He woke with a sudden jolt, his eyes snapping open as he instinctively sat upright.
For a long moment, he simply stared at the unfamiliar room around him, blinking in confusion. The walls, furniture, and even the faint scent lingering in the air felt completely foreign.
"Where... am I?"
After a few moments, he slowly climbed out of bed. Despite having no memory of this place, his feet carried him through the room with surprising certainty. Almost as if guided by instinct, he walked down the hallway and stopped before a bathroom door.
A crease formed between his brows.
How did I know the bathroom was here?
Pushing the thought aside, he opened the door and stepped inside.
His gaze drifted toward the mirror.
The reflection staring back at him made him freeze.
Looking back at him was a young man with a perfectly symmetrical, strikingly handsome face. His obsidian-black hair framed sharp, refined features, while a pair of mesmerizing amethyst-purple eyes gave him the appearance of a world-class model.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt, revealing a sculpted physique with well-defined muscles and perfectly carved abs. Standing at around 5’10", the man in the mirror possessed the kind of appearance most people could only dream of.
His expression gradually twisted into disbelief.
"...That’s not me."
He was certain of it.
While he had always considered himself above average in looks, he had never been anywhere close to this level of perfection. The face staring back at him—and the body it belonged to—were undeniably someone else’s.
As he stood there in stunned silence, a sudden, searing pain exploded inside his head.
"Ugh...!"
He instinctively clutched his head, gritting his teeth so hard they nearly cracked as he fought back a scream. His knees nearly gave out beneath him.
Then, the memories came.
Countless fragments flooded his mind like a raging torrent. They weren’t his... yet they felt strangely familiar, as though he had lived them himself for years.
Faces.
Places.
Conversations.
An entire lifetime of experiences merged with his own.
The pain gradually subsided, leaving him breathing heavily as he leaned against the sink for support.
"...What the hell?"
He sorted through the newly acquired memories, his expression becoming increasingly bizarre.
"So... everyone in this world is a masochist?"
According to the memories, humiliation wasn’t considered shameful here—it was a source of pride and enjoyment. People willingly paid others to insult, degrade, and belittle them, treating it as a perfectly ordinary form of entertainment.
"...Huh?"
He blinked several times, convinced he had misunderstood something.
No.
The memories were perfectly clear.
"This world’s... completely insane."
He let out a long sigh.
There was no doubt about it anymore.
This wasn’t Earth.
He had somehow arrived in an entirely different world—one whose common sense couldn’t have been more alien to his own.
"...I need to clear my head."
Taking a deep breath, he walked toward the shower.
Nothing helped him think better than a cold shower.
He stripped off his clothes and stepped beneath the showerhead. A moment later, icy water cascaded over his body, washing away the sweat left behind by the painful influx of memories.
He closed his eyes and released a quiet, contented sigh.
His racing heartbeat gradually slowed.
Now that his mind was calmer, it was time to organize everything he had learned... and figure out exactly what kind of world he had found himself in.
According to the memories, everything had begun several decades ago.
A brilliant but utterly unhinged scientist, obsessed with achieving world peace, had devised a plan that would forever alter humanity. He created a mysterious airborne compound and released it across the entire planet.
The gas was engineered to fundamentally rewrite the human brain.
Instead of allowing pain to activate the brain’s normal alarm systems, it redirected those signals into the brain’s reward pathways. Physical or emotional discomfort would no longer produce fear or suffering. Instead, it triggered an overwhelming surge of pleasure, flooding the nervous system with dopamine, endorphins, and other feel-good neurotransmitters.
At the same time, the gas suppressed the instinctive survival response that told people to avoid harm. Without that negative feedback loop, pain ceased to be something the brain wanted to escape from.
The exact neurological explanation was far beyond him. Something about opioid receptors, dopamine pathways, and artificially rewiring the reward center...
Whatever the scientist had done, it had worked.
His impossible dream of world peace had become reality.
Wars vanished.
International conflicts disappeared.
Violent crime plummeted to almost nothing.
Humanity had entered an unprecedented era of peace.
...At a rather absurd cost.
Every single person on the planet had become a masochist.
He stood in silence for a moment before a small grin slowly spread across his face.
"So that’s how it is..."
If the memories were accurate, then he was the only exception.
A sadist...
In a world filled entirely with masochists.
The implications of that realization were staggering.
This world’s values, relationships, and social customs would be completely different from those of his previous world. Things that would normally provoke fear or outrage here might instead be welcomed—or even actively sought after.
"...Well," he muttered to himself with an amused chuckle, "this is going to be... interesting."
His grin widened ever so slightly as he shut off the shower.
Steam lingered in the bathroom as he turned off the shower.
Grabbing a towel from the rack, he quickly dried himself before wrapping it securely around his waist.
Running another towel through his damp obsidian-black hair, he stepped into the hallway and returned to his bedroom.
The unfamiliar room no longer felt quite as foreign.
He opened the wardrobe, surprised to find clothes that suited his taste—a fitted black T-shirt, dark shorts, and a lightweight gray hoddie.
Setting them on the bed, he continued drying his hair, occasionally glancing around the room as he tried to piece together the memories he had inherited.
"So this is my room now..."
Just as he reached for his shirt—
Click.
The bedroom door swung open without warning.
"There you are!"
A cheerful female voice echoed through the room.
He instinctively turned toward the doorway.
Standing there was a beautiful woman who appeared to be in her early thirties. Her long dark hair framed a refined face, and her warm violet eyes were filled with relief and affection.
She carried herself with effortless elegance, her mature beauty making it obvious where his new appearance had come from.
"Oh, good. Arthur, You’re finally awake." she said with a smile.
For a split second, neither of them spoke.
Then her eyes drifted toward the towel wrapped around his waist.
"..."
"..."
His expression Froze.
"Uh..."
The woman blinked once before letting out an embarrassed laugh and immediately averted her gaze.
"Oh! Sorry! I thought you’d already finished getting dressed."
She quickly raised a hand to cover her eyes though it was clear her eyes were travelling down to his semi–hard cock and turned toward the hallway.
"I’ll... wait outside. Get dressed first."
The door clicked shut just as quickly as it had opened.
Silence filled the room.
He stared at the closed door for a long moment before exhaling.
"...That was awkward."
Shaking his head, he slipped into his clothes at a much faster pace than before.
Whatever questions he had about this strange new world, it seemed they would have to wait.
His new mother, Amelia was clearly waiting outside—and judging by the warmth in her voice, she was eager to speak with him.