Mushoku Tensei - Volume 1 Chapter 10 — Bottleneck

'Nina?'The thought hit me before I even really processed who it was. Nina Shoka from my class. She was just walking along, probably listening to music, totally unaware that this car had lost control and was sliding right toward her.I didn't think about it. Didn't weigh the pros and cons or consider my options. My legs just started moving.I dropped my phone and sprinted toward her. The car was maybe three seconds away from hitting her when I slammed into her side, pushing her as hard as I could toward the sidewalk.She went flying, landing hard on the concrete but definitely out of the car's path.Me? Not so lucky.The impact felt like getting hit by a train. One second I was pushing Nina to safety, the next I was flying through the air. Then I hit the ground and everything went wrong at once.I couldn't move my legs. Couldn't really move much of anything, actually. There was this weird warm feeling spreading across my chest and stomach, and when I tried to breathe, it felt like drowning.'Well, this sucks,' I thought, staring up at the sky. 'Guess that's what I get for being a hero.'My vision started getting all swimmy and weird, but I could make out Nina crawling over to me. She had pulled out her earbuds and there were tears streaming down her face.“Why did you do that?” she kept asking, over and over. “Why would you do that?”I wanted to shrug, but my shoulders weren't really cooperating. It seemed pretty obvious to me - she was in trouble, so I helped. That's what you do, right? Nothing fancy about it.She was talking to me, saying my name a lot. I didn't realize she even knew my name, to be honest. We had been in the same class for like three months and I don't think we had ever actually had a conversation.“Kofi, stay with me, okay?” she was saying. “You're gonna be fine. The ambulance is coming.”

The royal bastard of House Vasquer, Argrave, changed after his stay studying magic at the Tower of the Gray Owl.

The sickly man's awkward posture and cruel behavior have been replaced with a neat dignity and acerbic wit.

Though once listless, he now strives towards his goals with a life-or-death tenacity.

Most come away thinking he seems to know too many details about too much. Few can claim to know his motives or his goals.

Yet behind that confident appearance, the primary contributor for an open-world RPG's wiki battles existential dread and things far beyond his ken as he struggles to adapt to a grim, gothic fantasy world mirroring his favorite game.

The prospect of fighting against a world-ending calamity loses all of its appeal when it transitions from entertainment to reality.

Argrave is spurred towards unwanted heroism to preserve his life as he struggles desperately to keep this sinking ship afloat.

In her previous life, Yvonne Taylor died with hatred. Her stepsister burned her face with sulfuric acid, and her father was brutally murdered by her stepmother. Even Zachary Leinster, her father's best friend and the man who loved her the most, died trying to save her.Yvonne is miraculously reborn and begins her revenge.When she comes back, she is no longer the playful girl everyone knew. In order to take revenge, she applies for a prestigious school, majors in business, caters for her stepmother, and even... marries Zachary Leinster, her father's business competitor and ten years her senior.

Under everyone's gaze, her pregnant sister came to force a marriage, making her the butt of the joke, after being cheated on.When she was at her wit's end, she met him ——Jun Mochan, the business tycoon.He said: “Marry me, I won't betray you.”In order to shut off the wagging tongues and avoid becoming a bargaining chip in a family alliance,She said: “Okay”But, wasn't it agreed that it would be a fake marriage?He loves her deeply. The whole world knows it, only she doesn't.