It was the year 2023.

The world was peaceful.

I recall the day of mundanity when I was slumped on one shoulder, looking out of a cafe window. The street was filled with Christmas decorations. I briefly remembered the grievances I had as I stared at the couples wandering around while I had to spend the holidays preparing for my entrance exams.

As I moved my eyes to gaze at the tree beginning to light up by dinnertime, I thought I saw something flash through the sky.

It all happened in an instant. The world went up in flames.

A deafening crackle of static. Tinnitus in the ears. Blurry vision.

Well. It was that. Something akin to a missile dropping from the sky.

I heard many lives were lost that day. And I, who was near the crash site, was fortunate enough to escape with just a light concussion.

It was later that I found out that Tokyo was one of the many places where a similar incident happened. A meteoric impact causing a wide-radius explosion and malfunction of electronics.

Outside of the clear damage it brought onto the earth, they had, too, staked a total of 122 recorded pillars into the ground. They towered above a thousand feet, and could not be removed even with humanity’s non-nuclear attempts. Ground around the pillars were also reinforced, so they couldn't be dug out either. For a time, everyone seemed to accept their bizarre existences because they could not be demolished.

It was the year 2024.

The world was in another bout of mild confusion..

People with ‘special abilities’ started to appear in the world.

Apparently, it was later deduced that victims close to the crash sites had received special abilities, accessible through their personal devices that were close to them that day. Of course, society was in an upheaval. The abilities in question ranged from being able to talk to animals, breathing fire to walking on air. It was truly a scene out of a fantasy novel.

Needless to say, some… bad things happened with the misuse of these abilities. Some countries were even on the brink of collapse, and it seemed like Japan would follow suit in a matter of time. When it was ruled that humanity was yet too infantile to be trusted with the possession of supernatural powers, a council was formed by all major ruling bodies on Earth.

And so the world found a solution. By the end of that week, no one possessed these supernatural powers any more.

The 122 pillars remained though.

And I silently removed the batteries from my old phone which no longer functioned, and tucked it away for the last time.

“Guess I’ll get a new one.”

It is the year 2025.

The world had to work hard to rebuild what it had lost, but… it is peaceful.

I, Kuuya Fukusei, am entering high school successfully after a year’s break just like everyone else.

On the day of the opening ceremony, however, a familiar ringtone rings as I prepare to leave my bedroom.

I turn to stare at where it came from, and sure enough… It is the phone without a battery.

The familiar jingle from that game-like interface… I could never mistake it.

Carefully, I picked up the device that couldn’t possibly be working any longer.

And immediately, a flood of messages filled my vision.

〖Your clone in another world has died!〗 

〖You have obtained the Player System!〗

〖Skills accumulated have been tallied. You have 89 skills.〗

〖Due to world incompatibility, 89 skills have been reverted into unused skill points.〗

〖Experience accumulated has been tallied. You have gained 164,884,330 EXP.〗

〖You have leveled up!〗

〖You have obtained stat points!〗

〖ltems accumulated have been tallied. You have 878 unique items.〗

〖You are recommended to learn『Item Box 』to access your items.〗

〖Karma accumulated has been transferred to Kuuya Fukusei.〗

〖Current moral alignment is Heroic.〗

〖You have freed up a slot for『Cloning 』〗

〖Would you like to use『Cloning 』again?〗

…What?