"Hmm?"
I had come to the town library to do some reading.
My name is Iwatani Naofumi, and I'm a second-year university student. I'll admit I'm a bit more of a nerd than most people.
Ever since I discovered games, anime, and otaku culture, I've been more dedicated to that than to my studies.
My parents, having given up on me in short order, enrolled my younger brother at a famous cram school to secure his future.
But the brother they doted on beyond measure burned out from exam prep, turned delinquent, dyed his hair blond, and started hurling verbal abuse around the house. Things got pretty dark for a while there.
And the savior who appeared on the scene? That would be me!
I casually struck up a conversation with my brother, who was constantly clicking his tongue in a foul mood, and recommended a famous bishoujo dating sim.
"Huh!? Get lost!"
"Oh come on, just try it. Think of it as a scam and give it a go."
I already knew the real reason my brother had gone delinquent.
Whereas I'd grown up freely spending money on whatever I wanted, my brother had been forced to study.
He later told me that hearing it was a game recommended by someone like me — an absolute specialist when it came to play — had piqued his interest.
The long and short of it: the world gained one more otaku.
Now his room is stuffed with merchandise from the bishoujo dating sim I recommended.
And the kicker? After getting that mental release from exam stress, he got into one of the top prep schools and is currently tearing through the honors track.
Thanks to my magnificent efforts, my parents became even more lenient with me, and I've been enjoying a carefree university life ever since.
For the record, I'm the deadbeat of the Iwatani family.
Anyway, I'm getting off track. The point is, that day, I had come to the town library to read.
The monthly allowance my parents give me is ten thousand yen. That evaporates in the blink of an eye when you're passing around eroge, adult manga, and light novels among friends.
I pick up part-time work to bump my spending money to about fifty thousand yen, but that goes just as fast during summer, winter, and regional festivals.
My parents, taking pity on their broke brother, will provide lodging near the festival grounds during event periods — but only then.
They won't invest beyond that. Tuition and basic room and board are already plenty.
So to save money, when I'm short on cash, I browse used bookstores or read at the library.
I could play MMOs if I had free time, but once you get deep into those, you lose infinite amounts of time.
Besides, I'm the type who likes to sample broadly rather than go deep.
Instead of grinding to max level, I get absorbed in finding ways to make money in-game. Case in point: even now, my character in an MMO is busy hawking rare items at a street stall.
As a result, my real-life self is drowning in free time.
And so.
That's when it happened.
I was browsing the old fantasy section.
Fantasy has a history rivaling that of human civilization, after all. The Bible could even be called a fantasy novel if you dig deep enough.
"The Four Holy Weapons Book?"
A book with a title I could barely make out — it looked ancient — had fallen off the shelf.
Probably someone had half-heartedly put it back before wandering off.
Well, might as well take it as fate.
I sat down in a chair and opened The Four Holy Weapons Book.
Flip... flip...
It started from the worldbuilding.
To summarize: in a certain other world, a Prophecy of the End had been uttered.
The prophecy foretold that a series of overlapping Calamity Waves would eventually destroy the world.
To escape the calamity, the people summoned Heroes from another world to beg for their aid, or something along those lines.
...Hmm. A pretty overused premise, but given how old this book was, I guess nobody had raised any objections.
The four summoned Heroes each wielded a weapon.
A sword, a spear, a bow, and a shield.
Man, a shield isn't even a weapon — it's armor.
I chuckled to myself and kept skimming.
The Heroes set out on their journey to grow stronger, hone their skills, and prepare for the Wave of Calamity.
"Yaaawn..."
Uh oh, I'm getting sleepy.
It's too by-the-book. The book was so old there weren't even any cute heroines. The closest thing was probably a princess, but with four Heroes vying for her attention, she reeked of "pick-me girl" energy, which just annoyed me.
The princess kept throwing flirty glances at every single one of them — pick one, for crying out loud.
Like the Sword Hero who makes a grand showing, or the Spear Hero who's devoted to his companions.
The Bow Hero's out there taking down corrupt kings like Robin Hood...
Oh? The narrative's shifting toward the Shield Hero now—
"Huh?"
I flipped the page and let out an involuntary voice.
The pages after the section about the Shield Hero were completely blank.
No matter how many times I looked, it was nothing but white. There was nothing beyond.
"What is this?"
The moment those words left my lips, my consciousness drifted away in an instant...
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this would be how I ended up in another world.