You Are a Solo Leveling Warrior – Life as a Video Game System

Matrix Alex Sung 0 Comments

Lying in a pool of his own blood, Jinwoo flashes back to memories of his mother and sister – how they were relying on him to provide. He didn't want to disappoint them and thought "If only I were stronger!"

But here he lies dying, and as a dungeon statue is about to strike him down, the system pops up and offers him a second chance. If Jinwoo doesn't accept, his heart will stop in 0.02 seconds: "Do you wish to continue?" As the sword rushes towards his head, his vision fades and goes black...

Sung Jinwoo is an E-rank hunter notoriously known as "the weakest hunter in the world". Because of this, every day was a struggle. As the sole breadwinner of his family, he had to take on hunting jobs that took him to death's door multiple times.

But life moved on as he did this for years; he had no choice. This would have continued, until one fateful hunting expedition of a C-ranked dungeon. This C-ranked dungeon duplicitously fools everyone by transforming into a double dungeon on par with an A or S-rank. Jinwoo's life is changed completely.

Flashback

See, the world changed one fateful day in Korea/Japan. Life was normal: people were commuting to work, attending school, and doing regular things. But on this day, dimensional rifts were opening up on Earth where magical beasts came flooding through to invade the land. Soon it catches up to the rest of the world causing perilous threats to humanity's existence.

But humans adapted. In Darwinistic fashion, some underwent an awakening that endowed them with powers to hunt the beasts. Once awakened, they were tested and ranked from a power score of E through S. For 99% of all hunters, once ranked, could no longer evolve to a better score.

For Jinwoo this meant there was no hope of exceeding his ranking. But after the double dungeon experience, Jinwoo became part of the elite few that underwent a double awakening.

For Jinwoo, the second awakening was like a video game. As the dungeon beast is about to deal the finishing blow, a notification screen pops open and asks "Do you wish to accept a quest?" Upon completing the quest, he would become a player in the system. Upon refusal, however, his heart would stop in 0.02 seconds. He accepts and abruptly wakes up in a hospital bed with no injuries, but retains the trauma of that fateful day.

As the anime or manhwa goes on, Jinwoo learns that his awakening is a growth type where the system trains him to get stronger. Starting from the bottom of the barrel in strength, Jinwoo along with the system's power, becomes the greatest warrior in the world. This mirrors the real world and here's why.

The Real World

Most people awaken to one level and stay there for their whole lives. They have a fixed roadmap with their initial ranking systematized from their jobs or career paths. According to them, this is the real world.

In fact, for most people, "The Real World" is actually "The Matrix." People level up and stay there because they build a life of contentedness.

They stick to one job, get a mortgage, a house, a few cars, and get married. All these good things trap them in the hamster wheel. Before long, they live in a situation that doesn't allow room for error or growth.

Stuck on 1 Level

For most people, living in the matrix is a good thing. It's all relative to goals. But this also creates a situation where it causes stagnancy.

They reach a level of growth that is satisfactory to them, or they stay comfortable there. And they live like NPCs for the rest of their lives. They stick to a routine and stay there.

Rare 2nd Chances

Normally routines are good. It creates discipline and structure. Without these things, all companies and countries would collapse. But in this case, it's a personal routine of living in busyness that creates no room for growth.

This causes marriages to a standstill, lack of time with the kids, reliance on one form of income, and compounding debt due to inflation.

Rarely, is there an event in one's life where it causes their whole world to crumble: Their marriage crumbles because they become so content with it and their kids grow up with resentment due to a lack of family bonding. Or their job lays them off forcing them to figure out how to get a new one to pay their debts.

Their life in the matrix gets obliterated, forcing a split-second decision to take on a quest to rebuild and level up again.

Life is a Video Game

Through this rare event of a second chance, they are forced to decide whether to grow or die – just like a video game. But instead of a screen that forces them to undertake tasks, they make all the decisions themselves.

They have to internally look at themselves and wonder "How did my marriage dissolve? What can I do to ensure that I learn from this?" Most people don't do this and wonder why their next marriages fail.

But doing this with a clean slate and instilling hope creates a chance for someone to rebuild at their lowest to reach new heights.

Slowly they build up their mind, body, and life one small gain at a time.