The young man stirred awake with the grace of a cat thrown from a hammock.
He blinked. Once. Twice. Then groaned, peeling himself off the cold, damp earth, brushing flecks of dew and dirt from his clothes that weren’t exactly wilderness-approved. Weird, he thought, I don’t remember randomly blacking out in the middle of—
He stopped.
The forest stretched before him like a dream remembered by someone else. Trees soared so impossibly high their crowns tangled into a vaulted canopy, stitched together by strands of luminous moss that glowed a gentle turquoise. The air itself shimmered faintly, motes of light drifting like dust caught in sunlight, and the grass—if you could call it that—wore a subtle blue sheen, bending in rhythm to some inaudible melody. Shafts of gold filtered down through the leaves, scattering into restless shapes that seemed to move with purpose.
It was, without exaggeration, gorgeous. Also, concerningly foreign.
Adam.
That was his name. Or, at least, it had been the last time he’d checked.
He sat up, blinking blearily, trying to piece together the logical chain of events that had led him here. Nothing came to mind except for a distant honk, a flash of white light, and then—well, this.
. . .
In a faraway realm—which, in another world, was once briefly known as the cult-classic MMORPG Althea Online—there existed a tradition.
Once every few centuries, when the stars shifted and prophecies got bored, the Dark Lord—the icon of destruction—rose again, destined to bring ruin upon the five mortal continents. And so, in keeping with divine protocol, the Absolute Goddess; the so-called All-Maker, would pluck one brave and chivalrous human from a distant world—namely, Earth—and bestow upon them her blessing to save her cherished creation.
It was a grand, ancient custom. Poetic. Heroic. Reassuringly cliché.
Unfortunately, this time, the “brave and chivalrous” candidate happened to be Adam Cohen.
Back on Earth, Adam had been an unremarkable adult with a remarkable talent for wasting potential. He was a lifelong fan of all types of anime and anime-inspired video games—such as Final Fantasy series, HoYoverse IP's, and several more (which he felt a twinge of embarrassment when he thought about the hours he had spent playing them.) But especially, out of all, Althea Online: a fanservice-heavy, story-rich, massively-open-world MMORPG where he’d risen through the ranks to become one of the game’s top players. A virtual hero, sure. Real-world adult? Debatable.
His downfall came, as these things often do, via a truck. Specifically, a very fast, very loud one. There had been a blinding flash, a honk that could’ve passed for a war cry—and then darkness.
When he opened his eyes, this was what he got instead.
Adam rose unsteadily to his feet, brushing off the dirt from his jeans. The forest floor was quiet, save for the rustle of leaves and his own, uneven breathing. No signs of civilization—except maybe a faint silhouette of castle walls, barely visible through the distant fog.
A strange familiarity prickled in the back of his mind.
“…No way,” he muttered. “No freaking way.”
Because this place—this exact grove, down to the tilted stump and the glowing stream—looked suspiciously identical to Althea Online’s beginner zone. A soft pop sounded near his ear. A butterfly of pure light—its wings like spun glass—fluttered down and landed squarely on his nose before dissolving into sparkles.
Adam froze. Then exhaled through his nose. “...Okay. Not a dream, then.”
The weight of realization settled in with all the grace of a dropped anvil.
He, Adam Cohen—average gamer, semi-functioning adult, and proud possessor of one (1) unpaid parking ticket—had been isekai’d.
And, naturally, it was via the most cliché method possible.