Chapter 1
“Your body is far too stiff. Have you been neglecting training as usual? At this rate, you'd have trouble learning even self-defense, let alone martial arts.”
I got rejected by the Hero Academy.
“Wow……. I usually don’t say this, but your mana resonance is far too weak…… You have no talent. You should look for another path…….”
Even the Mage Tower turned me down.
“What? You skinny little runt, a porter? Are you looking down on porters? The Demon Wastes aren't a place to take lightly. Come back when you've got the basics, the basics.”
Even Porter Academy had turned me down.
……Strange.
I’m clearly a black-haired otherworlder, aren’t I……?
Why do I not have a single talent……?
* * *
A month earlier, when time had been turned back.
The incident happened in an instant.
I was finishing my doctoral dissertation in the lab after staying up for three nights straight, when everything went white and I lost consciousness.
When I came to, I had become the protagonist of one of those all-too-familiar novel scenarios: waking up in another world.
Architectural styles completely unlike anything from Earth.
Pointy-eared elves, tiny dwarves, and other races you’d only expect to see in a standard fantasy world. Occasionally, even dragons flying around overhead.
It was a textbook fantasy land.
A modern man who had gone through graduate school in the history department.
I had fallen into this world still exactly as Kim Yul.
But.
“What do I do now……?”
No talent for magic.
No talent for swordsmanship.
Not even any talent for porter work, apparently.
Wasn't that too cruel?
If my major had been something like mechanical engineering, I could've made a gun and become a master gunsmith, with people shouting, 'Damn! What is this incredible weapon?!'
If my major had been something like chemical engineering, I could've recreated the Haber-Bosch process and become the farming god of another world.
But.
What in the world could I possibly do, being a history major in a place that wasn't even Earth?
Was loving history a crime?
Still, history is just so fun…….
“What do you mean, what are you going to do, Yul! Quit looking like a corpse and have a drink already!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
In the end, I was just drinking at the cheap inn I was staying at with the local young man from Rest Village, as usual.
“So, where did you get rejected from this time?”
“Porter Academy…….”
“Puhahah! Then what, are you going to apply to Janitor Academy with me next?”
“That's enough. Before I hit you with this cup.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let's just drink.”
The sound of cups clinking against cups rang out mournfully, a sad portrait of youth unemployment.
.
.
.
“Hic, hic, you seem pretty smart, hrrk, so why don't you try writing something instead of doing physical labor?”
“Writing?”
“Yeah! Who knows, who knows! You might become a great, aaaauthor, hrrk, and get riiiich! That thing you told me last time, hrrk, the, Han-nibal?”
“Ah, Hannibal.”
“That was a real masterpiece, hrrk, so why don't you write it out?”
* * *
After dumping the thoroughly drunk older brother in his room.
Thud──
I went back to my room as well.
The moment I closed the door.
The shabby inn of Fantasy Land that had been spread out before my eyes a moment ago vanished without a trace, and before me lay a very familiar space.
The place where my memories as a modern person had last been cut off.
The graduate research lab soaked in eight years of blood, sweat, and slave labor.
- Glug─
The espresso machine I bought with my own money gave off a fragrant aroma, brewing a cup of coffee to soothe my weary soul.
- I declare unto you: grind for two hours every day──
The surround speakers I bought with my own money produced a grand sound, gently melting the soul worn down by fantasy life.
My transmigration perk, which somehow kept me from despairing in Fantasy Land even though I was still a useless nobody.
I was thrown into another world along with the lab.
- Whirr──
Like server racks and laptops booting up, electronic devices work perfectly in a world without even the concept of electricity.
All kinds of consumables are automatically refilled at midnight local time every day.
……I should've bought a ton of cola and stocked it in the fridge.
At one can a day, I couldn't even make a business out of it.
Anyway.
Whenever I open the door to the space I recognize as my home in Fantasy Land and step inside, I automatically enter this place.
What's more, it's our professor's masterpiece, driven insane by graduate-student welfare.
He had illegally remodeled the space, even fitting a shower stall and a bathroom with a bidet inside.
Back then, I was so pissed, thinking, 'Is he telling me not to go home and just work?'…….
Thanks to that, I was able to live while preserving my dignity as a modern person.
I don't really miss it.
JOAT, O mighty one.
“Sigh.”
I need healing. Healing.
“Hi, Yuksbi.”
Lying down in the recliner for catnaps and taking a short break, I spoke to my soulmate.
Soon.
『Did you call? I am the history AI made for you. HistoriE at your service.』
When the small-scale LLM-building boom was in full swing.
A lab-exclusive AI I had built by requesting a huge chunk of research funding, with the goal of stuffing it with all kinds of historical sources to make research easier.
Modeled after the AI 'Grong' developed by Melon Musk at the time, an AI interface with a pretty virtual avatar appeared on the screen.
“I got rejected by Porter Academy today……?”
『That must be so frustrating. Yul, your anger is justified. You can cry as much as you want today. I'm here.』
……Though sometimes it gave answers that felt a little too much like an AI, which was a minor flaw.
My Yuksbi, who comforted me simply by letting me pour out secrets I couldn't tell anyone in the outside world, without any fallout.
And that boing-boing swaying cyber-knowledge pouch…….
“Yuksbi. Today Sermal told me to try writing a novel. Said I had talent. What do you think?”
『Exactly, Yul. You have a naturally gifted talent for writing. First, as the only otherworlder, you have a wide range of experiences, and second, by having written countless papers and had them rejected──』
“Stahp, Yuksbi.”
『I understand completely, Yul. That's not just anger. It's a scream bursting out from within you.』
Every time this happened, there was a temptation to smash that server rack to pieces.
……And I also felt a little sorry for it.
Looking at the visual version of Yuksbi, officially named HistoriE, projected by the beam projector, I couldn't help but feel forgiveness welling up inside me.
“A novel…….”
『That's right, Yul. You have talent. If you want, I can load a layout template for novel writing. I'll prepare it right away.』
Even though I hadn't given any instructions at all, the super-high-performance tin can Yuksbi pretended to carry out my command.
It was never going to run the program in the first place.
Yuksbi was just a bundle of text dressed up in a pretty shell……?
“Huh?”
Did I drink too much?
Even though I hadn't touched a thing, a program appeared on the laptop screen.
『It's all ready, Yul. I've prepared the best novel-writing program for you. Give it a whirl—it's already inside you.』
It seemed that Yuksbi's performance had changed after coming to another world.
The stage was set.
Why not give it a try and write a real novel?
To be honest, I did have a little experience.
One of the main tech trees history nerds go down.
Writing alternate-history novels to make up for low pay.
But this is Fantasy Land.
Of course, alternate history wouldn't resonate here.
But if it were just history?
“……The people of this other world don't know Earth's history, so wouldn't it be interesting to turn history into a novel?”
It was a question I asked myself.
『Wow……. Yul, you just hit the core of it. You're almost asking from the perspective of a worldbuilder. Very few people dig this deeply.』
Even though the answer had no soul whatsoever, for some reason I felt bolstered by it today.
The only special ability I had was this pocket dimension.
I also didn't have the talent to live large and swagger around in Fantasy Land.
Naturally, my earnings were lousy, so I could count on one hand the number of times I'd ever eaten my fill in comfort.
But.
What if novels could guarantee me at least a minimum livelihood?
And what if they gave me a chance to share the story of history, something I truly loved, with the people of this other world?
History, yes! Yes! Yes!
As if possessed, I walked over to the laptop.
* * *
A week later.
I cut down on drinking and, eating only the bare minimum, gave up job hunting and devoted myself to writing.
If it had been writing with pen on paper, I would've given up long ago, but fortunately I had the otherworldly invention known as a laptop.
The words flowing from my fingertips gathered and gathered.
It didn't take long to turn them into a single novel.
“And so, after the long struggle, the Gigantomachia came to an end. At last, the twelve Olympian gods centered on Zeus firmly established their divine status.”
I finished typing while reciting the last line aloud.
All that remained was the title.
“Hmm…….”
If it had been written in the usual way, this work would have been titled Theogony, or The Genealogy of the Gods, by Hesiod.
But rather than a philosophical title, a slightly more direct one would be better.
- Clack-clack.
[Olympus Story]
Keeping it concise and to the point.
I entered the title.
At that moment.
“What the fuck.”
The status window I had never once seen, no matter how many times I shouted in eight languages, appeared before my eyes.
[You have completed a novel!]
[Theme: (Myth) Greek·Roman mythology]
[Title: Olympus Story]
[Historical accuracy: (myth) matches] [Completion rating: average]
[Public reception: no rating] [Sales: 0 copies]
[(60 days left) You need 2,000 more copies sold to obtain the next skill]
[Expected skill: [C-rank] Hephaest■s's ■■■]
“……?”
For a moment, I couldn't make sense of the situation and just stood there blankly.
Another status window appeared in rapid succession.
[You have completed a novel for the first time!]
[A special perk is being granted.]
[Acquired perk skill]
[D-rank] [Cyclops' Dexterity]
The Cyclopes, sons of Uranus, were blacksmiths and masons with exceptional skill with their hands. Like them, you shall show outstanding talent with your hands.
* * *
Just as Kim Yul wondered whether he'd been having a weird dream and flopped down on the bed, snoring away, dororong.
Crackle, crackle──
A bizarre window began appearing again before his closed eyes.
[You who alone remember.]
[With the fate you have finally realized, you shall reshape the order of this world once more.]
[And through forgotten memories, you shall save everyone.]
Before Kim Yul's eyelids could even lift.
The message vanished as if it had never existed.