First English release in December 28, 2019.
Touji Akino was walking home from work one day, having just gotten off work and looking forward to his internet game, when he crosses paths with 4 teenagers, one boy and three girls (all the girls hanging off the guy). Suddenly, a magic portal appears beneath all their feet.
Turns out Touji has just become the collateral damage to a stereotypical "Hero" summoning event. The "Hero" being the male high-school student with his ready-to-go harem as side-kicks. Since Touji's New Life in Another World Bonus wasn't immediately and glaringly obvious, he was given five gold coins and literally thrown out of the castle where the summon took place.
After a few days, Touji manages to get the hang of his ability and signs on with the adventurer's guild as a porter, which is more than welcome, since people with an [Inventory] skill like his are rare and normally very expensive and exclusive to merchants, but Touji happily works for peanuts, as befits his low rank, because his ability comes with a hidden bonus that more than pays for the difference.
Touji can see and interact with loot drops from monsters that nobody else even knows exist.
The king, not learning the lesson from his earlier impulsiveness, rather than trying to reach out to Touji via the guild with a fair contract, sends the kingdom's knights out to seize him by force.
Naturally, he bolts, and not only the guild, in its entirety, but a passing merchant he's on good terms with, help him escape the country.
Now Touji's got to make a life for himself in this new world, making friends (and enemies) along the way, and continuously testing out the perks, drawbacks, and limits of his new-found powers.
A light-novel version exists, but can only be purchased in Japan.
Associated Tropes:
- Enlightened Self-Interest: Several cases.
- Touji is more than happy to work for the small salary presented with his low rank in the adventurer's guild while being a porter. Because he gets access to loot drops from monsters he wouldn't have a chance against himself, hiding them in his inventory.
- Meya Albert, the merchant who helped Touji escape the kingdom that summoned him, pays him top dollar for the goods he provides her, and protects the secrets of his ability, because not only are the goods top-quality, but she can earn much, much more than she paid for them by selling them, and she's got an exclusive contract with a virtually bottomless gold-mine.
- Touji feels he has no obligation, both to the Hero Party and to King Depuri, (rightly so since they kicked him out to fend for himself). He owes them nothing and since there's no Demon King to fight, he's free to make the most out of his broken and OP support and crafting skills.
- Invisible to Normals: Items and loot drops occur all across the world all the time, from things such as mining minerals in a cave, to hunting beasts and monsters, these drops fade away over time. The population at large is completely unaware this is happening. Only Touji's special ability allows him to see and interact with them. He exploits this to make a killing by making healing potions, weapons, armors, and other things.
- Kidnapped by the Call: Neither Touji, the "Hero", nor his ready-made harem had any say in being brought to this new world.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Just about every flavor of morality is present.
- New Life in Another World Bonus: Every last person who got summoned at the start got a special gift. Touji's just wasn't readily apparent.
- No Fair Cheating: Touji once tries to equip level-locked equipment he got from a loot drop, because [This Is Reality]. He was able to wear it just fine, but his stats took a penalty.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The orcs and orc king Touji has King Kamon fight are all the pig-like near-human type with primitive intelligence. Once the Curb-Stomp Battle leaves their corpses as drops, Touji finds he can turn these into either "edible meat" or "cooking oil". Unlike Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill where Mukohda openly cooks with "orc meat," Touji isn't keen on eating a dish with "orc meat" as part of it, even if others say the meat is like pork.
- Perspective Flip: Most stories would feature the teenaged Hero Battle Harem that were summoned. This story features the 29-year-old Touji who was the collateral damage of the summon and focuses on how the rest of the world has to deal with the "Hero" party's antics.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: Downplayed. Because King Deprui threw Touji out of the castle (literally in the manga), he unwittingly threw out the guy who has a Grid Inventory that can handle the logistics of his summoned Propaganda Hero and built-in Battle Harem. When he finds out, he goes and makes it worse by sending his knights to capture Touji rather than offer a fair contract through the adventurer's guild. Naturally, Touji bolts, and since he was exemplary in his behavior and work ethic, the adventurer's guild, in its entirety helps him escape.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In several ways, all regarding the summoned Propaganda Hero.
- The king threw out Touji, literally, because he didn't get an obvious and flashy combat-capable bonus during the summon. Turns out the lack of viable logistics brought about by this impulsive act, since the Nominal Hero and his groupies don't have a Grid Inventory like Touji does, greatly hinders the party's activity, since they have to frequently return to town to get supplies and turn in the materials they gather from hunting monsters.
- The Hero party, concerned only about their own advancement, and backed by the king, hunts the local "monsters" and dangerous beasts without a care for the local ecology. This drives the beasts, in swarms, to the neighboring countries, who then have to clean up the mess. Naturally, they are not happy about it. Once such swarm even winds up happening near a border fort that Touji had to deliver supplies to. Fortunately, Touji had plenty of healing potions to distribute, for cheap, and was downright thrilled to collect the invisible loot drops in exchange. In other places, things did not go so well.
- As a direct result of the above, some of the neighboring countries were none too pleased with the summoning kingdom's flexing and responded with military action. "Cheat" bonus skills and jobs have limits, which the hero party learned the hard way, as they wound up on the front lines against hardened soldiers that greatly outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed them, with far, far more battle experience. The party barely held their own, even with said "cheats."
- Since there is no imminent "Demon King" threat to justify such a provocation, the king has to make up for his blunders with a massive PR campaign, but since this is a medieval society, all he can do is publish fairy-tales of the hero party's exploits, trying to play up their merits as much as possible. Only Touji is willing to by these works of fiction, and even then, all he wants out of it is to turn the books to scrap-paper with his unique skill so he can enchant the items he makes.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: If the king who summoned the hero party and Touji had just given Touji a weapon, instead of just summarily throwing him out, Touji would have realized his skill much sooner, and the party would have been on better footing. Not learning from his mistake when word gets back to him how Touji is making a name for himself in the adventurer's guild as a porter with an Item Box skill, instead of sending a request through the guild, offering fair terms for his services, the king sends knights at Touji, with orders to capture him, without charge. Naturally, the guild doesn't take kindly to an unjust attack on one of their most promising members, and helps smuggle him out of the country.
