In Another World with My Sedan

*Chirp Chirp*

Was that a bird chirping he heard? How was that possible? It was night. At least Senna knew for sure that his memories didn't fail him.

"Mm…? Huh?"

The last thing he remembered was a nutcase threatening him with a knife and then later getting blasted by a crazy truck in an intersection. So… did he die or something?

"I'm… not hurting anywhere?" Senna concentrated on his body.

He still had his two hands, two legs, one head, one well-built torso, and one banana. Good, that was his normal amount of body parts. Not too much, not too few.

Slowly he focused his eyes. Still gripping his familiar steering wheel and sitting on his warmed seat, he found out. Everything seemed to be as normal.

"But where am I?" he asked out loud.

Indeed, where was he? It wasn't the intersection where the accident happened, nor was it the hospital.

Not to say it wouldn't be weird for him to be in the hospital alongside his car by the way. Such subtle apprehension was to be quickly set aside as it was unimportant.

There were trees all around him. It was as if he was transported into a forest. Healthy-looking grass covered the ground, and he saw birds flying overhead following the breeze.

The sun was shining brightly above a clear blue sky with cute tiny clouds scattered around like cotton candies.

No city park he knew of could be so natural and refreshing.

Still feeling disoriented, Senna opened his car's door and stepped outside. The scenery wasn't an illusion nor was it his imagination.

Everything was real. *Haaaah* Every breath he took was filled with fresh natural air free from urban pollution.

He could see an array of ruined cobblestones under the cover of the encroaching grass. In the distance, broken pavement roads spread out over the area like spider webs.

Multiple stone pillars dotted the surroundings. All of them looked like they had been eroded with age too. Some even had fallen down to the ground.

Seeing it like this, the place looked like those serene ancient ruins in Rome and Greece. The remnants of a bygone civilization forgotten by the world.

Senna looked back toward his car. It was neatly placed in the center of a raised circular platform. As if it was being showcased on a decaying stage.

"…Let's try this."

He crouched down and touched the grass near his feet. Its texture was undoubtedly that of natural grass, yes. Senna wasn't a nerd shut in his home every day. He knew what grasses would feel like.

So the reality in front of him was genuine. If that was the case, two possibilities came to his mind.

First, he was dead, and this was heaven.

Second, he was dead, and this was another world.

The latter concept was familiar to him since he often read web novels as a hobby, especially when he was idle during work. It greatly helped to fight his boredom, and supporting authors who worked hard to write his favorite stories felt good. People should do that more.

But either way, it was likely that he died during the accident.

«Affirmative. Your previous body had indeed suffered a trauma incompatible with life.»

"Woah!? That voice again!"

Senna almost jumped from the surprise. Including when he was held hostage, this would be the fourth time he heard this voice.

"Seriously, what are you?"

«I am the system granted to you due to your Awakening. My purpose is to guide you so you can use your power to the fullest.»

"Wait, for real?" Senna asked with suspicion. "You mean, I'm not in heaven?"

«It takes a certain amount of shameless confidence for you to assume you are fit for heaven. As for your question: No, this is not the afterlife.»

Senna didn't have the right composure to process its first sentence. He was too stunned by the second one.

"I'm… I reincarnated into another world?"

«Transmigrated might be the more proper term. Your previous body was destroyed so we had to build another one. This new one is based on your younger days.»

"That's… epic!" Senna ran back to his sedan and checked his face in the side mirror. "God, I—doesn't look all that different, honestly."

The face that appeared was the one he regularly saw in the morning, right in his bathroom. Not ugly, but not stupidly hot either. Some women might prefer the average appeal, though he unfortunately never met such a person before.

Straight black hair hung down his forehead, and under it, a pair of amber eyes glared back at him.

His family often said that he looked a bit scary whenever he scowled, whether it was due to anger, confusion, or just straight-up due to thinking weird thoughts in his mind. Perhaps even a combination of all three.

He wondered whether it contributed to him being so often distanced from his peers.

«The difference is only several years. You are still young in both body and soul.»

Was that supposed to make him happy? A compliment? Sure, he was dreading the day when he would stop being called young and began to be greeted with 'Alo… Uncle Senna' by his older brother's baby kids.

"You said something about power, right? I really have one?"

«Indeed. It was granted to you the moment your Fate Level passed the threshold.»

Those words again. The voice sure liked to use that term. Senna wondered just what it could mean. Did it have anything to do with his destiny?

He wanted to know and make sure he wasn't clueless before he took a step further. Only a moron would slip into that pitfall. "So uhh… Why am I getting this power anyway?"

Why he was chosen to be reincarnated? Or maybe it was the standard procedure with everyone? Just that nobody knew it?

It sounded like this 'Fate Level' thing was the keyword to everything.

«This world needs a hero. Soon a crisis unprecedented in scale would threaten the peace of all this world's inhabitants.»

"Ah, I see. It's a classic hero summoning, huh?"

Basically, it meant that he was summoned here through transmigration so that he could save the world. Ain't that just nice and simple? It was better than some convoluted plot where he would've no idea what was going on 80% of the time, all said and done.

"Fair enough," Senna declared. "I'll take the challenge."

Other people might put more thought into this, but not him. Living a slow life like before might sound cozy and all and Senna wouldn't mind that either.

But he wasn't about to turn his back on a potential excitement in his life.

In his previous one, Senna was a perfect example of a wallflower. The kind that wouldn't be included in the get-together list unless he directly spoke out.

If his life was fiction, then he would be a background character, appearing behind the main ones as decoration. He only had a few close friends, and other than with his family, his social life was downright the bare minimum.

While he didn't hate that kind of lifestyle, it didn't mean he liked it either. If possible, he wanted his story to be more eventful. And so…

Perhaps this Hero business was just the 'thing' he'd been searching all this time for.

"Then, then—Tell me what this power of mine, mysterious voice. It must be some sort of awesome superhero power, right?"

The prospect of becoming more than human dawned on him. Everybody had once dreamed about having supernatural abilities in their life. And now, he was on the cusp of gaining that very same lofty dream itself.

It was impossible for him to not feel excited.

«Understood. Configuring the system and attuning it to your aptitude...»

It was time. The start of Senna's journey to greatness. He would save this world from whatever crisis threatened it and become a true Hero lauded by every kid and their mothers.

«Attunement complete. Congratulation. You have successfully assigned the Job Class: Taxi Driver.»

…

"Wait, what?"

Something about what the voice said didn't feel right to his ears. Did it just say, taxi driver?

"Run by me again?"

«You have been assigned the Job Class: Taxi Driver.»

Indeed, that was what it said. His ears still worked perfectly. Or maybe they didn't work at all and the voice actually came directly from his head.

"I'm a… taxi driver? Yeah, I know it's my job in that world but what about this one?"

«You can stop with the denial and accept the reality. The power you have been given is the Taxi Driver System.»

'What?' Senna was so speechless that the word failed to leave his mouth and only rang in his head. 'What does that even mean?'

How could such a mundane transport job be given to a hero? How would that even work?

«To view the information related to this power, concentrate your mind and silently say: Status.»

So it said. Senna followed its instruction and focused on the word inside his head.

'Status.'

———

• Name: Senna Farron

• Main Class: Taxi Driver

• Sub Class: None

< Health: 10/10 >

< Mana: 10/10 >

< Physical: 2 >

< Magical: 2 >

< Speed: 2 >

• Skills: Vehicular Manifestation, Eldritch God's Blessing

• Magic: None

———

A list of terms and numbers appeared in his mind. Aside from his name, they all looked like words used in video games and such. They were like stats in RPG.

"Mana?" he voiced out loud. "I can use magic?"

«Mana is the currency of energy in the multiverse. They are everywhere and present in every dimension. Your previous world simply hasn't yet known its existence.»

That was a hell of information to be revealed so casually and abruptly. Even his original world had it? Did that mean he could theoretically be a magician instead of a driver?

The mention of that phrase brought Senna's attention back to the problem at hand. "That's right! Explain to me what this is about! What kind of ridiculous hero has the power of driving people around?!"

Not to say he had anything against his job. For Senna, it was an easy, simple, and more or less stress-free occupation.

But it wasn't one fit for a fantasy world. In fact, there wasn't anything fantastical about it. Where was the dream and passion in that?

«The power is chosen based on your aptitude. Complaining about it wouldn't change anything. Please be mindful of wasting effort and energy.»

"This is stupid!"

Senna walked away in anger. He was finally given a chance to give meaning to his uneventful life but with this power? It was frankly a huge letdown.

He failed to notice the two skills displayed in his status window. The despair over the words written in his Main Class line took all of his attention away.

It also distracted him from the noises the birds were making all around him. They all suddenly flew away with haste, as if they sensed danger was afoot.

"Taxi driver, taxi driver… What kind of joke is that? What'll I even do with it anyway? Carry my enemies all the way to their retirement?"

Trying to clear his heated head, Senna was about to exit the ruin and creep into the dense forest. His feet unceremoniously stopped in mid-step as he heard a disturbing growl in front of him.

*Grrrrwwll*

"What the…"

A massive hand brushed aside the bushes he was about to enter. It was muscular and covered in black fur. Didn't look like a human hand at all.

No sooner than a beat later, the owner of said hand showed its face. Big, ugly, and angry. Senna didn't mean to offend, but he was scared shitless the moment he laid his eyes on it.

"K-King K*ng!?"