Kaze no Stigma - Volume 4, Chapter 3 - Shinjuku RPG

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.

A hero must be compassionate, selfless and courageous.But that isn't all. Because a hero must also be powerful.In this world, power is everything. Strength decides who gets to save lives and who's left with community service. That’s why I was nothing — a rank 50 E-Class reject, skating through the streets, saving what little I could while the real heroes battled gods and monsters.Then one day, I died. Almost.Dragged into the abyss, I was given a second chance: the Forever Core. An armor that evolves. A system that never stops adapting. Every battle, every hit, every mistake, I come back stronger.Now, the monsters that once crushed me can’t kill me the same way twice.I must adapt. Evolve. I must grow stronger and fight harder. Because humanity is worth fighting for.Even if I have to burn every villain alive to prove it.

Wen Xuxu is a tenacious, talented, smart and brave woman who was fostered by the Yan family at the age of four when she lost both her parents.

“When I opened my eyes, I found myself as a character in a game. It was bewildering, but I thought it was worth a try. That was until I saw the skill given to me. It was [Opening Eyes], with no abilities whatsoever.”The story starts with the MC playing a game that is “Very Difficult”, so difficult, in fact, that no one has ever managed to kill the last boss. After 18 years of playing and, having the best attempt be at 30% of the last boss’s HP, he decides to try out a character that he never used.This character was the Slit-Eyed character. It had garbage stats and garbage traits. But, since the MC had ran out of options with every other character, he was trying to see if he could find any secrets with this new character. So he puts in his name ‘Zero’ and presses play… Only to find himself inside the game, as the Slit-Eyed character.