Chapter 1: Entering a New World

"The reign of the King Arthurius Caesar (also known as Siegfried in his many adventures) was one of the greatest in all of world history, despite his primary kingdom, Rome, being initially quite small and remote from the other powers of his day. In fact, his reign passed almost into a legend, equal to those such as Brandon the Builder or the Azor Ahai. However, we have concrete proof that he had existed, the man who had singlehandedly uplifted the entire world…"

-Gaius Antonius, of the Imperial Roman University

I was born by lightning, christened by fire. Upon my awakening, all I could see was fire. Fire non-stop, fire burning all around me. Fire, fire, fire… I could hear a voice, chanting incoherently in some far-off language, chuckling, laughing uproariously at the destruction it's causing, the deaths that lay all around me. And that was when I was born, or should I say reborn?

That was when a bolt of lightning transfixed this infant soul and switched it with my own, an ordinary man, at least by the time period I had lived in. A 33-year-old, living in a flat somewhere in the middle of the most civilized country alive. America. So how did I die? Well, that should probably be obvious, America was rather well known for its terrorist attacks and random shootings after all. It was one in a million chance, but the gods seem to love dice games.

I had literally been walking in a crowded shopping mall when 3 gunmen burst into the mall, somehow carrying automatic rifles. Needless to say, I died, along with everyone else trapped in that building. The wooden stool I was behind having been blown to bits as I attempted to charge at one of the gunmen. Now before you call me a fool, I'm not. I merely recognized my mortality and figuring that I may as well do some damage to them. Just to satisfy my revenge. Mind you, I'm not a good guy, I'm a normal 21st-century man, in an age when nobody cared much about each other anymore. At least I had the satisfaction of punching one of them in the face, though that likely did nothing. And the memories after that were dim, I could vaguely remember dying and the afterlife but I also couldn't. Whenever I tried I would just remember a thick haze of smoke.

But anyway, I was reborn in these dark flames. And so I walked, walked through this hell. Dimly, I could hear the anguished cries of the dead, of the people crying and struggling, buried under the rubble and the flames, their desperate cries inflaming the guilt of my soul. Had I truly been an infant, then no doubt I would have died. And had I lived, then it would be in a shape that was barely human, like Shirou Emiya. He had been a good man, but in his birth fire, he had lost many things that made him human, I had no wish to be like that.

And so I walked on and on, through countless crying couples and grotesque scenes of dead people, of the smell of charred flesh, of the crying of infants. I ignored them all. At that moment, the endless human selfishness drove my every step. There were no thoughts of 21st-century ethics, no thought of the fun of reincarnation or girls. Only the plain desire to live, to come out of this unscathed, to live to see another day.

But there was no Kiritsugu to come help me out of this. No one to pull me out of this hell, this hell that would one day be mine. I walked and walked until this body's infant feet could no longer, until they were scratched and bloody until it was mangled beyond recognition and I lay still. There was no relief from the flames, only burning sensation which also was not. For I was untouched by the fires as of yet, but I knew better than to hope. There was no one to rescue me. I was going to die again, albeit this time without having achieved anything and having thrown my morals to the wayside. I closed my eyes, waiting for this cursed second life to end. In the end, although I had loved reading about them, there was no light-hearted isekai adventure for me, no op mc scenario, only fire and blood, and death. I swore to myself then and there, that while I won't save everyone in front of me. I will make sure this atrocity never happens again if I was ever reborn again. I may not be the white knight of heroes but I'll be a normal man. A man with the power to change things, a man who will work for what he thinks is best.

[Congradulations Host! You have just unlocked the Forge of Empires System!]