Ari could not recall the moment of his death in great detail.
He remembered what he'd been doing before, and who with, then someone burst through the door with cold, bloodshot eyes.
Ari's world went dark following two flashes.
He felt weightless, as though floating in space.
He looked around but saw nothing except for darkness.
Despite his ominous surroundings, he felt nothing. No fear, pain or anxiety.
Strangely, he was content.
He drifted through the darkness, ignorant of the passage of time, simply existing in the silence.
"Are you content with your current circumstances, Ari?" a silvery voice asked.
When Ari heard the voice, he thought he was hallucinating.
He assumed his mind eroded through the endless monotony of nothingness, so he ignored the strange woman's voice.
"Such a pity. I guess you enjoy drifting in the void, free from all stimulation and pleasure."
"Well, I'm dead... So, not feeling anything is pretty standard," he replied, thinking he had nothing to lose.
"Hehe. That doesn't have to be the case, you know?"
Ari's eyebrow twitched. Her reply shattered his preconceptions, igniting a feeling he thought lost long ago.
Anticipation.
"Who are you?"
"You can call me... Reality Bender."
"Yeah, that doesn't sound sketchy at all."
"Hehe."
"Why are you here?"
"To make your wildest dreams come true."
Ari chuckled. "I doubt that."
"Oh? What if I told you that I had the power to transmigrate you into a world where the women are far more beautiful and bountiful than the ones from Earth, exceptionally so," she asked.
"A world where your experience as a veteran of Full Dive VR will be put to the test."
The corners of Ari's lips curved reflexively. "Ok, you have my attention."
"Hehe. True to your desires as always."
"You speak as if you know me."
"Of course, why else would I make such a grand offer?"
"Hmm."
There were no free meals in this world, Ari knew this very well.
He couldn't simply agree on the spot.
"What's the catch?"
"Hehe."
"Nothing major, you just have to [###########] therefore, you will [###########]"
White noise entered his ears.
'What was that?'
"What did you say? I didn't quite hear you."
"Don't worry about it too much. You simply have to pursue your desires and live out your wildest fantasies," she said. "Doesn't that sound amazing?"
At this point, he probably should've told her to shove it, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
"One more thing," she said. "If you could have any ability, what would you choose?"
There was no reason to think too deeply about it; the answer rolled off his tongue the next second.
"I want the capability to do everything my Transcender Origins character can do at max level."
"A greedy one, aren't you?"
He grinned. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
"Hehe. I don't dislike that."
"So, will you be granting-"
"That concludes our business. Enjoy your new life, Ari," she said. " Do your best to entertain me. I have high hopes for you."
"Hey, wait!"
A finger snap echoed in the void.
When the light returned to his eyes, Ari's heart thumped in his chest
His location changed from the darkness of the void to a dense forest of giant trees.
The welcoming sounds of chirping birds and ambient noise echoed throughout.
Even though the canopies blocked the rays of the sun, everything around him seemed exceptionally vibrant.
His brain struggled to process the view before him.
He identified it immediately; however, that did not mean that he should readily accept it.
Without question, he arrived in another world. However, the differences between this one and Earth were too significant to comprehend.
To put it simply, this one was two-dimensional, hand-drawn with a transcendental level of detail and quality, in an art style he often saw online.
Somehow, he entered a world of a webcomic.
'Right, Reality Bender mentioned transmigration.'
Ari found it odd that he instinctively knew the world was a webcomic instead of something else, but that wasn't his main concern.
He hurriedly checked his body.
'I still look like I did on Earth... But why am I naked?'
Ari had many questions, but he knew answers would not come easily.
He decided to lie on the grass to gather his thoughts. It was then that he noticed a strange phenomenon.
'What's going on?'
He brushed his hands over what should be soft grass; however, he didn't feel a thing.
He got up and touched all manner of plants, trees and rocks, but the result remained the same.
It felt as though his hands were numb, with blood circulation severed. When he touched his body, he received appropriate tactile feedback, which led him to a startling theory.
'It's due to the difference in dimensions, right? But where does that leave me going forward?'
It felt as though the world itself rejected his existence. Panic set in when he thought about food and water.
'What the hell am I supposed to do?'
"This prank has gone on long enough, don't you think?"
He called out to Reality Bender, hoping she would finally reveal herself and put an end to this stupid game.
No response came.
"Seriously? Dying again, from dehydration or starvation is not one of my fantasies!"
Radio silence once again.
'Dammit. I'll just test it out myself.'
He decided to explore the forest to find a drinkable source of water and, hopefully, some fruit.
It wasn't the brightest idea to explore a forest in an unknown webcomic that may have monsters.
In Ari's defence, after dying the way he did, the fear of dying pathetically due to dehydration outweighed that of an animal or monster attack.
Rumble!
After walking for what felt like hours, he finally heard the sound of rushing water roaring in the distance.
Fortunately, Ari did not encounter any monsters or wild animals along the way, which he found strange, but attributed to his unique situation and kept moving.
He followed a narrow path that led beyond the tree line, hoping to quench his thirst.
The path opened to a cliff overlooking a wondrous view that made him whistle instinctively.
Adjacent to his position, a river flowed into a large lake surrounded by trees with pink and purple leaves.
The Azure lake looked so inviting, practically daring him to leap over the edge.
Strange flowers and plants of varying sizes decorated the ground near the water's edge, further emphasising the otherworldly aesthetic.
"What do we have here? An uninvited guest?" an inexplicably enchanting voice asked.
Ari's pulse quickened in response to the voice.
'It's her right? She has some nerve showing her face after all this time.'
He clenched his fists to rein in his emotions. He still needed her help with his situation; however, that did not mean he couldn't vent his frustration with her way of doing things.
"So, you've finally decided to-"
He turned on his heel, ready to fire off his complaints; however, his thoughts could not keep up with his body, and he froze.
The sight that confronted Ari stirred both his heart, and manhood.
'Goddamn...'
A violet-haired woman of impossible beauty, wearing a revealing, form-fitting purple dress, stood just a few meters away.
It didn't come as a surprise that her physical appearance matched that of this dimension; however, as though she jumped straight out of a mature webcomic, her supernaturally curvaceous body defied physics.
Ari gulped reflexively as their eyes met, causing a bewitching grin to emerge on her face.
'Yeah…I'm in trouble.'