How I Became The World's Strongest Warrior By Using Basic Attacks: A System Optimization LitRPG

How I Became The World's Strongest Warrior By Using Basic Attacks #1

by Kenny King

When Chuck dies and wakes up in a fantasy game-like world, he discovers the "secret" to success isn't heroics or clever tricks… it's sheer grinding persistence.

After spending four months hitting a practice dummy until he breaks the combat system, Chuck embarks on a methodical quest to obtain the most powerful gear possible through relentless optimization. Armed with his evolving practice sword and an unwavering commitment to making his numbers go up, he tackles elemental dungeons, goblin hordes, and the occasional social interaction with the same cold efficiency.

In a world where most adventurers rush headlong into danger seeking glory, Chuck will be the ultimate grinder, meticulously calculating every copper coin, every experience point, and every decimal place of damage in his single-minded pursuit of perfect stats.

Sometimes, the most powerful weapon isn't magic or heroism. Sometimes, it's just refusing to quit.

Genres: Fantasy

638 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2025

Reviews

[Matthew Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive!

MC lacks personality. The fights are boring af! The same thing over and over. Just wack it with your sword. It's like the enemies have zero agency. I made it half way before I gave up.

I dig a good op mc book but it's got to have something interesting at least. Not a lot going on here

[Melanin Monreaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm

The book started out great, with the character numb and trying to cope. But soon it became a grind for both the character and the reader. There's only so many times I can read THUNK -monster dead in one hit before it feels like what's the point. Mc is a millionaire and has epic gear in like ten chapters. There's no way out of the purgatory he's in, so there's literally no goals he's working towards. He had the personality of a rock but still has a psuedo harem and friends he halves his experience with Everytime he goes out. It's an exercise in frustration to continue to read to the end and there wasn't really a good ending.

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book one DNF!

I tried, I wanted to like this I really did. I just have a real bad problem with unrealistic characters. The MC is like a robot. When he acts like a human and interacts with somebody it's very jarring and off putting because it doesn't fit how he normally acts. The girl with the anime massive mammary glands was ridiculous. Any large chested female will tell you it's painful to run when they're that big. But she seemed to have no problem whatsoever. She also came across as a gold digger. You may ask why I came to that conclusion, She supposedly has never really interacted with anybody else because all they do is come to stare at her huge chest and flirt she's turned down multiple thousands of coins that people have offered to pay her to see them Yet one trip into the caves with the MC And she's flashing them at him! Gold digger!
And for somebody that comes across is so robotic the name that he picked made no sense and was extremely childish. It was extremely off putting as well.
Never understood why the waitress crawled into his bed either, that made no sense.
Somebody may enjoy this story and find it worthwhile. I did not and I don't recommend it.

[Jada Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

ALC 🎧 Book Review 🤍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was an entertaining read- STORY WISE? I can do w/ a bit more plot that’s actually plotting, I felt like so many isekais flooded the market… This would’ve been way better w/ a bit of depth instead of just repetitive level grinding.
*I did laugh when the tree was crying about the trials & he just THUNKed it though, but I do wanna see at least some interesting quests… Some character developments, something!! Being the strongest is just so overrrated if there’s nothing else behind it.

I still gave this 4⭐️ ‘cause I was entertained though. All the characters were fun, Peter w/ autism, I love how he just threw it out there so fast ☠️ Big Bitty Witch giving that typical anime Mommy- They were all so interesting & had personality.
*I know a lot of feedback said the MC didn’t have any, but “More numbers to optimize, More progression to track”… Mans a freak for statistics ☠️ I feel like he was just born to be oatmeal lmfao.

The different variations of ✨ Thunk ✨ also sends me lmfao. Overall, I was entertained 🤷🏽‍♀️ Could it use a lil more work? Of course lol, but it def fits the title…
Luke Daniels did a good job narrating 🤍

[M Hamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

yuck

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off pretty strong, but then it swerved hard into "MC is a super-autist" that wasn't really clearly telegraphed from the beginning. Almost like the author didn't intend it at all but then decided to go all in once he got the idea, and didn't bother to add some touch-ups to the first chapters to prepare the reader.

But that's not where this book lost points from me. It loses points because just because someone is a super-autist doesn't mean they are suddenly an expert combatant. Yet somehow this guy uses the power of autism to calculate combat moves and trajectories and angles and all this translates into perfect dodges, perfect slides underneath enemies with perfect strikes in vulnerable areas. Including, might I add, throwing a weapon for the first time ever and severing a monster's spine with it. Because autism.

Listen, I don't care if he's the way he is, because at least he's not all "people are icky" like so many other MCs in litrpg. I don't care if all he cares about is numbers going up. But the mf'er did nothing but hit a training dummy for months, and somehow that translated into him being the perfect swordsman. Literally, he analyzes opponents moves and finds the weaknesses and then exploits them perfectly. No, that's not how it works. Someone with even a modicum of experience in melee combat would kill him before he could analyze squat. But no, he hit a training dummy over and over, that's totally as good as these guys (or gals!) that spent years actually fighting moving opponents!

Not that I'm advocating for slow-roll stories, but this could have used a lot more of him almost getting killed while learning, because right now we had ZERO times he almost got killed. Zero. Nothing even took half of his hps, ever. Where is the suspense in that? It is one thing to know that if he hits something it is probably going to die, but it is entirely another thing to think that he's anywhere near combat savvy enough to actually land that hit on someone with experience. And while some of that gets hand-waved away with his "magic sword," there are plenty of times when he does it with a different weapon which he has no affinity with at all.

Not sure if I'll read any more, honestly. I liked the concept, but the entire last half of the book was: where can I grind xp, money, and materials efficiently? Then he goes there, kills whatever it is without breaking a sweat, kills the random legendary creature along the way like it is no big deal, sells his crap and commissions upgrades, and then goes and does it all over again. That's it. No suspense, no trouble, no excitement, nothing. Maaaaybe, maybe a tiny tiny bit of personal growth to not be quite so lame in terms of personality and relationships, but I'm talking miniscule amounts.

Why would I keep reading if the next one will just be more of the same? I even started skimming all the stupid combat sequences, which are also padded out with completely unnecessary combat notifications. We got it after the 100th one, thanks, you can skip them now. But even the actual descriptions of the fight weren't worth my time anymore. How many times do I need to see the exact same thing, where he advances on about_to_be_dead_monster_358, dodges its attack perfectly and then retaliates with a perfect strike (insert long ass notifications here!)? Not to mention the stupid xp summaries too. I get that he loves to see those numbers; I don't.

God, the more I type the more I want to lower my rating even more. But I'll keep it at 3* because I did enjoy it for at least half of the book. Not sure I can stomach another book entirely filled with the second half.

[Michael Rinaldi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entire first quarter of the book I loved. It was just a man making sure he does everything he can to be stronger.
But once he became strong everything was repetitive. The fights and adventures all blurred together with him being ‘efficient’ by one shotting everything. The side characters just went along with it as he emotionlessly treated everything as a statistic.
The story was about getting strong from grinding but most of it was a power fantasy about being stronger than everyone alive.

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story, kind of boring protagonist.

Decent story, worth the read. The supporting characters are fun but the protagonist is just a bore most of the time. The trope of the focused and determined quite tough man from anime does not translate well to the written word for a main character. Too much grunt grunt one sentence responses. It is hard to care about him because he is so flat.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at about 35%. Started out somewhat interesting but the MC was so dull and emotionless and the story so repetitive it lost me. I found the MCs drive to grow and improve the numbers at all costs (typically mass slaughter, sometimes of sentient beings), paired with zero empathy and personality to be borderline sociopathic. To the point I didn’t want to read about the horrible human any more and stopped.

[Drew Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

constant energy

This was a fun read. Constant energy with an introvert MC that has several interesting extrovert friends. Continuous grinding to become stronger.

[Andrei · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was, in a word, intriguing.

Unlike many other LitRPG novels, it was essentially free from typos—I only noticed a single minor error (a redundant "Tthe"). Moreover, the author's mastery over language, whether in descriptive passages or dialogue, was nothing short of exceptional. Indeed, it reminded me strongly of Jcb112’s Wearing Power Armor to a Magical School in terms of rich vocabulary and sophisticated grammatical structures, which for me constitutes a significant merit. Even the so-called "magical technobabble" exhibited notable structural elegance.

Regrettably, this linguistic sophistication made the inconsistencies in narrative structure and flow all the more conspicuous. Specifically, the characterization—both of the protagonist and supporting figures—lacked clear, consistent developmental trajectories. Characters frequently exhibited behaviors incongruous with previously established traits, or suddenly displayed abilities without prior indication or logical development.

This problem was particularly noticeable in the protagonist, who—contrary to early characterization—progressively adopted an autistic or robotic demeanor without adequate narrative justification. Additionally, the protagonist occasionally demonstrated improbable knowledge or abilities emerging abruptly from nowhere—for instance, his insightful comments to the barbarian or his inexplicably advanced tactical prowess. His skillset, especially regarding hand-to-hand combat, also suffered inconsistencies: initially attributed to battles with goblins, then portrayed as self-developed rapidly in isolation, and subsequently again traced back to goblin encounters.

The supporting cast's frequent, unquestioning acceptance of the protagonist’s decisions was similarly perplexing. Furthermore, the repetitive declarations of "amazing strategy!" during the desert arc felt discordant coming from ostensibly seasoned adventurers.

Moreover, the foundational game system itself lacked consistency. Initially suggested as a straightforward HP-based damage model, there were numerous instances where characters endured blows significantly exceeding their total HP without explanation regarding resistances or targeted weak points necessary for fatal damage. Additional system elements similarly lacked clarity or consistent application throughout the narrative.

Additionally puzzling were occasional references to characters as "players," despite the story not being framed as a VRMMO experience.

Overall, the juxtaposition between extraordinary linguistic fluency, compelling action sequences, and the deficient worldbuilding and narrative coherence led me to suspect a collaborative effort possibly aided by sophisticated AI tools. While using advanced language models for grammatical refinement is commendable—and indeed advisable for LitRPG authors aiming to reduce common typographical errors—the task of constructing a coherent and compelling world narrative ultimately demands a human’s meticulous oversight.

In conclusion, this was an enjoyable yet fundamentally flawed read. It holds genuine promise, particularly with its neurodivergent protagonist, and I sincerely hope the author addresses these narrative and structural shortcomings in future installments. With sufficient refinement, it has the potential to join celebrated works like Cerim's Hell Difficulty Tutorial and X-RHODEN-X’s Stubborn Skillgrinder in the LitRPG hall of fame.

[The Legend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave what it promised.

While I enjoyed the book well enough and it focused on what it promised. Purely on optimization and becoming stronger, not on personal relationships or true personal goals beyond making numbers go up.

My only real problem was that the longer it went on the more the character became like an artificial intelligence focused purely on logic and one task. Now it's not that I didn't like that specific, I didn't like how the story tried to cover it up and make it seem like it always was that way rather than a natural progression.

At first the character seems normal and recognizes social things and how he was never famous for his designs, ect. Even got mad and attack his training dummy in rage. It was then that he seemed to 'snap' and go a bit crazy. So focus solely on a single goal and optimizing it. Which made sense. It's the common cliche that a MC needs to be a bit crazy to become overpowered otherwise all the other normal people would be overpowered too.

So that was fine. Yet later the story tries to backtrack and claim even before he was always that way, back at work and hating parties and social things and unable to understand them. Making him seem more like he had autism than anything else. Yet in the start he seemed quite normal and even got all ragey at his circumstances after death.

That was really my only complaint, could do with a re-write at the start to make him always that way or a fix to make it seem like a natural progression of him getting deeper and deeper into his new mindset and 'cracked' way of thinking which makes him overpowered.
I personally like the second one but the conflict of personalities while trying to claim he was always that way just doesn't work..

Beyond that, no real complaints for me. Some might not like how it's purely about him smacking things with basic attacks and one shot most things. Like One Punch Man. Yet that is exactly what the book title is about and the description. So seems sort of stupid to complain about the premise of the book when it's literally what was described.

[Ford Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story. Slow, methodical, leveling.

Over all the story was okay. It was a fun read but at times especially after the initial introduction it became rather bland. The beginning of the story was unique how the world building started and the sole determination of the main character, it really kept your interest. But then the author started adding supporting cast which took away some of the agency of the main character as he was deferring to those characters. The story also slowed down at this point midway simply because the plot really lost any imagination. It truly was just the main character going from point a to b very methodically. At least 100 pages of this book was nothing more than every few pages giving the stats on the main character or the main characters combat leveling aspects. After a while this felt like filler more than any knowledgeable or useful information. The supporting cast were likable, in the dialogue was okay but it was basically, The "Accountant", ends up in a leveling world build, as the main character definitely was a high functioning person on the spectrum. It's made of interesting but predictable. Towards the end of the story, plot holes started developing. But one throughout the book that was never really explained was " damage was 7,000 points given on attack of a monster that only had 1,000 hit points. And yet the monster shrugged it off, at other times monsters were disintegrated.l aIt left the reader wondering a bit. Overall, a simple plain read that doesn't have very many surprises.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the most robotic book I have ever read. The main character speaks and acts like he is a robot constantly while only ever speaking a max of like 12 words in a sentence. Most sentences are 3-5 words and incredibly boring to read. The roboticness rubs of on the side characters occasionally and even the overall book sometimes, which is impressive.

The world building doesn't really exist and it isn't clear till about 60% through the book that this world they are in isn't inhabited by only reincarnated people. Most things die in 1-2 hits so the fights are dull and uninspired. Somehow the main character knows how to fight and knows facts about the monsters like they are common knowledge to him. How he knows this after starting the story hitting a dummy for 4 months then jumping right in isn't explained. I would guess he just learns it in the background but like I said no world building or really any building be it the world or characters.

The characters all like the main character for reasons and become friends with him even though someone saying 3-5 words in response to things constantly would probably not ever make friends. Other than that the side characters are add ons with nothing really interesting going on with them except to comment how amazing and unprecedented the main character and his actions are.

[Omalee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My personal gripes

First off as a person who enjoys big numbers book very very good 9/10 what holds it back is the somewhat flip floppiness of the MC, his whole gimmick is that he thinks of social interaction as a number but humans randomly change that number and he does not like that but the system is pure numbers allowing him to just watch them go up, but he does not stick to this trait sometimes like with witch (If you know you know) sometimes it makes sense don't get me wrong like his very slow relationship with Myra or those things, I feel like the geomancer was made to be a foil for the MC but he did not stick that role very well, but that's whatever another issue is that the magic system is NEVER explained most of the time Peter or Nat just say big words and the author just writes it off, please just explain a little bit would be great for world development (Completely unrelated but free plot lines right here, 1: MC is required to do social interaction for more numbers (audience with the king for great deeds or smth) 2: MC gets into a trade or profession that everyone says it too boring to get into thats actually busted 3: AUTHOR MORE WITCH BOO- *Ahem* that one got away from me)

[Fat Frog · Rating 1 out of 5]

An Android is reincarnated.

Beep Boop
Must find enemies to hit *THUNK*
Beep Boop
More targets means more data
Beep boop
More variations to analize
Beep boop.
More patterns to catalog
Beep boop.

(read with Dalek voice from Dr Who)

Decimals rising! DECIMALS RIZING!

Decimals rising! DECIMALS RIZING!

-----------------------------------------------
The MC doesn't do anything special. All he does is "grind" a lot. You're telling me that no other person does that? It makes no sense. Grinding vs the Dummy is not better than grinding wolves. Grinding wolves gives better exp and better weapon exp. So why is he so powerful? Anyone who fights a lot, would be just as powerful as he is. He's overleveled for what he fights... wOw, AmAzInG

The main character is a douche, and won't even respond to people asking him something.

I'm rooting for a stealth enemy to stab him in the neck, so that he dies and loses all his weapon skill instantly. I'm sure that won't happen though, and this loser prick MC is going to keep being smug and running around constantly "optimizing".

[Will Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note to self: it's fun, not gonna change the world, but it's a fun book.

Summary is: One Punch Man, but with a sword.

The book reads, so far, like an MMORPG player going from quest to quest never bothering to read any fo the lore. How does the world work? What's outside the quest givers? Who knows. The MC only talks to whoever can give quests of trades items, and goes to fight/quest.

Not necessarily bad, but definitely a style.

64% in, and the book is losing me. "NPCs" the MC meets have MMORPG names (goku4lyfe, con4nb4rb4r14n, mario and luigi, and I'm sure more), without even getting into the user name the MC picked in the beginning.

Don't know man, it's getting to be pointless. And with classes kicking in at level 20, and the MC "stuck" at level 18 and going with people on quests and splitting his XP, he doesn't even have a class... levels don't matter (he defeats people 20 levels above him), stats don't matter, items barely matter... yeah, writing this I realize I should just leave. I got what I was going to get from this.

*THUNK*

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book for me to rate because I like MCs that are competent but here the MC is so fucused on "making the numbers go up" as to be boring. Think about that- the story line is such that the MC pretty much goes from one fight to the next and yet the story is a fair bit boring. Still the MC moving from fight to fight was sufficiently action-packed that I didn't have to force myself to keep reading. On the other hand, I also never felt the need to go back and re-listen to any part of the book I zoned out on and I'm pretty certain I didn't miss anything.

I am sufficiently interested in where the story is going that I expect to get the next book in the series when it comes out in a month. Unfortunately I can only give a qualified positive review at this time. I wish I could be more positive so as to encourage the author to keep writing as I like these kind of stories but this book is simply a little too uninspired to heap praise on it.

[Tobias Granberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really feels like it had its start as a web serial and never got edited. The characterization of the main character switches wildly and slowly settles as autistic wunderkind with no friends.


There are also several jarring scenes. One example is the "show me your tits" line, which is so god awfully jarring that it gave me whiplash. Followed by the explanation that said character always gets harrassed to show her tits and the fact that she did it to our main character is a sign she likes him. The MC meets said harrassed character, is a tad socially inept to her and follows up with "show me your tits", I would assume that someone who consistantly gets harassed like that would immediately cool to whatever person they were interact with. The only reason I can find in this working is that said character can see that the sexual harassing pile of inepditude is the MC and figures its her only shot at maintaining sentience.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

dumb math

I was amused through chapter 3, up until the MC describes testing his exp/hit to be 0.213 at a constant rate with no indication of great reduction over time. His hitting rate is obviously more than one per minute and he needed 400 total exp for his next level. The math works out to be 33 minutes for the level. Yet somehow the author decided it took 16 days for the MC to hit the next level. The author even does the math for his next level ands says he needs 18 hours and 3755 hits at 0.213 exp/hit. Yet no explanation for it taking 16 days beyond his desire to show days of grinding.

Just dumb. The author making such an early critical error is very off putting.

Im undecided whether to risk a few more chapters in the hope it was an isolated flub that can be written off to poor editing. Regardless that one star isn’t changing.

[MyDoRyS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning was interesting and unique. I did not mind his personality, straight to the point and borderline savant. I hate brownnosers hypocrites and dislike extroverts, so maybe that is why I like this character. Yes he was OP but it was because of his efforts at the beginning, so I did not mind him being OP. That said, it became a bit repetitive (stats/thumps and I felt that his main focus on numbers was not a good plot. Maybe if it was a combination f both numbers and adventure discovering new materials combo....it would have been more enjoyable, rather than the feeling of a task list. In addition, not sure if this book is/will be part of a series, but the upgrading of equipment felt a bit rushed. That said I enjoyed the story overall. Onto my next adventure, Happy Readings!!!

[Marcin W · Rating 1 out of 5]

(audio)
I hate that i live in a world that thinks dedication (hard work / practice of basics) is enough for some (author & ppl that like this one) to base a story around. I might have missed it, as i skipped the minutia of MC's early leveling, but in later parts: did not get what motivates the MC other than 'numbers go up' now that the system is forcing him into survival situation; as is typical in crappy LitRPG like this. The bad guys are stepping stones for the MC to make the 'numbers go up' too (calling mindless monster fodder one dimensional would be too generous). Most if not all the stories i like still have MCs this dedicated, but the author tells us about their motivations and personal growth instead of how the MC grinds it out.

Skip this one. Nothing special here.

[Therearenobadbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 This is a hilarious rec LitRPG novel that is focused on a main character who grinds his way to victory. There are a few of these novels in the market already, but this one stands out because of the main character. He disregards the quest's goals as story-driven and goes for statistics and numbers. This brings forward some surprises and plot twists. Instead of being a story of man vs nature, it is man vs the game system. Makes me think that the main character would be a great game tester because he's always finding loopholes and testing the games' boundaries. The ending is pretty funny, with the most ancient creatures and the vampire chapters as well.

[Michael Hoedicke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mid tier book

Honestly I was hooked on the book the first 50% of the book well written even though the character was over powered. Though after that it was really borring the side characters are bland, spelling mistakes rampant, the character cant decide if he is level 18 or 19 at points jumps around a bit. And pointless just like he gets so rich it doesnt even matter.

I am all down for someone who is over powered but it has to be off set by some good story and even some good fights. Not
"Thunk", "numbers go higher" and a dead emotionless character.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has promise but flat, unchallenging story

I wanted to enjoy this book. While I read it all the way through, the story narrative, and the sequencing of plot events (when present) were very much like the MC- short and to the point. There is no challenge for the MC, no personal growth or angst or interpersonal growth. It’s all about the “numbers going up.” However, the MC’s numbers haven’t mattered relative to anyone else’s since the days of dummy slaying. The MC is the world’s strongest warrior after chapter 7

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the premise. The execution was off.

I should have known it was going to be weak when the MC names himself XxPussySlayer420Xx in a fit of rage, and doesn’t change it once he pushes through the initial emotional outburst. That makes me think the writer was high on his own supply and I am unimpressed. It’s not always that crude, but it is repetitive—most fights are completed with only a few blows. There are friendships despite the MC, but there’s also some harem lite developing.

I did finish it to see if it went anywhere so that’s something. I won’t be reading more. 1.75

[Darius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpectedly pleasant

I picked this book up because I needed more new material to satisfy my reading addiction, but I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Despite some distinctly repetitive language and an initial personality crisis with the MC, the story smoothed itself out with every chapter. This is a solid start, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes particularly quirky characters.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started well but went down hill fast.

Repetitive and was hard to finish.

Loses track of its own mechanics and logic pretty quickly. Lots of talk of optimization with no real actual steps to do so. Feels like the author had a plan realized details get hard then just kept adding as they went forgetting to really put thought into it.

My major issues is why have health points if they mean nothing.

[TG · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh, started of strong but fell off

Enjoyed the first few chapters, then the pop culture references started appearing and it just put me off, some people may enjoy it but it’s not for me.

Why talk about numbers and raising stats without a basic character sheet that actually displays his stats, we don’t even know his strength etc..

Also the they/them references to characters instead of just he/she is confusing.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who enjoys the numbers aspect of LitRPG books this one definitely scratched that itch. The book is very number heavy and all about efficiency in everything the MC does which he expresses all throughout the book. At first i was a little confused about the MCs personality but once he gets over that first bump he becomes quite interesting. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing if we’ll get a sequel