NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 Awakening
Translator’s Note:
This novel has been chosen by the patrons over on my Patreon as replacement series for Dungeon Battle Royale which is going to end in the next months. Until I start to genuinely stock this series up on Patreon (after I translate the last available Dunbat chapter), I’ll release this novel on a chapter/chapter part per month basis.
So far the novel has 102 chapters in the raw after the author started to write it in June 2022. But, many of the chapters have sizes close to LN chapter length.
Well, I suspect there will be around 10 LN volumes in content by the time I begin the weekly release, so look forward to it.
By the way, I binged the whole thing, and I can vouch for it being a great series.
Lastly, two main points about this novel: It’s nothing for readers who like lolis since all the women are big-chested, and all sex is vanilla. The author informed the readers through his character that he hates rape, NTR, and all other kinds of non-consensual sex and as far as I have read, I didn’t find anything in that direction either, so you can read with a peace of mind, if you dislike such developments.
The excruciating pain of his body had lasted three whole days, and the fact of being confronted with such ailing the instant he woke up had further resulted in him being thrown into confusion.
He had asked himself why he was in this place and why he had to suffer like this.
Even now…I cannot believe it, but…still, it must be true…the memories certainly exist inside my head.
At last, he did get out of his bed. As he stretched his body, he could hear his joints cracking. And then he spotted a piece of paper on a nearby table.
It contained a request, asking him to either burn this message or flush it down the toilet after reading it. The name of its sender was 『Yuuta』, and just as he had wondered about the addressee…the message went on with 『To the awoken Yuuta』.
A message to the one that would wake up after him…… He must have hated this world quite a bit.
To plainly summarize the content of the message: 『I don’t want to keep living in this world, so you use this body to live on, okay?』
With his hurting body also playing a part, Yuuta had required another two days to somehow get a grasp on his own situation after having woken up and read the message.
And today, on the third day, he finally decided to accept his situation.
I’m Yuuta, but then again not. This is a distant future of the world I used to live in…or rather, it’s the rebuilt world after its civilization perished at one point, I suppose. They found the genetic information of an old world dweller in a place they call Ruins of the Old World, used it to reconstruct my memories, and incorporated them into this body…… All of this was possible because I had a collaborator, but as for the information about said collaborator, I’m pulling a blank…maybe because it’s been deleted…
Just as he sorted the information available to him, his meal was brought into the room. By a completely autonomous robot.
Yuuta decided to gratefully accept the food.
I guess I have to also put my clothing in order. If I remember correctly, robots capable of haircuts exist as well, don’t they?
He had taken over the memories of the previous owner of this body, so it didn’t look like he’d have any problems with knowledge on how to live here, information about this world, or the common sense of this world.
Yuuta operated his tablet-type of device, scheduling a haircut for the time after finishing his meal.
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Cutting his hair and taking a bath allowed Yuuta to completely freshen himself up. Currently he was sitting on his sofa, sorting the situation once more and making plans for the future.
First off, at the moment he was in a room of a mansion located in the 「Exclusive Male Zone」. This zone was only inhabited by men, and men were regarded as precious in this world. This room had been reserved for Yuuta, and because all he needed to live was handled by autonomous robots, he could live here without ever meeting anyone, if he wanted to only survive.
The number of men in this world is low, making them valuable…but, the principle of competition does exist here, doesn’t it?
The ratio between men and women was said to be 1 : 10,000, meaning the number of men was exceedingly low. Because of that, men were protected by the state. Yuuta was also protected. By a country called 「Nihon」.
I sure hadn’t expected for the name of this country to be the same as my country in the old world…no, that isn’t a coincidence, is it? It looks like I’m currently in a city called「Toukyou」.
He felt like questioning whether human evolution contained some kind of element similar to destiny or inevitability.
But, just because the valuable men were sheltered by the state, it didn’t mean that they were pampered all the time. They were asked to perform their obligation as valuable men.
Even if they call it obligation…it’s nothing that big in my eyes, but it might be different for the men of this world.
After birth, men would live with their mothers for a while. But, at the time of entering elementary school, they’d be separated from their mother to move into the Exclusive Male Zone.
Of course they’d receive all necessary assistance in their daily life, and it was a highly popular job for the women to take care of the small elementary boys.
And once they enrolled at junior high…men would be obligated to perform Service Activities for women.
Service towards women, eh…? The very few men are ranked, and only the ones superior in their service are allowed to leave behind offspring later on.
The men of this world were all ranked. Different countries had different criteria, but the differences weren’t that big.
Men would be set as F-Rank upon entering junior high. This was the lowest rank. The number of obligational Service Activities for a junior high first-year was one per term. Of course, they were free to do service twice or more, if they wanted. There would be reason to do it as well, since male first-years, who performed Service Activities more than twice, might be evaluated as superior. But, most men only did the required amount of Service Activities.
If you properly do one Service Activity per term, you’ll move up to E-Rank during the ranking exam at the end of junior high’s first year. And starting with the second year of junior high, men have to perform two Service Activities per term. Men, who manage to rank up to D-Rank at the year’s end ranking exam of the second year, are regarded as elites.
Being labeled as elites, D-Rank men would become popular among many women. In other words, the men of this world couldn’t become popular with women by just being alive. If they didn’t raise their ranks, they wouldn’t be able to have an affluent life later on.
However, the number of men finishing junior high’s second year as D-Ranks isn’t high. For many men that’s no problem, however, as long as they become D-Ranks during the third year’s ranking exam. Men, who are judged E-Rank without achieving D-Rank after finishing the three years of junior high…well, from the women’s point of view, they’ll be assessed as spoiled goods.
Men needed to put in a reasonable amount of effort in order to become a D-Rank during the ranking exam at the end of junior high’s third year. However, even that effort…didn’t look all that demanding to the current Yuuta.
Either way, the importance of ranks was doubtlessly a crucial reality for men to live in this world.
And my rank…right before the ranking exam of junior high’s third year is F……
The original owner of Yuuta’s body was referred to as 「Shut-in Trash」. As he had been unable to even perform the least required amount of Service Activities, he was now about to greet his junior high graduation as F-Rank.
Because it was commonplace for school lessons to be taught via online courses, or if desired, by a teaching robot, students didn’t go to class and study over there like in the old world.
So everything would have been fine if Yuuta had carried out his lessons and required Service Activities in his room.
Well…he got a trauma because there was a little incident during his very first Service Activity.
When the previous Yuuta performed his first Service Activity after becoming a junior high first-year…it turned into a huge scandal as his female partner committed a forbidden act of touching. The woman in question got harshly punished. And Yuuta, who was afflicted with a mental illness due to this incident, secluded himself in his room, refusing to do any further Service Activities.
As his reaction stemmed from that incident, the state initially made special concessions towards Yuuta, doing its best to somehow get him back on his feet, but…unfortunately all the efforts and care didn’t bear fruit.
No matter how precious he was as a male and even granted that his issues originated from an incident, as long as he couldn’t fulfill his obligation…
Gradually the evaluation of Yuuta worsened. From men and women alike.
In short, it’s pointless to feed and provide everything to someone who doesn’t work. Well, I guess that’s only reasonable in this world.
Despairing over his situation, Yuuta found himself a collaborator and decided to yield his body to another individual.
As all memories surrounding the collaborator and the fate of the previous Yuuta had been erased, the current Yuuta couldn’t tell what happened to either. He hypothesized that the previous Yuuta might have obtained another body and was now living inside his new body. At least the current Yuuta wished for that to be the case.
Now then, instead of worrying about the previous Yuuta-kun, I should rather worry about myself, the current Yuuta.
The situation was bad. Or to be precise, it was close to being a disaster.
As F-Rank, the current Yuuta was labeled as a target of scorn by society.
Starting from a perilous situation…I deserve that.
Going by his old world memories, Yuuta recalled that his own end had been the worst. His parents suddenly passed away from a virus that had spread globally. What cornered him, who was 28 years old at that time, even further during his mourning was his company which urged him to voluntarily retire due to a restructuring triggered by the economic downturn.
It wasn’t as though he was a troublemaker at his company. But, Yuuta wasn’t particularly excellent at his job either. Seeing as he was no one who brought his company profits or sales as part of accounting, Yuuta got fired. And having lost his job, even his girlfriend at that time left him for another man.
Falling into despair, Yuuta completely withdrew into his room…and passed away all by himself.
Did I match with the previous Yuuta because I was also a shut-in during my final days? Well, whatever might be the case, I have obtained this body thanks to Yuuta-kun. I’ll treat it cherishingly while considering this as my second life.
Maybe because his body tried to adapt to the memories of his soul, Yuuta’s body began to change after the intense pain of the first three days. It was shifting toward becoming more like Yuuta’s body from his previous life in the old world.
First off…I’ll take the 「Medical Exam」 which Yuuta-kun has been skipping altogether.
Making up his mind to take a positive mindset about his new world, Yuuta started to act.
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