Deity Grypherburg.
Capital of the Ursus Empire.
A city that mass-produces fanatical soldiers, hidebound nobles, and idiotic bureaucrats.
Russell sat in a restaurant, eating braised beef stew while gazing with a hint of longing at the black luxury cars driving down the street.
Russell, a transmigrator.
Guided by the principle of “skip the electives you must, skip the required courses you might,” he had chosen to skip class.
The price for this truancy was getting punched into the sky by an Optimus Prime that appeared out of nowhere, leaving him to see eye-to-eye with the sun.
He woke up in another world, his appearance unchanged, but his identity and surroundings had been drastically altered.
Russell was now a mine owner.
He held a noble title, belonged to a superior race, and possessed considerably powerful Originium Arts.
Without a doubt, it was a near-perfect start.
The only problem was—the mine under Russell’s name seemed to have undergone a small…
change.
For instance, it had exploded.
This also brought about a few minor troubles.
For example, a certain degree of city-wide paralysis.
The prototype for Ursus was Tsarist Russia.
In the wretched society of Tsarist Russia, casualties and urban paralysis weren’t major issues.
However, the butler of Russell’s superior—Duke Baikal—had delivered a letter.
Esteemed Mr.
Baron, you are required to pay for certain clean-up expenses.
The expenses weren’t much.
It would only require Russell to gather a large number of miners who didn’t need wages or food, have them excavate all the mines under his name until even rats would weep upon entering, and then he could just about start over from scratch.
With impeccable grace, he cut the beef with his knife and fork, elegantly bringing it to his lips.
One’s last meal in this life requires a sense of ceremony.
After finishing his meal, Russell, who looked more refined than the Duke himself, walked out of the restaurant to scout for a nice, shady spot suitable for a slow decomposition.
“Cross-Dimensional Face-to-Face Group, establishment successful.”
Russell froze for a moment.
Before he could react, a series of notifications chimed.
“Hoping for a better rebirth next time, has joined the chat group.”
Holy shit, a chat group?
Russell, who had been searching for a prime piece of real estate for his eternal rest, was completely stunned.
As he was planning to restart his life, he had been desperately hoping for a cheat to appear and save his sorry ass.
And now, it had truly arrived!
Explosion Magic is #1: “Welcome.
Our ranks have gained another member.”
Gonna Be Hokage: “Am I a senpai now?
Awesome!”
I Will Kill Jackie Chan: “Oh, another new fellow?”
A Raiden Never Loses: “…Welcome.”
Tide Yet to Surge, Block Count -1: “Welcome.”
They were all quite recognizable, especially since their profile pictures were basically photos of themselves.
Judging by their names and comments, they were, in order, Megumin, Naruto, Valmont, Raiden Mei, and Skadi.
Russell looked at the messages in the group, quickly deducing the members’ identities.
Now then, how should he introduce himself?
Should he act all mysterious and call himself the omnipotent Great Immortal Russell?
Should he just lay his cards on the table and be the nice guy of the group?
Or should he get on his knees and beg the group members to take pity on him, grant him transmigration privileges, and let him escape his debts?
That last option felt exceptionally tempting.
But upon careful consideration, the idea didn’t seem very feasible.
KonoSuba, The Legend of Otsutsuki, The Peerless Jackie Chan, Honkai Impact 3rd, and his own current home.
The worlds where the group members lived ranged from “very unsafe” to just “unsafe.”
Especially Skadi.
If she granted him travel privileges, it would just be from one part of Terra to another.
At this thought, Russell felt a little annoyed.
Why couldn’t there be a Sumireko Sanshokuin or a Yukinoshita Yukino?
Living in a beautiful girl’s house is the epitome of romance.
If not them, then Hachiman Hikigaya or the sassy Rascal wouldn’t be bad either; they were both rather easy on the eyes.
…No, wait.
That line of thinking is problematic.
Russell’s mind was racing with wild thoughts.
He cleared his throat, forcing his focus to return.
It was time to introduce himself.
“I am Russell, an unemployed member of Ursus society—”
[Behold, what have we discovered here?
It’s a ferocious and starving Megumin.
For a small amount of food, we can hire her for use as a single-use nuclear warhead or high-yield explosive.]
A line of text abruptly appeared in his field of vision, cutting his self-introduction short.
?!
What the hell!
Russell was so startled he jumped back a step.
Both the sudden appearance of a text box in his vision and its contents were utterly shocking.
Before Russell could process it, the box flickered again.
[Oh, good heavens, up ahead is a Naruto.
He can use the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.
He alone is worth two thousand miners, and there’s no risk of him getting infected by Originium!]
[And hiring him only requires telling him some news about Sasuke and providing twenty bowls of ramen a day.]
Huh?!!
Russell’s mind was reeling like never before.
Uzumaki Naruto was an absolutely legendary character.
His best jutsu were the Rasengan and the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.
In the Boruto era, it was mentioned he could create up to a thousand shadow clones at once.
Hundreds of shadow clones, plus an excellent demolitions expert.
If he acted according to the tips from this suddenly appearing text box, wouldn’t he be able to form an engineering team in no time?!
It seemed like the perfect solution to his current predicament.
Was this his cheat?
His gold finger?
Russell speculated on the nature of the tip system.
Was its ability to suggest how he could use external forces to solve his current problems?
A PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tip generator?
The next moment, that thought was completely dismissed.
In Russell’s vision, the tip box instantly doubled in size!
[Great Lord!
Look here, look here!
This is an unlucky sod who works for Shendu!
Quickly use him to contact Shendu and offer to free that old dragon in exchange for the method to summon the Shadowkhan without wearing a mask!]
[Once you arrive in his world, you can obtain a full eight tribes of Shadowkhan who can work for you twenty-four hours a day!]
[Tricking that untrustworthy old demon will be difficult, but it is absolutely worth it!]
Ermm…
Committing fraud against an ancient demon?!
Russell’s brain short-circuited for a moment.
While his mind was rebooting, the tip system continued its work, appraising the other members of the group.
[Skadi?
She looks poor.
Just ignore her.]
The text box was at least half the size it was for Valmont.
The stench of looking down on the poor practically oozed from the screen, making one wonder if the slighted Skadi would one day shout, “Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west, don’t you bully a young girl for being poor!” and then have a power-up explosion.
[My God!
It’s the heiress of the Raiden family!
This little rich girl is lonely and wary right now.
Try to break through her emotional barriers and become her friend!
Then, you can use her to acquire large quantities of modern goods, and even Anti-Entropy technology, at low prices and launch a devastating assault on Terra’s manufacturing industry!]
Upon encountering a rich girl, the simulator’s text box instantly tripled in size, practically begging Russell to become a PUA master right then and there to win over the little heiress.
Looking at the tip system that had a plan for every single group member, Russell finally understood.
This thing wasn’t some kind of “Overcome Adversity System”…
It was a goddamn Surplus Value Detector!!
—o—
guys help I forgot If I translated this before and deleted it because someone already translated it.