PART-1

I regained consciousness an instant ago, but I refused to learn the situation of my surroundings and myself. Why you ask? Because my body felt tired and my mind felt numb. I figured it might be because of the inexplicably intense pain I experienced until moments ago.

Pain... Why did I feel pain? Oh yeah, an enormous concrete block fell on top of me. Not to mention the momentum it would have gained under the effect of gravity. That reminds me, man, my death felt so rushed. Thinking about it now, it kind of felt similar those novels where the author wants to kill off a character but can’t find a proper excuse.

I mean, seriously, I notice the block of concrete breaking off from the top of a building and in the next split second the chunk is already on top of me. Where is the logic? Not just that, how in the world did that break off from the building in the first place? An explanation for that could be the fact that the truck crashed into the building and so the top cracked off. To me, that sounds as logical as having an earthquake in a clear blue sky.

Anyway, now that I have isekai’d into another world, I need to fabricate a plan that would make me enjoy this second life of mine to the fullest, unlike in my previous life. You would be mistaken if you assume I didn’t enjoy my previous life. If I have to put my thoughts into simple words, I enjoyed my previous life as an introvert (that is, by watching anime, reading novels, playing games, and many “shut-in” things). Now in this life, I wanted to live my life as an extrovert, with friends and family.

Ugh I get embarrassed every time I say ‘family’.

Sorry for taking that tangent. Getting back to making the plan, I have to get started from the basics. First, I have to work towards having steady finances for my food, shelter, and clothes. So my top priority would be to find a job. If we take anime as standard, one observation would be that most well-paid and respected jobs mostly depend on magic.

Therefore, my affinity for magic would decide if I will get a proper job or not. Even if I happen to not have any magic at all, (which is uncommon for anime MCs but the recent surge in isekai anime where the protagonist is a weakling says otherwise) I will sell articles I am acquainted with and this world is not aware of.

While I work on the quest for getting money, I need to make friends and girlfriends- Why did I just say the last part in plural? Anyway, making friends and having some romance in my boring single life would be my second priority. Though the first goal in the priority list is important for me to stay alive, the second one is what I am more interested in.

It is because to make friends I have to go out of my comfort zone and talk to strangers. I think it will be harder to talk to an unknown person in a medieval world than back in mine, as people here wouldn’t trust anyone that easily. The trust issues mainly arise because of the high crime rate and ineffective police or military.

That’s the plan I have in mind for now. But if there were to be some other unexpected developments, I would change the plan as per the situation.

PART - 2

I am lying on what looks like a sidewalk, under a bridge. To my left is what looks like a canal, fully occupied with water flowing at full force, ready to overflow anytime. To my right is a wall that becomes one of the two feet of the bridge about maybe 15 feet above.

I see a sudden flash of light, accompanied by a rumble of thunder, making me notice the rain. Thanks to the bridge, I'm not getting drenched wet, but slowly the water on the sidewalk making its way toward me. I push myself off the ground and sit in a fetal position, with my back against the rock wall.

'Hmm... A very unideal place for waking up in an isekai world, I must say.' I think as I try to retrieve more information from my surroundings.

I notice that there's another sidewalk on the other side of the bridge. Similar to the one I'm on right now, the other one is also made of grey rock. Even the bed of the canal is made of the same rock. Talking about the canal, the water in it is just about a foot below. With the rain like this, it's only a matter of minutes before the sidewalks are flooded with the canal water.

The bridge itself isn't pretty big or wide. It's your average-sized bridges that are shown in Hollywood romance movies. I don't know why that came into my mind while trying to find a comparison, but there you have it.

From underneath the bridge, I can see a few stereotypical medieval roofs. They look like an inverted 'v', with brown tiles on the roof.

I couldn't find a single soul anywhere. I mean, it's probably because it's raining, but come on, I'm an isekai MC after all. Shouldn't I get like a special welcome or something?

I'm disappointed and my day is ruined.

I waited for the rain to stop, while I tried to come to terms with the fact that I already died once. Unlike my expectations, I didn't feel unaffected by my death. I certainly would like to avoid it at all costs, for it is the most amount of displeasure I felt in my entire life.

Eventually, it stopped raining, and luckily my butt didn't get wet from the water on the sidewalk. I got onto my feet and walked up the grassy slope to the above ground.

There still weren't many people in sight, probably because of the rain. The cloudy weather made it hard to determine the time, so for all, I know it could be an odd time too.

This place looks like a residential area. The houses are enough to clearly distinguish between the rich and the poor. On the other side of the bridge are the 'poor' people. The best houses on that side are tiny cubical structures built out of the same grey rock and dark brown tiles, looking like they are going to collapse with a little wind, and the others are made of tree wood and mud. On the other hand, this side has the middle and high class. The worst-looking house is twice as big as the largest house on the other side. Another thing is, the number of floors the house has increased as you go farther from the bridge, I reckon, so does the wealth. The highest number of floors is 6 or so.

The whole residential area is located on slightly slanted land, with the rich on the higher side. How unironic.

While such a separation of the rich and the poor is quite a cliché concept, it is very realistic as well. The rich need the poor to become richer. The poor need the rich to survive. In my opinion, that's how society works and is supposed to work. The partition between the 'high-class' and the 'low class' is fine as long as the rich are not torturing the poor if you ask me.

I start to walk on the wide pavement (big enough for a truck to fit in) of the 'rich-residential area' in between the houses. Talking about trucks- I panic and my eyes swiftly look around me, trying to catch sight of my newly acquired fear, Truck-kun. My heartbeat started raising and unconsciously I began walking with my back to the walls of the houses. My entire body shook at the very thought of looking at a truck. When I reached the end of the wall of a house, my fear of the truck crashing into me became so insurmountable that I halted and fell to my knees.

'I can't do this. I can't live with this fear, all my life. I can't get better if I don't overcome this.'

My breath grew ragged and slowly my vision blurred.

'Get a hold of yourself! Breath! Breath!'

Forcing air into my lung, I set my goal to forget this fear for now. I scanned around and my eyes landed on a certain wooden signboard, pointing forward. Something is written on it in a foreign language. Only now has it occurred to me that this world can have a language that I don't know. If so, I'm screwed.

Anyhow, I decide to follow the signboard and see where that takes me. Ironing my will, I stand on my feet and quickly walk up the slope.

PART - 3

After a few minutes, my body slowly came back to normal. I say that, but every time I realize that I'm forgetting the fear, my body starts shaking. But thanks to all the other thoughts, I can let the fear slip time and time again.

The ambient light grew duller, implying now it is evening. Light and the smell of fuel escaped through tiny cracks of the closed wooden windows.

On the way, I saw a few more signboards similar to the one I saw earlier. I follow the boards and after some time, I'm standing at the entrance of a huge building. I could quickly say it wasn't a house from its structure itself. An aura of authority radiated from the building. Though, at first, I thought this might be the kings... Castle?- the lack of security and grandiose gave me a second thought. This is probably a governing office.

Though I arrived here, I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I didn't get any cute girl that will lead me to the demon lord or the king. Well, I can't whine about that now. First things first, I need to get a shelter. And for that I need money. Meaning, I first need to find a job. So I'll just need to ask for the 'Adventurer's guild office', right?

I walk into the office. I see a woman behind a wooden table, hastily scribbling onto a yellowish paper in an unknown language. She doesn't notice me until I tap my finger on the table to grab her attention.

"Yes?" The woman asks, without the slightest bit of politeness.

I feel relieved from the realization that they speak English. Or... What if it is just a word that phonetically sounds like 'yes' but is not English? Well, I'll find out anyway.

"Can I know where the Adventurers guild is?" I gather all my courage and speak out, suppressing whatever hesitation I feel.

The woman, whom I should rather call a receptionist, looked confused for a second. My heart sunk as I began to doubt if she didn't speak English.

"Are you new to the province?" The woman asks.

I sigh in relief, "Yes, I just arrived."

"I see. All the adventurer's guilds across the province were shut down a long time ago. Since last year, after the demon lord was eliminated, even the military stopped taking cadets. I don't believe you can land yourself such a job."

The hero killed the demon lord? Am I not supposed to be the hero? Not to mention, what is even the point of being isekai'd if the demon lord has already been killed?

"Do you have enough money to rent a room?" The woman asks, breaking my train of thought.

I stay quiet. I was going to rent out a place by working in the adventurer's guild. But if that isn't an option, what do I do to earn?

"Understood." The woman calmly said. She placed a red coin-like seal on the table. "First thing in the morning tomorrow, go to the Shelters and show this emblem to the guards there. You will get a room for the next three days."