I opened my eyes.

"Where am I?" I questioned, though I didn't get any response.

I found myself in an unfamiliar, barren apartment. Unlike the filthy one that I had fallen asleep in, I had woken up on the couch of an incredibly clean, but bare living space. Sunlight shined through the glass sliding door.

When I stood up and looked around, I realized that I was alone in this empty feeling room. This place was familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place how.

Setting that aside, I noticed a journal on the glass coffee table next to the couch. The navy blue, leatherbound cover with golden metal clasps-- the aesthetic seemed completely out of place in the sterile, minimalist apartment. It stood out like a sore thumb.

Weird. Is this some kind of prank?

I suppose there's no harm in playing along.

In good spirits from a good night's rest-- the best I'd had in weeks, to be honest --I decided to humor whoever had pulled such an elaborate prank. After walking back to the couch and making myself comfortable, I grabbed the book and placed it on my lap.

Tentatively, I opened the elegant journal. As I flipped through, I frowned. There was something familiar with the machine-printed words that lined the pages.

"Is this... my novel?"

I realized that it was a hard-copy of the web novel I was writing: System Overload.

The story took place in a typical urban fantasy setting-- futuristic, but doomed to destruction by supernatural Gates that opened across the world. These Gates led to apocalyptic worlds that were consumed by demonic corruption. 

Gauss, the main character, had been caught in a Gate Break (the sudden unsealing and enlargement of a Gate that occurred if the Gate was not cleared within a certain amount of time) on his first day of middle school. When he awoke, Gauss found himself in an alien landscape and had to fight desperately to survive in the dying world.

However, he luckily stumbled upon the last bastion of the dying world's technology. Due to this stroke of luck, Gauss gained the System-- a fourth-dimensional arbiter that accelerated his growth and provided rewards for completing objectives. This allowed him to become incredibly powerful.

Though, Gauss was still pretty weak in the beginning. After all, I had to leave room for the power creep that occurred later in the novel. 

With that being said, I skimmed through the first couple of chapters with some fear and no small amount of trepidation.

"This... my first chapters were pretty rough," I self-deprecatingly laughed to myself-- technically, laughing at myself. "It's a miracle anyone decided to read my book at all."

These spelling errors, I quietly clicked my tongue. They're really bad.

The dialogue is also really unrealistic and clunky.

What a terrible prank. 

My good mood was slightly spoiled as I read through my early-days writing, but I continued. Maybe there would be some kind of clue hidden somewhere in the middle.

However, there wasn't anything in particular that stood out. I went through the whole book and there was nothing-- no useful slips of paper, business cards, or keys. However, I did offhandedly notice that the book was surprisingly thin, despite my novel having more than 250,000 words.

And just like the original text, the book was unfinished; the text abruptly ended halfway through the journal. 

Which made sense. I was only halfway through the story. I had concluded my latest chapter with the beginning of the Apocalypse Arc: the end of the world as millions of Gates opened all over Earth.

That made the situation even more off-putting. I had released the newest chapter only a few hours before I went to sleep. Who had taken the time to print my entire book within that time and kidnap me to this apartment? I thought that I had accidentally signed myself up for some kind of hidden camera TV show, but that idea seemed less and less probable with every passing minute.

"This is… really weird. Is this some kind of event for web novel authors? How did they get me out of my house? Isn't this kidnapping?"

My questions were interrupted as the sunlight streaming in through the sliding door abruptly disappeared. In the next moment, whatever blocked the sun disappeared and the living room was illuminated once more.

"What… was that?"

I'm on the seventh floor… What could possibly block the sun on the seventh floor?

I didn't question how I knew I was on the seventh floor. Somehow, I just knew like I always had known this information.

Besides, how I knew I was on the seventh floor was less pressing than whatever had blocked the sun moments ago. I stood up from my comfortable position on the couch, opened the sliding door, and stepped onto the balcony.

For several moments, I couldn't breathe.

Hundreds of sleek cars zoomed past the balcony, high off the ground. Pulses of electric blue energy propelled them through the air as they bustled through the morning traffic. As they flew into the distance, they seemed like tiny, glittering bugs weaving between silvery highrise buildings. Beyond the city were stretches of green plains and dense forests; separating the city from the wilderness was an extremely sturdy-looking metal wall that was almost half as tall as some of the skyscrapers.

In the middle of the tangle of shining buildings that reflected the morning sun, one soared even higher than the others: an imposing spire that tapered off into a needle aimed at the skies.

When I looked down, I realized that my hands were shaking. My breaths were quick and shallow. Sweat trickled down my back.

I fell forwards, grabbing the balcony railing to keep myself from hitting the floor.

A needling sensation pricked my head, like the precursor to an immense headache-- the tiny spout of water that signalled the breach in the dam. I braced myself as memories began to flood my brain, experiences that weren't mine washing away my own identity. 

Names, faces, and details from my old life began to vanish one by one, like driftwood washed away by the raging tide.

But that was not what I was most worried about.

Even though I tried to deny the truth, my knowledge as an author and the new memories that flooded my brain both agreed.

No matter how hard I refused to face reality, the words slipped from my mouth:

"Academy City."

The main setting of my novel, System Overload.

Why did I get transmigrated?!