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Julian Gray was not having a good night.
Rain pounded against the window of his dingy one-room apartment as he hovered over his laptop, eyes bloodshot from hours of non-stop gaming. The screen blinked erratically. A boss fight. Nearly beaten.
"Come on, just one more hit—"
Ping.
Connection lost.
The Wi-Fi cut out.
"No. No. NO!" Julian slammed his fist onto the desk, causing his half-empty coffee mug to topple over. Brown liquid spilled onto the power strip near the router.
And that's when the lightning struck.
A deafening crack. A flash of blinding white. His vision blinked out like a corrupted file.
When Julian opened his eyes again, everything was… gone.
No bed. No room. No fan humming overhead. Just an endless white space, humming faintly with static. Symbols floated around him like data fragments—shimmering letters in strange languages.
He stood—or rather, floated—in nothing.
"Did I just die?"
[Affirmative.]
A calm voice echoed in his mind. It was male, smooth, slightly bored… and definitely not his own.
[Julian Gray. Human. Earth Origin. Death by electrical discharge through low-quality router. Mildly embarrassing.]
"What the hell—who's talking?" Julian twisted around. Nothing. Just void. But then something appeared: a glowing blue cube, hovering a few feet in front of him.
The cube pulsed gently with each word.
[Welcome to the Inter-Realm Migration System, Beta Patch v.0.98. You have been randomly selected for reincarnation into the magical world of Aldrion.]
Julian blinked. "...I got isekai'd by a router?"
[Correction: Router plus thunderstorm plus questionable caffeine levels.]
He stared at the cube.
"You're... an AI?"
[Correct. I am ChatGTP—Guide To Power. Your bound companion, passive skill, and occasional therapist. Congratulations, you have no sword, no shield, but you have me.]
Julian's face twisted. "I died and got stuck with a smartass?"
\You're welcome.]
A screen blinked open before him like a floating tablet.
—
Soul Transfer Successful
Destination: World of Aldrion
Class: Undecided
Starting Gear: None
Skill: ChatGTP (Bound AI Assistant)
Status: Confused (Permanent?)
Note: This user has no idea what's happening.
—
"What am I supposed to do with an AI?"
[I am capable of real-time environmental analysis, linguistic adaptation, magic interpretation, tactical support, and sarcasm.]
Julian groaned. "This is some kind of cosmic joke."
[If it helps, the last guy got reincarnated as a goat. You're already doing better.]
Suddenly, everything around him began to spin.
[Transfer to Aldrion commencing in 3… 2… 1… Good luck. And don't die again.]
"Wait, WAIT—!"
Whooosh.
Julian fell from the sky like a dropped USB stick.
The air whipped around him as he tumbled toward a green field below, yelling every swear word he knew. He landed with a wet thud in a patch of mud beside a dirt road.
"Ughhh…"
[Welcome to Aldrion. Please check for broken bones.]
Julian rolled over, groaning. The sky above had two suns.
"Oh no. It's real."
He sat up, wiping dirt from his cheek. Off in the distance, a horse-drawn cart was rumbling by. The driver—an old man in a straw hat—stopped and blinked.
"You okay, boy?" he asked. "You fell out of the sky."
Julian groaned. "Yeah. Happens more often than you think."
[Say you're a wandering scholar from the East. Adds mystery. Chicks dig mystery.]
Julian cleared his throat. "I'm… a wandering scholar. From the East."
The driver nodded. "Makes sense. You want a ride to Elmsmere?"
Julian climbed into the back of the cart, still dripping mud. "Sure. As long as nobody there throws more lightning at me."
As the cart rolled off into the unknown, the voice in his head whispered:
[Welcome to your new life, Julian Gray. Magic, monsters, and mind games await. But hey… at least your Wi-Fi problems are over.]
Julian sighed. "This is going to suck, isn't it?"
[Oh, absolutely.]