Yes, hello. My name is Suzuka Jozenji.
The man who lost all his fortune on FX, fell into despair, went to sleep, and woke up having time leaped to his third year of middle school, the time traveling middle aged man, Suzuka Jozenji.
I was confused about having time leaped, but when I learned I could use future information cheats to make a fortune in stocks, the joy was greater. That is natural. In this day and age, not having to worry about money is a blessing beyond expectations. That happiness will be mine from now on. Of course I would be elated.
But everyone. The clouds are looking suspicious.
What is with this history
Despite final exams being over, Suzuka opened his social studies textbook and held his head. The contents written there were vastly different from the history Suzuka knew from a certain point onward. At first he used a computer to look things up, but the content was so strange he thought it might be a joke, so he opened the textbook and found the same things written there.
Until the 19th century, it was no different from the history Suzuka knew. There was a Heiankyo, the Kamakura Shogunate was established in 1192 according to this textbook too, and the Edo Shogunate was ruled by the Tokugawa family.
But the 20th century was strange. In the history Suzuka knew, World War II ended in 1945. After that, the GHQ came, the Treaty of San Francisco was signed, and before he knew it, Japan entered a period of high economic growth, went through the bubble, and he was born. He was not very knowledgeable about history, so much of it was hazy, but the broad strokes should be correct.
However, in this world line, it was different. It was the same up to 1945 when World War II ended. But five years later in 1950, dungeons appeared in the world. This was not some coded language or metaphor. Those dungeons that appear in manga and light novels appeared in this world.
Now there are over 100 dungeons, but when they first appeared, there were 10. They appeared in the countries known as the great powers, as well as in Africa, South America, and even in Japan, still deeply scarred by defeat in war.
Because the brutal war of World War II had just ended, every country was exhausted. At this critical time when they needed to restore their national power, gates to another world, later called dungeon gates, suddenly appeared. And by going through these gates, you could go to a new world.
At first, the rulers were delighted. New territory suddenly appeared. There was no need to take it from other countries. The world inside was unknown, but it might contain abundant resources. Each country quickly dispatched its military to these dungeons, which could become future gold mines.
Inside the gates, there was indeed vast land. The weather was stable, and the environment was such that it could even become a resort.
If only there were no monsters.
In that vast land, there were completely different creatures, not of this Earth. They were not cute creatures. Their temperaments were several times more ferocious than wild animals, and their bodies were one or two sizes larger. These creatures came to be called monsters, as a different name from the creatures on Earth.
Monsters universally had the nature of charging at humans the moment they saw them, and they swarmed the invading military forces. However, the strength of monsters near the gate entrance was limited, so the military with guns, despite some initial shock and disarray, could easily suppress them.
Thinking they could occupy the dungeon, they advanced further, but things did not go so smoothly. The deeper they went, the stronger the monsters became. They could not be killed with guns, and they suffered counterattacks, taking more casualties. The depth of the dungeons was still immense, and the strength of monsters at the farthest reaches was unimaginable.
Furthermore, they thought they had killed all the monsters near the entrance, but the next day, monsters appeared as if nothing had happened. It was no coincidence. It continued for several days. When it got to that point, they understood it was not by chance, and an inexplicable eeriness dominated the military.
Even if you defeated monsters near the entrance, the gains were limited. Rather, the cost of moving the military was higher. Defeating enemies consumed bullets and required logistics. Moreover, if a powerful monster suddenly appeared, soldiers could die even though the war had finally ended.
Therefore, many countries began to move toward leaving the dungeons alone. The deciding factor was the discovery that monsters could not come out of the dungeons. Even when they captured monsters near the entrance for investigation and tried to pass through the gate, the monsters alone could not pass through and disappeared.
Monsters were a threat, but if they could not leave the dungeon, they were not a threat. For the time being, they decided to scale back dungeon investigation and focus on restoring the national power lost in the war. Of course, they built military bases around the dungeons just in case monsters came out, but internal investigation proceeded slowly while focusing on the movements of each country.
Amidst this, there was one country that explored dungeons like mad. That was Japan.
Japan was working to rebuild Tokyo, which had been reduced to ashes. Then a dungeon suddenly appeared there.
At that time, Japan, being a defeated nation, was being demilitarized and could not conduct organized investigations like other countries. Japan was exhausted. The appearance of the dungeon was like a final blow. In other countries, the military took the lead in investigating, but in Japan, civilians entered the dungeon.
Regardless of age or gender, when people stepped into the dungeon, they could easily confirm that monsters were swarming, causing chaos.
Then, several Japanese people rose up. It was not an order from the state. Nor was it an instruction from the Allied forces. They were people whose Yamato spirit manifested, determined not to let their precious homeland be treated arbitrarily any longer, to protect the children who would lead the next generation. Unlike the Allied forces, Japan at that time had no guns, and due to sword hunts, there were no katana or even wakizashi. In that state, they went into the dungeon. To prevent their country from being ravaged.
As a result, despite many deaths, Japan was able to advance the development of the dungeon. The GHQ, taking advantage of this, left the voluntary exploration of the dungeon to Japan and built an environment where they could obtain information without effort.
Japan continued to advance dungeon exploration. The Allied nations, obtaining only information from Japan and focusing on restoring their national power. From the Allied perspective, Japan must have looked ridiculous, wasting human resources and eagerly bringing information.
But that composure of the Allied nations soon crumbled.
As a result of Japan s dungeon exploration, the existence of special items, levels, skills, and more became public. The items obtained in dungeons were things that could not be replicated with modern technology, and levels and skills provided powers that were too strong for an individual to obtain. That information could not be ignored, and each country where dungeons appeared also took the initiative in dungeon exploration.
However, the situation changed suddenly.
One year after the dungeons appeared. A dungeon break occurred.
An enormous number of monsters flooded out of the dungeons, destroying and sweeping away the military bases established for defense like a tsunami. The monsters that emerged were not only the weak ones near the gates, but also powerful monsters like those seen in the depths discovered by Japanese explorers.
The dungeons had appeared simultaneously around the world, and the places they appeared were populated areas like cities. A dungeon break happening in such places. The damage was horrific, and it did not take long for the cities to be occupied by monsters.
While the world was engulfed in chaos, only Japan was different. While dungeon breaks occurred simultaneously in each country without time difference, monsters did not overflow from Japan s dungeons. Later, experts concluded that this was because Japan had been actively exploring the dungeons.
Other countries, seeing Japan s situation, also began dungeon exploration, but that was more than half a year after the dungeons appeared. While other countries were waiting and seeing, Japan continued to conquer. The conclusion regarding the cause of the dungeon break not occurring was very vague: conducting a certain amount of dungeon exploration and having a certain number of people explore the dungeon.
Whether that is correct is unknown, but after the dungeon break, each country fully committed to dungeon exploration, and no dungeon break has occurred since.
And the global disaster of the dungeon break became a major stepping stone for Japan s reconstruction.
Countries around the world crossed national borders and moved to defeat the monsters that had flooded out of the dungeons. However, the monsters that emerged exceeded their expectations. Firearms were ineffective, and some monsters would not die or even be injured by missiles. Later it was discovered that as monster levels increased, attacks without magical power became less effective, but there was no way to know that at the time. Faced with monsters that could not be dealt with, the situation was so dire that options like dropping atomic bombs on their own cities were seriously discussed.
Amidst this, the explorers at the forefront of Japan s dungeons stepped forward to provide relief. These were people who continued to hunt monsters in the depths of the dungeons. No one was better than them at killing monsters. They were dispatched around the world and performed brilliantly. As a result, they annihilated the monsters infesting urban areas and succeeded in recapturing cities around the world.
With this achievement, Japan was granted independence, and since then, as a leading country in dungeons, Japan has continued to contribute to the development of the world to this day.