Isekai Rebuilding Project: Volume 1

The Crumbling World

1.

Surely, there is no person alive who has no complaints about their life whatsoever. Even those living lives that seem picture perfect to others can have a soft voice in their heads whispering what could have been. It’s not an unusual feeling to have. That being said...

I wasn’t sincerely hoping for something like this...

I mumbled, as I stared into the empty space. There really was nothing there. It was too empty to even call it barren. If I had to make a comparison, it felt like the end of the universe. However, as I had never visited such a place before, I had no idea if that comparison was accurate. All I knew was that I wasn’t in the south-side entrance of Sapporo Station, where I’d planned to meet up with my belle.

You don’t seem too troubled.

An androgynous voice. I couldn’t see the speaker, though.

...You may be surprised. I’m at my limits, here and there.

I shrugged my shoulders. In the empty space, I could barely tell up from down. If I did appear to be keeping my cool, it was solely because I’d accepted the plots of various Isekai, or transported-to-another-world, stories I’d read or watched as vicarious experiences.

Am I dead?

I had no recollection of being hit by a semi or anything like that.

Eiji Kazama, you are not dead. I am almost curious enough to ask how you reached that conclusion.

The voice said my name. I felt no fear in learning that this entity had my personal information. That ship had sailed a long, long time ago.

Allow me to explain.

With that, the entity appeared before me: a woman, who appeared to be in her twenties.

...A goddess, perhaps?

I see. That is how I appear to you?

Which means?

My appearance merely reflects your mentality. In short, I only appear this way because you think that anyone who comes out to explain things in this kind of situation must be a goddess or someone of the like.

Hmm... That’s how it works...

I gave a vague nod. To be honest, I didn’t understand the entirety of what this woman just said, let alone accept it. That being said, if I kept interrupting our conversation would never move forward. Any disagreements or counterpoints could be made after hearing the other party out.

There is something I want you to do.

The woman stared at me intently. Her face was attractive, and her expression lively. If she was the embodiment of my imagination, that would make me a rather shallow man. I apologized silently to my fiancée for the fact that the woman looked nothing like her.

I want you to save a dimension, or a world, from your point of view, separate from your own.

...It’s not that I didn’t expect it, but now that I’ve heard it out loud, it sounds incredibly vapid.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. A chosen hero saving the world, a very common story in the fantasy genre; however, it is only acceptable within the realms of fiction. An entire world saved by a single hero? How cheap can it get? I hadn’t spent my 31 years on Earth thus far under a rock. I had some sense of logic. There’s only so much a single human being could possibly accomplish. Even if that person were to perform to the best of their abilities, the results would be far from perfect.

The predicament itself is vapid, so the explanation of it can be nothing but.

The woman, too, cracked an ironic grin.

Hm?

‘Save’ may not have been the correct word to use. What actually needs to be done is ‘repair.’

Repair?

Correct. Repair of a world on the brink of destruction, thanks to one of your kind.

The woman explained as much, without changing her expression. Apparently, a few Japanese people traveled to this world where they spread various pieces of knowledge, bringing about various changes in the world.

The overpowered protagonist type. I’ve never considered that to be morally questionable.

At its core, it isn’t. There are plenty of precedents, too.

Really?

Same as your world. It was shaped into what it is today through all manner of interference and ripple effects.

It sounded similar to Official Development Assistance performed by first-world nations in developing nations. A world that possessed advanced technology or knowledge bestowing those things to worlds that were falling behind; the history of the universe must have been woven that way for all eternity. Come to think of it, technological revolutions on Earth had periods of rapid improvement and periods of stagnation throughout history. There is even a theory that claims that there were people in ancient Greece who were convinced that the Earth was round, way before methods of crossing an ocean had been invented.

I sighed. The topic of conversation was getting a little too grandiose. I needed a little more time to comprehend everything.

So, in summary, I am to travel to a world where other Japanese people have been sent and counteract the things they have done. Is that correct?

In general, your understanding is not incorrect.

Why me?

That must be a ubiquitous question. This time, the beautiful woman wore a distinctive smile.

No real reason.

How irrational...

If I must give a reason, you are the polar opposite of the types who have been selected so far.

That’s...

I knew exactly what she meant. Nowadays, many of the overabundant Isekai works star an unprivileged protagonist. Agoraphobic, bullied, neglected, abused... It’s my guess that no protagonist has lived a life as utterly ordinary as mine. Born in a normal household, I spent my youth with no noteworthy events to speak of. I’d attended an average-level high school, then a nameless private university. After graduating, I became a city clerk without really questioning my path, and served as a government worker ever since. Receiving one promotion in my twenties was neither especially early nor late, but expected.

I also had a fiancée. At 27, she was four years younger than me. We’d dated for three years, and had already introduced each other to our families. We planned to get married next year.

Your employer will never go out of business, and you will never be fired, barring extreme circumstances. You have days off when you’re supposed to, and have enough time and money for leisurely activities. Everything is well with your fiancée, and you respect each other’s interests. Quite the Instagrammable life; I’m envious.

I had no need to fantasize about another world. I was mostly content with my life.

A boring life. No plot twists. No adventures.

Many would take offense to that comment.

I’m sure. I know there are people who struggle to survive day-to-day, and people who can’t find hope or aspirations for the future.

The woman chuckled, and I reciprocated. I wanted this life. No one can choose their place of birth or the sex they are born as, but people can choose which schools to attend and which occupation to pursue. I was living my dime-a-dozen life of my own volition.

Which means you are the polar opposite of those who proceeded you. That’s why you were chosen.

A forked road presented to the everyman.

...Is it possible to refuse?

It is. But do you want to refuse?

...

She saw right through me. It was true. Ever since I arrived in this space I was elated. My heart was clamoring. I could feel it: something was about to begin. Still, I couldn’t walk away from the life I had. My parents, fiancée, friends... they were all chains dear to me. I couldn’t let them go.

When you die in the other world, I’ll bring you back to this moment in time.

As I hesitated to answer, the woman proposed a condition.

When I die?

From ailment, combat, old age. No matter the cause. The time limit is your lifetime. Just try the best you can during that time.

Try... What about results?

I don’t ask any of you. Trying one’s best doesn’t always work. What’s important isn’t the end result but whether or not we’ve explored all avenues. You understand, don’t you?

Ridiculous. And she thought I understood?

In the bureaucratic sense, you mean?

Correct.

Well, that’s the worst.

In bureaucracy, results are not entirely important. Putting in the effort and yielding no results is commended more than achieving results without any effort. Working hard until closing time with nothing to show for it is preferred to achieving spectacular results with five minutes of work.

It’s not too different in our business, either. There was a complaint from the god on-site that the humans pulled from your world were less than ideal. So, we settled on sending someone with characteristics that contrasted theirs.

If I didn’t hit the mark, no problem. All that would happen is these entities would deem humans from my world unfit for the job. No more recruiting from my world. That’s it.

I’m sensing an anyway-the-wind-blows kind of stance, here...

Mr. Eiji Kazama. I, personally, am not a fan of inter-world travel. Whether a world flourishes or collapses, I believe it should happen under the sole responsibility of the occupants of that world.

I see...

"Now, let me ask you, Eiji Kazama. Ja? Or Nein?"

2.

God does nothing. No matter how prideful humans become, there will be no wrath nor judgment. No matter how much humans suffer, or stand at the brink of extinction, there will be no saving grace. God only watches on. Like an audience devoid of emotion and interest.

That’s not a bad way to think about things, though. Should a god, a super-human, or a Warrior of Light appear every time humanity is at stake, and guide them towards the righteous path? How dare they? How could anyone call that an authentic history of humanity? A side character who exists only to be saved by someone superior; is that the sole purpose of humans in this universe?

I defy that notion. Humans have saved themselves out of pickles in the past, and that will be the case in the future. If, one in a million, we find ourselves in a situation we can’t handle, we will ask for help. We will grind our foreheads to the ground and beg for mercy. Of course, whether they will accept our plea or not is another matter entirely.

Now that you’ve explained it’s like an ODA...

I scratched my head. Before me wasn’t Sapporo Station. Instead there was an endless field of green grass and a single path. It didn’t look like Japan, but it’s not like I was familiar with every location within my home country. I couldn’t say without a doubt that I was no longer in Japan.

I mean, I’m sure this is the world in question.

While I couldn’t confirm it with absolute certainty, I had no reason to doubt it. That beautiful woman (who never called herself a goddess, after all) had no reason to send me anywhere but. I had accepted her request.

It would have been easy to refuse, saying ‘ain’t my problem.’ Even though Japanese people caused the mess, it was not something I was personally responsible for. What’s more, the entities from this world were the ones who summoned them in the first place. It didn’t make any sense to deem my world responsible for the damage. They should have accounted for it. They should have foreseen what kind of actions someone who had lived an oppressed life would take when suddenly given immense power and the ability to affect the destiny of others, as well as what kind of effects those actions would have. Once used in any other way than those specified in the manual, any appliance would be out of warranty. In that analogy, someone being sent to repair the product isn’t protocol. This is basically customer service.

It all seems pretty stupid.

You didn’t take too long to make your decision for someone who feels that way.

True. It wasn’t like I was coming up with some grand justification, though. It just sounded like fun. I couldn’t help it.

A stable job, a wonderful fiancée, a family dear to me... I had no dissatisfaction with any of them. But somewhere deep inside, I felt some adoration for a life different than my own.

So, I have the same motive as my predecessors. Just in a direction. I guess that means I felt confined, too.

Not an easy way of life, is it?

You said it. Speaking of...

I looked over to see the creature I was having a friendly conversation with. It had a body covered in scales of a color somewhere in between blue