*DING!*
Marduk drags his eyeballs to the shop's door, watching a handsome, blonde haired man walk in.
"Hello!" the man greets.
"Hey."
This man is Adecyn, Marduk's childhood friend, old classmate and a successful business owner. He started his business when he was just sixteen and had already made it big at twenty. Marduk, in contrast, is a slob who dropped out of college and makes minimum wage working in a 24-hour convenience store while writing shitty webnovels with no hope of success. Now, they're both twenty-three but one has clearly surpassed the other.
'It's not like I'm jealous of him,' Marduk thought, 'Okay, well, maybe a little. He's a successful businessman and I'm working minimum wage while living off my inheritance... Ugh, nevermind.'
He pulls out his phone and enters his notepad app, continuing his latest webnovel. It was an isekai novel, a genre familiar to his eyes and hands alike, having consumed and produced countless pieces of media featuring the trope ever since he found it at thirteen.
A shadow covers Marduk's hands as he types. Looking up, he is greeted by Adecyn's soft smile. Marduk hurries onto his feet, beginning to scan the items.
"So," Adecyn begins, "How's life been treating you?"
"Life's fine." Marduk lied, "How's your business?"
"It's going good! You know, we haven't spoken in a while."
Marduk lifts an eyebrow, staring at the other man. "You come in here every other week."
"Well, yeah, but we haven't had a talk longer than a minute!" the blonde complains, almost whining. "I know! You should come over to my place when you have the time. I'll give you my number!"
"I still have your number saved. I'll text you when I'm free. Also, I'm done scanning your stuff."
Adecyn brightens up, grabbing the five sandwiches from the counter and using a card to pay before speaking.
"Alright, I'll hold you to that promise!"
He walks out of the store, allowing Marduk to lay back and breathe a sigh of relief. Adecyn wasn't a bad guy, but Marduk could only handle so much excitement from one person. This relief didn't last long, though as someone else walked through the doors.
*DING!*
A beautiful woman with dark brown hair walks in as Marduk's eyes flicks to the door, sitting up in a panic as he remembers his manager's warnings to not show customers any 'unbecoming' acts. The woman that walked in is Evelyn, another one of Marduk's old classmates. While Adecyn made a successful business, Evelyn was exceptional in her own way. She was hailed as a prodigy when she was young and is now the youngest nobel prize winner, having obtained one at sixteen and is now working as some sort of scientist.
"Hello."
"Hey."
Marduk continued typing on his phone, resuming his webnovel. While this webnovel was a genre familiar to him, it had one key difference to his other novels... It was going to be in third-person. This may seem dull to a regular person, but this was something Marduk struggled on in writing.
Once again, a shadow covers his hands as he types. This time though, he's prepared. He immediately begins scanning Evelyn's items without needing to look up.
"So," she begins, "How's your life been?"
'Déjà vu...' Marduk thought, before speaking.
"Life's been fine. What about you? How's your research going?"
"It's been going well."
She continues speaking, throwing in so much scientific jargon that Marduk can't keep up. Marduk scans her items, only distrupting her when he's finished.
"Uh. I'm done with your items."
"Ah. Sorry for speaking so much."
"It's fine."
Evelyn pulls out her card and pays, grabbing her assortment of snacks before leaving. Marduk, once again, sits back and sighs. His eyes flick to the door, expecting someone else to enter, but nobody does.
'Actually...' he wonders, 'Why do they keep coming here at night? Maybe... they come to see me?'
The thought forces a huff out of him, eventually breaking into a laugh.
'Yeah, right... They're way out of my league.'
He returns to his phone and stares at his notepad app for a few minutes, thinking of how to continue his novel, but eventually gets up.
'Ugh. Can't focus today.'
Marduk leaves the counter and begins walking around the store, eyes catching on an empty shelf where a row of sandwiches should be.
'Did Adecyn buy all our sandwiches? Why does he need so many?'
With that thought, Marduk retreats to the store's backroom and begins shuffling through the many boxes, eventually finding one labelled 'Sandwiches'.
"Ah," he mumbled, "Finally."
He leans forward to open the box, when...
*SHAAAH!*
A light shines from beneath him. Looking down, he sees a stereotypical magic circle, like one you would see in manhwa and manga. At first, it spun slowly, but suddenly brightens and speeds up.
'What the-!?'
The light shines even brighter, nearly blinding him. A warm sensation creeps up his body, building up to an almost boiling point until, along with the light, it suddenly stops. Marduk squints, allowing his eyes adjusts to the new lighting and being met with a marble floor.
'Huh..?'
He looks up, seeing gold pillars and a tall ceiling. In front of him are a small flight of stairs, leading up to a throne and atop that throne, a king.
'Wait...' he realises, 'Did I get isekaied? That- That's crazy! I'm not dreaming, right?'
He pinches himself. Once, twice, then thrice.
'This isn't a dream!'
He looks around, spotting a total of a dozen people near him, all wearing simple, modern clothes. The king stood up and began speaking.
"Welcome, heroes!" the mass of people turned to face him, as did Marduk. The king continued speaking, but something else caught Marduk's eye. At the top of the throne was a tentacle and at its armrests were waves. These details may have been overlooked if they weren't so important to Marduk.
'That- No, it can't be...'
Looking past the throne, his heart sinks even lower. Behind the throne stands a statue of androgynous stature, lacking a face and wearing a cloaked dress made of tentacles.
'I'm in that shitty novel I made when I was thirteen!'