…I pass through the torii gate with Fer.
My body sways, lurching.
And when I realize it, I’m…
“What the heck is this place…?”
I was standing in a completely different place than before.
…Unfamiliar? No, this place… I know it!
“What are you doing, Nagano! Don’t just stand there, get to work!”
“You’re… Department Head Sudare!”
“It’s Suzaka!”
…A short man with a sudare-like hairstyle, wearing a suit, is glaring at me.
Looking around, I see many other people, also in suits, sitting at desks and staring intently at documents.
“This place… isn’t this the exploitative company I was at before I was summoned to another world…?”
Everyone is working with faces that look like they’re about to die. Yes, that was a common sight three years ago.
Because I, too, was once among this horde of dead-looking, suited people.
“Nagano! Hurry up and work! You scum!”
“Huh? Department Head Sudare. Are you sure you can talk to me like that?”
“What did you say?”
“If I get serious, you know, I could One-Punch De-Kieryu you?”
After all, I am a God.
A mere human would be blown to smithereens with just a little poke.
Department Head Sudare snaps and hits my head.
“Oww…!”
“Stop daydreaming and get to work, slowpoke!”
I rub my aching head… No way… right…?
I’m supposed to be protected by God Protection, so normal attacks shouldn’t work on me.
“The fact that it hurts means it’s probably not a dream either…”
The clack, clack-clack-clack of keyboards echoes.
Everyone’s working with faces that look like they’re about to die. …I, too, was once a part of this.
“No way… Was everything up until now a dream, and this… is reality…?”
…I return to my desk and sit down.
…Well, come to think of it, that makes sense.
My otherworld life was utterly preposterous.
What’s with a tomato being a Familiar?
What’s with Omniscience not knowing things?
A Floating Island that turns ideals into reality? Makes no sense.
Kieryu? What’s that, such a stupid name.
A world where you don’t starve, don’t die, don’t have to work… there’s no way such a kind and gentle world could be real.
What I was seeing was a delusion. A fantasy. A long, long… dream.
Yes… it was a dream. If so, that would explain those incomprehensible, nonsensical days in the other world…
…
No one cares about me while I’m feeling down.
There’s no one to offer kind words.
There’s no one to bring me delicious food.
There are no companions or friends to laugh merrily with me… none.
That’s reality.
…This is reality?
Well, yeah. Reality is indeed a place without such conveniences.
But…
“No.”
I mutter. Saying it out loud makes the feeling even stronger.
“This isn’t reality.”
Yes… for me, “real” isn’t this current world, this “reality” stripped of all conveniences.
That world full of plot armor and preposterousness… where everyone is waiting.
That is what’s… real… to me!
“Besides! I’ve gotten so used to life in the other world that I can’t even work in reality anymore…!”
“Hey Nagano, you’re being noisy…!”
Department Head Sudare comes over.
I punch Sudare in the face.
“Shut up…! I am a God! Don’t defy a God…!”
“Eek…! This isn’t the usual Naganooo~…”
…Let’s sort out the situation.
I stepped into Nagano God’s domain with Fer.
The next moment I thought that, I was standing in this place.
The fact that I feel pain means it’s unlikely I’m under some kind of Illusion Magic.
Then… what is it?
“Hey Sinri! Hurry up and help me! I’m in trouble, you know!?”
Then, on the computer monitor in front of me, the figure of my beloved daughter appears.
『I’ve finally connected! Master, are you alright?!』
Sinri-tan is in serious mode.
I missed youuu.
But “serious mode” means I’m in a really bad situation.
Sinri isn’t joking around at all.
“Sinri, the situation.”
『Master, you are currently in another world.』
“? You mean the other world with the Floating Island?”
『That’s not it. You’re trapped in another world created by Nagano God—one that is neither reality nor a fantasy world.』
…So Nagano God created an entire world and trapped me in it…?
Nagano God… is seriously bad news.
『But you’re safe now!』
“Yeah, I’m not scared of anything anymore.”
Because I have Omniscient and Omnipotent (Internet) and Sinri-tan.
There’s nothing more reliable than Sinri in serious mode.