They always say the game ends when you die.
Bullshit.
For me, death was just a loading screen.
The night it happened, I was counting my winnings. Ten monitors bathed the room in a ghostly neon glow, the air thick with the scent of coffee gone cold and the iron tang of blood still dried on my knuckles from the last "negotiation." I'd just finished laundering a small fortune earned from rigged killstreams—pay-to-watch bloodbaths in custom-coded games, streamed to high-rollers with too much money and no conscience. I wasn't the one fighting, usually. I just orchestrated it. Pulled strings. Made mayhem into marketable content.
That night, I was alone. Not because I wanted to be.
But because I'd made too many enemies to trust anyone enough to share the room.
The lock on the door clicked.
I froze.
Not the usual kind of click. Not the creak of a rusted hinge. This was clean, deliberate. Metallic.
Weaponized.
I reached for the Glock tucked beneath my desk, but the cold barrel kissed the back of my head before my fingers grazed the grip.
"Roy Quinn," said a voice smoother than silk on skin. "Time to cash out."
I didn't have time to ask who. Didn't need to. I'd burned enough bridges to make my own funeral pyre.
The trigger squeezed.
POP.
Everything went black.
Then white.
Blinding, searing white that carved through the dark like a scalpel through flesh.
I wasn't floating. I was falling, and yet… not. My body felt light, too light, like it didn't exist at all. A weightless nothing in a space that had no up, no down—just an endless wash of burning brilliance that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Then, a sound. Crisp, electronic. A tone I'd know anywhere.
[DING!]
Words blazed across the void in shimmering gold:
System Initialization Complete.
Welcome, Roy Quinn.
You have been Selected.
What. The actual. Hell?
Transmigrating Host to Designated Game World…
Please remain still. Bodily reconstruction in progress.
And then I screamed.
It wasn't pain—not exactly. It was like every cell in my body was being rewritten, torn apart and stitched back together with some deranged cosmic needle. Muscles flexed that didn't exist before. Bones bent into new configurations. My lungs burned with air I hadn't breathed. My heart slammed against a ribcage I'd never known. A voice whispered in my skull, like a coder chanting through lines of arcane script.
Form selected: Human (Default)
Player Difficulty: Custom (Brutal)
System Perks: Adaptive Violence, Charm Affinity, Money Multiplier x10
[DING!]
[First Task Unlocked.]
Objective: Make the fox girl fall for you.
Reward: System Upgrade (Unknown)
Failure Penalty: Death. Permanent. No Respawns.
I gasped like I'd broken the surface of a deep ocean. Air rushed in—sweet, wet, filled with the scent of moss and woodsmoke. I coughed. The light dimmed. Gravity returned. Cold, damp grass pressed against my bare back.
I was lying in a field. A goddamn fantasy field.
Above me, the sky blazed with three moons—one blood red, one pale blue, and one cracked in half like a broken eye.
And hovering just above my face, spinning lazily like a smug, digital halo, was a glowing blue interface.
[Roy Quinn – Player Lv. 1]
Status: Alive (Barely)
HP: 10/100
Mana: 0/0
Inventory: Underwear (Common), System Seed (Bound), Debt: 1,000,000 Gilds
My eyes twitched.
"Debt?! Hah. I just got here!"
The interface pulsed gently.
System Note: Debt incurred for cross-reality transfer. Good luck.
"Good lu—fuck you!"
No response. Just another ding.
A chill wind slid across my skin, and that's when I realized I was half-naked. Some ethereal silk boxers clung to me like an insult. My body was leaner, tighter—like someone took my real form and airbrushed it through a warrior filter. My abs had abs. My scars were gone. I looked like I could actually win a swordfight instead of paying someone else to do it.
I staggered to my feet. Around me stretched a vast forest, all looming black pines and twisted roots. The kind of place that birthed monsters.
I wasn't alone.
A rustle. A giggle. A blur of motion.
Branches parted ahead, and she stepped out.
Long white hair flowed down her back like moonlight spun into silk. Fur-tufted ears twitched atop her head, and a bushy white tail swayed lazily behind her like a predator's pendulum. She wore little—leather straps and woven fabrics that accentuated every dangerous curve. Her eyes glowed amber, slit-pupiled and wild.
Her gaze locked onto me. She smiled.
"Another one," she said, her voice a purr. "The gods keep sending me such pretty toys."
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Looked down at my state of undress. Looked back up.
She sniffed the air.
"Hmm. You smell new. Dumb. Broke." Her nose wrinkled. "And cursed. Definitely cursed."
"Uh…" I glanced at the interface.
NPC Identified: Kaelira, the Feral Flame
Race: Kitsune (Beastkin)
Disposition: Amused. Hungry. Curious.
Affinity: ???
Another ding.
Objective Updated:
Make Kaelira fall for you.
Time Limit: 7 Days.
Warning: Target known for dismembering suitors. Proceed with caution.
Of course she is.
Kaelira sauntered closer, tail flicking. She reached out and ran one clawed finger down my chest, eyes twinkling.
"Tell me, little man," she said, "Are you here to kill me? Or fuck me?"
I choked. "Is 'neither' an option?"
She grinned, showing fangs.
"Wrong answer."
I dodged, barely, as her claws raked through the air where my throat had just been. The System blared a warning—HP -7—and blood welled from a shallow gash across my shoulder.
Okay. Lesson learned. This world wasn't going to hold my hand.
Kaelira's grin widened as I backed away, stumbling over a root.
She didn't chase.
"You'll do," she said, licking her claw. "Maybe. If you survive the night."
She turned and vanished back into the trees like a ghost made of hunger and heat.
I dropped to the ground, heart pounding. The System floated back into view, merciless and serene.
Reminder: Failure Penalty = Death.
I laughed. I couldn't help it.
Shot in the head. Woke up naked. Now being hunted by a fox girl with a blood kink and a smile that said she knew fifty ways to skin me alive.
And the System wanted me to seduce her?
I stood up, cracked my neck, and grinned right back at the sky.
"Alright, you sadistic piece of code. Let's play."