Chapter 41: My Masterpiece... is a Goblin?

I was an artist. My console was my canvas, and the soul of Kenji Tanaka was my clay. With a gleeful hum, I began to construct the most maliciously perfect reincarnation I had ever conceived.

"A world exactly like 'Aethelgard'," I murmured, creating a carbon copy of his favorite game world, but with one tiny change. I buried a subroutine deep in the world's code, a 'Realism Engine.' All the cool, edgy armor would chafe. Swords would need constant sharpening. Dungeons would be damp, smelly, and full of unsanitary monsters.

"A 'Chaos Blade Master' class," I cackled, designing a skill tree of immense power. The catch? Every single one of his devastatingly powerful abilities was powered by the user's humility. The more he acknowledged his own weakness and reliance on others, the stronger he'd become. For an ego like Kenji's, it was the divine equivalent of a brick wall.

And the final touch, the 'System Appraisal' skill. I gave it to him, just as he asked. It would show him everything: stats, weaknesses, hidden quests. But it would also show him the ugly, unvarnished truth. He'd see the cosmic code holding the world together, the Defragmentation Protocol warnings flickering at the edge of reality, the crippling debt of the cheerful innkeeper, and the existential despair of the local slime population. He wanted to see the system? I'd show him the whole, terrifying, depressing thing.

It was a masterpiece of passive-aggressive divinity. I moved the celestial cursor over to the race selection box, hovering over 'Human (Protagonist Variant).' All I had to do was click 'Confirm,' and my work of art would be complete.

"Making another monster, Aka-chan?"

The voice, a smooth, cold baritone, purred directly behind my ear. I yelped, jumping a full foot out of my chair. Isao was there, leaning over my console with an amused smirk.

"Isao! I swear, if you don't learn how to knock—"

My hand, flailing from the shock, slapped down on the console. My finger, which had been perfectly positioned, slipped. It slid one pixel down the list before pressing the confirmation panel.

A message flashed on the screen in bright, final green letters.

[PACKAGE CONFIRMED. SOUL OF KENJI TANAKA SUCCESSFULLY REINCARNATED. RACE: GOBLIN (HIGH INTELLECT VARIANT). GOOD LUCK!]

I stared. Isao stared. He peered at the screen, then back at me, and then a slow, delighted grin spread across his face.

"A goblin," he said, his voice filled with pure, unadulterated joy. "You gave the isekai expert, the man who thinks he's the hero of creation, the starting race of a Level 1 trash mob."

My masterpiece. My perfect, passive-aggressive trap. And I had tripped into it myself. I had just created the smartest, most meta-aware, and angriest goblin in the history of the multiverse.

Isao burst out laughing. "Oh, Aka-chan," he wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. "You've outdone yourself. This is the best thing I've seen in a thousand years."