Harrrk—
Arrrk!
The cry of some wide-throated beast echoed straight into his ears.
He could feel the scorching heat of the sun raining down directly on his face, and worse still, the rough edges of something jagged poking into his back.
'Am I dead?'
He questioned inwardly, his fingers twitching faintly to show he was already stirring back to consciousness.
[Welcome back, Sir Sho.]
Just the soothing voice of the woman in his head was enough to bring him fully awake.
Before he knew it, he was sitting upright, panting heavily with both hands pressed against the ground.
The first thing Sho did was scan his surroundings to make sense of where he was.
'What the fuck? Where am I?'
From where he sat, he could see he was in a deserted land — nothing but rocks and sand stretching for miles. There wasn't even a touch of green in sight.
[Would you like me to gather the necessary information about this new world?]
'New world? Uhn, is that my Ai?'
[Affirmative.]
[It would seem Mr. Sho has somehow died and been sent to this world, and i have also accompanied you, as well..]
Sho paused.
He looked down at his hand.
'Am I dreaming or something?'
[I am afraid not.]
[During your working spree, you collapsed from exhaustion and died right there on the ground. You have now awakened in this world.]
Sho remembered collapsing to the floor a few times during his working hours, but to think he had actually died from it was almost insane to consider.
He was a scientist for the government, so of course he was always buried in his research at the lab, alongside the AI he had built specifically to serve as his personal assistant.
Yet now, he was supposedly in another world because he had died, and his AI was somehow lodged inside his head along with him.
As a scientist, it was quite a lot to swallow.
Sho folded his arms after dusting off his lab coat.
"You say I'm in another world, right?"
[That is correct.]
"Alright then, what kind are we talking about? Heaven?"
[Please wait while I gather the information needed for an accurate response.]
While he waited, Sho rose to his feet, taking his time to look around this new place.
When he glanced toward the sky, he noticed that despite the sun giving off the same color it would have in his former world, it carried a faintly purplish tint, and there was a second sun hanging on the opposite side of the sky.
That small detail alone was further proof his AI was right.
But why would he be in another world to begin with?
He had always believed there was only this one life, and that once you died, nothing else came after it.
Honestly, if it had turned out to be heaven or hell, he might have accepted that more easily, but another world entirely was a different matter altogether.
It felt like something straight out of a novel.
[Information has been gathered.]
[This world is quite similar to your former one, only roughly a hundred years behind in development. Their knowledge of technology is not advanced, but it is something they compensate for with magic. Some parts of this world have advanced their civilization, while others are still lagging behind.]
'Ahh, I see. And I'm stuck in the part with no development, right?'
[That is correct.]
Sho sighed, tilted his head to the side, and sighed again.
'Honestly, I should be more worried about dying, but I doubt anyone would even notice. It's not like I had a family or anything. Which means I need to figure out how to survive here.'
[I have a set of information you might want to hear.]
'Really? Let me have it, then. I need all I can get.'
[It would seem you also possess the ability to use magic.]
Sho blinked.
"What?"
[Correct. There appear to be three magical abilities tied to you alone. Would you like me to list them? I discovered this after detecting mana particles scattered throughout your body.]
'Interesting…'
Sho stroked his chin. 'This might be far more fascinating than I thought. I can use magic. Let me hear them.'
[Request confirmed.]
[God of Information: This skill is apparently linked to me, as I am able to gather information at an alarming speed, so long as the knowledge is something known by the masses.]
[God of Wisdom: This particular skill allows you to instantly learn anything. The limit of this skill is unknown — you may need to perform experiments to test its boundaries.]
[God of Creation: This allows you to create anything inanimate, provided you have sufficient knowledge of what it is.]
Sho, with his hands folded, watched the runes glow softly before him.
'Oh…'
All three of the abilities the system had revealed were indeed impressive — he couldn't deny that.
If anything, it made him want to try them out immediately and figure out where their limitations lay.
His eyes began scanning the area to see if there was anything he could experiment on, and then, the idea hit him.
'Tell me how magic works, would you?'
[Understood.]
[Downloading the necessary information now…]
In the very next moment, Sho felt all the information begin to flood into his head, as though he had been studying it for years.
Just like that, he understood how magic worked.
Apparently, every single person in this world was born with a magic crest inside them. The more complex the shape of the crest, the stronger and more varied the magic of said person, which also meant the more spells they could learn.
But in his case, rather than having a defined shape, his supposed magic crest resembled vines, stretching all throughout his body.
'So my mana pool is impressive, then? I can't really come to that conclusion until I've met more people to decide if this is normal or not.'
He looked far ahead, checking once more to see if he could spot any sign of life.
Then he saw it. At a far distance, the top of a tree peeked above the horizon.
A smile immediately made its way to his face.
'Bingo! Hehe, now we're talking.'