Complete Novice (コンプリート・ノービス) [Light Novel]

[Amario]

Original Title : コンプリート・ノービス
Alternative Title: Complete Novice
Author : Tao Noritake (田尾典丈)
Illustrator : Kagome (籠目)
Publisher : Fantasia Bunko
Status : 1 volume, ongoing



Synopsis translated by EnigmaticAxiom

Nogami Hajime is a player who enjoys game challenges such as clearing things at the lowest level possible or playing games with one character. In the VRMMORPG, he plays as Ichino, taking advantage of a certain system in the game which allows him to modify his exp gain such that he remains Level 1, giving him the nickname of "Complete Novice." Three months before the start of the story, his sister, Nogami Ren, had her character data split into 8 key items called "Memory Fragments" when a cracker hacked into the game system. Though the company tried to respond to this, the cracker sent a message to them saying "Continue to manage the game as it is. If you try anything, the same thing will happen to other players." Hajime, along with his father who is one of the game developers, Nogami Jin, and some of his coworkers, decide to do everything they can by the rules. With information he finds from players in game and information his father finds by sifting through the game data, Hajime goes is on a search for the Memory Fragments.

Spoiler for Volume 1 illustrations, hmm... one is NSFW?:

[SineMora]

What. The. Fuck?!?!?!
This guy is boss!!!

[Amario]

Originally Posted by SineMora

What. The. Fuck?!?!?!
This guy is boss!!!

Well Hajime has his moments.

[BW95]

Okay. So he's stuck himself at level 1. I assume that he finds alternative methods of raising his stats? Don't certain quests and items have level requirements?

[Amario]

Originally Posted by BW95

Okay. So he's stuck himself at level 1. I assume that he finds alternative methods of raising his stats? Don't certain quests and items have level requirements?

As said by EnigmaticAxiom

Spoiler:

Ichino - Hajime's character. He utilizes a system in the game which modifies EXP gain for low level players to maintain a Level 1 status. The reason he does this was originally because he loved low-level challenges, but now he utilizes the system to keep his level low so he has an increased drop rate. His fighting style focuses on an inhuman sense of timing and vision that allows him to read the timing of any attack he has seen to the very frame. He has a strong fear of dying in the game because Key Items can't be deposited anywhere or transferred in a manner outside a duel, and death could lead to one of the Memory Fragments disappearing, possibly forever.

[BW95]

That doesn't answer my questions at all. Damage dealt is dependent on stats, not level. So no matter how many times a level 1 character attacks a much higher level character it should be impossible considering the difference in HP and any attack landed by a level 1, even with critical hits, would be measly in terms of damage.

Furthermore, with only 1 level, the range of equipment he can wear must be severely limited and low in quality.

[Amario]

Looks like you went directly to the source to get the answer.

[BW95]

I went to Jcafe since you mentioned EnigmaticAxiom. I originally started out at Jcafe.

[TJP1600]

lol another SAO, no thank you. Speaking of which, there seems to be a lot of SAO-like/mech girl novels popping up here with World of Sword and Dragon, Knights and Magic, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, Hundred, and now this. Dear JP authors, please stop the trend.

[SineMora]

Anyone who played The World Ends With You wil find the system familiar (and I myself done this to obtain all rare badges)

[SuitUp]

What's with this ton of new fantasy LN?

[BW95]

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is the farthest thing from SAO and Knights and Magic isn't even mecha girls.

[EnigmaticAxiom]

Originally Posted by BW95

That doesn't answer my questions at all. Damage dealt is dependent on stats, not level. So no matter how many times a level 1 character attacks a much higher level character it should be impossible considering the difference in HP and any attack landed by a level 1, even with critical hits, would be measly in terms of damage.

Furthermore, with only 1 level, the range of equipment he can wear must be severely limited and low in quality.

Spoiler for Holy Answers:

It's not written in the synopsis or whatever, but he actually doesn't have much raising his stats, nor are there quests to modify them from what I'm aware of. His attack strength comes primarily from his basic weapon (It's not special in any way), upgraded to quite the limit.

He's apparently capped its attack bonuses (not sure how many that would be), and it was stated in the novel that even with this attack bonus capped, it would still be weaker than a sword that was easily affordable at level 10.

Regarding his damage against others, he primarily attacks weak points (location and angle dependent) using critical attacks (timing dependent, ignore all defense stats). With this, he can deal 2-400 damage (1-200 damage from the critical attack with modifiers based on hitting the weak points).

There is a boss the novel goes into detail on, and he hits it 100+ times and has dealt a total of 25-30000 damage. He used 2 timed explosion items (difficult to get because mat's include boss drops) to deal an additional 10000 damage.

[BW95]

Originally Posted by EnigmaticAxiom

Spoiler for Holy Answers:

It's not written in the synopsis or whatever, but he actually doesn't have much raising his stats, nor are there quests to modify them from what I'm aware of. His attack strength comes primarily from his basic weapon (It's not special in any way), upgraded to quite the limit.

He's apparently capped its attack bonuses (not sure how many that would be), and it was stated in the novel that even with this attack bonus capped, it would still be weaker than a sword that was easily affordable at level 10.

Regarding his damage against others, he primarily attacks weak points (location and angle dependent) using critical attacks (timing dependent, ignore all defense stats). With this, he can deal 2-400 damage (1-200 damage from the critical attack with modifiers based on hitting the weak points).

There is a boss the novel goes into detail on, and he hits it 100+ times and has dealt a total of 25-30000 damage. He used 2 timed explosion items (difficult to get because mat's include boss drops) to deal an additional 10000 damage.

WOW. That is friggin' hardcore. There's nothing that says better about a player's skill than using solely combat skills to win. He'd be freakin' beast if he allowed himself to level up and get better gear.

[iCK]

Originally Posted by BW95

WOW. That is friggin' hardcore. There's nothing that says better about a player's skill than using solely combat skills to win. He'd be freakin' beast if he allowed himself to level up and get better gear.

This is actually a better read though. With all the novels with op heroes, we have a mc who loves to challenge himself. It keeps it interesting. He reminds me of Izayoi from Mondaiji because he would fight with the same power as his opponent to challenge himself.

[BW95]

What does he do about defense and magical attacks? With his low HP and paper thin defense he couldn't afford to take a single hit and I'm sure his opponents would have time to take at least one shot at him. He can't even block. Can he dodge even AoE attacks?

[omegasereon]

I saw this at bt and was really interested in it. So if the MC finds all 8 fragments, they can restore his sister?

[BW95]

Presumably.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by TJP1600

lol another SAO, no thank you. Speaking of which, there seems to be a lot of SAO-like/mech girl novels popping up here with World of Sword and Dragon, Knights and Magic, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, Hundred, and now this. Dear JP authors, please stop the trend.

LOLOL. Just because it's a game setting and it's SAO? Why don't you ask the romcom authors to stop writing another romcom?

[BW95]

Originally Posted by TJP1600

lol another SAO, no thank you. Speaking of which, there seems to be a lot of SAO-like/mech girl novels popping up here with World of Sword and Dragon, Knights and Magic, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, Hundred, and now this. Dear JP authors, please stop the trend.

That's just insulting. Calling something an SAO knockoff just because its involves a VRMMORPG setting. This is hardly a dual-wielding Gary Stu winning because he's the chosen one.