He just lucked out and got one of the masterpieces of the genre. I probably would have gotten the Eye of Argon.
So far we've seen elves, humans, dwarves, and an orc.
Now we just need trolls, goblins, balrogs, dragons, werewolves, demonic spiders, halfings/hobbits, Uruk-hai, ents, wizards, shapeshifters, Nazgul, cold drakes, etc (I've missed a shitload, I know).
God forbid if a dark lord shows up. Morgoth and Sauron really screwed up the world.
Well, one of these did show up so far
Giant spider! Though naturally it's part girl. As in the upper half is clearly a female human
There's a couple things you missed. In regards to the guy being able to read English, he mentioned 'code' in the first few pages. That would indicate to me that he was a Japanese codebreaker which would require knowledge of the source language to do, since he's on the Pacific front, that would be English. Next, it was pretty clear to me that he'd been there for at least a couple decades, both from how much older he looked as well as the fact that the single family unit became a tribe, which would take time. So it's quite plausible that this unfortunate skeleton did in fact come to this world after the first guy. Add in the fact that the 'boiling everything' cooking process, as well as the naming of races, was in place when Saburou came to the world kinda throws a wrench in the reverse time theory, as they wouldn't be if time were reversed.
...clearly it has been more than a few days since he was sent over. It's been years. At least 3. And will continue to be so, until he dies of old age or something.
@Knighto That was already revealed in the second chapter that Lefay turned up. In chapter 11 she said: "Ever since old Johnny's book came out, [...]" Here she meant LOTR.
That body based on what it was wearing was probably young, a student maybe, based on the hole on his knee, it probably broke which was a death sentence in times like that
@hullmat991 then that brings into question, can they even return back to their own world? Because they died in their previous world, maybe it's impossible to return back if that's the case. Because in their world, they would have already held the funeral, and the body would have been mangled or damaged depending on how they died. So they wouldn't return to their original bodies, then they'd just return almost as if they're from a different alternative universe, and that world's "them" is still dead. I dunno, if it really means they died it makes it quite confusing for anyone to possibly go back to their own world then.
So in summary, Xiufu travels here during the Qin Dinasty and creates a country in this world. He doesn't name any of the races since LotR comes out years after the soldier is sent here in 1945, and he is the one who finally gives them a name. Then, somehow, probably for plot convenience, the book is lost or kept somewhere. I'd assume it would become famous folklore or something in this world.
Unless the skeleton with the book is some rando, it has to be the actual, real Tolkien and the original book, who must've transported himself here as well?
I don't think the people transported to the other world die when they go there. Saburo went through a door in a kitchen, and unless he died in an extremely stupid way Kazuma-style, I don't think the soldier died either. That or there's multiple ways to get transported.
This is all a "maybe" based on my best guess