Harry Waterson was adrift. There was no up, no down, no sound, only an abyssal, suffocating darkness. He walked aimlessly through the void, a profound sense of disorientation clouding his mind. He couldn't recall how he had arrived in this lightless space.
The last coherent memory was a sharp, piercing pain. He had been feeding his beloved colony of Amazonian red giant ants. Before that, a party—a catastrophic event that now played back in his mind like a corrupted video file. He had seen her—his girlfriend who had recently demanded 'space'—making out openly with a random, faceless guy at that party. The cold, calculated way she had carried it out twisted the knife; she knew Harry was there, yet showed not the slightest flicker of concern for his feelings.
The cruel sight was a catalyst, brutally unearthing the long-buried trauma of childhood abandonment he had painstakingly tried to forget. He had suffered all the abandonment in his childhood and had buried those painful memories deep within him. Unable to mask his raw sorrow, he had left the party, fleeing the scene, and went back to feed his ants and play his favorite strategy game, KINGDOM'SURVIVAL.
"Am I dreaming?" he muttered into the void, his voice swallowed instantly by the sheer size of the nothingness. After a solid hour of walking in the absolute silence, the idea felt ridiculous; this was too real, too oppressive. The suffocating silence and the infinite dark began to induce a primal terror. The darkness itself was heavy, a physical weight that pressed against his eyelids and muffled his thoughts. It was a complete absence of sensation that made him hyper-aware only of his own frantic, shallow breathing and the unsettling, dull thud of his shoes on the non-existent floor. The idea of staying within this space scared the shit out of him.
Just as true panic threatened to set in, he spotted a distant, faint source of light ahead of him. It was a mere pinprick at first, a tiny, suspicious beacon in the crushing gloom. Though suspicion prickled at him, he knew his only course of action. "My only option is to go there," he decided, breaking into a frantic run toward the glow.
When he reached the light, Harry skidded to a halt, overwhelmed by a sudden, breathtaking amazement. The oppressive, featureless void had vanished, replaced by a sight straight out of a forgotten age: an immense, sprawling ancient library. The transformation was seamless; the light hadn't bled in, but the space had simply snapped from non-existence into staggering, ornate reality. Towers of shelves, carved from wood that looked like solidified shadow, vanished into a cathedral-like gloom. The entire space was filled with ancient books, said to be filled with immense knowledge.
The air was heavy and thick, smelling intensely of old dust, dried parchment, and a faint, metallic scent that Harry couldn't identify. The only illumination came from the books themselves; hundreds of thousands of tomes emitted an ethereal, pale-yellow light, making the scene both magnificent and profoundly eerie. It was a place where time had not simply stopped, but had become irrelevant.
He walked cautiously through the rows, the silence of the library nearly as intimidating as the void had been. The sheer weight of history here made his own problems feel minuscule, yet the recent heartbreak still clung to him like cheap cologne. He stumbled a few times since the library was still dark.
Then, a resonant voice, heavy with inherent authority and carrying the deep, low timbre of grinding stone, stopped him cold: "Take a seat, boy. We have much to talk about".
Before his mind could process the command, or even question its source, an unseen force gently yet firmly pressed him down. He was already seated in an ancient wooden chair, its surface polished smooth by millennia of use. A large wooden desk, cluttered with papers and books, sat before him. The sight—the desk, the books, the studious setting—was oddly familiar to Harry. He was a product of relentless hard work and countless hours of studying, a top student who had managed to get one of the school's top spots in the country. This scene was a rather familiar sight to him.
He sighed, the memory of her—and the associated pain he desperately wanted to discard—washing over him again. He was a man who worked hard for everything, including managing to get a top beauty as a girlfriend. The betrayal had made a mockery of all his efforts. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Finally taking a clear look behind the desk, Harry's brain struggled to categorize the being. It possessed a perfectly tailored, charcoal-grey suit, which fit the body perfectly. The suit was immaculate, without a wrinkle, impossibly perfect for a being of this nature. This was perfectly normal. But the head was undeniably, bizarrely, an ant's head.
"Yep, an ant's head," Harry mumbled. His first thought was a desperate, guilt-ridden self-diagnosis: "Looks like I forced on the video games and alcohol again". It was a relapse he'd sworn off for years, but the recent trauma—the heartbreak piled upon pent-up stress—had pushed him to the brink and he needed a way to remove that accumulated stress.
"Trust me, boy, this is a hundred percent real," the otherworldly being replied, its multifaceted, beady eyes focusing on Harry, the antennae twitching slightly as it spoke, seemingly reading his mind. It picked up a paper from the wooden desk and began to read Harry's personal information written on it aloud. "Hmmmm, Harry Waterson, no parents or siblings, poor, sad, depressed and cheated on by his ex-girlfriend ouch, you've had it rough kid".
The Ant God wiped a tear from one of its eyes with a perfectly manicured finger.
"Wow, can't believe an ant is making fun of me," Harry replied nonchalantly.
"Well, you can't say it wasn't funny as sh*t," the humanoid ant countered.
"Thanks for the honesty, I guess," Harry conceded.
"Hahahahahaha, let's get back to business, shall we?" the ant figure announced. "I am Antarion, Primordial Father of Ants across all worlds and Creator of the Great Ant Bloodlines."
As he spoke his titles, a red crimson aura violently erupted from his suit, enveloping him. The aura was screaming Godliness, suffocating Harry, and making it hard for him to breathe. It felt like a physical weight, pressing against his chest, stealing the air from his lungs. The light from the thousands of books dimmed under the overwhelming crimson glow. Harry's vision started to spot with black, and his ears rang as his oxygen depleted.
"Oh, sorry, kid. Sometimes it's hard for me to control my aura when I'm excited, tehehehe". Antarion quickly dispersed the oppressive aura, giving Harry a playful smile like a teenage girl, allowing Harry to gasp for air again like a normal human.
"The hell was that?" Harry wheezed, rubbing his throat and trying to catch his breath.
"Don't worry about that, boy. Let's get started with your interview," Antarion said, brushing off the fact that he almost suffocated Harry to death with his Godly aura. He immediately went straight to the point.
Harry, confused as hell, stared blankly at the gesture seated in front of him, telling him that he was going to interview him even though he had no applied for a job to work for a half man – half ant being which he certainly wouldn't have. But his lifelong nerd-like curiosity got the best of him. "What's this about?" he asked.
"See, I knew you would be interested!" Antarion beamed happily. "Well, let's not beat around the bush, boy, the reason why I have summoned you here is to make you, my successor."
Antarion paused, letting the impossible words sink in. "I plan to send you in another world to save my people..... I know it sounds a bit cliché but you seem like the right man for the job. I warn you the world I'm sending you too is not one without danger though new and uncharted world".
"Ah," Harry gasped, the ultimate realization hitting him. As a real nerd, he had always believed in the concept of Isekai and the existence of multiple worlds and realities. He had consumed countless books, anime, and games revolving around the "transported to another world" trope. The idea that the biggest fantasy of any nerd on the planet would happen to him—to be abducted by a God and sent to another world to save some people—was staggering.
This is it. The ultimate cheat code for a restart.
If his ex-girlfriend had not cheated on him with a random guy, he might've hesitated, since she was the only person that mattered to him. She had been his sole anchor in a chaotic life. But since life is a bitch, and she was a bitch as well, he had no reason to stay. If anything, he wanted to go and leave his past behind and start a new life, even if the offer came from a weird-looking, self-proclaimed God. The pain of abandonment had reached its peak, and this was an escape hatch—a glorious, cosmic severance package.
Harry lowered his gaze, his face grim, and spoke with quiet resolve: "Let me go there…"
Antarion, clearly expecting hesitation or negotiation, cut him off with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He intended to threaten Harry and force him to take up the task. "Boy, among all the galaxies I roamed through, you are the most suitable for the task and I don't like..."
Harry, however, cut the Ant God short before he could finish his sentence.
"Let me go to this new world you are talking about, whatever task you have for me I will accomplish it, just let me go there so I get rid of my past and start afresh". He was clearly referring to all the pain he suffered in his life. He wanted a clean slate, a rebirth.
Antarion stared blankly at Harry. The Ant God didn't know if he should laugh at Harry for his courage or feel bad for him because the world he was being sent to was led with danger and death at every corner.
But the look in Harry's eyes was one that didn't display fear or unease; it was a pure, singular focus of determination.
This made the Primordial Father of Ants chuckle slightly. "Well, that was easy hahahaha, I like your determination boy and here I thought I had to threaten you", he said.
With a sudden, sharp snap of his fingers, the ancient library violently shimmered, fractured, and then completely disappeared. Harry gasped as the immense structure vanished without a sound, leaving him and Antarion floating in an empty space once more.
With another snap of Antarion's fingers, Harry's body began to glow with an ethereal, otherworldly light. The glow was not warm, but intensely cold, seeping into his skin. He felt a strange tingling, as if every cell in his body was buzzing, preparing to fly apart.
"What's happening?" a surprised Harry asked.
"The transfer of your soul to your new body has already started", Antarion replied, walking casually toward him, treating the soul transfer like a mundane part of his day. "Don't worry I have prepared some gifts for you my dear successor and hope you use them well to achieve your mission", the Ant God said happily.
Antarion stopped directly in front of Harry, his massive ant head tilting slightly. He looked down at the rapidly glowing human form.
"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 to unite them against the coming threats. You will receive a foundational bloodline, which you must evolve and perfect."
He continued with a final, ominous note: "And you will get a little briefing when you get there boy but it might be a little painful".
Harry was immediately worried by Antarion's words, but he had no time to question the cryptic warnings. The tingling sensation intensified, becoming an agonizing tearing. His current body was already withering away, dissolving into pure, glowing energy, signifying that the transfer process was almost completed. His feet, then his legs, turned into motes of light and dissipated. He could feel his ability to speak dissolving, and soon, he lost the ability of speech entirely.
Even though he had lost the ability of speech, Harry could understand the last words of Antarion, his mind absorbing the Ant God's final, silent communication: Go, child of man. Embrace the change. Forget the betrayal, and become the King.
Then, with an excited, knowing smile, Antarion bid Harry farewell. With a final, blinding flash of golden, soul-light, Harry disappeared from the scene, showing that the transfer process was complete and he was on his way to connect with his new body.
"Don't disappoint me, my dear successor," Antarion whispered to the empty void, his multifaceted eyes gleaming with ancient anticipation.