(Where am I?)
I opened my eyes, and there was only darkness.
I felt like I was floating in a pool without water.
There were white jellyfish-like lights on my sides, I couldn't touch them even though my hands were close.
(What am I doing here?)
I was trying to remember what happened.
Yes, I remember it well.
◇
"Ah~, the exam this time will be really hard."
Yes, I died. I remember now.
I am Kurono Ichiru, a senior high school student.
Short black hair and brown eyes, slim build with nothing remarkable to stand out, an ordinary Japanese student.
I was walking straight home after leaving school early.
I was checking the exam paper I was going to have before graduating, I was thinking at that moment what game I was going to play after arriving home, when my eyes saw something I shouldn't have seen.
"Hahaha."
A girl with a ball was standing next to me, she looked like she had just come out of soccer practice. With her knees she was kicking the ball.
We weren't the only ones here waiting to cross the street, but I was the only one paying attention to her.
"Ah."
In a slight moment, the ball bounced off her knee and went straight across the street.
The girl paid no attention to the traffic light that was still red.
It wasn't even ten seconds since I heard that beep.
A bus driver was coming at normal speed, but since the traffic light was still green, the speed at which he was driving was very fast.
The girl grabbed the ball, but the bus was only two meters away from her.
The driver's expression was one similar to horror movies when you are about to die.
The girl was going to die, the red light was just changing.
Really, why did I do it?
In less than those ten seconds before the light turned green to cross, I, 18-year-old Kurono Ichiru, ran at high speed to push the girl to save her life.
Did I do it because it was what TV heroes would do?
Or, did I do it so that I would have a place in heaven when I die?
Either way, that's what happened.
I pushed the girl and she was clutching her ball, the expression on her face was for laughs.
Mine I'm sure wasn't for laughing.
Well, that's how I ended up here.
(Is this death?)
(Or is it what they call limbo?)
I feel like I'm in a pool falling in, but there's no water and the feeling is very relaxing.
Oh, a light comes and my body stops.
The light came and sucked me in.
◇
"Is this place...?"
I was in a white room, there was nothing but a kotatsu in the center and a bowl of tangerines on top.
I sat down since I was naked and covered my private parts with the futon.
"Is something going to happen or not?"
I was a little intrigued by the fact that I was here with no explanation.
As my distress grew, it was calmed as a pillar of light came down at the other end of the kotatsu.
After a while it stopped shining and an old, chubby, white-bearded man sat down.
"Aah, my back hurts~. This being a temporary god is very tiring.
(Huh? Did he just say "temporary god"?)
This weird guy is god?
That "god?"
In any case, I asked.
"Err, this is heaven and you are god?"
Noticing my presence, he grabbed a tangerine.
"Would you like a tangerine?"
"T-Thank you."
He invited me one, so I took it. We both peeled the tangerine, but he was talking to me.
"Yes, I am god. But only a shift one, a third rate god was supposed to come, but they assigned him to another world, so they sent me, a fourth rate one."
Do fourth-rate gods exist?
No, more importantly, are gods like employees that you can replace?
"Yes, it's just as you think."
Did you read my mind?
"Yes, I am a god after all."
In less than thirty seconds a tangerine was finished.
"I'll get straight to the point. Billions die every day, it's marked that way on your internal clock, the cause of death is beyond to me, even if you ask me to save you from a flood, your date to die is that. I can't change what the system writes."
"The system?"
"The system of the gods, it's something that every god is guided by to run their world. In human terms it would be something like a guiding plan for a manager to follow to explain to new workers."
"I-I see, it looks like the gods have it complicated."
"That's only for third and fourth category gods, the second category ones are more flexible and can manage that world as they please."
"And the first category ones?"
"Dead. Want another tangerine?"
Huh?
Gods can die?
"That's a long thing to explain and not something you're interested in, so forget it... oh yeah, I didn't get straight to the point, sorry."
The next thing he said, left me with a face like I had done the most stupid thing in the world.
"Your death was an accident, not by the bus, but by your own hand."
"Huh, for my fault?"
This really confused me, I didn't understand what he meant.
I stood up and despite the fact that my sword was visible I shouted what my heart was silent.
"If I am reincarnated in a fantasy world by your standards, the possibility of getting a harem of girls who will drop for me after greeting them won't come true!"
"That's why I want it to be an eroge! And also the easiest eroge to complete of all!"
"It's the only game where everything you say can happen and not feel like I was scammed!"
The god looked at me like a weirdo as he ate tangerine, I sat down as it was a bit embarrassing to shout it out.
"It's a game where you can do kinky things with girls right? What's the difference from a normal fantasy world?"
"It's simple."
I held up my finger to explain, quickly and in detail.
"The girls in this game are dropping to be with me since cliché is what abounds. In short, they're all damsels in distress and I know their routes and events by heart, it's a game where you're the new guy at the academy and you interact with the girls and after saving them, they fall in love with you."
"Originally it was a galge─ a dating simulator, but they brought out a remaster due to the fact that it's been twenty years since its original release."
"And that game is all is easy to complete, is it?"
"Yes, it's so easy that removing the action scenes, you get a total of 80 hours of erotic gameplay, it's absurdly short and my future not only guaranteed would be, I'd be a hero too!"
"I see, in that case, let me get inside your head to find out all the details."
"Yes!"
The god touched my head and his hand began to glow.
A few seconds passed and everything appreciated being ready.
"Alright, I analyzed the game and right now it's being created, what cheat skills do you want?"
"It's simple, the ability to create whatever the world allows me to."
"Excuse me?"
"You see, in that world there are no things that are in my world, I would like to be able to create them to not only make money, also use them and be remembered in history as the inventor of the century."
"Makes sense to me, all right."
"I'll grant you that ability, but I'll tell you this. Cheat skills consume a lot of mana─ magic power in other words, you'll have to have a large amount to be able to use them, which means your body will have to have a large amount of magic power."
"It's logical that. I'm very excited."
A pillar of light touched me and began to lift me up.
"Everything is ready now. This is goodbye, try not to abuse your power or else the world will fall into ruin."
"Of course, goodbye, god."
"I am Ulysses the god of errors, a pleasure."
Huh?" What did he say?
The pillar of light was moving farther and farther away from me, but I couldn't hear it.
"Remember that once you arrive, your memories will be intact, but reincarnation is random, so it's not my fault where you end up like the others.
Huh?
Hey, what do you mean by that?
The pillar of light totally enveloped me and a white light mowed me down.
◇
"What happened?
I was in an unfamiliar place, the grass was touching my face and the blue sky was very beautiful.
"I still couldn't move my body, but I guess that's normal. I'm sure I must be a baby with commoner parents, that's why I'm in the grass."
"It's just a matter of waiting for them to carry me."
◇
"This is weird."
It's been three days since I've been here.
Hey, my parents, come pick me up.
Your son is in a dangerous place!
I can't move, but that's not what's weird.
I don't feel hungry, cold at night or hot in the morning.
I haven't felt the need to go to the bathroom either.
This is weird, really, really weird.
I don't want to think I'm undead, that would be the worst.
I want a harem and being a zombie, ghoul or lich will prevent me from being able to have sex since my member will have fallen off.
I beg you, please help me!
The worst thing is that I have tried to open the status window, it's the normal thing according to the novels, but it doesn't happen.
What's more, I can't move my body. I'm paralyzed... but partly it doesn't feel that way, as my heart would have stopped if it did.
What exactly is going on?
Huh?
Something was approaching, I could feel it in the earth and grass being stepped on and it was───
"Woof!"
A dog?
A big brown dog approached me, no, stay away.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
The dog licked me, I could feel its slobber and stinky breath.
... Or so I imagined.
(Why couldn't I feel his saliva despite licking me? Also, that his mouth must stink, but I couldn't smell it despite feeling his breath.)
What's going on here?
"Hey, did you find anything?"
An adult's voice I heard, the language I didn't understand, it was time to activate the first of my cheating skills.
"Absolute Communication"
It's a cheat skill that allows me to understand all languages.
In what I was here without moving, I understood that I must have a great amount of magical power since that god promised me.
I couldn't do it before that well, I forgot about it.
Now let's see what they say.
"Oh, how nice he is. Good boy."
Looks like they found me, it means I'm an orphan, we're good for now.
...
What's that?
Why are you holding only your hand close?
Don't you know that to lift a baby you need both hands!
Huh?!
"It's very beautiful no doubt."
Hey, why does it look like I'm very small and that's why you can hold me with your fingers?
Hey, why is the place where you picked me up from nothing but a small mark on the ground?
I'm supposed to be a baby, right?
I don't think I ended up in a world of giants and that's why I'm this small.
This game had no race of giants, dwarves or demons, so there shouldn't be anything weird with my body... right?
"Hey, did you find anything good?"
"Yeah, look at this stone. I'm sure it must be a magic stone because of its beautiful blue color and its nicely polished shape."
──Huh?
"I think it's a magic jewel, totally different from magic stones."
───What did he say?
"That's better for me!"
"Lucky bastard, I'm sure the young master will be happy about this gift. Let's go back to the mansion."
The man grabbed a body bag, opened it and then... I fell inside.
...
Hey, you must be joking, right?
It must be a joke from that god, right?
He can't be that incompetent and instead of making me reincarnate he made me wake up into an object and not a living being, right?
Apparently we got on a horse as I heard a whinny before a loud sound indicating that we were moving.
As there were several objects inside the leather bag, a stone as shiny as a mirror ended up near me, and there I saw the truth.
"No... this can't be..."
Just as the man in the bag said, what was lying in front of me was a beautiful blue stone.
That meant only one thing───
"Damn you trash gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!
"You didn't make me reincarnate, you made me transport my soul to a goddamn magic stone!!!!"
"You're fucking craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!
My new life as a simple and powerful magic jewel had just begun.