Isekai Kansha - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Grateful for Reincarnation in Another World

After parting ways with Burke, Jin had originally planned to head straight for the guild.
But after thinking it over, he decided to change plans and first secure a room at an inn. He wanted to sit down somewhere quiet and think things through.

Now that his stomach was full and his mood had settled, the matter of money—something he had been putting off—finally demanded his attention.

Conveniently enough, this Traveler’s Rest Tavern also doubled as an inn. In fact, being an inn was its main business; it only opened as a tavern during the day.

Luckily, they had vacancies, and Jin was able to get a room without any trouble.

He was shown to a room on the second floor, about eight tatami mats in size, complete with a lock, a bed, a desk, and even a fixed mirror. More than adequate.

Jin locked the door and flopped down onto the bed. He didn’t actually feel physically tired, but the sensation of lying on a mattress was pleasantly comforting. Then he remembered what he had to do, sat up cross-legged, and stored his wooden sword back into the Gate so it wouldn’t get in the way.

From there, he pulled out one gold coin—the in-game currency called G (Gold)—and placed it on the bed. He hadn’t examined it during the tutorial, and when he handed one to Burke at the gate, he hadn’t paid much attention either. But now that he looked closely, it was indeed a large, weighty coin. On one side was the relief of a beautiful woman’s profile, while the reverse bore an image of a set of scales. Combined with its fine ornamentation, it looked more like a piece of art than mere money.

Next, Jin placed the small gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins Burke had exchanged for him onto the bed. These were smaller and less ornate, but each still carried the image of scales. One thing they all shared: perfectly round, finely detailed craftsmanship.

"Hm. So… in games, weapons and armor are expensive, right? That must be why the lowest trade unit is a large gold coin. That would explain why your money is displayed in G (large gold coins). And the other coins don’t show up in menus because they’re just for everyday living expenses. Makes sense… maybe?"

Jin recalled how in some games, a pot lid could be priced higher than a night at an inn.

(Guess they prioritized simplicity over realism. Maybe here they’re going for immersion. But if that’s the case, they should’ve made that clear from the start…)

Jin wrestled with his reasoning, but his whole premise was flawed. No correct answer would come out of it.

"Alright, enough speculation. Time to actually test it."

He gave up on endless theorizing and decided to organize the facts instead.

First, recalling what Burke had told him during the exchange, he pointed at the coins laid out before him, going over the conversion rates:

• 100 copper coins → 1 silver coin

• 10 silver coins → 1 small gold coin

• 10 small gold coins → 1 large gold coin = 1G

From silver upwards, it followed a decimal system, which was easy enough. But the idea that 1G equals a single large gold coin was… extreme.

Next, Jin reviewed what he knew about prices so far:

• Security deposit: 1 small gold coin

• Lodging fee: 1 silver coin

• Special set meal: 10 copper coins

• Daily set meal: 5 copper coins

Here’s the translation in light novel style:

---

How much would a daily set meal usually cost? Back in Kyushu, where Jin had lived in a mid-sized town, a cheap lunch set usually went for about 500 yen. If he assumed the value here was roughly equivalent, then one copper coin would be worth around 100 yen. That would make the special set meal about 1,000 yen. A bargain, sure, but not too far off, Jin decided.

Next, the lodging fee he had just paid for this inn: one silver coin per night, breakfast included. Since one silver equaled one hundred coppers, that came to about 10,000 yen. Business hotels could be cheaper back in reality, but this didn’t feel too unreasonable either.

And ten silver coins made one small gold coin—so the deposit worked out to 100,000 yen. That felt a little cheap, but since there was no real-world equivalent to compare it with, he put the thought aside. Assuming the conversion held, ten small gold coins made a large gold coin. Meaning one large gold coin equaled 1,000,000 yen.

So, one large gold coin was equal to 1G… which translated to one million yen. No matter how he looked at it, that was absurdly high. Jin felt a chill run down his spine just thinking about it, but after a small shake of his head, he steeled his resolve.

One large gold coin = one million yen = 1G. And he still had 786 left. Counting off the digits in his head—million, ten million, one hundred million…

(...Did I miscalculate?)

He redid the count from the ones place, but of course, the result didn’t change.

That made it seven hundred eighty-six million yen.

"……………Ehhh!?"

Even though he had half-expected it, the absurdity of the amount still made Jin panic.

"N-no way, no way, no way! That’s gotta be a bug or something! This can’t be real!"

He flailed in a frenzy, looking nothing like the composed old man he was supposed to be.

Still, if he thought about it calmly, it was only the money that had gone haywire. If it really was a bug, he just had to report it to the admins. Even in a single-player game, there was always a GM. Maybe the reason he had gotten so worked up was because, on some unconscious level, he already sensed something was off.

"Ugh, my stomach… it hurts."

The tension must have gotten to him. A sudden, sharp urge hit his gut, and Jin clutched his stomach.

In the game, if his real body felt the need to use the restroom, a warning would sound, prompting him to log out. No warning had come, but assuming that was the case, Jin quickly tried to log out through the menu.

Of course, that button no longer existed.

"Huh? Why!? Log out! Escape! Log out! Go home!"

No matter how many times he shouted, nothing happened. But between the panic, the stomach pain, and the desperate urge, Jin’s brain just couldn’t keep up. His limit was fast approaching.

"I can’t take it anymore—I’ve gotta find a toilet."

Still clutching his belly, Jin unlocked the door and hurried out of the room, waddling toward the first-floor restroom.

――Some time later, Jin returned to his room. His face carried a strangely solemn look. He’d clearly had time to think while he was away. The frantic state from earlier was nowhere to be seen.

"...Did it. Got them off. And wow, it stank."

Sitting back down on the bed, Jin muttered as though checking things off one by one. Thanks to resolving the most urgent problem, he had managed to climb out of his panic and finally regain his composure.

Of course, in the game, there had never been such a thing as excretion. No one needed that kind of unpleasant detail reproduced in a game. In fact, in the VRMMO New World & New Life, being "naked" simply meant down to your underwear—you couldn’t strip any further. Yet Jin had been able to actually remove his underwear and relieve himself. There shouldn’t have even been data for a fully nude model, and yet… it was all there, completely natural.

The game was supposed to allow for taste and smell, but those senses were still rudimentary at best. Thinking back, the delicate flavors he had savored at the inn earlier, the subtle scent of the wind he’d felt before entering the town, and especially the stench he had just endured in the restroom—none of that should have been possible with current VR tech. And replicating a foul odor? There would have been no point in doing that in the first place.

Shaking his head, Jin stood and faced the mirror. The reflection staring back was the same avatar he had set before starting the game—or perhaps even more natural. A body about ten centimeters taller than his real self, slender yet muscular. Exactly as he had designed it. But upon closer inspection, he could make out pores on his skin, fine wrinkles on his palms, even veins under the surface. When he closed his eyes and pressed a hand against his chest, he could feel the steady beat of his heart, the pulse of blood flowing through his body. The realism was enough to make him doubt this was truly just virtual reality.

And then there was the strange unrest in his heart. Ever since he had woken up on that grassy hill, something inside him had felt… off. He was indeed thrilled to finally be experiencing the VRMMO he had long dreamed of, but had he ever felt his emotions swing so wildly before? During the tutorial, he’d been more excited than he had been in years. But compared to what he had felt since awakening on that hill, it didn’t even compare. His heart, which should have settled with age, burned now with the same passion and vitality he’d had at eighteen.

He remembered hearing once that a person’s mental age was influenced by their physical body—that those who looked young often felt young, while those who looked older felt aged. Whether that theory held water or not, an old man shouldn’t suddenly gain the mentality of a teenager. Yet, when Jin considered the idea that his mind had actually regressed to match his eighteen-year-old body, he couldn’t help but feel that it made perfect sense.

Still lacking a clear answer, Jin kept thinking.

"Menu."

He called it forth again, searching once more for the logout button—but as expected, it was nowhere to be found. Instead, he decided to check if any other information had changed and opened his basic status screen.

============================================================
Name: Jin  
Age: 18  
Occupation: Freeman
Title: Blessed by the Gods (New)  
Level: 3  
HP: 49/49  
MP: 20/20  
STR: 23  
VIT: 20  
INT: 14  
DEX: 20  
AGI: 20  

Unique Skill: Menu (New)  

Inventory:  
 - Small HP Potion ×5  
 - Small MP Potion ×3  
 - Horned Rabbit’s Horn

Funds: 786.8830G  
============================================================

"…What’s this?"

There were new entries he had never seen before. A title? A unique skill? He immediately tapped on them to bring up their details.

〔Title: Blessed by the Gods…… Our thanks to you. May fortune smile upon your new life.〕

〔Unique Skill: Menu…… Allows you to summon the Menu and access its various functions.〕

Jin was speechless. Just what was going on? Was this some kind of event? And what was a "unique skill" supposed to mean? The menu should have been nothing more than a basic system function.

Dozens of thoughts swirled chaotically through his mind. He forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down, then began sorting things out again.

First, the menu. Why it was listed as a unique skill was a mystery, but so long as it still functioned normally, it wasn’t an immediate problem.

The title, on the other hand, was incomprehensible. Jin had no memory of doing anything that would earn him the gratitude of the gods. Still, at least the words seemed entirely positive—if nothing else, that was a small relief.

Yet the possibility that had been flickering at the edge of his thoughts since earlier now loomed larger. Something that should have been impossible, and yet he could no longer dismiss it outright.

If there had been some kind of irregularity, then surely the system log would hold a trace of it. The tutorial had been perfectly normal. The drastic changes had come after that—specifically, between lying down at the end of the tutorial and waking up on that hill.

Without hesitation, Jin opened the log and scrolled back, filtering the entries to a manageable level of detail. After the log message about receiving a ring from Chris at the end of the tutorial, there it was:

============================================================
【Preservation of mind and body complete. Confirmed erasure of "Shinichi Jinguji" from ‘Earth’.】  
【Reconstruction of mind and body complete. Confirmed reincarnation of "Jin" in ‘Terra’.】  
============================================================

His head instantly went cold. The possibility that he had felt somewhere in his heart…

A world completely changed from the tutorial. Overwhelming realism. Monsters leave behind corpses that never disappear. A drastically altered currency system. Food that tasted too good to be true. The inability to log out. Abilities that shouldn’t exist. A mind rejuvenated to youth. A title and skill that should never have been there.

And then came the system message.

Jin suddenly understood. He accepted it without the slightest doubt, as if it had always been the truth.

Shinichi Jinguji was no longer on Earth. He had been reborn here, on this land called Terra. This was reality.

His emotions caught up with his understanding. He would never see the people of his old world again. Lonely. Sad.

Jin let those feelings sink in for a while.

…But when he thought about it, farewells had always been close at hand at his age. He had already seen off his parents, acquaintances, and friends, one after another. Just a year ago, he himself had hovered on the edge of life and death. His remaining lifespan had never been long to begin with. Because partings were so familiar, he had lived each day earnestly, trying never to regret it.

The farewell with Chris had been painful, but meeting them had brought him so much more joy that he had never let it weigh him down.

Surely, those who parted from him would feel the same. Jin chose to believe that.

And then there was the title. He didn’t know what exactly he had done, but apparently it was something that pleased the gods. As a reward, they had granted him reincarnation into this world—one so very similar to New World & New Life. The only thing he felt from that was kindness.

Come to think of it, when he had been lying down before, he remembered saying something like, I’d love to live in a world like that. Most likely, they had granted that wish for him.

The changes in his skills and money were probably the gods’ way of making sure he could use his game settings here as smoothly as possible. The term "G" had been turned into gold coins—large gold coins, no less. That much was just a playful touch.

They had granted his wish and even sent him words of blessing. Complaining about that would surely be blasphemy.

Jin took two long, deep breaths. And finally, he asked himself:

Including the world he had left behind, how did he feel about living here from now on?

He closed his eyes, thought it over slowly, and quickly reached his conclusion.

"…I can only feel gratitude."

It was a shame he couldn’t say his goodbyes, yes—but he bore no resentment at all.

Adventure had only ever been possible for him inside video games. Today, he had experienced it through a dreamlike VR game. And now, today as well, he had gained the chance to live in a dreamlike fantasy world. On top of that, he had regained his youth and been given a new life. To not feel grateful would be a lie. That’s what Jin thought.

And he thought further. I didn’t yet know much about this world, but good things and bad things would surely happen from now on. Just like before—life had always been full of peaks and valleys.

So he made a vow. Even if hardship awaited him ahead, he would never forget this feeling of gratitude.

Jin opened the window, pressed his palms together toward the sky, closed his eyes, and spoke in a quiet voice full of thanks:

"To the deities who granted me this reincarnation. As you said in your words, I will live and enjoy this world to the fullest. Truly… thank you."

"Gratitude for this another world reincarnation!"

When he opened his eyes, Jin was smiling as he made that vow.

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