The VR headset dug into my forehead. Didn't matter. The graphics were fucking incredible.
"Oh yeah, just like that—"
My hand moved faster. Screen showed some impossible fantasy—elf chick with tits that defied physics doing things that'd make a pornstar blush. Stupid? Sure. Hot? Absolutely.
The laptop fan whirred loud. Overheating. Smelled like burnt plastic and desperation.
Jason Chen, age twenty-eight, sales manager at a dying tech company, single for three years straight. This was peak Friday night. Beer cans scattered on the floor. Pizza box from three days ago stinking up the room. No shame anymore. Why bother?
The scene intensified. Headset pressed harder. My breathing got rough, loud in my ears. Heart hammered. Close. So close—
Thump.
Pain exploded in my chest.
"What the—"
The headset slipped. Plastic scraped my skin. Room spun. Left arm went numb. Dead weight.
No. No no no.
Not like this.
Tried to stand. Chair squeaked. Leg cramped hard. Muscle seized. Went down. Face-first into the carpet. Rough fibers scraped my cheek. Dick still out. Porn still playing through the speakers. Wet slapping sounds. Fake moans echoing.
Heart hammered. Then stuttered. Thu-thump. Thu—thump. Th—
Then nothing.
Last thought before darkness: I'm gonna be found like this. Family's gonna see. The coroner. The cops. Social media.
Worst death ever.
Woke up to sunlight stabbing my eyes.
Birds chirping. Loud. Too loud. And distant... horses? Snorting. Hooves on cobblestone.
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Rolled over. Silk sheets whispered against skin. Everything hurt—no, wait. Everything felt wrong. Too light. Too... young?
Sat up fast. Too fast. Head swam. The bed creaked. Wood and leather. Old.
"What the fuck?"
Voice cracked. Higher pitched. Grabbed my throat. Smooth. No Adam's apple bulge. Felt my face. No stubble. Skin too soft. Hands looked smaller. Cleaner. No calluses from years of keyboard work.
Looked down.
Not my body.
Definitely not my body. Taller, yeah, but lean. Athletic in a way I'd never managed despite three failed gym memberships. And the room—
Stone walls. Actual stone. Cold. Smell of lavender and wood smoke. Heavy tapestries hung on walls. Embroidered wolves. Thick carpet beneath bare feet. Soft. Expensive.
Distant sounds drifted through the window. Servants calling. "Mind the stables!" Metal clanging. Swords? Training yard.
"Okay, Jason. Deep breaths."
But the air tasted different. Clean. No smog. Just pine and morning dew and something floral.
"You're... you're dreaming. Bad VR trip. Something in the Chinese takeout."
Except it felt real. Too real. The scratch of linen sheets. Weight of a body that wasn't mine. Chill of stone floor spreading through my feet.
Stood up. Legs wobbled but held. Knees cracked. Pop-pop. Found a mirror—full length, ornate silver frame with wolf motifs carved into edges.
Stared.
Guy looking back was maybe seventeen. Black hair past his shoulders. Silk. Actual silk texture when I touched it. Sharp face. Defined jawline I'd never had. Blue eyes that seemed tired despite the young features. Dark circles underneath. Handsome, if I'm honest. Way better than old Jason's doughy face.
Ran my hand down my chest. Lean muscle. Smooth skin. A few scars. Long one across ribs. Rough ridge of healed tissue.
"I died."
Said it out loud. Voice echoed in the large room. Stone absorbed the sound.
But the memory was clear. Chest pain. Carpet fibers against my face. Smell of old pizza. Darkness pulling me under.
"I fucking died jerking off and now I'm... what? Reincarnated?"
Brain kicked into gear. All those web novels I'd read during boring meetings. Transmigration. Second life. Usually came with—
Light exploded in my vision.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION DETECTED]
Letters blazed blue and gold. Humming sound filled my ears. Low frequency. Vibrating in my chest.
[SCANNING HOST...]
[NEURAL PATTERN: FOREIGN]
[SOUL SIGNATURE: ANOMALY DETECTED]
[INTEGRATION COMMENCING...]
Felt like someone was pouring hot liquid into my skull. Burning. Pressure building. Squeezed my eyes shut. Jaw clenched. Teeth grinding. Scrape. Crack.
Memories crashed through. Not mine. His. The original owner of this body.
Adrian Thornwood. Second son of Duke Marcus Thornwood. Seventeen years old. Awakened at fifteen with a trash-tier F-rank core. Family disappointment. Ignored. Mocked. Barely acknowledged.
Original Adrian killed himself last night. Pills. Bitter taste still ghost-memory on my tongue. Couldn't handle the shame anymore.
The isolation. The disgrace. Walking through halls while servants whispered. While his brother smirked. While his mother looked away. While his sisters pitied him.
"Shit."
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[WELCOME, CHOSEN ONE]
[LUST ASCENDANT SYSTEM ONLINE]
Ding.
A window appeared. Transparent blue screen floating in mid-air. Faint crackling sound. Like electricity.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
LUST ASCENDANT SYSTEM v6.9
HOST: Adrian Thornwood (Jason Chen)
AGE: 17 (28)
STATUS: Alive (Transmigrated)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CURRENT STATS:
├─ STRENGTH: 12
├─ AGILITY: 14
├─ ENDURANCE: 11
├─ MANA: 8 (F-RANK CORE)
├─ CHARM: 23
└─ SEXUAL STAMINA: ∞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
UNIQUE SKILLS:
[Essence Devourer] - Absorb power through sexual intercourse
[Harem Master] - Prevent jealousy, strengthen partner bonds
[Charm Aura] - Passive attraction (toggleable)
[Infinite Stamina] - Never exhausted during intercourse
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PARTNERS: 0
LUST POINTS: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST AVAILABLE: [FAMILY MEETING]
Accept? [YES] [NO]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read it twice. Then again.
"You've gotta be shitting me."
A sex system. I died masturbating and got reincarnated with a literal sex-powered leveling system.
Laughed. Couldn't help it. Bitter, sharp sound echoed off stone. Harsh.
"Alright universe, I see how it is. Dick joke. Very funny."
But the window stayed. Stats were real. The infinite stamina thing...
"Well, at least I won't have performance issues this time."
Focused on the quest notification. It expanded with a soft whoosh sound.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST: FAMILY MEETING
DIFFICULTY: E-RANK
DESCRIPTION: Your family expects you at breakfast. First impressions matter. Survive the meal without embarrassing yourself.
REWARDS:
├─ 100 EXP
├─ Unlocked: [Basic Etiquette] skill
└─ Family relationship status revealed
FAILURE: Increased family disdain
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Survive breakfast. Great. Love it."
Accepted the quest. Ding. The window minimized to a small icon in the corner of my vision. Could feel it there. Faint pressure. Weird but not painful.
Adrian's memories filled in the blanks. Duke's family. Morning meals were formal. Everyone attended. Richard. Mother Helena. His four sisters. He'd been skipping them for months. Hiding in this room. Locked door. Crying into pillows that smelled like his own sweat and despair.
"Guess that changes now."
Found clothes in the wardrobe. Heavy wood doors creaked open. Eeeek. Black and silver—house colors. Fine fabric. Wool and silk blend. Expensive. Fit perfectly. This body was taller than Jason's, broader shoulders. Felt good despite everything.
Splashed water on my face from a basin. Cold. Ceramic smooth under my fingers. Shock of temperature. Woke me up more. Droplets ran down. Dripped onto stone floor. Plink. Plink.
Stared at my reflection in the water's surface before it settled. Adrian's face. My mind. His life. My second chance.
"Time to meet the family who let their son kill himself."
Bitterness tasted sharp. Like copper. Original Adrian's pain bled through. They'd ignored him. Mocked him. Brother called him worthless. Mother looked through him like glass. Father dismissed him with a wave. Sisters pitied him.
Second son with trash core. Waste of noble blood.
Well. Not anymore.
Headed for the door. Hand on the iron handle. Cold metal. Rough. Old scratches under my palm.
System chimed. Ding.
[TIP: Duke Thornwood respects strength. Show weakness, lose standing.]
"Thanks for the obvious advice."
[TIP: Your mother, Duchess Helena, values appearances. Dishevelment = disgrace.]
"Got it. Look pretty, act tough."
[TIP: Your brother sees you as beneath him. Prove otherwise.]
[TIP: Your sisters pity you. Change their perspective.]
Took a breath. Pulled the door open. Hinges squeaked. Screech. Loud in the quiet hallway.
Stone hallway stretched out. Portraits on walls. Thornwood ancestors. All of them looked stern. Judgmental. Eyes seemed to follow. Paint cracked with age.
"Here goes nothing."
Walked toward the dining hall. Each step echoed. Thud. Thud. Thud. Boots on stone. Hard leather soles. Servants passed. Maids in grey dresses. Fabric swished. Swish-swish. They looked at me. Eyes widened. Whispers started. Hissing sounds.
"Young Master Adrian—"
"He's walking around—"
"Thought he was—"
Ignored them. Adrian's memories supplied the route. Down two flights of stairs. Creak on every step. Through the east gallery. Smell of oil paint and dust. Past the training yard windows.
Stopped. Looked out.
Saw my brother out there. Richard. Sparring with a knight. Both had wooden swords. Crack! Wood on wood. Sharp impact. Richard's movements were fluid. Fire flickered around his blade. Orange and red. Heat shimmer in the air. The knight grunted. Oof. Hit the ground. Armor clanked.
Richard looked up. Saw me through the window.
His lip curled. Mouthed something. I couldn't hear but knew: Worthless.
Turned away.
Kept walking.
Reached the dining hall doors. Massive oak. Carved with wolf motifs. Family symbol. Handles cold. Bronze worn smooth from centuries of use.
Pushed them open. Heavy. Wood scraped stone floor. Scraaaape.
Everyone looked up.
Duke Marcus Thornwood sat at the head. Forty-eight, built like he still trained daily, grey streaking his black hair. Lightning crackled faintly around his fingers. Soft snap-crackle sounds. Blue light. A-rank core. Most powerful man in the eastern territories.
His eyes met mine. Cold grey. Like winter steel. Calculating.
"Adrian. You're alive."
Not a question. Statement. No warmth. Voice deep. Resonant. Echoed slightly in the high-ceilinged room.
"Surprised?" My voice came out steady. Good. Didn't crack.
Duchess Helena sat to his right. Thirty-eight but looked twenty-eight. Beautiful in that ice-queen way. Silver-blonde hair pulled back. Elegant. Blue eyes. Skin like porcelain. Smell of expensive perfume drifted over. Roses and something sharp. Bergamot maybe.
She barely glanced at me. Fork paused. Silver clinked against plate. Tink.
"Do sit down. You're making the servants nervous."
Her voice was smooth. Cultured. Cold underneath.
Richard sat across the table. Fresh from training. Still in practice clothes. Smell of sweat and ash. He smirked. "Little brother finally crawls out."
Four girls sat along the sides.
Sera, nineteen. Black hair in a braid. Athletic build. Arms crossed. Looked annoyed. Always looked annoyed. Green eyes studied me. Assessing.
Isabella, sixteen. Golden hair. Gentle face. Blue eyes. She met my gaze and quickly looked down. Cheeks flushed. Pink.
The twins, Lyanna and Mira. Fifteen. Identical. Red hair. Amber eyes. Both giggling behind their hands. Tee-hee. Whispering to each other. Smelled like vanilla and cinnamon. Someone's perfume.
Empty seat at the far end. Opposite the Duke. Furthest from everyone.
My seat.
Walked over. Boots thudded on carpet. Softer now. Pulled out the chair. Wood scraped. Screech. Sat down. Back straight. Adrian's etiquette training kicked in. Posture, hand placement, everything.
"We thought you were indisposed," the Duke said. Took a sip of wine. Dark red. Almost black. Glass clinked back on table. "Given your... recent behavior."
"Recent behavior" meant attempted suicide. Pills. Empty bottle found by a maid. Screaming. Commotion.
Nice euphemism.
"I'm better now." Met his eyes. Didn't flinch. Didn't look away.
Helena's fork paused halfway to her mouth. Lips parted slightly. Breath caught. Richard actually looked surprised. Eyes widened. Sera's arms uncrossed. Leaned forward.
"Better," the Duke repeated. Lightning flickered around his hand. Snap. Brief. "How fortunate."
Silence stretched. Uncomfortable. Only sounds were breathing. Distant kitchen noises. Clanking pots. Servants' muffled voices.
Servants brought food. Trays appeared. Smell of roasted meat. Garlic. Butter. Warm bread. Plates appeared in front of me. Ceramic heavy and smooth. Some kind of meat, vegetables, bread still steaming.
Picked up knife and fork. Silver cold in my hands. Cut into the meat. Resistance. Then gave. Juices ran. Put it in my mouth. Tasted rich. Seasoned well. Texture firm. Chewed. Swallowed.
Focused on not trembling. Original Adrian's fear was still there, buried deep. These people terrified him. Every day. Every meal. Every disappointed look.
Not me though. Jason Chen had dealt with asshole bosses for a decade. Clients who yelled. Managers who threatened. This was just medieval corporate politics with magic.
"Father," Richard said. Cut into his food. Knife scraped plate. Screech. "The tournament next month. I'll be representing House Thornwood."
"Excellent." The Duke nodded. Sipped wine again. "Bring honor to the family name."
Richard grinned. Teeth white. Perfect. "Of course."
Neither looked at me. Why would they? F-rank trash wasn't worth consideration for a tournament. Couldn't even qualify.
The Duke's eyes flicked my way. Brief. Dismissive. Already writing me off. Again.
[QUEST UPDATE: Family relationship values revealed]
[Duke Marcus Thornwood: -40/100 (Disappointment)]
[Duchess Helena Thornwood: -20/100 (Pity)]
[Richard Thornwood: -60/100 (Disdain)]
[Sera Thornwood: -10/100 (Concern)]
[Isabella Thornwood: +15/100 (Affection)]
[Lyanna & Mira Thornwood: 0/100 (Indifference)]
Great. Starting from negative. Perfect.
"Adrian."
Looked up. The Duke stared at me. Testing.
"Yes, Father?"
Voice steady. Good. Knife and fork still in hands. Cold metal. Heavy.
"You'll remain here. Continue your... studies. Such as they are."
Translation: stay out of sight. Don't embarrass the family. Exist quietly until you fade away.
Old Adrian would've nodded. Accepted it. Crawled back to his room. Locked the door. Cried.
Not anymore.
"Actually, I was thinking of attending the academy."
Silence.
Different this time. Heavy. Shocked.
Helena's wine glass paused at her lips. Eyes widened. Just slightly.
Sera sat up straight. Leather creaked. Her chair. Old leather.
Isabella's fork clattered on her plate. Clank. Loud in the quiet.
The twins stopped giggling. Stared.
"The academy?" Helena set down her glass. Careful. Crystal on wood. Soft tink. "For... people like you?"
"They don't accept F-ranks, little brother." Richard's grin was vicious. Hungry. Like he wanted me to keep talking. Give him more ammunition. "Everyone knows that."
"They accept anyone who pays." Looked at the Duke. His lightning crackled louder. Snap-snap-crackle. Blue light reflected in his wine. "The family can afford it."
The Duke's expression didn't change. But his aura pressed down. Heavy. Oppressive. Like weight on my shoulders. Breathing got harder.
"You would waste our resources. Return in shame. Drag our name through mud."
"Maybe." Swallowed. Kept my voice even. "Or maybe I surprise you."
"You?" Richard laughed. Harsh sound. Bitter. "Surprise us? You can barely manifest your core."
Met his eyes. Fire danced in them. Literally. Orange flickers. Show-off.
"Stranger things have happened."
Helena's hands pressed flat on the table. Palms down. Smooth skin against dark wood. "Marcus, this is absurd. The boy is delusional."
"The boy is right here." Smiled. Not friendly. Teeth showed. "And I'm done being furniture."
Richard stood up. Fast. Chair scraped loud. SCREECH. Wood on stone. "You're done when Father says you're done."
"Sit. Down."
Duke's voice cracked like thunder. Actual thunder. BOOM. Rattled plates. Silverware jumped. Clatter-clatter.
Richard sat. Fast. Face pale. Lightning still crackled around the Duke's hands. Brighter now. Smell of ozone. Sharp. Metallic.
Those lightning-blue eyes locked on me. Heavy. Oppressive. A-rank aura pressed down harder. Breathing difficult. Chest tight. Original Adrian's memories screamed. Flee. Submit. Grovel.
I gritted my teeth. Jaw clenched. Muscles tight. Held his stare.
Sweat beaded on my forehead. Cold. Slid down my temple. Tickled.
"You have spirit today. How curious." The Duke leaned back. Aura eased. Just slightly. Could breathe again. "Very well. I'll allow it."
"Marcus—" Helena started. Breath caught. Shocked.
"Silence." He cut her off. Single word. Like a blade. She flinched. Mouth closed. Lips pressed thin.
He looked at me again. "Adrian wants to attend the academy. Let him. When he fails, the lesson will be learned."
Translation: go ahead. Embarrass yourself. Prove you're worthless. Then never ask for anything again.
"Thank you, Father."
The words tasted like ash. Bitter. But I said them anyway. Forced them out. Polite. Respectful.
"Dismissed." He waved his hand. Lightning flickered and died.
Stood up. Chair scraped. Scrape. Walked out. Didn't run. Didn't hurry. Back straight. Head up.
Boots thudded on carpet. Then stone. Thud-thud-thud. Behind me, whispers started. Hissing.
Made it to the hallway. Doors closed behind me. Heavy thud.
Hands started shaking. Trembling. Let them. Original Adrian's fear bleeding through. Adrenaline crash.
Leaned against the wall. Cold stone. Rough texture against my palm. Took deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.
[QUEST COMPLETE: FAMILY MEETING]
Ding.
[REWARDS DISTRIBUTED]
[+100 EXP]
[SKILL UNLOCKED: Basic Etiquette Lv.1]
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE: RISE FROM THE BOTTOM]
Looked at the new quest notification. Blue screen appeared. Soft hum.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST: RISE FROM THE BOTTOM
DIFFICULTY: D-RANK
DESCRIPTION: Your family thinks you're worthless. Prove them wrong. Advance your core from F to E-rank before academy enrollment (30 days).
REWARDS:
├─ 500 EXP
├─ Core advancement guaranteed
├─ Unlocked: [Basic Combat] skill
└─ +10 relationship with all family members
FAILURE: Family mockery intensifies
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thirty days. F to E-rank. Normally took months. Years for trash cores.
But I had a system. A very specific system.
Smiled. Real one this time. Felt it stretch my face. Different muscles.
"Time to get to work."
Pushed off the wall. Headed back to my room. Mind already racing. First step: find a partner. Original Adrian never even kissed a girl. Virgin body, virgin core.
Perfect for that first-time bonus the system mentioned.
Footsteps echoed. Thud-thud-thud. Servants scattered. Swish-swish of fabric. Whispers followed.
The real game started now.
[END CHAPTER 1]