Enrico was crouching in the middle of the room, completely drenched in sweat. His breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling rapidly as every muscle in his body begged for rest.
"Damn... my body can't take it anymore... this body is garbage..."
Without any strength left, he threw himself onto the floor and spent a few seconds trying to catch his breath. It had taken only a few minutes of training for him to realize just how terrible his physical condition was. If he wanted to survive in that world, he would have to change that as quickly as possible.
[Why don't you train outside?]
Enrico cast a tired glance at the system.
'Does this system ever stop talking?'
"Because if I train outside, the student council president will end up seeing me. She's completely on the protagonist's side and keeps watching me the entire time until the duel to help him improve."
Rolling over, he began doing push-ups. Every movement seemed to require an absurd amount of effort, and his arms trembled before he had even completed a few repetitions.
[Yeah... this is one of those harem stories, right? Then she must really love him.]
"I wouldn't say she loves him, at least not at the beginning. She simply likes talented people. At first, she helps the protagonist purely out of self-interest. Besides, she hates the Three Stooges and their leader. She wants to see all of us fall down the rankings."
After finishing another set, Enrico stood up with difficulty.
The ranking was one of the most important things at Astrong Academy. It didn't matter whether someone was a noble, a commoner, or belonged to another race. At the academy, the only criterion that truly mattered was strength.
There were two hundred and forty first-year students, which meant two hundred and forty positions in the rankings. Enrico occupied position one hundred and twenty-five, while the protagonist was in position one hundred and fifty. Even so, that difference didn't mean much, since any student below the top one hundred was considered weak. The only exceptions were the protagonist and his friend.
"This character was literally created to show how amazing the protagonist is."
[Your luck is complete shit.]
"Can you shut up? This character's only magic is a simple fireball that he throws at people. Since the president keeps watching him all the time, the best thing I can do is get stronger in secret."
In truth, Enrico knew that not even two months of training would be enough to defeat the protagonist. His only chance would be to catch him by surprise before revealing the full extent of his progress, something that would only work if the president never discovered his training.
"Damn... on top of everything else, this body is terrible for training. I'm hungry all the time, but I'll just have to endure it."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead before continuing his train of thought.
"To create a new fire spell, I need to study magic. The problem is that it'll be difficult to do that with the president constantly keeping an eye on me. So I guess I'll ask that scholar for help, the one who eventually becomes friends with the protagonist."
Tolen Rusk was a first-year student who occupied position one hundred and twenty-six in the rankings, right behind Enrico. His magic was considered the weakest in the academy, making his life extremely difficult. On the other hand, he was a brilliant researcher, a specialist in combat strategies, and also a fire mage. If everything went well, Enrico planned to ask him for some advice over the next few days.
To make matters worse, at this point in the story the protagonist should already have reached sixty-eight percent progress in Circle Zero, while Enrico possessed only twenty-five percent.
The Circle System was the foundation of all power in that world. Magic was divided into ten levels called Circles, represented as magical rings that revolved around the heart. Everyone began at Circle Zero and advanced as they trained and deepened their understanding of magic.
Even within the same Circle, there were percentages of progress. A Circle 3 mage with eighty-eight percent progress was much closer to advancing than another with only twenty-two percent. Upon reaching the next Circle, the progress returned to zero.
Each advancement strengthened not only magic but also the body, increasing physical strength, endurance, and the amount of mana. In some cases, a mage of a lower Circle could fight someone from a higher Circle if they possessed a much greater amount of mana, although that was extremely rare.
At Astrong Academy, reaching Circle 3 during the first year was relatively common. Reaching Circle 5 before graduation, however, was considered an achievement worthy of a true genius. As for the higher levels...
Circle 8 mages were capable of destroying continents.
Circle 9 mages possessed enough power to destroy the planet.
As for the legendary Circle 10, it allowed one to interfere with reality itself, affecting time and space.
Fortunately, that world was far more durable than Earth. The more powerful beings existed, the more the planet itself reinforced its own structure to withstand such an enormous amount of mana, making it practically impossible to destroy without an absurd amount of effort.
In addition, there were Unified Techniques, exclusive abilities created by great mages that required specific combinations of magic and an extremely high level of mastery.
'Scorching Little Sun Magic... requires Circle 8 Fire Magic.'
After catching his breath a little, Enrico resumed his training.
"Well, there are also knights. They can only reach Circle 6, but they developed their own system to continue growing stronger. Of course... the protagonist completely breaks that rule, masters both systems to the fullest, creates Circle 11, and even then..."
He cut himself off and looked at the system.
"But tell me something... you don't seem to know this story."
[I don't. I was just sent here. Oh, and don't even ask who sent me.]
Enrico immediately shut his mouth.
[My only mission was to increase the difficulty level, just as I was ordered.]
He froze for a few seconds before standing up.
"Wait... what do you mean by that? Did the protagonist become stronger?"
[No. All the characters remain at exactly the same level.]
Enrico let out a long sigh of relief, but the uneasiness remained written across his face.
"Then... what does increasing the difficulty mean?"
[Well... all the characters remain the same. The only ones who became stronger were the enemies, monsters, demons, and similar creatures. The world that was previously classified as SSS difficulty has now been upgraded to EX.]
The expression vanished completely from Enrico's face. All the relief he had felt just a few seconds earlier evaporated as though it had never existed. Clutching his head with both hands, he fell to his knees as he tried to process what he had just heard.
"No way... no... no... no..."
The words came out almost as a whisper. His mind began racing desperately, recalling everything that had happened at the end of the story. The battles, the deaths, and above all, the ending that had disappointed him so much.
[Why are you so desperate?]
Enrico slowly raised his head to look at the system screen. His eyes were completely different from before. There was no longer any irritation or sarcasm, only a faintly desperate look.
"You don't know this world... so you don't know how this story ends."
He took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts before continuing. Even after dying and reincarnating into that world, he could still remember the final volume of the light novel perfectly.
"In the end... everyone dies to the forty-three evil gods."
The room fell into silence. The system did not respond immediately. Professors, kings, heroes, friends... no one escaped that massacre. Not even the protagonist, who had spent the entire story overcoming impossible challenges, was able to win.
After a few seconds, the system finally replied.
[You really have terrible luck.]
"Damn... what am I supposed to do? How am I going to survive? If even the protagonist, who was practically a monster, only managed to kill three evil gods before dying, and a few others with help... what can someone like me do? I'm not even an important character!"
He was trying to find some kind of solution. The more he thought about it, the more impossible everything seemed. In the original story, the protagonist trained for years, gathered unbelievably powerful allies, found legendary artifacts, and mastered techniques that no one else had been able to learn.
[Maybe you'll have better luck next time.]
Those words made Enrico freeze. His eyes lit up again instantly, like someone who had found one last hope.
"I have a second chance? You mean... if I die, I can start over?"
The system answered without showing any emotion.
[No. You only have this one life.]
The hope disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Enrico's fist began trembling with so much anger that even his arms shook.
"If I ever meet that guy in person... I swear I'll make him pay for this."
Taking several deep breaths, he closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. Panicking would solve absolutely nothing. If he only had one life, complaining was a waste of time. He needed to think of a way to survive.
"Come on... think... think... you've read this entire story. There has to be something only you know. I guess I'll have to steal a few ideas from the future."
[What a thief.]
A vein bulged on Enrico's forehead, and he immediately tried to punch the system screen on pure impulse, but his fist simply passed through the projection as if it didn't even exist.
"That's it! I'm going to kill you!"
At that very moment, the bedroom door was flung open with so much force that it slammed against the wall. The maid appeared at the entrance, staring at Enrico with a cold expression. A dark aura seemed to surround her, making the entire room feel heavier.
"What did I tell you about making noise?"
Enrico froze instantly. Even the system remained silent for a moment.
"Sorry."
[Sorry.]