No, but that was funny. I never thought there would be vampires as dumb as those two."

If he wasn't one of those people, or perhaps an acquaintance of theirs, then someone else had been spying on his life all this time, and if they already had access to his contact, what else could they have? Maybe they've recorded everything that's been happening over the past few months.

"But no, actually, I'm quite different from a vampire, and I'm not here to harm you, but to propose a simple deal."

Without waiting for Dante's response, another message had already been sent.

"See, I'm actually looking to take a very extended vacation where you live, and I was thinking maybe we could just switch places... forever."

Dante didn't understand.

"What?"

"I don't have as much time as I'd like to explain everything, but just know that I've been watching you for some time, basically since your fateful transformation, and I know how you feel in this world... if I were in your situation, I'd probably feel something similar."

"All the people who mattered to you simply disappeared overnight on that day, and since then, you've felt this emptiness, haven't you?"

Dante had never talked about this with anyone to this day, of course, there was no one left for him to talk to. His employees didn't like him much, even though he tried to hide it; his parents were dead, his wife was dead, his two best friends were dead. And all of this happened at once.

So when someone finally said these simple words to him, Dante simply didn't know what to say.

"Yes." ... "And I can assure you that you won't find anything else to hold onto in your world. Outside of your darkness, there is only more darkness. I am in a very similar condition in my world, not necessarily having lost my parents and friends because they died centuries ago, but I lost the most important thing in my life, my legacy."

"And so, I intend to start over in some other place where I can find a way to further elevate myself, and your world is simply perfect for what I've been looking for to start anew."

Dante understood what the man was talking about, but... was this really true? Legacy? What did all of this mean? And how would he do it? Things simply weren't fitting together due to the lack of information Dante had about the situation.

"Look, it's a nice conversation, but I have to open my shop early tomorrow, so we can talk another day."

Just as Dante was about to close his laptop and head to the living room TV, he received several more messages from the same person, messages sent instantly.

"Dante, I know you're going to play video games now, and it's not because of some strange human eye technology, but because I see with you, and I feel with you too."

"I don't have much time, and I'm only bringing you this proposal because you're the only one who fits the parameters for the exchange to work."

"You won't be alone here, at least not entirely. I used to be a famous director of a grand magic school, and I still have some good disciples who can help you all the way. All you need to say is yes."

Dante was starting to find the joke quite amusing, of course, he was being spied on by some clown who didn't seem to care that he was a psycho killer, and who seemed to have read too many novels, but if it's a yes he wants, then, true or not, this strange conversation will finally be over.

"Sure, yes, let's do this magical exchange, maybe I can even become the first flying zombie, it will be amazing. Bye."

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After several seconds with no response, Dante was about to shut his laptop when...

"Well, not the first, but good luck with that."

After that, something very strange began to happen because, around him, the world seemed to be slowly fragmenting and readjusting itself. Dante felt absolutely nothing, and now he didn't have his laptop in his lap, and when he looked again, he wasn't even in his clothes anymore. When these perfectly geometric psychedelic effects began to diminish, he was extremely frightened because, before, while he was in his comfortable room, he was now... in this place, dirty, damp, and naked.

Looking around, all Dante seemed to be able to see and feel was nothing more than the strangeness of being alone in a strangely large and empty room.

Besides that, he didn't feel much else, at least not physically, or even emotionally, because his mind was bursting with questions and uncertainties. The change, even with those strange phenomena, was so natural and imperceptible to him that he only began to understand that something was wrong when he was no longer in his home.

He was really shocked, the man really did what he said he would.

This is obvious now, but no one really expected this to happen.

Dante knew of the existence of what people call magic, and he even had some weak, incomprehensible, and strange abilities. But... teleportation? To another dimension? No, I think everyone would be at least somewhat skeptical about that.

"All I saw was what? I can't even speculate, maybe it's just my limited consciousness generating unrecognizable symbols as it tries to understand this teleportation."

Interdimensional teleportation, to make matters worse.

"All right, I better calm down. Not that I'm really panicking, but this is quite uncomfortable, damn zombie brain doping my emotions."

"First, this is probably some other dimension because there would be no reason for someone to create a sick prank teleporting strangers."

"And if this is really true, which is probably, then it's natural to think that I will probably never see or smell damn New York again... but also, my college, my company, it was all for nothing... none of this matters anymore."

After thinking about it, he laughed.

"Okay, why did my glorious physics degree serve for something other than endless monthly payments for the past 6 years to the bank since I left that lie in the form of false promises and many, many tuition fees."

"I didn't even have the diploma; I simply never really needed it. Apart from the 'acquired' knowledge, which I had already lost most of. Not that Fluid Mechanics, or Materials Engineering, or even Electromagnetism would have been useful when I started running my coffee shop."

But...

"Being naked is really annoying."

While he thought more about his damn life choices, which in one way or another brought him exactly here, he slowly walked toward the only concrete light, which seemed to come from a door.

After walking several meters, but much less than he imagined through the eternal darkness that almost completely covered him, he finally arrived where he wanted, at the strange door, perhaps made for a giant given its disproportionate size. And when he finally passed through it, fortunately without any of the typical inconveniences of fantasy worlds, he found himself in a much more normal environment.

The place he entered was almost like a typical library at an old university, with reddish-brown tones filling his entire field of view. Yet, the library didn't seem grotesquely large as the previous room was, but rather had at most a few tens of thousands of books, something disproportionate for the average person but nothing strangely absurd.

However, what caught his attention the most was the lighting in that environment because, while in the other room it came from dim candles and the door itself, here, the illumination existed, and only that, nothing seemed to be the source, but the entire environment seemed to be covered in a comfortable reading light.

After stopping thinking about where the hell this light came from... magic, for sure, he finally realized that he was not alone in that place; in fact, just ten meters from him stood what seemed to be a generic character from any fantasy magic book on Earth. She was a young girl with golden hair, strangely dressed in peculiar clothes and a pointy hat.

She seemed to be arranging the entire library, holding several books in her hands and slowly placing them in their proper positions. At some point, when she turned her face a bit, still unable to see Dante, he could see her appearance more clearly, and she looked young, maybe around sixteen, and strangely resembled someone from his life on Earth.

The strangest thing of all was that even with the noises Dante had made so far, she simply couldn't perceive his presence there. Hyperfocus perhaps? But that simply didn't make any sense, she just didn't hear me?

Dante was tired of all this; he was in his comfortable bed after a stressful murder, for what? He didn't even have that man's brain anymore, and now he was here, somewhere unknown, with what seemed to be a young mage.

Not wanting to wait any longer to understand the whole situation, Dante finally started speaking louder than he had expected.

"Hey! Girl with the strange hat!