Emiya was, in fact, a very ordinary person.
He was born into an ordinary family. His father ran a small convenience store in their neighborhood. His mother was a dedicated housewife. He also had an older brother, five years older than him.
He grew up in an ordinary environment, attending ordinary elementary, middle, and high schools. His grades were also, as expected, very ordinary.
Because of those mediocre grades, he failed to get into a four-year university and ended up at a vocational college instead.
After graduating, he couldn't find a good job. Naturally, he inherited his father's convenience store. He became a simple homebody while running the business.
Emiya had always believed his ordinary life would just keep going like this.
In a few years, he would marry an ordinary wife, have either a mischievous son or a well-behaved daughter, and live a peaceful, unremarkable life.
It wouldn't be dramatic or full of passion. Just like the lives of countless other cogs in the massive social machine.
But Emiya never expected that he-this ordinary, average man-would gain a superpower that was anything but ordinary.
And this story began last night.
Last night, while running the convenience store and scrolling on his phone, Emiya opened a webpage around 11:00 PM.
The page suddenly redirected to a survey.
[Question: If you had the chance to get a cheat, what kind would you want?]
[A: A superpower, of course! Superpowers are cool.]
[B: A system. Systems are the best.]
[C: A magical artifact, a destructive one that can ruin the world.]
[D: A secret technique, one that grants me immortality and lets me dominate the cosmos.]
[E: Technology, to crush other races and conquer the universe.]
[Note: ...]
The survey was interesting, so Emiya didn't close it immediately.
Instead, he considered the options with genuine interest. A superpower. A system. An artifact. A secret technique. Technology. All of them sounded good.
But something felt missing.
After thinking for a while, Emiya didn't select any of the options. Instead, he typed a sentence into the notes.
"If it's a cheat, I want to create my own. After all, a custom-made cheat is the most suitable, because I want to know what I truly want."
Then Emiya clicked the submit button.
The page didn't load a new screen. It just turned into a 404 error.
Sigh...
As expected, I was overthinking it.
After closing the page, Emiya went back to browsing on his phone.
As a man nearing thirty, Emiya was long past the age of dreaming. He no longer held any hope for fantasies.
While others might have found his daily routine of managing a convenience store dull, Emiya was quite content.
At the end of the day, he was just an average person satisfied with what he had, with no grand ambitions.
If Emiya had been ambitious in the past, he might have worked harder and changed his fate with knowledge. Unfortunately, his ordinary life had shaped an ordinary personality.
He no longer wanted to struggle.
As usual, Emiya closed the convenience store at around 11:30 PM.
He went home, washed his face, and lay down on his bed. He plugged in his phone and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
He always opened the store before 7:00 AM, so he never stayed up past midnight. It was a habit he had developed over the years.
But today, Emiya had a very strange dream.
In the dream, he saw a giant deity.
He couldn't say how big it was. He only vaguely remembered that one of its eyeballs seemed larger than the sun. Of course, that was impossible. It was just a dream.
He heard the deity say, "I randomly selected 100,000 surveys. While your answer wasn't the best, it was very interesting, so I will give you a chance."
Then the massive deity blew out a breath.
Emiya was blown away.
After that...
He woke up.
Emiya found himself on the floor, having rolled off his bed.
He quickly stood up, returned to the bed, and took a deep breath. The sky outside was already bright. The clock on the wall showed 7:00 AM.
According to his usual routine, he should have been up and opening the store already.
He was late today.
However, Emiya didn't get up right away. His mind was still replaying the dream from the night before.
It was too vivid.
He could clearly recall the deity's gigantic, sun-like eye and the calm tone of its voice.
Emiya had experienced dreams he remembered after waking before, but those memories always faded quickly as time passed.
So at first, he didn't pay it much attention.
He got out of bed, washed up, ate, and went to open the convenience store.
But the dream didn't fade.
Instead, it became clearer.
That evening, Emiya returned home and sat on the sofa. Only then did he realize he simply couldn't forget the dream.
Every detail felt lifelike. He couldn't forget it even if he tried.
Could it be...
That the dream was real?
Emiya instinctively shook his head.
How could that be? He didn't believe it.
But...
What if it was?
Still feeling doubtful, he spoke tentatively, "I want to create a cheat."
The moment the words left his mouth, a circular dialogue box appeared before his eyes.
Inside it was a single number.
100.
101.
Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.
Emiya was so shocked by the supernatural sight that he almost jumped off the sofa.
It was real.
The dream was real.
This was unbelievable.
He had been a lifetime loser, so why had he suddenly become a winner? It didn't make sense.
Then again, encountering a deity in the first place didn't make sense either.
Emiya took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
Yeah. Right.
How was he supposed to calm down after something like this?
It was unimaginable. Incredible. Unreal.
To be honest, he felt like jumping up and doing a celebratory, painfully cringey dance.
So he jumped up.
To an outside observer, it would have looked like extremely bizarre human behavior.
After releasing his excitement for several minutes, Emiya finally settled down.
He looked at the number 100 inside the dialogue box and thought carefully.
He had no idea what it meant.
What was the significance of 100?
After thinking for a moment, Emiya decided to ignore that question for now and focus on something more important.
Creating his cheat.
What kind of cheat would suit him?
After thinking for a long time, he couldn't help but feel a little foolish. The first thing that came to mind was a system.
Yes.
The all-purpose system.
But he hadn't chosen a system in the survey. Now that he could create his own cheat, wouldn't making a system be redundant?
After long deliberation, Emiya abandoned the idea.
His imagination was limited. He didn't have many good ideas.
In the end, he decided to create a superpower.
Unlike an external force like a system, Emiya preferred something that existed within himself.
A superpower seemed appropriate.
So Emiya said, "I want to create a superpower."
[What superpower do you want to create?]
A line of small text appeared beneath the number 100 in the circular dialogue box.
Emiya said, "Of course, it's the ability to travel through worlds. The worlds of novels, anime, manga, movies, TV shows, and more."
He could have chosen other abilities-ones that allowed him to leave Earth and explore the cosmos.
But Emiya preferred fantasy worlds.
That was a man's true romance.
[The Transmigration ability has been added.]
Emiya watched as the number 100 dropped instantly.
50.
51.
At the same time, an invisible force surged into his body.
In that instant, Emiya felt as if he could travel to another world at any moment.
As though all he needed to do was activate the power.
At that moment, Emiya finally understood.
The number represented energy.
Creating a superpower consumed 50 energy, leaving him with 50 remaining.
If 50 energy points were enough to create a world-traveling ability, then this energy was terrifyingly powerful.
Which meant he had to be cautious.
After thinking for a moment, Emiya continued, "I want the transmigration ability to be usable at any time. Ten times a day-no, a hundred times a day."
This was crucial.
If he ever encountered danger, he needed to be able to escape immediately.
Emiya watched as the number 50 dropped again.
30.
31.
Twenty energy points flowed into his body. He could feel the superpower evolving.
Even though it cost 20 points to add a single function, Emiya didn't regret it.
This was safety.
And his life mattered more than anything.
Looking at the remaining 30 energy points, Emiya thought briefly before speaking again.
"I want to be able to take people with me when I transmigrate. The limit should be 1,000 people."
[Sorry, there isn't enough energy.]
Emiya: ...
"Then 100 people," he said.
The number dropped from 30 to 20.
Ten energy points entered his body, and the superpower evolved once more.
This time, he could bring others along.
With 20 energy points left, Emiya paused.
What was missing?
He tapped his head, his thoughts moving quickly.
Then it hit him.
"Language. Yes, language."
"I want the superpower of Language Comprehension, so I can communicate freely with anyone."
This was essential.
What if he traveled to a world where no one spoke Chinese?
Even if he just went to the United States, he would be helpless.
Aside from Mandarin, he didn't know any other languages.
He couldn't even understand other Chinese dialects, let alone Japanese or English.
Without communication, nothing else mattered.
[You have gained Language Comprehension.]
In an instant, Emiya acquired his second superpower.
To his surprise, it barely consumed any energy.
The number dropped from 20 to 15.
Five points.
Five points were enough to understand any language.
That alone showed how absurdly powerful this energy was.
He now had transmigration.
And language.
What else?
Emiya thought carefully.
To be honest, he didn't think the remaining 15 points were enough to create any high-level abilities.
He knew that.
But then another thought crossed his mind.
It wouldn't be enough if only he had Language Comprehension.
What if he ended up with girlfriends in different worlds, and they couldn't understand each other?
So Emiya said, "I want to evolve Language Comprehension so I can grant it to others."
The number dropped again.
15 to 10.
He now had transmigration, safety, and communication.
What was he still lacking?
Ah.
Offensive power.
Defense alone wasn't enough.
Emiya didn't want to hurt others, but he also didn't want to be hurt.
So he said, "I'll use the remaining 10 points to obtain Psychic Power."
In an instant, all ten energy points surged into Emiya's mind.
He felt a mysterious power awaken within his brain.