Back at his cheap apartment, Yuuto stared again at the status screen on his monitor.
"Rank: E."
"LUK (luck): 10."
It felt like both society's score and his birth draw had turned their backs on him. The letters were cold and cruel.
But he had no time to sit in that mood. His years as an SE pushed him to make a cool review of the facts.
(First, gather data. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will not lose a hundred times. I have to place my 'current spot' against this world's common sense. If I do not see it right, I cannot plan.)
He opened his browser and began to dig. He pulled up the Explorer Guild's official database and every veteran-run site he could find, then read page after page like a man starved.
Hours later, his fingers stopped. He let out a long, heavy sigh.
(...This is worse than I thought.)
The screen showed a hard truth: the world he was about to enter was harsh, and he was very weak. The data did not lie.
First came the explorer ranking that ordered strength. It was not a badge for show. It was your place in society.
E Rank (Lv 1–3): rookies and trainees. The Guild sees them as people to protect. Going alone into a dungeon is basically not advised. Most of their work is carrying bags for high-rank parties as porters and doing camp chores. The pay is tiny.
D Rank (Lv 4–7): out of beginner stage. With a party, you can work safely in the shallow parts of starter dungeons. From here, you finally stand on the starting line as an explorer.
C Rank (Lv 8–14): full-fledged. You clear starter dungeons with control and begin to try mid-level ones. The Guild starts to trust you.
B Rank (Lv 15–24): elite. You fight mainly in mid-level dungeons and get named jobs from the Guild. When monsters swarm in a stampede, you are part of the wall that holds.
A Rank and above: the Guild's treasures. A power like a small nation. Your moves can sway markets and news. People call you heroes.
There was also a clear ladder for the dungeons.
Starter dungeons (example: Goblin Cave): the advised rank is D–C. The monsters are weak, but going solo is still very risky. If an E Rank goes in, the unspoken rule says you join a party led by at least a D Rank.
Mid-level dungeons (example: Astoria's Lost Forest): the advised rank is C–B. From here, the maps twist more, and many monsters have special skills. A party is a must. People say going solo is the same as choosing death.
High-level dungeons: the advised rank is A and up. Even a top B-rank party, with full prep, may or may not come back alive. It's a true dead zone.
(...I see. An E-rank trying to work solo is already outside the world's 'common sense.')
His eyes stopped on one line of stats on a veteran site.
"Death or missing rate within 24 hours after entry for E-rank solo explorers: 92%."
It was a number that crushed hope.
Why is solo so deadly?
Because dungeons are built on the idea of party play.
A tough front-liner takes the hits as the tank. An attacker deals damage with magic or with the blade. A healer mends wounds. A scout finds traps and checks ahead.
By sharing these roles and acting as one, you can solve the maze that is a dungeon. One person cannot do it all. It is not just hard; it is not possible. There are traps that a single person cannot cover, and devices that need many hands at the same time.
(...No way forward, huh.)
E Rank. Low-use skills. And solo.
By this world's rules, the cards in Yuuto's hand were a dead end. No party would pick up a guy like him. If he went alone, it was ninety-two percent death. If he did nothing, his savings would run dry and he would starve.
Every road led to ruin.
He let out a dry laugh.
(...Now that's interesting.)
Back in his SE days, he had faced this kind of mess many times: crazy deadlines, impossible asks, and old code piled like junk. When everyone said, "No way," he found the holes in the system and the gaps in the spec, and he shipped.
(If I follow common sense, I have no future. If I fight by the book, I die with a ninety-two percent chance. Then I must doubt the 'book' itself.)
The dull eyes he had carried like a dead fish finally lit up with the sharp light of an engineer.
(If I cannot get a party, I will build a way to cover four roles by myself. If I cannot win in a straight fight, I will build a path that skips the fight. If this world's 'common sense' is here to kill me, I will stand outside it and fight.)
The hopeless scene made his mind clear.
He had nothing to lose.
So he would try everything.
(First, I will test what my skills can do and learn the exact rules. Then I will buy the bare tools I need. For the test site, I will use the area near the gate of the Goblin Cave, known as the lowest risk. There, I will find a method that is mine alone.)
His plan was set.
It was a lonely path, plain and quiet, one that no one chose, and far from the norm.
Yuuto checked his wallet and headed for the street where shops for explorers stood in a row.
His first 'debug' was about to begin.