prologue & 1

Hello.

You might be wondering what this is. To be honest, I don't completely know, either. In fact, it's *because* I don't know what I'm doing that this exists.

You see, I was in the middle of constructing another world. Or maybe it's like, I was trying to remember the contents of a save file? I'm not exactly sure how to put it into words.

Anyway, it's a bit of a stressful job. I think, for my taste, there's a little too much pressure on me to create a world that's *just* right. After all, if I don't, I can't extract all the potential energy from it.

Well, that's beside the point. If that project is a tall skyscraper, this one'll be like a tiny jenga tower. I'll just keep piling little blocks on until it all falls apart. Let's get to building, shall we?

Obviously, our canvas is a blank white space. We can put anything we want here. Hm... all jenga towers start with a template, right? I want to take it easy, so I'll just use something cookie-cutter.

Just in front of me here, I've made a portal to another world!

...

It's like blue and has circles and stuff? Or maybe some other color? You know what I'm talking about. I'm about to enter this new world and create it as we go along.

But we'll need a bit of a story, right? I've got just the thing. I call it "Otherworld Bingo". Or rather, since it's a Japanese trope, "Isekai Bingo". I'll just dump all these possible tiles in a "System Quest" machine and it'll spit things out as we go along.

Okay, now... I'll walk through the portal... and... we're here. It's as boring as can be. I'm on top of a hill that stands out in the green plains with few trees, and there's a straight dirt path.

If you've read enough of these stories, you probably know what comes next.

In the distance, I see a carriage getting attacked by bandits and monsters.

*>System Quest: Defend the carriage!*

I'm still basically in creative mode, so that won't be any fun. I'll switch to some pseudo-survival state, and I'll give myself amnesia. LOL.

But... why is this an isekai? Couldn't it just be ordinary fantasy?

Well isn't it obvious? How can we play isekai bingo in a non-isekai? After all, the "Free Space" on the bingo sheet is literally "Transported to another world".

Anyway, remember that jenga tower? The bricks are made of tropes, and didn't I tell you what I'm doing? We've already stacked isekai and amnesia.

Well, not yet. But once I snap my fingers...

---

I woke up in the middle of a grassy plain.

*What... Where am I?*

I had vague memories of some environments, but the current one didn't match any of my memories. I panicked. Had I been kidnapped? What kind of place in my country would have a place like this? Maybe the south?

*Um...*

On second thought, kidnapping didn't make any sense, unless they dropped me or something. Why would they leave me in the middle of the plains in broad daylight?

*What am I even supposed to do?*

Where was the nearest city? How was I supposed to get there? I had no food and no water. All I had was some plain black clothes and a... sword?

*What the...*

Why did I have a sword? And why was my getup so edgy?

*Black sword, black clothes... For some reason I feel like the default character in a video game.*

Before I could gather my thoughts, I heard a high-pitched scream not too far away.

*What...?*

Carriages, massive dogs, and medievally-armored individuals? What was going on? Were they shooting a movie? But where were the cameras?

Everything was moving too fast. I didn't know what to do. But as if the universe was listening to my query, I received a response immediately. But when I read it, I froze.

*No way. I have to do this?*

I read the message over and over, but it didn't change.

What was it?

Well... I still didn't want to face it, but it read:

*>System Quest: Defend the carriage!*

 "Crap, crap, crap..."

I had to get out of here. But...

"HEEELLLP!!!"

I froze. It was bloodcurdling. That was definitely a kid's voice.

*Come on...*

I looked back towards the carriage nervously. Running into that fray was simply suicide.

*One, two, three...*

There were five armored people attacking the carriage, and five massive dogs accompanying them. It looked like there were some guards and some big lizard things defending the carriage, but it was clear they didn't have long left if I didn't do something.

*Wait, do something? Why would I do something?*

If I joined, it would be a 7v10 at best. Those weren't good odds. 

Whoever was in charge of this system was playing a joke on me.

*"System Quest" can go suck a-*

*>System Message: Failure to complete the quest will result in death.*

*.....*

This had to be impossible. It was either death by something that I knew could physically hurt me versus death by some nebulous "system" that I wasn't even sure was real.

But something told me that it was.

*Dammit...*

I had to act. The more time passed, the more they would suffer.

"Every second counts...!"

For some reason, nobody notice me approach.

The metal-clad backside of the nearest soldier was before me. I thrust the sword into the armor, trying to use as much of my momentum as possible. After all, it was metal armor. Naturally, it should be hard to make a dent in it, right?

*Huh.*

Was I slicing through a human or tofu? Was this ketchup or blood?

*If it's tofu, then it's the most murderous tofu I've ever seen. Maybe it's mapo tofu.*

It was all red now, after all.

*Wait, what am I thinking about?*

The other four soldiers simultaneously turned to look towards their fallen comrade.

This gave the carriage guards a chance to strike back, and the advantage was suddenly in our favor.

The lizard things were keeping the dogs at bay, so now it was just human-on-human action.

With momentum on our side, I grew confident.

"Hah!"

I quickly pull the sword out of its newfound organic sheath and slice 180 degrees around. I'd cleanly placed my strike at the aggressor's neck, and a headless stump gushed forth with red liquid.

Now, it was a 4v3. Not only did we have the morale advantage, but we had the numbers to back it up.

Realizing they'd been thwarted, the soldiers took off running in all different directions.

Fortunately, they were pretty slow. Perhaps it was because they were heavily armored, but I easily caught up to one, then two.

Somehow, the third had gotten on the back of one of the giant dogs as if it were a horse.

*I can't run THAT fast, so...!*

I quickly spun around and, using the centrifugal force to my advantage, launched the sword in the final soldier's direction.

It whizzed through the air as it made a beeline for its target.

And...

"Guhugg...!"

The final soldier toppled over and clunked onto the ground.

The rest of the dogs had already left.

It was over.