What would an ordinary gamer from southern California do if he ended up isekiaed into another world? A world where his modern scientific knowledge was useless and only his love for video games, anime, sci-fi/fantasy stories and engineering were the only reliable tools he could use to help him survive.

In the summer of 2026 ZeeEye Gamers' Guild launched Arcane Hunters Battle Royale (AHBR), a highly immersive and competitive video game that redefined professional e-sports forever. AHBR was powered by TESS, a revolutionary gaming console that allowed players and spectators alike to join games by entering into the same dream world. AHBR was the first game in history to achieve 1 billion simultaneous active users. Its rapid growth and acceptance ushered forth a new age of professional streaming and granted celebrity status to anyone who excelled at it.

Kai, a southern California gamer, joined the closed alpha for the next version of AHBR. Due to a unfortunate accident, he ended up with the opportunity to move onto the closed beta. In an effort to increase his stream's subscriber count and turn his unremarkable professional streaming career into a successful one, he joined BETA. However, it became much more than he had ever expect.

Will Kai discover the truth about BETA? Will he get home? What is so special about DanceRush Stardom anyways? Come find the answers to these questions and more in an adventure filled story about friends, technology and the love of video games.

This story is an entry for The Adventum Contest 2020.

Included Themes: 1) Town/Kingdom/Empire Building 2) Reincarnated as an X 3) Combination of Magic and Technology

Editorial Attribution: Hwody

Art Attribution Note: I did draw the book cover art myself except for metal brushed background image from Adrian Joniec, released as "Free for commercial use" on Pixabay. --wawanaoki