1 - 1. Suffering. And then. Work.
He, Sugiyama Shigeru, is just a normal person. An average person that you can find anywhere, who is mediocre and has no outstanding features but does not incite any negative feelings either. A so-called mob-like Japanese. Possessing a high school education, he had gone all the way through middle and high school without being envied or despised by anyone. Since he is so mediocre, he had been unable to make any self-appeal and has experienced much difficulty in finding work. However, it’s not like cannot work. After spending some time unemployed, he was serious enough in his work that he was approached for mid-career employment from the company he started working a part-time job at. He has a good reputation among his coworkers. He doesn’t spend much money on his hobbies, and enjoys himself moderately, uninterested in alcohol or cigarettes, moderating himself at drinking parties, and as for food, he is a man that is able to get more than enough satisfaction eating set meals from chain restaurants. A very normal, average, smack-dab-in-the-middle 20 something male. The normal him had fell from his average and normal life just yesterday, in the “modern Japan timeline”. His luck had run out when, after finishing his part-time job, he had stopped by the bookstore of a commercial building, thinking of buying a book. Shigeru stopped to see if there were any interesting books at a certain spot. Now, a commercial building is such that each floor has some kind of shop on it. In other words, the bookstore that Shigeru had stopped in had floors with shops both above and below it. And so, for the normal Shigeru, the worst situation occurred. One floor above the floor Shigeru was on. On that floor, the “Hero”, the “Saint” and the “Paladin” were relaxing in a coffee shop. Of course, at that time, they were not actually “Heroes” or anything like that, just highly intelligent, with great athletic capabilities, and appearances that would cause heads to turn; a group of high school students only possessing great character. And one floor below the floor Shigeru was on. On that floor, the “Demon Lord” and “Tactician” had come to see the guitar together in a music shop. Of course, at that time, they were not actually “Demon Lords” or anything like that, just highly passionate about their friends, with great athletic capabilities, and a mysterious charisma to lead everyone; a group of high school students only possessing a sense of duty. It was inevitable that “that” would happen. Those special people caused a special event to happen, and following the thread of the fate, it arrived at that commercial building. Originally, the normal Shigeru would have had nothing to do with an event like that, but these were special people after all. The positive factor of the “Hero”, and the negative factor of the “Demon Lord”; if someone were to be involved in an event converging on these two, it was the will of the world that the one selected would be a “ordinary person” with a factor of plus-minus zero. As a result, Shigeru was summoned to a different world. However, he was summoned as a completely normal person, with no cheats, no skills, no anything. “Isn’t it terrible? I said that there was no way I could do it, but those guys didn’t listen to me at all.” Muttering to himself, Shigeru began disassembling the armor that he used in the “other world” using his knife. The metal was impossible, but if it were just the part made from leather, you could throw it out as burnable trash around these parts. Since he handled it so roughly, he had thought that the knife’s edge would have become dull by now, but it was still working. The knife that the “Paladin” had given him, while being a bit rugged, fit snugly in his hand, and it was perfect for doing small, detailed tasks. Tomorrow was going to be a Thursday, and it was the day to put out burnable trash in the area Shigeru lived in. He kept tossing the removed leather as burnable trash into the district-designated burnable trash bag. The armor had been his loyal partner, protecting him in the “other world” for 3 years, but regrettably, it stood out too much in “modern Japan”. He had to dispose of all evidence immediately. “I’m came back all by myself but, I wonder if everyone’s okay…” Haaaaa…he sighed. He had lived for 3 years over there. However, here, only a few hours seemed to have passed. When he returned, he realized that he was in the same commercial building after closing hours. Since he had appeared exactly where he had been kidnapped from, just few hours later, he had set off alarms. Running away from the footsteps that he had assumed were guards, he made his escape from the rooftop of the building. However, running around in the middle of Japanese city wearing an armor, sword and shield in hand was liable to get him arrested very quickly. Being more careful than he had been in his entire life, he somehow made it back to the apartment he was renting. He was back for the first time in three years from his perspective, but in reality, only half a day later. This had been after 1 o’clock at night. When he had been on the other side, he had handed over his wallet to the “Heroes” for safe keeping, but till the end, he had stubbornly held on to 10,000 yen and a spare key for his room wrapped in his driver license case, making the excuse that it was his replacement for a protection talisman. Using that key, he had secretly returned to his apartment, taking care not to arouse any suspicion, took a bath, and went to bed. And then, after refreshing himself with the rice made in a rice cooker and leftover refrigerated instant miso soup, we reach to now. Incidentally, after taking a refresher and double checking his appearance, it seemed like he had become a bit younger. However, it was nothing major, and it was on the level that could be passed of as “Oh, my skin is a little glossier today”. It seemed like his body had adjusted to the time on this side. “I made it back. Since we can make it back, if I could get in touch with them soon, I wouldn’t have to worry so much…” Shigeru and the others had been summoned to the aforementioned other world to fight and prevent the end of the world, as would be expected. Or so the summoner would have requested them to. However, it had apparently not worked out. The place the had been summoned to was already in ruin. Not just in ruin, it had been quite some time since it had become a ruin. Grass had been growing everywhere, and there had been no one nearby. “It was two days of travel to nearest village, wasn’t it? From that ruin.” The fateful war of that world had long since ended, and decades had passed; the names of countries had already changed. The summoner had been blamed for failing at the summoning, and even though he had only been made to retire from the center of affairs of the county, he had already passed away peacefully. The world had countries belonging to the demonic race, humans, and demi-humans, and even though they had some conflicts, they lived in peace, and there was no place for a “Hero” or a “Demon Lord” to show up anywhere anymore. And so, as all of them were at their wits end, one country that had detected their summoning offered them protection (apparently due to the Hero’s great influence), and they were able to get some information on how to proceed (apparently due to the Demon King’s great charisma), and so they had a bit of competition. [1] The first thing they found out was that even though the summoning spell took quite a while to activate, it was still able to be activated. The second was that, until a spell to return to Japan was found, the one way spell was the only summoning spell. The book that had been source of this spell had already been lost after the demotion and eventual death of the summoner, and if you traced it back, it seemed like it had been discovered from a very dangerous and huge ancient ruin. That ruin had still not been investigated to its very depths, and it was believed that it still hid some kind of ancient knowledge. And so, the “Heroes” had set out to conquer these ancient ruins, including the normal guy Shigeru. “I almost died on the first day, didn’t I? I guess that kind of thing is only for the protagonist and his party.” He still remembered the fear from that day. The first day of exploring the ruins, clueless, and having a near death experience. He remembered opening his eyes to the “Paladin” bawling her eyes out. Even as he talked to himself, he didn’t stop moving his hands, disassembling the armor. Pulling out the threads, and from that opening, slowly puling apart the leather from the metal parts. “To the village is 2 days. And then from there to the ruin’s investigation site would be another 15 days…If they had returned already, they would have been in contact on the same day. Maybe it will take a little more time.” He looked at the newspaper that had been delivered to his post this morning. For now, there was no news about high schoolers going missing. No such topic had been discussed on the TV that he had left on either. It was just morning, and not even half a day had passed. It was probably noticed that they had gone missing, and maybe the police had just started moving. “However, this is bad.” He glanced towards the site open on his PC. On it, was the picture of Shigeru. It had been posted sometime after 5 today. The title was “Superhuman! A light speed knight appears!!” The views had already increased to over 2000, even though it was just around 9 now, and they were not losing steam. It seemed like when he had jumped from the commercial building to a nearby building, he had been hiding himself well, and yet he had been discovered. It was a video of a guy in a full armor, jumping the 15-meter gaps between buildings, and from another angle a figure running flat out on a dim main road. Apparently, the one who had taken the video was a train maniac and had been shooting video to capture a train on the tracks running parallel to the road. There were some opinions that it was just CG, but it was being passed around as a rumor and there was a rising clamor that if it was real, it had got to be a superhuman surpassing humanity. In a stroke of bad luck, that videos of that train maniac were quite famous, and what was worrying Shigeru was that there were a lot of viewers of the opinion that since he had never once uploaded a fake, viral-looking video such as this before, it might just be real. Some people were already making rough estimates of his speed by measuring on-site the distance of the location shown in the video. Incidentally, what they had found was that he had broken the world record of the 100-meter race by a factor of about 2.4 times, and he had been running at that speed for at least 1.5 km. its a talent that would win him all the gold medals on land (lol) Reaching that conclusion… It’s prolly CG is where they had stopped for now. “I haven’t even done anything wrong…why am I being chased like some kind of criminal?” The basis for measuring strength in the other world was your level. It was a world in which the more your level rose, the stronger you became. In it, Shigeru’s level had been 14. This was the level of an average solider. Most of the soldiers were among the 10 to 25 level range, and even regular people, if they trained, could go over level 10. In that context, the number 14 was average and would not stand out at all. However, in the context of modern Japan, like it had been mentioned on that online, not only the on land, but he could aim for gold medals in all individual events easily, and if shot by a firearm small enough to be carried by an individual, if he concentrated, and put strength into his muscles, and was able to choose where the bullet hit him, he might just get off with a simple fracture. “Oh, there is no time to be daydreaming! I have to do something about this before it’s time to go to the part-time job.” In this past hour, he had found out that he would be quite busy. Checking his schedule in the notebook he left in the room, it seemed like his shift would start at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. On top of it, he was completely broke right now. Currently, the situation was that he had lost everything along with his wallet and was down to his last 10,000 yen[2]. If I don’t earn, I’m going to starve to death. The sliver lining was that he had already paid all of his rent in advance, but he need food, and at the very least, he needed a phone, even if it was dirt cheap. His parents and grandparents were living back at his family home, but due to the recent “Yeah, it’s me[3]” scams, they had set up their phones to reject all public phone numbers. In other words, he had no way to contact his family. No matter how he thought about it, there was no way to survive on just 10,000 alone. “Working right after having come back, the world is too tough.” He had read in some manga that doing things differently at times like these would expose you the police. It was necessary to live his normal life. Shigeru did not realize that he was thinking from the mindset of a criminal who had something to hide. “There’s 2 more hours until my shift. I wonder how much I can hide.” It was not just his armor. His helmet, shield, and on top of it, the knife and spear that were in clear violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. He had to do something about them. He tried putting the knife in the knife rack, together with the others. It could pass as a strange Western type knife. He threw the shield under his bed and tried arranging the helmet as an interior design piece in various places, failing terribly. As far as the spear went, there was nothing that could be done. This was the one thing that no matter who saw it, it would be out of place. “In that case, I have no choice but to put them my item box, I guess…” He causally held out his hand in empty space. In the other world anyone could use an item box. The maximum capacity was decided by an individual’s talent, and for normal people it was somewhere around 3 to 8. Shigeru was quite normal and could hold 5 types of items, but the “Heroes” were quite broken in this regard, with cheat level talents that allowed them to hoard an almost infinite number of items. Coming back to Shigeru, his item box could only hold at most 5 tyes of items. A distorted space appeared in front of his hand, and without hesitation, Shigeru plunged his hand into it. The items he had in there were the bare minimum essentials needed to live in the other world. 3 Potions, 2 Mana Potions, 1 flint set, 1 roll of clean back cloth, and 1 barrel of water. Taking all those out, he pushed the barrel to the bathroom, and instead put the spear and helmet in the item box. “…I just realized I possess an even more terrifying thing, an illegal substance.” Mumu~ he held his own head again. The flint set and the clean cloth, these were fine. They were both things that would not be weird if you possessed them in the modern world, and there had been no arsonists in this area recently either. The clean cloth was something he had received from the “Tactician” as a souvenir when they had most recently come to report on the present state of the investigation of the ruins. It could be used in place of a bandage when injured, and could also be used to wrap stuff up, and so was very convenient, and he had been making use of it quite gratefully. If these were investigated, it would be fine. The barrel containing drinking water. He had thought of the possibility that he would be looked at like a strange person, but you did see barrels in houses or in front of drinking places with fashionable interiors. It was a strange thing to bring to one’s apartment, but it was an object that you could claim as having freedom to possess, if you were asked about it. The problem was the potions. “…If someone finds out what these are, I’ll definitely be arrested.” Potions. They are what everyone thinks they are. If you dink one, wow, just like that, pain disappears, wounds heal, fighting spirit increases, that kind of occultic item. Mana Potions. These are also what everyone thinks they are. If you dink one, wow, just like that, empty magic power recovers, the mind is sharpened, and you can use magic, that kind of occultic item. “That just seems like dangerous drugs mixed with some flavoring.” Please think about it for a moment. Let’s take away the greatest benefit you get from different potions, what’s left? They are known to suppress pain, raise fighting spirit, sharpen the mind, and allow you to use magic. That is 100% the definition of a dangerous drug. In fact, even in the other world, distribution of potions to the masses is strictly controlled, and there have been known cases of people getting addicted to them and requiring hospitalization. However, after raising your level sufficiently, the probability of getting addicted also decreases, and it is known that the “Hero” party has complete immunity to these kind of side effects. Rather, it was probably the effect of the skill “Toxic Substance Resistance (Complete)” that everyone except from Shigeru possessed. For reference, Potions were all extracted from “herbs”, and so were quite different from modern drugs, such that people could go back to their normal lives after being discharged for their addictions. But still, was there not a chance that they might be somehow in violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law? “I’ll put these in the item box as well and consider what to do with them later.” It was undeniable that they were dangerous drugs, but they were irreplaceable as medicine to heal wounds. Even the Lower Potion that Shigeru possessed, even if they couldn’t regrow limbs, they could regrow a finger or an ear, or things like a nose within 10 minutes. They were extremely precious in times of emergency. And so, of the 5 spaces, 4 were now taken up. “The cloth or the shield…which one is it?” The shield that he could instead leave as a strange decorating piece, or the cloth that came handy in various moments…He could place one in the item box. The “Heroes” did not have to worry about these things and could just throw everything inside without thinking. If that was not cheating, what was? “I’ll go with…the cloth. It might come in handy for something.” Umuu~ The black cloth disappeared into the distorted space. As he dropped his hand, the space became exactly like it was before. His gaze landed on the clock. Before he had noticed, the time had passed 11:30. “Shit, if I don’t leave, I won’t make it!? I can’t exactly run all the way there!” If he believed the in feeling that he had got when running away in a suspicious-guy manner, it was definitely faster to run to his part-time job, rather than use the bus transfer that he been using up until yesterday. However, it would be bad to stand out. A new video had been posted on the video site from before. The title was “Catch the Light Speed Knight!” The content was a statement; a declaration to find the “Light Speed Knight”, and for that they were recruiting volunteers in the area where the video with him in it had been recorded. From the point of view of the train maniacs, a famous uploader was being called a liar, and so, they had uploaded that to counter that false statement, and it had caught a lot of people’s eyes. The view counter on this video was over 2000 already. And on the other side, a group called “Clickbait Eradication Warriors” had started to move also. These people were apparently moving to prove that the “Light Speed Knight” was fake. They were recruiting volunteers and would start their activities from today. Their video had more than 1000 views. Incidentally, his place of work was smack dab in the middle of their investigation area. “Th-These guys have way too much time on their hands…! What a nuisance!” The “Light Speed Knight” was trembling. Not from anger, but rather, Shigeru was trembling from fear. If he were somehow found out, he would become unable to go out. Even if he somehow deceived them as being a fake, he would be called out by the hardheaded older generation that “he is a person who cosplays in the middle of the street”. Although the cosplay culture was catching on in Japan, it was too much to have been seen carrying a spear and a shield in a place where he did not even have permission to be in. There was no doubt that he would be denounced by the people who enjoyed cosplay properly and the people who understood it. “I-I think I’ll take the bus.” It was hard for him to already start using his pitiful 10,000 yen, but he had no choice. Shigeru had lost to the fear of the darkness of the online society. His next paycheck was due in 2 weeks. If he obtained a phone for dirt-cheap, he could just barely survive. The environment surrounding him was extremely severe. TL Notes: Glad I picked this up. The prose is kind of very frank and fun, and I'll try to reflect that in the translation. Planning a release every week (hopefully).
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