Chapter 0: Where It All Started

"One more sentence, and I'm done. It looks like I can finally rest for today," said a NEET who's also the writer of the now-hot light novel that's spreading in popularity throughout Tokyo.

Well, it doesn't really matter, though, since his editors keep alarming him so his light novel can maintain its relevance. It's not like he wants to write so late until 4 AM in the morning, but he has no choice other than that anyway. What could he do with his life, anyway?

He sighed as he leaned upon his chair, looking at who knows what volume he sent to his editors just a moment ago. A couple of empty ramen cups peeked out from beside his monitor, with stacks of light novels just lying upon his desk, placed there only as material reference for this new volume chapter.

"After pulling all-nighters for 3 days, I finished it," he sighed once again, contemplating his life choices, before drifting off to sleep. But just as he almost fully closed his eyes, he opened them again, now wide awake.

"No, I'm forgetting something. I should do something before I go to sleep. Damn, my sleep schedule's really ruined my brain's ability to think."

Once again, his head lowered, and his back hunched over to his desk, his hand folded to form some sort of a pillow where he put his head. His eyes twitched due to lack of sleep, and for the second time, he drifted off to sleep.

"Whatever, I'm just going to rethink what I forgot tomorrow. I just need some sleep for my brain to recover again."

Such an impressive writer, don't you think? His dedication to his work is more than enough to win him the Nobel awards. Everyone who looks at his work ethic would immediately get inspired by how this man has the strength to even think and write until the early morning...

Too much? I don't really think so. I think he deserves some credit, and so do I because I'm him. That's why I added that line to boost my own ego? No, no, no, how could you think of such a thing? I would never do something as disgraceful as ego-boosting with my own beautiful, eloquent, and magnificently crafted words that function like a magic spell. Silly me.

Well, that was what I thought before I drifted off to sleep, before a loud thud was introduced in the calm ambiance that was enveloping my room. But it didn't really bother me enough to wake me up on the spot, and instead, it only served to prolong my sleep.

As blissful as it was, in my life of writing, an experience like this never truly passed through my mind. There was no sound, not a single disturbance that could wake me up from this experience. The calm silence that surrounded and comforted my tired mind only made it more strange, as all the dreams and nightmares I'd go through paled in comparison to how strange this feeling was.

The next thing I heard was the sound of water, flowing down the streams, followed by heavenly music that came along after a certain amount of time had passed. As this moment continued, I could only hear what I thought were snippets of my life going through my ears.

Am I dead?

It was a reasonable thought, considering all the strange occurrences that had been happening around me. If that's the case, I'm a little bummed out, as I didn't have the time to finish my light novel or say goodbye to my family, and so on.

I then slowly opened my eyes to find myself staring into a light that was so blindingly bright, I thought I was blind.

"Aghhhh! The Sun! The NEET's Greatest Enemy!"

I covered the light with my hands as I kept my eyes closed, careful not to do any irreparable damage to my two eyeballs that were stuck inside my skull.

"Ah, another human dies out of pure stupidity. How could I help you, young one?"

The voice of a woman could be heard as I tried to locate where it was coming from. I then made myself seated on the fluffy things that I could only assume to be clouds that flocked and crumpled into each other.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, which bore witness to what I presumed to be the goddess that likes to reincarnate people into another world. This judgment is probably just because I've read and watched too many light novels and anime that included these set of tropes.

Her appearance is what you'd expect from a goddess. Blonde, long hair, golden eyes, as well as white, long clothing covering her body with an additional crown placed on top of her head. Generic, if I wanted to say that myself.

Out of nowhere, her eyes then flinched and gazed sharply towards me. Can she read my mind? That's what I thought before she introduced herself.

"If you're curious about this generic and basic goddess' name, then I'll give it to you, young one. My name is Elyssia, Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge. Nice to meet you."

Uwaa, looks like she's a bit upset with me.

"May I know your name, young one?" Her gaze never ceased to leave me. "Hiroshi, Suzuki Hiroshi." "Ah, I see." She nodded for a while before changing her expression, mocking me.

"May I ask why your name sounds so generic there, young one?" She smirked as she put her hands on her cheek, showing an unhealthy amusement with my name.

I swear, this goddess...

"Back to the point, do you want to know how you died?" She said as her face went back to neutral. 

"Wait, I died?" 

"Of course, that's why you're here after all. Do you even know the rules?" 

"Wait, wait, wait, how did I die?" I said, slightly confused. 

"Isn't that what I was going to tell you before you interrupted me?" 

"Well, I'm sorry that I never died until now." 

"You don't need to; humans are like that, after all. I can understand," she continued saying it with a smug expression. 

"..."

Feeling defeated, I just sat there like an idiot, waiting for her to respond.

"Do you want me to continue or not?"

"...Yes, please."

After a long sigh by the goddess, she then opened her mouth and started talking again.

"So, in short, I wished for you to die so you could technically be reincarnated into this world, but I didn't really want you to die, but you died anyway, so after a lot of other gods wanted your soul, I snatched you from them, and then here we are."

To be honest, that was a lot of unnecessary inputs and personal comments from her part, and I didn't hear most of it.

"So, that doesn't answer how I died, though." "Oh, you died because the alarm clock that was above your desk fell straight onto the back of your neck. After that, a large truck rammed into your back wall and continued its way to you."

I felt a little dumbfounded for a while before asking the next question.

"Okay... You said that you wanted me to die, right?" "Mhmm," she nodded. "...Why?" "Your story as a whole sucks"

What...Story? Once again, I was struck dumbfounded and surprised by this very unpredictable, very absurd goddess.

"May I ask, what do you mean by that?" 

"You know your hero... Let's call it your MC, is a pure paragon of justice and is super overpowered and stuff, right?"

"Yes, and is there something wrong with that? Most of the fans love that type of stuff. I mean if you didn't agree with me, that's fine, but I don't think it's good to just say my novel sucks without a reason-" 

"Halt! I know that you're going to say that, and here I'm going to explain why."

A moment of tension spread through the air. I gulped in anticipation about what she's about to say next. So far, this unpredictable goddess almost makes me think about my sanity and intelligence the more I talked to her, and now, I'm ready with all sorts of answers, placed in my mind to safeguard my mind's rationality before hearing her answer.

Is it because of my writing skills? She's the goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom, after all. Maybe she looked at my story and found it undesirable. Or is it because of my plot? A lot of the conditions my MC is trapped in mostly use plot armor to fix his stuff, after all. I myself think it's cool and interesting, but maybe this goddess thinks it's not that much?

"The reason is..."

My heart thumping, trying to predict all sorts of answers that could come out from her. To which, all of the answers that I've formed in my head fell apart as she answered with the most unexpected answer that anyone could think possible.

"Your MC always leaves problems when he leaves a kingdom, making that kingdom's situation worse just from your MC not providing a full answer to their problem, and now you're going to be the one to fix that problem," she shouted as she pointed her finger at me. 

"Me...?" 

"Yeah, that's right! No special ability or anything, just you and your mind will help fix the kingdoms that have been abandoned by the MC." 

"So, that means, I rewrite my story with only 'my' perspective?" 

"Ding dong. You're right! Even though what you say doesn't make sense. Considering you were a writer in your past life, I'll allow it," she said, with a satisfied grin. 

"...Huh?!"