was home.

There was no way I could just abandon it.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a good plan.

One person could only do so much.

And I wasn’t just any person—I was a mob.

A nobody.

A commoner so insignificant that I didn’t even exist in the original game.

At this rate, I was completely stuck.

(If only I could drop a hint about the Monster Disaster to the love interests… But I’m just a commoner… No, wait—there is one way…!)

It was a long shot.

Highly unrealistic.

But if it worked, it might be just enough to save this town.

My one and only chance—

Getting into Freesia Academy, the main setting of MagiRom.

For a commoner like me, there were two massive hurdles to getting in.

First, unlike the nobles who could just pay their way into the school, commoners had to pass an insanely difficult entrance exam.

And second, even if I did pass, the enrollment fee was absurdly expensive—completely out of reach for an average commoner.

(I never imagined reincarnation would come with this many obstacles… But I guess it’s better than getting blindsided by a Monster Disaster… Ugh… I’m suddenly so tired…)

Maybe it was because I was still a kid, but thinking too hard for too long drained my energy fast.

At least today, I had confirmed two important things—

That this world was definitely MagiRom.

And that this town was Haralua.

I could figure out the rest tomorrow.

For now… I just needed to… sleep…

And with that, my consciousness slipped into darkness.

◇◆◇

The next morning, I woke up to sunlight streaming through the window.

After a full night’s rest, my mind felt completely refreshed.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“Oh, good morning, Ed. You slept really well last night.”

“Yeah, I think reading for the first time made me a little tired. But I feel great now!”

“That’s good to hear. Are you going to read again today?”

“I’ll continue tomorrow. Today, I want to take a walk outside.”

I felt like clearing my mind in the open air instead of staying inside.

The town was still peaceful—this wasn’t a time when monsters roamed freely—so as long as I didn’t leave the town itself, there shouldn’t be any danger.

“Do you want me to pack you a lunch?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Alright. Stay safe out there.”

“I will.”

I stepped outside and washed my face at the well.

Once I felt fully awake, I went back inside and had breakfast with my mom.

Then, without any particular destination in mind, I wandered through town.

After about twenty minutes, I found myself on a small hill overlooking the entire town, with a single tree standing tall beside me.

I sat down, took a deep breath, and gazed at the streets below.

Even from this distance, I could feel the town’s warmth—the energy of its people, the rhythm of daily life.

“Alright, let’s go over the problem. Right now, I’m missing three things: knowledge, combat skills, and the entrance fee for Freesia Academy… The question is, how do I get them…?”

Studying was the only way to improve my knowledge, so there wasn’t much to say about that.

But the entrance fee and combat skills—those were problems I needed to solve fast.

Being able to fight would always be useful in an emergency.

And besides, combat was part of the entrance exam, so I couldn’t afford to ignore it.

As for the money… there was no way I could earn that kind of sum easily.

“Sigh… If only I had a status screen or something, I could at least figure out where I stand… Status Open. Wait—whoa!?”

Half-jokingly, I muttered Status Open—and the moment I did, a translucent screen appeared in front of me, like a hologram.

It looked exactly like the MagiRom status screen I had seen in my past life.

And right there, at the top—was my name.

Name: Edward

Gender: Male

Title: Resident of Haralua

Spirit Sword: None

Level: ——

Strength: 15

Speed: 12

Defense: 11

Intelligence: 54

Mana: 21

Stamina: 10

Dexterity: 29

“…Well. That was unexpected.”

I couldn’t help but mutter to myself.

There were three things about this situation that completely caught me off guard.

First—I could actually see my status.

Second—my stats were way too high for a four-year-old.

If my stats naturally increased as I grew, then I had the potential to get a lot stronger.

So far, these were pleasant surprises.

But the third one… was critical.

Third—I didn’t have a level.

Which meant no matter how many enemies I defeated or how much experience I gained, I would never level up.

I was stuck like this forever.

It made sense, though.

In the game, I had never seen any non-playable characters level up.

Only the protagonist and their party members ever gained experience and got stronger.

In other words, my only advantages in this world were my knowledge of MagiRom and the fact that I could see my own stats.

Other than that?

I was just another average guy.

At this point, I’d probably have better odds of passing the entrance exam by just focusing on studying and training, instead of relying on my stats.

(But that brings me right back to my other problem…)

If I poured all my time into studying and training, I wouldn’t have any time left to earn money for the entrance fee.

If I could get stronger, I could have hunted monsters and made money that way—but that option was already off the table.

There was no way my parents could earn that kind of money either, and I wasn’t about to put that burden on them.

“This is basically like being forced to clear the game on a low-level challenge run… without resets, without rerolls, and without a save system…”

I had no idea how difficult MagiRom’s world was compared to the game, but one thing was certain—if I died, there was no coming back.

I didn’t have to follow the story.

I didn’t have to fight.

But if I couldn’t get into Freesia Academy, this town might be doomed for real.

No way to level up.

No money.

No choice but to study and train.

Sure, I had more than ten years until the entrance exam.

But with this many restrictions, getting through Very Hard Mode would probably be easier than my current situation.

“Damn it…! There has to be something…! A way to get out of this…!”

No matter how I looked at it, I was stuck.

I either couldn’t level up, or I didn’t have the means to make enough money in time.

Hard work didn’t always guarantee results.

Even talent was a factor in whether or not effort paid off.

And in this world, that “talent” was levels.

The more you fought, the stronger you became.

The more experience you gained, the better your stats got.

But I didn’t have that.

And trying to balance both combat training and making money?

Completely reckless.

(But still… giving up isn’t an option… If I don’t have levels, then—wait. Hold on… No levels…?)

After thinking long and hard, I finally arrived at one possibility.

It was highly unrealistic. And ridiculously inefficient.

But if it worked, it had the potential to solve both of my biggest problems—money and the entrance exam.

I pulled every ounce of knowledge from my past life—every detail I remembered from grinding MagiRom nonstop four years ago—and ran through every possible scenario.

Was this plan actually feasible?

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became.

A grin tugged at my lips.

“The odds are in my favor. This is the plan…!”