At that moment, I noticed a familiar laptop sitting in the corner of the room.

It was the one I’d begged my parents to buy so I could use the internet.

“For now… let’s turn it on.”

I pulled out the chair with a scrape and pressed the power button.

The nostalgic whir of the cooling fan filled the room.

A few moments later, the familiar Windows XP startup screen appeared at its leisurely pace.

“Whoa… this is it.”

How many times had I stared at this interface?

The light blue taskbar.

The green “Start” button.

The desktop was lined with the classic icons: My Computer, My Documents, and Recycle Bin.

“Internet Explorer 6… that’s ridiculously nostalgic…”

‘Before Chrome, this was the browser everyone used…’

I narrowed my eyes as I looked over the icons.

Right in the center of the desktop was a shortcut labeled “YAHOO! JAPAN.”

Even the full-width Roman characters screamed 2005.

I moved the cursor over it and clicked.

Internet Explorer slowly opened.

“Pshh… click…”

For a moment, I thought I could hear the old ADSL connection sound through the speakers.

No…

I was pretty sure I really did hear it.

“ADSL…

This really is 2005.”

Yahoo!’s homepage displayed its old-fashioned layout, filled with news, weather, and sports headlines.

One of the banner ads advertised high-priced purchases of prepaid phone cards.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What is it about all this that’s so nostalgic…?”

Everywhere I looked, memories came flooding back.

Then something suddenly crossed my mind.

This was the era when I had been obsessed with Flash videos.

“Let’s see…

El Shaddai and Nightmare City…

No, those came a little later…”

The audio from old MAD videos echoed through my head.

[“Are you really going in with that equipment?”]

[“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”]

“Man…

Those were the days…”

Back in middle and high school, I used to spend hours grinning at Flash sites from 2channel.

Flash animations like Neko Nabe and Akasan…

The internet back then felt like an endless treasure trove.

Naturally, I had also sunk countless hours into indie games.

Masashi’s Adventure.

The Kutar series.

Broccoliman.

Looking back, the quality varied wildly, but the excitement had been real.

“Flash content was already everywhere by this point…”

My mind had completely shifted back into middle school mode.

Thinking I’d look through some nostalgic websites, I opened my Favorites.

A whole list of familiar bookmarks appeared.

• 2channel
• Milk Cafe (Forum)
• Flash Archive
• General Game Links
• A suspicious CG gallery with “F×××” in the title.

‘Ugh… my cringe phase…’

“No way…

I remember every single one of these…”

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

But among them was one bookmark that clearly didn’t belong.

ChatGPT

“…Huh?”

There was no way the term “ChatGPT” should exist in this era.

And yet…

There it was.

A blue hyperlink at the very bottom of my bookmarks.

Simply labeled:

ChatGPT

Nothing indicated where the link led.

There was no description.

No saved date.

“What is this…?

Who bookmarked it?”

My finger trembled slightly as it hovered over the bookmark.

It was just a single click.

Yet I felt strangely nervous.

Click.

Internet Explorer opened a new window.

Displayed on the screen was nothing but a white page with a single message in the center.

[Welcome to ChatGPT. Please enter your question.]

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The interface before my eyes was unmistakably ChatGPT.

It wasn’t the modern dark theme.

Instead, it had a simple white layout.

But the input box.

The response area.

The overall structure…

It was unmistakably the ChatGPT I knew from the future.

“No, no, no…

Is this actually real…?”

There was only one way to find out.

Cautiously, I placed my fingers on the keyboard.

Hello.

[ChatGPT]

[How can I help you today? Please ask your question.]

“…Huh?”

An instant reply.

Even the polite, emotionless writing style felt exactly the same.

It was no different from the ChatGPT-4 I remembered.

“No way…

Is this really GPT-4…?”

I quickly typed another question.

Which version are you?

Are you GPT-3?

[ChatGPT]

[I am a model integrating GPT-4 along with selected GPT-4o capabilities.

My processing abilities are equivalent to the specifications provided from 2023 onward.

I have also been customized for advanced Japanese language understanding and logical reasoning.]

“W-Wait…

Seriously…?”

I collapsed back into my chair.

GPT-4.

No…

It even contained features from GPT-4o.

And somehow, that AI existed only on my computer…

In the year 2005.

If this wasn’t a dream…

It could only be called a miracle.

Then let me ask something simple.

What’s the weather in Tokyo on April 2, 2005?

[ChatGPT]

[The weather forecast for Saturday, April 2, 2005, in Tokyo is expected to be mostly sunny with occasional clouds.

The chance of precipitation is approximately 20%.

The forecast high is around 17°C, with a low of approximately 9°C.]

“This is insane…

This is absolutely insane…”

It really worked.

It was pulling knowledge straight from the future.

And somehow…

It was installed on this computer.

Just what was going on?

Even more unbelievable was how incredibly fast it responded.

On a 2005 internet connection…

This shouldn’t have been possible.

“Could this actually be…”

The words slipped out before I realized it.

“…My isekai reincarnation bonus skill?”

I laughed at myself.

But it felt too real to dismiss as a joke.

After all…

I was supposed to have died at thirty-four.

And now I had started over in 2005 with the body of my fourteen-year-old self.

On top of that, I’d been given access to the latest AI.

If this wasn’t a special ability, then what was?

“What kind of story is this…?”

My heart pounded with excitement.

Confusion.

Thrill.

And then—

“…Am I actually unbeatable?”

The words that escaped my mouth made me cringe a little.

But I couldn’t stop myself from saying them.

Think about it.

ChatGPT.

An AI from the future.

And not just any version…

The equivalent of the 2025 version.

If I was the only person in 2005 who could use it without anyone ever finding out…

Wasn’t that basically the ultimate cheat skill?

“I could ace every school essay with this.”

The first thing that came to mind was the annual assignments.

Book reports.

“My Dream for the Future.”

The essays I used to procrastinate on until the last minute.

With ChatGPT, they’d be finished instantly.

Please write an 800-word essay about my future dream.

Use language appropriate for a middle school student.

[ChatGPT]

[Title: My Future Dream

My dream is to become an engineer who works around the world.

Ever since I was little, I have been interested in machines and computers…]

“Whoa…

It actually wrote one.”

And it sounded incredibly authentic.

Just the right amount of youthful confidence, mixed with the hopeful voice of a middle school student.

“This is amazing…

I can totally use this.”

With this, Japanese essays…

English speeches…

Social studies research projects…

I could dominate all of them.

“This isn’t cheating…

It’s just being resourceful.

Efficient.

Practical.

Everyone else uses dictionaries or looks things up anyway…”

I nodded as if trying to convince myself.

No one would ever realize I’d used ChatGPT.

There would be no evidence.

Yet the quality would be top-tier.

Wait…

Could I actually start winning awards with this?

“Getting prizes would honestly be awkward…

Though…

It’d be kind of nice.”

“Alright…

Maybe I can even use this to make some pocket money.”