Bro Became HIM In Another World

Tucked in the corner, a bunch of magic circles and runes flowing around inside of a metallic casing. Hovering above, a projected monitor made by another ritual circle. And in front of me, the familiar RGB glow of a keyboard and… oh come on, it has a touchpad and no mouse?! It was so close to being perfect, it was this close! At least the monitor is a touchscreen display, and I can move it around the cubicle and resize it to my liking. Same with the keyboard and touchpad.

"Wow, it's almost like a God Panel. Just without all the stuff that God Panels can do. Guess it'd just be… a panel, yeah?"

Kandance asked me a question, but it was too late. The internet is where I am happiest, and I am already configuring the settings on this thing to my liking.

"Hey! Before you get so wrapped up in this thing, at least figure out stuff about it like you did in the store!"

… Yeah, she has a point. Let's see, which of these icons will bring up the equivalent of a web browser? If I had to guess…

"This one."

I touched the symbol of a bright red "M" over a blue circle. And I was right on the money, it's "ManaNet Explorer"! Okay, this HAS to have been made by someone from my world, there's no way it isn't! Not just because of the name of the browser, but because the search engine is almost an exact copy of the most popular one in the world! It's missing the email connection and nine dots forming a square that leads to a bunch of links, but everything else is still there!

"A search feature? Oooohohohoho! I could replicate one here easily…"

Kandance starts to busy herself doing that, meaning I can browse the web in peace. Also, I think that's the first time she's used that laugh since we've come here. Maybe it's a sign she's getting more comfortable? But I thought her not using the laugh meant she was doing that already? I don't get it. But I get the internet, so I get the ManaNet! Time to figure out how this thing exists.

"Who created the ManaNet… and enter!"

It only takes one second to load up the results, and I click the second one. Never click the first unless you're a hundred percent sure it's not an ad!

I'm brought to a site called "Party Member's Memoirs", an interesting name. The site itself is designed with some black and gold borders, and everything has a rich look to it. There's a little description about what this site is near the top, so I'll start there.

"Greetings! This memoir site belongs to Rosincrye DeNac. If you read a book that mentions the party of the twenty fourth hero, I'm the female Kamamein from it! Though I might become more known for creating the ManaNet, uwu!"

Holy shit, they have internet slang here.

"It's all thanks to Shinsuke Suji (tho he says it's the other way around from his home country lol) for inspiring this entire thing!"

"Hmm? That's a familiar name…"

Kandance pauses her work and looks over at the name on the site.

"Shinsuke… Suji Shinsuke… yeah, that was the guy who I sent here before you."

Ah, so my predecessor inspired the creation of the internet. What lofty standards I would have had to live up to if I came here like everyone else.

"Got any juicy info on him?"

Kandance thinks for a moment, a thought bubble with dots appearing above her head.

"Nah, don't really get to know the guys I send down here. Oh, but I remember how he died. He was returning to his home country, and the big flying vehicle he was on exploded!"

Ouch, that's gotta suck. Maybe Rosincrye's site can tell me more about them? It'd probably be in the tab labeled "How we made the MPC and ManaNet". Time to give it a good read.

"It all began in the year 9000 AD…"

I assume AD isn't the same as Earth's. Actually, I think it means "After Dreimaaz", since if this started a thousand years ago, it'd be exactly nine thousand years after the Hero that made the Dreimaaz. Neat. Anyway…

"I was working on my project to get a Magus' Apprentice title at Wisseneisse University, Fanta Regauss' top mage school!"

A mage school? Gotta visit one of those someday.

"It just so happened that, on the day that projects would be shown to the Magi of Wisseneisse, the twenty fourth Hero appeared next to me as I was presenting my project!"

So Magi sounds like a governing role. Also, poor girl, having her thunder stolen.

"Shinsuke was a Hewmitahl male with thick glasses and short, black hair (and a cute smile heheh~). I was really mad at him at first for ruining my shot at becoming a Magus' Apprentice, but I wasn't allowed to express it because of how we're told to treat Heroes nicely when they first arrive. Despite that, he came to my dorm room and apologized a bunch! Shinsuke said he wanted someone smart to guide him here, so of course I accepted and became his first (and only!) party member."

Bet she's proud of that.

"I used my mix of combat and curative magic, plus some magic swordplay I picked up from my parents (singleton mages btfo), to help Shinsuke. He always somehow learned new stuff out of nowhere, from what a monster's weakness was likely to be to how to act at fancy parties. It wasn't until our wedding day that I learned it was a part of Shinsuke's power from the Goddess (ya know, like every other hero, should've realized sooner lol)."

Oh, they got married? Good for them. Also, even in another world, online insults still exist. Some things never change.

"Quick lore dump, owo! Shinsuke Suji was born and raised in the well known Hero country of Japan, but apparently, he studied outside of there in a non-Japan place called London. He really really liked this thing they had called "internet", which Japan also had, but he liked the one outside of Japan more. He wanted to use it even more, but he had to go home. DOUBLE BUT!! That's when he was brought to Fanta Regauss, and he wished for the Goddess to let him access that version of the internet in our world!"

I'm starting to see where this is going…

"I thought it was super cool, but he apparently felt like it wasn't enough. His internet couldn't connect to other people from his world, and it made him feel alone (even tho he was with me). That's when I gave him the idea of bringing the internet to Fanta Regauss! We spent the rest of our lifespans (yes, I kept working on this even after my hubby died) creating ManaNet. Shinsuke recreated the "software" part as he calls it through intense studying of runecraft. Meanwhile, I made the "hardware" part with the Manafied Personal Computers, or MPCs, that could run the software and display it on monitors from connected magic circles!"

Cute story. Hmm… this probably means they had this internet stuff for a bit over nine hundred years, yeah?

"Thx for the read! I may be dead by the time you're reading this, but Shinsuke said that the internet never forgets, so now no one can forget me! May my descendants be blessed to find someone as perfect for them as Shinsuke was for me. And if YOU wanna see how perfect our love life was, check out these memoir links!"

Yeah, no, I'm not interested in someone else's romance. Also… descendants implied she had at least one kid. Which means… Hewmitahls and Kamamein can crossbreed? Man, the internet will always make you imagine the raunchiest stuff, regardless of the world it's in…