The morning sun filtered through the gaps in the shed's wooden walls, painting thin lines of gold across Rem's makeshift bed of old sacks and salvaged cloth. She'd been awake for minutes already, staring at the notification that burned in her vision like an accusation she couldn't escape.
[Social Challenge: Romantic Interest]
[Time Remaining: 6 hours]
[Warning: Continued refusal will result in escalating penalties]
Six hours to spend time with someone who had "romantic interest" in her, which the system had helpfully illustrated with Kaisen's face hovering in her vision like some kind of twisted dating app notification. The whole thing made her want to punch something, preferably Aria's smug divine face, but since the goddess wasn't available for violence, Rem settled for glaring at the notification until her eyes hurt.
"Escalating penalties?" she muttered, sitting up and immediately regretting it as her body protested. Everything ached from yesterday's sword practice and the lingering soreness from her desperate fight with the bandits. Her shoulders burned, her thighs felt like someone had replaced the muscles with hot iron, and her lower back had developed a persistent knot that made her wince every time she moved wrong. This body was getting stronger, slowly adapting to the physical demands she'd been putting on it, but the process fucking hurt.
She pulled up her full status screen, squinting at the numbers in the dim light:
[Name: Rem]
[Level: 1]
[Class: None]
[STATS]
STR: 8
DEX: 12
END: 10
VIT: 10
CHA: 19
LST: 10
[RESOURCES]
HP: 100/100
SP: 100/100
[LP: 275]
Two hundred seventy-five Lust Points—still frustratingly short of the five hundred she needed for Basic Strike. The quest would net her another hundred if she completed it, bringing her to three seventy-five, which was progress but still not enough. More importantly though, refusing the quest meant facing whatever mysterious punishment the system had lined up, and given Aria's track record of creative cruelty, that wasn't a risk worth taking.
The goddess had already proven she had no problem making Rem's existence a living hell. The transformation itself had been just the opening scene, she shivered unintentionally.
"Fine," she said to the empty shed, her voice rough from sleep and frustration. The word hung in the still morning air like a white flag of surrender. "Thirty minutes with the bastard, get the LP, never speak to him again."
Even as the words left her mouth, some part of her knew they were probably a lie. This world had a way of forcing her into situations she'd rather avoid, pulling her into the story she'd written whether she wanted to be part of it or not.
She dressed in the modest casual outfit she'd bought from the system store—simple jeans that actually fit her new proportions and a fitted top that managed to be comfortable without being revealing. The short sword went on her hip, the familiar weight a small comfort in a life that had become fundamentally uncomfortable. Before leaving, she splashed some water from her canteen on her face, trying to wash away the exhaustion that had settled into her bones along with the soreness.
The walk through the waking city gave her time to think, which was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, she could strategize about how to handle this quest with minimal emotional involvement. On the other hand, thinking too much about her situation—about being trapped in this world, about the corruption slowly taking hold, about the moral implications of letting story events play out when she could prevent suffering—led nowhere good.
The edge of the open fields was quiet at this hour, with most people already out tending their fields or opening their shops for the early customers. The morning had that peculiar quality of new beginnings, all soft light and birdsong and the smell of dew on grass, which felt almost cruel given what Rem was being forced to do. Nothing about this quest felt like a new beginning—it felt like another step down a path she'd never chosen to walk.
She found Kaisen exactly where some instinct told her he'd be, lying flat on his back in the grass near the barrier gate with one arm thrown over his eyes while the other rested on his stomach. He looked completely at peace, like someone without a care in the world, and the sight irritated her more than it probably should have.
How could he be so relaxed when the world outside the dome was full of monsters? When bandits were planning an attack that would happen tomorrow? When people's lives hung in the balance of events neither of them fully understood yet? he even had an op system for gods sake!
But that was the thing about protagonists, wasn't it? They existed in their own bubble of narrative protection, confident that things would work out because they were the ones doing it. Never mind the collateral damage, never mind the side characters who died to motivate their growth, never mind anything except their own journey toward power and glory.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" she asked, stopping a few feet away and crossing her arms.
Kaisen lifted his arm just enough to peek at her with one eye, and that easy grin spread across his face like sunlight breaking through clouds. "Not really," he said, voice warm and lazy. "Want to join me?"
She opened her mouth to refuse because every instinct screamed at her to maintain distance from this walking disaster of harem protagonist energy. But the quest timer ticked down in her peripheral vision—five hours and fifty-three minutes remaining—and the threat of "escalating penalties" loomed like a sword over her head. So instead of walking away like she wanted to, she dropped down onto the grass a few feet away, maintaining what she hoped was an obviously deliberate distance.
The grass was still cool and slightly damp with morning dew, soaking through her jeans within seconds. Overhead, the dome's energy barrier shimmered faintly, a constant reminder that they lived in a deluded safety surrounded by a world that wanted to kill them. Beyond the barrier, the forest pressed close, ancient trees with branches that seemed to reach toward the dome like grasping fingers.
"Didn't take you for a cloud-watching type," Kaisen said after a moment, settling back into his previous position with his hands behind his head.
"I'm not," Rem replied, keeping her voice flat and unencouraging. "Just killing time."
"Fair enough." He was quiet for a moment, and she thought maybe that would be the end of their conversation—thirty minutes of awkward silence followed by quest completion and blessed separation. But then he spoke again, his voice taking on a more thoughtful quality that didn't match his lazy posture. "Most people in this city work themselves to exhaustion every day. Wake up, tend the farms, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. It's like they've forgotten how to just... exist, you know? Like they're so focused on surviving that they never actually live. i like miss Elise, at least she is a little more enthusiastic"
Rem glanced over at him, surprised by the philosophical turn. His face was tilted toward the sky, expression distant like he was seeing something beyond the dome and the clouds and the endless blue above them. "And you're different?"
"Maybe. I don't know." He lifted one hand, tracking a cloud's progress across the sky with an outstretched finger. "I just keep feeling like I'm waiting for something. Like there's supposed to be more than this, more than tending fields and growing old, dying without ever seeing what's beyond these walls. Does that make sense?"
It made more sense than he could possibly know. That feeling of waiting, of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, of life being somehow fundamentally off-kilter—she understood it on a bone-deep level that had nothing to do with being trapped in this world and everything to do with having always felt that way, even before Aria's punishment. Maybe that's why she'd spent so much time writing stories about other people's adventures instead of having any of her own.
"What about you?" Kaisen asked, turning his head to look at her properly. "You planning to stay here forever? Farm wheat until you die?"
"Hell no." The words came out more vehement than she'd intended, revealing too much of the desperate need to escape that drove her forward. "This is just temporary until I figure out my next move."
"Where would you go?"
"Anywhere that's not here. Maybe one of the big cities." She paused, considering the question more seriously than it probably deserved. "Or maybe I'd just keep moving, see what's out there beyond the domes."
"Dangerous life."
"Better than boring."
He laughed at that, the sound genuine and unguarded in a way that made something in her chest tighten uncomfortably. When he smiled like that, with real amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes, she could see exactly why people fell for him. It wasn't just the handsome face or the easy charm—it was the way he seemed fully present in the moment, giving his complete attention to whoever he was with like they were the most interesting person in the world.
It was a skill, she realized. Maybe not a conscious one, maybe not even manipulative, but still a skill that drew people to him like moths to flame.
"Sometimes I think about just walking through that gate," Kaisen said, gesturing toward the barrier, "and seeing how far I could get before—"
A sound cut through their conversation, high-pitched and desperate, the unmistakable cry of a child in terrible distress. It echoed from beyond the dome, somewhere in the forest depths, carrying with it all the primal fear of something young and helpless facing mortal danger.
Kaisen was on his feet before Rem's brain had fully processed what she'd heard, all the lazy relaxation evaporating from his posture in an instant. His whole body had gone tense and alert, head cocked toward the sound, and she could see the exact moment when he made his decision—the shift in his expression from listening to acting.
"Wait—" she started, scrambling to her own feet, but he was already moving toward the gate.
"Someone needs help," he said over his shoulder, not slowing down.
"That could be a trap!" she called after him, her mind racing through the possibilities. Monsters out here mimicked sounds—she knew that, had written it into her worldbuilding specifically because it was creepy and dangerous. "You know monsters can mimic human voices, right?"
"Could be." He reached the gate where a bored-looking guard barely glanced up from examining his fingernails. "Could also be a kid dying while we stand here debating." Do these old fools not care who went by or not!?
And then he was through, disappearing into the tree line without hesitation, without backup, without even a fucking weapon visible in his hands.
"Protagonist syndrome," Rem muttered, but her feet were already carrying her after him at a run. Not because she particularly cared about his safety on a personal level, but because letting the main character die before the first arc would completely derail everything. She needed him alive for the story to work, needed him to reach his hero moment with Elise tomorrow, needed the plot to progress the way she'd written it so she could navigate this nightmare world with at least some foreknowledge of what was coming.
Also, and she hated admitting this even to herself, the thought of someone—even someone fictional, even someone who might not actually exist—dying alone in the forest while she stood safely behind the barrier made something twist uncomfortably in her gut.
The guard gave her the same disinterested look as she passed through, clearly used to people coming and going through the gate. The moment she stepped beyond the dome's protection, the world shifted in a way that was both subtle and profound. The air felt different against her skin—wilder, less tamed, carrying scents of rot and growth and ancient things that had never bowed to human civilization. The temperature dropped a few degrees, or maybe it just felt colder knowing there was nothing between her and whatever lurked in the shadows.
Kaisen moved through the underbrush with surprising confidence for someone who'd probably never been more than a few hundred feet from the dome's edge. He followed the crying with single-minded focus, ducking under low branches and stepping over roots without hesitation. Rem stayed close behind him, one hand on her sword hilt, her eyes scanning constantly for threats.
The forest closed in around them quickly, ancient trees with trunks thick enough that three people couldn't have linked arms around them. Moss hung from branches like tattered curtains, and the canopy above blocked out most of the sunlight, creating a perpetual twilight even in the middle of the day. The crying continued, leading them deeper along what might have once been a game trail but had long since been reclaimed by nature.
"This feels wrong," Rem said, keeping her voice low. Every survival instinct she'd developed over the past her life was screaming warnings, her skin prickling with the certainty that they were walking into something very bad.
"Yeah." Kaisen didn't look back, but his hand had moved to his hip, fingers flexing in a way that suggested he was ready to draw a weapon at a moment's notice. "Stay alert."
The crying stopped.
They both froze mid-step, the sudden silence somehow more terrifying than the sound had been. Rem's heart hammered against her ribs as she scanned the trees around them, trying to see past the shadows and the hanging moss to whatever was watching them. Because something was definitely watching them—she could feel eyes on her skin, could sense the weight of predatory attention in the stillness.
"We should head back," she said, hating how her voice wavered but unable to control it. Fear had wrapped itself around her throat like cold fingers, making it hard to breathe properly.
Kaisen nodded slowly, starting to turn. "Yeah, let's—"
The underbrush exploded.
The creature that burst from the trees defied easy description, Rem's brain stuttering as it tried to process what she was seeing. Bear-sized body covered in matted dark fur, legs thick as tree trunks ending in claws that looked like they could tear through stone. But the head was wrong, so fundamentally wrong that looking at it made her stomach lurch—a dog's skull stretched and twisted into something nightmarish, jaw distending impossibly wide to reveal rows upon rows of teeth that had no business existing in nature.
Yellow eyes fixed on them with terrible intelligence, and when it roared, the sound bypassed her ears and went straight into her bones, vibrating through her skeleton with predatory promise.
Rem's body locked up completely, terror flooding her system so fast and completely that she couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything except stand there and wait to die. This wasn't like fighting bandits. This wasn't like anything she'd experienced. This was a monster, a real fucking monster from the depths of her nightmares made flesh, and she was going to die here in the forest without ever figuring out how to escape this cursed world—
A blade appeared in Kaisen's hand, materializing from nothing in a shimmer of light that would have been beautiful if she wasn't too terrified to appreciate it. Short sword, simple design, but unmistakably real and sharp and ready. He probably bought it from the system, store.
"Rem, RUN!" he shouted, already moving to intercept the creature with speed that should have been impossible.
But her legs wouldn't work. Fear had turned her muscles to stone, rooted her to the spot as firmly as the ancient trees around them. She could only watch, frozen and useless, as Kaisen engaged the monster in a fight that would have looked choreographed if the stakes weren't so horrifyingly real.
He was good—better than he had any right to be with no formal training, moving with a grace and precision that could only come from his system's assistance. The blade flashed as he aimed for the creature's eyes, trying to blind it, but the monster twisted away with disturbing speed and swiped with those massive claws. Kaisen rolled aside, came up slashing at its legs, trying to cut its hamstring... if it had those and reduce its mobility.
But the creature was huge and fast, clearly designed by whatever twisted evolution or dark magic had spawned it to be an apex predator. One mistake would end Kaisen, would paint the forest floor with his blood and leave him as nothing but another meal for this nightmare thing.
The monster caught him with a glancing blow that sent him stumbling backward, his feet tangling in roots. He went down hard, and the creature was on him in an instant, jaws opening impossibly wide—
Something broke through Rem's paralysis. Not bravery, not heroism, nothing so noble. Just the cold practical realization slamming into her frozen mind: if Kaisen died here, everything fell apart. The story needed him alive. She needed him alive. Without him, tomorrow's ambush would go differently, Elise would die or be captured, the plot would derail completely, and Rem would be lost in a world she no longer understood with no map to navigate by. She needed that bastard alive!!
Her sword was in her hand before she'd consciously decided to draw it, her legs carrying her forward in a charge that was more terror than courage. The scream that tore from her throat was pure panic given voice, and when her blade connected with the creature's flank, she had no idea if it was skill or pure dumb luck that made the edge bite deep enough to draw blood.
The monster roared and turned on her with those terrible yellow eyes, and suddenly Rem was facing down death with nothing but a barely-adequate sword and training that consisted of a few hours of practice swings. This was insane. This was suicide. She was going to die because she'd been too stupid to run when Kaisen told her to—
But he used the distraction she'd created, driving his blade deep between the creature's ribs with a grunt of effort. The monster thrashed, nearly catching Rem with its claws, and she slashed wildly at anything she could reach. Her blade found something soft and vital purely by accident, and the creature's legs buckled.
They fell on it together in desperate, uncoordinated chaos, Kaisen going high while Rem stayed low, both striking whenever they saw an opening. The creature was powerful but confused by having two targets, its attention split between them, and finally—finally—Kaisen's blade found its throat. Blood sprayed hot across Rem's face and arms as the thing crashed down like a felled tree, twitching once before going still.
She stood there gasping for breath, her entire body shaking so hard she could barely keep her grip on her sword. Blood—dark and wrong-smelling, nothing like anything natural—covered her weapon and spattered across her clothes. Her first real monster kill, and she felt like she might throw up or pass out or both at the same time.
Notifications flooded her vision but she barely registered them:
[Social Challenge Complete!]
[Reward: 100 LP]
[First Monster Kill!]
[Reward: 150 LP]
[Current Total: 525 LP]
"You okay?" Kaisen asked already next to her, his voice rough with exertion. He was checking a shallow cut on his arm, blood seeping between his fingers.
She nodded slowly, not trusting her voice yet. They were alive. Against all odds and her complete lack of real combat experience, they were both alive. The quest was complete, she had the LP she needed, and they'd both survived their first real monster encounter. It felt unreal.
Movement in the trees made them both freeze.
Two more of the creatures emerged from the underbrush, bigger than the first, their eyes reflecting the dim forest light like coins at the bottom of a well. They looked at their dead packmate, then at Rem and Kaisen, and the intelligence in their gaze was somehow worse than mindless hunger would have been.
"Okay," Kaisen said carefully, his voice taking on a forced calm that didn't quite hide the fear underneath, "new plan. We run."
"Ye.... yeah" Rem agreed, backing up slowly, "running sounds really fucking good right now."
They bolted.
The forest became a blur of green and brown, branches whipping past to leave stinging welts across any exposed skin. Rem's lungs burned and her legs screamed in protest but stopping meant death, so she pushed harder, matching Kaisen's pace as they crashed through undergrowth with all the grace of drunk elephants. Behind them, the sounds of their pursuers were close enough to make her skin crawl—heavy footfalls, the snap of branches, the occasional hunting call that set her teeth on edge.
"There!" Kaisen shouted, pointing at a narrow ravine cutting through the rocks ahead.
They didn't slow down, just threw themselves at it and hoped for the best. The slide down was barely controlled chaos, scraping against stone and roots, picking up new bruises to add to her collection before they tumbled into a small cave opening barely big enough for both of them. The bear-dogs circled above, too large to fit through the narrow gap, their snarls of frustration echoing off stone as they tried to find a way down. clawing in a desperate but hopeless attempt to reach them.
Rem collapsed against the cave wall, her heart feeling like it might explode out of her chest. Every breath hurt, her sides cramping from the sprint, but they were alive. Trapped, but alive.
"Fuck!" she gasped out, "fuck, we're alive."
"For now," Kaisen said, but he was grinning despite the blood and dirt covering him, high on adrenaline and the simple fact of survival. "Those things can wait us out."
As if in answer, the sky opened up and rain began to fall in heavy sheets, turning the world outside their small shelter into a curtain of water. The bear-dogs were quick to lose interest in such small prey, it seems they were not quite vengeful as she would have though. but now Rem and Kaisen were trapped for a different reason—the rain was too heavy to travel through safely, and the cave offered the only real shelter in sight.
The initial downpour had soaked them both before they'd fully retreated into the cave's depths, leaving their clothes clinging uncomfortably. Rem pushed wet hair out of her face, trying to wring some of the water from her shirt without much success. When she looked up, she found Kaisen staring very intently at the cave ceiling like it held the secrets of the universe written in ancient stone.
His face had gone bright red, the flush visible even in the dim light.
It took her a moment to realize why, and when she did, she felt her own cheeks heat despite the cold. Her wet shirt had gone nearly transparent, the fabric plastered to her skin in a way that left absolutely nothing to imagination. Every curve was outlined, every detail visible, and Kaisen was clearly struggling not to look while also completely failing at looking away.
"Oh for fuck's sake," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest in a futile attempt at modesty. She was not used to this feeling, she felt embarrassed way too much nowadays.
"Sorry!" Kaisen blurted, still not looking at her directly. "I wasn't—I mean I was but I didn't mean to—it's just—you're—" He gave up on forming coherent sentences and covered his face with his hands like that would somehow help.
The genuine embarrassment was almost endearing, though she'd never admit it out loud. Most guys would have leered or made some crude comment or taken it as an invitation to be creepy. It felt good somehow.
"Just... don't be weird about it," she said finally, when the silence stretched too long.
"Not being weird. Completely normal. Very normal levels of normal happening right now." He was definitely being weird.
To fill the awkward silence that followed, Rem asked, "So when did you get the sword?"
His hands dropped from his face, expression shifting to something she couldn't quite read. Confusion mixed with wonder, maybe, or concern mixed with excitement. "Few days ago. It just... i bought it from a merchant passing by."
It was obviously the system. His Lust Domination System had activated, right on schedule. The timing matched up perfectly with his first encounter with Elise, the catalyst that would kickstart his protagonist journey toward building a harem and becoming overpowered. Plus no merchant would pass through here.
"Oh? i see, must have cost a bit" she asked carefully, trying not to sound too interested.
"Not really, the merchant was kind enough to give me a discount" He pulled the blade out again, studying it in the dim light filtering through the cave entrance. "It's just a basic weapon though, not much useful against monsters, even that bear dog thing was almost unaffected, im pretty sure that its a low rank monster too"
He was pretty good at lying, ofcourse thanks to her. It was obvious he could not just expose the system like that, on top of being called crazy he would be called a pervert, well he was a pervert though.
And Rem was just... what? A side character in his adventure? A observer watching from the shadows while the real story happened to someone else?
"Why did you come after me?" Kaisen asked suddenly, derailing her spiral into existential dread. "Back there, when I ran into the forest. You could have stayed safe in the city."
"Couldn't let you die out here alone."
"But why?" He turned to look at her properly, genuine curiosity in his eyes. "We barely know each other."
Because you're the protagonist and I need you alive for this world to make sense, she thought. Because without you, the story I wrote falls apart and I'm lost in chaos with no way to navigate. Because I'm using you as my map through a nightmare I created.
But out loud she just said, "Didn't want it on my conscience."
He seemed to accept that answer, nodding slowly. They fell into easier conversation after that, trading carefully edited stories about their pasts and their plans for the future. He talked about his dreams of adventure, of seeing what lay beyond the dome cities, of making something of himself instead of just farming until he died. She listened and offered vague responses about wanting the same thing, just... elsewhere, somewhere far away from some divine punishment systems and quests.
The rain continued to pour outside their small shelter, steady and relentless, trapping them in this tiny bubble of stone and shadows. Despite the uncomfortable situation, despite her wet clothes and the lingering adrenaline from the fight, despite everything, Rem found herself not completely hating his company. He was earnest in a way that didn't feel calculated, genuinely excited about the idea of adventure rather than power or glory.
Maybe he wasn't as simple as she'd written him. Maybe the system was changing him in ways she couldn't predict. Or maybe she'd never really understood her own creation in the first place.
Time passed slowly in the cave, measured in the gradual slowing of her heartbeat and the way the adrenaline slowly drained from her system, leaving behind exhaustion. They talked about nothing important—favorite foods, childhood memories that were probably half-invented, dreams that might never come true. The kind of conversation that existed purely to fill silence and didn't require either of them to be too honest.
Eventually the storm passed, leaving the forest dripping and steaming in the late afternoon sun. They climbed carefully out of the ravine, both exhausted and muddy but alive, and that was what mattered. The walk back to the dome was quiet, neither of them having much energy left for conversation after everything that had happened.
The barrier came into view just as evening started to settle over the city, warm light spilling from windows and the smell of cooking fires drifting on the air. The familiar glow of the dome had never looked more welcoming, more like home, even though Rem knew it wasn't really home and might never be.
The guards at the gate were already staring as they approached—two people returning from the forest looking like they'd been through a war, covered in mud and blood and various injuries all over.
But it wasn't just the guards watching.
Lady Elise Hartwell stood at the gate with her attendants arrayed behind her like well-dressed soldiers, and the expression on her face when she saw them together could have frozen fire. Her posture was rigid, hands clenched at her sides hard enough that her knuckles had gone white, and her eyes—gods, her eyes held murder.
Kaisen noticed her and waved casually despite looking like he'd been through hell. "Hey, Elise!"
Rem would have preferred to avoid this entire situation, maybe slip past while Kaisen distracted her with his oblivious charm, but Elise's cold gaze locked onto her before she could move. Those eyes traveled over their disheveled state, taking in the obvious signs of combat, the way they'd walked back together through the forest, the shared trauma of survival written in every bruise and bloodstain.
"Kaisen," Elise said, her voice sharp enough to cut steel. "A word."
Her attention shifted fully to Rem, and the jealousy and hostility radiating from her was unmistakable, almost physical in its intensity.
"Both of you," she added, tone leaving absolutely no room for argument or escape.
Rem exchanged a glance with Kaisen, who just shrugged helplessly like he had no idea what he'd done wrong. Which, knowing him, he probably didn't.
Tomorrow was the bandit ambush. Tomorrow everything would change, the story would reach its first major turning point, and Kaisen would have his chance to be the hero.
But tonight, apparently, she had to deal with a tsundere's jealous rage while covered in monster blood and too exhausted to properly appreciate the absurdity of it all. She was blunt when exhausted.