Hermit Wizard - Chapter 75

A military enthusiast with dreams of serving, shaped by his father’s influence and a bookshelf full of war theories, finds himself unexpectedly reborn into a fantasy world he’d recently read about.Now an orphan, he faces impending destitution in a land governed by strict caste systems. But with the Reich Empire Academy Entrance Exam as his potential salvation, he’s armed not with magic, but with a vast knowledge of military tactics from his past life. As the date of his expulsion from the orphanage looms, he’s determined to leverage his unique skills to change his fate.

Before he was a little over 10 years old, he was the nightmare of the Gorge of Heroes and the headache of countless people that had been abandoned by the world.

After leaving the Gorge of Heroes, he became a legendary figure of the number one academy in the continent, and he alone brought numerous changes to it.

Thereafter he stepped foot onto the continent to become a legend, but the road to become a legend was far more difficult than he’d imagined….

On a continent where puppet masters reign supreme, using anything and everything as weapons: living creatures, shoes, daggers, pendants, clothes, shields, guns — which they call puppets, this is the story of Bai Xiaofei with his trusty sidekick, Huskie, on a quest to find out exactly what happened to his parents and become the greatest illusion stream puppet master the world has ever seen. This is a story of wit, plot twists, love, strategy, cultivation, humor, and the unknown.

Seventeen-year-old Hajime Nagumo is your average, everyday otaku. However, his simple life of pulling all-nighters and sleeping in school is suddenly turned upside down when he, along with the rest of his class, is summoned to a fantasy world!

They’re treated like heroes and tasked with the duty of saving the human race from utter extinction.

But what should have been any otaku’s wet dream quickly turns into Hajime’s nightmare? While the rest of his class are blessed with godlike powers, Hajime’s job, Synergist, only has a single transmutation skill. Ridiculed and bullied by his classmates for being weak, he soon finds himself in despair.

Will he be able to survive in this dangerous world of monsters and demons with only a glorified blacksmith’s level of strength?

For as long as he could remember, life had always been cruel.A young man in his early twenties—his name now lost to the past—was dealt a life filled with misfortunes.A cold, empty apartment, a soul-crushing job, and, finally, a terminal diagnosis.With nothing left to live for, his only comfort had been escaping into the fictional world of Path of the Elemental Sage, a story of heroes, magic, and survival.But fate had other plans.When death finally came for him, he didn’t fade into nothingness.Instead, he awoke in the world he had only read about—a world of chaos and danger where death lurked around every corner.The air smelled of magic, the sky was filled with possibilities.{«[Status Window]»}[Name: Lyrium Blackwood][Age: 16][Rank: D-][Skills: None][Elements: None}At first, confusion filled his mind.Who was Lyrium Blackwood?Why was he here?And why did this body feel so different?But as his memories returned, so did the realization: this wasn’t some blessing or second chance.He wasn’t reincarnated as the protagonist.No destined savior.No cheat abilities.No grand fate.He was just another mob, a face in the crowd meant to exist and die without leaving a mark.But this young man—the one who had left his old name and life behind—wasn’t the kind of person to roll over and accept his fate.“This world is dangerous. The protagonist isn’t the only one fighting for survival here,”he muttered, his red eyes deep and sharp.Unlike the naïve characters in the story, he knew the stakes.He’d read the web novel.He’d seen the carnage, the betrayals, the disasters that wiped out entire cities.And if there was one thing he refused to be, it was a pawn in someone else’s game.“I don’t care about glory. I don’t care about saving the world. All I care about is surviving—no matter what it takes.”Lyrium Blackwood wasn’t planning to live quietly or avoid danger.The only way to survive in this brutal world was to rise to the top.To be strong enough to stand above both heroes and villains.Using his knowledge of the story’s events and his iron will, Lyrium sets out on a relentless path to surpass the protagonist.Whether through clever manipulation, brutal training, or sheer desperation, he’ll climb higher and higher, leaving nothing to chance.But the deeper he gets, the more he realizes that this isn’t just the story he once read.As fate pushes him closer to the heart of the narrative, Lyrium begins to suspect that his reincarnation wasn’t an accident—and the world itself might be watching him.“I don’t care who or what stands in my way. If the story wants to kill me, I’ll rewrite the ending myself.”----------------------------------I apologize for any mistakes in this story, as it’s my first attempt at writing a novel.