John Cooper was playing his favorite game. 

Surrounded by his posters, football gear, and two small stands holding two different rings, his eyes reflected rapidly shifting scenes of wanton violence. 

Rockets flew and miniguns sprayed, painting the world within his screen red with blood.  

His father liked to call things like this “good ol’ fashioned American violence”. 

Not that it meant anything to John. It was just a game he liked. A few months later, he might swap to another. 

*Ding Ding!*

An alarm went off at some point during the day, pulling his attention away from the visceral gameplay. 

“Oh, it’s time.”

He rose from his seat with visible excitement and nervousness, gathering some gear and packing the car. Before long he was on his way to his destination.

It happened as he was out driving.

John spotted a large semi-truck, a long boxy trailer hitched behind.

As he rolled to a stop at a red light, he shifted into neutral. The light was taking too damn long, his thoughts drifting to other places.

“I’ve seen some of those European and Japanese trucks. Why are they so puny compared to ours? Although, considering Texas is damn near the size of Europe, I can see why. Bigger places beget bigger trucks.”

He hummed, satisfied with his sound logic, while watching the semi barrel toward the intersection. Something was wrong. 

It was going way too fast. 

“Shit, is that thing gonna stop?”

He panicked, fumbling to slam his gear shift into drive. The truck barrelled through 5 cars, twisted metal and shattered glass doing little to halt its momentum.

“Oh shit! It’s not gonna stop!”

He cursed as he watched the truck turn toward him. The roar of its engine overwhelmed him. He couldn’t evade. 

And then, it happened. 

Metal contorted and twisted as the truck warped into a robot, the scent of motor oil and gasoline engulfing John’s senses while it roared.

“It’s isekai time, motherfucker!”

John watched as the semi-truck robot jumped high into the air and went into a diving elbow drop, as if it were some kind of pro wrestler. 

He sat there baffled. 

“What the fuck?!”

A hundred tons of metal crushed him and everything went dark.