"…Hmm? Was that… Lady Aqua?"
Kiyoshi Nagasaki frowned. He had the oddest feeling that Aqua was calling out for help.
Must've been his imagination.
Right now, he had more pressing concerns, like figuring out where they'd landed.
Beginner Town: Axel.
According to the handbook, it was described as:
"A scenic starting town for fledgling adventurers, populated only by weak monsters. With excellent natural conditions and a supremely livable environment, it's the kind of place you'll yearn for even long after leaving. A true paradise you'll call home."
"…It is beautiful."
"But… this is a grassland, right?"
"I believe so." Kiyoshi nodded, scanning the surroundings.
The sky was a clear, endless blue. Knee-high grass rolled to the horizon like a living sea, speckled with yellow and blue wildflowers. It felt like the land itself stretched on to swallow the heavens.
Mountains loomed in the far, far distance, so distant it made one sigh. Closer by, there were forests transitioning from sparse to dense. Estimating the distance, it would take them two or three hours on foot to reach.
But aside from that, nothing. No roads. No people. No towns in sight.
Shoko Toyokawa gritted her teeth. "…This isn't what was promised."
"Maybe Lady Aqua sent us here deliberately."
"Absolutely not."
After a moment spent admiring the golden-red hues of the setting sun melting into the clouds, Shoko calmed down. She turned to the teammate she'd be adventuring alongside for who knows how long.
"Since we're not in town, looks like we'll need to camp. Any ideas?"
Kiyoshi nodded. "I'd like to check whether the goddess's blessing actually works. If there's anything useful, it could help us tonight."
"Good point."
He was referring to the 'Adventurer Card' system Aqua mentioned.
He closed his eyes and silently focused.
It worked.
A glowing blue projection appeared before him in the shape of a card-shaped interface. It hovered mid-air like a hologram. Strangely, though he didn't understand the written language, he could instinctively comprehend its contents. He could even control its movements and zoom with mere thought.
"…Huh?"
A popup appeared.
[Error!]: World coordinate read failure… Automatic adjustment in progress. Some functions temporarily unavailable. Please contact your goddess!
Then, another popup followed:
"I'm Lady Aqua's junior. The coordinates have shifted, but this world is also under threat of evil, so there's no need to worry. Time flow matches the original destination. Rewards for saving the world remain unchanged. Card system has been updated. I've prepared starter gear for you. Good luck, "
Apparently they ran out of time before finishing the message.
Kiyoshi pressed his hands together in a gesture of prayer.
Thank you, Lady Aqua… and your junior.
He closed the popups.
From behind, Shoko also gave a small "Eh?", but visibly relaxed after reading the explanation.
Kiyoshi turned back to the panel and continued exploring.
The interface featured Body Stats, Skills, and Exchange Shop tabs. The layout was a bit odd, likely due to the coordinate shift and emergency adjustments.
Thankfully, he had some gaming experience. He began investigating.
Body Stats: No reference points, so he skipped for now.
Skills: Aside from Adaptive Evolution, everything else listed were abilities he'd learned over the course of his normal life.
Then came the Shop.
At the top were two glowing golden items, gifts from the goddess's junior as part of their starter pack.
First: Revival.
Price: 100,000 points.
Earning points required engaging in acts of justice, defeating evil, protecting others, saving lives. Even support roles could contribute and earn based on involvement.
He wasn't sure how long it would take to earn that many, but regardless,
Second: Return Scroll.
Depicted as a golden scroll. Allows temporary return to Earth.
However, the price increases with usage and as the user's body evolves, scaling from 100 points now, to 1,000 or even 10,000 later.
Permanent return was only possible after defeating the Demon King.
Kiyoshi noted that, in game logic, it was essentially an escape skill. Use it wisely. If he truly reached a dead end, and hadn't defeated the Demon King yet, he'd use it, just once, to go back and revive his mother.
Everything else in the shop required points.
Weapons and armor were all grayed out, likely unavailable due to the coordinate error.
Only the skills tab was active. But most listed were things suited for peaceful worlds, not battle.
Piano, Music Composition, Charisma…
A note stated:
The shop records skills the user has observed. The more complex the skill, the more exposure is needed to fully analyze and unlock it.
Which meant… most of these likely belonged to Shoko Toyokawa.
Thanks to her Transcendent Comprehension, she could absorb and upload skills quickly. Once she formally taught them, the unlock difficulty would drop on Kiyoshi's end as well.
He finished browsing and turned to ask her,
Only to find Shoko staring at him, fidgeting.
"…Something wrong?"
"Um… I can't really understand what any of this means. Could I trouble you to explain it to me…?"
She looked flustered, clearly unsure of what to do. Who knew how long she'd been silently waiting.
Kiyoshi had completely forgotten.
She was an ojō-sama who hadn't even read manga.
Games were likely foreign territory to her.
He glanced at her interface.
Nothing appeared in his vision.
"…I can't see your card."
"Huh? But it's right here for me…"
"Must be a privacy setting. No outside viewers."
Just like Sword Art Online, he thought.
A classic anti-leak feature. Letting enemies read your stats would be a death sentence.
Kiyoshi tapped his chin. "Try mentally saying something like, 'Display to Kiyoshi Nagasaki.'"
It worked.
He walked her through the basics, stats, inventory, the exchange system.
Shoko listened with wide eyes, visibly excited by this new experience. It was her first real exposure to anything like this.
After the explanation, Kiyoshi showed his own card. They compared notes.
"Let's save the deeper analysis for later," he said. "First, we need to find a camping spot. It's peaceful for now, but this isn't the world the goddess intended. We should be careful."
Shoko nodded seriously.
Modern humans weren't built for wilderness. Even if you told them to stay alert, the best most could do was glance around a bit more often.
They were lacking experience, and the time to properly grow into it.
As they moved, they opened their Starter Pack.
A small leather backpack the size of an elementary school bag landed in his hands.
A short sword, a small round shield, and a pair of leather boots fell to the ground, starter gear.
Inside the pack was a box of matches, a flask of water, two dry biscuits, a roll of bandages, an hourglass, and a towel-sized folded blanket, about 120×50cm.
Extremely practical.
Another heartfelt thanks to Aqua's junior.
Kiyoshi organized the contents, slung the pack onto his back, and twisted a strip of bandage into a makeshift strap to secure the sword.
"At the very least, we need to start a fire. And just to be clear, I have zero wilderness survival experience. If either of us has questions, we must talk it out. Silence will get us killed."
"Understood."
They scouted for firewood and found a small patch of dead trees nearby, perfect for cutting.
Nature had provided.
They lit the campfire.
The sun sank behind the hills.
And so, their first night in another world began.