Eiron was still crouching, panting like someone who had survived a gang rape orchestrated by nature itself.

  "Yeah... I'm alive. Somehow. Crazy, starving, half-naked, but alive... wait, I’m not half-naked—I'm completely naked!"

  He reached out with a trembling hand to wipe sweat, blood, and dirt from his face... then remembered.

  The system.

  "That damned system..." he whispered, like someone realizing he'd just joined a game without reading the rules.

  A blue screen appeared, as if it had been waiting for that whisper for centuries:

  ---

  [Welcome back, Eiron Misaki!]

  [Reminder: You have been granted the “Maximum Desire” system — unstable beta version.]

  [Pyer Level: 1/???]

  [Css: Undefined (css will be determined by your upcoming actions)]

  [New skill point avaible]

  [Vital Resources:]

  ? Special Power Points: 0 (used to activate special skills and abilities or to negotiate with the system)

  ? Lust: 100/100 (decreases with use, increases when exposed to arousal, temptation, or perverse thoughts)

  ---

  [Active Sexual Skills:]

  ? Seductive Touch – Lv.1: Increases seduction chance by 10% upon physical contact.

  ? Aroma of Temptation – Lv.1: Emits a pheromone aura affecting compatible beings.

  ? Whisper of Allure – Lv.1: Whispered words that emotionally and sexually influence highly instinctual beings.

  ---

  [Active Combat Skills:]

  ? Survival Rush – Lv.1: When health drops below 30%, attack strength increases by 20% for 10 seconds (activates once every 24 hours).

  ? Groin Kick – Lv.1: A targeted strike to sensitive areas (effective against males or females depending on weakness points).

  ---

  [Note:]

  Combat performance is not guaranteed in emotional or sexual situations (based on lust percentage).

  Lust above 80 may cause combat focus confusion.

  Overuse of seduction skills may lead to "undesired or unethical developments".

  ---

  [Warning:] This system is not designed for mental stability.

  It is advised not to use while emotionally attached or near public bathrooms.

  ---

  Eiron stared at the floating interface before him with one half-closed eye and a twitching eyelid—from exhaustion, or shock, or hunger... or all of the above.

  [Css: Undefined (css will be determined by your upcoming actions)]

  "Undefined?... Like I’m a beta version of a human."

  He exhaled slowly and started reading the rest.

  Lust: 100/100.

  "Great... I’m in a fantasy world, with a lust meter. Just what a naked guy in a field full of ghouls, wolves, and shame needs."

  He looked up at Zara, still bleeding on top of the wolf’s corpse, her torn chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, her eyes half-dead.

  "100 Lust? No wonder… After all the blood, nudity, and... broken bones... my body still thinks we’re at a nightclub."

  He smirked bitterly, but it didn’t reach his lips.

  Because ughter, simply, was a luxury.

  He went back to staring at the "skills":

  "Seductive Touch", "Aroma of Temptation", "Whisper of Allure"...

  "All names for moves that only worked in my imagination before sleep."

  But he didn’t ugh. Nothing was funny anymore.

  Then his eyes nded on the combat skills...

  "Groin Kick – Lv.1."

  "...Aha. A middle-school level defense pn."

  He muttered while running his hand over his forehead, feeling cracked skin and dried blood.

  Suddenly, a weight pressed on his chest.

  Not from pain, but from truth.

  He was now alone, in a non-human world, with a half-dead body and a system designed around arousal.

  "Everything here runs on primal instincts. Lust. Blood. Conflict."

  He looked at his hands. Scratches, blood, bits of grass under his nails.

  The same hand that held the spear. That pushed the ghoul. That... almost touched.

  "This isn't a system. It's a knife, and the handle’s shoved up my bare ass."

  He closed the window with his eyes, slowly, and stood up with effort.

  Then he looked to the horizon. No city. No walls. Just a heartless pin.

  "Fine. Surviving here isn’t a game. Or a wet dream. The system gives me tools, but it won’t save me."

  He looked at Zara.

  Still breathing. Still alive.

  “If I want to live, I have to choose: be an animal smarter than them… or a crunchy snack on fate’s pte.”

  He gripped the spear. His first weapon.

  Step one? Understand the system. Tame it… or exploit it before it tames him.

  ---

  He approached her slowly.

  Zara was still sprawled atop the wolf’s corpse, her half-torn body glistening with sweat, blood, and things unnamed. Her bare chest rose and fell, left shoulder punctured, bleeding slowly—like the wound itself didn’t want to leave her.

  Her eyes half-closed, lips slightly parted, breathing like someone surrendering to an ending with no return... or a beginning far messier.

  He stopped.

  Stared at her.

  "If I kill her now… no one will know. Not even that damned system. One strike, and this burden... this danger… this rotten beauty… gone."

  He tightened his grip on the spear.

  His palm soaked with sweat, the handle slipping slightly.

  He raised the spear above her.

  "Clean stab. Quick. To the neck. She won’t feel a thing."

  He stepped closer.

  But he didn’t stab.

  He stepped half a pace back. Bit his lip. Shook his head.

  "Do it, coward… it’s just a moment."

  He stepped forward again.

  But this time, his gaze slid to her eyes.

  One of them opened, slowly.

  She looked at him.

  No fear. No rejection.

  Just one gaze… still… reverent.

  As if she saw what he was about to do… and accepted it.

  Or maybe... even welcomed it.

  "Do it..." she said with her eyes, not her lips.

  He froze.

  Felt his body lean forward.

  He wanted to stab her.

  But instead, he suddenly set the spear down, reached for her neck—like it was a weapon he’d use—then pulled back.

  Then stepped forward again.

  His hand rose, but didn’t stab. It touched her neck.

  Wet. Warm. Beating.

  He felt his body tremble.

  He whispered, in a voice only he could hear:

  "You’re not even trying to survive... do you know what you're doing to me?"

  He pulled the spear back up again, raised it, and... stopped.

  Everything in him wanted to kill her.

  Everything in him trembled from that.

  Bloodlust collided with bodylust.

  And the urge to kill slowly shifted...

  Into something closer to a touch.

  A finger brushing a wound, skin, the life that still breathed with a sound almost sensual.

  "What?… You're not resisting? Not shivering? Damn… even in death, you're seductive."

  He lowered the spear.

  Laughed.

  He ughed slowly, then a breath escaped from his chest, as if his heart were coughing.

  "Look at me… Who was I? Just a perverted young man, lusting after anything that moved, and now… a coward who can’t even bring himself to kill a dying ghoul, half-naked, offering her neck as if on a ptter!"

  He sat beside her.

  The spear slipped from his hand and fell.

  He buried his face in his palms, like someone trying to vanish from himself.

  "I’m not a hero… not even a full-fledged monster. I’m something in between. A hybrid creature, whose lust is greater than his sword, and whose conscience… is nothing but fear in disguise."

  Zara moaned, a sound that made the air tremble.

  It wasn’t just a groan of pain, but something like raw seduction… a half-alive, half-lustful gasp escaping her lips, mocking life and death alike.

  He lifted his head toward her slowly.

  He said in a hoarse voice:

  "I understand you now, system… You’re not here to save me, but to strip me bare."

  A new blue notification flickered at the edge of his vision… He ignored it.

  Everything around him was silent… except for her breathing, and the trembling of the abandoned spear.

  He sat beside her, like someone waiting for something he didn’t know, and didn’t want to know.

  ...Then, with strange calm… she tilted her head and rested it on his shoulder.

  As if to say: "You didn’t kill me, so let me stay with you."

  He froze.

  The body that had been tense for the kill was suddenly in an intimate pose.

  His bare shoulder touched her warm cheek, smeared with blood and sweat… and her breath grazed his skin like it was pying a melody on it.

  He gnced at her from the corner of his eye… she hadn’t fully passed out. She was conscious… choosing.

  Him?

  He didn’t breathe.

  He didn’t move.

  Afraid to ruin this moment that resembled nothing he knew about combat or survival.

  Then...

  [System Notification: "Zara's affection toward you has increased by +10%. (Current: 10%)"]

  His eyes froze on the floating window.

  He stared at it like it was a sp.

  He whispered to himself:

  "...A perverted system like me."

  Then a strange, silly, embarrassing thought crept in:

  This is the first time a girl has rested her head on my shoulder...

  Then he frowned.

  No, wait… except for that senile old woman on the train, when she suddenly colpsed on me mumbling her dead husband’s name.

  He burst into ughter, a sound closer to crying.