"Hey! What the hell are you doing, moron?! Get out of the road!"
A coachman shouted at him just as Katsuki snapped out of his daze only to dive out of the way of a speeding carriage. He landed hard on the stone street, pain shooting up his side.
It hurt. It really hurt.
Which meant... this wasn't a dream.
Groaning, he got up and staggered through the crowd, trying to find a quieter place to think. The market was loud and packed, full of people shouting, bartering, moving goods, or just pushing past.
He had to squeeze through a blur of colors and smells, armor clinking, merchant stalls shouting prices, cloaks brushing against him.
He passed knights in gleaming plate, robed mages deep in conversation, and even beastkin with twitching ears and tails.
Eventually, he found a calm riverbank at the edge of town. He crouched near the water and looked at his reflection.
Still the same black hair. Still the soft-featured, typical Japanese face. Same dark eyes. He was around 185 cm, lean but fit. His body hadn't changed.
"I'm not transmigrated," he muttered slowly, realization dawning.
"I'm… isekai'd!" he then exclaimed, as if finally understand what happened to him.
Nearby, a group of kids playing in the river paused and stared at him.
"That weird guy just said 'isekai'…"
"Is that a spell or something?"
"He's got such a strange face…"
Katsuki pretended not to hear them and dipped his feet in the water to cool off. It helped a little, but his brain was overheating.
'Am I really inside that novel? Or just some other fantasy world?:
Katsuki had read more than enough light novels to know the patterns. Guy gets sent to another world. Gets powers. Builds a harem. Maybe some world-saving in between. It was either that…
Or endless pain, suffering, and depression.
Unfortunately for him, the novel he had just read [The Dungeon Master Wannabe] wasn't exactly a masterpiece.
The story was about a guy who wanted to be a dungeon master in a world called Astonish. He had no powers, no cheat items, just pure dumb luck. He entered the biggest and most impossible dungeon: The Babel of Grandeur.
He wasn't overpowered. The only reason he didn't die in Chapter 3 was because two insanely strong heroines kept saving him over and over again.
"God… what a crap novel. How did I even read all of that?" Katsuki scratched his head, still baffled.
Something about it had hooked him. Pulled him in like a curse.
And worst of all…
"It's not even finished yet?! It stopped right in the middle of a boss fight?! AAAARGH!!"
He let out a long, frustrated scream.
Then he stopped. "Wait… I must have something. A system? Magic? Cheat skills?"
He stood up, threw out his hand, and shouted, "Fireball!"
Nothing happened.
The kids burst out laughing.
"He's crazy!"
"Trying to cast spells or something? Pfft!"
"Fireball!!" one of them mocked, flailing around like a drunk mage.
Katsuki's face flushed red. He clenched his fists and stormed toward them, ready to scold them however he stopped.
Screams echoed from deeper in town. Metal clashed with metal, something exploded as smoke curled into the sky.
Katsuki turned toward the noise, his blood going cold.
"…An attack?"
Less than an hour had passed, and the place he landed in was already under attack.
What made it worse was that the kids who mocked him earlier were now hiding behind him, as if expecting him to protect them.
"You guys were making fun of me just a moment ago, you know?"
"So what? You're still bigger than all of us," the bald kid replied bluntly, while the other two nodded without shame.
Katsuki groaned. 'Wait, maybe this is it. Maybe my true power awakens when I'm in danger? That's always what happens in anime, right?'
With that irrational hope in mind, he stepped out of the river, the children following closely behind like ducklings trailing their mother. He looked absolutely ridiculous.
The closer he walked toward the commotion, the more people ran in the opposite direction. He didn't care, but the kids definitely did.
"Mister, what are you doing?!"
"We should go back!"
"Do you want to die?!"
"Then stop following me! Look around, there are tons of bigger, stronger guys than me! Follow them instead!"
Despite his protests, the kids only exchanged pale, nervous glances and continued sticking to him anyway, gripping the back of his clothes like he was some kind of last hope.
Then he stopped walking because his eyes widened at the sight ahead of him.
There, standing in the middle of the chaos, was a woman so striking he almost forgot about the danger around him.
She had flowing black hair and crimson eyes that shone even through the smoke. Her lips were painted a vivid black and half of her face was covered with a sheer black veil that only made her look more mysterious.
She wore a pitch-black dress that matched her eerie beauty, and in her hand was a staff with intricate, thorny ornaments that practically screamed 'evil sorceress.'
And her breasts—God, those breasts—were on a level of their own.
Beside her stood a squad of skeletons in various shapes and sizes, some wearing heavy armor, others in robes or rags. The sight was enough to turn any sane person away.
"Scream, cry, and beg! You'll all be part of my skeleton army soon enough!" she shouted with a mad laugh, her voice echoing through the street.
Her skeletons surged forward, slashing and killing people without hesitation. No one dared to stand against her.
"What the hell... This really is an isekai fantasy world," Katsuki muttered.
The children were already pulling at his sleeves, clearly ready to bolt.
"What are you doing, Mister?! Run!"
But Katsuki didn't run. In fact, he grinned.
He, a man who had lived in a dull, colorless world with no excitement, no magic, and no power, now stood in the middle of a true fantasy. And the woman leading an army of skeletons? She was glorious.
"Waah, Evan, this guy is totally crazy!" the red-haired kid shouted, tugging at the bald one's shirt. Evan nodded quickly, and the three of them slowly backed away.
Katsuki, however, kept walking forward until he stood directly in front of the necromancer.
"Why aren't you running?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
"I don't know… Maybe because you're just so damn cool," he replied with a shaky but genuine grin. "I've never felt this alive before."
"Back in my world, everything was dull and grey. But looking at you now? I see fire, death, power! this is everything I've ever wanted!"
"I fucking love necromancers!" he yelled without shame.
She raised one brow, clearly amused but also confused. "Well, you'll still be useful as part of my collection. Maybe you'll even turn into something interesting."
With a smirk, she pointed her staff at him. A skeleton knight stepped forward, raising its blade.
"Huh? What do you mean by tha—"
Before he could finish his sentence, his head was already flying through the air, hitting the ground with a dull thud and rolling to the side.
And with that, Katsuki Honda died.
Less than three hours after getting isekai'd.