Slowly walking through the busy streets of the city, I overheard several conversations like these:
"Hey Jack! Wanna grab some McDonald's later?"
"Omg! I think that's the popular streamer GamerGiddy505! I can't believe he's streaming right next to us!"
"I know mom! I'm going to stay a NEET for a bit longer!"
'What were they talking about? I can't understand a thing they said. Although it's the same language I know, there are a lot of words I have never heard of.'
After listening to some more conversations, I figured out that it would be way easier to just ask someone. But to ask in which country you were in would be quite a strange question to ask.
After making a plan, I walked up to a middle aged man wearing a sweater and asked:
"Hello, sir. I'm currently doing a school project in which I have to ask strangers a few questions. Would you like to answer some of my questions please?"
The man frowned at my words.
"Listen kid, I'm not interested in your school project or whatever. Go ask someone else." The man quickly walked off into the crowd.
'Hmm, it seems like I need to give people a reason to answer.'
Turning around and walking towards an old lady, I asked again:
"Hello, miss. I'm currently hosting a quiz, and if you can correctly answer my questions, then you will receive money."
The old lady looked at me skeptically.
"How many dollars will I be getting?"
'It seems like the 'dollar' is the currency here, but I have no idea how much a single dollar is worth.'
"It will depend on how many of my questions you can answer successfully. So, are you up for the challenge?"
The woman thought for a second and then slowly nodded her head.
"Alright, I'll try to answer your questions."
"Good, so now on with the questions. First question: What country are we in right now?"
"We are in America."
'Strange, I have never heard of this country before.'
"Alright, next question: How much does an average lunch cost in America."
"That should depend on the person, but I guess around 5 to 10 dollars."
'Alright, now I have a rough grasp of the worth of a dollar.'
"Now for the last question: Where is the nearest library from here.?
"If you keep walking forward from here, then you should find a library on the right side of the street not so far from here."
"Thank you for answering all of my questions. I'll be on my way now."
The old lady frowned and shouted: "Hey, wait! You said I-"
Although I was already too far to hear what she said, I could imagine that she wasn't too happy.
'Now I just have to get the rest of my information in the library. But I don't know what I should do after I figure out where I am. There isn't really a reason for me to go back, since I don't have any emotional attachment to that place anyway.'
Arriving before the library, I walked in and searched for books about things such as history, geography and the like.
****
'This is all really unexpected.'
Reading through some of the books that looked like they had useful information in them, Bryan realised a lot of new things.
'The king really wanted me gone that badly? He actually teleported me to another world, just to get rid of me? I guess some people can get really dedicated to something. Let's read some more so I can make sure I'm not wrong.'
Bryan spent the rest of his time reading, until the library eventually closed.
'It seems everything is true. I'm really on 'Earth' now, or more specifically USA. Looks like going back was never even an option for me anyway.'
While walking through the streets dimly lit by the street lights, Bryan pondered about what he was going to do next.
'Since I won't be hunted down anymore, I don't have a reason to stay in the wilderness. But to live in a society, I will need money.'
'Eh, I'll just use my powers to get a bit of starting money, and then figure out the rest later.'
I jumped on top of a few buildings while holding my hands in front of my face so there was no chance someone would see my face. I then searched for some criminals or thieves.
A few minutes later, near the edge of the city, I spotted a group of three robbers assaulting a middle-aged woman.
Sprinting towards them, I stopped a few meters away from them and asked:
"Just to make sure I won't become illegal the same day I arrived in this city, I want to ask if consent was given for this play."
All of the robbers immediately turned to look at me. One of them shouted:
"Get him, we can't have any witnesses! I'll hold the woman down!"
'Looks like they really are robbers. In that case, I can take some money from them.'
"Haaaa! You're gonna regret coming here!"
Ignoring the shouts of the robber, I quickly attacked all three robbers and the middle-aged woman, knocking them out without severely hurting them. Of course I made sure to be so fast that all they could see was a blur coming to them.
After making sure no one else could see me, I took all their wallets and then jumped away, looking for my next target.
****
Bryan kept robbing people until the sun rose again. In that time, he robbed 15 different people, but since no one kept all their money in their wallets, he only gained a bit more than 5000 dollars.
'This will be enough money for quite some time. I'll think about my next way of making money when I nearly run out. I could probably just make a living out of this, but if too many people get robbed like this all the time, then there will be trouble. Maybe they'll start an investigation or the authorities of the city will do something.'
'What should be the first thing that I do with this money? I guess I could rent an apartment and then go eat something.'
Bryan kept walking around the city until he found a good apartment.
After I rented a room in the apartment, which cost 1200 dollars per month, I went out to a nearby restaurant to eat breakfast.
After ordering my food, I waited for a few minutes for it to arrive.
"Hello sir, here is your croissant."
"Thank you."
'Well this looks quite peculiar. I've never seen bread like this 'croissant'.'
Taking a bit out of the strange bread, I widened my eyes at its taste.
"This is delicious!"
Even though I usually ate the stuff I found in the wilderness, I did eat at a few restaurants from time to time, but never have I eaten something like this before.
My shout didn't seem to go unnoticed by the people around me, which consisted of only one person, the owner of this tiny establishment and at the same time the only worker here.
The old man smiled from ear to ear after hearing my words.
"Hahaha! Thanks kid! At least some people can appreciate proper food!"
I quickly finished eating my croissant.
"Excuse me, can I order something again?"
"Of course you can! It will be done in just a few minutes."
****
After eating at the small restaurant near my apartment, I went around the city for the whole day. I explored all kinds of shops and stores that I've never heard of before and only returned to my apartment when it was just a bit before midnight.
'This was a really nice change of pace from what I usually do. Especially the food in this world is way better than my previous one.
Anyways, let's just go to sleep. It has been awhile since I slept in a proper bed, without assassins watching and attacking me.'
****
[2 months later]
Since that day, my time here was quite repetitive. I woke up, washed and dressed myself, ate from the same restaurant and walked around in the city. Since I was a frequent customer in the restaurant, and nearly the only customer, I talked a lot with the owner, whose name was Peter Griffs. I found out that he once had a son and wife, but they both died a few years ago. His son also had a wife and a son, but Peter's daughter-in-law also died quickly after his son died, so now Peter is taking care of his 11 years old grandson.
Although the business of the restaurant wasn't that good, they were still barely getting by. I tried giving Peter some money after a month, but since he already knew I didn't have a job, thus no way of getting money, he always declined my offer.
Today was just like any other day. I was casually eating lunch at the restaurant.
"Hey Bryan. Although I like the fact that you eat a lot in my restaurant, you know this isn't exactly the healthiest diet in the world. Heck, I'm quite surprised you don't get fat with the amount of food you eat every time you get here."
I stopped eating my food for a second and looked back at Peter.
"It's fine. I'm probably the healthiest person in the world anyway, so I would be quite surprised if I were to get sick from overeating unhealthy food. Also, I spend the whole day walking around the city, so that should count as light exercise."
"No matter how healthy a perso-"
~Beep~ ~Beep~
Suddenly the radio in the corner of the restaurant beeped loudly, before a panicked voice started speaking:
"Code red! Everyone, listen carefully! Unidentified monster-like creatures have suddenly appeared all over Japan! Although the creatures have been heard talking in our language, we have failed to negotiate with them and we don't know for what purpose they have invaded our world! The number of these creatures are still unsure, but according to the government there are at the very least one hundred thousand of them rampaging across Japan, and soon all over the world! Most of the spotted creatures have blood-red skin with large devil-like wings on their back and small horns on their forehead! While over 90% of the creatures look like this, exceptions have been seen. A small number of them are over 5 meters tall, with green skin. There was also one creature who looked exactly like a human, except for the huge 50 centimeter horn sticking out of his forehead. This creature seems to be the leader of the rest of the creatures who are invading our land. That is all the information about them that we know right now. Please stay inside for as long as possible, until the government has the situation under control. If you spot one of these creatures, don't get any closer to it and immediately call your local police force."
"..."
"..."
Peter furrowed his brows.
"...What the shit is happening."