Hello everyone, Fudo Kotaro here. I’m just your normal 17 years old-
  
   Hold on, I take back what I said. I guess a shut-in can’t exactly be called normal.

   I’ve become a shut-in for almost half a year now. Ever since I’ve decided to become a NEET, life has been awesome. I wake up, brush my teeth, eat the breakfast left by my mother in front of the door to my room, and then I either play games, watch anime, read manga or surf random sites to pass the time. No going to school, no pointless homework and exams, and no judging teachers and classmates.

   Hmm? What’s that? Have my parents ever tried to convince me to go back to school? Nope. Not even once. I’ve probably disappointed them one last time. Still, they’re providing me with daily necessities, they didn’t cut off the Wi-Fi connection to my room, and they’re still feeding me three meals a day. I guess I can’t ask for better parents if I intend to keep up with this life.

   Now then, what should I do for today? Oh, I know. The new episode of Requiem Of The Lost Soul just aired last night. I should start the day by watching it. And then, I should at least log in to Clear Sky. The last time I forgot to do that, I lost the streak and missed out on the log-in reward for that day, since I’ve been busy playing Daemon Regalia for the past few weeks. Speaking of that game, I’m almost done with the quest to finally unlock my favorite character Khriswell. Wait for me, Khris-chan, I’m almost there.

   Yup, nothing like enjoying your daily life by filling up your schedule with your favorite pastime. Now then, let’s head to Nika-Nika, which is my favorite website to watch anime. And there it is, Episode 13.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………Hmm?

   Now, the long pause you saw up there indicates that I’ve been watching the anime quietly. As for the “Hmm?”, well, something’s not right. Actually, something’s extremely, extremely wrong.

   I guess I should give a brief introduction about Requiem of the Lost Soul. It’s a harem anime. You know, the one that usually has one male main character and multiple female main characters. And that all-important male MC? Yeah, he didn’t show himself for the entire episode. And no, the episode I watched wasn’t a fan-service one where only the girls would appear. It was a serious episode that showed the main story of the anime. The weirdest part is, all the characters of the show were acting like Araki Satoshi, the male MC, doesn’t even exist.

   I briefly watched the previous episodes, glancing through them quickly in the hope of witnessing Araki appearing in a single frame. Just a single second to prove that I didn’t just imagine him up. Five minutes and twelve episodes later, no Araki was seen.
 
   What the hell?

   I closed the tab and opened up the website that allows people to discuss all things anime-related. It didn’t take me long to find the forum which dedicates itself for Requiem of the Lost Soul fans. I read through all the comments. Previously, lots of them were about whether Araki deserves his harem, or whether he’s a good harem protagonist in general. Now, I can’t find a single comment that talks about Araki. It’s either those who posted said comments deleted them or their accounts altogether in a single night, or they didn’t even exist to begin with.

   Well, there’s only one explanation. I’m just tired and have a serious hallucination. Nothing a quick break can’t fix. Right, where’s my phone? Ah, there it is. Now to play Clear Sky. Forget a break. All I need is my favorite jet plane Mirage-chan to call me “General” with her cute voice, and I would be healed instantly.

   “Welcome Back, Player~.”

   …Hmm?

   Weird. This is really weird. I don’t remember Mirage ever calling the player of the game, well, Player. I’ve played this game for more than three years now and owned Mirage for just as long, so I would definitely know. And why is she wearing her default skin? I went through hell just to get her wedding dress skin, and she had been wearing it since. I glanced through all of her available outfits that you can unlock. All of them are found and present except for the wedding dress one. It’s not only her, too. All the girls that I own in the game are missing their wedding dress skin.

   I put away my phone and face my computer once more. This time, I decided to play Daemon Regalia. After the loading screen has faded, I’m more or less expected to not see Roy Sykes, the main character of the game. Instead of him, I’m controlling a faceless, genderless NPC.

   For the next hour, I checked all sorts of anime, manga, light novels and games. At the end of my research, I realized that only those that have the harem genre have had their main character switched or removed altogether. And no forums and/or websites are even talking about this.

   Blimey, it’s either I’m so tired I started to hallucinate, or it’s some late April Fool’s joke. If it’s the former, I might need to go see a doctor, being a shut-in or no. If it’s the latter, someone has way too much time and money. And what’s even the point of pulling this kind of prank?

   Well, I’ll go see a doctor right after I sleep for the second time. Or tomorrow. Tomorrow sounds good. I don’t feel like leaving my room today. Yup. And I’m still going to sleep.

   Usually, I take time to fall asleep, especially recently as my guilt for being a shut-in and the reason for my locking myself in my own room has been giving me insomnia. This time, though, I fell asleep right away.

   “Awaken, Fudo Kotaro.”

   Ah, great. I’m having a dream where someone or something is forcing me to wake up. And it’s the one time I thought I could sleep like a baby too.

   I open my eyes. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I sure wasn’t expecting to be standing inside a clock tower with lots of spinning gears.

   “As you may have noticed, the male protagonists of the harem genre have been wiped clean of existence no matter the form of literature-” a mysterious voice begins.

   While the voice is talking, I pinched my left cheek hard just in case this is some kind of weird dream. I feel pain, so this is definitely reality.

   “-you have been chosen to restore the balance-”

   “Wait a second. Why me? Why can’t it be anyone else who, you know, actually wants to do this?”

   “-are to travel to different worlds and conquer a member of the fair sex whom you admire the most-” the voice continues while ignoring my question.

   That piqued my interest.

   “You mentioned different worlds. Where exactly are we talking about?”

   “To make things easier for you, you will travel to the worlds which you are familiar with. The world from the anime Requiem Of The Lost Soul, for instance, is one of them.” the voice replies.

   Oh, so now it feels like replying me.

   “Just anime?”

   “Animes, mobile and video games, light novels, the list goes on.”

   Wow, talk about a dream come true for a nerd who always wanted to be transmigrated to a different world.

   “All right, you got yourself a deal. And what kind of cheat ability do I get in order to help me with the conquest?”

   “You get none.”

   “...Huh?”

   “It is time for you to depart. Good luck and godspeed.”

   “Hey, wait a sec-”

   Before I could finish my sentence, I got blinded by a white light.