Finding My Way to (You) in This MMO World - LN 1
Finding My Way to (You) in This MMO World Volume 1 by Chiwako Fujiwara, Illustrations by Enaga Shima. Translated by Melissa Chiam. Published by J-Novel Knight (J-Novel Club).
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Official Synopsis
After his grandparents—the last of his family—pass away, Kariya finds himself free to discover what awaits outside the harsh confines of his remote mountain village. However, beyond its borders lies a world embroiled in the fires of war, and Kariya is conscripted into the army before he can take his first step toward freedom. It doesn’t take him long to realize the truth: this world is a near carbon copy of a game he played in his previous life. When his identity as a reincarnated player comes to light, Kariya is tasked with a perilous mission to escort Wald, a handsome prince disguised as his twin sister the princess, safely through enemy territory and back to the royal capital. But Kariya isn’t the only one who knows the secret of this world—and having the combat proficiency of a common NPC won’t keep anyone safe. Armed only with player foresight and the skills of an S-tier craftsman, he’ll need every ounce of cunning he can muster to turn the tides of battle and bring his prince home.
In many ways, I wasn't ready for what this book actually ended up being. I had certain expectations for the content given that it was a BL Light Novel, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised and quite invested. I was expecting a fun game-isekai tale that would probably have a very light touch of worldbuilding, just enough to move along the romance of the main two leads. Instead, what I got was BL "Log Horizon" with a touch of "Quality Assurance in Another World". If you've read or watched either of those series, you'll know exactly what I mean.Â
First of all, this volume is twice to three times as long as any normal light novel (140k words long!), and it makes use of that extra runway to fully expand on the first half the synopsis. We spend a long time getting to know Kariya and his exploits as a conscript in the army before he even meets the prince.Â
While the story is not shy about discussing how the "game mechanics" of the MMO translated to the isekai world, it astutely removes the "menu" aspect, leaving the characters to figure out and gather information based purely on their observation, intuition, and magic abilities. The magic system and tier ranking concepts are nothing new, but the way the characters interact with it was thoughtful and deliberate.Â
The story spends the time to build up this new world, and how although it's similar to the MMO that Kariya played in his previous life, that these are real people with real problems. The politics and difference in status between "NPCs" and "Transmigrators" is a key focus of the story, similar to Log Horizon. And similar to Quality Assurance, the story pulls no punches in how the increased abilities and status of transmigrators lead to their depravity and disregard for the people of this world.Â
Kariya is also a delightful character to follow. While he's naive about the world due to his circumstances, he's still a grown adult with years of experience, and an unselfish man. He's also oblivious to his own charm and good looks, which makes for some funny scenes.
There is some "questionable" world building in regards to how sex works in this world, but it wasn't anything so crazy that I haven't seen before in other series. Kariya starts the series firmly in the "straight" category before realizing that there might be more to his feelings than he initially thought. Also, this first volume is entirely chaste; Kariya and Wald are only starting to broach the topic of their relationship.Â
Overall, both the premise and execution of this series was great in the first volume, and I now understand why J-Novel Club has to split each book into 20+ prepub parts. Volume 2 will be published September 24th, 2026 and I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold on for that official release, or break and read the prepubs every week.
I would highly recommend this series even to light novel fans who aren't necessarily into BL. This series seems like it has a lot to offer. Â