Prologue
My name is Hitoshi Nozaki, 34 years old, single. Because of my wild looks, and because you can take one kanji from my surname and one from my given name, people close to me call me “Yajin” Yajin (野人, meaning wildling) is created with the kanji 野 (ya) from Nozaki (野崎) and 人 (jin) from Hitoshi (人志). .
This is sudden, but right now I’m standing completely naked in an unfamiliar forest in another world. How the hell did this happen?
It all started like a cliché. On my way to work, I saved a student who was about to get run over by a truck, and got hit instead.
As my consciousness slipped away, I caught myself thinking, “Man… getting isekai’d by Truck-kun wouldn’t be so bad…”
When I opened my eyes, I was in a completely white room. Standing there was a handsome blonde man with blue eyes and the kind of fixed smile those information-desk attendants in a department store have
The cliché continues! I was a little disappointed he wasn’t a goddess, but the thought that I might get reincarnated hyped me up.
“You will be reincarnated into another world.”
His voice was just as beautiful as his face.
“Don’t you need me to check or agree to anything?”
“It’s already been decided. Whether you refuse or not, you’re going.”
As expected of (propably) a god, it was completely one-sided.
“I’m not a ‘probably a god,’ but a real one.”
“You can read my mind!?”
“Come on, it’s a standard trope in light novels. We pick Japanese people because they already understand how this works, so don’t act surprised.”
“Ah, sorry…”
This god’s got a pretty nasty personality… Wait—crap! He can read minds!
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t really care what someone like you thinks.”
“‘Someone like me’…”
“Well, you’re one out of a hundred-something million, you know.”
“Um… then why was I chosen to go to another world?”
“Any Japanese person would do. You just happened to die at a convenient time.”
Huh? This isn’t what I pictured at all. Isn’t this the part where I get a cheat skill for saving someone, or because the god messed up and killed me by accident?
“The last god signed some contract with the other world’s deity, something about exchanging souls every so often. The contract is still active even after succession. Seriously, it’s such a pain.”
He’s calling it a pain… This is giving me nothing but bad vibes.
“Anyway, let’s hurry up and reincarnate you.”
“No explanation or anything?”
“Ugh, fine… It’s the usual stuff you see in light novels. Levels, skills, magic, blah blah.”
“There are monsters too, right?”
“Yep, loads. Be careful or you’ll die.”
He’s talking like it’s totally someone else’s problem!
“Well, it is someone else’s problem.”
“I—I get a cheat ability, though? Right?”
“I can’t just hand out something that would break the balance of the world, you know.”
No cheat?! Then maybe if I practice magic from childhood, I can become a genius mage or something…
“I’ll still have my memories, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll make an exception and let you keep them.”
“At what age will they come back?”
“Immediately. Actually, you’ll go as you are.”
“Doesn’t that make it a transmigration or a dimension travel, not reincarnation?”
“I’ll rebuild your body to fit that world. It’s a new body and since you’re being reborn, it’s a reincarnation, right?”
You’ve gotta be kidding me. So I can’t do the whole “train from childhood and get OP” thing… And sending me as a middle-aged man? That’s rough.
“Okay, we done? This is getting annoying, so I’m sending you now.”
“W-wait—whoaaaaaaaaah!”
Suddenly, a hole opened beneath me, and I fell straight down. As I continued to fall endlessly, my consciousness faded.
When I awoke, I felt something pricking my body. Looking around, I was surrounded by a dense forest.
It wasn’t like any Japanese forest. More like a foreign one I’d seen in a movie. The trees blocked the sunlight, leaving the place dim and eerie.
Shaking my dazed head, I forced my mind to focus, and then realized something.
I was completely naked.