A voice, cold and intimate, whispered in the confines of Romaru's consciousness.
"Host, make your first selection."
"Option One: Declare that your deepest ambition is to impregnate your elder sister."
"Option Two: Vow to make every middle-aged and elderly woman on the planet kneel in submission before your massive… rod."
"Option Three: Immediately stride forward and strip the teacher of his trousers before this entire class."
The selections exploded in his mind, each one a lance of psychic lightning searing his sanity.
A cold dread seized him. To articulate any single one was to willingly cast himself into an abyss of perpetual shame and societal annihilation.
How could this be his reality?
He had been granted the miracle of transmigration into a world he cherished. He had found the family he would die to protect.
He had at last awakened the legendary system meant to be his cheat, his path to glory… so why had it become the instrument of his utter ruin?
"Ito Romaru-kun."
The voice of the Chunin instructor sliced through his internal cataclysm.
The man, blissfully ignorant of the psychosexual torment gripping his student, fixed him with a stern, deepening frown.
"Surely," the teacher stated, his voice dripping with impatience, "formulating a simple statement of your life's ideal does not require such an extensive period of deliberation."
The sound of his teacher's displeased voice finally jolted Romaru back to the present.
A flicker of profound helplessness passed through his gaze.
This was about the trajectory of his entire future—of course it required careful consideration! Well, perhaps that phrasing wasn't entirely accurate.
A more truthful thought was that no matter which path he selected, his destiny seemed permanently tethered to the label of "Creep."
What in the world was this?!
What kind of absurd system was this?
Its very nature was fundamentally twisted!
I... I don't want to become a pervert!
His internal scream was a silent, desperate wail. He tentatively probed at the system's presence in his mind.
"Um... is it possible to refuse the selection?"
Ding.
Host's rejection detected.
Initiation of Chakra Seal will commence in ten seconds:
Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven...
Chakra sealing?!
A bolt of pure panic electrified him.
"No! Wait! I'll choose! I'll choose!"
In this brutal world, in this treacherous era, to lose his chakra was a fate worse than death—it was a death sentence itself.
He might as well hang himself now and be done with it.
The relentless countdown vanished instantly.
Romaru let out a shaky breath he didn't realize he was holding. Despite the overwhelming revulsion coiling in his gut, he had no choice but to steel himself.
He cleared his throat, the sound unnaturally loud in the waiting silence.
"Ahem... my ideal," he began, his voice barely steady, "is to... impregnate my older sister."
Silence.
A profound, suffocating silence crashed down upon the classroom the moment the vile words left his lips.
A stunned silence gripped the classroom.
Every student, along with the Chunin instructor on the podium, stared with vacant expressions at the handsome boy, their jaws slack enough to catch flies.
The declaration had been nothing short of incendiary.
It was an ideal of nuclear proportions.
While the youth of this world were hardened beyond their years, this was a shockwave that shattered all norms.
Get his older sister pregnant with his child?
The fact that most present knew they were not related by blood did little to soften the blasphemous, transgressive weight of the statement.
It was a confession of pure, unadulterated Degenerate.
As for the sister herself—the red-eyed lolita seated in the corner—her face became a canvas of spiraling horror.
Her delicate, jade-pale features first flushed a deep crimson, then darkened into a mortified purple, before finally bleaching into a ghostly, ashen pallor.
One could only imagine the cataclysm of shame, betrayal, and utter disbelief raging within her.
Romaru's heart curdled with a bitter, metallic taste as he absorbed the gallery of horrified expressions. But the line had been crossed, the words uttered into existence.
There was no path left but forward through the wreckage he had chosen.
A faint, strained sigh escaped the Chunin instructor's lips.
"Well now, Romaru-kun…" He struggled to soften the disapproving edge in his voice.
"Regarding your… ideal, I find myself with very little I can appropriately say."
"But you are still so young; perhaps your focus should lie elsewhere, on thoughts more befitting your age."
"Is there something wrong with my ideal?" Romaru inquired, his face a perfect mask of childish innocence as he glanced around at his stunned classmates. He feigned complete ignorance of the sheer impropriety of his declaration.
"I distinctly recall a book stating that if you truly cherish someone, the ultimate expression of that love is to see her carry your child."
So that was the source of this corruption.
The teacher's suspicions were instantly confirmed.
A wave of relief washed over him; this was merely a case of a child parroting inappropriate material, not a deeper depravity.
"Romaru-kun," he said, his tone now more paternal than stern, "your path forward is that of a shinobi, a warrior destined for the battlefield."
"It would be best for you to… limit your consumption of such unsanctioned reading."
"Oh, I understand, Sensei," Romaru replied with a dutiful nod before calmly returning to his seat.
Afterall, he was only seven years old.
In the eyes of the adults, such a freak proclamation, while shocking, could be dismissed as a juvenile prank or a simple-minded misinterpretation—nothing to be taken at face value.
However… Romaru lifted a hand to his forehead, massaging his temples as he stole a glance at the red-eyed girl beside him.
Her small face was flushed not with embarrassment, but with pure, unadulterated fury.
This was the true consequence he faced.
If he failed to provide her with a sufficiently convincing explanation later, the ensuing fallout would make his life a living hell.
'Goddamn it all!'
'What kind of cursed, abominable system had I been shackled with?'
'Take it back!'
'I would rather be powerless than be bound by this filthy system!'
Romaru's soul screamed in a silent, frantic riot against the violation. Yet, in the depths of his psyche, the system's chime was cool, detached, and utterly unperturbed.
"Congratulations, Host, on the successful completion of your first selection."
"Reward granted: Konoha Style Foundational Taijutsu. Chakra reserves have been increased by ten days' worth of cultivation."