Chapter 1- — -read 35 Sai No Sentaku Isekai Tensei O Eranda Baai

Not young enough to dream, not old enough to have given up—but stuck precisely in the purgatory between the two. His apartment ceiling was the same shade of stained beige it had been for the last eight years. The fluorescent light buzzed like a trapped fly. On the kotatsu sat a half-empty can of strong zero, a convenience store bento wrapper, and a letter from his company's HR department.

He thought of the time he was seven years old and found a rhinoceros beetle in the park. He had carried it home in his cupped hands, walking slowly so it wouldn't fly away. His father had smiled—actually smiled—and helped him build a terrarium. His father died when Kazuki was twenty-two. Liver cancer. The last thing his father said was, "Don't end up like me. Do something you actually want." Not young enough to dream, not old enough

Kazuki had not done that.