Summoned to another world, but I'm a coward!

  Chapter 1 - God already kidnapped so many people that he created a cheat shop!

  Ricardo "Rick" McDonald woke up and screamed as he remembered the pain he suffered moments earlier. It took a long time for him to claw at his body senselessly before he noticed the lack of blood and broken limbs.

  'What happened? I remember crashing into a truck, but afterwards...'

  Slowly regaining his senses, Rick pushed away his messy black bangs and looked at his surroundings. A grey, smoky expanse surrounded him like fog enveloping an island.

  A majestic musical tone sounded out, instantly creating an empty expanse a few lengths around Rick. Before he could wonder what was happening, a glowing, gentle angel appeared before his bewildered eyes.

  "Motherfucker! Am I dead? Is this heaven?"

  "Welcome to the Space In Between." The Angel spoke, her gentle tone somehow calming Rick down from his post-death anxieties. Her long blond hair radiated mystically as if they were snakes, further entrancing the bewildered young man. "To answer your question, you have died, but instead of letting your immortal soul move to the next stage, you have been given an opportunity by God few others have been presented."

  This gave Rick some pause. He felt as if he should be tormented by the wounds of his crash, the regrets of not living a full life and leaving behind his family and girlfriend. 'There's some kind of freaky mind control going on. Still, I admit its helpful. There's no use dwelling on my past life. Besides, this scenario seems oddly familiar...'

  "Let me guess." Rick spoke slowly. "I'll be transported or reincarnated to another world by God?"

  The angel smiled and nodded appreciatively. "That is correct Rick. Like you, God has become enamored with the new 'Isekai' genre of fictional media. So much that he has implemented his own version, even creating a special world of magic and mysticism for people like you to fulfill your dreams."

  "People like me.. so I'm not the first?"

  "Indeed. God does not wish for a single person to destabilize an entire world without competition and adversity. It would be too 'boring'. Several mortals from your Earth have been chosen to live their lives in the new world over the years, either through reincarnation or transportation. Many of these individuals have become heroes, villains or other figures of renown with the gifts granted by God."

  This caused Rick to release a laugh. "Can't do without the obligatory OP cheats, right?"

  "God deems this as an essential part of the Isekai genre and has granted his chosen mortals a choice of powers to take advantage of in the new world." The angel matched his laugh. "This initially led to chaos as several individuals picked overwhelmingly strong powers, or powers that seemed weak initially but started a chain reaction where they quickly grew out of control when let loose in the new world. By now, God has organized his gifts into a Point Shop for convenience and prevent other unforseen issues. Let me give you access to the interface."

  With a wave of her hand, the Angel sent an invisible form of energy that somehow resonated with Rick's soul. Before he could ponder what those undulations were, a transparant gold window appeared before Rick.

  Rick looked at the gold colored window in astonishment and wondered why it wasn't blue. 'Damn, my entire life just amounted to 3597 points? That's brutal. If I knew my soul would be picked by God and be sent to another world I would have dedicated my entire life to charity.'

  Shaking his head at all the missed opportunities, he swiped his hand and let the window disappear.

  "Now that you have gained your points, you should inspect your status window and plan your approach to power."

  Rick waited for the window to appear, only to be disappointed when nothing happened. "Is there some kind of bug?"

  "No. This is something you should be capable of doing yourself. Try it now by thinking or saying Status Window."

  "Status Window."

  "So I've been turned into a vanilla human I see." Rick nodded, a little disapointed he couldn't bring his intelligence to bear in the new world. "These attributes seems self-explanatory, but I'd like to be a little more careful. Can I get an explanation on what each attribute means?"

  "Depending on the level of your general appraisal skill, you will be able to glean more details from the System. However, to answer your question I will temporarily bestow you with intermediate appraisal mastery so you can inspect them yourself. Take your time. If you want more detail, then I suggest you raise your appraisal mastery in the new world or buy it directly in the Point Shop."

  The angel sent a small ray of light between Rick's eyes, and he somehow felt an instinct take over his eyes. He concentrated on the words, which resulted in a new window popping from the status window.

  'These stats seem inclusive, though a bit too slanted towards combat. I have a feeling what I'm seeing right now doesn't scratch the surface of what the System is really capable of doing.' Rick nodded carefully to himself. 'I need more information.'

  "Can you give me some more information on the world I'm about to enter and some advice on common builds others have chosen?"

  Sadly, the angel shook her head. "God does not permit us or any summoned companions to aid you in your choices. You must utilize your own wits and follow your own path to power."

  "That sucks... but it makes sense, I guess." Rick shrugged. While he really liked to learn more about the world so he could make more educated guesses, he had no choice but to go blindly and hope things go well. "Then let's move on. Can you call up the Point Shop?"

  "Certainly Rick." The Angel waved her hand, wiping away all the blue boxes in order to make room for the new golden box. "I cannot advise you anymore from this point on. I can only warn you that the Point Shop is only available to you now. Make the most of the opportunity and spend all your points, for you will not be able to spend your remaining points elsewhere."

  Just seeing the main categories of the Point Shop cleared a few things up, but introduced many other questions. 'Why are titles a seperate category? And it seems like if I want to know more about the new world and how it works, I have to buy the knowledge seperately.'

  Curious, Rick mentally clicked the first category and checked the first page of this seemingly endless list.

  "Some of these descriptions are less than helpful." Rick politely pointed out. 'Also, some of these race choices are crazy. Who in the world would have enough points to pick Dragon? And why in the world would you be crazy enough to turn into a dungeon core?'

  "I believe one of my colleagues grew rather lazy when God assigned him the task of filling out the information on races in the Point Shop." The Angel sighed. "But there is a reason why knowledge is a category in the Point Shop."

  "Right, if I want to know something about this world of 'Avandis', I gotta pay for it out of my own pocket. Let me see the other stuff first." Rick waved away the Races category and switched to Titles.

  Many of the titles boggled Rick's mind even further. The prices of at least half of the titles were beyond Rick's means, which gave further hints that many other Earthlings must have been dragged here by God that achieved much more in their lives than graduating from university. Unless there was a way to gain more points by sacrificing some stuff or gain some negative trait, there was simply no way for Rick to gain all those drool-worthy titles.

  'It's interesting that titles are both highly visible and not easy to remove. The fact that the page explicitly states that titles are very difficult to counteract means that there are plenty of threats in the world that can defeat you other than bashing your head in. I have to remember this and come back to this page once I finalize my strategy.'

  Rick already had something in mind for his strategy, but he dilligently browsed the rest of the pages.

  The skills varied wildly in costs depending on mastery. 'It seems like getting a beginner mastery in any skill takes some effort, but not too much. Probably somewhere between hours and months depending on the specific skill. Getting to the Master stage is something most humans will work towards in their lifetimes considering the jawdropping point costs at the end. It's probably worth it as well if you are willing to pay that much.'

  The traits seemed much simpler than titles. They were probably much easier to obtain as well. Rick didn't bother too much with this page except take note of a couple of interesting ones he might want to work towards in the future. Considering the cost of his future purchases, he couldn't waste his points in this category.

  The classes varied from basic RPG staples like warrior or priest, to modern professions like Navy Seal or nuclear physisist, to ridiculously weird jobs like cultivator or grand town crier. 'There's probably a few Chinese who have read too many Xianxia novels who have started a cultivation sect in Avandis.'

  Like the previous category, Rick encountered a large amount of magical fantasy and modern items in seemingly random order. Fortunately, his sanity was saved by the filtering options. He could narrow his search to modern items only, or even cut off items above a certain cost.

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  Attributes are not easy to obtain apparently. Unless your class specifically develops it, you have to spend many years to develop it specifically. There were many more interesting choices here, though the cost of some were just ridiculous. Still, some of the cheaper attributes might be worth a purchase, as Rick reckoned most other mortals didn't start with these attributes and were at a disadvantage compared to him if he picked it immediately.

  Right. The companions tab rounded out the craziness of the Point Shop. Rick even recognized several of them as straight ripoffs of other anime and novels. 'C'mon, I bet my ass I'll summon a regular human if I do the random familiar summoning. Yeah no thanks, I don't want to drag anyone else in my mess.'

  "Have you gained an overview of what is available in the Point Shop?" The angel asked. When Rick nodded, she warned, "Then I must remind you not to take too long in making your purchases. You have less than an hour to spend your points. All of your purchases except for knowledge will take effect when you are deposited in the new world."

  The one hour time-limit instantly jolted Rick's sense of urgency for the first time since he died. He felt as if he was back in university, doing an exam for a subject he spent only two nights to cram. 'That's probably on purpose. God doesn't want us lazy bums to min-max each and every detail to the extreme. I'm guessing he wants us all to go on our gut feeling when making our purchases.'

  The horrible interface and lack of extensive filtering and sorting also reinforced his hunch. Despite the endless choices, he couldn't spend too much time searching for optimal things to purchase. Remembering the things he learned from university, he got his mind back on track and set a couple of goals and priorities. First, Rick considered his aspiration. He couldn't buy everything in the Point Shop, so he had to make a few purchases that would best let him achieve his dreams.

  'What do I want to become?' He asked, and took a few minutes to consider this question. If he wanted to follow in the vein of smart anime protagonist, he'd pick a couple of weak and expensive skills and classes that start weak but gain a surprising amount of power when he reached higher mastery and levels. 'It's too bad God has taken that into account. Most scalable skills and items cost at least as much as their midgrade equivalents, if not more.'

  A simple sword that scaled to his level cost many thousands of points, while the very valuable Prodigy title already cost him an armful with 10000 points alone. There was absolutely no cheating possible there. If he wanted to create a character with ideal conditions of growth, he'd have to sacrifice immediate power and safety. 'Considering the descriptions of many of these things, Avandis seems like a crazy world that is already affected by many transmigrated Earthlings. Considering Gods wants us all to compete with each other, I don't think I can behave as a regular prodigy without coming into attention to one of those freaks.'

  A twenty-four year old like Rick also lacked the points to make a strong foundation. If he had the rotten luck in encountering some old, billionaire green energy investor and philantropist, he'd lose his head so fast he couldn't even croak a plea.

  Considering those circumstances, Rick had to find an aspiration to work towards without getting offed like a red shirt in a bad sci-fi movie. 'What am I even thinking about? Do I need to become a supreme knight, tanking blast after blast of firebombs? Is there any bone in my body that screams that I have to become a master magician, able to teleport to moons without effort? I bet loads of others have picked those flashy paths. They don't need anyone else joining their club. Let them play with each other. I'll be off in the corner doing my own thing.'

  He decided right there that he'd forgo pursuing the pinnacle of combat, whether physically or magically. Instead, he'd choose a more down-to-Earth choice of becoming a crafter. 'Hm, and I don't want to become anything attention-grabbing either. I don't want to become a rotten blacksmith chained to a single location, but I don't think it's a good idea to become a gunsmith whose inventions are immediately apparent to any former Earthling.'

  Rick wanted to avoid entangling himself with politics, debt, location and other difficulties. He was afraid of getting in too deep with anyone. He wanted to preserve his life and freedom while making a reasonable living by crafting things he'd enjoy making in the first place.

  "I'll become a crafter - doens't matter what. I'll just pick a bunch of crafting skills that don't require a lot of heavy tools and go from there. Specializing comes later."

  However, becoming a succesful free craftman was only a secondary goal. His first, and most important goal of all was to stay safe. What was the best way to stay safe? 'Not getting noticed in the first place. I won't make enemies if they don't know I exist in the first place. Even if they do target me, I'll just run away.'

  Ever since Rick had been bullied in high school did he shy away from getting entangled with others. He planned to adopt his scaredy cat mentality to the new world. He needed to acquire some good hiding and running skills and maybe a defensive skill or two. Considering he would not bother with acquiring any offensive skills, he can purchase much better skills devoted to staying alive. 'I'm a coward, I admit it. I absolutely do not want to kill anyone, not even a rat.'

  Ultimately, Rick realized that these two goals slightly ran against each other. In order to remain unnoticed by anyone dangerous, Rick needed to avoid making a reputation. However, successful craftsmen heavily relied on their reputation as their personal brand. Without a brand, how could Rick gain acknowldgement for his work and sell them for a high price? He'd need a way to remain both recognizable and anonymous at the same time. 'I need to figure this out. The shop should have something to help me.'

  On a whim, Rick added a whim to his final strategy and finalized his thoughts. "My goal is to become a wandering, luck-based craftsman."

  He did not misspeak. Ever since he read the description, Rick somehow felt an attraction to the oft-neglected attribute of Luck. He already felt as if his previous death was nothing more than a bad throw of the dice. Who would have thought he died at twenty-four, not even a real man and no wife and kids to grieve in front of his grave? He felt bitter about it even with God's mysterious emotional suppression. 'I don't care if it's an inefficient stat. I'll focus most of my points on Luck and see where the winds will blow me. I might be making the biggest mistake of my second life, but I won't regret a thing.'

  With that choice made, he started to browse the Point Shop for his first purchases to fill his shopping cart. He started with Titles and Companions first. The former due to its strong effects and difficulty in counter-acting it, the latter due to Rick's essential need for companionship. 'Just because I'm a coward whose afraid of befriending anyone dangerous doesn't mean I want to stay as a hermit my entire life.'

  Companions also provided a second view to things. Rick read enough light novels to understand that he'd miss loads of things if he was left to his own devices. Some companions even specialized in augmenting Rick's weakpoints, though they'd cost most of his points if he contemplated buying them. 'Sigh, I can't get them all.'

  Rick didn't dare take too long or spend all his points, but due to their fundemental value he spend at least half in one go.

  Okay, he admitted that those choices were plagiarized from other works, but hey, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. 'No one's going to sue me anyway.'

  The possessed chronicle was basically a poor man's A.I. chip. Rick mainly planned to keep his crafting recipes and ideas in one place, and also allow it to help with keeping track of his daily life. He was worried he didn't make his Possessed Chronicle immortal and soul-bound. Rick really couldn't afford to lose this companion, especially if he invested a lot of knowledge and upgrades into it. He was so worried in fact that he considered changing his mind in order to relieve his worries of risking it getting lost. But then he shook his head. 'I can't let this fear take over my rational choices. I already have a plan in mind for storing my valuables.'

  As for the title Forgotten Nerd, it was the best choice he could make that was within his budget. Some titles provided stronger boosts to his skills, others allowed him to hide much better. He still cringed at the disadvantages, especially the one that drove a stake in his dreams of reaching 100 charisma. 'Well, I won't miss what I never had in the first place.'

  Next he needed to fill out the basics and choose his class and skills. He decided right then and there that he'd limit himself to purchasing the beginner version of skills. 'I don't want or need immediate mastery. I just need to get my foot in the door for skills that my class won't allow access to. I'll grow in my own way with my own effort.'

  Artisan was an interesting specialization of general craftsman. It was highly expensive in points even though it wasn't an advanced class, and that drew Rick's attention. A lot of the details appealed to him. The extra attribute points was generous. He didn't want to get tied down and produce a thousand horseshoes in a single winter. He longed to travel the new world, see new sights, get inspired and create a few interesting works as appreciation of what he experienced. This class seemed to resonate with him, and though 3000 points was a very painful dent in his limited budget, he still bit the bullet and put it in his shopping cart.

  In addition to these basic skills, he also bought the beginner masteries of haggling, drawing and its subskill drafting, painting, alchemy and its subskill pill refining, mana engraving, mana perception, stealth and sprinting. Fortunately, most of the skills were substantially cheaper except for pill refining. 'Considering how little equipment I need to generate a tiny pill, its worth the convenience if I want to keep mobile.'

  He also bought a few minor spells for convenience such as fire generation and water generation to aid in crafting and his daily life. Rick needed to limit himself from choosing too many household spells. Too much would turn into a luxury and might make him too lazy. 'All those little points added up.'

  He spent 4750 points on his title and companion. He spent a further painful 6650 points on his class and many skills and spells. That left... 2847 points for items, traits, attributes and knowledge. Rick really cringed at his lavish spending.

  "Traits huh... let's get this over with quickly. I'll just take a look and pick the first one that fits."

  Luckily, he didn't need to browse far to get a bargain. Well, the trait wasn't exactly flattering, but it would help him a lot in his travels. Really, a trait for 300 points was so cheap.

  He skipped knowledge, instead moved on to attributes if he could see if he could get relevant attributes for a cheap price. Rick really felt he turned into a miser counting his cents while standing in line at a discount supermarket.

  The two attributes mainly related to his survival. Seclusion was ideal in supplementing his wishes to hide in the crowd. It was surprisingly cheap due to the fact that it didn't really help in combat. Mental resistance on the other hand was worth the higher price. Rick had read quite a few novels that allowed the protagonist to end up in slavery or gets fooled by a pretty face. There was no way Rick wanted to leave such an obscure but lethal vulnerability behind. 'I bet most Earthlings don't even think about this problem. Heh.'

  That left a grand total of 1897 to splurge on his items. That sounded a lot, but then he reminded himself that he needed to reserve a lot of them for basic crafting tools and a way to store them without overloading him. Fortunately, most tools for the main crafting skills only cost 100 points, though they were extremely primitive and wouldn't allow the crafting of larger or finer products. He still needed a wagon to transport all of his tools, especially for blacksmithing.

  'A wagon... I can't let myself be weighted down by something so large and easily stealable. I need some kind of container dedicated to storing crafting tools and materials. I also need to buy a smaller, but much more secure container to store my Possessed Chronicle and my wealth.'

  In the end, he spent 1450 points just for the bare necessities of his professions. That left 447 Points for his remaining purchases. More than he thought, but not enough to let him leave a comfortable life once he left the Point Shop. He needed to think about buying some provisions, books and some starting capital with the remainder of his points.

  With just fifteen minutes left on the clock, Rick hurriedly browsed the menus. First he went to find some useful books. He threw in an up-to-date atlas, a couple of biographies of famous master craftsmen and a kid's book introducing the common kingdoms and races in his shopping cart. Then he spent an extravagant sum of 200 Points for self-replicating bread that was apparantly popular in prisons in a certain kingdom. The amount of bread it produced daily would barely stave off starvation for an average human and had an awful, moldy taste. He only really bought it because it was the cheapest replicating food he could buy. That it could fit in his lucky coin pouch was a bonus. 'Though I hope the pouch won't mess with the bread and vica versa.'

  That left... a basic iron dagger for daily use and 17 gold coins stamped by various kingdoms. It didn't sound much, but without really understanding the value of gold, Rick had no idea if he was sitting on a minor fortune or some pocket change. 'I don't believe gold is worth so little. It's certainly not worth 24 cents in my old country. It's unlikely to be worth $24000, but definitely not $24 either considering silver and copper coins also exist.'

  Right now Rick wanted to check his shopping cart and finalize his purchases. He turned to the angel who had been floating silently while Rick made his decisions. "I'm almost ready. Can you please show me my status window if I had made all of these purchases?"

  "Certainly Rick." She made another minute wave with her hand. "You can check your modified condition now. Just say Status Window, Inventory, Skill List and Spell List."

  "Status Window."

  "Goddammit. I forgot something. I need to change my name."

  The angel smiled at that. "You are one of the few who are even aware that you can ask to change your name. Fortunately, God allows you to change your name in exchange for one point."

  Rick quickly released a point from his shopping cart by removing one gold coin, then opened the prompt to change his name. He didn't have a lot of time left to choose a new name, which was a big problem considering he had no idea what the typical names of the new world sounded like. His eyes darted back and forth until his attention turned to the titles of the biographies he haphazardly added to his shopping cart earlier.

  "My new name will be..."

  "Skill List."

  "Spell List."

  "Inventory."

  Now that's more like it. Though I remained pitiful at level 1, I would start off with a moderately powerful crafting class that already provided me with three additional attribute points per level up. Combined with the extra point in intelligence due to my title, I'd easily be able to grow stronger than my competitors at the same level. I'm not going to be able to craft legendary weapons left and right unlike others who might have used the Point Shop to specialize in crafting a specific field, but I'd have the flexibility to dabble in everything whenever I feel like it depending on the resources available.

  For a single moment before my I mentally click the 'buy' option, I questioned my judgement in following the path of a cowardly crafter. If someone manages to corner me, I'd could be done in by a single thug. Of all the 13597 points he spent, he hadn't dedicated one whit of attention to skills and items that helped him in fights.

  'I may have made a terrible mistake... but I don't regret it at all. Let the big boys topple each other's sand castles. I'll just be the invisible cockroach scurrying between their feet.'