ARIELA "ARIA" CRUZ was three seconds away from destroying her router with a sandal.
The storm outside had killed the power, her phone battery was dead, and her ranked match had crashed mid-boss fight. The final insult? The WiFi was blinking like a heartbeat monitor for a dying patient.
"Of course. Of freaking course," she muttered, clutching the router like it owed her money. "I just needed one win today. Just one."
Aria was a hardcore gamer, sarcasm expert, and full-time disappointment to her online squad, who had just watched her rage-quit the most important co-op match of the month. Her username—ShadowFang69—was probably being flamed in six Discords by now.
Frustrated, she slapped the side of the router. Hard.
> BLIP.
The lights flickered.
Then surged.
Then—
> ZWWWWWWMMMM.
The router glowed.
Like actually, glowed. Not in a "it's overheating" way, but in a "you've opened a portal to another dimension through the cheap plastic soul of your network device" way.
She barely had time to scream "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" before the world folded inward like bad origami.
---
🌀
Aria woke up choking on air—and confused by the weight on her chest. Or, more accurately, the lack of it.
She sat up. Blinked. Froze.
"Why are my shoulders... so broad?"
"Why is my voice... sexy??"
"WHY AM I JACKED?!"
She stumbled toward a nearby pond—because naturally, she'd spawned next to reflective water like a budget isekai protagonist—and looked down.
The man staring back was tall, muscular, and stupidly hot. Raven-black hair, molten gold eyes, and the kind of jawline that made gods cry. His body gleamed with strength and testosterone and, unfortunately, was hers now.
"This is not my body."
"This is not my world."
"And I swear to everything holy, these abs are distracting."
A voice boomed from behind her.
"HE HAS RETURNED!"
"THE WARLORD OF FIRE AND STORM!"
"ARION CRUVIAN THE UNBROKEN!"
Aria—now apparently Arion Cruvain—turned around, saw a dozen kneeling soldiers in spiked armor, and made a very undignified noise.
"Nope."
"Send me back. I just wanted WiFi."