When I opened my eyes, I was sitting in a chair at the center of a space-like backdrop that stretched endlessly into the distance. Though there was no light source, I could see clearly, and in front of me stood a large, pure-white chair.
'So this is the room in the heavenly realm. By the way, isn’t Aqua coming? The original story hasn’t started already, has it?'
Click-clack.
I heard someone approaching from behind the large white chair.
"Wow~ Sooo handsome... Ahem, ahem, that’s not it..."
"Welcome to the afterlife~ Unfortunately, you died just a little while ago."
Maybe because I had seen the provisional Aqua before, I wasn’t surprised, but seeing Aqua again was still nice. Aqua slowly sat down in the white chair before me.
"It was a short life, but you are dead."
For now, I acted according to the original story.
"Am I dead?"
"Yes. You couldn’t endure the crushing workload at your exploitative company and died in the line of duty atop your office desk."
"I... I see."
I was a little taken aback, but since that was the setting, I decided to just go along with it.
Then Aqua stood up from her chair.
"My name is Aqua! I am the goddess who guides people who die young in Japan."
"You have two choices."
"You can start a new life from the beginning. Or you can go somewhere like heaven and live like an old man."
Aqua approached me, leaned her face close, and began speaking quietly.
"Actually, heaven isn’t the wonderful place you humans imagine it to be. There’s no TV, manga, or games, and since you don’t even have a body, you can’t do anything edgy. All you can do is bask in the sunlight forever."
"You don’t want to go to such a boring heaven, right?"
That was a lie. It was something Aqua said to boost her performance numbers. In reality, it was a heaven-like heaven where angels granted just about anything, as long as it wasn’t too weird.
"But starting over as a baby is kind of..."
"That’s why I have a good proposition for you! You like other-world stories, don’t you?"
Aqua suddenly struck a grand pose, as though she were about to recount an epic tale.
"The peace that world has enjoyed for so long is threatened by the Demon King’s army. The lives people have built are being ravaged by monsters, and everyone lives in fear of the Demon King’s army’s merciless plunder and slaughter."
"Because the world is like that, everyone refuses to reincarnate there, and its population just keeps falling. So someone suggested, ‘How about sending people who died in other worlds there with their bodies and memories intact?’"
"But they would die easily if we simply sent them over, so here’s a special service~"
There it was! The reincarnation bonus! The biggest reason I had chosen Konosuba.
"We’ll give you the right to take exactly one thing you want with you, such as a powerful weapon or an incredible talent."
"You can begin your life anew as a hero while retaining your memories."
"What do you think? Not bad, right?"
'Am I watching a home-shopping channel right now? Why does it feel like they’re trying to quickly unload merchandise at a clearance sale?'
"...All right. I’ll go to another world and do my best as a hero."
"Yes~ Performance! Ahem..."
Aqua shouted “performance” with a bright smile, then cleared her throat, apparently embarrassed that she had done so in front of me.
Then she spun once on the spot, and cards listing abilities, weapons, and the like came fluttering down onto the floor.
"Now~ Go ahead and choose~ I’ll give you one power that won’t lose to anyone."
I sat on the floor and examined the cards one by one.
The abilities included regeneration, superhuman strength, super speed, and rapid growth, while the weapons ranged from holy swords and demonic swords to a sage’s staff. They really were overpowered abilities and weapons.
After considering my choices over and over, I found myself torn between superhuman strength, super speed, and a legendary bow.
'If my pulls had just been better, I wouldn’t have to agonize over this. My attack power is way too lacking.'
"Hey, I’ve enjoyed looking at your handsome face, but could you hurry it up? Whatever you choose, it’ll be the same. There are still tons of dead people waiting for me to guide them."
Crack!
I was seriously thinking it over, but she was rushing me while stuffing her face with snacks, and a vein bulged on my forehead in an instant.
'Ah... endure it. If I lose my temper for a moment like Kazuma and choose Aqua, I’m screwed.'
"I’ll take superhuman strength. Also, I’m currently poisoned. Could you cure me? This bag is contaminated too, so please cleanse it as well."
"Huh? You’re supposed to arrive here in a healthy body. That’s strange. Did the angels make a mistake?"
Thinking the angels had made a mistake, Aqua detoxified me and purified my bag.
'She isn’t very suspicious. Is it fortunate that Aqua’s intelligence is low?'
"Then please be careful not to step out of the magic circle~"
A huge magic circle appeared beneath my feet.
"Now then, Hero! Among all the many hero candidates, I pray that you will be the one to defeat the Demon King."
"If you accomplish this great feat, the gods will grant you any one wish as your reward."
"Now, set out on your journey~"
My body gradually grew warm, and I was sucked somewhere. The world suddenly became bright, so I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I had arrived in an unfamiliar town.
Looking around, I saw buildings that looked as if they belonged in medieval Europe. People wearing armor like adventurers, people in robes carrying staffs, and the occasional person with elf ears or animal ears walked among the townsfolk.
"So this is the world of Konosuba. It looks like the set of a medieval fantasy movie."
Watching children run around the street playing with toy swords, I could definitely feel that Axel, where beginner adventurers lived, was peaceful.
"Status window."
[Park Tae-jin]
Strength: 4 (+8) Stamina: 5 Agility: 2 Intelligence: 2 Mana: 352
Abilities
[(EX) Game Life] [(EX) Murderous Plunder] [(SSS) Infinite Inventory] [(S) Appraisal] [(S) Superhuman Strength] [(A) Pain Resistance] [(A) Kilo-Kilo Fruit] [(B) Strong Mind]
Items
[A Enma]
Points
100
I clicked on [S Superhuman Strength].
[S Superhuman Strength]
Your Strength is tripled.
I had considered taking a weapon, but I thought, ‘Considering the future, it’s better to raise Agility or Strength,’ so I took superhuman strength.
'I have 100 points for now, so let’s enhance my body.'
I raised Strength to 10, but when I tried to raise it to 11, the cost suddenly went from 1 point per increase to 10.
"Huh? Don’t tell me... does the required number of points increase when the number of digits goes up?"
For now, I raised Stamina, Agility, and Intelligence to 10 as well.
Ding~!
[Event: You are the first to raise all stats into double digits. You will receive 1,000 points as a reward.]
"Oh~!"
I hurriedly checked the draws.
[Low-Tier Random Draw: 1 Point]
[Mid-Tier Random Draw: 10 Points]
[High-Tier Random Draw: 100 Points]
[Top-Tier Random Draw: 1,000 Points]
The top-tier draw cost 1,000 points, so I could try it once. But 1,000 points was precious enough to raise my starting stats enormously.
"..."
"Let’s just give up and raise my stats instead."
After thinking for a moment, I shook my head. If I got nothing again this time, it felt like I would suffer for a long time, so I didn’t have the courage to gamble.
Strength: 50 (+100) Stamina: 40 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 20 Mana: 352
Points
73
Power suddenly surged through my entire body. Confidence that I could do anything welled up inside me.
Fortunately, there was no change in the points required even after I reached 21. It seemed that the cost probably increased at each digit threshold: 10, 100, 1,000, and so on.
"Nice~"
Then I took Enma out of my inventory.
"I need to try using this..."
If I could use mana instead of Haki, I might be able to wield it, but I was too afraid to draw it in case something went wrong and it drained me dry.
Then, perhaps because of my increased Intelligence, a good idea suddenly came to mind.
"Right! Aqua exists in this world! I can go ask her for help."
Aqua could revive me even if I died, so I planned to give her a little money and ask her to help me draw Enma.
As soon as Kazuma and Aqua arrived in Axel, they had no money and could not even register as adventurers, so they begged an Eris follower for money. I thought I could make good use of that.
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