The glowing blue light of the monitor was the only illumination in Subaru Ryu's cramped apartment. It was 3:14 AM. On the screen, the virtual map of 16th-century Japan was painted entirely in the dark red color of the Oda Clan. Subaru leaned back, taking a sip of his lukewarm energy drink.
"Unification achieved. Again," Subaru muttered to himself. At twenty-eight, his life revolved around these numbers. While his peers were climbing corporate ladders, Subaru was mastering digital logistics, troop movements, and officer management in Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence. He knew every officer's stats by heart. He knew exactly which year every major historical betrayal would happen.
Suddenly, his monitor flickered violently. A sharp, high-pitched hum vibrated through his headphones. The air in the room grew freezing cold, and the text on the screen dissolved into a strange, glowing golden matrix. Subaru reached out to unplug the power strip, but before his fingers could touch the cord, the world snapped into absolute darkness.
Subaru woke up to the smell of damp earth and burning wood.
The hum of his PC fan was gone, replaced by the loud chirping of cicadas and the distant sound of rushing water. He blinked, expecting to see his ceiling, but found only a vast blue sky framed by tall cedar trees. He sat up quickly, his heart hammering against his ribs. He wasn't wearing his comfortable gray sweatpants anymore. He was wearing a rough, faded tan kosode (a basic Japanese robe) and straw sandals.
"What kind of dream is this?" he whispered.
As he spoke, a familiar semi-transparent blue screen flashed directly in front of his eyes.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[USER: SUBARU RYU]
[CURRENT YEAR: 1551 (Sengoku Period)]
[LOCATION: OWARI PROVINCE, KIYOSU REGION]
Subaru rubbed his eyes, but the screen stayed, floating perfectly within his field of vision. It looked exactly like the user interface of his favorite game. He looked down at his own hands, and a small stat box popped up next to them:
Subaru Ryu
LEAD (Leadership): 45 | ATK (Attack): 38 | DEF (Defense): 42 | INT (Intelligence): 88 | POL (Politics): 75
Trait: [Historical Foresight] – Allows the user to view future historical events and officer potentials.
"This isn't a dream. I'm inside the game timeline," Subaru realized, a mixture of terror and sudden adrenaline rushing through his veins.
He looked around and noticed a dirt road a few yards away. Down the road, a small group of samurai was marching. They accompanied a young man riding a horse. The rider was dressed haphazardly, his robes loosely tied, with a flintlock musket casually slung over his shoulder. He looked reckless, almost wild.
Subaru focused his eyes on the young man on horseback. Instantly, the system scanned the target, and a massive, golden-bordered stat window erupted into his vision. The numbers were staggering.
Oda Nobunaga (Age: 17)
LEAD: 99 | ATK: 98 | DEF: 95 | INT: 96 | POL: 100
Current Status: Clan Heir / "The Fool of Owari"
Lifespan: 1534 – 1582 (31 years remaining until Honno-ji)
Subaru gasped. Seeing those legendary stats in a video game was one thing, but seeing them hovering over a living, breathing teenager who would one day reshape an entire country was terrifying.
Right now, the year was 1551. Subaru's mind raced through his mental database. This was the exact year Oda Nobuhide—Nobunaga's father—would die of illness. The Oda clan was about to fracture into a bloody civil war as various factions tried to replace Nobunaga with his more polite younger brother, Nobuyuki.
Nobunaga was currently viewed by everyone as a useless fool. But Subaru knew better. He knew this "fool" was a generational genius who just needed the right pieces on the board.
If Subaru wanted to survive the upcoming wars, he couldn't remain a masterless vagrant. He needed a patron. He needed protection. And more than anything, he needed to put his high Intelligence stat to work.
Subaru stood up, brushing the dirt off his robes, and stepped out onto the road, directly into the path of the oncoming Oda scouts. His journey to conquer the Sphere of Influence had officially begun.