Cheat Selection

The goddess drew out a fresh sheet of parchment, and this was the list written across it:

"Whoa… what even is all this?"

Yeesh. There were a lot of options—way, way too many.

"So how does the point scale work, exactly?" I asked the goddess.

"Ah, right—I'd better start with the explanation." The goddess jabbed a finger at the [Current Points] line on the parchment. "First, your points. Someone born with their fate broken from the very start, the way you were? That almost never happens. …No, honestly? You're the first."

Ahem. The goddess gave an awkward little cough.

"Anyway. Beyond cases like this, the reapers and death gods who serve under the gods can be hopeless idiots, and every now and then they cart off the wrong person instead of the one who was actually scheduled to die. The cheat system is what we use to compensate for that."

No wonder the cheat list had looked so suspiciously well organized. So this kind of thing happened regularly, huh….

"Take, say, a reaper fumbling and someone getting flattened by a truck in place of the child who was supposed to die. In that case, to keep Earth's soul quota in balance, we hand that person a cheat as compensation and send them off to another world."

What the—

Somewhere in that daze, I had just learned the principle behind the isekai truck.

"Souls that died before the potential they were meant to bloom could ever blossom are given a baseline of 100 points, with the value of their life padded out a touch generously, by way of compensation."

"And 100 points is worth exactly how much?"

"100 points is enough to buy a cheat at the level of the highest realm a talented human could reach through a lifetime of effort. Of course, buying something like [Grand Sword Master (SS)] doesn't drop you into that realm the instant you're reborn—it grants you the talent and the growth bonuses that let you reach it for certain with only a reasonable amount of effort."

Ahh, so that was the idea. Understood it perfectly.

Then my build would be either a Sword Master–Archmage dual-track or going all-in on Grand Sword Master.

That was the good old-fashioned romance of proper fantasy, after all.

But as I nodded along and combed through the list at my leisure, my eyes locked onto a single spot.

The form that ensnared my gaze like a spell. The unspoken rule among the unspoken rules of otherworld reincarnation. The G.O.A.T. That name everyone has, at least once in their life, quietly screamed into the corner of their room!

…But it was a price I couldn't afford.

Sniffle…. The blues had settled right in….

"Then what are the things priced above 200 points even for? They just look like pies in the sky to me…."

The complaint slipped out of me like a bit of a whine.

"You remember how SS is the ceiling a human can reach? From SSS upward—even the bottommost rank there—that's the domain of the gods. As for the Status Window, on top of the status display and information lookup you already know about, it comes standard with massive growth bonuses across every field. That's why it's expensive. It isn't a mere ability or talent but an authority—something no amount of human striving could ever obtain."

"I get that it's expensive, but can it actually be bought? The Status Window is the one I want most…."

"We pay out 100 points for the value of one human life, so if you're wrongly killed twice in a row, the points stack up to match. In that case, you'd be able to afford the pricier cheats. Take that one at the very bottom, Absolute Hypnosis—it can put even a god under its spell without fail, but in exchange you'd have to be the victim of a reaper's blunder twenty times in a row. Not so easy, hmm?"

Honestly, the Status Window was the one I wanted most. When it comes to otherworld reincarnation, the Status Window is the unspoken rule, after all.

"Tsk. I see. Nothing to be done, I suppose."

It wasn't as if I could die wrongfully a second time after having already come back to life once.

The moment I let my shoulders droop, the goddess seized them.

"BUT!!"

She shouted at the top of her lungs. When I whipped my head up in surprise, she stood there with a resolute expression, both hands clasped over her heart.

"You carried misfortune your whole life, from the day you were born, because of no one's fault but my own. In the whole long history of the heavens, there isn't even a compensation clause to cover it—a screw-up of truly unparalleled proportions… er, not a screw-up. A mistake, I mean."

The mood nearly shattered right there, but the goddess pressed on with a faintly reddened face.

"For you, who had to die an unjust death at so young an age, never once knowing the happiness of childhood or the warmth of a family—simply repaying that death isn't enough, I think. And that is why I…!"

Sweat pouring off her, the goddess began wringing out the divine power she had spent thousands of years stockpiling.

"I will compensate you… even if only a little!"

With a sharp ping, a line was struck through the point total on the parchment and a new figure written in its place.

"Hah… hah…. I've dumped out every drop of the divine power I'd saved. Use it to buy that [Status Window (SSS)]. It's the bare minimum of my atonement—a wish that nothing but a smooth road lies ahead of you in your new life."

One look at her trembling legs and the sweat streaming down her face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said it all: she had clearly overdone it.

My mood had mostly recovered by now, but still—she truly was a kind-hearted goddess.

"Thank you for going this far for me, Goddess. Then I'll purchase the [Status Window (SSS)]."

Naturally, I didn't refuse. How is anyone supposed to resist the Status Window?

"Phew, thank goodness…. Now for the very last step—deciding your race. Only your points have run down to exactly zero. Shall we go with human, the default race? Or… since canceling and re-registering are free until your cheats are applied, you're welcome to look through the races a little longer and choose."

So I unfolded the race selection tab, and as I paged through it, one oddity leapt out at me.

…Squirrel Thunder? No way—what era is that meme even from….

Curiosity hooked, I went on to read the race manual attached below it as a footnote.

…What.

What kind of erotic race was this…!

A body optimized for sex, and an ability that made you stronger the more sex you had?

Fucking hell, that's hot.

Should I just toss the Status Window and take this one instead?

"Ah, now this is a genuinely tough call…."

Just then the goddess came around to my side to peer at what I was looking at.

"…Oh."

She looked, somehow, startled.

"Yes? What's the matter?"

"Ah… this is, well, a race I created with my own hands back when I was still a newborn goddess, fresh to the job—a race made in the image of everything I dreamed of… but no one ever picked it, so it's stuck around through sheer stubbornness on my part. …Are you, perhaps, interested?"

So this goddess's name was Flama. And she was the Goddess of Lust? That would explain the figure being… nope. Never mind.

The Thunder Squirrel—I'll be honest, it pulled at me hard. It was tied to the one warm memory I had from my past life, back in my orphanage days, too.

"Well, I do… happen to rather like squirrels. I even kept one for a little while, back in the day…."

"…"

The goddess was wearing a rather complicated expression.

She was probably weighing which I'd choose—the race or the Status Window.

Truth be told, anyone looking at her face right then would have seen it plainly: she was hoping I'd pick the Thunder Squirrel.

Hmm, well, why not. I liked the racial traits anyway, and it'd make a nice little treat for the goddess.

"Aww, but it's just too tempting—I can't say no. Forget the Status Window; I'll take this one bundled with the other cheats."

Yeah, who needed a crummy Status Window anyway. With a Thunder Squirrel's body plus the talents of a Sword Master and an Archmage, I could live over there rolling in money and having my heh-heh-heh fun with the ladies.

That alone would have been plenty for me.

But while I was thinking it, the goddess—who had apparently forgotten she'd just wrung her divine power out to the very soul—started screaming like a madwoman.

"No! You don't have to cancel the Status Window! It's decided! I'm throwing the Thunder Squirrel in as a gift, toooo!!"

"What?! Hold on—you said you'd already used up all your divine power!"

"Doesn't matter! You like my masterpiece—you're my one and only kindred spirit! This much strain is nothing—!!"

As if wringing out the last dregs of her soul, a vein rose on the goddess's forehead, and this time—unlike before—divine power as red as blood came bursting out.

Fweeee—with a sound even more violent than before, the owned-cheats field updated.

"PUHAHAH! You saw that, right? I did it! What should have been 100 points, and I showered you with a full 300 points' worth!"

Smearing away her nosebleed, the goddess puffed out her chest with pride.

"No, aren't you pushing yourself way too hard? You're getting a nosebleed!"

"This much is fine. I'm not dying, not dying. Anyway—you do like it, don't you?"

Truthfully, if she'd just handed over the standard 100 points and shuffled me off, I couldn't have raised a single word of protest—she's a goddess, after all. Her going this far for me was genuinely moving.

"Yes…. I love it more than I can say. Thank you so very much…."

My voice wavered a little as I spoke, and the goddess—stuffing a cloth up her nose to stem the bleeding—waved her hands back and forth.

"It's fine. The extra compensation was for my own blunder, and the Thunder Squirrel was just a freebie from me. It's an old obsession of mine besides, so think nothing of it."

Fifty thousand times more moving, seriously. How does a goddess this good even exist?!

"Still, it feels like far too much…. I'll put it all to good use, Lady Flama. Thank you, truly."

When I offered my thanks again and again, Flama ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked a touch flustered and changed the subject.

"Anywaaay! It's about time I sent you off, I'd say. Right around the Imperial Academy—how does that sound? You deserve a proper school life too, don't you think?"

Just like that, she was shipping me out. It threw me off a little, but I rolled with it.

"Right this instant…? Yep! I'll get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ready! The Academy sounds great!"

Beneath my feet appeared a magic circle of staggering intricacy, and it began to glow.

My body, wrapped in that brilliant light, started to float up off the ground.

So this was it—my true otherworld life was finally beginning.

It was sinking in, and my heart started to pound.

Just as I was steeped in that surging anticipation and lifting one more silent word of thanks to the goddess in my mind—she swayed.

"…Huh? Why is my head so dizzy all of a sudden?"

Zzzt—! Ka-CHANG—!

The magic circle beneath my feet began to warp with an eerie screech—the kind of sound that would have made even a passing ox stop and realize something had gone horribly wrong.

"Um, Goddess? What's happening to the circle's light?!"

"I-I'm sorry, Dasom!! I'm dizzy from burning up all my divine power, so…… I set the coordinates wrooong—!!"

Oh, crap.

"You batshit, garbage-grade lunatic, I swear—!!"

My vision cut to pitch black, and the last thing I saw was the goddess clutching her head and shrieking.

"I'm—so—SORRYYY—!!"