School dragged on like it always did—a blur of lectures Kai only half-listened to while his mind wandered to game strategies and the mysterious Project ISEKAI announcement. By the time the final bell rang at 3:30 PM, he was practically vibrating with anticipation.
"Raid tonight?" Jin asked as they packed up their bags.
"Can't," Marcus said apologetically. "Family dinner. My aunt's visiting from Tokyo-2."
"I'm in," Kai said. "Need to test some new builds anyway."
Jin grinned. "The Seer needs to test builds? Pretty sure you could solo most content with your eyes closed."
"Overconfidence gets you killed," Kai replied, echoing one of his most famous quotes from a tournament interview. The irony wasn't lost on him—The Seer was confident, analytical, always three steps ahead. Kai Chen couldn't even talk to a girl without stumbling over his words.
They split up at the maglev station. The ride home gave Kai time to pull up his secure messages. His gaming manager—yes, he had a manager now, ever since the tournament wins started bringing in serious money—had sent three messages about sponsorship opportunities and an invitation to an exhibition match next month.
SEER_OFFICIAL: Sorry, declining the exhibition. Too busy with school.
MANAGER_KATE: You know these opportunities won't last forever, right? Strike while you're hot.
SEER_OFFICIAL: I know. But I'm waiting for something bigger.
He wasn't sure why he'd typed that last part. But something about Project ISEKAI felt significant, like it was going to change everything.
Home was blessedly empty. His mother was still at the hospital, Mira had evening classes, and his father... Kai checked the family calendar. Board meeting until 8 PM. Perfect.
He grabbed a nutrition bar from the kitchen—his mother had stocked them specifically for his gaming sessions, despite her lectures about "real food"—and headed upstairs. His room transformed the moment he closed the door. The clutter faded into background noise as he approached his setup.
The neural VR rig sat on a custom desk, surrounded by three holographic displays. The headset itself was a work of art—matte black with silver accents, neural interface pads that molded perfectly to his temples. When he put it on, the world dissolved.
INITIATING NEURAL LINK...
CALIBRATING SENSORY INPUT...
WELCOME BACK, SEER.
The familiar rush of sensation washed over him—the feeling of his consciousness expanding, his digital body materializing in the virtual space. When Kai opened his eyes, he wasn't in his bedroom anymore.
The Seer stood in the grand plaza of Celestial City, the central hub of Celestial Conquest. Where Kai Chen was awkward and uncertain, The Seer was confident and commanding. His avatar stood six feet tall, with silver hair that defied gravity and eyes that glowed with an ethereal blue light. He wore midnight-black armor with gold accents, every piece earned through countless hours of gameplay and strategic victories.
Immediately, whispers rippled through the plaza.
"Is that The Seer?"
"Oh my god, it's really him!"
"Can I get a screenshot?"
A dozen players rushed toward him, but The Seer moved with practiced ease, his fingers dancing through menus with fluid precision. He activated his private instance before the crowd could reach him, teleporting to his guild hall.
VOID WALKERS GUILD HALL materialized around him—a floating fortress of obsidian and starlight that he'd designed himself. Only his closest gaming companions had access, and right now, the hall was empty except for one person.
"Fashionably late as always," a female avatar said, leaning against a crystalline pillar. Her username floated above her head: LUNA_ECLIPSE.
"Traffic," The Seer replied with a slight smile.
Luna was his raid co-leader and one of the few people in the gaming world he genuinely trusted. They'd met two years ago during a particularly brutal dungeon run, and her tactical mind complemented his analytical approach perfectly. She was also one of three people who knew The Seer's real identity.
"Jin's running late too," she said. "Something about 'family obligations.'" She made air quotes.
The Seer pulled up the guild interface, checking their roster. Forty-three active members, all top-tier players he'd personally recruited. The Void Walkers weren't the largest guild in Celestial Conquest, but they were widely considered the most skilled.
"Did you see the Project ISEKAI announcement?" Luna asked, her tone casual but her avatar's body language tense.
"Hard to miss. It's all over the forums."
"Prometheus is headhunting top players. I got a preliminary inquiry this morning." She paused. "I'm guessing you did too?"
The Seer nodded slowly. He'd received the message at lunch, buried in his spam folder with a subject line that read: INVITATION FOR CONSIDERATION — PROJECT ISEKAI BETA TESTING. He hadn't opened it yet, some instinct telling him to wait, to think it through first.
"Are you going to apply?" Luna asked.
"Depends on what they're really offering." The Seer moved to the guild's strategy room, where holographic maps of various dungeons floated in the air. "Full-dive neural integration isn't new. We're already doing that. So what makes this different?"
"That's what worries me," Luna said, following him. "The announcement is heavy on hype, light on details. And the timeline is aggressive—beta testing starts in two weeks."
Two weeks. The Seer's analytical mind caught on that detail. His father had said "final phase" this morning. The timing was too perfect.
DING.
A notification appeared: SHADOW_FIST HAS ENTERED THE GUILD HALL.
Jin's avatar materialized—a martial artist class with crimson armor and a cocky grin permanently fixed on his face. His username was a joke about his real-world fighting style, which consisted mostly of wild flailing.
"The gang's all here!" Shadow_Fist announced. "Ready to make some scrubs cry?"
"Thought you had family stuff," The Seer said.
"Finished early. Aunt talked herself to sleep." Jin's avatar moved with the same confident energy as his real-world self. Unlike Kai, Jin was basically the same person online and offline. "So, we doing the Abyssal Depths run?"
The Seer pulled up the dungeon information. Abyssal Depths—a level 95 dungeon that had only been cleared by three guilds worldwide. The mechanics were brutal: environmental hazards, coordinated boss phases, and a strict thirty-minute timer.
"We're going to map it first," The Seer said, his voice taking on the commanding tone that had made him famous. "Luna, you'll handle adds control. Jin, you're on boss disruption. I'll call the phase transitions."
For the next three hours, they worked through the dungeon with surgical precision. The Seer's combat style was analytical—he watched patterns, calculated probability, and made calls three steps ahead of where the fight currently stood. When the first boss telegraphed its devastating area attack, The Seer had already positioned the team in the safe zones.
"How do you do that?" Jin gasped as they cleared the second wing. "It's like you can see the future."
"Pattern recognition," The Seer replied, though he'd been hearing that question for years. "Every attack has a tell. Every boss has a rhythm. You just have to pay attention."
But even as he said it, something felt different tonight. His reads were sharper, his timing more precise. Twice, he'd called mechanics before they'd appeared, before any visual indicator could have tipped him off.
Just good instinct, he told himself. Nothing more.
They cleared the dungeon with six minutes to spare—not a world record, but a solid first clear for their team.
"The Seer does it again!" Jin's avatar pumped its fist. "We're so uploading this run."
"Not yet," The Seer said quickly. "Let's run it twice more. Make sure it's consistent."
Luna gave him a look—or at least, her avatar did. "You're worried about something."
He was, though he couldn't articulate why. The dungeon had felt... off. Too predictable. Like the AI was pulling its punches.
"Just being thorough," he said.
They ran it two more times, each clear smoother than the last. By the time they logged off, The Seer had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he couldn't shake.
Back in his bedroom, Kai pulled off the VR headset and blinked in the dim light. 8:47 PM. His father should be home soon.
He opened the preliminary inquiry from Prometheus Gaming and read it properly this time:
Dear Seer,
Your accomplishments in competitive gaming have not gone unnoticed. We would like to invite you to participate in the closed beta testing for Project ISEKAI. This is an exclusive opportunity limited to 10,000 players worldwide.
Details will be provided upon acceptance. Please respond within 48 hours.
— Project ISEKAI Selection Committee
Kai's finger hovered over the accept button. Every instinct told him this was important, that this was the "something bigger" he'd been waiting for.
But another part of him—the cautious, analytical part—wondered what he was really accepting.
A knock on his door made him jump.
"Kai? You awake?" His father's voice, tired but warm.
"Yeah, Dad. Come in."
Marcus Chen entered, looking more exhausted than Kai had seen him in months. But there was something else in his expression—excitement? Anxiety? Maybe both.
"We need to talk," his father said, closing the door behind him. "About Project ISEKAI."