The subway that picks up and drops off passengers on schedule every day.
The rule-abiding way people dress and present themselves.
Behavior that fits "common sense."
Thought patterns that pass for "normal."
Walking to school. Walking to work.
Every now and then, a thought like this bubbles up:
Why am I living inside an environment arranged by someone else?
Society's entire structure is laid down by people.
Which means…
It can also be torn apart by people.
Blood and flesh bloom all around.
A series of massive explosions roars through the air.
You imagine blowing everything around you to pieces—until nothing is left at all.
In a blinding white world, where nothing exists, there's nothing to obey.
No expectations to carry.
No "correct" way to live.
You crave breaking free—going somewhere unrestrained.
But in the end, it can only remain a fantasy inside your head.
The cruelest thing about the world is that it's neither black nor white.
The kindness and love weighing on your shoulders gather into chains called responsibility, locking you in place.
Children must be taught by their parents.
Parents must think for their children.
Husband and wife must consider each other.
They can choose not to.
But can you really choose to give nothing?
Society's rules. Other people's eyes.
They force you to turn feelings into tangible substance, pinning you to a "proper" lifestyle.
You could run far away.
You could watch the world burn in front of you.
You could stop caring about everything.
But what about the people beside you?
So you tell yourself: wait.
Wait a little longer.
Wait longer still.
When everything is over, you'll finally have time to do everything you want.
But—
You die before that moment ever comes.
Beep, beep, beep—beepbeepbeepbeep—
A standard alarm clock with two bells rattles and rings out sharply.
Arato Sora slowly opens his eyes in bed.
Ever since his memories "came back," fragments of his previous life have been replaying in his mind as dreams—bits and pieces, night after night.
It feels strangely like rereading your own past.
"The side effects of not finishing a bowl of Meng Po Soup," he mutters.
He reaches over, shuts off the alarm, and climbs out of bed.
The room is dim, sealed behind heavy curtains.
Slipping into the slippers under his bed, he walks into the bathroom out of habit and starts his morning routine.
Arato Sora—twenty years old.
A university student at a mining and minerals institute.
As a transmigrator, he awakened memories of his previous life about a year ago.
When he finishes washing up and steps into the living room, he's greeted by a chaotic space piled with books and mineral samples.
A man living alone—especially a male academic—unless he's a neat freak with compulsions, you really can't expect his home to be spotless.
There's no strange smell, at least.
Washing clothes regularly and keeping himself clean is already his definition of "tidy."
Maybe it's because his last life ended in such a rushed, suffocating way—one with no autonomy at all.
In this life, Arato Sora wants to live alone, properly, according to his own ideas.
There's a saying, isn't there?
If you never build bonds, then you'll never be shackled by responsibility.
If you're alone, you can live however you want.
No one gets to point a finger.
And then…
And then, the year he entered university, Arato Sora got himself a girlfriend—one who had just entered high school.
That girlfriend was even his childhood friend, someone he'd grown up with since they were little.
There was no dramatic grand event between them.
Two kids who got along from the start, who grew up side by side—so naturally, they ended up together.
They couldn't even pinpoint when it happened. It just… did.
"Guess you could say life's unpredictable," he thinks. "Aoko is a lot freer than I am, temperament-wise."
Right now he's in the money-saving phase.
Once he has enough, he plans to take his girlfriend and start traveling the world together.
Originally, this was a plan he intended to weigh carefully for a long time.
But now, thanks to the memories of his previous life, it seems he doesn't need to worry so much anymore.
He transmigrated into a pretty good era.
The year is 1985.
1985—right after the United States and Japan signed the Plaza Accord.
From here on, the yen will appreciate sharply—unreasonably, almost against common sense.
Everyone in the country will watch in disbelief as the money in their hands increases in value at a speed that feels impossible.
Just imagine it.
Your money multiplies in value several times over in a short period.
And it won't stop with ordinary people.
Those with vast capital will see the same effect, and that flood of money—with nowhere real to go—will pour into the stock market and real estate.
Backed by colossal cash, both will rise like never before.
Rise. Rise again. Rise without end.
People will throw money in and watch their assets surge upward.
Japan will enter a dreamlike bubble economy for several years.
Money will stop feeling like money—becoming nothing more than a string of numbers.
Women will drink coffee that costs five hundred dollars a cup, dusted with gold powder on top.
At night, dance clubs will drip with decadence, and it'll be normal for working girls to pull in tens of thousands of dollars in tips in a single evening.
Indulgence will be the theme of the era.
A dazzling, intoxicated life is about to arrive—an era where the total value of Tokyo's land will be so absurd that, in yen, it could "buy" the entire United States.
Of course, anyone can tell what it really is:
A bubble.
After the madness comes the inevitable crash.
Japan will spend the next thirty years paying for this frenzy, sinking into what will be called the Lost Era.
But for Arato Sora, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
A grain of sand from the tide of history can become a mountain when it lands on a person.
Likewise, a wave of wealth raised by the era—
Even skimming off a tiny fraction would be enough to make someone rich for life.
As a transmigrator, even if Arato Sora can't recall much of his previous knowledge…
As long as he remembers the coming carnival—
As long as he knows when to step out of it—
Then the money he needs for this lifetime will be easy to obtain.
The amount would be so large that ordinary people could chase it their whole lives and still never catch up.
Which means: for other transmigrators, money is something they have to sweat over—copying works, inventing gimmicks, grasping at shortcuts.
For Arato Sora, because he's standing in a special era, it's practically a problem that solves itself.
"Thinking about it like that… the future should be pretty nice."
He has always known that material security is the foundation of a good life.
From that standpoint, his life this time around begins with the basic accumulation already complete.
So next, he should think about how to enjoy the rest of it.
Maybe because of everything that happened before, Arato Sora now only wants to do what he truly likes.
His university major—mineral research—is something he genuinely enjoys.
And besides that—
"The trip I promised Aoko… I can do it easily now. But I'll need to figure out how to make her accept me paying for things. That idiot probably can't accept me covering everything on my own."
Thinking of Aoko's stubborn personality, the corners of Arato Sora's mouth lift into a gentle smile.
She's the girl he likes.
The childhood friend who's been with him all along—even before his memories awakened.
There's no way those feelings would just vanish because his past returned.
And really, if he thinks about it—
Having a girlfriend doesn't actually contradict the life he longs for.
Aozaki Aoko, who desperately wants to leave Misaki Town and see the outside world, shares almost the same interests as Arato Sora.
Arato Sora wants to travel the world and see landscapes and rock formations everywhere.
And Aoko will go with him to see it all.
That, in itself, is the girl's dream too.
As for their relationship now—
In Aoko's words, they're "travel partners."
Friends who made a promise together:
To go far away.
-------
Promotion Valentine's Month Sale: 20% off for 7 days. Apply now!
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (190 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (130 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (200 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (89 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (140 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (90 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (150 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (70 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (70 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (123 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (72 Chapter)
DanMachi: Why Did My Dungeon Turn Into a Soulslike Game? (92 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (93 Chapter)
I'm Gotou Hitori—Who Are You? (40 Chapter)
Were You Ever Even a Uma Musume? Stop Making Things Up! (75 Chapter)
Moon Project: A Full-Time Love Adventure for the Lobotomy Corporation (75 Chapter)
The Leisurely Days of the Hyuga Main House (65 Chapter)
Arknights : A Draco Surviving in a Matriarchal Terra (115 Chapter)
Arknights: What if My Luck Is Too Good? (105 Chapter)
Honkai: The Romance System Only Shows Up After I Marry Mei (55 Chapter)
Arknights: Who Are You Calling Repressed, X?! (105 Chapter)
The Chat Group Only Arrived After I'd Cleared the Game (42 Chapter)
Gojo Satoru Flat-Out Refuses to Admit He's a Supporting Character (40 Chapter)
Chat Group Isn't Supposed to Be Like This! (30 Chapter)
If You're Moriarty…then Who Am I? (50 Chapter)
Uma Musume: Since I "Can't See," They Take Turns Stealing My Underwear (50 Chapter)
Arknights: Why Are All My "Brothers" Girls? (47 Chapter)
Danmachi: Start Training Haki (30 Chapter)
Emiya Shirou's Rebirth (30 Chapter)
I Can Get Stronger Just by AFK'ing—So I Joined a Chat Group (50 Chapter)
Endfield: I Can Always Pull Out One Yuan (40 Chapter)
Limbus Company : I Started a Company in Project Moon (50 Chapter)
Lobotomy: Do Cooks of Alley 23 Dream of Bloodfiend Knights? (50 Chapter)
DanMachi: Freya Familia's "One-Blade Shura" (37 Chapter)
DanMachi: Emiya, the Great Hero Becomes the Protagonist (40 Chapter)
TYPE-MOON: One Special Instance Every Week (30 Chapter)From Danmachi: The Abundance Apothecary (30 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it