Literature / Reborn on a Systemless Earth...with a System

You know the setup: A young man on Earth hit by a speeding truck who ends up in a generic fantasy world.
But what about this: A young man in a generic LitRPG fantasy world hit by a carriage who ends up in modern-day San Francisco, and yet still wants to be a hero anyway?

Reborn on a Systemless Earth...with a System is a Web Serial Novel by Thedude3445, author of ATL: Stories from the Retrofuture and Hands Held in the Snow.

In this twist on the LitRPG isekai genre, Eryk Solbourne, a D-Rank [Adventurer], is suddenly launched from the dungeons of Mystix into our modern world. How can he possibly adapt to this strange new planet?

Simple: he won't.

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This series provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Chapter 20 is called "A Plan to Push Power to the Plimit."
  • Chapter 95 is "Another Audience Allowed, Allelujah."
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Eryk and Delta have their moments.
  Francis: Delta's my best friend. She may be a little direct sometimes, but she means well.
  Eryk: Ah, I know well the pitfalls of dealing with those who are at times overly confident in their own ability to communicate. This Delta woman must be too enthused with her skills to understand tact and reason. Well, I prefer someone more blunt, anyhow.
  Delta: I'm going to throw him out of the car in about fifteen seconds.
• Butch Lesbian: Delta. Self-proclaimed dyke, will only wear a skirt when it's mandated by her job. In high school, she went through a major Elegant Gothic Lolita phase, which she wants Francis to shut up about.
• Cast from Stamina: Basically the way all Eryk's magic works.
• Childhood Friends: Francis and Delta grew up together, which explains why they feel so comfortable tossing verbal barbs at each other.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Eryk has no qualms about ogling his friends at the hot springs and is way more excited about sharing hotel room beds than his buds. How much of that is his own overzealousness and how much is due to Mystix's different cultural norms is... up to interpretation. But make no mistake: he would never take advantage of others.
• Clarke's Third Law: All of Eryk's theories about what Earth's magic systems could be revolve around technology, especially smartphones.
• The Comically Serious: Francis' quips and Delta's biting sarcasm, not to mention a load of cultural nuance, go right over Eryk's head.
• A Day in the Limelight: Special chapters tend to focus on side and periphery characters, with a detached third-person POV.
• Denser and Wackier: While there's always a current of grounded family drama concerning Francis and Delta, Eryk doesn't remain the only wacky thing on Earth for long.
• Difficult, but Awesome: There are a few classes on Mystix (such as [Toxin] and [Demigod]) that could conceivably be cool but, in practice, kill their users long before then... or, in the case of [Supremes], their uses are so specific and restricted that everyone laughs at them. One way the New Slayers gather forces is by pulling these classes into their ranks. A single [Toxin] is constantly on the verge of death, but what about a well-coordinated army of them?
• Doppelgänger Attack: Eryk gets a move called "Clone" and uses it to summon a rascally version of himself who saves the day (while nearly killing everyone).
• The Dreaded: Before they even meet, Eryk hears stories that teach him to fear and respect the name of... Julie. She even exudes an ominous aura from a distance.
• Dull Surprise: Delta's faaavorite reaction.
• Fantastic Racism: North Spirans face blatant discrimination on Mystix.
• Farm Boy: What Eryk was back on Mystix (and people gave him all the stares and stereotypes you might imagine).
• Fight Clubbing: The gang tries this in an attempt both to satisfy Eryk's craving for violence and to get him to level up. Comes complete with a riff on the classic phrase.
  "Why, hello there! Welcome to the fight club. First rule of fight club is, of course, have fun!"
• Fight Like a Card Player: Eryk's powers come from a Destiny Deck. While Life Points are primarily stamina, and Destiny Points are primarily experience points, he can sacrifice either of these to draw more Destiny Cards, increasing his arsenal and inventory space. It's not much like an actual card game, except that there are holofoils.
• First-Episode Resurrection: He was supposed to get reincarnated...
• First Town: Based on the size of the homes, Eryk deduces that San Francisco must be "a starter town."
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Two cases:
  • Taylor and Francis. Their parents don't like what Francis does for a living, but at least they don't see him as a persona non grata like Taylor, who ran away from home. Double subverted. At first, Francis looks like the responsible one, but it turns out that the parents have grudging respect for Taylor's financial success. After a Teen Pregnancy, she ran off to Hollywood to make it big... and succeeded, so while Francis makes a lot of money, Taylor is filthy rich, and not a Basement-Dweller to boot. The second subversion comes when we realize that Taylor is a shallow jerk, so Francis is still the more decent person.
  • Eryk and Rare. One's fooling around on Earth while the other's been calmly training themself and amassing a small army.
• Freudian Trio: As Delta accurately puts it, Francis is the id, Eryk is the ego, and Delta is the superego.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Team Fanghook weren't just Eryk's adventuring guides and allies... they were guarding an amnesiac Sealed Evil in a Can.

• Hyperspace Arsenal: Eryk's carrying capacity is limited in item number but, happily, not item size.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • This moment in chapter 51, after Eryk marvels at how great a hybrid bus-train vehicle would be:
    Delta: Should we...show him Disneyland later?
    Francis: I don't want to get a cease & desist, so probably not.
    Delta: Fair point.
  • Francis complains about how Marvel movies always make their villains parallels their heroes right after flagrant parallels emerge between Eryk and his systemless wizard sibling Rare.
• Long-Lost Relative: Eryk's sibling Rare didn't actually die in that war.
• Mage in Manhattan: Eryk, uh, doesn't leave the anime convention the same way he found it. Unlike the typical example, he didn't quite mean to.
  "In the end, the energy sword was good for little more than burning a tree to the ground and mentally scarring people for life."
• Mage Species: Eryk looks like any other human, but none of his cells have mitochondria. Combine this with the fact that people on Mystix can use magic even without their system, and you've got a more magical breed of human.
• Manchild: Francis. The story is pretty sympathetic to him and his potentially very mockable lifestyle (he's a successful streamer, but the parents he lives with don't understand his work) but even Eryk, his friend, describes him as "like a child, but in a nice and innocent way."
• Mayfly–December Romance: On Mystix, Eryk was romantically involved with Malia, an elf who was already about 100 when they met and destined to outlive him. Even after he's reborn on Earth, he ends up seeing her on Mystix again in strange, time-skipping circumstances — and she's the elderly one.
• The Men in Black: Agent Y and Agent Z, don't you think?
• Min-Maxing: To Francis' shock, the concept of munchkinry doesn't exist on Mystix. On Earth, he does end up consciously maxing out Eryk's gains... from junk food and road tripping. [Adventurers] gain experience by trying new things. What better and faster way to do that than by eating combos?
• Nice Mean And In Between: Francis is nice (the exception being whenever he prods Delta), Delta is mean, and Eryk is in-between.
• Noodle Incident: Eryk mentions "the Beaver Wars," his participation in them, and the fact that its war stories are incredible, quite often. Yet they're never actually described. The author has teased the idea of exploring the wars in bonus chapters, but...
• Non-Combat EXP: It's your best option when you're reborn in a world where fighting is often illegal.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Eryk's system gives him an array of powers that could smoke anyone on Earth. Subverted because if Eryk beats anyone up, he's going to prison. Oh, and if he doesn't keep living like an [Adventurer], that same system, which constantly drains his life, will kill him.
• Oh, My Gods!: Including "what the Hells?" and "holy The Goddess!"
• One-Steve Limit: Combined with No Celebrities Were Harmed. Taylor's favorite musician is named "T-Swift."
• Recurring Dreams: Eryk keeps dreaming of floating in a strange, wooded area not unlike a Dream Land. Turns out it's Mystix, and not a flashback either.
• Road Trip Plot: Eryk quickly finds two great friends who decide to drive and train-ride with him across California.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Eryk is NOT Francis' boyfriend (according to Francis). The world disagrees. We're still wondering about Eryk...
• Sleep-Mode Size: Miss M used to be a powerful (and tall) demon queen, but Eryk describes her current self as "an oddly shaped potato."
• Taking Over Heaven: This is the plan of Rare and Team Fanghook: they believe that The Goddess is the source of Mystix's systems and, therefore, of their deepest problems.
• That Mysterious Thing: Eryk has the apparently useless, apparently unimportant stat of... "viscosity." It turns out that this stat is good for one very specific niche thing: "sticking" to waves while you're surfing.
• Totally Radical: Santa Barbara is filled with extreme-sports-loving, skateboard-jumping Surfer Dudes.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Wine Country is a lie...
• 20 Minutes into the Future: First chapter came out in February 2020. Takes place in 2023. The author uses this to speculate about a continuing rise of video game culture and new gaming trends, and to throw around terms like "the Trump Succession Crisis" and "Blade remake."
  "This Get N Go is pretty big, a lot bigger than a Gamestop would have been (RIP)."
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Eventually, Eryk is travelling Earth by day and Mystix by night (as he sleeps). Inevitably, the lines intersect...
• Utopia: From Eryk's perspective, Earth is one, thanks to the "magic" of electricity and all its conveniences.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: It's more like "We Never Knew Ye." Gimlet came to life and nobly sacrificed himself entirely offscreen. The heroes miss him dearly.
• Windmill Crusader: When Eryk first arrives on Earth, he knows he has to defend himself... against innocent bystanders at an anime con.
  "Cosplay... Whatever creature this refers to, I will slay many, many cosplays."
• Yaoi Fangirl: Delta. Since it clashes with her image, she's too ashamed to admit it.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: This is how a special training chamber on Mystix works: compress time to maximize gains. It stings.

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