“Hey! I’m an evil god, but I’m not actually evil!”
What? If I had to describe how I felt at that moment with one word, that would be it. In front of me was a young boy, chilling with his hands behind his head. He looked like a kid who had just started elementary school. My surroundings were pitch-black, so the only things I could see were him and a vast number of floating souls. Hold on, floating souls?!
“Ah ha ha, it looks like you’re all very confused,” the young boy said with a laugh. “Of course, of course. After all, you are humans! Or perhaps I should say...were humans!” No sooner had he finished his sentence than the young boy burst out laughing again.
What’s so funny?! I’d like an explanation here!
“Don’t worry, I prepared some slides to explain things to you guys! Look over here!”
I looked at where the boy pointed, and a white display screen came up in the air.
Nice. He sure is well prepared.
The first slide appeared, and the screen displayed the words:
•School field trip
Oh, yeah. We had been in the middle of a school field trip. Specifically, we had been on a bus on the way to the airport.
The memory had just come back to me when the screen continued to the next slide:
•Bus accident
•Everyone died
•BAD ENDING
Only four slides?! And no pictures at all?!
I was fairly sure the floating souls here—most likely my classmates—were all thinking the same thing: WHAT THE HELL?!
“Yep, quite easy to understand, if I do say so myself!” the boy continued. “Huh? Give more details? Show a video? Nah, no can do. That’s some R-18 material right there. I’d get in trouble with the Film Classification and Rating Organization if I showed it. Besides, the content’s blurred out completely, so, y’know?”
Why is the FRO involved?! Wait, no, hold on. If the video footage was R-18 and needed to be blurred, then that meant everyone’s deaths were very gruesome. Everyone...
How did we all die, then? A normal traffic accident shouldn’t have been that gruesome.
“Hmm? Don’t remember what happened when you guys died? Yeah, I erased those memories. There’s no point in reliving pain and suffering. And, well, I doubt you guys would be in any shape to talk if you did remember.”
Ah, yeah, true. Maybe we burned to death or something similarly painful.
That aside, was this person really an evil god? All he had done so far was answer questions, but I hadn’t heard any voices other than his, not even my own.
“Why am I called an evil god? I’m not too sure. All I’ve ever done is offer a new career path to people who die young, whenever I feel like doing it, but I guess that rubs some people the wrong way.”
Career path?
“Yeah, a new life in a different world for people who die young. Oh, your teacher and the bus driver already lived good, long lives, so I returned them to the cycle of rebirth. So yeah, all the souls here are just students.”
I looked (?) around and counted the floating souls. There were a total of thirty-two. If I remembered correctly, my class was evenly divided between sixteen boys and sixteen girls, so the number definitely matched. That meant my childhood friends Haruka and Tomoya were probably here as well. It was impossible to tell which souls they were, though.
“Yep! This is exactly what one fourth of you think it is! Your entire class is getting transported to another world! There are things like stats and level ups in the new world you’re going to, so it’s kind of like a game world! Congrats!”
“Congrats”?! You sure are lighthearted for an evil god! I mean, if you’re transporting people over from another world, then it’s no wonder some people might consider you evil! Also, I’m really surprised to find out that so many people in my class enjoy light novels! I’m one of them, but still!
“You’re not being reincarnated, so you’ll be the same age you are now. You’re not being summoned either, so you won’t have to complete some impossible task or be enslaved all of a sudden! Congrats!”
Ah, yeah. There are definitely some light novels like that where the characters get summoned against their will, get the title of Hero thrust upon them, and then get forced to kill other people. What are those characters thinking, just blindly trusting the words of their summoners and going to war based on nothing more than that? Well, I guess there are some variations where the characters have no choice but to fight in order to survive...
“What about an otome game world? Nah, no can do! Those aren’t real games, so there’s no plot to follow! But hey, it’s possible to create a similar situation with your own charms! Don’t worry, the difficulty is about the same as it was back in your original world! Congrats!”
Yeah, uh, that’s impossible, then. It’s definitely not happening if it’s about the same difficulty. I mean, none of the girls in my class are stunners, and they definitely don’t have the finesse or charm they’d need to play handsome men like a fiddle.
“Harem? Same as the previous question! It’s possible if you’re attractive enough and have money!”
Again, not happening.
“Any cheat skills? Nope, none at all! I’m only transporting you on a whim, and that’s it! Oh, but don’t worry, I made sure that you’ll all be able to read, write, and communicate in the new world! Consider it a huge freebie from me! All right, is that it for questions? Let’s get started with the transportation process, then!”
The boy waved his hand, and something that looked like an interface window popped up. At the very top was a line of text which said 150 Points, and below that was a table of skills and races, each listed with the number of points required to purchase it.