For killing the dogoos, I was awarded a thousand credits, and I got to keep everything I took from their dead bodies.

And now I regret saying it like that, because it sounds way more sinister than it really is.

The Guild Lady that was tending the desk seemed surprised to see I completed my quest, actually. I don't blame her- to be honest, I kinda am, too. I am sure I should have died somewhere along the way - for starters, that Dogoo horde. Plot armor for the win, I guess?

So now, I have a little more than 1300 credits to my name. It's just enough to buy some bad food and a night at a local inn. Still, I ended the day with around 100 credits – it's 100 more credits than when I started the day.

I went to sleep with the confirmation that, if nothing changes, I won't last long in this world.

I woke up in the morning (which is rarer than you'd think, when I don't set up an alarm), feeling slightly less empty inside, and with definitely more energy than last night. My clothes are still is a bit messed up, and the brown of my jacket seems to have faded a bit, but there's no holes or anything – I'll just have to wipe the remaining jelly off of it, and it'll look good enough. I hope.

My plans for the day are quite simple: Take probably the same quest, and do it better. I'll probably do that again and again, until I'm good enough to not even be hurt once. That's when I'm gonna move to harder, more rewarding quests.

Sadly, 100 credits is not enough to get a breakfast. So I'll make do with what I ate yesterday, and stab some more dogoos with a mostly empty stomach. If I make sure to not get ambushed like before, I'll probably even be able to do the same quest twice in a day - it wasn't long, much more than physically taxing.

The Guild seems quite empty at this time of the day. Must be because it's close to 8 AM or something. There's a woman who looks like she was taken straight of a Touhou game, waiting at a table, with a red and white dress and a stoic face – I think she was there yesterday too, when I first came at the Guild. Must be a regular or something.

I walk to the desk, and begins to ask for the same quest again – but before I could utter a word, the Touhou girl is behind me, holding my shoulder.

I try to steady my voice, before asking "is there something I can do for you?", to which she seems to think for a second before telling me that someone wishes to see me.

The smart thing to do would be to politely decline. She didn't seem to want to force me to go with her, and I need to do the most quests possible in order to get as much money as possible - to make sure I don't, you know, die in the street.

Still, I don't know what she will do if I don't follow her. She could become violent, for all I know. So, I nod to her, and I begin to follow her – out of the building, and steadily towards the center of the city. In direction of that big, box-like, clearly important building.

Frankly through? This girl is amazing, the way she's moving through this crowd, it's really looking like someone playing Touhou Project.

"Please wait here. The oracle will soon come to see you."

The door closes, and I am left alone once again. A part of me is sitting there, serene, hoping it's important because, once again, I'm not sure I'm gonna have the time to complete a quest before the end of the day. I won't lie, I'd like to sleep inside a building, on some kind of bed, and the streets do not look inviting enough for me to decide that life there would not be bad. No offense to the homeless people of this world.

Another part of me is a bit scared, because I still don't know why I'm here, nor why this "Oracle" (read : important-looking title, living in an important building, meaning : an important character) wants to see me.

Fortunately, I don't need to wait long. Five minutes later, a new woman enter the room. She looks quite regal, even through her hair is a wonky kind of pastel green. I'm pretty sure this is the Oracle the Touhou lady was talking about.

"I have something to ask of you."

Now, I do hope you do not understand the fear those seven words can instill on someone. Spoilers for those lucky enough, let me tell you. It's fucking terrifying. Yet, all I could do was nod, and listen to what she had to ask – hoping to everything I wasn't stumbling into the standard Isekai's "kill the demon lord hero-sama" trope.

"Three years ago, the four CPUs of Gamindustri departed to the Graveyard at the center of Gamindustri. They never returned." At this, she paused, looking at me sideways. I think I'm supposed to say something, but my lack of answering prompts her into continuing her speech. "I am sure they are still alive, prisoners in this horrible place – and the more time passes, the more our world is falling into ruin. We do not have long - in several weeks, three months at most, Leanbox, the only nation that is still without a CPU Candidate, will be completely out of shares. And when it happens, the entire nation will be destroyed."

I really do not like what I'm hearing. Not the "everything will be destroyed part", I kinda figured things were going badly as soon as she told me those CPUs people disappeared – no, I'm just terrified that she's gonna ask me to do something way out of my league.

So I talk to her, trying to get her to drop the idea of giving me such a dangerous man quest. "This is tragic, but I do not understand why you're telling me all this. I'm just a new, low-ranked guild agent, and the CPUs were probably way stronger than me – if they were defeated at this Graveyard place, there's nothing I can do." Halfway through trying to reason her, I already knew it was a lost cause. She has this crazy glint in her eyes. It's obvious she was close to those CPUs - comes with the rank, I guess?

"I will not ask of you to defeat whatever managed to take them by surprise. Follow me." And with these words, she started to leave the room. I briefly debated with myself to see if it would be worth it to flee, before deciding that it would be, in layman terms, a really pretty fucking terrible idea.

She led me to a secluded part of the building, a room that was quite heavily guarded. Two guards, cameras everywhere, and – are those turrets? Why yes, they are.

She opened the door, and inside I could see a gigantic crystal, floating way above the ground - like a meter or so above. It was shimmering, looking like a solid rainbow. It was... Yeah, not that beautiful, but it was pretty enough. And it definitely looked important. The Touhou lady was also in the room, standing near the crystal.

"This is a secret that is heavily guarded by the few that knows of it. Mainly, by the Oracles, some of the CPUs, and their close friends - and now, you as well. It goes without saying that you shall never tell anyone about this, or there will be... heavy consequences." At this, I nod, because it's the only thing I can do. Also, because she seemed to be waiting for an answer of some kind. "This is Primal Sharicite. Whenever a CPU or, to a lesser extend, a Guild Agent gather shares, this is where it's stored. The Primal Sharicite is an important part of the nation's life and survival, using the shares collected from the people to sustain life within the land. From the trees, to the animals, to even the insects."

So this is the McGuffin that will kickstart the plot, good to know. So, the logical next step is... Probably someone will be trying to steal it, or-

"I want you to travel to the other nations, and steal a small part of each nation's Primal Sharicite."

Or... Destroy it... Excuse me, what.

You know what actually? Yeah, I'll ask her directly. "Excuse me, what?"

"You heard me correctly. I want you to go to the three other nations of this world, starting with Lastation, to the North East of Leanbox - across the seas, to the Eastern Part of Gamindustri." Chika stops for a second, and look me in the eyes. I don't like that look. "You will do everything you can to infiltrate their Basilicoms, and steal a shard of their Primal Sharicite. After this, you will travel to Lowee and Planeptune, to do the same. Then, once you've got one shard from each of the other three nations, you will come back here to give the shards to us, and we will send our strongest agents to the Graveyard to find and possibly revive Ve- the CPUs."

Two things. One, I finally have the name of this really important-looking building - a 'Basilicom'. It's cool, I guess. Two, I need to tell her there's absolutely no way in hell I'm gonna do this willingly. "I feel this very strong urge to tell you that, this is a really, really bad idea. Didn't you just spend the last minute telling me all about how this thing is the most important part of a nation? What happens if I take to much of it? What about me, what will happen to me if I'm caught? If this thing is as important as you said, they're gonna kill me, or worse! I don't fancy living in a prison for all of eternity!"

At this, the Oracle smirked. It's not a good smirk. I don't like what that smirk implies, not gonna lie.

"Cave, darling – please bring the video."

Oh, so, the Touhou Lady is called Cave, huh. Never gonna remember it, but at least I've heard it once – wait, what does she mean by 'bring the video'?

To my horror, Cave shows me her phone, and I see the me from yesterday, stealing my weapon and leaving the shop without paying. And of course, all of this has been captured in HD. This is 4K, even. The cleanest shit I've ever seen. No hopes of me playing around the "you can't prove it's me" because I can clearly see my dumb face, exposed to all and everything.

"You were… You were watching me?"

"It is my job", Cave answered. "I observe, spot suspicious individuals, and make sure they are not up to no good. You should be happy we need you, right now, or you would be sent straight to jail. Or at least, we would have you pay a hefty fine - one that at this moment, you cannot pay, it seems."

"It's as Cave said. After looking through our files, you apparently do not exist anywhere within Leanbox. Which means, you're not a Leanbox citizen. As such, you're... uniquely qualified for this task. Should you be caught, nobody will be able to link you to us. Even if you were to spill everything, nobody would believe our nation sent someone to cause such a massive diplomatic incident. But, if you were to succeed, then we'll reward you, of course. 250000 Credits per shards."

I'm silent. On one hand, this is a hard task. A dangerous one. And I'd rather pay the fine, even if I'd need to work 24/7 in the fields for it. Unfortunately ...

Chika seems to know what I'm thinking. "As you seem to have already guessed, you have no choices."

I sigh. "How will I go to the other nations, then?"

Cave gets closer, and gives me a credit card. A literal credit card – a card with "15000 Credits" written on it.

"This is enough money to board a ferry, at Leanbox's port, that will bring you to Lastation and back, as well as cover the majority of your expenses. Take care, do not get caught, and more than anything, beware of ASIC members – they lie, cheat, and are ready to do anything to bring Gamindustri to its ruin."

I nod. Because that's all I can do, of course.

The meeting came to an end, and so Cave leads me outside of the Basilicom, and we begin our trek to the port.

So, that's it, huh. One day in, and I managed to get blackmailed into becoming a criminal – even though it's, supposedly, to help a nation. I'm probably gonna be caught, because let's face it, I am not a good thief (comes with the lack of experience, I think), and I'll probably have to fight against experienced warriors, and really strong monsters.

Cave gives me a few items, that she calls "healing pods", before leaving - they apparently close minor wounds, in a short time, usefull when I'm in a pinch. She also told me, before leaving, that she gave money to the shopkeeper from whom I stole my lance - made sure my debt was settled. Now, the only one who could blackmail me are her and Chika. Which wipes off several worries I had.

As I board the ferry, only one thought traverse my mind, through.

This world sucks.

Author's footnote :

Well, it looks like this first chapter managed to lure people in. Thanks for suffering through my terrible writing, and also thanks for being crazy enough to follow and/or favourite this mess.

As you can see, I'm trying with this story to write a believable "everyday man gets Isekai'd". And, the first thing that came to mind was "how are you going to last in a world where, for all intent and purposes, you don't exist?" No papers, no nothing... that's why I decided to make the story start in Leanbox. Well, there's many reasons actually - the first being that Chika seems to be the only Oracle willing to do almost anything to get Vert back. She's the most desperate, anyways.

Don't be fooled, through. She does not believe the MC can accomplish his task. Which is not surprising.

I'll do my best to not turn this into a powerwank - with the way things are planned, it shouldn't happen anyways, but you never know. Gonna have to be careful. Also, While Chika will not be a huge part of the story, she's still the one sending Gyone on a quest. That's why I put her in the "characters" slot - she's a main character, pivotal to the plot, even if she's unseen for a long, long while.

(EDIT- Well, that's what she was, anyway. But other characters have taken up the "main character" role, and now she's kinda on the backlog.)

VolcanicFlare : Thanks for the review! And yes, getting blackmailed is an important part of the beginning of the Hero's Journey. It happens everytime.