Chapter 1: Survive!

Tokyo, Taito Ward.

He was groggy, hearing the sound of car horns from afar. They drifted in and out, annoying him enough to make him restless and unable to continue sleeping.

He opened his eyes, looked around, and couldn't help but freeze.

White walls peeling with dust, a narrow window, a low ceiling—he was lying on a slightly uneven wooden floor. Sunlight streamed through the window into the room, making the dust in the air clearly visible.

"What happened? Where am I?"

He was utterly confused about everything around him. It was at this moment that a torrent of memories began to surge in his mind, surfacing before his eyes like a revolving lantern, making him realize all at once that he had transmigrated.

Akiwara Yuto, from Hokkaido, was abandoned by his parents as a child and grew up in a children's welfare academy on the outskirts of the city. After finishing high school, he came to Tokyo.

In the year he arrived in Tokyo, the Bank of Japan adjusted its financial policy, actively popping the economic bubble.

A large number of companies announced bankruptcy, and those that hadn't were conducting massive layoffs.

After exhausting his savings and failing to find suitable work for a long time, Akiwara Yuto, facing a major turning point in his life, took sleeping pills in pain and resentment.

But he didn't expect... his identity would be inherited by someone else.

Looking at the unfamiliar appearance in the mirror, the current "Akiwara Yuto" was so surprised he couldn't speak. He widened his eyes, never dreaming he would encounter a plot like those in novels.

Of course, after obtaining this identity, he still had to face all the problems it brought—especially the financial crisis.

He saw the bills on the table and realized that if he couldn't pay the rent within two weeks, he might be kicked out of the room by the landlord or the agency, forced to wander in parks, under bridges, and by the river.

This meant he would lose stable housing and proof of credit, and could only maintain his life by doing odd jobs and picking up trash along the street.

Even more terrifying was that once he fell into such a vicious cycle, he would be stuck at the bottom of society forever...

"What should I do?"

Thinking about a solution, he stood up from the floor and began to pace around the narrow apartment.

At the same time, he dug deep into the memories of this body to see if there were any ways to solve it.

Judging from the original owner's memories, only two paths were currently feasible.

One was to try an employment agency and wait to be introduced to a job. The second was to call the welfare academy in Hokkaido for help and seek assistance from acquaintances.

But in fact, neither of these paths was very viable.

The employment agencies were now crowded with white-collar workers who had experienced the layoff wave, all of whom were university graduates; as a high school graduate, he had no competitive advantage.

If he sought help from the welfare academy, he could probably ask if there was work on ranches or farms, but did he really want to go to Hokkaido to herd cattle and farm?

Seeing that he was at his wit's end, he couldn't help but feel a bit desperate.

At this moment, a part of his memory that popped up in his mind surprised him.

The political figures of this era seemed to be people he had never heard of in his past life, and he had no impression of these literary works in the textbooks either.

You must know, he was a Master of Literature from a key domestic university in his past life, and his research direction was East Asian literature. Because of his coursework, he had read some classic Japanese literary works.

But in the original owner's memories, there wasn't even a shadow of these works.

This made him strange—could it be that he had come to a parallel world?

He decided to verify it further. If that were the case, perhaps he could try this method?

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto changed his clothes and walked from the stairs to the management office on the first floor.

Upon seeing the apartment manager, he said politely, "Sorry to bother you, may I borrow the newspapers from the last few days?"

The apartment manager was a man about 1.6 meters tall and in his 50s. He looked at Akiwara Yuto in surprise after hearing the voice.

In his impression, this Akiwara-san often didn't even say hello when they met, yet now he was actually asking to borrow newspapers with a sincere attitude.

He thought about it and felt it was just a small matter, so he opened the drawer, took a large stack of newspapers, and handed them to him.

"No problem, just return them when you're done reading."

Akiwara Yuto took the handed-over newspapers, expressed his thanks to the manager, returned to his room with the newspapers, and began to read them carefully.

After reading for a while, he finally confirmed that this was indeed a parallel world. From political figures to entertainment stars, not a single one matched, but other than that, cultural customs and other aspects were not much different.

He was a bit lost for a moment and felt complicated for a while, but then he thought of his current predicament and decided to solve this problem first.

He calmed his heart and thought about his previous idea.

Since he was in a parallel world, could he obtain manuscript fees to solve the current financial crisis by submitting works he knew from his past life?

Although doing so was a bit "shameless," he was about to end up on the streets, so where would he have the time to consider moral issues?

He was very proactive. After confirming his goal, he immediately dug out paper and a pen from the corner, spread them on the small square table, and pondered what exactly would be better to write.

To submit to a publishing house, it was best to write some works that were relatively easy to understand.

How about a detective novel?

According to the original owner's memories, detective novels were still popular in this world, even holding an extraordinary status, not only having a long history but also a broad mass base.

But there was another problem: the number of detective novels he had read and still remembered was limited, and most were modern; which one should he choose?

There were two weeks left until rent was due, but submitting to a publishing house also took time, so it was best to finish the work within a week.

After pondering for a long time, he wrote the words "Honkaku," "Henkaku," and "Social" on the manuscript paper.

Then he drew a circle around the word "Henkaku," organized his words, and began to write stumblingly.

As he wrote, he constantly recalled the content of the original work, and in the middle, he wasted several sheets of manuscript paper because he wasn't used to the habit of writing vertically from right to left in Japanese.

It took him a whole week to restore this manuscript, and even so, the details could not be the same as the original.

After finishing the manuscript, he went to a nearby bookstore and obtained information about publishing houses from the clerk. After analysis, he chose "Tokyo Literature" from Mantan Society as his submission target.

That night, he made a phone call and made an appointment to visit at 3:00 PM the next day.

During this period, Akiwara Yuto practiced the questions he might encounter during the submission in front of the mirror and also sent his clothes to a coin-operated laundry for cleaning.

Since his education and age were hard flaws, he had to package himself in terms of appearance and speech to ensure he could leave a good impression on the editor.

All preparations were made; hopefully, tomorrow's submission would go smoothly! ===== CHAPTER 2 =====