"Hello, Ard," the gentle, playful voice whispered, wrapping around my soul like a warm embrace. "You've had a very long day, haven't you? Welcome to your Sacred Gear. It's so nice to finally meet you Milord!"
The darkness in front of me rippled, pulling back like heavy velvet curtains on a theater stage.
Suddenly, she was there.
I couldn't "see" her in the traditional sense, considering I was currently lacking a pair of eyeballs. Instead, my soul perceived her. She manifested as a radiant, glowing pink female silhouette. Large, breathtakingly beautiful wings extended from her back, shimmering with an ethereal light that made the surrounding darkness feel warm and inviting.
Even though she had no distinct facial features, no eyes or mouth that I could visually define, my soul could feel her appearance. The sheer, unfathomable divinity of her existence washed over me in a tidal wave of awe. She was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most beautiful being I had ever encountered across two entirely different lifetimes.
'Look at her,' my internal, formless voice echoed in the void. 'She's magnificent. Absolutely divine. God, if I had a wife like that… I'd cook for her every day. I'd actually be happy.'
I paused. A sudden, reckless realization hit me.
I was dead. Or, at the very least, currently floating in some sub-dimensional purgatory after getting skewered by a Fedora-wearing Fallen Angel. I had zero yen to my name, zero physical attractiveness, and absolutely nothing to lose.
'You know what?' I thought. 'I'm going for broke.'
"Will you marry me?!" I blurted out.
The absolute, pin-drop silence that followed was deafening.
For a solid five seconds, the radiant pink silhouette completely froze. The gentle, ambient hum of the void stalled. And then, like a cartoon character who had just been handed a lit stick of dynamite, she absolutely lost her mind.
"E-EHHHHH?!" she shrieked, her melodic voice cracking into a high-pitched squeak.
The pink light of her silhouette flared violently, shifting into a deep, embarrassed crimson. She began waving her arms around frantically, her massive wings fluttering in a complete panic.
"W-W-Wait! What?! Marry?! We just met!" she stammered, her voice completely losing its divine composure, tumbling into the classic, flustered anime-girl cadence. "Are you serious?! You're proposing right now?! To a System Consciousness?! Am I really your type?! Do you really think I'm that beautiful?! You can't even see my face properly!"
"I don't need eyes to know you're flawless," I replied smoothly, channeling every ounce of non-existent confidence my soul possessed. "My soul can see yours. And frankly, you're the best thing that's happened to me in two lifetimes."
"Ahhhhh!" She covered what would be her face with her glowing pink hands, her wings curling inward as if trying to hide. "You're so forward! This is so embarrassing! D-Do you really mean it? You'd treat me right? You're not just saying that because I have a soothing voice, right?!"
"I mean every word," I said earnestly.
She let out a long, highly pitched squeal of pure, unadulterated validation, fanning herself with one hand. "Okay, okay, deep breaths. Goodness, my host is a smooth talker. We—we can discuss our marital future later! First, we need to get you sorted out! Time is of the essence, Ard!"
She cleared her non-existent throat, her silhouette shifting back to a calmer, though still noticeably flustered, shade of pink.
"Right. Ahem. Since you asked earlier, let me explain. You are currently inside your Sacred Gear, Innovate Clear."
"Innovate Clear?" I echoed, my mental gears turning. My otaku knowledge from my past life flared up. "Wait a minute. I know what that is. That's one of the Longinus! The Sacred Gear that has the ability to create an entirely new world and life within its own sub-dimension depending on the user's desire! That's ridiculously overpowered!"
I felt a surge of excitement. If I could create my own dimension, I could just build a luxury mansion, create a bunch of food, and live like a king in my own private pocket reality!
"So, how do I do it?" I asked eagerly. "How do I make my own world?"
The goddess figure tilted her head, tapping her chin in a decidedly mischievous manner. "Hmmm. Well... you can't."
"I... what? Why not?"
"Secret~!" she chimed playfully, holding a finger up to where her lips would be. "Let's just say things have been heavily customized for you. Right now, the Innovate System is focused on your personal growth. And speaking of growth, it's time for you to choose your starting loadout!"
She clapped her hands together, and a massive, glowing blue holographic screen materialized in the void between us.
"As your System Consciousness, I am here to help you survive and thrive. To do that, I need you to choose one Unique Skill and one Unique Item to start with."
"Just one of each?" I asked, a bit disappointed. "Come on, I'm the protagonist now, right? Can't you hook me up with a whole starter pack?"
"I would love to, darling," she said sweetly, "but we have a tiny problem. Power in this universe is categorized by Ranks, from F all the way up to S and beyond. Right now, your physical body... well, no offense, but it's a weak, fleshy meat-sack."
"Ouch. Fair, but ouch."
"If I gave you an S-Rank skill right now, the sheer influx of magical energy would literally vaporize your cells. You would explode like a water balloon filled with dynamite. You must adapt. You have to start at a lower Rank and become stronger. The stronger your physical vessel becomes, the more powerful you'll be, and the more skills and magic your body can handle. Make sense?"
"Yeah, yeah, RPG rules," I sighed. "I need to grind my stats before I can equip the endgame gear. Alright. Let me think."
I needed a Unique Skill. Something that would guarantee my survival. My mind immediately raced to the most broken, overpowered anime skills I could remember from my past life.
"Okay, I've got it!" I declared confidently. "Give me the 'Predator' skill from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime! I'll just eat my enemies and steal their powers!"
"Denied!" she buzzed, crossing her arms to form a glowing pink 'X'. "Way too high of a rank! Your stomach would rupture the first time you tried to absorb a goblin!"
"Damn. Okay, what about 'Return by Death' from Re:Zero?"
"Denied! Do you enjoy psychological trauma and dying horribly over and over again? Because I don't want to watch my future husband go insane!"
"Good point. Uh... 'Gate of Babylon'?"
"That's a treasury full of items, not a single skill! Denied!"
"Fine!" I grumbled. "Let's move to the Unique Item then. Give me Ea, the Sword of Rupture!"
"Denied! It would tear your arm off just holding it!"
"Excalibur?"
"Denied! The holy aura would fry you!"
"The Death Note?!"
"Denied! That's copyrighted by the Shinigami King, and his lawyers are terrifying!"
I let out a long, exasperated groan, feeling my soul-orb dim in frustration. "Okay, so no world-ending swords, no eating monsters, and no time-travel resets. What the hell am I supposed to—"
GURGLE.
A loud, thunderous, embarrassingly wet rumbling sound echoed through the infinite void.
I froze. The goddess figure froze.
"Did... did my stomach just rumble?" I asked, sheer existential dread washing over me. "I don't even have a stomach right now! I am literally a glowing basketball made of spiritual energy! How in the name of all that is holy am I hungry?!"
"A-Ah," the goddess giggled nervously. "Your soul is so deeply tied to your physical vessel's needs that it's experiencing phantom hunger. You really must have been starving."
I mentally slumped. Even in death, my fat, pathetic existence was mocking me. I couldn't even be a majestic spiritual entity without my stomach demanding instant ramen. I was the lowest of the low. A cosmic joke. A—
Wait.
Food.
My mind flashed back to a very specific, very cozy isekai anime I had binge-watched back on Earth. The protagonist wasn't a fighter. He wasn't a magic god. He was just a guy who liked to cook.
"I've got it," I said, my metaphorical eyes widening. "The skill I need. It's called 'Online Grocery'."
"Online Grocery?" the goddess repeated, sounding intrigued.
"Yes! Like the protagonist from Campfire Cooking in Another World. It gives the user the ability to open a magical storefront interface and buy anything from a modern Japanese supermarket using currency from the new world! Utensils, fresh meat, spices, maybe even things that the protagonist in that anime never bothered to look for—like cleaning supplies, tools, machines or even guns if they sell them!"
"Oh! That is very clever!" she clapped her hands. "Let me check the system registry... Ah! Yes, I can synthesize that!"
"I'm 100% sure this is what I want," I nodded firmly. But then, a horrifying realization hit me. "Wait! If I get dropped in a forest or something, I won't have any local currency to buy things! Can you tweak the skill? Instead of just accepting coins, can it accept anything of value? Like, if I put a magic gem, a monster pelt, or gold ore into the system, it converts it into grocery store credits?"
"Hmm..." The goddess tapped her chin again. "I can certainly do that! However, Ard, I should let you know... a utility skill like 'Online Grocery' is actually several ranks below Rank A. It's incredibly weak in terms of pure power output."
"I don't care," I insisted. "Food is survival. Survival is power."
"I like your logic!" she chimed. "In fact, since it's such a low-tier skill, I'll just integrate the Online Grocery store directly into your System Panel as a permanent feature! It won't even cost you your Unique Skill slot!"
"Are you serious?!" I yelled in joy. "You are literally the best goddess ever! I love you!"
The pink silhouette flared bright red again, her wings fluttering wildly. "S-Stop saying it so casually! You're going to make me feel even more embarassed! Q-Quickly, pick your actual Unique Skill now!"
I laughed, feeling a genuine spark of hope for the first time in two years. I had a food supply secured. Now, I needed something for myself.
For a brief, fleeting second, I wondered if I should ask for a skill to change my appearance. A skill that would instantly burn fat, clear my skin, and make me look even better than Kiba Yuuto.
'No,' I quickly corrected myself. 'THAT WOULD BE SUCH A FREAKING WASTE OF A SKILL!'
Looks didn't keep you alive when a stray devil fired a magic blast at your face. I needed power. I took a moment, sinking deep into my own consciousness, thinking as deeply as humanly possible. What did I want? What had I spent the last two years screaming in my room trying to achieve?
Magic.
I had always wanted magic. I wanted to be an amazing sorcerer with a badass wizard staff, calling out devastating spells that shattered the earth. I wanted to be a magic swordsman whose blade could burn through mountains.
"I want magic," I declared. "I want a skill that grants me an insanely high magic affinity. Something that will let me learn, feel, and use magic easier than anyone else."
The goddess giggled, a sweet, musical sound. "No problem at all! High magic affinity, coming right up! Now, what about your Unique Item? You still haven't selected one besides those three OP ones from earlier."
I racked my brain. I couldn't pick a weapon that was too strong, but I needed something useful. Something versatile. And then, a brilliant memory surfaced.
"The All-Purpose Farming Tool!" I shouted. "From Farming Life in Another World! It can change into a pickaxe, a saw, a hammer, a spe- I mean a axe—anything I need to survive and build!"
The goddess burst into a fit of musical giggles. "Oh, Ard! You really are focusing a lot on food and farming, huh?"
If I had cheeks, they would have been burning profusely. "H-Hey! A guy's gotta eat! And an axe can be a deadly weapon if you swing it hard enough!"
"Granted," she said softly, her voice suddenly losing its playful edge, replaced by a deep, affectionate warmth.
I looked up in surprise, and then looked down at myself.
A blindingly bright light flashed through the void. When my vision cleared, I was no longer a floating basketball of soul-fire. I had a form. It was made entirely of solid, golden light. I had arms, legs, a torso, and a head. I was transparent—I could still see my pulsing white soul anchored in the center of my chest—but I was standing. I had a physical presence.
I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but before a single word could escape, the goddess was right in front of me.
She leaned in, and I felt the incredibly soft, warm sensation of her lips pressing directly against mine.
My golden eyes widened in absolute shock. Time seemed to stop completely. The warmth that flooded into my soul from that single kiss was indescribable. It was pure, unfiltered love and absolute safety.
She pulled back, her pink silhouette glowing radiantly. Her voice didn't speak in the void; it rang directly inside my head.
"I wish you all the best, my foolish, wonderful darling. Grow strong quickly so we can be together properly. I'll wait for you."
My vision instantly went black. The warmth vanished, replaced by a sudden, jarring sensation of freefall.
But as the darkness consumed me, a new voice echoed in the background. It was loud, mechanical, and perfectly neutral—the true voice of the Innovate System announcing my new existence.
[Notice. Unique skill acquired: Foolish one. Sub-skills activated.]
[High affinity: Grants the user a high affinity for any and all forms of magic.]
[Mystic learner: Doubles the user's intelligence when learning or seeing magic.]
[Natural flow: The user has a higher sensitivity to feeling the magic flowing through nature.]
[Extra Skills Aquired:]
[Common Skill Creation: The user may create 1 common skill within every 24 hours]
[Common Item Creation: The user may create 1 common item within every 24 hours]
And that's when I felt it. The extremely powerful winds blowing past my face, violently tearing at my clothes. The deafening, rushing roar that one only ever hears when falling several hundred meters while skydiving.
I snapped my eyes open, the bright blue sky blinding me, and screamed in pure, unadulterated panic and horror as I realized I was falling to my absolute doom.
'And now you know how we got here.'
Where we continue from him screaming as he falls.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream ripped from my throat, immediately snatched away by the roaring, violent wind whipping past my ears. My arms flailed wildly, grasping at nothing but empty, rushing air and scattered wisps of clouds.
Below me was a rapidly approaching canopy of impossibly massive, emerald-green trees. Above me was a sky so perfectly, vibrantly blue it looked like it had been painted by a renaissance master.
And in between those two beautiful sights was me, plummeting at terminal velocity toward what was undoubtedly going to be a very messy, very permanent splat.
"YOU SADISTIC PIECE OF DIGITAL GARBAGE!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs, tears of absolute terror streaming up my face as gravity pulled me down. "YOU SAID THIS WAS A TUTORIAL! WHAT KIND OF TUTORIAL STARTS WITH A SKYDIVE WITHOUT A PARACHUTE?! I'M GOING TO DIE! I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO DIE AGAIN!"
My stomach was firmly lodged somewhere up near my throat. The ground was getting closer. The massive leaves of the alien trees were coming into sharp focus. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the bone-shattering impact.
Wait. My item!
"ALL-PURPOSE FARMING TOOL!" I screamed, praying to a goddess I had just proposed to three minutes ago.
FWOOSH.
A solid, heavy wooden shaft instantly materialized in my frantically grasping hands. It wasn't a parachute, but right now, it was the only thing standing between me and becoming human jam. The metal head of the tool was currently shaped like a massive, sturdy pitchfork.
"PLEASE DON'T BREAK!"
I smashed into the top canopy of the forest.
The leaves of these trees weren't normal. They were as thick and wide as dining room tables, and the branches were the size of city buses. I hit the first branch, the wood of the farming tool taking the brunt of the impact. My arms nearly wrenched out of their sockets as I bounced off the wood like a heavy, fleshy pinball.
"OOF!"
I slammed into another branch, tumbling wildly head over heels. The foliage whipped across my face, tearing at my school uniform.
"AHHH! MY SPLEEN!"
CRACK. SNAP. THUD.
I careened through the dense vegetation, the branches miraculously slowing my terminal velocity just enough to keep me from instantly dying, but absolutely failing to make the ride comfortable. I felt like I had been tossed into a giant, leafy washing machine set to the 'spin' cycle.
With one final, violent tear through a massive patch of vines, the ground rushed up to meet me.
SQUELCH.
I hit the earth face-first. Hard.
For a solid minute, I didn't move. I couldn't. Every single muscle in my overweight body was screaming in agony. My lungs were burning, desperately trying to suck in air. I tasted mud, decaying leaves, and the distinct, metallic tang of my own blood from a bitten lip.
"I'm alive," I wheezed, my voice sounding like a deflating accordion. "I am actually, miraculously alive."
I slowly pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, spitting out a mouthful of foul-tasting dirt. My Kuoh Academy uniform was completely ruined, torn to shreds and caked in dark, sticky mud. My All-Purpose Farming Tool, currently in the shape of a simple wooden hoe, was lying faithfully in the dirt next to me.
I grabbed the handle, using it as a crutch to heave my heavy body up onto my feet. I groaned, rubbing my lower back, and finally took a look at my surroundings.
The word 'forest' didn't quite cover it.
The trees around me were gargantuan, their trunks so wide it would take twenty men holding hands to encircle them. The canopy above was so thick it completely blocked out the sun, casting the forest floor in a perpetual, eerie twilight. The air was thick, humid, and smelled heavily of ozone, rot, and something distinctly musky.
Ferns the size of cars sprouted from the ground, and glowing, luminescent mushrooms pulsed with an unnatural purple light on the rotting logs.
"Okay," I muttered, brushing mud off my torn pants. "This isn't so bad. It's just a big forest. I have a magic weapon and an online grocery store. I can just set up camp, buy a tent, and figure things out tomorrow."
CRUNCH.
The sound of a branch snapping behind me was so loud it sounded like a gunshot.
I froze. Slowly, very slowly, I turned around.
Standing roughly thirty feet away from me was a wolf. But calling it a wolf felt like an insult to regular wolves. This thing was the size of a minivan. Its fur was matted and black, dripping with some kind of foul-smelling slime. It had six glowing, crimson eyes spread erratically across its face, and when it opened its maw to snarl, rows upon rows of jagged, razor-sharp teeth dripped with acidic saliva that hissed as it hit the forest floor.
The beast locked its six eyes on me. It let out a low, vibrating growl that rattled my teeth in my skull.
The Innovate System dinged cheerfully in my head.
[Notice. Location identified: The Forest of Death. Recommended action: Survive.]
"Survive?!" I shrieked, my voice cracking as the mutant wolf lunged forward. "AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"
Hi everyone, if you're enjoying this story so far and hope to read more faster, then for every 10 power stones I recieve I will post 2 chapters in a single day. So every 10 power stones is a day where i'll post twice ! Thanks for your support !!!