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Hideki found more than just a sword from his former world. He went to the tavern and saw an orc showing off a smartphone to his comrades. The phone didn’t work, though. It was cracked. He saw a woman on a bench reading Fifty Shades of Gray. There was a fairy wearing shutter shades.
He sat in the tavern. Then, he saw her: his girlfriend from his world. She stood in the doorway. He ran to her. She looked surprised and then hugged him. “How long have you been here?”, he asked. “A few minutes.” “You can live with me.” He led her to his house just a few buildings down.

[removed]

This makes me think of that M. Night Shyamalan movie...

The Village!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_(2004_film)

I used to look up to the stars on clear summer nights. Out in the countryside, you could look up and see those beautiful stars without the lights of the city ruining the view. I had always wondered if there were other worlds out there, worlds filled with their own people, nations, beasts, land, and needs.

Tonight was really the first time the skies had been clear since I started my journey. Perhaps it was this night that really made this all real. The stars were nothing like the stars of Earth. No constellations I could recognize, no planets that I could remember, and two moons with an amber hue reinforced the otherworldly feel of this place.

“Cecilia!” A masculine voice called out to me. I didn’t answer. “Cecilia! Where are you at?” A glimmer of fire rose from the man’s fingers to light up the area. He didn’t seem too concerned, so I offered a little wave of my hand in response.

“Just over here. Looking up at the sky.” He wandered over to me and extinguished the light in his hand.

“Oh yeah? Is the sky on your home world different from ours?” Rilec took a seat beside me and joined me for a few moments. “I have heard that every world is a little different. The stars aren’t in the same places, and the moons are always unique too.” In the dark, the man looked unremarkable. But in proper lighting, his elven appearance was a shock, to say the least. Reminded me of playing too many video games as a kid.

“Yeah. Those moons? On my world, we’ve got only one. And it’s usually a pure white color.” What was his deal, anyway? You’d think my little handler from the Republic’s government would be a bit more…educated on the ways of my world? I know I’m far from the only person they’ve summoned across space and time. So…how much do they really know about me?

“Oh, by the way. Were you hungry?” Rilec smiled and gestured over to the campfire. A couple other members of my adventuring team were already gathered around it. “I think the stew’s just about ready.” My stomach growled. It did smell pretty good…

“Yeah, I’ll have some…” A piercing howl filled the air. I froze on my little patch of dirt.

Rilec’s eyes went wide. “That’s…that’s not good at all. Dire wolves, by the sound of things.”

I gulped. Great. We’ll be dead within a week of starting our journey. I didn’t even have a weapon to defend myself. “Can you fend them off? None of us are armed yet!”

He looked at me for a moment, then looked over to the campfire. “Amelia, Ricardo,” He paused to look at me. “Cecilia. What weapons would you like to use?” My fellow outlanders looked bewildered. No doubt they had barely even thought about acquiring a weapon. After all, what are we going to do with weapons? We’ve never even used them before!

I choked out the first response. “Give me a sword.”

Amelia answered next. “Some sort of spear or lance?”

Ricardo shrugged. “A bow and a quiver full of arrows, I guess. What are you even getting at here?”

Rilec nodded. “I had hoped to not deploy such a valuable tool so early, but I’m afraid we won’t make it out of here if I don’t use it.” He pulled out a little satchel filled with small, glowing orbs. He held them out to us with concern filling his eyes. Another howl filled the quiet air, but this one was much closer. “I can’t explain everything in detail, but here’s the deal: There are powerful tools that we call Wishes. They allow you to manifest your heart’s desire and protect the ones you care about. And if the gods find your wish acceptable, they will grant you a boon. Think about the weapons you wish to own. Then crush these Wishes in your hands and they will be replaced by the weapons you need. Weapons far more powerful than anything our blacksmiths can forge. They won’t last long, but they might give us the strength we need to survive.”

His instructions were quite simple, in truth. Easy, really. I followed them to the letter and felt a surge of wind in my hand where the Wish once sat. A sword filled my hands. The blade gleamed with the beauty of a blade that had never been swung. My comrades’ weapons manifested as well through this strange system. Perfect. Now we’d…

I heard a snarl behind me. Oh no. I turned around to see a massive wolf, perhaps twice my size, staring me down with murderous intent. In the dim moonlight night, I could see little save for its glowing red eyes. I held my sword steady (it was shockingly light) and pointed at the wolf with a threatening gesture. “Stay away from us!” I shouted, and somehow a gust of air shot forth from the blade towards the direwolf!

“The Antlia Pneumatica!” Rilec gasped. “Incredible. I’ve never seen someone summon that sword before!” Despite Rilec’s surprise, the dire wolf seemed to only be angrier now that I had broken its approach. More snarls surrounded us on all sides. Perhaps eight beasts in total. Crap. I held the sword firm. I would need more than gusts of wind to fend them off.

“First one to four kills wins twenty bucks?” Ricardo spoke up with a grin. His bow was glowing with a fiery light. He took aim and began to shoot. I really don’t think that’s such a good…

“You’re on!” Amelia chimed in with an amused laugh. Her lance had some sort of ice crystals growing on the surface, and she launched a few icicles towards the beasts.

I couldn’t pay attention much longer though. A dire wolf leaped at me, hoping to rip out my neck while I was distracted. Rilec stood back, apparently unable to fight, and somehow I managed to hold the beast back with my sword. I swung at the beast with a rapid, unsteady twirl, and somehow the beast was beaten back with every swing. “This is incredible!” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

These massive wolves were no match for our team with these weapons. I managed to slay another one of the wolves and took out a third for good measure. A lunge, a slash, and a thrust were all it took to take them down. I knew no sword techniques, but somehow, the blade guided my hands right where they needed to go.

The brief battle was soon over, and I looked down at the blade to gaze at it further. If I had a blade like this…I could…I paused right in my tracks. The blade had a little inscription on the surface. I couldn’t make it out until the weapon began to glow. Rilec offered some helpful commentary. “It looks like they’re being reclaimed by the gods now that you’ve won. But there’s no doubt in my mind. The gods have chosen you all to do great things.”

As the sword began to disintegrate, I was able to make out the inscription. “Made in China”.

At first, my brain didn’t register what that was supposed to mean. “Made in China?” I asked out loud, prompting my fellow outlanders to stare at me in confusion.

“What?” Ricardo asked out loud first.

“The sword, it said it was ‘Made in China’.”

“No way.”

Rilec offered an impassive shrug. “All Wishes are Made in China. I don’t know what it means, but it’s always been that way.”

This was incredible. Also I hate you so much lol

Basically My Secretly Hot Husband but with Korean products

My brain had gone through a process when i came to this world. The shock of being hit by a truck (that old cliche from some very cheesy but decent fantasy anime) and finding out that isekai was actually REAL had forced a reboot on how i viewed reality.

First I froze in shock, only my eyes moving to look at the glowing mushrooms and curious fairies surrounding me in the forest I'd woken up in. Full deer in the headlights mode, my brain desperately trying to prevent my body from doing anything stupid while it reconciled with what was happening. After a few seconds I blinked a few times, then blinked really hard once more just to be sure it wasn't fake.

My sheer stupification in those moments before I'd started my adventure in this world had reached levels I had never experienced on Earth. Of all the things to inspire that exact same feeling in me a second time, a cheap sword in a blacksmith bargain bin would be at the bottom of the list. The language had been an absolute pain to learn in this place, but staring straight in my face was a language i thought I would never see again except for my journal. Plain English, "Made in China."

My party found me still frozen, staring at a trashy sword with (to them) some garbled nonsense stamped near the hilt. The questions in my own head were too loud for me to hear theirs. Had this sword been summoned? Did it fall through a wormhole? Was there, impossibly, another country named China in this world that made cheap stuff and used English? I ignored my party as i grabbed the sword and walked up to the smith to find answers.

"Where did this sword come from?" I asked, my voice sounding mildly curious instead of the whirlwind desperate for answers that it was.

"Ah, that's one of the apprentice swords." he said. "I dunno how it got into the bin over there since they aren't allowed to put 'em up for sale 'til they finish their apprenticeship. I'll take it off ya and put it with the rest in the forge."

"I don't want to buy it, I want to know about this mark," I said, pointing to the stamp. He looked closer at the sword, then looked at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"That mark doesn't mean anything unless you're a blacksmith, and it's more of a joke than anything else. Long time ago a legendary smith named Nii'naj Fortenite used that as a maker's mark, said it meant bad quality in his homeland and figured if his work broke he couldn't be blamed if the people who bought his weapons saw it was labelled as garbage. Sure enough, thousands of copycats made cheap replicas, so the mark became a sign of bad quality. Nowadays apprentices use it to show they're still learning the trade. Are you buying anything else?"

"No, I think I'm fine. You guys can keep browsing if you like, i'm going for a walk," I told my team, heading out the door and wondering what the hell was going on. Had that blacksmith really said that with a straight face? Maybe i was overreacting, some other reincarnator probably had a childish sense of humor. But as i walked by a potion stand that sold flasks of Pepis, I got the feeling it wasn't just one. Maybe I would leave my own insignificant and weird mark on this unknowing world later on as well, an inside joke that only people from my world would ever hope to get.

For now, i walked through the city that suddenly had a few more oddities about it than before I'd walked into the smithy, world view once again put on its head.

This feels like it was partially inspired from wish.com (which has good prices but terrible service)

The belt and road initiative has recently expanded to providing truck-kun.

I would have just Wished for wolf repellent.

>>wishes

Genshin trauma intensifies

Congrats you've explained the joke and now it's not funny

"AT LEAST GIVE ME MADE IN JAPAN VERSION!!! ARGH!!!"

I don’t know how long it had been since I arrived in this strange place, but I’m glad I did. There wasn’t much left in my own world anyway. I was a child when I first arrived, after panicking while was translated as a lot of crying for my poor parents, I finally calmed down and realised I had the chance of a lifetime, or second lifetime if we are being specific.

My father was excited to train me, back in my own world I used to do martial arts but back there magic didn’t exist. Here you could use magic to make your attacks more powerful. I easily progressed,much faster than the other kids my age and joined the military, rising through the ranks.

So when a couple of us where tasked with raising a monster dungeon I saw no trouble with it. A typical dungeon usually had some surprises, couple of secret rooms, a lot of monsters and even more loot. So that’s when we get to the interesting part of the story.

We had just slain some strange creature, I didn’t remember exactly what it was called but a couple of our party were seriously wounded and being treated by our healer. I went to investigate the treasure and in the centre a single sword lay on a cushion. I checked for traps but didn’t see anything, so I picked it up.

Most enchanted swords have this rush of energy you feel when you hold them but this one had nothing. I examined it, the metal looked cheap and flimsy - was it even metal? The grip was smooth though didn’t have any fabric. The whole sword was way to light as well. And then I saw those words.

“Made in China”

It took me a second to realise the meaning of that phrase, the realise the sword in my hands must have been made from some thermosetting polymer - plastic, that this most definitely did not come from this world.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting.

I mean, to be fair, they break after a single use.