The alarm buzzed.
Adrian's hand shot out from under the blanket and slapped at the clock until it stopped. He groaned, rolled onto his back, and stared at the ceiling with dead fish eyes.
For a moment, his brain screamed: *You're late for class!*
Then it reminded him: he wasn't in college anymore. He had already graduated.
"Right," Adrian muttered. "No class. No job. No girlfriend. No reason to even be awake."
He pulled the blanket over his face, muffling his voice. "I could just sleep forever and no one would care."
Still, after a few minutes of contemplating eternal slumber, he dragged himself out of bed. His room was the same disaster as always: clothes on the chair, empty ramen cups on the desk, soda cans forming a small metallic graveyard near the trash bin.
The computer sat in the corner like a dark altar, waiting for him. The screen saver flickered with light, reflecting against posters of anime heroines and fantasy landscapes taped to his walls.
Adrian rubbed his face, muttered something about brushing his teeth, then didn't.
Instead, he sat down at his computer.
Click. Monitor on.
The glowing login screen for *World Rebirth Online* appeared.
Adrian smiled faintly. "Another day of slaying monsters for meaningless loot. Truly, I'm living the dream."
Hours blurred. Morning slipped into afternoon, then into evening. Adrian didn't notice. He was too busy grinding the same dungeon he had cleared hundreds of times already. His character moved, attacked, looted, while he leaned back in his chair, one hand half-heartedly on the keyboard, the other scrolling through a web novel on his phone.
Click. Kill. Tap. Next chapter.
He lived like this nearly every day now.
He had finished college, but without motivation or connections, he had just… stalled. Job hunting? Too much effort. Relationships? He couldn't even hold small talk. So instead, he retreated deeper into the endless cycle of games and stories, chasing the adventures he couldn't have.
When his character died to a low-level mob because he was distracted reading, Adrian tossed his phone onto the bed and sighed.
"I want to get isekai'd and go on an epic adventure," he complained out loud, lifting one hand toward the ceiling like he was appealing to some higher power.
He stayed like that for a few seconds.
Nothing happened.
With a groan, he let his hand flop back onto the mattress and laced his fingers behind his head. "Figures. Even the gods are ignoring me."
After a few minutes of sulking, he sat up again and launched another dungeon run.
By the time he looked at the clock again, the sun had set. His stomach growled, a painful reminder that he hadn't eaten all day.
"Right. Groceries. Actual food."
Adrian grabbed his wallet, put on a hoodie, and shuffled out into the night.
The streets were quiet, the kind of quiet that felt a little too heavy. Neon lights flickered in the distance, and the hum of the occasional car passing by broke the silence.
As he walked toward the nearest convenience store, he noticed a truck rumbling past on the opposite side of the road. Its headlights cut through the darkness, and its dull green paint glimmered faintly under the streetlamps.
Something about it felt familiar.
Adrian frowned. "Weird. Why do I feel like I've seen that exact truck in an anime?"
Then he shook his head and laughed at himself. "Right, because it's *Truck-kun*. The legendary isekai vehicle. What's next? I trip into its path and wake up in a fantasy kingdom?"
He snorted. "If only."
Shrugging, he shoved his hands into his pockets and continued toward the store.
---
The store was nearly empty when he arrived. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting a pale glow over the aisles. He grabbed instant noodles, a couple cans of cheap coffee, and some frozen dumplings.
As he placed everything on the counter, the cashier gave him the standard tired greeting, scanned his items, and bagged them without a word.
Adrian almost thanked the man for his silence. Small talk was exhausting.
Groceries in hand, he stepped back out into the night.
The streets felt colder now. The air carried that strange stillness right before something happened.
Adrian shook it off.
He was halfway across the crosswalk when he heard it.
A horn blared.
His head snapped to the side—
Headlights.
The truck.
His mind blanked.
"Wait… is this…?"
It was the same one. The same dull green paint, the same heavy engine growl.
Adrian froze, groceries dangling in his hand. His brain screamed at him to move, but his body didn't listen.
The last thought that crossed his mind as the truck barreled toward him was absurd:
*Holy crap. I really did call Truck-kun.*
Impact.
White light.
Silence.
And just like that, Adrian Cole's boring life came to a very abrupt end.
But his story… had only just begun.