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WN: Hell Mode


Clephas

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(Note: To be clear, this is an unfinished VN with over 500 chapters)

Hell Mode is the WN I recently began (and finished to the current point) reading.  It is another reincarnation one, where the protagonist was a heavy gamer who is one of those types that loves high-difficulty setups, reveling in grinding, conquering dungeons, and generally indulging in his desire to see more.  He goes to a website where he gets the choice of difficulty and his job, and he picks the hardest difficulty Hell Mode (where everything is 100x harder than Normal Mode) and the high-difficulty job, Summoner.  

The world he ends up in is one where people see jobs as 'talents' and talent determines how far a person can go (if they aren't a noble) in life.  However, it is also a world threatened by a demon lord, and much of the story past the first fifth of what has already been written is war against the demon king's forces.  

The protagonist has terrible 'gamer's brain' and thinks of everything in terms of gaming, to the point where he examines every aspect of his skills, those of his companions, the tools at hands, the powers of his enemies, etc.  One of the running jokes of the series is how he keeps dragging his friends into grinding in dungeons to gain levels and skill levels and their reactions to it when he passes certain limits. 

Honestly, this one was a fun read, and I'm looking forward to him finishing the latest volume (probably sometime in September, judging by his writing speed and how fast his previous entries were completed).  I have the feeling that there will be at least two more volumes after the one he is writing now, so give it a year to a year and a half, and this series will probably come to a conclusion.

One thing that might make people lose interest is that the protagonist has absolutely no interest in romance or the opposite (or same) sex in that way.  While there are a lot of indications that girls around him are infatuated with him, he doesn't even notice one way or the other.  So don't expect there to be any romance on his end or ecchi situations.  This is a story about a guy who loves figuring out how the world works and making it work for him and gains great joy from difficult situations.

Edit: There are other elements that made it attractive for me.  In particular, the existence of a friendly rival in the form of the hero Hermios, whose existence is oddly humorous despite the seriousness of the situations they meet in.  In addition, the main antagonist (so far) Kyuber is a surprisingly decent villain character who gives off the proper aura of the shadow behind the throne with his own agenda you want to see in any similar situation.  

A major downside I failed to mention is that the growth in the story is all grinding (as fits with the MMO-addict's methodology the protagonist loves), which sometimes made it a bit hard to follow the protagonist's gleeful heavy gamerism.

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I've read the first two volumes of the LN translation. Honestly, while the idea seemed interesting, I ended up dropping it in the end. I just didn't like all the grinding, especially since the protagonist has to grind a hundred times more than everyone else to get to the same level. Also, there's way too little character interactions for my taste. Most of the story is just pure leveling, and everything else is secondary. Maybe it changes later, but I don't really care anymore.

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On 5/25/2022 at 2:00 PM, Dreamysyu said:

I've read the first two volumes of the LN translation. Honestly, while the idea seemed interesting, I ended up dropping it in the end. I just didn't like all the grinding, especially since the protagonist has to grind a hundred times more than everyone else to get to the same level. Also, there's way too little character interactions for my taste. Most of the story is just pure leveling, and everything else is secondary. Maybe it changes later, but I don't really care anymore.

The grind obsession is a bit annoying at times.  However, it becomes less tedious after he leaves the village.

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