Not Another Isekai RPG Story - Alternate

Ch 1 Prologue

What is the difference between a game and reality? If you ask me, I dunno for sure. I think we need to have fun in both.

It's also nice to pile up achievements as much we could in the two worlds. Some games are really hard; so did peculiar things in life.

In my opinion, there are things which reality and games are similar; I'm not as insightful as to list them all.

I know there is one thing that fundamentally differentiates it.

In games, you could only play according to its rules and the scope itself is limited. When it's a regular FPS game, you shoot things. On platformers, you jump across the map. If it's an RPG game you level up, build your party member, follow the story until the end. There are indeed exploits but then, the degree of freedom you'd have in the game was limited.

In real life, there are also a strict set of rules in society, but whatever you want to accomplish, there is no set path to go follow if you could give the extra mile. Though yes, it was generally filled with things that are unfun.

Games have less freedom but it's fun. If you want to bring up the best of both worlds, you just need to fuse them together and you'll get the wonderful world ruled by game elements.

When I got the chance to go there, I thought it'd be a fleshed-out world with actual living people.

On a glance, it seems exactly that way, but it had so much of disparity.

...but for me who played a lot of RPGs though, this was totally natural.

To be honest, this gave me an enormous advantage.

Well then, this was a story where I ended up in another world, out of blue.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Beginner's City

Chapter 1-1

"Hello! Welcome to beginner's city."

"......"

I pushed up my glasses as I sighed. It was quite a story how I ended up here.

I got transported into this world for a reason I couldn't remember. First, I was shown the same old boring prologue used in so many RPG games that I decided to skip it.

I ended up in a clearing with two slime monsters. Strangely enough, instead of charging right away, they seemed to stand still in the same place when I didn't move a single bit. In my eyes, there's also info about my current health and mana.

Only when I walked up to them and punched their skin (which dealt zero damage, orz) and went back to my approximate previous position—they finally attacked. It was a tackle so fast I couldn't seem to avoid, which didn't hurt at all but my health nearly reached zero.

I felt wholly hopeless—even if no pain was present, what would happen if I died before there's even any tutorial present? Speak of the devil, a brilliant flash of light came before me. With a beautiful trajectory, it cleaved both of these slimes at the same time--resulting in the slimes blurring and disappearing into bubbles of translucent light.

[You have attained 2 EXP and 5 Gold]

[Congratulations for clearing first quest: Slime Encounter. Your level had been raised to 1!]

How? I didn't even do anything. That was pretty unreliable for a quest notifier.

...was it probably due to my negligence in reading the introductory part? The basic of basics might also be there too.

Well, let bygones be.

Before I could question it further, a female adventurer appeared in front of me. She had a short crimson hair reaching to her shoulder and green eyes, with a voluptuous figure, particularly her chest. She wore full plate armor, just without the helmet. Noticing my gaze, she finished wiping her two-handed sword and sheathed it back.

"Are you hurt, mister?"

"I'm not that old!"

Now that I looked at her, she was around my cousin's age who attended high school. Come to think of it, a lot of adventurers in a fantasy setting like this were young.

".....umm...mister? It's kinda weird that you were able to reply....you got a gaping hole in your chest."

"Huh? Ah...what!"

I regretted ever looking down. A gory scene could be seen. Seeing as I was weak to these things, it took a lot just to prevent myself from fainting. As I was about to fall down, she dashed quickly and held my body with those slender-looking arms.

"...you lost a lot of blood, you need rest. Yes, I will perform first aid."

The green light came from her free hand, and I could see that my wound was closing—as it was never there. My mind was still dizzy though.

She supported me all the way until we came to a clearing, with a sturdy tent and unlit bonfire. The sky became dark even if I didn't walk that much. It's kind of fortunate we didn't run across monsters the whole way.

"Thank you very much. I really had no idea what I was doing. If you didn't save me I'll definitely die."

"Don't mention it, that's my duty as a Paladin. I'm also glad that I'm able to save one more soul."

It was night time. We sat atop the lush green grass just beside the firepit. The chill night was bearable with this heating. The paladin offered me a bowl of meat soup and the bread she took from the tent.

It's quite delicious. How should I put it? The texture was crunchy and the soup had its mix of sweet and saltiness just about right. About the bread though, it seems we got to wait for a while until it got soft enough to chew. Eating the soup with the additional crunchiness of bread, seem to further accentuate the dish.

So that's why the paladin didn't eat right away.

Seeing as I finished rather quickly, I watched her ate. Contrary to my expectations, there was nothing refined about it; not even any delicate movements. It was more like a famished ordinary guy enjoying the food. It reminded me of myself.

Noticing my glance, she blushed heavily; putting her bowl down right away.

"I-it's not what you think! I was just...hungry, that's all."

"I really didn't mind that, that way of eating was pretty cute actually. If you're all refined and perfect I'm not sure if I could get along with you."

"...umm...I'm not cute but...thanks."

After we ate, both of us made self-introduction. The paladin's name was Fiona. She worked at the Holy Order on Beginner's City. When I asked what the Holy Order was, it's basically the military force of the Holy Empire Dei Magnus, the nation we're in currently.

The main reason why she was glad to help me actually was, due to her ability to get commision fee from rescuing people. She pointed out to her bracelet—it was a magic tool able to spot nearby people in danger and tally her achievements for the pay.

As she was born a commoner, moreover, from a poor family—she worked really hard to provide for her family, especially with the large number of siblings she had.

...oi...oi, things got rather heavy all of sudden.

When it came to me, I didn't have a lot of things to say. I only introduced my name—it's Takeshi by the way.

I also told her the truth: I came from another world, although I didn't remember how and somehow ended up in this clearing—got ambushed by slimes on top of that.

"Another world? Can you tell me what it was like?"

"Uh...it's nothing that special you see. Let's just say, there are no monsters and the technology in here is a lot more advanced."

I began to describe something like a fridge, television, and smartphones.

"You mean something like this?"

She took out a metallic slab with a bright display on it. It was a magic tool which enabled communication across the members of Holy Order.

"I'm not sure about your world being technologically advanced but we got all of the stuff you described. Though, I think it's nice if there are no monsters."

As the last question, she asked 'if there are no monsters, how's life over there?'

I simply said:

"I really didn't know, in the first place I don't feel I'm living my own life."

My world, Earth, was a place like that. You got to follow your parents, go to school, graduate, get a job and raise a family. Since it was quite easy and straightforward, most people went that way. I got as far as getting a job, and it all stopped before I had to attend another marriage interview.

Things such as trying to live your dream, wanting to make a difference in the world—it's all so difficult. It wasn't even worth it to be successful, especially with my firm belief that living an easy life was the best. It's not as if I regret my lackluster life, if I could turn back the time, I would still live similarly.

Fiona gave me a complicated expression, it's as something heavy weighed in her mind when she heard of my past life. She let out a long sigh before staring at the starry skies.

"Between easy and hard, how do you describe your own life, Takeshi?"

"Well, it's not that complicated. I just have to concern myself with going to work and maintaining my house—but yeah, I felt I was slowly dying inside."

"You know, I had that dream once. A peaceful life without anything significant happening, but I really had no choice since I could fight and there's now better paying job out there. Adventurer's guild had no stable income, more so the Mercenary Guild, but the Holy Order gave you regular stipends just by being the member.

I often complained about my duty at first, but I know. All the effort I had put in, made my days really worth it. Oh...no...what am I saying...? I just blurted out my feelings out of blue."

"On the contrary, I think it's pretty amazing."

"Ahahaha..."

I saw her face now looked like a tomato.

As the night advanced further, Fiona put out the fire and moved towards her tent. She patted the ground beside her while glancing shyly at me.

"My tent has more room...would you like to..?"

With her armor off and only wearing clothes made out of leather, her feminine figure was further accentuated. I gulped, but seeing as it's just for one day, I complied.

Just as I was about to come in..

"W-w-wait! On a side note, I will just sleep outside!"

"I really don't mind though. Well, it's not like I would take advantage of you just because

you're a cutie."

"...yes, you didn't seem to be that type of person....I'm sorry, I just...am not used with men in situations like this."

"You chatted and ate with me just fine, ain't it?"

"This and that are different! W-we're talking 'bout sleeping together....you see..."

"....gah."

Her flustered expression was so cute. Even me, who were desensitized with women for such a long time couldn't avoid the critical hit. Though, at this point in time, I strangely enough really want to take advantage of this situation! A lot of women in my past life were unapproachable, but this girl was likable. Even if it's just sleeping next to her, as I thought, it was a jackpot.

"Fiona. You don't have to sleep outside, I think it's warmer if we both got in the tent...."

Wow, I managed to say such shameless thing with a straight face. Wait, I couldn't see my face at all since there's no mirror right?

"I guess it's better to sleep outside."

In the end, she took a sleeping bag. A part of the reason was, she got tonight to watch for monsters and she was confident in her alertness. Donning her plate armor and two-handed sword by her side, she looked really comfortable while dozing off.

As for me, I could live with this. I didn't become a virgin for twenty-five years for nothing. If I could enjoy the warmth of a good woman, it's nice. Though if I couldn't, it's fine.

Taking off my glasses and put them in the tent's corner, I drifted into sleep 'cuz I felt so drowsy.

My first night in another world passed uneventfully like that.