### Chapter 1: The Side Character's Grand Delusion
Elrik materialized in Aeloria's bustling town of Solhaven, all cobblestone charm and adventurers flexing their plot armor. His inventory: a linen tunic, patched trousers, one copper coin, and ambition so intense it felt like a status effect. "This is my isekai glow-up," he declared, strutting to the Adventurer's Guild.
The guild hall was a shonen fever dream: spiky-haired swordsman Kael (protagonist energy radiating), tsundere elf mage Lyria (tragic backstory loading), and brooding rogue Zane (smoking a cigarette that defied medieval logic). Elrik approached the counter, chest puffed. "Sign me up for the hero track!"
The clerk, a unibrow-sporting woman named Gert, didn't look up. "Name?"
"Elrik, future legend!"
She handed him a wooden badge: *D-Rank: Miscellaneous*. "Try not to die," she muttered, pointing to a quest board with gems like "Clean Guild Outhouse" and "Deliver Bread to Leeroy Jenkins." Elrik's ambition flared. "Bread delivery? My tutorial arc!"
The quest warned: *"Leeroy Jenkins is… intense."* Elrik, picturing a kindly old man, grabbed a sack of baguettes and marched to a shack littered with broken swords and scorch marks. He knocked. The door exploded outward as **Leeroy Jenkins**, a wiry lunatic with a wild beard and a tattered cape, screamed, **"LEEEEROOOOY JEEEKINS!"**
"Uh, bread delivery?" Elrik stammered. Leeroy snatched a baguette, wielded it like Excalibur, and charged a nearby goblin cave, yelling, "TIME TO SLAY!" Elrik, sensing his moment, followed. "I'll back you up, Leeroy!" Goblins swarmed. Leeroy swung the baguette, somehow one-shotting three. Elrik tripped over a root, face-planting into mud. A stray fireball (probably Lyria's) sent him tumbling into a ditch.
Leeroy emerged victorious, munching the baguette. "Good bread, kid!" he shouted, tossing Elrik a copper coin before sprinting off, screaming his name again. Kael's party, fresh from slaying a dragon, passed by. "Nice assist, bread boy," Zane smirked. Elrik, muddy and defeated, clutched his ambition. "Next time."