kscans

Chapter 2 - A Changing Reality

Two years have passed since that day—the day a great change swept over this country, commonly known as the Day of Awakening.

That might seem like a big time skip. But so much happened in that period that it took me a while to process it all.

That's what I wrote in my diary, anyway.

To be honest, I'm only writing this to sort out my thoughts. I don't usually keep a diary. ...Could that be why there's such a huge gap from the last entry?

Whatever the case, in the days immediately following what the internet dubbed the Day of Awakening, the Japanese government, while looking like it was about to puke its guts out, urged the public via television to remain calm.

Sometime after that, with the cooperation of those with the [Appraisal] skill, it was decided that all Awakened Persons should have their skills registered.

[Appraisal].

The god-tier skill that plays a huge role in so many light novels. I never thought it actually existed... and that dozens of people would have it.

Naturally, I went to get registered. I was afraid of what might happen if I defied the authorities. Plus, I wanted to know my own stats.

So I took the train to the prefectural office and had them take a look.

'Yagawa Kyouta' LV: 1 Race: Human, Awakened Person

Strength: 19 | Durability: 19 | Agility: 22 | Mana: 22

Skills

[Spirit Eye]
[Mana Conversion: Wind]
[Concept Interference]

Unique Skill

[Sage's Nucleus]

...Yeah. I remember thinking I had no idea if those numbers were high or low.

It wasn't until a week later, when the government announced that '10 is the average for an adult male, 15 for a professional athlete, and 20 for a gold medalist,' that I finally had a baseline.

Apparently, if you believed the info online, my stats were incredibly high. And I had four skills, including a unique one. That seemed to be the maximum; in fact, many people only had a single skill. Having three normal skills plus a unique one like me was extremely rare.

My nostrils flared with excitement. I'd been living a pretty unremarkable life, but to be blessed with a turning point like this...

And what's more, my skills, including the unique one, were ridiculously strong. Just from a quick check of their abilities, it felt like they were screaming 'Go to a dungeon!' at me.

Well, I'll get to the details of my skills later.

I think I'll write about what happened next in my diary.

Monsters started coming out of the dungeons.

It was about six months after the Day of Awakening. The government was still struggling to even identify all the dungeons that had appeared across Japan. Entry was, in principle, forbidden for civilians. In those days, they were sending units composed of volunteers from the Self-Defense Force and the police to investigate.

Then, from 'gates' all over Japan that had been left untouched or simply cordoned off with 'KEEP OUT' tape, monsters began to pour out.

The result was city-wide panic. The one saving grace was that conventional firearms were effective against the monsters.

I still remember it. The news helicopters captured footage of police officers using several patrol cars to hold back a troll the size of a small hut. I remember the sight of the SDF firing their rifles nonstop at a horde of kobolds that charged like a tsunami.

In a single day, there were over 200 dead or missing. For several days after, monsters continued to emerge from dungeons across the country and attack people. To this day, mountainous regions are considered dangerous, with fears that undiscovered monsters may still be hiding there.

They were extremely aggressive, and on top of that, they had the bizarre trait of 'their eyes turning red and their ferocity increasing' when they left a dungeon.

Online, some wild conspiracy theories were even being whispered about, like 'Aren't they biological weapons from a certain country?'

After subsequent investigation and deliberation, the conclusion was reached that dungeons needed to be 'culled.'

Since monsters that multiplied too much inside a dungeon, or those that reached the 'dungeon exit,' were the ones coming out, the idea was to hunt them down before that could happen.

It was a simple solution, but the problems were mountainous. Where would the budget come from? The personnel? Which agency would handle it?

The conferences went nowhere fast, and the National Diet was its usual mess of flying insults, but the government finally announced its decision. This was about one year after the Day of Awakening.

'The establishment of the Dungeon Agency and the creation of the Dungeon Law.'

This Dungeon Law included a little something that basically said, 'If we don't have enough people, why not just outsource it to the private sector?'

Naturally, criticism erupted both at home and abroad, but the government forced the bill through. Rumor has it there was pressure from other countries.

The reason for those rumors was the 'resources' that could be gathered from dungeons.

From ordinary iron and crystals to unidentified metals and plants. And even 'tools with mysterious powers.'

The government and foreign powers all wanted these things, which led to all sorts of pressure... or so the conspiracy theory goes.

But it's a theory I think has some weight to it. One media outlet in the US even got flamed for calling dungeons the 'New Frontier.'

In any case, the profession of 'adventurer' came into being. Amidst the voices of criticism, there was also a mix of anticipation and joy.

And I, for one, was bouncing off the walls with excitement. In fact, most of the young people who became Awakened Persons felt the same way.

But since it's a life-threatening job, there were several restrictions.

First, you had to be '15 years of age or older.' If you were a minor, you 'needed parental permission.' Civilians were 'prohibited from bringing firearms.' And so on and so forth.

For me, a middle schooler studying for high school entrance exams, becoming an adventurer was a distant dream. All I could do was study my butt off.

Fortunately, the influence of my 'unique skill' had sharpened my mind. However, it wasn't that my intelligence or knowledge had increased.

If I had to put it into words, it was more like 'the number of things I could think about per second increased.' I could do that thing you see in battle manga, where a character has an internal monologue for ten minutes when there's only one minute left.

Still, as I wrote earlier, it didn't make me smarter. It just sped up my thought process.

So when I took a test, I'd still have moments like, 'Ah, I forgot this formula,' or 'I memorized the spelling of this English word wrong,' or 'Man... I suck at classic literature...' It was all perfectly normal.

In conclusion, my scores went up a little bit. That's all.

Well, the true power of [Sage's Nucleus] lies elsewhere. This was just an unexpected bonus. It's a grateful power to have, so I should be satisfied with that.

After surviving the long and arduous exam war, I successfully became a high school student. But at that time, 'two' major problems arose.

First, my dad's company was affected by dungeon-related damage.

Not directly. A dungeon gate had appeared in the factory of one of their business partners.

As it turned out over these two years, those gates were still appearing all over Japan, even after the Day of Awakening. Besides being in the country, there was no common pattern.

They could suddenly appear in a room of a downtown apartment building, or they might pop up unnoticed deep in a mountain forest.

Fortunately, their frequency was low. And I heard there were no casualties at the partner's factory either.

The problem was that the factory had to suspend operations. The land was transferred to state control, and the surrounding area became a restricted zone.

What I'm trying to say is that my dad's company is on the verge of bankruptcy. I'm not kidding. And it's not funny.

I'm seriously worried about our family's finances. My parents say 'it's fine,' but their eyes were darting all over the place.

...Thinking of this as a 'chance to get them to approve of me becoming an adventurer' probably makes me a bad son.

Of course, my concern for my family is more than 80% of it.

Being an adventurer is rumored to pay better than a normal part-time job. You get 1,000 yen per hour just for being inside a dungeon. Depending on the 'harvest,' you can supposedly earn about 10,000 yen for just a two-hour dive.

Risking your life for 10,000 yen for two hours. Do you see that as cheap or expensive? Even so, for a regular high school student, there aren't many ways to earn more without breaking the law.

...And more than anything. This is just a baseless, fanciful thought, but...

I think I'm suited for dungeon exploration. Mostly because of my 'skills.'

And so, I somehow managed to convince my parents and got permission to take the 'adventurer exam.' On one condition: I had to pass on the first try. And if I didn't get a high evaluation, I had to give up.

And now, the second problem.

Two of my friends from elementary school moved out of the prefecture.

...You might say that's a small problem compared to the first one. But for me, it's a serious matter.

One of them moved to Saitama for his parent's job, and the other didn't just leave the prefecture—he went overseas.

Apparently, that friend has relatives in America, and his parents, thinking Japan was too dangerous with all the dungeons, pulled some strings and crossed the ocean.

I wonder if he'll be okay... he can't even speak English. More than that, he has a weak stomach, so I'm worried he'll get sick from the food and water overseas.

But I can't just worry about others.

Because—high school life. I'm starting out as a total loner.

So, that's what's happened over the last two years. I've written it all down in this diary... but even after sorting out my thoughts, some things just can't be helped, can they?

I close the otherwise pristine diary, save for a slightly bent corner, and hold my head in my hands at my desk.

...How do you make friends again?