Sigh... I'm starving.
No, like—seriously starving. Not the "Oh, I skipped breakfast" kind of hungry, but the "I might start hallucinating and bite a rock thinking it's bread" level. I dragged my feet through the bustling market street, my stomach grumbling louder than the town crier announcing tomorrow's cabbage sale.
"This is a marketplace, right?! Why does every single stall only sell raw ingredients?!" I wailed, clutching my stomach. "Am I supposed to carry around a personal chef or something?!"
Grains. Vegetables. A suspiciously twitchy lobster in a bucket. Nothing I could eat on the spot. This world had swords, monsters, flying wyverns… and not a single convenience store? Just kill me now.
And if that wasn't bad enough—
My trusty Loot Item Box—an enchanted floating cube that usually hovers beside me, ready to dispense whatever I've stored—was glitching. Again.
I jabbed my finger toward it. "Item Box! Emergency rations! Bread! Cookie! Expired rice crackers! Anything!!"
It buzzed. It flashed. It... spun like a confused fidget spinner and displayed the message:
ERROR 404: ITEM BOX IS UNDER MAINTENANCE.
"...You're dead to me," I muttered, fist trembling.
I may have lost my mind a little, because the next thing I did was attempt to regain my dignity in the most idiotic way possible. With dozens of townsfolk side-eyeing me, I blurted out, "Hah! This is part of my daily martial arts routine!"
And then, I backflipped.
Bad. Idea.
Mid-flip, my stomach roared like a dying dragon. I lost balance, spun out of control, and landed face-first on the cobblestone street like a pancake being slapped onto a griddle.
WHAM.
Silence.
I lifted my head slowly. "I think I just french-kissed the floor…"
The townspeople quietly shuffled away. A child pointed at me. "Mommy, is that person okay?"
"No, sweetie," the mom whispered, "that's what happens when you skip breakfast."
Humiliated, I got up, dusted myself off (mostly), and limped away like a rejected circus act. Just as I turned a corner, ready to give up and maybe lie on the ground until a wild boar came to finish me off—
—I saw it.
A simple wooden cart with a red banner flapping in the wind. On it, painted in bold hiragana:
たこ焼き – Takoyaki
"…Takoyaki?" I mumbled.
I blinked. Once. Twice. Then rubbed my eyes.
Takoyaki. In an isekai marketplace.
"What in the flying slimeballs is this doing here?! I'm in another world, right?! This isn't Tokyo Disneyland with a fantasy skin! Did some other reincarnated Japanese loser get here before me and start a snack stand?!"
For a full minute, I stood frozen, drooling, wondering if it was just a mirage conjured by my hunger. But then the smell hit me. That familiar sizzling aroma. Batter, octopus, bonito flakes dancing in the wind—
This wasn't a dream.
"Bless the Takoyaki Gods… I'm going in," I whispered, hands trembling as I took one heroic step forward.
Will our starving heroine finally get her hands on the legendary Isekai Takoyaki?
Is this a food trap?
Will her Item Box finally stop acting like a useless magical paperweight?
Find out in the next chapter!