I Became the Cute One in the Problem-Solving Team

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It was an unfair accident.

A cargo truck suddenly dashed onto the road.

It was unfortunate that I happened to be standing in its path.

At the time, I was focused on my smartphone screen.

I was at a particularly exciting part of a popular boy’s manga, “Fixer.”

A 10-ton steel behemoth hurtled toward me at an unforgiving speed.

By the time I noticed its presence, it was already too late.

The truck driver had his head bowed low.

The accident was likely due to drowsy driving.

As someone who usually didn’t even jaywalk, this felt like a bolt from the blue.

The only silver lining was that I met a clean death without even feeling pain.

When I regained consciousness, it seemed I had woken up in an unfamiliar body.

Given my interest in manga and anime subculture,

I realized this was a phenomenon commonly referred to as reincarnation or rebirth.

However, life is a twist of fate.

Things rarely go as one desires.

I soon faced two very troublesome problems.

First, my voice was completely gone, as if I had a grievous injury to my throat.

And the second was… that I now looked like a clear young girl.

I had been reincarnated, but as a mute girl!

Like the Little Mermaid who traded her voice for legs.

Perhaps I had sacrificed my voice and gender as the price for coming back to life.

“Hm… thinking about it this way seems like a pretty reasonable deal. Well, losing my voice or gender to come back to life isn’t too bad.”

Positive thoughts spun around in my head.

Anything was better than just dying.

Reborn as a person with intact limbs rather than a beast, bug, or plant? How grateful could I be?

Especially since I’m weak against bugs.

If I were reincarnated as a caterpillar or a centipede… I would surely crawl into the water without hesitation, wishing for a redo.

“So, where is this place?”

After concluding that being reborn as a mute girl had its benefits, I crossed my soft arms and looked around.

I had awakened in a stark white room that was thoroughly desolate.

All that was present was a bed, a door, and some lights.

With no windows, the blank white walls and floor reminded me of a hospital room.

What I was wearing was also a plain white outfit without a single pattern.

Maybe it really wasn’t that different after all.

“There doesn’t seem to be much information to gain here. Other than going outside… there doesn’t seem to be much I can do.”

Naturally, I headed toward the only exit of the room—the door.

And, after checking if there were any cameras or such around, I carefully placed my ear against the door.

If I opened it without thinking, it could lead to something irretrievable.

I wanted to gather at least a bit of information.

“I don’t hear anything.”

However, there were no sounds coming from beyond the door.

It was as if there was nothing outside.

Still, I decided to wait awhile with my ear to the door.

After assuring myself that nothing was changing, I cautiously placed my hand on the doorknob.

I intended to open the door very slowly and gently so that no sound would escape.

“What the… It won’t budge.”

Contrary to my expectations, the doorknob wouldn’t turn.

Unless it was merely a decoration, it was evidently locked.

This was an emergency.

The only exit I thought I had was locked.

I began to apply more force to the doorknob.

But even when I put all my weight into it, the knob showed no signs of moving.

“Now what, how do I get out of here?”

As I grasped the situation accurately, a news snippet I had seen a while ago flashed through my mind.

[20s man, found dead in the bathroom after a bicycle fell in front of the door…]

This was not good.

To think I might starve to death without external help.

My gaze began scanning the room for anything that might help.

Of course, in a space where the only furniture was a bed, there was no useful items lying around.

Other than realizing how high the ceiling was, there were no significant findings.

“If I dismantle the bed frame and create a tool… No, I don’t think this fragile arm could handle that.”

No matter how I thought about it, the chances of escaping on my own were zero.

Moreover, my current arms were devoid of any muscles, being merely soft white arms of a child.

I didn’t feel capable of breaking down a solidly locked door.

“I’ve been completely trapped in this desolate room.”

But oddly enough, while my mind fully grasped this, I didn’t feel any fear or despair about the situation.

Instead, what surged within me was a mysterious, indefinable confidence.

Like a feeling that if I just took that distance, I could surely leap over it.

A sentiment akin to that of an athlete.

Thus, I instinctively raised my hand to the doorknob.

And when I felt the tips of my palm connect with the doorknob, I twisted it with all my might using an invisible hand.

Creeeek…!

The doorknob crumpled like it was being pressed in a vice.

At this rate, instead of opening, it seemed the knob would just break, ending the ordeal.

I instinctively raised my other hand to grip around the knob.

“Let’s just completely break it then.”

The invisible hand following my will didn’t just crumple the doorknob.

It began to wreak havoc on the door’s internal structure.

And once the door began to develop a far-from-pristine deformity,

The once firmly closed door began to tilt slightly.

This was my escape from this utterly empty white room.

*

I poked my head out from the ugly, crumpled gap in the door.

Beyond the door was a corridor.

It was a stark white hallway that compulsively reminded me of a laboratory.

With no windows in the long, wide corridor and not a single person in sight.

It exuded a chilling atmosphere that felt like something out of a horror story.

“No one here. There don’t seem to be cameras or any such devices…”

But was it because my emotions had become strangely dull after the reincarnation?

Even though I was in a foreign place, I didn’t feel much fear.

Maybe I just couldn’t grasp the reality of the situation right now.

Still, it would be troublesome to get entangled with any people.

I stepped cautiously into the corridor, trying to avoid making any noise.

Of course, if anything troublesome happened,

I would still have the telekinesis I used to open the door, so I’d be okay.

I walked down the hallway, paying careful attention to my senses.

After all, no sane person would lock someone in a room without letting them out.

I wanted to notice any signs before they could sense me.

Yet, despite my efforts, no matter how much I walked, I couldn’t find a single person or even an exit.

I turned around through the alley a few times and climbed up and down the stairs countless times.

It almost made me wonder if this was a maze designed to confuse people.

Finding the exit was impossible if I roamed around any longer.

Having given up on finding the route, I decided to change my approach.

“Here, no matter how much I wander, there were no windows. And there are oddly high stairs. Therefore… it seems likely we are underground.”

Though it was just a hypothesis based on speculation.

If this really were underground?

Given how I had been walking without seeing an end,

There must be some sort of ventilation shaft connecting to the outside.

And after not much time spent wandering the corridor,

I was able to spot a covered ventilation shaft up near the ceiling.

“That’s it. Hm… it’s a bit far.”

It was about three meters up.

Unless I used a ladder,

There was no way this little girl’s body could reach that height.

But the issue was moot.

I had telekinesis now.

I could forcibly tear open a locked iron door, so naturally, a simple wire mesh fastened by screws would be no trouble.

Using the torn wire mesh as a foothold, I climbed up carefully and, controlling my telekinesis, slipped my body into the ventilation shaft.

Unlike the wide corridor, the ventilation shaft was narrow and dark, and I felt a slight breeze brushing against my cheek.

“This is the answer.”

A breeze meant it was connected to the outside.

I crawled forward in the tunnel, going higher and higher.

Naturally, perhaps because the shaft hadn’t been designed with human passage in mind,

The passage twisted and turned inconsistently.

But my telekinesis greatly aided me in traversing such impractical paths.

By pressing down with my feet like a platform, I managed to climb somehow.

Just as I felt I had crawled through nearly dozens of meters of the ventilation shaft,

I finally reached the exit.

Beyond the ventilation shaft was a dark forest at night.

The cold sensation from the grass beneath my bare feet reached me.

Even though it was such a vast and deep place, the outside was a forest.

It seemed I had awakened in somewhere hidden from the gaze of others.

“Is it some kind of secret base? What on earth were they thinking… Ah.”

As I pondered such thoughts lightly while looking around,

I suddenly froze at something that caught my eye.

An unrealistically towering skyscraper that showcased a strong presence even from a distance.

Atop it, I saw an all-too-familiar symbol.

The stage where the protagonist of the popular boy’s manga I was engrossed in before being hit by the truck—“Fixer”—was set.

A city where races and humanity coexist, entwined in a world fused with another world—Nighthaven.

It was unmistakably the dragon emblem that symbolized Nighthaven.

“No way, I’ve been reincarnated into the world of the manga.”

Possessing the very world I’d been watching just before my death.

Should I be happy about this? Or should I be sad?

I stood there dumbfounded, staring up at the skyscraper for quite a while.