At 16 years of age Nodoka Shimamura was already in his final year of Kaisei High School, the most prestigious high school in all of Tokyo. He was a Genius, a Prodigy! But, like most gifted kids, he wasn't good in every aspect of life. Nobody could be. He specifically struggled to connect with other people. For all his academic success there wasn't one friend to show for it. The only real interest he had outside of school was programming. And thus, the first thing he'd do after coming home, was go straight to his room and code. Solving Leetcode problems while timing himself. Competitive programming, a rare hobby for sure. In the beginning his parents worried that his grade might suffer and he'd lose his academic edge. But that never happened. While kids his age or older struggled with the material, he grasped it during the lessons, after his second Junior year he even stopped going to cram school, again worrying his parents. But just like with his hobby, the drop in academic performance never came. And so he spent his years, up until he graduated Highschool.
He was deep in thought, last night a particularly hard problem about maximizing a cyclic partition score had been particularly hard to solve. Deep in thought he went to the shop to run errands for his mom, after all he was now free from study and had the time now. However his focus on last night's problem remained, it just wouldn't leave him alone. Then it struck him, he had to limit the balance! Scrambling to get home he ran over a red light finding himself directly in front of a truck. I really am unbelievably stupid sometimes! Something along those lines was his last thought as the darkness engulfed him.
"Thats one way to end a promising life"
The voice sounded as if it was teasing him, he had just died hello??
"Yeah but that was avoidable"
The voice could read his mind? Wait? Wasn't he dead?
"Yeah you are, and yes I can read your mind" The voice giggled.
"Is this really that amusing?" he asked, the first time he actually spoke in the void.
"Oh yeah, but quite sad as well, your poor parents" , he hadn't thought that far, sure he knew he wasn't the most empathetic person ever, when a classmate cried because of a bad test result he wasn't fazed, but not even thinking about his parents? Was he really that shallow?
"Noo, well kinda, but it's your fault, you spent all your time in that dark and stuffy room instead of going outside."
Yeah that was certainly the case, he never really cared about forming human connections, he didn't have a reason to strive for them.
Tears trickled down his face, no, noo. Why didn't he talk to anyone, why didn't he talk to his parents more? He exhaled, it was too late now, no way to return, no way to change things. The cruel reality of life.
"Thats not entirely true. Well you can't return to your original world, but I do have a deal for you. You can be revived in a new world, it will barely differ from your original one, but in a way that should be to your liking. If you manage a good life in that new world then i will let your conscience in your original world miraculously survive, saving your parents the trauma and grief of losing their only child"
For a few seconds there was silence.. "Deal" he muttered.
"Alrighty, you will be traveling to that new world in a few minutes so let me give you some infos about your destination. For one you don't exist in that world, and neither does your family. You will get citizenship but on paper both of your 'new' parents will be deceased."
The voice sounded cheerful, but Nodoka's mood hadn't improved, it got worse actually.
"So I have to be an orphan and worry about money?"
"Yepp, but dont worry too much about money, i will give you some good cash to start and send you back in time so that you can use that to your advantage. The only thing I ask of you is that you will finally find happiness in that new world."
Just as he wanted to retort, the dark and endless void made place for a sunny spring day. He was staying on a small balcony, overlooking a, what appeared to be, side street in Ichikawa. Wait, he knew where he was? How? He'd never been here before now, never even seen this street he was sure of it, and yet it felt like he'd never not known. He panicked for a second, until it dawned on him. Well it wasn't bad, but the most likely scenario was that the god who put him here simply gave him all relevant memories. Just then a window popped up. Perplexed he just stared at it, it reminded him of one of those in game pop ups that modern fantasy anime with systems often used. He chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.But then, he read it:
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Starter Package:
-100.000 of any currency, chose wisely
-Fusing your pervious Body with the one of new world and enhancing the result
-System to assist the host
(Before confirming, choose a currency)
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He simply blinked. No. No way that would work. He thought for a second. And today was the 24th of March 2024. He clicked on the currency and a new window opened, a search bar at the top and all currencies of the world listed alphabetically below. Now shaking he typed 'B-I-T'... there it was, he didn't even need to finish the name. It still seemed too good to be true, but what if, what if this actually worked. He taped on the Bitcoin Logo and the window closed again. Sure enough, the option to choose the currency had made way for the Bitcoin logo. He pressed confirm. Suddenly his pocket that had been empty just seconds ago was now occupied with what felt like a phone. He pulled it out and turned it on. Aside from the pre-installed apps there were two other apps installed: A Messenger app and an icon that made Nodoka almost drop the phone. It was a crypto wallet.
His breathing slowed, everything seemed to. Nodoka wasn't all too concerned about money in his previous life. His parents weren't wealthy, but they lived alright. But this? This was absurd. He remembered reading the headlines himself. "BitCoin price rises beyond 100k USD for the first time!"... That was December 2024. Back then he and lots of others went to google, seeing how much money they could've made. He distinctly remembered laughing out loud back then. And now, he just had 100 thousand Bitcoin…
If he sold at the peak of 2024 in December when those newspaper articles came out, he'd get a payout of 10 Billion Dollars.
He almost threw up.
His head was dizzy, stumbling back into his apartment he fell onto the couch. He checked the phone again. again. AGAIN!
It was still there. But it felt fishy, maybe not everything about this world was the same. He quickly googled 'Bitcoin Price today' 67,234.17 Dollars. That seemed about right… What if the value of the dollar was different? He thought for a second, his family had bought a new car as their old one broke down in 2024, the new car was a bit over 30.000 Dollars from what he remembered. Quickly typing the name of the car it wasn't released yet, but leaks and estimates for the price were, sure enough, 33.000 Dollar.
It wasn't a fluke, and no matter how much he thought, he couldn't find anything fishy. He exhaled, this was crazy! His mind raced, trying to find anything that could expose this. It seemed too good to be true. But when he hadn't found anything that could be a catch he simply had to accept it. He, an ordinary soon to be highschool student, was now Japanese 4th most wealthy Citizen. Absurdity.
He thought for a bit, the last thing the god said was that his sole objective was to become "happy", such an easy prompt, deceptively so. Everyone has their own understanding of happiness. Some long to be part of a big group of friends, being social, while others retreated into their rooms, finding their happiness in videogames, anime and the such. He was one of those people.
He obviously knew that such behaviour was often accompanied with certain labels. Even he only escaped the title of Otaku with his stellar grades. So what if the god that sent him here deemed such a life to not be 'happy'. What did it mean for a quote on quote 'normal' person to be happy? He certainly didn't have the answers. Not even a clue about them. He pondered for a while.
The group chat! He had completely forgotten about it! Never mind the other to things he barely registered
The shock over actually receiving 100.000 Bitcoin had him completely forget the other presents the god left him. A phone with a pre-made group chat, he'd look at that first. To say he wasn't curious wouldn't be correct, but he certainly was as enthusiastic about this. It would be quite hard to top 10 Billion Dollars. Still, it was given alongside, and assuming that the god thought that Nodaka would choose USD or EURO as the currency the value of the group chat should equal those hypothetical 100.000 USD. How one simple chat would do so was a mystery to him. Maybe he could influence some of the world's most powerful, had intel on government agencies… No, that would be worth significantly more. Instead of procrastinating even longer it just opened the app. Sure enough, a single chat was there. 'Japanese Hangout' he raised his brows, that didn't really give anything away, instead it confused him further.
"Yopu can choose people added to this chatroom"
The voice was somewhat mechanical.
He should've been scared to death by a voice he couldn't locate that started talking without warning. But for some reason, he wasn't, quite the opposite actually, it almost had a soothing effect on him. "Beeing scared of something like that would be a normal human reaction, the lack thereof is most likely a result of the gods doing"
The fact that he was barely irritated by this situation scared him more than the voice. That is to say, he wasn't really scared, he had read enough light novels and mangas in his previous life to know what this voice most likely meant. After all, the god had specifically stated that he'd implement some of his old world's pop culture. "Good observation, yes i am such a creation, to be specific i am the aforementioned system that is designed to assist you in any way you so desire." a short silence. Nodoka simply accepted it, there was no use freaking out at this now, he simply sighed. "Alright, explain more about this chat please" he said now out loud. "No need to speak, I am perfectly capable of reading your mind, as for the chat room. As I said earlier, you can add people by will to this chat room, even when you don't have their number. Think of it as a sort of digital headquarters. You didn't seem to be too excited about this when I first mentioned it earlier, so let me assure you, this is a most powerful asset for whatever you decide to achieve" Hm, what did he want to achieve? Sure in his previous life he had school and his hobbies, but those weren't necessarily related things he wanted to achieve. Aside from retiring his parents there never was a bigger goal he strived for. His thought wandered, what did he want? Such a weird question when one doesn't know. Sure the money would ease his life, but like the good ol' saying goes 'Money doesn't buy happiness'. He'd have to do better than aimlessly spend money, because he never fully bought that saying. Yeah money alone is meaningless, but leading the life you want would definitely be easier if you wouldn't need to be frugal and worry about money. At that moment he had an idea, maybe it wouldn't lead him to his ultimate goal, but it would definitely bring him closer! Just being a normal 15 year old boy. The irony of said boy being the 6th richest person in Japan and belonging on forbs wasn't lost on him.
He stood up, walking over to the bathroom, if what the system earlier said was true, then his body should look different. Both the fusion with this word's body and the so-called enhancements made by the system should change something. Right?
As he looked in the mirror he gasped, his chin dropped. Sure he wasn't ugly even in his previous life, in fact he was above average looking, just that his anti-social personality undid that pretty effectively. The face staring at him in the mirror definitely was him, but somehow it was also different, a good different. For crying out loud he was drop dead gorgeous. It really seemed like this would be life on easy mode.
He raised his arms, stretching a bit. It was still relatively early in the day and he didn't want to waste it. Springbreak was still in full form so what should he do with it? He obviously could simply go to a cafe or arcade, trying to talk to some people. He could, definitely, but the thought of it scared him. Sure this new life set him up with anything and everything he could need. But the shy nerd in him still lingered. He'd wait with social stuff till school starts. Yeah that sounded good. But what should he do with this week and a bit then that was still left? He had no idea, only knowing that he wouldn't want to waste it. Maybe a walk to the grocery store would spark an idea. But did he even have enough money? Sure he had the bitcoin, but that was still bound, he planned to sell the first few in December when the prices climbed to their peak of the year, so the 8 and a bit months till then could become an issue if he had no funds outside of the one he received from god. "System, you said I inherited this body right? How was its financial situation looking before I came in?", the system replied immediately. "It was pretty good for a boy his age, I assume that that is also by design, currently your savings account has 1.432 Dollars in it. Although let me give you some extra details about how this fusion worked since you seem a bit confused by it. God took a life cut short from this world and infused it with your existence and soul. While you do have citizenship and some of the memories of his previous existence, God made it so that no one recognizes you." That made sense and resolved some of Nodoka's concerns he previously had about the process. "Another question" he thought, "how far does your knowledge of my old world go?" "Good question, I know of everything that happened in your previous world up until your passing and everything in the past of this world." That changed a few things, he pondered for a second "Just to clarify, the only things that differ from my old world to this are my, and my family's existence?" "That is correct, sir." Oh my god, he thought, that changed so much!