I Am the Greatest

Beautiful.

That was the only word that came to mind as I looked upon the bountiful vista which laid ahead of me. There was nothing in my previous world that could even compare.

Beautiful. I smiled.

Yet, I dared not speak. Not yet, at least. Just standing here and allowing the crisp and cool air to tousle my hair and caress my cheeks was already more than I deserved.

One.

Two.

Three.

I took three slow and measured steps in total before my grin grew wider. There was no doubt about it. I really was in another world. 

I thrust my hands upwards in an expression of triumph.

“OPERATION SUCCESS!” I shouted, allowing the wind to carry my voice far and away.

Honestly, I had really lucked out. When I took the plunge, it was nothing more than a coin flip.

If there really is another world out there, please take me there. That was the only thing that went through my head as I fell.

Of course, I didn’t really believe that I would get transported to another world. Far from it, in fact. I thought that the only thing left for us after death was total and eternal oblivion.

After all, if my previous world was such a shithole, there was no way that a God existed, right?

As it turns out, I was completely wrong. And for the first time in my life, I was thankful that I was wrong.

I’d staked my entire life on this bet: eternal oblivion or isekai. 

Somehow, I won.

With the tension and adrenaline draining out of my body, I collapsed onto the ground, allowing the soft grass beneath my feet to cushion my fall.

Even falling felt better in this world.

And for the first time in over a decade, I laughed. I laughed with the whole of my being, mirth radiating from my core to my fingertips and out of my pores.

For the first time in over a decade, I was finally happy.

After I was finished getting that out of my system, I decided it was about time to get a good look at my surroundings.

It seemed that the God of Transmigration had spawned me in quite a decent location.

I had been caught up marveling at the view that this elevated plateau afforded, but just across from me was a large city.

Just below the grassy outcrop that I stood upon, I could see a winding dirt path which led toward the city. Behind the ivory city walls, I could see a large building that stood out to me even from this distance. Its architectural style was similar to the palaces in my previous world, so I assumed this structure served the same purpose.

Behind me was a forest and a massive mountain range beyond that. There wasn’t really anything special about it, but the trees were clearly of a different species than anything I’d ever seen before.

Although the formation of their leaves and their coloration were familiar to me, the tree bark was highly unusual upon further inspection. Unlike the trees of Earth which had vertical striations on the surface, the bark of these trees rippled out like a spiral.

It wasn’t as important as it was an interesting detail.

Thinking about it more thoroughly though, it was obvious why I was spawned here rather than anywhere else.

This location was just out of the way enough to not have any unexpected encounters but still close enough to civilization that I could easily make my way toward the city before nightfall.

Most people would’ve taken that option immediately.

But not me.

There was a second advantage to this location.

Normally, venturing into the wilderness was something that people wished to avoid. After all, the wilderness doesn’t have the comfort of home-cooked food, a warm bed, or a roof over your head.

It was cold and unforgiving with all sorts of threats lurking around in the dark.

But for someone like me, that was nothing short of paradise.

Between the options that I had, of course choosing to venture into the forest behind me was the superior choice.

There, I would be able to find a large variety of creatures to hunt and perhaps even chance upon a dungeon. For a min-maxing maniac like me, grinding took precedence over all other things. If I could increase my abilities by even a +1, I would do so gladly regardless of the cost!

But first, there were other things to take care of. Namely, confirming my current status and the extent of my abilities.

“[Rulebook]!”

Throughout all of the anime, manga, and novels that I’ve binged, my favorite parts had always been when the characters shouted out the names of their special moves and abilities before using them.

I don’t know what exactly it was, but it just seemed so cool! 

Now, I didn’t actually need to say my ability’s name out loud. I could activate it with ease purely by willing it or thinking [Rulebook], but just let me be cool this once, alright?

A translucent screen popped up in front of me. It was as cliche as you could possibly imagine. It glowed with a faint blue hue and the text was white.

The screen was currently displaying a table of contents just like a real rulebook for a tabletop role-playing game, except there was one issue.

This was the longest table of contents I’d ever seen. Even so, it didn’t matter. If a system exists, it is breakable. 

At least for a no-lifer munchkin like me.

For now though, it was more important to check what kind of hand I’d been dealt in this world. Memorizing the rules of the world could come later.

The moment that thought passed through my mind, the screen changed and displayed my statistics.

Huh, so I can just look up what I need by thinking about it. That’s pretty convenient.

However, what wasn’t convenient was the state of my stats.

Huuuuh!? Only fourteen intelligence!? You mother fucker! You’re calling me stupid, aren’t you!? I thrust my fist through the screen, only to remember that it wasn’t solid immediately after.

Even though it wasn’t alive and was only visible to me, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that this goddamn screen was laughing at me. 

Never before did I feel such hatred toward an inanimate object.

I shook my head vigorously to clear my embarrassment like a duck shaking off water and proceeded to skim through the rest of the rulebook while there was still daylight.

My stats weren’t terrible, but they could certainly use some improvement. However, before that, there were two important things that I had to confirm first.

My thoughts directed the rulebook to the relevant sections immediately. I nodded as I confirmed the facts for myself.

Firstly, my hypothesis regarding the rulebook’s limits had been correct. It couldn’t give me any information on my [Rulebook] and [Complete Analysis] abilities.

I thought it was slightly amusing that it couldn’t give me any information on itself, but that was probably a preventative measure for safety so that it didn’t accidentally clone the ability.

Either way, this confirmed my suspicion that [Rulebook] could only give me information that originally came from this world. Anything originating from outside would be unknown. 

However, [Complete Analysis] functioned even on the screen generated by [Rulebook], meaning that it was probably a skill that had a higher priority than [Rulebook].

Hm... Priorities and skills... Maybe I should look into that later.

As for the second thing, that could wait until later.

After all, it was time to start grinding now! I won’t let my own goddamn skill roast my intelligence! Just you wait, asshole, I’ll get that INT to 99 before you know it!