Michael felt a little comfortable as he opened his eyes. It was blurry white, but soon his eyes adjusted to the environment and he realised that everything was white.
Immediately, he sat up on his butt on the plain white floor that had no floor.
There was no wall. No ceiling. No shadow. Just endless white stretching in all directions.
Michael looked around, trying to understand what was going on.
"Where am I? Did I die? Is this Heaven??"
Michael asked himself a lot of chaotic questions as he tried to process his situation. His heartbeat quickened, and his palms felt strangely cold. But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't get an answer for himself.
He stood and looked like he was floating midair.
Right in front of him, a big blue vortex appeared.
It spun slowly at first, then faster, humming with a low vibration that echoed across the empty white space.
Michael shielded his eyes to block the light from entering them.
From the blue vortex, a plain white truck came out of it. It was so neat that even other brand-new trucks would look old next to it. Its surface reflected the white space around it, almost blending into it, yet standing out at the same time.
"A truck?" Michael muttered.
But it was at that moment he remembered something, something that he had dismissed as a scam from a scammer.
Truck-kun's call.
BANG!
As if an explosion rang inside his head, Michael recalled all of the call conversations he had with the so-called Truck-kun scammer.
They said by afternoon time, his dream would be fulfilled. And recalling the moment of his death, he really did die when it was afternoon.
Michael opened his eyes wide with this realisation.
His dream that he dismissed as merely a fantasy thought of a human who just wanted an escape… was becoming true right in his presence.
And he was the one experiencing it.
The truck stopped in front of Michael.
And right before him, the truck flashed a white light and its body began to transform.
Metal shifted.
Parts folded inward as panels rearranged with smooth mechanical sounds.
When the white light vanished, what replaced the truck was a cyborg that looked like a teenager.
It had white hair, eyes that looked like vehicle headlights, part of its face was iron while the other part was human, and its ears looked like mini car tires.
It wore traditional Japanese clothes, the inner layer was black but the haori was white.
Michael was stunned at such transformation.
He had no words to describe what just happened right in front of him.
"Hehehe! Are you surprised?" the truck cyborg said with a childish laugh.
"I… y… I…" Michael stammered. No words could come out of his mouth.
"You seriously are shocked! I thought from your prayers, you are someone who has the aggressiveness to confront everything with confidence." the truck cyborg said, looking surprised as well.
"What?! You are truly Truck-kun?! Ho… how… how is that possible?!" Michael immediately shouted when he heard what Truck-kun said.
"Hehehe! Shocked, right?" Truck-kun said smugly.
"How is this possible? How do you even exist? Aren't you just a serial transporter in isekai animes? Aren't you just a meme made by anime fans? How's all this possible?" Michael asked a series of questions, his voice trembling between fear and disbelief.
"Well, you are right. But for the how, I can't tell you about it." Truck-kun said. "And thank you for praying to me and never giving up about what you desire."
Truck-kun gave a slight polite bow, before raising his head to look at Michael with eyes of gratitude.
That expression stunned him more than the transformation.
"Since you wished for a world of war to end your boring life, I have the perfect one, the one you always pray about. But before I send you there, take this." Truck-kun said as he brought out a small cube and threw it toward Michael, who caught it with both hands instinctively.
Michael still hadn't understood what was going on, and there were still a lot of things he wanted to understand.
"What's this?" Michael asked as he looked at the small cube, no bigger than a cup. It was black in colour, with lots of symmetrical red lines running on different paths across the cube's body. The lines pulsed faintly, like veins under skin.
"That's an artifact I stole for you as the sole person that prayed to me." Truck-kun said with a playful smile as he acted excitedly.
"What? Stole?" Michael was stunned.
"Don't worry, it's from The Architect. He wouldn't bother with one stolen item as long as it was brought to good use." Truck-kun said excitedly.
The word Architect echoed strangely in the white space.
And just as Michael was about to ask a lot of things…
BANG!!!
A long sound vibrated through the white space as it shook with a powerful force. The white around them rippled like disturbed water.
"Damnit! That Architect really chased me! But it's only one of his abandoned projects." Truck-kun said with a worried tone. His playful aura had disappeared.
"What's going on?!" Michael shouted. He felt his soul was about to rip apart, like invisible hands were pulling him from different directions, and the only thing protecting him was Truck-kun's space.
"There are a lot of things I want to tell and talk with you about, but it seems like it will be for the next time of our visit! Now it's time for me to fulfill your prayers!"
Truck-kun said in a hurry.
From the other side of the white space, a blue and chaotic vortex appeared and suddenly sucked Michael and the small cube along with him.
"Haaaa!" Michael screamed, but he was powerless to resist even in the slightest.
"Don't forget to proclaim my name to your new world!" Truck-kun shouted, but Michael heard none.
As Michael felt himself being ripped apart from different places, the small cube in his hands radiated a red glow.
Something that should feel demonic, but rather, it had no holy nor demonic aura.
It felt null. Empty.
The red light warped around Michael's soul, easing the pain he was feeling.
It took a while for Michael to feel better again.
But…
Something was strange.
He could feel giant hands rubbing on him.
There was pressure, warmth and movement.
He tried opening his eyes.
But what he saw were scenes completely different from what he had always seen on Earth.