"What the hell is an omegaverse novel and why of all things was I given this to read?"
Ethan grumbled loudly as he glared at the offending title glowing on his cracked phone screen. His voice carried enough annoyance to make his neighbors think he was fighting someone.
He had been waiting since yesterday for the free book rotation to update on the reading app. Why? Because he was broke. Not just broke, God-level, wallet-bleeding broke.
Rent overdue. Job barely scraping minimum wage. Forget luxuries like coffee or gaming, right now, the highlight of his day was finishing his free reading quota to earn app points so he could unlock chapters of the one novel he actually cared about.
This was his pathetic little cycle:
*Wait for the free book to refresh
*Read the assigned random trash
*Collect points like a desperate squirrel
*Feed them to his favorite novel like offerings to a digital god
Tiring? Absolutely. But what could he do? It wasn't the author's fault that he was poor, and honestly, the random free picks weren't usually that bad. He'd read isekai, apocalypse survival, CEO melodrama..... some even hooked him enough to forget they were just stepping stones for points.
Until today.
Because today, the app had given him this.
He tilted the phone closer to his face, as if squinting would change reality. The cover screamed 18+ in bold red. The synopsis wasn't even pretending to be coy:
Dominant Alphas. Submissive Omegas. Knotting. Heat. Mating.
"...This is porn."
His soul left his body for a second. He threw the phone onto the bed like it burned him, groaning into his pillow.
"Why? Why this?!"
He didn't even know what the hell an Omegaverse was. He wasn't homophobic, he just didn't want to marinate his brain in heat cycles and bite marks!
But....
If he didn't read it, he wouldn't get his bonus points.
And if he didn't get those points, he couldn't unlock that one premium chapter waiting for him in his favorite novel.
His dignity vs. his desperate need for fictional dopamine.
Guess which one won?
With the defeated sigh of a man selling his soul for peanuts, Ethan snatched his phone and muttered, "Fine. Let's get this over with."
The prologue wasn't smut, thankfully.
If was a world explanation. An answer to his question about what an omegaverse was:
✔ Alphas: dominant, powerful, top of the hierarchy.
✔ Betas: the middle ground, average and boring.
✔ Omegas: rare, beautiful, scent-driven, the ultimate weakness for Alphas.
Then came the plot:
The novel followed a destined pair, an Alpha male lead and his sweet Omega heroine. They were supposed to live happily ever after. Until a scheming villain Omega appeared. This bastard seduced the Alpha for status, dumped him after leeching his wealth, and shattered his heart so badly that he snapped.
The Alpha—once the perfect, gentle male lead—descended into darkness, becoming the villain who destroyed their world.
Ethan blinked at the screen, then muttered, "…Damn."
Okay, that was actually kind of spicy. Not that he'd admit it out loud.
Still, the plot looked pretty interesting, was the next thought that crossed his mind. He couldn't help wondering how evil or stupid that villain Omega had to be to pull something like that.
Curious more than ever, Ethan was about to dive into the first chapter when—
Grrrrowl.
His stomach protested loudly. Right. He hadn't eaten a thing since leaving work hours ago.
"Ugh, fine. Food first."
He dragged himself to the kitchen, throwing some noodles into a pot while tossing leftover meat into the microwave. As the food cooked, boredom hit and then temptation.
One chapter. Just one to pass the time.
He went back to his bedroom, lay across his bed, and tapped Chapter 1.
Ten minutes later, he was fifteen chapters in.
Twenty-three minutes later, thirty chapters gone.
Half an hour later, he had devoured fifty chapters without so much as blinking.
Somewhere between a particularly dramatic kiss scene and the Omega villain's smug laugh, his microwave timer went off in the kitchen. But Ethan didn't hear it.
He didn't hear the microwave timer go off. He didn't notice the stove still burning.
All he knew was the screen in his hands, the words pulling him in, and the tightening knot of obsession that whispered, one more chapter.
Until his sleep-deprived eyes finally surrendered. The phone slipped from his fingers, landing softly beside him as his breathing evened out.
And Ethan Gray.… drifted off completely.
*******
Cough. Cough. COUGH.
Ethan's lungs spasmed as acrid smoke clawed down his throat. He jolted awake, blinking into… darkness? No! black, roiling smoke thick enough to choke on.
His room was on fire.
On. Fire.
Orange flames licked up the curtains, devouring them like paper. The bed creaked ominously beneath him as sparks spat against his sheets. His once safe, tiny apartment was now an inferno.
"What the—cough—hell?!"
His brain scrambled. Stove. The stove. He'd left it on.
"Shit—shit—shit—"
He rolled off the bed, hitting the floor hard, lungs screaming for air. He tried crawling, but every breath burned. His vision blurred. His heart pounded so hard it hurt.
This is how I die? Like this? From a f**king free book?!
Flames roared louder, closer, heat searing his skin.
He didn't even have time to scream again before his body gave out. His fingers slipped on the floor.
The world tilted and then everything went black.
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