“Oh! Looks like a mid-level boss came to us!” Leyton said excitedly. “This saves us a lot of trouble of tracking and killing your fatness!”

“Ley-Ley! That’s rude!” Skye told Leyton from beside him.

“Who cares? They’re our enemy, and he’s clearly not here for a picnic, is he?” Leyton asked her back.

“B-But… we don’t need to be so rude about it,” she insisted, to which he sighed and relented.

“Fine!” He said and turned to face their enemy. “Look, Mr. Random Face! My wife told me not to be rude to you, so why don’t you just kill yourself and save me the trouble why don’t you?”

“Ley-Ley…” muttered Skye weakly beside him at seeing him not stopping his rudeness.

Their enemy smirked and said, “You heroes think you can defeat me and get to our leader? Think again! You’ll die trying because you have to go through me first!”

There was a moment that followed his words before Leyton chuckled and said, “Insert meme here.”

“Huh?” The villain asked in confusion. “Insert… what?”

Leyton chuckled and said, “You know. If you were a tall bearded man wearing grey robes and stomped your staff down while shouting ‘you shall not pass’ then I’d probably be scared. Seeing as you are now, you are a knockoff. A joke to a masterpiece.”

“What?!” The villain exclaimed, looking both shocked and confused as he did not understand the context of the insults. “What stupidity are you sprouting?!”

Leyton ignored him and sighed as he said, “Seems like even after death and reincarnating in another world, memes are a thing. I guess I should watch out for cliché dialogues next.”

“Enough of your nonsense! It’s time for you to die!” Their enemy yelled angrily.

“Like that, I guess,” said Leyton casually.

In an instant, the man began to surge with power, causing the wind to blow wildly around them as well as shockwaves to be sent in all directions.

“Please stay back sir and madam!” Lexi said, brandishing her sword alongside Veva wielding a sword as well. “We’ll take care of him!”

“Ha! You angels will fight me?! Don’t kid yourself!” The enemy exclaimed hysterically.

Leyton sensed something bad was about to happen and said to his wife, “Skye, stand behind me.”

“Huh? Ley-Ley?” She asked, but he shook his head to not have her ask questions and simply follow what he said.

She did and not a moment later that she moved to hide behind her husband when their enemy made his move. He kicked off the ground and shot forward like a bullet, speeding so fast that he got past both the angels before they knew it and flew past him with his aim directly at Leyton.

“What?!” Lexi exclaimed in shock.

“No!” Veva exclaimed in horror.

There was no time for them to reach him as he was speeding way faster than them and within seconds, he was already on top of Leyton. He raised his sword high in the air and swung it down with full force with the clear intention of cutting the human into two pieces.

Leyton smiled and stretched his left arm out while muttering, “Summon and Attach Shield!”

In an instant, a shield materialised and attached itself automatically to his arm as instructed by his magic invocation. Then he swung his arm and brought it in front of the sword swing, successfully blocking the attack in the process.

The impact of the sword on the shield caused a powerful shock wave and wind to occur as well as the ground to shake violently. Leyton widened his eyes in alarm when he felt the ground give way beneath him, and he felt like he sank a little down as a concave occurred where he stood.

“Wow! You’re strong!” Leyton expressed in a surprised voice.

“Die, human!” His villain shouted as he tried to push his sword to break through the shield.

This made Leyton smile and reply, “You want to hold that thought,” and his villain heard him mumble something.

A moment later, he was suddenly hit on the side of his face by something very solid that rattled is mind and sent him flying away. He flew for several meters when he suddenly spun in the air and landed firmly on the ground, with his feet getting dragged before coming to a stop.

He spit out blood from his mouth and looked towards his enemy before widening his eyes in shock at what he saw. There stood Leyton with a shield attached to his left arm while wielding a large scythe with his right hand. Then he spun it around before resting it on his shoulder with a bright grin on his face.

“What?! That weapon?!” The enemy exclaimed in shock, raising a hand and pointing at the scythe Leyton was wielding.

“Hmm? It’s a scythe. Don’t you know?” Leyton asked back with a grinning face.

This infuriated his enemy and began to scare him as he exclaimed, “You! Who are you! Are you really a hero?!”

His words made Leyton to ponder before replying nonchalantly, “I’m not sure actually… but I know I’ll reap you to hell! Get ready!”

With his shout, Leyton kicked off the ground and began running full tilt towards his enemy. He was not fully accustomed to his body, so he did not know how to exactly kick off the ground and fly towards his enemy. As such, he chose to do the normal thing by running towards his enemy as fast as he could, but because he focused his energies on running, his speed increased exponentially.

“Bastard!” The enemy exclaimed, reacted with surprise as his enemy quickly reached him.

“That’s you!” Leyton replied and swung the scythe at him with full force.

Widening his eyes at realising he would not be able to block it, the enemy opted to dodge it by ducking down. As he did, the scythe flew right over where he was standing a moment before and released a wild slicing wave that cut through the air and flew away into the distance where a mountain stood.

A moment later, they heard something crumbling and all of them turned to see the mountain suddenly lift slightly into the air as a large gap appeared beneath its midriff. The gap was caused by the powerful slicing wave that Leyton unleashed with his scythe and as the mountain crumbled down, the enemy turned back to look up at this overpowering enemy that towered over him.

“Well…! Looks like I’ve yet to fully control my swinging power,” said Leyton with a smile full of confidence.

In that instant, both the enemy and the angels present felt an overwhelming difference in power between themselves and the hero wielding a scythe.

 

==== + ==== + ==== + ====

 

Closing the Book

 

“A scythe?!” The boy exclaimed, widening his eyes in shock once he reached the end of chapter. “Seriously?! A scythe?! A hero wielding a scythe?! What?!”

“It’s unexpected, right?” The older man said, who no longer had his beard.

“Yes! I just assumed that the first weapon he’d use in that world would be either a sword or a shield. Who would’ve thought he’d use a scythe of all things?!” The boy exclaimed, reeling in shock from what just happened in the chapter. “How could the author do this?! He’s breaking something! I can feel it!”

The older man laughed and replied, “How can you say that when you’re 16 chapters in already?”

“Well, I mean, from the beginning, the story seemed good but whacked in places,” the boy admitted. “Now, it’s like the author is indulging his own love into the story and not caring about anything else. Just look at how Leyton just casually dropped that meme thing. It’s funny but unexpected!”

“It’s the same thing when he did the ‘all your base belong to me’ isn’t it?”

“Yes, and that’s so unexpected. It’s like the author is trying to take the readers by surprise at the most unexpected times.”

“If he doesn’t do that, the story wouldn’t be interesting,” the older man reasoned.

“Really? From the sudden nuclear bombing of a world to reincarnating in another world together with his wife and being so overpowered that he can just right up summon military grade weapons and equipment and go right into battle and now just straight up give the already overpowered main character a scythe so casually! It’s definitely ludicrously interesting!”

The older man laughed at the young boy’s words and said, “I’m happy you’re liking it.”

The young boy snorted and responded with, “I don’t know if I call this feeling of liking it or being weirded out by the causal stunts the author is doing. Anyway, I’ll give him credit for trying to keep it somewhat realistic instead of winging everything.”

“Realistic?”

“Yes. Just look at the way the chapter ended. It clearly says Leyton was not accustomed to his new body and would not be able to kick off the ground and fly at his enemy like the others of that world. That’s a good way of showcasing the realism instead of straight up just making Leyton do it without prior knowledge and all, especially it was clear he was a gamer and an office worker in his previous world,” the boy exclaimed in detail much to the surprise of the older man.

“I can accept Leyton being able to use magic simply from the explanation the angels gave him as well as using his own imagination since he did say he played some games though I don’t know what games they were. So, thinking that Leyton could drive but cannot fly because of lacking knowledge and experience makes sense and keeps the story interesting,” the boy finished approvingly.

“You found that appropriate? That’s amazing,” the older man admitted, looking impressed.

“Of course. Just think about it. If a baby suddenly fell into the pool of water and somehow managed to learn swimming on the first try without any sort of help or prior context. Wouldn’t that be baffling? It distorts the story and makes any progression and takes the fun out of it. That’s why I like that the author is keeping some parts of the realism intact while going berserk on the fantasy stuff.”

The older man laughed and said, “I’m sure the author would feel both happy and troubled by the assessment of a kid.”

“I may be a kid, but I’m not stupid to release these small things!” The boy replied firmly.

“I see. In that case, do you think what will happen in the next chapter with your current assessment?”

“Huh? Are you joking?” The younger boy asked, looking taken aback. “I’m a kid, and a reader at that. How am I supposed to know what might happen next when I’m not the author of this book, especially with this randomizer style of writing?” Then he narrowed his eyes and said shrewdly, “The only one I know who might know is you, but you refuse!”

“Yes, and I’ve decided to refrain from giving anymore hints in the future after my poor beard paid the price,” the older man said, rubbing his cheek where he sported a beard previously. “Seriously. It takes so long to grow to that length, you know?”

“Not my problem you had to cut off your beard when it’s your fault for giving me false hope about Skye didn’t get to shine all that much in the last chapter,” the boy fumed heatedly. “Incidentally, will she have better focus done to her and not get side-lined?”

To that, the older man flinched at the serious look the boy gave and turned away while saying, “No comment,” before whistling nervously.

The younger boy continued to look at him with suspicion before sighing and saying, “Fine. I guess I’ll find out on my own in the next chapter,” and turned the page to begin reading it.