I stared at the screen of my computer, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, but I wasn't typing. Why would I? The game I was playing was way more interesting than anything else I could be doing. Slay the Dragon: Quest for the Lost Kingdom—the kind of game that didn't require me to think much. Perfect for someone like me who was all about comfort and zero responsibility.
I leaned back in my chair, stretching my arms above my head. A quick glance at the clock told me I'd been playing for six hours straight, but who's counting? I was in the zone, and that's all that mattered.
"Man, I should probably get up and do something productive," I muttered to myself, but my body rejected the thought almost immediately. Work? Cleaning? Nah. I had all the time in the world.
Then, a weird thing happened. A message popped up on my screen—completely out of nowhere.
[Would You Like to Go to Another World?]
I blinked, rubbing my eyes. Had I been playing for too long? Was I hallucinating? I clicked the message, just to see what it was about. Maybe some new game event?
"Yes," I typed sarcastically. "Sure, why not? Send me to some world full of magic or whatever."
I wasn't expecting anything to happen, of course. It was probably some glitch or a weird marketing tactic. I chuckled at the thought and leaned back in my chair again.
Then, the screen flickered. The room around me seemed to warp, and before I could even react, a blinding light engulfed me. My body tingled as if I was being pulled in every direction at once. I tried to stand up, but my feet wouldn't obey. My hands scrambled for something—anything—to grab hold of, but the world around me was changing too quickly.
Just as suddenly as it began, the light faded. The dizziness cleared, and I blinked into the harsh sunlight of an unfamiliar landscape. I was standing on what appeared to be an empty road, the dirt beneath my shoes gritty and rough. The air smelled… different, like freshly tilled earth and something vaguely spicy.
"Uhh…"
I blinked again, looking around. There were trees and mountains in the distance, and everything had a sort of medieval, fantasy feel to it. The buildings in the distance looked like something straight out of a fantasy game.
"Okay, this is either a really weird dream, or I've seriously lost it." I slapped myself across the face. Nope, not dreaming. I was wide awake. I checked my phone, but it was dead.
"Hello?" I called out, my voice a little more uncertain than I intended. "Is anyone here?"
For a long, uncomfortable moment, there was only silence. Then, a sound from behind me made my heart skip. I spun around, only to find a guy wearing some strange armor and carrying a sword that looked like it weighed more than I did.
"Are you the hero?" the armored man asked, his tone serious.
I blinked. "Hero? What?"
"Are you the legendary hero of peace?" he asked again, his gaze intense. "Are you here to save the kingdom?"
I looked at him, then at my game controller still in my hand (how had that even come with me?). "Uh… peace? Kingdom? Buddy, I think you've got the wrong guy. I'm just a regular gamer. I don't even know how I got here."
The knight's face hardened, and he stepped closer, inspecting me. "You… you don't know? You don't remember?"
I shook my head, already regretting clicking that stupid message on my screen.
"Then the prophecy is true," the knight muttered, more to himself than me. "The hero has arrived."
I opened my mouth to argue, but before I could say anything, he dropped to one knee, eyes wide in awe. "You are the chosen one! Our savior has come! The kingdom is saved!"
I blinked. "Uh, no. Dude, seriously, you've got the wrong—"
But he was already bowing to me like I was some kind of messiah. "You must come with me! The kingdom needs you!"
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the most uncomfortable I've ever been. "Look, I'm not a hero. I just… clicked a dumb message and ended up here. I'm just trying to figure out how to get back home, okay?"
The knight seemed to take this as a modest attempt at humility, his eyes shining even brighter. "You're too humble, my lord! Please, come with me, and let me show you to the royal palace. They'll be expecting you!"
"Royal palace?!" I shouted. "I'm telling you, I just want to go back home. I don't even know what's going on. Can you stop calling me a hero?!"
But it was too late. The knight was already enthusiastically dragging me toward the distant city, blabbering about prophecies, kingdoms, and saving the world. And for some reason, I couldn't seem to shake him off.
"Well, this is going great," I muttered, wondering how in the world things had escalated this quickly.