Complete Novice/ (コンプリート・ノービス)

[hpzuke]

-Written by Tao Noritake (田尾典丈)
illustrated by Kagome (籠目)
Story Synopsis:

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.

Comments:
P.S. as you can see its a vrmmorpg light novel series but dont use similarity issue like Sword Art Online or Log Horizon even .hack story system so please dont make it judge easily after hearing a "vrmmorpg" lookalike plus its new light novel released last year....

okay...my comments on this one is good due its has challenge of being level one(think you are watching a guy who playing a Demon's Soul/Dark Soul on initial equipment plus no looting or Kingdom Hearts game with no EXP gain ability) that have emotinal attachment with hard working tendency...... so please translate this one

[Tenzai]

im a little confused, his sister nogami rens character split into 8memory fragments. but nothing happened to his sister right? or was she split up and thus thats the cue for the Mc to take action?

[Xersax]

im a little confused, his sister nogami rens character split into 8memory fragments. but nothing happened to his sister right? or was she split up and thus thats the cue for the Mc to take action?

I'm think it's more like the hacker used his sister's character as an example for what he can do to all the other players. Therefore to protect the father's company, he has to try find a solution to what happened.

This story reminds me more like Half-Prince as compared to SAO or Log Horizon as it's still a game.

Edit: "h-a-c-k-e-r" was automatically replaced with Yuki... I don't really need to ask why right...

[jonathanasdf]

Thanks for letting us know about this awesome looking novel. I'll read it and tell you guys my impressions~

If it's good, hope you guys find a translator for it.

[Darklor]

Edit: "h-a-c-k-e-r" was automatically replaced with Yuki... I don't really need to ask why right...

Its our funny spellcheck...

[jonathanasdf]

here are my impressions from volume 1:

overall a solid volume, there's definitely potential. It is much closer to SAO than log horizon, but a bit more casual. I don't feel like it will turn into anything like 1/2 prince.

at the same time, it's not a particularly well done story. there are many plot holes such as
- what exactly the hack-er's goals are - why go about something in such a roundabout way?
- why is he so obsessed with staying level 1? After the tutorial dungeon business was over, there's nothing preventing him from leveling. if it's his pride on level 1 clear, then he is a horrible character if he cannot throw away his pride with his sister's life on the line..
- why is he so against forming parties for the 3 months? the reason given is because it messes up his calculations - but he seemed to be able to deal with it quite well when they actually started fighting together. The other reason is because he wants to keep the thing about his sister a secret... but I don't see how forming parties/joining guilds would affect that...

The text itself is well written, with well varied word choice and sentence structure, as well as a good amount of embellishments. There is a decent balance between technical explanations, action, scene description, and character development. However, it seems to me that the author is not experienced in writing a story, as other than the two protagonists, all the other characters feel very shallow. In particular there seems to have been no reason to include yuri the sorcorer as a character at all.

In conclusion, I would say there are better stories that translators can work on for now, but depending on how the author takes the story with the next few volumes, there is chance for this to become a good project.

[blackwhite67]

here are my impressions from volume 1:

overall a solid volume, there's definitely potential. It is much closer to SAO than log horizon, but a bit more casual. I don't feel like it will turn into anything like 1/2 prince.

at the same time, it's not a particularly well done story. there are many plot holes such as
- what exactly the hack-er's goals are - why go about something in such a roundabout way?
- why is he so obsessed with staying level 1? After the tutorial dungeon business was over, there's nothing preventing him from leveling. if it's his pride on level 1 clear, then he is a horrible character if he cannot throw away his pride with his sister's life on the line..
- why is he so against forming parties for the 3 months? the reason given is because it messes up his calculations - but he seemed to be able to deal with it quite well when they actually started fighting together. The other reason is because he wants to keep the thing about his sister a secret... but I don't see how forming parties/joining guilds would affect that...

The text itself is well written, with well varied word choice and sentence structure, as well as a good amount of embellishments. There is a decent balance between technical explanations, action, scene description, and character development. However, it seems to me that the author is not experienced in writing a story, as other than the two protagonists, all the other characters feel very shallow. In particular there seems to have been no reason to include yuri the sorcorer as a character at all.

In conclusion, I would say there are better stories that translators can work on for now, but depending on how the author takes the story with the next few volumes, there is chance for this to become a good project.

For your first question, it's unknown if his sister was a deliberate target or just unlucky, but it will no doubt be addressed in the novel.
Our badass MC loves the lower level challenges and taking on stronger opponents with a low level character. It is precisely because his sister's life is on the line that he stays on level 1. Since he's level 1, he gets increased drop rates, which will prove handy for collecting the fragments of his sister's character data.

[Xersax]

For your first question, it's unknown if his sister was a deliberate target or just unlucky, but it will no doubt be addressed in the novel.
Our badass MC loves the lower level challenges and taking on stronger opponents with a low level character. It is precisely because his sister's life is on the line that he stays on level 1. Since he's level 1, he gets increased drop rates, which will prove handy for collecting the fragments of his sister's character data.

Well that makes better sense now. I do like these underdog style of MC instead of those who have overpowered skills.

Though the whole idea of a lone "Yuki" worries me a bit, like what that person's motive is because it could fall flat on its face.

Maybe Yuki is the Yuki. Yuki Yuki Yuki Yuki Yuki Yuki.

[jonathanasdf]

hm, but according to the story you get the increased drop rate even if you're level 5, but by leveling to 5 you get the added bonus of more sp... so still doesn't make sense.

[larethian]

In fact, the mechanic of a higher drop rate at lower levels does not make sense at all. If you were a game-maker, why would you give your game such a mechanic? Better drop-rate is an incentive feature, a feature that should be used to incentivize advancements. Lower levels can be helped by giving more protection and easier XP or stuff like that. Giving higher drop-rates at low level seems like a counter-intuitive game mechanic design. Unless it's a higher drop-rate of crap items, then it will be less non-sensical.

[Talinnilat]

Hmm, I haven't read this book but in Everquest there are similar things to help new characters catch up to older characters. But EQ has 19 expansions or something now and new characters need the help.

[Darklor]

Added the necessary poll.