Harry Waterson drifted in an endless void.
There was no up, no down, no sound—only suffocating darkness that pressed against his skin like wet concrete. He walked aimlessly, boots thudding on nothing, mind clouded with disorientation. He couldn't remember how he had gotten here.
The last clear memory was a sharp, piercing pain in his chest.
Before that… the party.
He had gone because she asked him to. His girlfriend—the one who had suddenly demanded "space" two weeks earlier—had been making out openly with some random guy in the middle of the crowded room. She knew Harry was there. She had looked straight at him, eyes cold, and kept kissing the stranger like Harry didn't exist. No flicker of guilt. No shame.
The sight had ripped open every buried wound from his childhood. The endless abandonments. The loneliness he had spent years trying to forget. He had fled the party without a word, gone straight back to his cramped apartment, and done the only thing that still brought him peace: he sat down to feed his colony of Amazonian red giant ants and lose himself in Kingdom's Survival.
Now even that memory was fading.
"Am I dreaming?" he muttered. The void swallowed his voice instantly.
He walked for what felt like an hour in absolute silence. The darkness grew heavier, thicker, until it felt like it was crawling into his lungs. Panic clawed at his throat. This wasn't a dream. This was too real, too oppressive. He was going to be trapped here forever.
Then he saw it—a distant pinprick of light.
Suspicion prickled, but he had no other choice. "My only option is to go there," he whispered, and broke into a frantic run.
The moment he reached the glow, the void shattered.
Harry skidded to a halt, breathless, as the oppressive nothingness vanished and an immense ancient library unfolded around him. Towers of shelves carved from wood that looked like solidified shadow stretched into a cathedral-like gloom. Hundreds of thousands of ancient tomes lined every surface, each one emitting a soft, ethereal pale-yellow light. The air smelled of old dust, dried parchment, and something faintly metallic.
It was magnificent. And profoundly eerie.
He walked cautiously between the rows, the silence almost as intimidating as the void had been. His problems—his heartbreak, his loneliness—suddenly felt tiny beneath the weight of all this forgotten knowledge.
A resonant voice, heavy with ancient authority and the low timbre of grinding stone, stopped him cold.
"Take a seat, boy. We have much to talk about."
An unseen force gently but firmly pushed him down. Before he could even process it, Harry found himself sitting in an ancient wooden chair, polished smooth by millennia of use. A large wooden desk cluttered with papers and books stood before him.
Behind the desk sat… a being.
It wore a perfectly tailored charcoal-grey suit, immaculate, without a single wrinkle. The body looked human. The head was undeniably, bizarrely, an ant's head—glossy black chitin, multifaceted beady eyes, twitching antennae.
"Yep… an ant's head," Harry mumbled. "Looks like I forced the video games and alcohol again."
"Trust me, boy, this is one hundred percent real," the being replied, its compound eyes focused on him. It picked up a paper from the desk and began reading aloud. "Harry Waterson. No parents. No siblings. Poor. Sad. Depressed. And recently cheated on by his girlfriend. Ouch… you've had it rough, kid."
The ant-headed figure wiped a single tear from one of its eyes with a perfectly manicured finger.
"Wow. Can't believe an ant is making fun of me," Harry said dryly.
"Well, you can't say it wasn't funny as shit," the being countered with a chuckle.
"Thanks for the honesty, I guess."
The creature laughed heartily. "Hahahahaha! Let's get back to business, shall we?" A red crimson aura suddenly erupted from its suit, violent and godlike, pressing down on Harry like a mountain. The light from the books dimmed. Harry's vision spotted black. His lungs burned.
"Oh, sorry, kid. Sometimes it's hard for me to control my aura when I'm excited. Tehehehe." The aura vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The being gave him a playful, almost teenage-girl smile.
"The hell was that?" Harry wheezed, rubbing his throat.
"Don't worry about it. Let's get started with your interview."
Harry stared blankly. "Interview? I didn't apply for any job—especially not with a half-man, half-ant being."
The creature beamed. "See, I knew you'd be interested! Well, let's not beat around the bush, boy. The reason I summoned you here is to make you… my successor."
It let the words sink in.
"I plan to send you to another world to save my people. I know it sounds cliché, but you seem like the right man for the job. I warn you—the world I'm sending you to is full of danger. New. Uncharted. Brutal."
Harry's mind reeled. As a lifelong nerd who had devoured every isekai story, anime, and game, the realization hit like lightning. This was it. The ultimate restart. The cheat code he had always fantasized about.
His ex had been his only anchor in a chaotic life. But after what she did… he had nothing left to stay for. The pain of abandonment had finally reached its peak.
He lowered his gaze, face grim, and spoke with quiet resolve.
"Let me go there."
The Ant God—clearly expecting hesitation—looked momentarily annoyed, ready to threaten him into accepting. But Harry cut him off before he could finish.
"Let me go to this new world. Whatever task you have for me, I'll accomplish it. Just let me go so I can leave my past behind and start fresh."
Antarion stared. Then he chuckled, low and impressed. "Well, that was easy. Hahahaha! I like your determination, boy. And here I thought I'd have to threaten you."
With a sharp snap of his fingers, the ancient library shimmered, fractured, and vanished completely. Harry gasped as they floated once more in empty space.
Another snap.
Harry's body began to glow with an ethereal, icy light. Every cell buzzed, as if preparing to fly apart.
"What's happening?" he asked, voice rising in alarm.
"The transfer of your soul to your new body has already started," Antarion replied casually, walking toward him. "Don't worry—I've prepared some gifts for you, my dear successor. Use them well to achieve your mission."
The Ant God stopped directly in front of him, massive ant head tilting slightly.
"My people are in peril, Harry. The world you are going to is one of raw, terrifying power, and you will start at the bottom. Your mission is to ascend—to become the sovereign king of the ant colonies and unite them against the coming threats. You will receive a foundational bloodline which you must evolve and perfect."
He leaned closer, voice dropping to an ominous whisper.
"And you will get a little briefing when you arrive, boy… but it might be a little painful."
The tingling became agony. Harry's current body began to wither, dissolving into motes of glowing energy. His feet vanished first, then his legs. He lost the ability to speak.
Even without words, he heard Antarion's final silent message echo directly into his mind:
Go, child of man. Embrace the change. Forget the betrayal… and become the King.
With an excited, knowing smile, the Primordial Father of Ants watched as a final blinding flash of golden soul-light swallowed Harry whole.
The transfer was complete.
In the empty void, Antarion whispered softly to no one:
"Do not disappoint me, my dear successor."