If I told you once, I told you a thousand times! I hate humans! And it's not like I helped you just because you feed me sweets, BLEH!
In 1999, magical labyrinths appeared in random places all over the world. The local armies responded appropriately and the various nations took to monster killing for resources. The first world countries eventually came to the conclusion that the risk/reward ratio was not in their favor and sealed off the labyrinths, until monster swarms came out, causing immense damage and then disappeared the following day at dawn. The general consensus since then is that labyrinths have to be explored on a regular basis to keep that from happening. In the twenty-some years since labyrinths first appeared, the prospect of dungeon diving was privatized as civilians can become adventurers by paying a registration fee and using a Monster Card to summon "friendly" monsters to fight by their side. In the present, Kitagawa Utamaro, or just Maro, is leading a dull and uninteresting high school life, not liking the idea of finding himself a "mob", or someone of no interest, on the bottom rung of the caste, so yearns to become an adventurer, hoping to make a name for himself, and maybe get himself a girlfriend.Alternate Titles: Mob Kousei no Ore Demo Boukensha ni Nareba Riajuu ni Naremasuka? ; モブ高生の俺でも冒険者になればリア充になれますか?
Author: Hyakkin
An untranslated web-novel format does exist at ncode.syousetu
but has been on hiatus since August of 2022, with a warning that the novel version may have been abandoned.
Associated Tropes:
- All Deaths Are Final: Played with. An unnamed monster card will be destroyed if the summoned monster dies in battle, and adventurers certainly die for keeps, but a [Named] monster can be revived upon death by sacrificing monster cards of the same species.
- All Men Are Perverts: Female Humanoid Mon cards are very, very popular, not because they happen to be particularly good at fighting monsters, or the fact that they are rare, but because they're the targets of fetishes from the vast majority of the male (and some of the female) human population. The protagonist, Maro, chooses to build his party out of humanoid female Mon whenever he has a chance. In fact, it's quite common for male players to engage in sexual relations with their female cards and this is frequently discussed. Maro, the protagonists, doesn't engage in that behavior because he wants his Mon to respect him.
- Alternate History: The manga was released around August of 2022, and the labyrinths appeared in-universe in 1999.
- Amnesiac Resonance: Unnamed monster cards that are bound to an adventurer and then sold back to the association (named monsters can not be sold or traded) will have their memories wiped and their stats reset but the personality they developed as a result of the way they were treated by their owners is not reset. This is the primary reason Maro found his monster cards to be so problematic when he was starting out. They were all clearly abused in one way or another and traumatized by said abuse, but while they don't remember what traumatized them, the trauma remains. Maro has to help them overcome their traumas before they can display their true potential, but when they are all facing an [irregular] boss monster, Maro learns, to his elation, that it was Worth It.
- Cult: The Star Mother Society openly worships labyrinths, proclaiming to one and all that they are a divine blessing to mankind, sent by some supernatural entity or entities to solve all of humanity's problems, and their preaching does have some merit. Those who've lost friends or loved ones to the labyrinth disagree. The society became officially branded as a cult when one of their members was caught engaged in Human Sacrifice to a labyrinth.
- Difficult, but Awesome: There's generally two ways to become a successful adventurer. Either buy fancy and powerful monster cards for yourself and start up right away, or try your luck with a "booster pack" and train up the cards other adventurers sold back to the association because they couldn't be bothered to treat them right and the association wants to just get rid of. Maro chooses the latter, and after a week is blessed with a Bad Ass Crew of True Companions that give him Undying Loyalty, and he's [Named] so they're bound to him, for as long as he lives.
- Hollywood Law: The tax code for adventurers is extremely simplified. Adventurers are only taxed on cash income, not net worth nor capital gains. An adventurer winning a monster card worth 350 million yen in a tournament is not taxed on the value of the card, as that is not considered income. Loot gathered from labyrinths is not considered income until it's cashed in at the association, and expenses, like purchasing monster cards and magical tools, is deducted from the income as a business expense, but everything has to be properly documented through the association, or the tax will be charged against the total cash gains. Let's just say that if Maro did his taxes in reality the way he does them in his native universe, he'd be facing an audit, if he's lucky.
- Mon: Type 2. The monsters summoned from monster cards are all self-aware and clearly sapient, but they require being bound to an adventurer to have any agency.
- Narnia Time: The flow of time in labyrinths is very different from the outside world. When there are no people in the labyrinth, the time stands still, so something that happened 20 years ago can still have fresh remains found inside a labyrinth the instant someone enters the part where it took place. Case in point, Maro finds victims from the public dungeon disaster that happened 20 in-universe years ago inside the f-rank labyrinth he's exploring when he comes face to face with "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
- Obstructive Code of Conduct: Adventurers can not summon their monsters from cards outside the labyrinths, aside from strange events like a monster stampede, called Angolmois. Even inside labyrinths, players have to abide by restrictions on how many monsters they can summon, and it's not a mater of human law, but the in-universe metaphysics. There are also very reasonable laws that only adventurers can enter labyrinths, people need to somehow obtain cards of a certain strength before they can apply as an adventurer, or buy the needed card on site when applying, and minors need the notarized approval of a parent or guardian.
- Walking Techbane: Gremlins. Just like in the germanic fairy tales from which they originate, the monsters openly destroy human tech whenever they encounter it. This gives adventurers who chance upon wild gremlins many headaches as cameras, cell-phone maps, stun batons, and so on are lost and this can quickly get very expensive, not to mention life-threatening.
