5:30 AM.
The shrill blare of the pre-set alarm jerked Naoki from his sleep on the sofa. He pried his eyes open with difficulty, feeling a dull stiffness radiating through his back.
There was no other choice. His bedroom had been rendered completely uninhabitable by the previous night's spatio-temporal turbulence, forcing the homeowner to sleep in the living room with whatever meager comforts were available.
Naoki sat in a daze for a moment, letting his soul drift back to his body in the morning silence. Once his consciousness fully returned, he headed straight for the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, trying to banish the lingering exhaustion clinging to his eyelids.
Returning to the living room, he surveyed the mess typical of a bachelor's lifestyle, but he had no intention of cleaning. His time was far too valuable for domestic chores.
*SHING!*
His pupils transformed instantly, radiating a mysterious and captivating aura.
"«Decimal Point» + «Ame-no-Mitori»!"
*BUZZ!*
The black-gold portal connecting this dimension to another world opened before him once more, distorting the calm morning air.
"Let's hope my luck isn't rotten this time." He whispered, his tone a mix of hope and caution. "As long as it's not some nonsensical high-tier world like Little Garden."
Without wasting a second, Naoki stepped through.
The moment his feet crossed the threshold, he didn't pause to glance around or admire the view. Learning from his fatal failure in the Dragon Ball universe, he moved as fast as possible to anchor the spatio-temporal coordinates to that specific spot.
"Whew... done."
The tension that had peaked now slowly subsided. Naoki exhaled in relief, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders now that the path back and forth was securely locked. Only now did he dare to straighten his back and take in his surroundings properly.
Night currently shrouded a magnificent metropolitan city. Naoki stood atop a quiet skyscraper. In the distance, amidst thousands of city lights flickering like a bed of jewels, he spotted an iconic landmark instantly familiar to his eyes—a red and white steel structure towering into the night sky.
Tokyo Tower.
"So, I'm in Tokyo..." Naoki muttered, squinting as he observed the hustle and bustle of the city from his vantage point.
"This is troublesome. Too many stories use Tokyo as a setting. I have no idea what anime this world is based on. Is it a normal Tokyo, or a Tokyo infested with monsters?"
He paused, feeling the atmosphere of the city. The night air was cold, yet thick with the hum of engines and human activity below.
"I need to move carefully. There might be a supernatural side hidden from ordinary society here. Until I can confirm what kind of world this is, I shouldn't stand out."
Despite his high confidence in his own strength, he wasn't invincible. In this new universe, he was merely an outsider, and he had no desire to attract the attention of predators or entities that might be more dangerous than anything he had faced before.
Naoki leaped from the roof of the 25-story building with a light, effortless movement. His body sliced through the night wind, yet his silhouette went completely unnoticed. The combination of the typical Tokyoite apathy toward others' business and the thick darkness of night provided him with the perfect shroud.
When he was only dozens of meters from the hard concrete, Naoki activated «Night Storm». A controlled gust of wind pushed up from below, slowing his momentum until he landed with a nearly silent thud in a narrow alley he had chosen as his entry point.
Slipping his hands into his pockets, Naoki walked out of the alley, blending seamlessly into the crowd of pedestrians without triggering even a hint of suspicion.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
After walking for twenty minutes, Naoki noticed that social relationships in this version of Tokyo seemed very... "pure." In a short time on the sidewalk, he repeatedly passed young, beautiful girls laughing gaily with middle-aged, balding men with beer bellies. The contrast was so sharp it almost made him believe in the power of true love again—or at least, the power of money.
The culture shock he felt was much greater than in typical parts of Asia, especially when his eyes caught the rows of "specialty shops" standing prominently along the street. Scantily clad girls or those in anime costumes stood on the sidewalk without a trace of awkwardness, openly offering services under bright neon lights, accompanied by suggestive billboards capable of making anyone's imagination run wild.
However, Naoki only viewed it with an indifferent gaze. He knew those advertisements were often just traps, and he truly had zero interest. As a transmigrator with access to various powers, if he had to settle for "used" services like that, he felt he'd be better off staying home and raising pigs.
"So far, I've found famous works like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Konosuba, and Date A Live exist in this world. Could there be another transmigrator here?" Naoki muttered in Indonesian, ensuring no one around him understood.
Plagiarism was nothing new for transmigrators. They were often shameless, ripping off masterpieces from their previous lives and claiming them as their own to rake in massive royalties. Countless fanfictions featured protagonists following that exact pattern.
"Don't jump to conclusions too fast. Let's check the creators. If all those major works were made by the same person, there's a 90% chance that person is a transmigrator."
Before truly understanding the background of this world, Naoki remained extremely cautious in his actions. His first step was to find an internet cafe. After locating one that looked private enough, he rented a room. Fortunately, despite being in a different universe, the currency used was still Yen, so the money from his home world worked without issue.
Naoki stepped into his rented room.
The interior of a Japanese internet cafe is very distinctive: a small, cramped, yet functional booth designed for maximum privacy. Inside was a comfortable gaming chair that could recline into a bed, a high-spec computer with dual monitors, and a small shelf containing some pillows and blankets.
The walls were lined with thin soundproofing material, giving a sense of isolation from the outside world. In the corner of the desk were various charging cables and a high-quality headset. The room might be cramped for most, but for Naoki, it was the perfect temporary base of operations to begin his information hunt in this still-mysterious world.
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