Author’s Note: Before the Chapter begins, I wanted to give a quick heads-up. After this arc, a lot more characters will be introduced, so there will be regular POV changes between first-person and third-person whenever necessary.
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Thank you for reading and supporting the book so far! ❤️
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[POV CHANGE]
[System’s POV]
In a dark room lit only by a bright, curved monitor sat a young woman with messy black hair and blood-red eyes.
The space around her looked like it hadn’t seen daylight in years, a neglected nest of shut-in decay.
Empty, half-crushed ramen cups littered the desk and floor in sticky clusters alongside chocolate wrappers and half-eaten candy bars.
Cables snaked through the clutter. Empty energy-drink cans lay toppled among scattered snack wrappers, and the air hung heavy with the stale mix of instant noodles and unwashed laundry.
She looked every bit the reclusive otaku, an oversized headset resting crookedly over her tousled hair, the soft glow of the screen painting her pale face in cold light.
A loose, thin shirt hung off one shoulder, the fabric dipping low enough to reveal the soft, slightly sagging weight of her breasts. When she leaned forward against the edge of the table, the yielding flesh pressed together, looking impossibly soft.
Despite her careless appearance, there was something strikingly attractive about her in the monitor’s lonely light.
The young woman placed both hands on her cheeks and squealed in a dry, cracked voice. "Oh my god, my prince charming is so handsome."
On the curved screen was a ridiculously handsome young man with a tall, athletic frame. His eyes glowed bright blue, a mark shaped like a book wreathed in flame etched into his forehead, and a second mark glowed teal on the back of his hand.
The young man looked every inch a proper heartthrob, the type women obsessed over, and Luna Rose was one of them.
To be honest, she wasn’t completely sure who the man on her screen was or how she even got here.
All she knew was that a strange man had told her he would give her a handsome prince of her own. All she needed to do was guide him through the screen using the information in her guidelines. Once he became strong enough, she would be allowed to leave.
At first it sounded simple enough. But as time passed and the memories of her old life slowly returned, she began to understand she wasn’t merely helping a prince charming.
She was the voice behind the system in another world.
As for what mission the handsome man who had summoned her here wanted, she didn’t know. Neither did she know where she was, or what the system’s purpose was beyond creating strong enough main characters.
Luna Rose leaned in and pressed a kiss to the footage of Kaiser as he walked up the stairs of his childhood apartment.
A deep red flush painted Luna’s face as she trembled from just the sight of him.
"Would Kai get embarrassed if I told him I’m the one he told all those embarrassing things to?" She giggled and turned around in her chair. "Hehehe, my darling~"
Luna was about to continue her fangirl act while watching her host defeat his foes when a particularly odd word slipped from her self-proclaimed mother-in-law’s lips.
"Didn’t you ever wonder why your surname is Michael, not Dan? Or is my son that dense?"
Luna’s twisting and turning around the chair stopped in an instant as she stared hard at the screen, her hands still pressed to her cheeks. "Huh?"
Leaning forward, her chest pressing against the edge of the table, she quickly typed a message to her host.
[Come to think of it, host. Why is your name Michael? Did you already know he wasn’t your real father?]
Once she sent the message, Luna chewed anxiously at her nail. "Why did he hide it from me? Aren’t we partners? Why would he keep such a secret? Does he hate me?"
She reached for the keyboard to type another message since he hadn’t answered in ten seconds, only for him to suddenly scramble to his feet and bolt for the sink, throwing up into it.
"Husband!" she yelled, frantically typing messages on her keyboard, only for the Computer to censor them and send a simple [Are you alright, Host?]
Kaiser looked utterly shaken through the screen, the color drained from his face, his hands trembling at his sides even as he clenched them.
After staring at the sink for a long moment, he stumbled out of the passageway on unsteady legs and braced himself against the door frame.
"Mom," he muttered softly, deliberately trying to keep himself calm. "Did you mean what you just said? Dan isn’t my father?"
Kaiser’s mother nodded once before leaning back. "Have I once told you he was your father?"
Kaiser’s jaw clenched, his fist tightening until veins bloomed across his forearm. "If..." he stammered. "If he truly wasn’t my father, why did you just stand there and watch him do all that to me..."
His soft, calm voice rose slightly as he continued. "Why did you watch that bastard beat me? Why did you watch me desperately want his attention, when he didn’t share even a shred of blood with me?!"
Even while Kaiser poured out his heart, his mother looked indifferent, not sparing him even a glance, which sent a sharp ache through Luna’s chest.
The beautiful woman on the screen took a slow drag of her cigarette and spoke without much emotion. "Because you’re a Michael. Why would I stand in the way of your path to greatness? If you can’t even surpass a lowly one like him, how would you take me and you to that great place?"
Kaiser’s eyes widened in shock at his mother’s words. Even Luna’s eyes widened.
Michael? The great place? Nothing like that had shown up in her manual, even though it contained everything about this world and its families.
Luna’s gaze darkened. She leaned forward onto her keyboard and quickly typed the surname Michael into the computer’s search option.
Even though the Computer usually restricted certain words from reaching Kaiser, she was certain that if she gathered information about his father and fed it to him slowly, the computer wouldn’t catch on.
"Husband, wait for me."
However, even after a long search, Luna couldn’t find any relevant information about the Michael family, as if they didn’t exist at all.
Her gaze shifted back to the screen, where Kaiser stood staring at his mother before asking, "So you made me go through hell for character development? Just so you could meet this Michael bastard?!"
At the word bastard, his mother finally turned and glared at him with pure venom, letting the crushing weight of her aura press down on him. Even Luna could feel it through the screen.
"I won’t kill you because you’re his son, but don’t you dare speak ill of him again." She slowly released her aura, and a sharp gasp escaped Kaiser’s lips.
After a moment, she spoke again. "Don’t ask about who your father is or where he is. At the right time, you’ll know. For now, you’re too weak to pry into their mystery."
Luna’s jaw clenched. She began frantically typing at the keyboard, trying anything to find information about the Michael family.
She was sure this family couldn’t be a small one, not just because of her mother-in-law’s words, but because of the sheer fact that Kaiser had learned two skills on his own without the aid of the System. That alone made her question whether helping Kaiser was really the purpose she’d been brought here for.
If the Systems were made to create main characters out of nothing, and Kaiser already possessed the bloodline ability to reach the top without anyone’s help, then why give him a System?
Luna shook off the thought. Unlike her host, she wasn’t the smartest of people. All she could do now was find out what she could about the Michael family and help him rise to the top as soon as possible.
Kaiser wiped his forehead, using the back of his hand to slick his hair back.
Without sparing his mother another glance, he walked toward the door.
It was already clear to both him and Luna, sitting at her desk, that the strange woman had no plans of giving them further information.
However, when Kaiser reached the door, he turned back one final time to study his mother’s expression. Her face wore a wide smile, one full of utter amusement.
"On your way out, take the small gift box outside with you. If you can turn what’s inside into yours, then come find me for answers again."
She suddenly grinned, the gesture alone enough to make rage spike through Kaiser’s blood. "If you can’t, then I’ll personally come for your head, my dear little son."