My name is Samuel, or Sam, as my parents called me. I was a 19 year old NEET who lives with his parents. I stayed in my room all day, eating junk food and playing games with my curtains shut. I was lazy, always hungry and very horny. You could've called me a loser and I wouldn't disagree.
I tried to change a few times, deciding going to gym once, but I left before even stepping foot inside. I was scared that I would get laughed at, so I ran back home and shut myself into my room.
My family is pretty good, though. I have parents who love each other and tale great care of me, which is why I feel horrible that I can't bring myself to love them the way they love me. I am grateful, but I just couldn't love them as much as they loved me.
So, I shut myself in my room and distanced myself from them. I felt like scum. Pure, utter scum.
There was something I has passion for, though, one single thing that kept me from rotting in my bed:
I loved reading the edgiest mangas and novels I could find.
I would scour the internet for books 13 year olds would love. Books about a hidden beast, or a dark power. If I were in a manga, I bet I would've been the cliché chuunibyou character.
And one day, while I was reading one of my many pirated mangas, an isekai one, I had a thought- no, a wish.
'I wish I were like one of these main characters.'
I wanted to go to another world. Maybe there, I could have a fresh start. Even if I didn't get some sort of overpowered cheat ability, maybe I could gain the courage to change myself.
It was at that moment, a circle appeared under my feet. From the circle, lines shot towards me, tangling my feet and keeping me in place. At the same time, a sort of diagram was drawn within the circle, and it started glowing an ominous dark light.
*SHYAAHH!*
As the darkness overtook me, a searing pain shot through my body. It felt like touching a hot pan and sinking in an ice bath at the same time, both pains mixing together into what I think hellfire would feel like.
I felt like screaming, but the dark lines wrapping my legs covered my body and forced my mouth shut, silencing my cries and blinding me.
Just as I was about to pass out, the pain stopped and the dark lines melted. Sometime through that darkness, I had closed my eyes.
I fell to the floor, gasping for air and opening my eyes. I was greeted with a cold marble floor. Looking up, I saw in frornt of me a flight of stairs and atop it, a golden throne seating an old man.
'Where am I?'