Beggar
It had been about a year since I had been dragged into this world. You could call it an unexpected accident. Since then, I had been striving to survive—
“Mmm, this bread is delicious.”
—and now I was reduced to begging in the streets. If I were the only one who had fallen into this world, I might have been content with my current situation, barely scraping by. But that wasn't the case.
[No, but seriously, being a priest is freaking hard, for real][12]
[Necromancer is crazy tough, am I right? Any talented guys wanna join me?][4]
[Looking for someone to hunt with in Koruntum][3]
[This is a bit much for a non-paying gig, don't you think?][5]
[Ugh, fishing is so bad today, damn it][2]
Because there was this so-called ‘Bulletin Board’ where numerous posts like these could be found. We called it the ‘Forum,’ though.
No one knew why this Forum existed. All we knew was that at some point, we had all been transported to this other world.
“Ah, the bragging is too much.”
Normally, when I had nothing better to do, I would hole up in a corner and browse the Forum. Not that I had a place to call home or anything.
Lost in such thoughts, I was munching on my bread, hidden in an alley, when I saw a group of people walking down the street in the distance.
‘Ah, gotta get out of here.’
It was the patrol guards making their rounds. For some reason, they had a habit of occasionally beating up beggars they came across. I had been on the receiving end of that ‘event’ myself.
So, ever since then, hiding in dark places had become a daily routine.
As I continued to eat my bread and scroll through the Forum, something caught my eye.
“Hmm?”
There was a strange new post.
[Looking for an Assistant, First Come First Served]
The moment I saw it, I quickly typed a reply without a second thought.
It didn't matter who posted it. If it was a troll, I could just ignore it.
If it was real, it was a gain. Either way, it had to be better than my current life.
L ReallyDirtPoor: Yes.
“...Probably a troll.”
However, the odds of it being a troll were high. As I pondered this, I checked the post once more.
[Author: HiddenExplosion]
[Title: Looking for an Assistant, First Come First Served]
[Content: As the title says, looking for one person, urgently needed.
Room and board provided.
Just do what I tell you to do, but besides cleaning, there’s not much to do.]
“Hmm?”
The conditions were better than I expected.
Room and board provided, and all I had to do was clean?
To be honest, I didn't really want to do anything special after coming to this world.
In my original world, I had also lived day by day, just trying to make ends meet.
But there was something fishy.
‘…There are only five comments, including mine?’
Something felt off. A post like this should have been flooded with replies.
This ‘Bulletin Board,’ this Forum, had its share of both wealthy and poor people.
That's why recruitment posts like this often attracted a lot of attention. It was more comforting to trust a job posting from someone who came from the same world, rather than searching for work while begging on the streets.
‘It could be a scam…’
However, the possibility of it being a scam couldn't be ruled out. My necromancer friends often posted these kinds of bait posts. They needed test subjects. Such awful friends they were.
“It’s a username I’ve never seen before.”
Something I could boast about was that I knew almost all the regular users, the nicknamed users, of this Forum.
I guess having a lot of time on my hands as a beggar had its perks.
And one thing I’d learned after coming to this other world was that once you saw something, you didn’t forget it easily.
So, I knew most of the nicknamed users, but ‘HiddenExplosion’ was a first. A truly new face.
“Hmm…”
Just in case I might have missed it, I searched the user's post history—
Nothing came up.
It meant exactly what it said.
“…They changed their nickname.”
Whoever this person was, they had clearly deleted all their past posts and changed their nickname.
The ‘Memo’ function from the Forum in our original world, which allowed us to track nickname changes, didn't exist here.
But…
‘This is unsettling.’
It was undeniably unsettling.
People who used the Forum here rarely deleted their posts.
It was like leaving a record of their existence. So, the fact that someone had gone through the trouble of deleting everything meant they had something to hide.
So, I scrolled through the Forum from page one to ten, checking if any of the nicknamed users I remembered had disappeared.
‘There’s one.’
There it was. The user ‘IAmGod,’ who used to spam meaningless posts, was gone. That was the only one missing.
Just to be sure, I searched for their posts.
‘It’s them.’
My suspicions were confirmed.
None of ‘IAmGod’s’ posts showed up in the search results. Normally, there should have been at least ten pages worth of results.
But the fact that everything had been deleted meant only one thing.
With this, I confirmed that ‘IAmGod’ was indeed ‘HiddenExplosion.’ This realization, however, only deepened the mystery.
“Why?”
Why would they do that? I was curious. Even though they used to write nonsensical posts, they never wrote anything problematic.
However, no amount of thinking on my part would give me the answer. What I could figure out, though, was why there were so few replies to the recent post.
‘Because it’s a new nickname.’
Who would trust a job posting from a user with a brand-new nickname and no post history? That’s why there were hardly any replies.
In fact, replies were being deleted in real-time.
People who, like me, had commented first and then checked the author's information were probably getting cold feet and deleting their replies out of fear.
I considered doing the same—
‘…But they weren’t a bad user.’
The posts they used to write weren't bad. Just complaints about their magic research not going well. It was a problem that they posted those every five minutes, but…
Anyway.
From what I could tell on the Forum, they didn't seem like a bad person. They weren’t known for lying or conducting human experiments.
Well… there was always that chance.
As I was lost in thought, all the comments except mine had disappeared. Everyone was too afraid.
‘…Why are they all so scared?’
It seemed like everyone was clinging to life too desperately.
Of course, I valued my life too, but not as much as others. I’d be happy to live well, but if I died, well, tough luck. At least, that’s how I thought about it.
It had always been that way.
So, I waited for a reply.
If ‘HiddenExplosion’s’ post offered decent terms, I had no reason to refuse. It was a good opportunity for me.
And at that moment—
Ding-!
A notification popped up, signaling a reply to my old comment. I checked it immediately—
L HiddenExplosion: Where are you right now? I’ll pick you up.
A reply came almost instantly.
“…That was fast.”
How desperately did they need someone to clean? I could already imagine the state of their house.
With that thought, I typed out a reply.
L ReallyDirtPoor: I’m in Lukphelton, District 5, 4th Artillery Alley, next to the third sewer drain, by the trash can.
And a reply came flying back.
L HiddenExplosion: …?
L ReallyDirtPoor: What?
L HiddenExplosion: Okay;
I didn't understand why they were so surprised. They asked for my location, so I told them.
As I sat there, pondering the strangeness of it all, gazing up at the sky—
Whoosh-!
Someone appeared out of thin air. It was a silver-haired woman who looked to be around my age. She looked down at me and—
“Are you ReallyDirtPoor?”
“Ah, are you HiddenExplosion?”
“Yes, but… try not to call me by my full nickname.”
“…Um, alright.”
Technically, she was the first one to use my full nickname, but I wasn't going to nitpick over minor details. She was going to provide me with food and shelter from now on.
With that in mind, I cautiously asked, “So, what exactly will I be doing?”
“Refrain from using informal speech. There’s a significant age difference between us.”
“How old-”
“Silence. I shall escort you first.”
With that, my vision blurred momentarily—
—and I was transported somewhere else. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a rather grand-looking place.
It screamed “wizard’s workshop.” Though, it was a bit… messy.
“Um… where are we?”
I looked at the silver-haired woman, seeking an explanation. Making sure to use formal speech, of course.
“Baruk District 3. My workshop.”
She replied nonchalantly.
A mage, indeed. To teleport us from Lukphelton to here in an instant, and to have a separate workshop in the less-populated Baruk District 3…
As these thoughts filled my mind, I carefully continued, “May I ask how I should address you?”
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So far so good, no significant plot holes and straight into the action. Most web novels these days like to include unnecessary prologues and introductory backstories, while still managing to have a few plot holes not covered even later down the line
ReplyDeletePlotholes in chapter 1... Dude you must have read some serious trash before. Before chapter 20-30 I've never encountered plotholes. Especially because most plot holes get mended with increasing chapters it should basically be impossible to have plotholes at chapter 1
Delete👀👀
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