Nathan came to with a choked gasp, lungs seizing like he'd been drowning underwater for hours.
He jerked upright—bare skin scraping pavement.
Pain hit him second.
Light third.
He blinked. The sky overhead was gray, flat, overcast. Clouds hanging low like a dreary blanket. The distant sound of traffic buzzed in the background. A dog barked. Somewhere nearby, a siren wailed. Horns honked. Feet shuffled past.
Then smell hit him—concrete, damp air, city grime.
Nathan sat up slowly, body aching like he'd been thrown off a cliff, but…
He was alive.
Whole.
"What the fuck…?"
He looked around.
He was sitting in an alleyway. A real, honest-to-god alley—dumpsters, beer cans, a torn pizza box, and a half-dead rat chewing on a cigarette filter.
Beyond the alley's mouth, a busy street pulsed with normal life.
Not fantasy. Not magic. Not another world.
Or… was it?
He stumbled to his feet, clothes clinging to his skin like they'd just been recreated on him. Jeans, a black hoodie, scuffed sneakers. Nothing futuristic. No runes or sci-fi armor.
He stepped out of the alley and onto the sidewalk—and was instantly hit by the cold wind of the city.
People bustled past him. Office workers. Students. Tourists. Street vendors. Nothing felt strange. The signs were in English. The cars were modern. An ad on a bus stop showed the same model of energy drink he used to buy back home.
"No way… this can't be Earth… can it?"
He stood there, heart pounding.
Was this just… some random city? Did I wake up somewhere else? Or was this some mirror version of Earth?
Then—
DING.
Something buzzed in his brain. Like a pop-up notification behind his eyes.
A glowing box flickered into his vision.
[Welcome, Nathan Cross]
[Soul Reconstruction: 100%]
[Post-Mortal Status: Confirmed Deceased]
[Skill Installed]
[Skill Title: TAG]
[Status: Passive Mode]
[???: Locked]
Nathan blinked.
A transparent UI hovered in his periphery, faint and fading like a hallucination.
[TAG: Activated]
Suddenly—
The world glitched.
Just for a second.
The people around him shimmered—and then, floating above their heads, words appeared.
Tags.
Glowing. Simple. Color-coded.
Floating above every woman's head like some twisted reality filter.
A mom walking her toddler had:
[Cheating Wife] [MILF] on her head.
A teenage girl texting on her phone:
[Virgin] [Exhibitionist] [Humiliation]
A jogger in spandex:
[Married] [Piercing] [Anal]
Nathan froze. His throat dried up.
He turned—more women, more tags.
[Ahegao]
[Chastity]
[Bimbo]
[Public Use]
[Orgasam Denial]
"What the Fuck"
It wasn't a dream.
He could see them.
Every filthy, depraved detail of who these women were behind closed doors—or who they would become—was laid bare, floating in the air like character stats in a hentai game.
Another notification popped up.
[TAG Skill: Observation Mode Active]
[???: Locked]
[Unlock Conditions Unknown]
[Note: Subjects are unaware of their own tags.]
He took a shaky breath.
"Okay… okay, I died," he muttered. "Skull cracked open. Last thing I remember was—"
Tasha.
Wet throat. Her tears. Jeremy's scream.
The dumbbell.
He touched his head. No blood. No scar. No pain.
Just a faint echo of the impact. Like memory residue.
"So I died. Then… I woke up here? But this looks exactly like Earth…"
He staggered into a diner and sat in the far back, still shaken.
No one noticed. No one stared. Not even the waitress.
Then he looked at her.
Blonde. Maybe mid-20s. Big brown eyes. Freckles. Buttoned blouse, tired expression. She poured coffee with her hips swaying like she didn't even know she was doing it.
[Insecure] [Craves Validation] [Slut Potential: 78%]
Nathan coughed. "Slut potential?!"
The number was in yellow. Beneath it, a progress bar hovered—barely past halfway.
[Corruption Threshold: 53%]
[Most Likely Kink: Praise Play]
He swallowed hard.
When she turned and caught his eyes, she blinked… then smiled. Flushed, like something stirred in her. She walked over, placing a menu down.
"Morning, sir. Want anything?"
Her voice was sweet. Nervous.
Too nervous for a normal greeting.
Nathan's brain burned.
Did she feel it too?
Or was it just him, aware of how fucked up this all was?
"I'll just take coffee," he said.
She nodded, hands slightly trembling. "Coming right up."
He watched her walk away.
[Tight Body] [Desperate to be Used] [Affair Fantasies]
Nathan leaned back in the booth, breath heavy.
This wasn't a fantasy world.
This wasn't some RPG dungeon crawl.
It was Earth—or a copy of it. Normal people. Normal buildings. Phones. Cars.
But he wasn't normal anymore.
He had a goddamn UI in his head.
A voyeuristic curse.
A twisted new lens.
Every woman he passed on the street, in the diner, on the bus—he could see their secret selves. Their dark desires. The porn tags no one was ever meant to know.
But that was it.
Just see. Not touch. Not change.
He brought up the UI again.
[TAG Skill: Observation Only]
[???: Locked]
[Unlock Conditions: ???]
Nathan hissed. "So I'm just… stuck watching for now?"
Then another line blinked:
[Warning: Limited Time Event Will start in 00:10]
"…What the hell does that mean?"
But the system didn't answer only the timer started to go down.