"Oh yeah~ Mambo! Mambo!"
Under the night sky, by the quiet, deserted riverbank in Tokyo, Keli hummed a strange, unknown nursery rhyme alone.
This world has many abstract things, but just like a player who has entered a survival game, it is not yet time to capture wild men and use them as chairs, or pour lava into villagers' homes.
As a realistic survival game, Earth OL.
For Keli, the immediate priority was to find a place to stay overnight and to secure a stable source of food and water.
To avoid being immediately arrested and sent back to a mental hospital, one must avoid appearing in densely populated areas and frequently change locations to prevent being remembered for prolonged presence in one spot.
Actually, Keli wasn't against going back before. Aside from the bland food, he had food and shelter every day without needing to work, and everyone there was talented, making it even more enjoyable than a forum for the mentally challenged.
However, considering how much fun Tokyo offered now, Keli decided to wander around outside for a while first.
Keli's current situation could be described as similar to that of a homeless person, or even worse—essentially an escaped fugitive who wouldn't be subject to a large-scale manhunt, and unable to earn money by collecting scrap or receiving compensation for lost items from their owners.
However, Keli himself was completely unconcerned by this predicament, strolling leisurely along the river, occasionally glancing across at the night view of Kawasaki, or observing the flickering campfires of the homeless encampments nearby.
Indeed, there are many homeless people in Tokyo. Although they are often driven away for reasons like "you're dirtying the master's eyes" or "for the sake of city appearance," this does not solve the actual problem.
Even if the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare repeatedly claims that there are only a few thousand homeless people in Japan, the reality of their existence will not disappear just because the data is altered.
As Keli walked, contemplating his future plans, the voice in his head spoke again.
[Your first companion is coming soon. I've designed a communication method mimicking the chatroom structure in your memory so you can communicate. You'll know when he arrives. Your connection with others will increase periodically, so I should go play my comeback game now...]
Keli listened to the voice, staring blankly at something resembling a chatroom that had suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
Oh no! My auditory hallucinations have escalated to visual hallucinations. I really shouldn't eat just anything!
Meanwhile, not far from the homeless encampment, a man was holding his phone, seemingly looking at something.
The man seemed to interpret Keli's gaze towards the panel in front of him as a gaze towards himself, and looked back.
Upon seeing Keli, the man's eyes lit up. He turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and started walking over.
"Hey! Young man over there, are you new here? Are you having some difficulties in life recently?"
The man looked very gentle as he approached, and one could even see the glasses on his face. When he spoke, his face was wreathed in a very kind smile, like some sort of insurance salesman.
Keli looked at this person, who was approaching him on the street late at night, with suspicion, and did not reply.
The man walked up, looked at Keli's ill-fitting clothes, nodded secretly, and then continued.
"Don't be scared, I'm not a suspicious person. My name is Kondō Kaoru, and I often help people in need around here.
Don't be shy. Everyone has low points in their lives. Whether you're in debt from student loans and can't pay them back, are afraid to tell your family, or are a foreigner whose passport has been confiscated, you can come to me. I have many ways for struggling people to make money.
Don't give up because of a little setback. Your life is still long. As long as you make money, there will always be a chance to make a comeback."
The man spoke very sincerely, which made Keliunderstand the reason for his approach.
The other party seemed to have mistaken him for a homeless person looking for a place to stay.
So Keli, while looking at the panel in front of him, which truly resembled a chatroom, tried to see if there were any other changes to it, and casually inquired.
"Ways to make money?"
"Yes!" The other party was also very happy to see Kelirespond.
"Come, let's talk over here. We have many options you can choose from, like being a 'juice man' for adult videos, a street tout, or delivery work. It's usually very difficult for people with bad credit or debt to find jobs, but we don't mind here."
As he spoke, the man identifying himself as Kondōstepped forward and pointed towards the stairs nearby, indicating they could talk there.
But as he spoke, several disheveled figures had already approached from nearby.
"Hey! Kondō! Get lost!"
One of the older men tapped the wooden stick in his hand. The stick had a curved, iron-hook-like end, clearly indicating it was used for picking up trash.
Thus, the identity of these people was self-evident: they were homeless people living nearby.
The man calling himself Kondō heard the voice and turned his head, somewhat annoyed, but upon seeing their numerical superiority, he still retreated a few steps and looked at Keli.
"If you need anything, you can go to the business building over there..."
"Get out!" Before he could finish speaking, a homeless man raised an iron pot in his hand, and Kondō had no choice but to leave a trail of footprints on the grass, departing resentfully.
Keli watched all of this unfold, without saying a single word.
After Kondō walked away, the homeless men gathered closer, but they consciously maintained a certain distance from Keli, seemingly not wanting to scare him.
"Young man, you must not believe that guy. Recently, many young people who didn't listen to advice got divorced after marriage and were asked to pay child support for children that weren't theirs from an affair, leading them directly to bankruptcy, or they borrowed loans they couldn't pay back and were too afraid to tell their families, becoming homeless.
That guy is targeting people like you, and it's very likely he preys on the homeless."
Listening to the other person's words, Keli was very curious about a new term he hadn't heard before.
"Preys on the homeless?"
The other party realized Keli didn't know this, so he began to explain.
"Yes, because if a homeless person has a residence, they can receive a monthly subsidy from the government. Many years ago, yakuza came up with the method of imprisoning homeless people to collect their monthly welfare payments, which we call 'preying on the homeless.'
However, such incidents have become fewer in recent years."
"Did the Tokyo government build houses for the homeless?" Keli was very curious that such incidents had decreased.
"No, it's because the subsidies have been reduced, and various ward governments will try every means not to give money to the homeless and the yakuza. Also, the yakuza are in decline now, so they've started making the homeless do other things.
For example, helping transport illegal drugs, taking them to sign waivers for drug trials, or..."
At this point, the homeless man talking to Kelipaused.
"Or, for example, during a nuclear leak, they make us deal with it, or when organs are needed, they look for them from people like us, and also make us illegally fish for seafood and so on."
Hearing this, Keli scratched his head in confusion.
"Wait, how does illegal seafood harvesting fit in with all of that?"
"Actually, catching Matsuba crab for one night during the season can earn more money than selling illegal goods. I even heard that a young man from Nerima Ward was taken to change his voice and became some kind of VTuber, and they say money came in like a strong wind." The old homeless man shook his head as he spoke, looking as if he couldn't comprehend the current era.
"By the way, young man, do you want something to eat?"
A few minutes later.
"Gurgle gurgle!"
Instant noodles, past their expiration date, were boiling in an iron pot. Keli listened to the homeless people gathered around the fire, sharing their experiences of living in Tokyo.
Clearly, this severely violated Tokyo's public safety and fire regulations, but the people here didn't care.
"You can go to the shop under the bridge over there; they sell cheap cigarettes and beer. Try to avoid restaurant back kitchens; those people might get upset if they see us when they're throwing out food.
If someone suddenly comes up to befriend you, never trust them. Many people have disappeared that way."
Among these people, some had been homeless even before the Skytree was built. It wasn't until the government began large-scale forced evictions of the homeless for the Skytree's construction that the number of such people in Tokyo decreased.
In any group, there are good people and bad people, and the homeless, as a group primarily composed of individuals on the list of untrustworthy people, and if many consider the workplace to be the dark side of society, then this group of people is staring into the abyss of darkness.
It could even be said that the bad ones were in the majority, but Keli seemed to be relatively lucky, encountering the small, friendly portion of this group.
A normal person would undoubtedly feel guilty at this point, as, unlike what they thought, Keli had a way out; if he wanted to, he had a place to return to. Life in a mental hospital, no matter how absurd, was more comfortable than being homeless.
But clearly, Keli wasn't that normal; he just stared at the bubbling instant noodle pot, wondering if adding some pickled roadside greens to this bowl could make it to a Korean state banquet.
During the time the noodles were cooking, Keli also figured out how to use the thing that appeared in his vision. First, it seemed others couldn't see it. He could directly control it with his thoughts to type or slide with his hand, which was very magical.
And now, on the right side of this chatroom, in a place resembling a member list, there were two names.
The first was "Keli" himself, and he could even see a pixelated Keli avatar. Below it, an avatar was grayed out, and the name suffix read "Sato Kazuma."
As if by chance, as Keli looked at that avatar, it suddenly lit up.
And soon, a line of text appeared in the chatroom.
[Sato Kazuma: What is this? It suddenly appeared in my head and told me I'd revive at a respawn point after I die. I was just talking to a really conceited blue-haired goddess, and now what's this about?]
Keli looked at the message in the chatroom, thought for a moment, then tried typing a response.
[Keli: Check if you're lying on a platform or in a stone box?]
[Sato Kazuma: How did you know? Who are you? Didn't I go to another world? Wait! Is this my original body?!]
[Keli: If nothing unexpected happens, you're about to experience the same treatment as a saint.]
[Sato Kazuma: What saint? Like the one in A Certain Magical Index?]
[Keli: No, it's the Joan of Arc treatment.]
[Sato Kazuma: ?]
[Sato Kazuma: ?!!]
[Sato Kazuma: Holy crap! The temperature is really rising, save me!]
What the hell?! What happened?!
In a Tokyo funeral home, Sato Kazuma desperately and laboriously tried to push away the things around him to stand up and escape this hellhole.
However, he felt weak all over; besides being able to move his eyeballs and use the chat group, even breathing was difficult.
Marula!
In the past, Japan practiced earth burial due to religious reasons, but now cremation is also highly successful. Of course, the main reason is not environmental protection or Japanese people no longer believing in Shintoism and Buddhism; the main reason is that land is too expensive, and people living in the Tokyo metropolitan area simply cannot afford to die.
By the way, a little-known fact: over 70% of funeral industry professionals in Japan are Chinese. 4
Just as Sato Kazuma was about to become an "old acquaintance," a few cars stopped not far from the road above the river where Keli was.
After a perfectly executed illegal roadside parking, several people got out. The leader was none other than Kondō, who had been driven away not long ago.
"You've already confirmed the situation, right?" Standing by the road at the top of the riverbank, a middle-aged man, wearing sunglasses on the street late at night, perhaps cosplaying a blind masseur, pointed to the homeless encampment below, where faint lights still flickered.
"I've been watching for a few days before I came. The dirty bunch is pretty much all here today, and there's no one else nearby.
It's just a bit troublesome; there's a new kid in there who should have a phone on him."
Kondō glanced over with some disgust, explaining why he, already disliked by the camp residents, was still lingering in the vicinity late at night.
Since he had already been marked as untrustworthy, it was illogical for him to still be nearby trying to recruit people. The main reason Kondō was here was that his group was preparing to withdraw from Tokyo.
"Tsk, it's all because the higher-ups are demanding too many people. Something went wrong when we tried to trick international students over there before."
Japanese yakuza typically operate in units called "kumi," selecting successors through bloodlines, sworn brotherhood, and marriage alliances, much like Japanese bureaucrats. Before the crackdown in 2008, they maintained their operations by forcibly dividing territories with violence for transactions and extorting fees from businesses, much like the Japanese government.
Thinking about the last incident, they confiscated the passport of a good-looking male international student and forced him to sell himself at a special entertainment establishment. To their utter surprise, the student's father came to Japan to see how his son was doing, and before meeting him, decided to experience Japanese customs, only to pick his own son.
This incident caused quite a stir, and combined with their recent excessive activities, it drew the attention of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The higher-ups put in a lot of effort to suppress it. Moreover, the group's quota for recruits was becoming increasingly heavy. The boss's intention seemed to be to pull off one last big job, recruit more people, and as soon as their few shops in Ginza were all transferred, they would immediately move to Matsubushi Town.
"That's fine. Be quick and efficient. Be careful not to let the fire spread to the grass, or it'll cause a big fuss and lead to another investigation."
As he spoke, the leader with sunglasses dropped his cigarette to the ground and stomped it out, then motioned for his subordinates to grab their tools and head towards the riverbank.