"Great," I muttered to myself. "Three weeks in and I've already been late for class three times."

I tried to run a little faster. What had I been thinking, taking my Humanities elective in Introduction to Musical Theory? The music building was all the way across campus from the science building where most of my classes were.

I mean, I had to take a humanities course. Why couldn't I have taken Poetry for Science Ma... I mean, Introduction to Poetry like all the freshman engineering majors trying to knock off a core requirement they didn't give a shit about? That was in the English department. Practically next door!

Oh, no. I had to take music theory, in my second year, when things were starting to get hard. Just because it fit my schedule... and I'd always sort of idly fantasized about being in a band with a bunch of hot chicks. I hadn't even done band in high school! Sometimes I hated my brain.

To be fair, it was surprisingly interesting. But still. Running!

I knew Professor Richard was already irritated with me, between being late multiple times and the fact that I wasn't a music major so I asked questions he thought I should know the answer to like a proper band geek. And it was frustrating to me too. I'm pretty smart. But I'd never done anything with music before other than playing "Guitar Hero" at a friend's house. (His dad loved old videogames.) I was starting from scratch and just barely keeping up. I wanted to do well, but all I could do was think about how likely it was that I was going to fail a fucking course. For the first time in my life.

So there I was, a smart but still generally clueless 19-year old, distracted and worried, running to try to get to class on time but knowing I'd probably fail. What happened next was inevitable, I guess.

As I ran across the street in front of the music building, hoping I could get inside and up the stairs in time to just get a mild glare from the professor, there was a sudden squeal of tires. It sounded just like in a movie when somebody hits the brakes right before a crash. The sound was super high-pitched.

"C7?"

My stupid brain, already fixated on music theory, tried to identify the pitch of the squealing tires. Like I said, it was high pitched. Maybe higher than a piano could go. And close. So close...

Too close.

There was a sudden pain, like somebody had hit me all over with a hammer. A big hammer. Made of a truck. Which is what happened. I'm not the best at metaphors, sorry. Maybe I should have said, "Hit me all over with a mallet." Isn't that what they call those big drumsticks they hit kettle drums with? I bet they'd hurt. Not like a hammer made of a truck, though. That really hurts.

Not for long, though.

The pain was gone almost as soon as I became aware of it. But I blinked when the truck-hammer (hammer-truck?) hit me, and when my eyes opened again, it was dark. Totally dark. And quiet. Quiet like...

... like the grave.

Oh, shit, I thought. I got hit by a truck. Fuck. FUCK! I'm so stupid! How could I...

"Excuse me," said a voice.

"Gaaaaaaah!" I shouted. Yes, I was kind of jumpy. I think anybody would have been, being dead and then floating in darkness for who knows how long. I might have already been here for days. Weeks. Years. Time has no meaning on the other si...

"It's been two minutes," said the voice, in a not at all sympathetic tone.

"What?" I said into the blackness.

"Two minutes. That's how long you've been waiting."

"Two subjective minutes?" I asked. "Like, it's really been a million years, but here in the void it..."

"Two. Minutes." The voice was even less sympathetic now. "You died two minutes ago. And this isn't the Void. It's just a waiting area. For waiting. Which you have only been doing for two minutes."

"What am I waiting for?" I said nervously. "Am I going to..."

"No, you are not going to Hell. Why would you even think that?" The voice just kept getting more and more incredulous.

"Well, I... I don't know," I said. "I don't see any angels, and I read somewhere that Hell was just the absence of G..."

"Never mind." The voice cut me off. "You're not going to Hell, and you're not going to Heaven, and you can just forget all that. Existence isn't done with you yet so don't be so dramatic."

"Then what is going to happen to me?" It felt like I should be more worried, but I was strangely calm. Maybe no body meant no adrenaline or whatever, so I couldn't get too excited.

"Waste not, want not," said the voice, with a touch of humor. "Normally you'd get cycled back to your planet of origin, but we're throttling that down."

"Why?"

"The population is going to start dropping fast in the near future," said the voice. "In a decade or two, it'll be way down and it won't come back up very fast. We're spreading the souls out now to avoid a jam."

"Why is the population going to drop?" I asked, managing at least mild concern. "War? Climate change?"

"Never you mind," replied the voice. "Could be for good reasons, could be for bad reasons. It's not your problem any more either way."

I started to ask more questions, but the voice spoke again and it drowned me out entirely. I couldn't even try to speak while it was talking.

"Let's see here... aptitude for science and math... got tons of those. Seems like every other skim-off your age is a huge nerd. What else, what else..."

There was a short pause. I had just started to open my "mouth," or whatever, but I was cut off again.

"Hmmm. Studying musical theory. Surprisingly good at it for someone who'd never done it before."

Somehow, I got the feeling that the owner of the voice was now... looking at me. Examining me. Something. It was unnerving.

"Did you like it?"

"Like what? Musical theory? Yeah, I was starting to. It was different. I always wanted to be in a band, I just never... did anything about it." The no-body thing seemed to dampen regrets, too. But I could still feel them.

I didn't hear fingers snap, exactly. But there was a feeling like somebody had snapped their fingers. That "a-HA!" kind of snap.

"You seem like a young man who likes a challenge," said the voice. It was much less distracted-sounding. Whatever it had thought of, it was interested. This could be good. Or bad.

"...I guess? Sometimes?" I struggled, trying to be agreeable, but not set myself up for some kind of death world or something. "I mean, I like playing video games on hard mode. It's frustrating, but it feels so good when you finally break through."

"Now that is what I like to hear," said the voice, in a suspiciously upbeat tone. "I have just the thing. How'd you like to really master musical theory?"

"I think I'd like that," I said. "Why?"

"Because I can set you up in a place where mastering your music not only gets you fame and fortune, but much more. Sound good?"

"Much more like what?" I asked. "That's pretty vague."

"Can't tell you everything, but I think you'll like this. How about it?" The voice had a distinctly salesman-like tone, even though it didn't sound like a man. Or a woman. It was just... a voice.

"Why are you asking? Why don't you just do it, if it's so perfect?"

"Rules," said the voice immediately. "Can't pull you out of your homeworld cycle without your consent. But trust me, you don't want to go back there. You'll love this. What do you say?"

"I say... I want some extra help, if I'm going to another world."

"Extra help?" said the voice. "What do you mean?"

"If I'm going to be a musician, I want to be good," I said. "And I want..." I had no cheeks to turn red, but I could still somehow feel a blush coming on.

"I can do that," said the voice. "What else?"

"Girls," I said awkwardly. "I wanted to be in a band with hot c... I mean, cute girls. That was what I fan… I mean, that always sounded like fun." I could barely spit it out but if I was getting a deal, I wanted a good one.

The voice... chuckled. I felt like I should be worried again.

"Good musician, gets girls. I like it. I've just had a great idea. I'll set you up just like I said. You'll be a good musician, and if you work hard, you'll get cute girls. Maybe not the way you suspect but you said you liked figuring out puzzles, right?"

"I said I liked video games, not puzzles."

"All the same," said the voice dismissively. "You'll figure it out and you'll have fun doing it. I guarantee it. Probably. Do we have an agreement?"

I paused. It felt like I should be asking a lot more questions. And I should be way more worried. Especially about that "probably." But something inside me told me it was time to... move.

"It's a deal," I said, the words rattling out of my mouth before I could call them back.

"Wonderful," said the voice. "You'll have so much fun. And since you like video games, I'll set you up with a little help that way too. This will be fabulous entertainment."

"For who? I said dubiously.

"Everybody," replied the voice. "Deep breath now. Or at least, imagine."

"Who are you?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

"I'm the one telling you to imagine a deep breath. This first step is a..."

The voice faded away before it could finish the sentence. I felt like I was... falling.

Which was a weird thing to feel like as I still couldn't see anything, couldn't hear air rushing, couldn't feel wind flowing over me. But I was definitely falling.

Until I wasn't.

No-body or not, I blinked, and when my eyes opened, I was standing under a blazing sun.

I looked around. I was standing next to a gravel road which was emerging from a forest. Further down the road was a walled town. Village? Settlement? I had no idea. It wasn't that big, at least the part I could see. The wall was made of logs planted in the earth, about ten feet high. In front of it was a shallow ditch. I could make out a gate, which opened onto the road. There were some people standing by the gate but it was far enough away that it was hard to see what they were doing exactly. A cart of some kind, pulled by a horse, was just going through the gate. It looked like a small river flowed by the town on the far side of where I was.

Looking down, I saw what appeared to be a regular human body, not that different from the one that got truckhammered. I was wearing plain but serviceable clothes. They were clean and not itchy or scratchy. Leather shoes, not fancy but in good repair. A belt with a pouch or a purse or something. It had a cover flap with a string and a button to keep it shut. On the other side was a small knife in a sheath.

My hands went up to my face. I didn't have a mirror but it felt like... a face. My face, again more or less, as far as I could tell.

"Okay," I said out loud. "This is... not what I expected." My voice sounded about the same too. I felt like I wasn't speaking English, though. No idea what I was speaking, but it didn't feel like English. It was... slower. Richer. A tonal language.

I shook the pouch. It felt reasonably heavy, like there might be some money or something inside. The knife was a serviceable little blade, sharp and in good condition, but not all that intimidating. More for eating than for fighting. I put it back in the sheath after a quick inspection.

"Hey, wait a minute," I said. You talk to yourself a lot in the Void. Even if you're only there for two minutes. They were a long two minutes. Trust me. Anyway, I'd have to break the habit. But maybe not this second.

"The voice said they'd help me out, like a video game." I took the knife out again. "Examine!"

Absolutely nothing happened.

Staring at the knife, I said, "Appraise!"

Nope.

"Equip?"

Nuh-uh.

I put the knife back.

"Well, that was disappointing," I muttered. "Video game, video game... what would be helpful from a video game?"

I had a sudden thought.

"Could it be that easy?"

Nothing answered my admittedly rhetorical question.

"... Character Sheet?"

Suddenly, a suspiciously familiar rectangle full of text appeared to one side in my vision.

Name: Chris Erikson

Class: Song Mage

Level: 1

Health: 100

Breath: 130

Stamina: 100

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 12

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 9

Charisma: 12

Resonance: C#

Element: Shadow / Thought

Known Manifestations:

None

Special Skills:

Omniglot, Leader of the Band

"Okay, that settles it" I said. "I really am in another world. I've been isekai-ed. "