In the center of a massive stone-walled chamber with wooden beams and handwoven tapestries stood a king-sized bed draped in velvet sheets.
On it, Eli was lying flatly, staring blankly at the unfamiliar ceiling overhead.
He smiled, recalling how bravely he had sacrificed himself to save the stray furry little creature he had been feeding for the past three days and planning to adopt.
He was run over by a truck as he pushed it out of harm's way, breathing his last.
Then, he didn't know what happened but he ended up possessing the body of a complete stranger, getting a second chance at life.
"Yeah, this is real," he thought after pinching himself and feeling the pain. "I have transmigrated."
He readjusted his position, sitting up and looking at the reflection in the mirror placed adjacent to the bed.
He had become a young man with smooth white skin and hair somewhere between dark brown and black.
His hair fell just above his brows, framing a face with well-defined features and almond-shaped eyes of a deep hazel hue.
"For someone experiencing something he'd only ever read about, you're surprisingly calm."
Another reflection appeared in the mirror.
It belonged to a tall and voluptuous woman with beautiful black eyes shaped like peach blossoms.
Her long, lustrous hair of the same shade reached all the way down to her ankles like a waterfall, adding an undeniable charm to her already blinding radiance.
Eli looked towards her and gasped in suprise as he noticed that she was almost entirely naked.
She was wearing a revealing white dress that clung lovingly to her curves, leaving much of her flawless figure exposed.
Only her twin mountain peaks and the forbidden valley between her thighs were veiled, and even that concealment felt like a deliberate tease, not modesty, making one recklessly imagine the divine sight she was hidding beneath her slutty outfit.
Eli gulped down the saliva that had filled his mouth the second he laid his eyes on her and asked her a very important question. "Who are you?"
Her reply came swiftly, "I am the Goddess of Love and Benevolence. You may call me Ranni."
Eli was caught off guard by her answer, but he didn't let it show on his face. He stayed composed and rational, even in a situation as erratic as this, and asked another crucial question. "Ranni? Are you behind my transmigration?"
"You guessed that right," she nodded without hesitation.
"Why did you do it?" He asked.
"You sacrificed yourself for a furball you have only known for a few days. It was my first time seeing such a thing. I was moved by your selflessness. Out of compassion, I used a great deal of my divine power to realize your greatest desire and transmigrated you into a world that parallels your most favourite webnovel," she answered.
'I didn't expect my selfless act of kindness to trigger such a beautiful chain of events.' Eli said, "I see. So that's what happened. If I got everything right, I am in the Sea of Domains?"
It was the area where the story of the Ascension Tower webnovel took place.
The Sea of Domains was made up of countless realms, and the most crucial location in this sea was believed to be the Ascension Tower as it was a place where nothing was impossible.
Wealth, beauty, power, magic, eternal life, immortality… anything one could dream of could be found within the Ascension Tower.
However, it was also an extremely dangerous place, with a terrifyingly high mortality rate, especially for humans and other weaker creatures, who were often hunted or bullied by stronger races that inhabited the Sea of Domains.
Ranni hummed in agreement, "Your starting point is the Great Sun Realm."
The Great Sun Realm was a part of the sea of domains, and it contained many entrances that led to the Ascension Tower.
"This is the best thing that could happen to me!"
Eli was overjoyed, having made sense of his situation.
The reason behind it was simple.
His life back on Earth was shit.
Firstly, he was an orphan with no one to depend on.
Secondly, his so-called friends knew his girlfriend was cheating on him with his best friend, but they kept it a secret from him.
He found out the hard way, when he walked in on her riding his best friend in his own bed.
He gave the adulterous couple a solid beating and threw them out of his rented apartment naked before cutting lose all the toxic influence in his life.
It brought him peace and satisfaction, but it also made him feel incredibly lonely.
It was no doubt the worst time of his life as he was a person who surrounded himself with people so that he wouldn't feel lonely.
So getting transmigrated into the Great Sun Realm for saving a cat from getting killed by a reckless truck driver didn't seem like a bad deal.
"Who did I transmigrate into?" Eli asked.
"You have transmigrated into Eli Ashton, the first young master of the Ashton Clan," Ranni replied.
"That's quite troublesome," Eli scratched his chin.
The Ashton Clan was one of the three strongest clans of Silverflame City.
As the first young master of the Ashton Clan, it was Eli Ashton's birthright to inherit the position of clan patriarch after his father, but Eli wasn't the least bit happy to transmigrate into such a person as he was the character with the third most tragic fate in the Ascension Tower webnovel.
He faced three great tragedies in his life before ultimately meeting his demise.
The first tragedy was his inability to step into the Ascension Tower, it was the only place in the Great Sun Realm where humans and countless other races could go to transcend their racial limitations!
The second tragedy was the betrayal of his family, which caused him to lose his birthright and left him destitute and bitter.
The third tragedy was a vile scheme concocted to exploit his stepmother's only weakness to enslave her.
Her only weakness was him. She loved him so much that she would choose to save him even if it meant becoming a slave to a pervert with no morals, but he loved her just as much. So, how could he be willing to see her suffer for his sake?
In the novel, Eli made the the ultimate sacrifice to save his stepmother from a life of humiliation.
He took his own life to ensure the villains would have no leverage over her!
"What day is it?" Eli asked.
The first tragedy would be put into motion on the day of the Skill Bestowal Ceremony.
He wanted to know how much time he had left before the ceremony took place.
Depending on the answer, he might or might not have the time to stop the first tragedy from taking place.
"It's the sixth day of Emberlight," Ranni replied.
In the Great Sun realm, a year had no months.
A year was only split into four great seasons, each with its own name and span.
The summer season was called Emberlight, and it typically lasted 99 days.
"Tch!"
Eli clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction upon hearing Ranni's words.
"It's only a day away," he muttered. The Skill Bestowal Ceremony was held annually on the 7th day of Emberlight! "I don't have enough time to get the stuff that can change my result in the Skill Bestowal Ceremony."
Frustration flashed in his eyes.
He had finished the Ascension Tower webnovel in his previous life.
He knew the locations of countless treasures that were yet to be uncovered.
Some of these treasures could turn a worthless cannon fodder into a prodigy seen only once in a millennium!
But it wasn't easy to obtain even a single one of them.
All these treasures were hidden in places swarming with beasts and monsters.
Only powerful beings like skill users had a chance of surviving in those areas, and even they had to be cautious, or else they risked getting injured or losing their lives. If he, a mere weakling, dared to step foot in those places, he'd die before realizing what killed him!
Without a proper plan and the help of skill users, it was impossible to retrieve those treasures.
"Even if I start preparing right away and abuse my position as the heir apparent to mobilize the clan's forces, it will still take days to meet the necessary conditions to get the treasure that can alter one's result in the Skill Bestowal Ceremony. But I don't have that much time. It's only a day away…"
"I can't afford to skip it either. That would be the same as announcing to the world that I'm unworthy of the position of the clan patiach. My younger brother would conspire with the elders of the clan to use it as an excuse to target me and strip me of my birthright."
"I feel like I am not far from being doomed."
A sigh escaped his lips.
"You are fretting for no reason," Ranni said.
Eli looked towards her and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I didn't transmigrate you to see you suffer. I transmigrated you to see you reach the pinnacle of life. For that purpose, I have prepared a special gift for you," Ranni replied. "You can use it to overturn your fate."
"What gift?" Eli asked.
"This gift," Ranni leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.
Immediately, a bunch of letters appeared in his sight.
[You have received a Goddess's blessing.]
[Congratulations. You have obtained the Harem Stealing System!!]