A Gray World and 0.0001% of Hope

The path from the school gate to the station was wrapped in unpleasant noise.

Car exhaust. The glare off the asphalt. The weary footsteps of passing salarymen and the shrill laughter of students.

(… The air is thin.)

I loosened my tie slightly, grimacing at the suffocating feeling.

Of course, I wasn't talking about oxygen concentration.

It was maso.

The particles that should be the source of life energy, that should color the world in vivid hues. They were critically absent from this modern society.

Before my past-life memories returned, this had been normal.

But to me now, this world looked like a colorless black-and-white film.

Or perhaps like being trapped inside a vacuum-sealed glass case.

"I can't even use Body Strengthening, let alone actual magic."

I stared at my own palm.

For a magic swordsman, maso is gasoline.

Without it, even a high-performance engine is just scrap metal.

A dull body in a barren world.

Completely boxed in.

(Am I supposed to live as an ordinary person, go to college, get a job, grow old, and die?)

Me, who once slew dragons and single-handedly trampled a nation's army?

What a joke. That kind of retirement is no different from being dead.

As I climbed the pedestrian bridge stairs, I looked up at the sky to vent my frustration.

It was dusk.

The sky was beginning to turn madder red, crisscrossed by countless power lines forming geometric patterns.

It might be a beautiful scene. A sentimental poet might shed tears.

But my eyes saw something different.

I had unconsciously activated Mana Sight. The technique was imperfect due to the lack of maso, but the perceptual ability was ingrained in my soul. It caught something like a "stain" clinging to a single point in the sky.

"… Huh?"

I stopped walking.

I leaned against the railing and squinted.

It wasn't my imagination.

High in the sky, there was a spot where the atmospheric layer was thinly distorted.

Like a pinprick hole in a perfectly painted picture. That kind of wrongness.

And from there, faintly, at a concentration of less than 0.0001%, a nostalgic scent was leaking out.

(Is this… an influx of maso?)

Electricity ran down my spine.

That "hole" was still small enough that even an ant couldn't crawl through.

But I understood. That was a wound.

A crack in the boundary of the world.

Once a crack forms, it inevitably widens due to pressure differential.

Dense maso from the other side, probably another realm, was pressing against this vacuum-like world, trying to flood in.

"Ha… I see."

A dry laugh escaped me.

I was starting to understand what was happening.

That was a precursor phenomenon to a "Dungeon Appearance."

When maso concentration exceeds a certain threshold, space can't hold together and collapses, opening a hole connected to another realm.

I had seen this before in my previous life. The signal that the world ends and a new hell begins.

I looked around.

People crossing the pedestrian bridge stared at their phones or chatted with friends, not a single one noticing the anomaly in the sky.

Of course not. They lacked any organ to sense maso.

They were like children picking up seashells at the water's edge while a massive tsunami approached.

(How long do I have?)

I began calculating calmly.

The size of the crack. The pressure of the leaking maso. The "fragility" of this world.

… One month?

No, at the current rate of acceleration, two weeks at the earliest.

Three weeks at the latest before the first "breach" occurs.

When that happens, this peaceful city becomes a hunting ground.

Monsters impervious to guns will overflow, and the current fragile humanity will be torn apart like paper.

A despairing future.

And yet—

"… Heh heh."

An irrepressible laugh welled up from the back of my throat.

Despair?

No. This is gospel.

If maso fills the world, my power returns.

If dungeons appear, resources become available.

Only I know this.

Only I can see this.

When everyone else panics and flees in terror, I alone will be "fully prepared" at the starting line.

(I can make it.)

The suffocating feeling from moments ago had vanished.

In its place, a burning ambition and a thrilling exhilaration welled up from the pit of my stomach.

I might have the weakest body in this world.

But I have the mind to reach the "correct answer" faster than anyone else.

All the first-mover advantages are mine.

Magic stones, artifacts, experience points.

I'll monopolize everything before anyone knows their value.

"This is getting interesting."

I smirked and threw an invisible challenge toward the distorting sky.

A dull body? I'll hammer it back into shape.

No maso? I'll slurp up every last drop that leaks from that crack.

For a former Sword Emperor, adversity is just seasoning.

In this gray world, I alone will "breathe" vividly.

I gripped my bag tighter and quickened my pace.

Things would get busy once I got home.

First, I needed to put together a hellish training regimen to wake up this rusted body.

The car horns from the traffic jam below the pedestrian bridge sounded like a celebratory fanfare just for me.