Alex Miller rubbed his tired eyes as he stepped out of the office building. The sky above Ohio was still dark, with only the faintest hints of dawn creeping over the horizon. Another overnight shift in the books—fourteen hours of squinting at broken backend logic for a finance firm that wouldn't notice if he dropped dead at his desk.
The fluorescent lights from the office still buzzed in his memory, leaving ghost trails across his vision. His back ached, same as always, from leaning too long over a keyboard in a chair that probably hadn't been replaced since the previous administration. He could still taste the cold, bitter coffee and whatever sweetener he'd grabbed in desperation around 2 a.m.
Without thinking, he pulled out his phone and started walking the familiar path home. The streets were mostly empty—just a couple joggers out early, their steps soft against the sidewalk, and a delivery truck in the distance. The city felt like it was still asleep.
Cool morning air hit his face, carrying with it the smell of wet pavement and exhaust. At least it was real air, not the stale, climate-controlled kind he'd been breathing all night. He kept walking, muscle memory guiding his feet, but his mind was elsewhere.
He was in the middle of a webnovel—Grand Ascension—his latest obsession since finishing Hero's Vow last week. It had all the usual stuff: overpowered MC, slow buildup, swords, magic, betrayal. Comfort food. Familiar. He knew exactly where every story beat was going, and that predictability was part of the appeal. Real life didn't give you clean arcs or satisfying conclusions. At least these stories didn't pretend otherwise—they were transparent about being wish fulfillment.
And that was fine with Alex. His life was an endless loop of code reviews, missed promotions, and wondering if this was really it. Webnovels were a way out, even if just for twenty minutes at a time.
He was four blocks from his apartment when the sound cut through the quiet.
Gunshots.
Not far off. Not distant pops you could mistake for fireworks. Close.
He froze. Then turned, confused, trying to place it. The second round came almost immediately. Shouting. Screaming. That raw, panicked edge that made your stomach drop.
A white sedan flew around the corner, tires screeching, another car chasing it with its headlights flaring. Windows shattered. More gunfire. Everything was moving too fast.
Alex dropped to the ground behind a parked SUV, heart racing. He pressed his body against the metal, eyes wide, breath catching in his throat. He didn't understand what was happening—only that he was in the middle of something dangerous. He could hear yelling, but couldn't make out the words. Only fear. Chaos.
Then something hit him.
A burning sensation ripped through his neck. Hot. Sharp. He gasped. His phone slipped from his fingers, landing screen-up on the sidewalk. Still open to a paused paragraph from Grand Ascension.
The world spun. His vision dimmed. Sounds faded.
And then—nothing.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The first thing I registered was the dull ache behind my eyes, a persistent throb that felt like a hangover amplified by a thousand.
Then came the unfamiliar scent – a mix of stale wood, something vaguely metallic, and an undertone of damp earth. My eyelids felt heavy, glued shut, but I forced them open.
Light, filtered through a small, grimy window. I blinked, trying to clear the fog from my brain. This wasn't my apartment. My ceiling was white, popcorn-textured, with a fan that wobbled slightly when it spun. This ceiling was rough-hewn timber, dark, cobwebs clinging to the rafters.
Stone walls. Iron bars. Straw on the floor.
What the hell?
I was in a cell. A literal, medieval-style prison cell. The kind you see in fantasy movies or games—not something that should exist in real life. It was small, round, the walls curved, with chains bolted into the floor and walls. Arena cell, my brain supplied automatically. I didn't like that thought.
Panic crept in, slow and quiet. This couldn't be real.
I forced myself upright. My body protested with every movement. Everything hurt. And not in the way it hurt after a long shift. This was deeper, more like I'd been asleep—or unconscious—for days.
I looked at my hands.
They weren't mine.
No keyboard calluses. No rough skin. No nail-biting damage. Just pale, unfamiliar fingers. I touched my face. Even that felt wrong. Smooth. Too smooth.
A cold, sick feeling washed over me.
I wasn't in my body anymore.
I tried to breathe slow, to stay calm, but every second made the truth clearer. I wasn't in Ohio. I wasn't Alex Miller.
Then, a memory, faint at first, then rushing in like a tidal wave, hit me. Not my memory, but a memory. A name. Kai Lorne. And a place. The Kingdom of Ostina.
It finally hit me, that name. I didn't know him personally. Of course I didn't. He was a background character in Hero's Vow. A nobody. Just a name mentioned once before he got killed in an arena to show how cruel the villain was. No powers. No plot relevance. Just… cannon fodder.
And somehow, I had memories that may had belong to him.
I stood up fully, legs shaking. On the other side of the bars, I saw other cells. People. Real people. Dirty, hurt, exhausted. No one said a word. The silence was thick and miserable.
What was the next scene in the book? My mind raced. I remembered the setup—Kai was randomly picked for a demonstration. Public duel. The villain's entrance. It was early in the novel. A chapter or two after this, he was dead. That was it.
Unless I did something—anything—I was going to die here.
I paced. Looked for anything. A loose stone, a guard, a tool. Nothing. Just cold walls and rusted metal. No way out.
I heard scream and shouts from outside, it clearly wasn't in English, they spoke in a language I somehow understood, though it wasn't English. It was like a direct download into my brain, the words forming meaning without conscious translation. Another terrifying symptom of my new reality.
And then it happened.
A weird static sound buzzed in my ears. Like bad headphones. My vision glitched, like a laggy screen flickering with static. Pain stabbed through my head, sharp and sudden.
A screen appeared in front of me. Just… hovering there. Blue, translucent, shaky. Like a bugged UI from an old RPG.
[ SYSTEM ERROR: CORE FUNCTIONALITY CORRUPTED. ]
[ ATTEMPTING REBOOT… ]
[ INITIALIZING… ]
[ 0% ]
The numbers ticked up at a crawl, flickering in and out. I stared at it, heart pounding in my chest.
"…what the hell?"