# Chapter 1 , The Motel Boy Women Whisper About
The void stretched endlessly in all directions, a darkness so complete it felt less like absence and more like presence, as though the nothingness itself was watching, waiting, holding its breath. Raze floated in that emptiness without form or weight, his consciousness the only thing tethering him to existence, and he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there or what had come before. Time felt meaningless in this place, seconds bleeding into hours bleeding into eternities, until a voice cut through the silence like a knife through silk.
"How boring you were," the goddess said, her tone carrying equal parts amusement and disdain, and suddenly she was there, materializing from nothing with eyes that burned like distant stars and a smile that promised cruelty wrapped in beauty. "A life lived without passion, without risk, without anything worth remembering. You died as you lived, unremarkably, and your soul was destined to simply... dissolve."
Raze tried to speak, tried to ask what was happening, but he had no mouth, no voice, only the vague awareness that he should be terrified.
The goddess circled him slowly, her form shifting with each step, sometimes appearing as a young woman with silver hair, sometimes as something older and more terrible, her true nature flickering at the edges of perception. "But I find myself in need of entertainment," she continued, her fingers trailing through the void as though stroking invisible fabric, "and I've grown tired of watching the same stories play out in the same predictable ways. So I'm going to drop you into one of my favorite worlds, a little game of heroes and villains and academy romance, and I'm going to give you something... broken."
Before Raze could process her words, she pressed a finger against where his forehead should have been, and agony exploded through his non-existent body, information flooding into him like water into drowning lungs. He saw flashes of another world, a story he'd known only as entertainment, a game he'd played once or twice where heroines fell in love with a protagonist destined to save the world. He saw the academy, the villain organization, the carefully plotted narrative that led to either salvation or destruction depending on the player's choices.
"Universal Allure, Corruption Mode," the goddess purred, her voice dripping with anticipation. "Every woman who sees you will feel it, that inexplicable pull, that desperate need. The longer they're near you, the stronger it becomes. Resistance crumbles. Reason fades. They'll seek you out like addicts chasing a fix, and the world will twist around you in ways even I can't fully predict."
She leaned closer, her breath somehow tangible despite the void, and her smile widened into something predatory. "You'll be an extra, a nobody, someone with no role in the grand story. But with this trait? Oh, you'll matter more than any protagonist ever could. You'll break the narrative simply by existing, and I'm going to watch every delicious moment of it."
Raze wanted to protest, wanted to refuse, but the void was already fragmenting, reality tearing itself apart and reconstructing into something new, and the goddess's laughter followed him down into darkness and light and the sensation of a body that wasn't quite his own, until finally consciousness returned in pieces, in sensations, in the weight of sheets and the smell of cheap perfume and the sound of someone breathing softly beside him.
The ceiling above Raze was yellowed with age, stained in uneven patches that spread like old bruises across plaster that had long since given up trying to look presentable, and it took a long moment for his eyes to fully adjust to the dim morning light seeping in through curtains so thin they barely filtered the pale glow of dawn. The air carried the faint scent of cheap perfume and industrial detergent, mixed with the musk of an old room that had seen too many lovers pass through its doors, too many secrets whispered into pillows, too many mornings just like this one where someone woke up wondering what they'd done the night before.
He didn't recognize any of it at first, though the weight of a warm arm draped over his chest quickly reminded him that this wasn't his world, his life, or even his body anymore. The sheets were tangled around his legs, and his skin felt different somehow, smoother, younger, as though he'd shed years without meaning to. His mind was still foggy, still piecing together fragments of memory that didn't quite fit: the dark void, the goddess with eyes like burning stars, her laughter echoing as she told him he'd been given something broken, something dangerous, something that would twist the world around him whether he wanted it to or not.
The woman beside him shifted slightly, letting out a quiet breath as her fingers, still trembling lightly, brushed across his abdomen in a way that felt almost hesitant, as though she couldn't quite believe she was touching him. She wasn't a girl from the academy or a heroine from the game he knew so well; she was an adult guest, maybe in her late twenties, with slightly tousled hair the color of autumn leaves and lipstick smudged in a way that suggested she'd been far more passionate last night than she ever intended to be. Her eyes opened slowly, lashes fluttering as consciousness returned, and when she saw Raze awake, a flush spread across her cheeks like watercolor bleeding into paper, and she looked away like she was embarrassed by her own boldness, by the way she'd practically thrown herself at a motel worker she'd only just met.
"I... I don't usually do things like that," she murmured, though her voice quivered in a way that betrayed just how badly she'd wanted him, how completely her restraint had crumbled the moment they'd been alone together. "But when I saw you... I just couldn't stop myself. I don't know why. It was like... like something pulled me toward you, and I couldn't think about anything else."
Her fingers tightened against his skin as if steadying herself, and Raze felt the warmth of her palm even through the thin sheets, felt the slight tremor in her touch that spoke of confusion and desire tangled together. He opened his mouth to respond, though he wasn't sure what he could even say, because he barely understood what had happened himself. The memories were fragmented, disjointed, her knocking on his door late at night, her eyes wide and glassy, her breath coming quick and shallow as she stepped inside without invitation, as though compelled by something she couldn't name. He remembered the way she'd looked at him, the way her hands had reached for him with a desperate kind of need, and he remembered thinking that this couldn't be normal, that something was very, very wrong.
Before he could speak, a soft chime echoed inside his head, followed by a faint blue shimmer in the corner of his vision that coalesced into glowing text only he could see.
[Universal Allure , Corruption Mode]
Exposure Level: Low → Moderate
>Female targets may experience compulsion, heightened desire, fixation, or emotional dependency.
> Effects increase with proximity, repeated contact, and vulnerability.
The words flickered before fading away, leaving Raze staring at where they had been while his heart hammered against his ribs, while the woman beside him sat up slowly, pulling the blanket closer around her shoulders as though suddenly aware of how exposed she was. She hesitated as if she wanted to say more, her lips parting and closing several times, but instead she ran a hand through her tangled hair and offered him a shy, almost guilty smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"...I'll be back tonight," she whispered, looking more like she was confessing a crime than making a reservation, more like she was admitting to an addiction she couldn't shake. "If... you'll have me. I know it's strange, but I... I can't help it. I need to see you again."