I find a stall with some nice smell and buy a soup. Meat & vegetables, probably also wheat are all cooked together. I provide the bowl myself. You can borrow one from the establishment, however if you bring your own you get a little bit more. The price is 3 copper coins with a quantity enough to fill the stomach.
I sit on a corner of the plaza to savor the soup while I watch the flow of people. The races are really varied. The most numerous are ordinary humans, but the skin tones go from white to black. I notice that demi-humans with tails and cat ears as well as short and stout dwarf-like people are in the minority. There are elves too, but I haven’t seen one yet. Speaking of fantasy’s staple elves, certainly I want to see one someday.
On the opposite side of the plaza, although it couldn’t be heard from here, there was a minstrel that was singing something while plucking the strings of a musical instrument that looked like a guitar. It’s like a European middle-ages civilization if I think about culture, but I feel it’s quite close to Ancient Roman. There are toilets and proper bath houses. The buildings and bridge are quite magnificent and I even caught sight of the water wheels. I’ve thought a bit about making money with modern knowledge, but it’s not something that can be done so easily.
In the first place I’m a NEET, what I can do or what knowledge I have of is extremely biased. I have high school graduate level of knowledge, as well as anime, manga and novels. It would be nice if I could make guns or cannons, but I couldn’t remember how to make gunpowder.
Despite saltpeter being made in novels of the Sengoku Period, as far as I remember it was made one way or another with straw. What came after that I had no idea. Besides, I don’t know the structure of a gun. I’d even have problems describing the intricacies of a matchlock.
One inserts the gunpowder and bullet into the metal gun barrel. Then light the fuse. That’s how, isn’t it? Do you stick the fuse into a small open hole? If you make a small hole, won’t the pressure come out from it when the gunpowder detonates? [TL: So, this isn’t gonna turn into gun-ota.]
The weapons route is probably impossible. I had a look around a weapons store, but everything was elaborate and had good materials. As expected I couldn’t find a katana, but from the start I don’t know how they’re made. Something like a metal armor is by no means something an amateur can produce.
Medical care is no good. medicine or medical treatment are things I’m completely ignorant. At best wash my hands, brush my teeth or getting fat increases risk of diabetes. That’s the amount I know.
Long time ago I had very limited experience with agriculture, I handled something like a hoe and there was something like compost.
This route too, I think it is also no good. It wasn’t a city, but I grew up in a fairly developed countryside town and farming is not something I really did. At most I saw every Sunday the performers on TV doing farming in rural areas. Perhaps, there might be some use for that knowledge, but if I go to some farmer’s place, what could happen?
“Do you have knowledge of farming?”
“Where did you learn that?”
“I saw it on TV.”
“Wha?”
“In practice I haven’t done farming, but I saw some entertainers do it every week.”
“Entertainers…?”
“Yes, they farmed rice and build green houses.”
“You don’t have experience, do you?”
“No.”
“GET OUT!”
Uhum, that won’t work.
Entertainment is no good. Anime, novels and the dialogues in manga put into a book and sold might be profitable. If I also make board or card games they could also be sold. If it’s about those, I have perfect knowledge. What will happen if I spread all that entertainment to a world that will be destroyed in 20 years. For example if the demon lord were to attack and the inhabitants were addicted to Mahjong then it would be the beginning of their downfall. That would be terrible. It’d be my fault the destruction of the world began.
If it’s to profit from knowledge it must be practical. It must be something to help develop the world, but looking at it this way, I don’t really have knowledge with practical use.
Suddenly it hit me. Is this perhaps the stuff I’d be forced to do if I haven’t received a cheat skill? [TL: Take in mind what follows is some long speculation of what he’d do if he didn’t receive cheat skills.]
First at the start I’d be tormented to death by the wild rabbits. Even if I could do something about it, I would be stopped at the gate. I wouldn’t understand the language. Strange appearance. And no money. Even if I found my way inside the city, still I couldn’t understand the language and I’m not sure I could register with the Adventurer’s Guild. Assuming I could enter the Guild, still I can’t understand the language. There would be no way for me to do the requests.
This is no good. It’s a route where I certainly die on the roadside.
Not giving up I review another route, let’s say I receive only the language cheat. Then the money to enter the city and guild. It would be nice if it’s up to that point. Still subjugation requests are impossible. Even defeating wild rabbits would be difficult. I don’t know about medicinal plants and the grasslands are dangerous. It would be instant death if orcs appeared.
If it comes to that, I’d be taking request for odd jobs? Like carrying cargo or cleaning gutters. That’d be harsh. Would they let me wash dishes at the inn? I can cook fairly well too. Using recipes not from this other world, the inn would prosper and I marry the daughter. Ahh, that’s no good. I’d be killed by the adventurers. Let’s live independently. Obtain a small store and little by little make it a big one. Eventually I’d want to make a chain of stores. And make money, get a wife.
Is that what I have to do coming to another world?… It would be good to work hard to open a Ramen shop in Japan. No matter how much I work and expand a store, the end of the world is set to be in 20 years. Even if I work hard in internal administration or manufacturing it wouldn’t make any difference. Probably.
Then I’d train myself for battle? I’d join the Guild and enter the beginner’s training. And would I become able to defeat orcs? Probably I’d against one. No, it would be close…? Under normal circumstances, I’m shabby when it comes to physical activities. Let’s use a bow. If it’s with a bow I could fight. And then would I join a party with the people I met training? I would be invited. No, I wonder what would happen. If I didn’t have a cheat, would they invite a currently clumsy me? Umm. At that moment, would I earnestly beg myself? We would be comrades that survived life-or-death situations together. It won’t be free of obstacles though.
With this I would join the party and considerably safely become an adventurer. Little-by-little and not dying, earn money and getting stronger… becoming… stronger? Is this system of gaining XP to level up some kind of cheat? If a normal person gained XP would he level up? I don’t know since I can’t see other people’s Status. But it doesn’t seem a normal person levels up. Uhum. One wouldn’t. This is also a cheat. Then, no level up. Let’s leave it so if I don’t do ordinary weight training or ascetic practice, I wouldn’t get stronger.
But I’m 23 years old. I’m past my growth period and even if I say getting stronger, there are limits. More or less the amount I can get stronger is no good. Almost certainly I won’t survive. That’s tough.
There was magic. If it’s magic it can be used. Magic Power comes from one’s own effort, isn’t it? That part I haven’t strengthened yet and I had MP from the beginning. Let’s learn magic. Would I be able to manage this somehow? It’s possible. I feel it is considerably better than one way or another trying bow and sword. With the Fire Magic Level 3 I have now, how far could I reach? Let’s set it at ten years, no, 5 years. The option of a wizard with a reasonable talent is a good one. I don’t know if I’d be fine with Fire Magic Level 4 in 20 years time. If level 5 is impossible I could proceed with level 4. And confronting the Demon Lord? Nope. I can’t imagine it. In the first place the world is set to be destroyed in 20 years! That it’s setup is unreasonable! It’s not a story where I could proceed alone! A revision! I demand a revision!
It’s cheating, seriously cheating. If not, I’d be dead. If in addition to gaining Skills, there’s leveling up and raising stats, even a small fish like me could be capable of fighting. And at the same time I understood my own incompetence. I wonder if I should have studied more. But if I had done that, I wouldn’t go to Hello Work and come to this place. I wonder if still I should have studied more and lived my life earnestly. Then I’d had taken an ordinary life.
An ordinary life? When I failed the university’s entrance exams, I was in a straight line to be a loser in life. No, there are lots of people with a proper work that are only high school graduates, was that only my incompetence? If I didn’t get a cheat, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Ah, it’s useless. I got depressed. I got a cheat and came to a new world after all, I must be enjoying it. Besides a bit of danger to my existence and receiving some grueling training, it’s not so bad here. I have some problems there being no TV or manga, but that wasn’t unexpected. Moreover if I have a cheat, I can become considerably strong in this world. Although I was viciously beaten by the instructor, I didn’t lose to any of the fellow trainees despite being level 2. I wonder if by leveling up and increasing my Skills, I’ll become invincible. Uh hum, now I feel better. If I survive for 20 years I’ll be able to return to Japan; in order not to die I won’t do the impossible, it’s OK to turn around and escape when necessary. Yeah, let’s settle for that.