Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Students Transported to Another World

One month earlier, the students and teachers of ******* Prefectural High School, including myself, Majima Takahiro, were transported to another world. The moment a sudden sense of intoxication assaulted us in the middle of class, we found ourselves surrounded by unfamiliar scenery: a dense forest with a damp atmosphere. We clearly weren’t in modern Japan.

After suddenly being thrown into the unknown, we were left standing stock still, completely unable to grasp the situation we were in. The teachers and several of the students eventually started to assemble the confused students together. A short time later, one of the teachers vanished into the sea of trees to confirm our situation. A truly heroic action. He was surely a good teacher with a strong sense of responsibility. Unfortunately, I didn’t even know his name since he wasn’t charged with my grade.

Just a few moments later, we heard his screams of agony. As we stood there in fear, our blood running cold, a lizard standing on its hind legs came out of the trees, towering over us at five meters in height. It was like a dragon straight out of a video game.

The corpse of the teacher who went to scout the area was dangling from its enormous jaws. His arm flapped about limply. His fresh blood dripped to the ground. Panic broke out among the students. At that time, I was pushed over by someone and fell to the ground. I let out a scream like a crushed frog as others trampled over me.

I was lucky not to suffer any major wounds from that. I was lucky the dragon was still far away. Other students who had no such luck, however, were eaten by the dragon one after the other.

I think it was the third victim. I saw the dragon corner one of the male students who had fallen on his butt. I had fallen to the ground myself and was unable to run away. Thus, I was stuck watching that scene to the very end. In the instant right before those razor-sharp fangs were about to tear his body apart...

“H-HYAAAAAA!”

He likely wasn’t thinking of anything. The student did all he could to resist by thrashing his arms about—at a speed unperceivable by the human eye and with a weight far beyond imagination.

In the next instant, he had reduced the dragon’s enormous head to chunks and blew it off entirely. It was a comical scene. The young dragon slayer was likely the most surprised of us all. And that’s how we got through our first major threat using the power that was granted to us: cheats.

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Have you ever read a story about being teleported to another world before? I, unfortunately, have not. According to one of my friends who was really into that stuff, the theme of Japanese students suddenly being transported to a fantasy world had been gaining popularity among certain groups of youngsters lately. However, the first time he told me this, I couldn’t understand why that kind of story was popular.

I mean, it makes sense, right? We students—born in the endlessly peaceful era of modern Japan—possessed no power. We were nothing but fodder in a world of sword and sorcery. The most we could possibly accomplish was to sneakily hide away. That wouldn’t be much of a story.

My friend answered this doubt of mine with the concept of cheats. The term was originally coined for swindling people or breaking the rules, but it was more commonly used in modern Japan to refer to video game hacks which added normally impossible functions to the game.

This was the main template for these stories. The protagonists were granted powerful abilities which far surpassed any common sense. As such, those abilities were also called cheats. It really was a suitable term. Even so, I still couldn’t understand my friend’s reasoning that we were obviously going to be granted cheats since we were now in another world.

In any case, it was an unmistakable fact that we students, upon coming to this world, had obtained mysterious powers. Some were able to shatter rocks with their bare hands, while others were able to wield powers which could only be described as magic. Mysteriously enough, they understood how to use these powers instinctively. It was as normal as breathing to them.

Thus, without a single hint of sarcasm, we referred to these abilities as cheats. They exponentially raised our survival chances here in this world filled with monsters. We created temporary housing, repelled the monsters, and even rationed food between the entire group.

Having said that, it wasn’t like we were all blessed with cheats. Only about 300 of us had them. That was no more than a third of all students. After going on hunts and protecting us, they naturally formed a group and named themselves the exploration team.

Those who possessed no such cheats were dedicated to the construction of our dwellings while being protected by the exploration team. Thus they were called the home team. That’s how the little community we called the Colony took shape. Incidentally, I was part of the home team. My friend who told me about cheats to begin with was also in this team.

The haves and have nots. I couldn’t even begin to fathom whether there was a reason behind this segregation. To be somewhat more precise, there were those among the remaining 700 students who had their physical strength slightly enhanced. However, it was so slight it couldn’t really be called a cheat. I only felt a slight sense of discomfort in my body, but that was likely no more than a hallucination born of stress.

One week after that, after a few more lives were lost, our existence began to stabilize. At that point, a form of governance started taking shape. The Colony had nearly 1000 inhabitants. It was an absolute necessity.

And with our daily lives stabilizing, curiosity about this world began to spread. Nobody here believed this was the same world we came from at this point. It was even possible for others to learn magic from those who used it naturally through their cheats... Although, the only ones who did so were fellow cheaters. Unlike the members of the home team, who only needed to chop down trees and build houses, they needed to fight to survive.

In any case, we desired knowledge about this world. Were there other humans here? If so, how could we contact them? That’s how the first expeditionary force was formed. Their goal was to get through the forest and make contact with any human society that was possibly out there. Thinking back on it now, that name was tremendously ironic. That’s because there was never going to be a second expeditionary force.

One week after the first expeditionary force left, the Colony was destroyed. A group of cheaters launched a coup d’état. It was difficult for a bunch of students thrown into a lawless forest in another world to maintain their morals. This applied even more so to the cheaters.

Power made people go mad, and youths often strayed from the proper path. The rebel group aimed to launch their coup d’état when the gathering of those with good intent, the first expeditionary force, were no longer present.

A fierce battle broke out between the rebels and the cheaters who had remained behind to protect the public order. Cheats could easily kill a dragon. And with people clashing using such preposterous power, the students who possessed no such power had no choice but to run about and try to escape.

It would have been better if that was all they did, though. It wasn’t just that group of cheaters who had lost their sense of reason. Even a group of students who possessed no such powers yielded themselves to madness. In the middle of the chaos, I was attacked by students of the home team. My only crime was having bad luck. There were others just like me. We were simply sacrifices to the chaos.

Nobody tried to save me. Nobody had the leisure to even consider it. They were all desperate to survive. I could understand the logic behind that. I could understand, but my heart couldn’t accept it. Several students glanced at me as I was beaten down, and they ran away pretending not to see me. Their apathy tore my heart to shreds.

The only reason I got out alive was simply because I had good luck. Just at that moment, a battle between cheaters broke out nearby and a stray shot flew our way. The students who were beating me to a pulp all turned to ash. I was the only one to survive since I was lying on the ground.

After dragging my beaten body out of the dirt and escaping the Colony, I wandered aimlessly through the woods for the next few days. And on the third morning, I finally found a safe cave to rest in and took refuge within.

However, I could do nothing more than that. The only thing outside the cave was a forest filled with monsters. I possessed no cheat and no means of fighting. I could only stay within the cave.

It would’ve been a better idea to take the risk of finding several reliable people back at the Colony before escaping, if I truly wished to survive. But that wasn’t really possible in the middle of that chaos. And even if, for example, the situation weren’t so dire and I’d had the time to think that far ahead, it had already become impossible for me to make such a choice.

I was no longer able to trust humans. Humans were all scum. That was perhaps the one thing I had gained upon stumbling into this world. Or perhaps, I had lost something important as a human myself.

In any case, it didn’t matter either way. All that awaited me now was death.