Chapter 1

♪ A whole neeew woooorld ♪

“Sigh.” A young, 23 year old, tax associate contemplated his choice in career as he walked across the parking lot at the firm, Koenig Partnership, where he had just been hired. They all seemed pretty amused at my name during orientation, he thought, his black Loafers lightly dragging at the heel with each step. Oh well. It's not like I haven't dealt with it all before. But seriously, how much more tedious can a job get? His keys started to rattle as his fingers clumsily fished in his pocket to get a grip on the key to his 1999 Geo Metro. With just over 390,000 miles on the beater, it was a wonder he even made it to work that day. As he twisted the key, a ratchet sound resounded, letting the entire parking lot know how poor he is. He always left the window rolled down just enough to fit his arm in. Why? Because he had to gently pull the handle from the inside to open the car. Neither the passenger nor the driver side had an outside handle to speak of.

“Truck!” His fellow tax associate, an attractive 22-year-old woman, called out to him. “Truck Coon! You left your wallet in our office area!”

“Oh thank you.” He had taken it out of his back pocket while he sat at his new workspace. Did you know, it is common for elderly men to have contorted lower backs from sitting too long with a fat wallet in their back pocket? That's right. It forces the individual to cant the hips towards the side with no wallet, which compresses the cartilage in the individual's spine on only one side. Since this leads to chronic back pain, Tru has resolved to not make the same self-destructive mistake out of habit.

“We have to watch each other's back as new associates right?” The young Military brat saluted Truck Coon after he received his wallet. After some small talk, she headed straight to her 2020 Ford Explorer. Yeah, I'm not going to try starting my Geo while she can still see. Just act cool till she leaves. He successfully looked mysterious leaning against the light post near his beater. Dang right True. You nailed it. His friends always call him True, spelled Tru, to avoid reminding him of all the scorn he's suffered growing up with the name Truck Coon. Despite his name, he has always been the contemplative, adaptive type.

Going back to open his car, he has just a bit more pep in his step. He can definitely deal with the monotonous enterprise with such a beauty sharing a desk with him. As he turns the key in his ignition, he hears the engine turning over, but it doesn't start. He keeps trying, letting the engine rest every so often, until it starts smoking. Great, he thinks, hitting his forehead on the top of the steering wheel. You've worked hard ol' girl. Time to move on and take the bus for now. After locking up the car, he starts to walk across the street to the bus stop. Thankfully, the bus was about to arrive at its 5:15 PM stop. Only 4 minutes to go.

“How was your first day on the job?” He heard a familiar voice. His best friend had gone to see him and just pulled into the parking lot next to the unmistakable wreck of a car, looked around, and noticed Tru on the bus bench across the street.

“It was perfectly tediocre man. But there is a single redeeming quality. The beautiful blond next to me, Gabriella Mattis.”

“Oooh tell me more. That's an interesting name,” Alec Davenport, Tru's best friend, responded.

Tru extended his hand to halt Alec, with the intention of delaying further questions, “Hold on a sec man." Turning his gaze over to the kids behind Alec that he had seen in his peripherals, he called out, "Hey kids! Why are y'all laying down in the street?” Tru's confusion demanded that he ask why they'd do something so dumb as laying down in a somewhat busy street at dusk.

“Come on, we just want some thrills,” the kid answered back.

“Mind if we join?” Alec asked, Tru getting a strange feeling in his gut.

“Hell no, old dude! We don't want some adult ruining this,” the kid yelled rebelliously.

But just then, a semi-truck turned around the corner, a low-hanging tree covering his windshield and blocking his vision.

“Look out!!!” Truck Coon yelled at the top of his lungs. As the kids started to get up, Tru realized they wouldn't be fast enough with their heavy backpacks. He ran out to them without hesitation and started pushing them out of the way. Just as he scooped the last two barely out of the behemoth's path, he dove to try and save his own life.

The next thing he knew, he woke up at the top of a bright mountain. Almost like the entire sky was the sun, and yet, his eyes were completely unharmed. With the abundant light, he could see everything around himself more clearly than he ever thought possible.

“Where in all the universe am I? Did I really make it?”

“No,” a voice resounded all around Tru as if ten thousand people were surrounding him and speaking in one voice. “You definitely got clobbered, thrashed, squashed, smeared, annihilated; you could even say, obliterated by that truck.

“Ah I see,” he said as he thought, So I really got truck-kun'd... how ironic can existence get?

As though he were eavesdropping on Tru's very thoughts, the voice announced loudly, “I know right? So, can you guess who I am?”

Tru put his hand to his chin to wonder. All at once, he quickly looked up and snapped his fingers, “You must be God!”

Responding contently, God answered him, “Yes, that is my title. My name is Yahweh. I couldn't help but notice your unwavering sacrifice to save the lives of those five children.” Yahweh was impressed with his selfless action.

Bowing respectfully, Tru greeted God, “It's an honor to meet your holiness.” Tru hadn't been religious in life but had been raised to believe in Jesus' sacrifice, and God having a purpose for everything, that he could probably never understand. Still, he had no idea how to behave.

“I've decided! Would you like a second chance at life in another world?” Tru was, deep in his heart, hoping to hear those words. After reading a plethora of web novels, light novels, manga and watching countless anime of the isekai genre, this was his greatest wish in life.

With a facial expression evident of his excitement, his thoughts screamed at the top of his mind, YEEAAAAH!!! THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE!!! He somehow maintained composure outwardly except for a beaming smile, bowed again, and responded, “It would be an honor I couldn't refuse, my Lord.”

“Alrighty then. You need to save the world I'm sending you to. But take your time. It's, unquestionably, not what you're thinking.”

With that, all the light dispersed, revealing the place he found himself in when he initially woke up, atop a huge mountain with only the torn suit on his back. It was a clear, starry night. All of the stars seemed significantly larger than the specs he could see on earth.

“It... Is... So... Cold!” he yelled at the gigantic stars with a nagging thought in the back of his mind that the world he is in must be surrounded by a star cluster. The night sky even looked strangely bright, yet at the same time had gaps of deep darkness. Looking around him, he noticed that most of the light in the sky wasn't reaching ground level. He couldn't see much, but all of the past stories that he once loved rushed to his mind. Just looking around and wondering what was there, brought up a small transparent window.

[name: Abascus Tree], [name: Trught Berry], [name: Brightsteel], [name: Garnet], [name: Orichalcum] and [name: Red Moon Berry] were the names of the most prevalent. It was strange, everything was labeled and yet, the window's letters and border didn't block any of his vision. This is almost exactly what I expected from my new Isekai life. The question is, are these labels a part of some special skill or just an inherent ability of everyone in whatever world this is? Do I have some kind of status menu I can... Oh! Upon thinking the words 'status menu', another window manifested in front of him.

'bling'

[Name: Truck Coon]

[~Status~]

[Health: 275/275]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Energy: 275/275]

[Class 1 N/A]

[~General Skills~]

[Driscoll Linguistics Level 3]

[~General Stats~]

[Strength: 25]

[Agility: 50]

[Stamina: 50]

[Intellect: 15]

[Spirit: 20]

[~Unique Skills~]

[Analyze Level 1: People, places on the map and things unknown to you display basic identifying information to you alone.]

[Eternal Love Level 2: Every time you give of yourself, you permanently gain stats equivalent to the required stats to perform the task. When your life is given for another, all [General Stats] will be doubled, you will re-spawn from the first moment you gained this skill and the soul of the person you died for can be saved upon your return.

!WARNING! Consequent to dying, your soul experiences the [Wrath of God].]

[~Unique Stats~]

[Charisma: 0]

“Pretty decent lvl 1 human stats, as far as I can tell. A couple of unique skills make things interesting, but no combat or survival skills. I'll need to rely on my higher agility to just run from things. And I definitely don't want to experience the [Wrath of God], so let's just do our best to not die.”

As he said this aloud, Tru picked up a nugget and squeezed it, having no effect whatsoever on the chunk labeled [name: Orichalcum]. He noticed his Status in the upper left corner of his view.

[~Status~]

[Health: 275/275]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Energy: 274/275]

After dropping the nugget, he noticed his energy. “Huh, squeezing that Ore actually used ener...!” Taken aback, the ground beneath his feet started to quake, bringing the new hero to his hands and knees. Everything continued to shake until Tru started moving upwards. In his confusion, Tru said, “What is this? An earthquake?” bringing up the label over what he thought to be the ground.

[name: Orichalcum Golum]

Tru used Analyze on the metallic monster, learning the name of the metal elemental he was now standing on.

'bling'

'You have Analyzed a creature at least 50 levels above your own.'

'Requirements met to increase Analyze to level 2.'

[Analyze Level 2: People, places on the map, and things unknown to you, display basic information to you alone.]

Now's not the time for that! he thought, swiping the notification out of view while rolling to the side, off the rising mass of Orichalcum. Once he had landed, the fledgling combatant noticed the elemental's name change gradually from white to red. Thankfully I took those Jiu-Jitsu classes in college. Is its name red because it's attacking me? he thought, appreciating having at least some competency in close quarters combat and knowledge of RPGs. Surveying his surroundings, he noticed a cliff about 125ft tall near where he took his first step in the new world. Maybe I can trick this hunk of metal into falling over the cliff, he theorized. bout to find out!

Tru ran over to the ledge and positioned himself so that he would have an opening to roll onto right before the Golum reached him. He noticed this plan to be completely ineffective however, the Golum much too slow for the momentum to throw it over the cliff. I guess I can run, but then I won't be getting any drops or experience points from this guy. As he was thinking of what to do, the Golum hurled a boulder of Orichalcum from its arm, being replaced as fast as it detached. Dodging the throw with grace, he understood that his agility was not something to scoff at. Thank you for not being unbearably low, Agility.

Deciding to run undoubtedly saved his life. Rushing past the slow turning, moving boulder, he ran into the woods. Abascus trees have a peculiar shape; the fat trunks making it difficult to see very far ahead, and impossible to see what he was nearing. There's no way that thing can follow me in here, he thought, looking up to see no sky at all, just the round, disk-like tops of the trees which acted a lot like a ceiling.

His lungs starting to feel scratchy, Tru was beginning to have difficulty breathing. Unbeknownst to him, these trees produce nearly 100x the oxygen output of trees on earth and he was suffering from Oxygen poisoning.

'bling'

'You have been poisoned by Oxygen. -1 hp from breathing excessive Oxygen, the amount of health lost doubling with each consecutive breath.'

Tru was confused, That's a thing? That's seriously a thing?! He turned around, holding his breath, to run back the way he came. Fortunately, he hadn't gone too far before the poison set in. He couldn't even see the Golum anywhere. It must have melded back into the ground again. Also, isn't it supposed to be spelled golem? Whatever. You know what? Where's that Golum? he thought, still hacking up a lung to remove the excess oxygen from his system. [name: Orichalcum Golum. Metallic Elemental: an elemental spirit consisting of the metal Orichalcum.] Just as I thought; I can tell where it is now. That label does more than just give some info, I can find some hidden stuff with it too. I'd bet money there's a skill that avoids its detection though... Not that I have any to bet with.

Avoiding the area where the Golum was, Tru walked around, surveying the area a bit more closely this time. He noticed his status had changed after the encounter with the trees.

[~Status~]

[Health: 268/275]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Energy: 219/275]

I took 7 damage, so I got out in only 3 breaths. Good job me. I'm just glad it didn't keep killing me after I got out of the forest. That does seem like a good chunk of energy was lost for running though. I guess I WAS sprinting as fast as I could while holding my breath. It must use more energy the more I'm exerting myself. While making his observation, knowing there were a lot of other things that could have reduced it, he noticed that the mountain he's on is completely surrounded by the same forest he raced out of. What to do, he thought as he read off the list of labeled materials nearby. [name: Abascus Tree. Highly oxygen-rich tree, producing a toxic level of oxygen beneath its leaves.], [name: Trught Berry. A berry poisonous to most living things.], [name: Brightsteel. A metal alloy which has absorbed a copious amount of UV light, giving it a glow in dark places.], [name: Garnet. A common slab of stone making up 34% of the world's surface.], [name: Orichalcum. The third hardest metal.] and [name: Red Moon Berry. The rarest berry, only found in extremely oxygen-rich environments, with access to substantial sunlight.]

Great so nothing I can use to get out of here. I also have nothing to eat, except the Red Moon berries... I hope. Tru's stomach started to grumble as it complained of the lack of sustenance for the day. When he heard the wails of his stomach, he grabbed a handful of the Red Moon berries. “Here goes nothing,” he said aloud before eating one of the berries, a bit larger than a plump grape back on earth and colored a pinkish red.

'bling'

'You have eaten Supernatural grade food. All General Stats are doubled until digestion has concluded.'

Whoa, that's a pretty sweet effect. Guess I'll have to live on these for a while. At the very least, they taste excellent, and there are a ton of them. He moved over to the spot where he first appeared in this world, then continued in the opposite direction of the Golum. Well, thank God I get a second chance at life, he thought as he laid down on the solid rock and looked up. That's pretty cool. I can probably count the stars in the sky unlike back on earth. His eyes started to get heavy, but he tried to stay awake, a little too nervous to sleep near the Orichalcum Golum. Though he was chilled from the high-altitude air, with not but a ragged suit to cover himself, the drowsiness prevailed and Truck Coon soon fell into a deep sleep.