“…Where is this place?”

A blank, white expanse unfurled before my eyes; unlike anything I had ever seen before. I got out of the bed I was lying on and tried to remember why I was here.

“Speaking of which, was I hit by a truck?”

Right, right after school was over, I was chatting and laughing with my friends on my way home when a truck on the road suddenly plowed into us. It was ridiculous to think that my friend in front of me wasn’t even hit by the truck, while I, who was right behind him, was the only one who was.

“Just like that, I lost consciousness, and the next thing I know, I’m here… At any rate, it appears dangerous to move around,” I muttered as I sat down, when a yellow orb of light appeared in front of me. The light grew bigger and bigger, emitting a remarkably intense glow before dimming to reveal a door. As I gaped at the bizarre scene, the door opened and a man stepped inside.

By appearance, the man looked like in his late twenties and shorter than me, who is 180cm tall. He was, in my opinion, about average height. At first glance, he looked like an ordinary young man who could be found anywhere, but surprisingly, he had large wings on his back. The man smiled and opened his mouth.

“Have you woken up?”

“M-May I ask you a question first?” I quickly asked, to which the man nodded with a smile on his face.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Could this be the… afterlife?”

“Eh~, you’re not mistaken in that context.”

In contrast to my flustered state, the man was nonchalant. ‘Seriously… there is really an afterlife, isn’t there.’

In the midst of my awe, he continued, “We can’t really talk in a place like this, so let’s get moving,” the man said as he opened the door he had just exited and went inside.

I was hesitant at first, but I decided to follow him anyway. Beyond the door was what appeared to be a Japanese tearoom. On the floor were tatami mats, two cushions, and a low dining table.

“Oh, please take a seat. It’s going to be a long conversation,” the man said as he sat down on one of the cushions and offered me the one across from him. “Shall we begin by introducing ourselves?” the man asked as soon as I sat down. “My name is Samadyla[1], the ruler of the heavenly realm. Please feel free to call me Samady.”

“…Um, Samady-san. When you say the ruler of the heavenly realm… are you, by any chance, a god?”

“Yes, you’re certainly correct on that point. Shinomiya Raku-sama.”

I stared blankly at Samady-san. His expression was one of regret.

“It’s understandable why you’re surprised. Now, allow me to tell you why I have summoned Shinomiya-sama to a place like this.”

“Oh, yes. Please do.” After I bowed my head in respect, Samady-san began to explain things to me in chronological order.

The heavenly realm, where Samady-san was apparently living, is a place where various gods exist. Samady-san was said to be a representative of the divine world, or in other words, a leader of the gods. According to him, I died as a result of a prank played by a certain god. By nature, gods are beings that guide mankind. Nonetheless, one of the gods who had been watching over the earth abruptly abandoned his role and turned his attention to me, manipulating my fate like a toy.

“I’m sure you have an idea of what I’m talking about, Shinomiya-sama. A lot of bad things seem to be happening to you, don’t they?”

‘Certainly I have had my share of misfortune in my life. A shelf that I didn’t touch fell down and nearly crushed me, a plank came loose, and I almost fell while crossing a suspension bridge at a campsite, my parents cheated on each other and left the house at the same time… Looking back, there are so many unreasonable things.’

Samady-san smiled bitterly as he spoke, “There is a law against tampering with one’s destiny in the heavenly realm, but that person had successfully evaded our scrutiny and continued to play with Shinomiya-sama.”

“I see. Because of that, I was unlucky huh~”

“Yes, I please accept my heartfelt apologies. In order to prevent such a thing from happening this time, I, as the representative of the gods, will further strengthen the supervision of the gods. To make amends for the inconvenience, I summoned Shinomiya-sama’s soul which was on its way to heaven. However, despite the fact that I am the ruler of the heavenly realm, I am unable to bring Shinomiya-sama back to life and return you to your former life…”

“I see… then, am I going to heaven already…?” Even though it was inevitable, I felt quite anxious.

Samady-san, on the other hand, smiled as if to assuage my fears. “You can instead go to a location that is more to Shinomiya-sama liking.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shinomiya-sama, would you like to go to another world?”

“Ehh?” I exclaimed in hysterics at the sudden suggestion.

“This time, I wanted to apologize for causing the death of Shinomiya-sama due to our negligence, so I took the liberty of doing a lot of research on Shinomiya-sama,” Samady-san continued, amidst my confusion. “Shinomiya-sama, you long for fantasy worlds like video games and anime, don’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s right, but…”

‘It’s true that I’ve always wanted to go to video games and anime-like worlds. My parents had been nagging me to study since I was a child, but due to my excellent memory, I only needed a short amount of time to do so. As a result, I spent my free time playing video games and watching anime, and I developed a longing for the fantasy world.’

“So, how would you like it if we reincarnated you into another world and gave you a new life?”

“Yes, yes! I’ll go!” I responded quickly and without hesitation.

After being told that I could visit another world that I had long desired, I believe it was inevitable that I would accept the offer on the spot[2]. Furthermore, being reincarnated in another world would undoubtedly be more enjoyable than living in heaven.

Samady-san nodded broadly in response to my response. “I knew you’d say yes, Shinomiya-sama. Then let’s get started with the preparations,” he said, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, a panel that resembled a game screen appeared in front of me. Other than my name, various other items were written on it.

[Name] Shinomiya Raku

[Age] –

[Race] –

[Gender] –

[Level] –

[Skill Points (SP)] –

[Strength] –

[Magic Power] –

[Agility] –

[Luck] –

[Skill]

[Special Ability]

[Divine Protection]

[Title]

“Wait, is this perhaps… my abilities?”

“They are, indeed. You don’t really feel it because you are currently talking and moving, but currently, Shinomiya-sama right now is only a soul. However, the skills you developed during your life on earth remain as skills and special abilities. You can bring these into the world in which you are reincarnated.”

I only had a hazy understanding of Samady’s explanation, but I decided to look at the status column anyway. There were two abilities listed. The first was “Cooking,” which was found in the [Skill] section. According to Samady-san, this skill arose from the fact that I used to cook for myself on a regular basis. He stated that if I possessed this skill, I would be able to identify the proper cooking method even for ingredients that I would be preparing for the first time.

In addition, “Enhanced Memory Capacity” in the [Special Ability] section, as the name suggested, seemed to increase my memory ability just by having it. It was true that I could remember things faster than other people, and I got a good score on every test because I could remember things just by reading a textbook once. Incidentally, unlike [Skill] that one could acquire through training, it seemed that the only way to acquire [Special Ability] was either to be born with it or receive it from a god.

“Shall we take a break?” Let’s have a cup of tea,” Samady-san said, and a teacup filled with tea appeared out of the empty space.

I sipped the tea he handed me, relieved that it was warm. “My abilities will be carried over even if I am reincarnated, right?” I asked Samady-san once again, now that I had calmed down a little.

“Yes, we will reincarnate you in another world with your current memories and abilities inherited. We will also assist Shinomiya-sama in any way we can.”

“And my current memories, too…? But is it safe to bring knowledge of Earth to another world?”

Samady-san nodded deeply in response to my question. “I am sure it will be fine. There have been several reincarnations from Earth, as well as very rare cases of people like Shinomiya-sama reincarnating with complete memories of their previous lives. We also have a present for you, Shinomiya-sama.”

“A present?”

When I asked him again, Samady-san smiled and began to speak, “As a way of apologizing to Shinomiya-sama, all the gods thought of what we could do for you, and as a result, we decided to give you three skills that you could come up with upon your reincarnation.”

“I see… But, is this really okay? Having you guys doing something like that for me…” I felt somewhat apologetic and unintentionally whispered, but Samady-san nodded with a smile on his face.

“Of course,” he replied. “Again, this time it was my lack of management that caused this. Feel free to create your skills.”

“…Even so, to say this suddenly… Can I give it some thought?”

“Sure, I’ll wait until you make your decision. I’ll compile a list of skills found in other worlds and display it on the screen for your reference. If you find it difficult to create your own from scratch, you can select one of these skills.” Having said this, Samady-san brought up a panel resembling a video game screen, much like the status screen I had previously seen.

The screen was filled to the brim with skill names and information about their abilities, with no end in sight as I scrolled down the list. Looking at the seemingly infinite number of skills available, I began creating new initial skills.

‘The first skill I created is the “Appraising Eye”—a standard skill in novels about reincarnating into another world, where one can appraise objects, people, skills, and obtain information. This skill was originally created based on the “Appraisal” skill, which is also found in the reincarnation world, but with a slight modification to increase the number of items that can be seen while cancelling out the effects of appraisal skills used by the opponents. Also, since appraisal-type skills are essential to see the statuses in the reincarnated world, this skill should be useful.

The second skill is the “useful box” skill. It is similar to common item boxes and storage skills, but those skills have a limited capacity, so you cannot store more than a certain number of items. Therefore, according to my magical power, I made a system where the number of items can be stored could be increased, not based on quantity but rater, by categories. The maximum number of items that can be stored is limited to half of one’s magic power. For instance, if you have 100 Magic Power (MP)[4], you can store 50 different kinds of items with no upper limit on the number of pieces.’

As I was thinking about what the last skill should be, Samadhi approached me.

“I forgot to tell you that since the skill levels can be upgraded, you might want to keep in mind about the skill’s growth.”

“Is that so? But I can’t imagine what you mean by growth…”

“For example, if it is an appraisal skill, the amount of information obtained will increase as the level of the skill increases. Aside from that, it’s similar to an increase in power for offensive magic or an increase in storage capacity for storage-type skills.”

After hearing Samady’s comment, I thought for a moment. “…That means the performance of the ‘Useful Box’ will improve as its level goes up, right? But this skill has no capacity limit or anything, so how do I make it grow…?”

“Then, how about we make it so that more functions are added as the levels rise?”

“Ah, that sounds great. But I can’t think of a function to add right away, so can I think about it some more?” Although I said this, I couldn’t come up with a solid image at all. When I was struggling for a while, Samady-san came to my rescue.

“In that case, let us make it so that you can freely add the functions you want as your skill level increases.”

“Eh, can you put the effects in later?”

“Well, this is an exception, so don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll figure out what functions you want as you live over there, so grow your skills and make useful use of them as you go along.”

“Thank you so much!” I thanked him and thought about what my last skill should be.

‘Hmmm… If I can add the effect later, I’ll be able to make a pretty cheat skill…’

I agonized over it for a while, but I was finally able to create something I was happy with. As a result, the final skill turned out to be an outrageous one, called ‘Daily Life Magic’. It was a skill that would allow you to acquire any skill you thought you might need in life. At first glance, the name and description may seem insignificant, but its effects were cheats themselves. For example, if I wanted to ‘learn all the attribute magic that could be learned,’ I could do so with this skill.

When I asked Samady-san, he was hesitant, but I eventually got through to him. With this, I could acquire new skills whenever I needed them. However, Samady-san placed a limit on the number of times I could learn them because he felt that allowing me to learn them as many times as I wanted might disrupt the balance of the world. The opportunity to learn a new skill would be available once per level, similar to the ‘Useful Box’ skill.

‘In the reincarnated world, the maximum skill level is 5, which means that the maximum number of times I could use ‘Daily Life Magic’ is 5. Even so, it is still a cheat skill. I need to use it carefully.’

When I had finished creating the three skills; ‘Appraising Eyes’, ‘Useful Box,’ and ‘Daily Life Magic,’ Samady-san held up his hands to me.

“Well then, now that we have completed our pre-incarnation preparations, I must bid you farewell”

“Is that so… Erm, can I see Samady once I go over there? It’s kind of sad that I won’t be able to meet you again…”

“I’m very happy to hear that. That being the case, please devote a little time each day for a prayer. If you continue to pray and your ‘faith’ skill level increases, you will be able to meet me in the Heavenly Realm. I look forward to seeing you again that time. The next time you wake up, you will be a baby. Now then, have a good second life,” Samady said, smiling.

I was about to reply, but a white light emitted from both of Samady’s hands, cutting off my consciousness.

Footnotes

[1] Decided to retain the same name as in the manga.

[2] 二つ返事で (Futatsuhenji) = Answering with two replies. Simply means immediate answer. I’ve changed the way this was written in the translation as ‘on the spot’ instead of answering with two replies, although the MC replied with two yes’s.

[3] I decided to translate this as Enhanced Memory Capacity instead of High Memory Capacity in the manga version.

[4] Will be shorten as MP from now unless there’s changes to be made in the future.