"Aguh... uhu..."
Ren woke up to the sharp sound of his alarm. Annoyed, he reached his hand upward to turn it off, but his hand only grabbed air. After a few more attempts, Ren opened his eyes to the sunlight hitting his face.
He was sleeping on the floor beneath the window. The alarm was still ringing from his bed.
Still confused, Ren stood up, turned off the alarm, and wondered why he had been sleeping on the floor.
The moment he thought about it, his memories began to return.
The devil.
The deal he had made with him.
"What happened after I said yes?"
Ren questioned his memories and started remembering the devil's voice inside his head and the strong light that had flashed before his eyes.
"THE DEAL IS SET. FROM NOW ON, YOU ARE DEVIL-BORN. I WILL GIVE YOU SOME OF MY AUTHORITY, BUT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND IT IN ITS CURRENT FORM. SO, I CREATED A SYSTEM FORMAT THAT WILL HELP YOU."
"THE SYSTEM WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO FULFILL YOUR END OF THE DEAL. WE WILL MEET AGAIN WHEN YOU FINISH YOUR FIRST TARGET."
"The system..."
Ren now remembered everything. He had lost consciousness when the light entered his eyes. That meant the deal had been completed, and he now had the system—or whatever the devil had given him.
"THE SYSTEM WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO YOU."
The devil's words came back to him. The system was supposed to help him, but how could he communicate with it?
Ren thought there had to be a way to activate it.
'Is it a keyword I have to say, or do I just need to think about it?' A list of words came to his mind, and he began saying them out loud.
"Devil of Desire. Devil of Corruption. LEGSFORFE. System."
Nothing happened.
He tried everything that came to mind, but nothing worked.
Then he remembered that, when the devil was making the offer, he had mentioned something called the Devil Deal.
The moment Ren thought about those words, strange lights began appearing in front of him. They gathered together and started taking the shape of a window.
Name: Ren
Rank: Devil-Born
Corruption Essence: 0
Skills: [Eyes of Desire], [Deal Maker]
Partners: [None]
[Enhancements][List of Partners][Status Window]
[WELCOME, DEVIL-BORN]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO THROUGH THE BASICS OF THE SYSTEM AND YOUR DEAL?]
[YES] [NO]
Ren stared at the window interface that had appeared in front of him.
"Huh, so this is what he meant by the system. It sure feels like some kind of interface."
Ren looked at the options on the screen and thought about selecting yes.
[YES!]
[THIS SYSTEM IS A SIMPLIFIED FORMAT FOR THE AUTHORITY OF DESIRE AND CORRUPTION, AND THE USER/HOLDER OF THIS AUTHORITY IS KNOWN AS THE DEVIL-BORN.]
[THE SYSTEM DISPLAYS YOUR PROGRESS AND HELPS YOU USE THE AUTHORITY MORE EFFECTIVELY.]
[NAME: DISPLAYS THE USER'S NAME.]
[RANK: DISPLAYS THE USER'S CURRENT RANK. THE RANK CAN CHANGE WITH ENOUGH CORRUPTION ESSENCE. WITH EACH RANK CHANGE, THE INTERFACE CAN CHANGE OR ADD NEW FEATURES.]
[CORRUPTION ESSENCE: THE ENERGY PARTICLES THAT THE USER GAINS AS THEY CORRUPT GIRLS. IT CAN BE USED FOR ENHANCEMENTS, STATUS UPDATES, OR RANK UPGRADES.]
[SKILLS: DISPLAYS A LIST OF THE SKILLS THAT THE USER CURRENTLY HAS.]
[PARTNER: DISPLAYS THE CURRENT PARTNER THE USER HAS A DEAL WITH.]
[ENHANCEMENTS: A PLACE WHERE THE USER CAN OBTAIN TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT ENHANCEMENTS BY SPENDING CORRUPTION ESSENCE.]
[LIST OF PARTNERS: CONTAINS A LIST OF ALL GIRLS NEARBY WHO HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO FALL FOR CORRUPTION.]
[STATUS WINDOW: SHOWCASES THE USER'S STATUS, SUCH AS STRENGTH, STAMINA, ENERGY, SOUL, ETC.]
"That's a lot of things said all at once, but most of it is stuff I can understand just by looking at the interface. What's important is what I'm supposed to do."
As soon as Ren thought that, the system continued:
[DEVIL BORN, YOUR MISSION IS TO MAKE ONE OF THE GIRLS ON THE LIST MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU, SUCCESSFULLY CORRUPT HER, AND MAKE HER SUBMIT TO YOU USING ALL THE SKILLS AND TRICKS YOU HAVE.]
[SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETING THE TARGET WILL EARN YOU 500 CORRUPTION POINTS.]
[FAILING TO COMPLETE A TARGET WITHIN A 2-WEEK TIMESPAN WILL RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE LOSS OF THE SYSTEM.]
'I see. So I have a time limit on me. But what does it mean by "make a deal with"?'
[USER SKILLS]
[EYES OF DESIRE: GIVES THE USER THE ABILITY TO SEE HINTS OF THE TARGET'S DESIRES AND FRAGMENTS OF THEIR THOUGHTS | NO CE (CORRUPTION ESSENCE) NEEDED.]
[DEAL MAKER: ALLOWS THE USER TO MAKE AN UNSEEN BOUND DEAL WITH POTENTIAL PARTNERS BY OFFERING THEM THE DEAL. THE DEAL MUST CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING EXACT WORDS: "For seven nights, you will come to me and offer yourself." AFTER THE TARGET ACCEPTS, THEY WILL BE BOUND TO THE USER AND UNABLE TO BREAK THE DEAL. ONCE THE DEAL'S DURATION IS OVER, THE TARGET WILL BE RELEASED FROM THE BINDING | NO CE (CORRUPTION ESSENCE) NEEDED.]
The system was interacting with Ren directly through his thoughts. It took Ren a few more passes to fully understand it all.
'So, in short, I have an assistant to help me with my mission, which is to target girls on the list and get them to accept my deal through any means necessary. The arrangement lasts for seven nights, and I have a two-week time limit—which in reality means I only have one week to get my target to accept the deal. By corruption, it means I have to break them down and make them submit to me. Then I'll be rewarded with CE and have one thing erased by the devil.'
Ren sat down on the bed, closed his eyes, and thought about it for a long moment—everything that had happened that night and what the system was telling him so far. There were no real consequences, and to him, it felt... NEW.
A new experience, new goals, a new world, and new desires. Ren opened his eyes, smiled, and looked at the clock. It was getting close to 7:15 AM, time to get ready for school. He stood up and headed to the shower.
While washing himself, Ren scrolled through the list of candidates. A long line of girls appeared, each entry showing a name and the specific problem she was facing that made her a potential partner.
As he scrolled, he recognized several names and faces, but one in particular made him stop.
"Aoi."
Ren stared at her face, remembering the scene from the night before. The possibility of her taking his deal made him thoroughly excited. Ren smiled, stepped out of the shower, finished getting dressed, and headed off to school.