I Became an Illegal Cheat User – Chapter 1

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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I received a gift.

And it was from the developer of the game I enjoyed playing.

A message window shone with colorful rainbow lights.

A deep sigh escaped me as soon as I looked at it.

“Sigh……”

Even though I received a gift from the developer of the game I loved, I couldn’t be happy about it.

“Ah, seriously…, this is crazy.”

The reason I couldn’t be happy.

Right now, I was.

Inside the game.

How on earth did I enter the game?

Holding my throbbing forehead, I recalled the circumstances that led me here.

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【Arena Academy】

It was a game notorious for being difficult.

As the name suggested, it was a game themed around ‘duels’.

However, it was not a game with only duels.

Since it included RPG elements, you could go to areas outside the academy, and there were growth elements where you could obtain equipment or become stronger through hunting, farming, and quests.

And crucially, there was a favorability system, so there was romance with the heroines.

When a heroine’s favorability reached 100%, a CG was unlocked, and you could even see intense 19+ scenes.

The well-made illustrations of the heroines attracted many players, leading to its initial classification as a god-tier game…However, it has now turned into a dead game that only lunatics play.

The reason was simple.

It was difficult.

Incredibly difficult.

Painfully, excruciatingly difficult!

If we had to describe what made the game so painful to play one by one.

First of all, your character was randomly generated.

Stats, talents, skills, etc. Everything varied and depended on luck and RNG.

On the other hand, the main and supporting non-playable characters (NPCs) that you competed with all had cheat skills and talents.

Although, this could be solved by growing your character through farming, hunting, and quests, so it wasn’t a big deal.

What made the game difficult you ask?

That was because of the presence of alien races.

‘Arena Academy’ implemented alien invasions even though it was themed around ‘duels’.

The world where the player plays, the Human Realm.

The alien races are eagerly eyeing that Human Realm, and every time they appear, if you can’t stop them, the world gradually falls into ruin, and eventually perishes in the end.

The game’s clear condition is ‘Achieving 1st place in the academy rankings’, but if you can’t stop the alien races that appear at certain times, it’s game over right away.

It’s a really grindy game.

Still, when I played for about 30,000 hours and became known as a top veteran user in the community.

I was able to clear almost all of the game’s challenges.

When only 1% was left until the upcoming clear.

I received an email.

[To the player who loves my game.]

At first, I thought it was some prank email.

[Sender: megod1005]

Seeing the sender’s ID, I knew it wasn’t a prank email.

Because the developer ID of ‘Arena Academy’ was ‘megod1005’.

So I immediately checked the email.

It’s no joke.

I immediately downloaded the file attached to the email.

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And now.

“Sigh, this is why you shouldn’t carelessly accept email files……”

Sitting on an old mattress and grumbling, I gazed at the translucent message window reflected in my retina.

“Should I open this or not.”

I pondered while looking at the flashing rainbow-colored message window, as if urging me to open it quickly.

However, that pondering didn’t last long.

“Yeah, let’s open it. But before that.”

There’s something important.

The words you must utter when you’re immersed in a game.

That is.

“Status window.”

It was godly.

What the.

What are these miserable stats.

“……It’s ruined.”

The godly status window turned into a ruined status window.

Usually, the total stat value of a supporting character was over 50.

Main characters have some with over 100.

But a total of 25.

There’s no trashy character as trashy as this.

Still……

“…There’s one skill at least.”

The Transfer skill.

“Hmm, F-grade skill…”

The lowest grade among S, A, B, C, D, E, F.

But the ‘Transfer’ skill wasn’t bad for its grade.

‘Transfers an item I possess to a desired location.’

Literally any ‘location’ I want.

Whether it was the sky, underground, or inside a building.

Of course, it was only within a 1m radius, but the higher you raise the skill grade, the more the skill’s ability upgrades.

In my opinion, the ‘Transfer’ skill can sufficiently become a cheat skill.

So there was no need to be disappointed that it’s the lowest grade skill.

…It’s a bit unfortunate that you can’t transfer inside a living creature though.

If that was possible, it wouldn’t have been F-grade.

“Well, now that I’ve checked the status window.”

It’s time to open the developer’s gift.

I closed the status window screen and tapped on ‘Developer’s Special Gift’ that kept flashing.

Then, [☆Developer’s Special Gift★] burst open like fireworks.

And what appeared was.

“……?”

It was a screen I saw somewhere before.

“No way, this is……”

Developer, are you in your right mind?

“This is an illegal cheat tool!”

No, how can a gift from the developer be an illegal cheat tool?

…But since the developer gave it, it should be fine, right?

Yeah, it’ll be fine.

The developer’s email also said ‘Please use it to achieve the remaining 1% of challenges. Thank you.’

Thinking that way, the anxiety that had risen in a corner of my heart subsided.

And…, the remaining 1% of challenges.

The details said ‘???’, but I roughly had a sense of what it was.

Probably……, the survival of all main characters and the annihilation of alien existences.

As soon as I thought that.

A new message window appeared on my retina.

“As expected…”

It was as I predicted.

But…, what’s the third ‘???’.

I have no clue at all.

The first and second were as I expected, but I had no idea about the third one.

“Ha, damn……”

My head started to ache again.

“This…, I’ll figure it out later.”

For now, I should try leaving this shabby room that was the starting point.

But before that, first.

“Should I try applying invincibility.”

With this feeble stat body, I’ll have to use the invincibility cheat to navigate this rough world since I can’t even recreate my character.

But contrary to my thoughts.

Boing.

[10 Select Cheat Usage Tickets do not exist.]

“……?”

With a short beeping sound, an unusable message appeared.

“Ah.”

Developer bro, can you do this?

If you gave a cheat tool, you should just let me apply it.

“Ah…, Developer bro!”

If you do this, I’m gonna rage quit!

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“Come to think of it…, there was a ‘Random Cheat Usage Ticket’ as the main quest reward.”

Random Cheat Usage Ticket.

If I use this, it will randomly use one of the cheats in the cheat tool.

But it said I needed 10 ‘Select’ tickets to use ‘Invincibility’….

Can it be used with a Random ticket?

“…I’ll find that out later.”

For now, what I need to do is.

“Please line up properly!”

“If you’re not applying for the exam, please step out of the line!”

“Hey, don’t fight over there!”

Apply for the entrance exam at Arena Academy.

“…It’s crowded as hell.”

In the game, even if there were a lot of people, it was handled as an event, so if you blinked the screen, you were registered right away.

But in reality now, I had to stand in that long line.

A deep sigh rose from within the long, long line, but what can you do?

If you want to apply, you have to line up.

As I lined up like that, I thought about the upcoming exams.

There were a total of three exams for the entrance exam.

First, the Wisdom Exam.

Second, the Courage Exam.

Third, the Strength Exam.

Those were the three.

The first, Wisdom Exam, was to pass through a maze.

The second, Courage Exam, was to break through illusions.

The third, Strength Exam, was to defeat monsters or duel with other examinees.

‘I need to get items after applying for the exam.’

If the cheats were applicable right away, I would just rush in regardless of items, but since that was not the case, I needed to obtain items for the exam first.

If I just got the necessary items for the exam, even with a weak stat body, I could sufficiently pass.

As a veteran who played for 30,000 hours, the entrance exam was a piece of cake.

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