Reincarnated in a depressing erotic world but living a normal life (right?)

The Ascent of Wrath: Prologue

Somewhere in Central City, the air in Kaelen's room had turned rancid, saturated by the constant heat of processors and the smell of forgotten instant food."... What a nuisance."

It no longer mattered what time of day it was outside those walls. Ever since the echo of the screams in the Vance mansion had faded from his memory, the time had transformed into a flat line, a loading error that never quite resolved itself.

"... Everything is so... Boring..."

Since then, Kaelen spent hours in front of the monitor, with his pupils dilated and fixed, browsing forums that normal people would flee from.

"Isn't there something new to do...?"

This was how he spent his time since then until one of those nights of induced insomnia when, after closing a questionably legal auction site, a residual link flickered in the corner of his browser.

"... This is it."

It had no description, only an address that looked like a string of corrupted code.

"... Mmm... Haaa... Why not...?"

Thus, seated in the shadows of his room, the outside world had ceased to exist; for him, everything was nothing more than background noise that failed to penetrate the shell of his apathy.

(Click... Click...)

In this way, his fingers, pale and mechanical, moved over the mouse with a heavy inertia.

"...."

And upon clicking, the screen refreshed to reveal a shopping site that defied any commercial standard.

"Possession drugs... Will-rewriting applications... Consciousness suppressors..."

As he read through the catalog, Kaelen's interest was awakened once again.

(Could it be true...?)

Since the events at the Vance mansion, Kaelen no longer felt the adrenaline of the first time; the power of having erased the Vance bloodline had transformed into a heavy burden, an inertia pushing him to seek something stronger—something that could breach the wall of apathy his mind had become.

(Fuuuuuuuu...)

The funds obtained from the liquidation of the Vance family assets—jewelry, artworks, and bank secrets that Gremory had handed over to him with a vacant smile—had inflated his account to levels that allowed him to live like a monarch in the shadows of Central City.

(Click!)

Because of this, he had no reluctance toward monetary spending when something caught his interest.

(Fwip... fwip... fwip...)

Having learned the way after his experience with the "Anomalous Drug," Kaelen understood that the world was not governed by the laws taught at Saint-Valerie Academy, leading him to venture into the darkest side of reality.

(Beep!)

In this way, with the Vance money flowing like a river of digital blood, he began to acquire everything that would allow him to maintain his new hobby: ruining the lives of others.

"Transaction completed... The package will arrive shortly..."

True to those words, the results did not take long to appear; just a couple of hours after clicking, small unmarked cardboard boxes appeared at his door, delivered on the threshold at hours when even the city's streetlights seemed to want to turn themselves off.

"Ha... ha..."

Seeing this, Kaelen tested every delivered item with surgical meticulousness. From a spray that neutralized a cashier's will, to an audio file that turned a noisy neighbor into a docile and trembling being; every success was a confirmation that he was an error.

"This is fun."

However, despite the absolute control, the void was still there.

"But..."

The feeling of nihilism, fueled by an internal shadow that made him despise any effort to genuinely connect, was consuming him.

"... It's still not enough."

Nothing was enough.

"I wonder who I should play with now...?"

It was in that state of absolute weariness, while wandering through a sector of the city where network signals began to flicker and the air felt colder than usual, that his eyes stumbled upon an establishment that seemed to have sprouted from the very darkness inhabiting his chest.

(Clac... clac... clac!)

Thus, his footsteps halted before a black wooden door, so ancient it seemed to absorb the noise of the nearby traffic...

"What is this?"

And as if something were calling to him despite the lack of signs, guided by a mere feeling that, behind that threshold, the game was going to change levels, he entered.

(Creak!)

Kaelen’s encounter with that place was, in retrospect, the moment when his fall ceased to be a simple descent and became a head-on collision with the impossible.

"Welcome, customer."

The interior of the shop was a labyrinth of shelves that lost themselves in an artificial gloom. The smell was not that of an ordinary store; it was a mixture of sandalwood, rusted metal, and something else... something reminiscent of burnt skin and ozone.

"Hehehe, what can I offer you?"

Behind a counter carved with motifs that seemed to move if looked at from the corner of one’s eye, stood an old man.

"Hehehe..."

That old man watched Kaelen with the gaze of a predator recognizing an equal in misfortune, while his clouded yet sharp eyes scanned the boy’s gaunt figure, immediately sensing the potential for a great profit.

"..."

Kaelen, for his part, did not respond and instead walked down the central aisle, ignoring the artifacts that promised carnal pleasures or political power.

"This is it..."

Until finally, his fingers brushed the surface of a pedestal where a box rested, its cover showing a landscape that seemed to change color under his gaze.

"Oh, that, eh... You look like a young man with... specific tastes."

In response, the old man's gaze lit up, approaching with the slowness of someone who has all the time in the worlds at his disposal.

"Someone who has already tested the limits of human will and has discovered that, in the end, it’s all child's play."

Then, quoting the words his system indicated, he uttered the most optimal choice to secure the sale.

"What does that mean?"

Thanks to that, Kaelen finally looked up.

(Perfect!)

At that moment, the old man’s erotic sales system didn't flash any danger warnings; instead, it flickered with an opportunity notification.

"No, that doesn't matter... I'm looking for something that isn't so... direct... A game, you could say..."

Before the old man stood a customer with pockets full of tainted money and an empty heart—the perfect combination for offloading the most problematic items in his stock.

"What I've bought online is effective, but it lacks nuance. It's boring."

Under those conditions, how could the old man deny him his wish?

"Oh, I understand perfectly."

Because of that, the old man widened his smile, revealing a row of teeth far too perfect for his age.

"You seek the sophistication of strategy. You want control, but with the excitement of the unpredictable; I have exactly what you need."

And immediately, with a graceful movement, the old man removed the box from the pedestal, revealing a game case titled: Virtual Dimension.

"This game is special. It's not about simple commands. The file's RNG will select a high-ranking character for you. You can be their support, their guide to the top... or you can ignore who they really are and rewrite their existence as you please. You set the rules; you decide the level of 'cooperation'."

Like a demon tempting his victim into consumerism, the old man, making use of his persuasion skills, delicately extended the game into Kaelen's hands...

"And the price?"

Who, in turn, received the object with curiosity.

"Hehehe, the price is the least of it."

Releasing a brief laugh, the old man smiled with satisfaction, calculating the rewards he would obtain from the successful negotiation.

"Let's consider it an investment in your long-term entertainment. After all, a satisfied customer always returns, don't they?"

Subtly, he also invested with the goal of ensuring a repeat customer.

"I see..."

Thanks to that, Kaelen pulled out his card, making the transfer without even looking at the amount appearing on the terminal.

"Enjoy it, young master. And remember... in Virtual Dimension, the character's personality is just a suggestion that the player can erase with a single click."

To him, only the object he now pressed against his chest mattered.

(Clack!)

Thus, the door closed behind Kaelen, leaving the old man alone in his shop, exhaling a sigh of satisfaction as his system recorded a successful sale of a new product.

"The character in this game is named..."

But for Kaelen, such a thing was irrelevant as he installed the game.

"... Raina."

In the shadows of his apartment in Central City, Kaelen Thorne watched the screen with an expression of lethargy, almost as if he were watching a boring documentary.

"Then, let's start playing."

His fingers moved over the mouse with the cadence of an executioner who has forgotten the purpose of the punishment, his gaze fixed on the Virtual Dimension game interface, offering an array of options he selected with the same indifference one uses to choose an ice cream flavor.

(Click!)

But in contrast, on the other side of the screen, in a world Kaelen considered little more than a data repository, Raina's life was fragmenting.

«Well, since it's already decided, there's nothing more I can do about it, right?»

The woman who was once a legend—the one who annihilated gangs of thieves and giant robots—now found herself trapped in an invisible glass cage.

☆ [Remove sensitivity suppression]

He enjoyed watching how his victim's internal logic twisted to accept the unacceptable.

(This is so much fun.)

He wasn't just forcing her to act; he was forcing her to justify her own downfall.

(I wonder how low you can fall!)

From his chair, Kaelen slid the cursor over Raina's inventory.

(I wonder how pathetic you can be!)

With the same coldness with which he liquidated the Vance's paintings, he began to delete her rare equipment, her status, and her fortune.

(Zzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt!)

For Raina, the horror was not just losing her possessions, but the biological and psychological humiliation of ruining her own life with her own hands.

(This is what you get for being so full of yourself, you damn cattle-bitch!)

Kaelen, driven by an inexplicable mix of accumulated rage and laziness, began to lash out, accelerating the pace.

☆ [Apply 10,000x sensitivity enhancement]

In the alley, while the thugs beat her, Raina experienced a sensory short circuit.

(This is what you get for rejecting me!!)

What for Kaelen was just a health bar decreasing by 1%, for her was an overload of agony that, through a cruel command, transformed into a devastating pleasure she hadn't asked for.

"Squeal, sow... Squeal!!"

Her cheeks flushed and her eyes clouded with tears as her body trembled in parallel with the intensifying glow in her eyes.

"Pigyooooooooooo!"

Until finally Raina, through the screen, let out a scream of defeat that echoed through the speakers like a melody of confirmation.

"... Haaa... Haaah... Haa..."

But he felt no pity; instead, what overwhelmed him back then was the feeling of satisfaction he had forgotten, thus spending months of digital torture in a blink, during which Kaelen led Raina through an RTA of sexual acts, optimizing her downfall with the same efficiency an accountant uses to close a fiscal year.

In that time, he reduced her occupation from hero to prostitute and ensured her womb bore the consequences of his RNG, until one day...

"You're not so fun anymore..."

Finally, Kaelen leaned back in his chair, observing the deplorable state in which he had left Raina's "file."

"... A-aah... Ugh... Aghn..."

The winner was broken, drenched in fluids and plunged into mechanical submission, accepting her fate as "livestock" with a broken smile under the twilight glow.

"...."

Seeing this, Kaelen—feeling the void reclaim its space now that the toy was broken—closed the game with a sharp motion, unaware that this very "game," this fragment of reality corrupted, would eventually find its way into the hands of a silver-haired boy looking for something as simple as "making friends."

"And now what?"

But the cycle of depravity did not stop with Raina's collapse; on the contrary, it simply shifted frequency. For Kaelen Thorne, life after dismantling the "winner's" existence became an even denser and more suffocating haze. The days merged into one another in a succession of electric shadows and the constant hum of servers in his apartment.

"This is so boring..."

The Vance fortune was still there, fueling a lifestyle that required no human contact, only anonymous transactions and the bluish glow of the screen on his increasingly pale skin.

(Tap... Tap... Tap...)

Thus, he spent his time pacing his room like a specter among the ruins of his own boredom.

(Fuuuuuuuu...)

He had spent months optimizing Raina's ruin, adjusting every parameter of her suffering until the S-rank hero was nothing more than an empty shell mechanically repeating her submissive phrases.

"Should I buy another one?"

When the challenge vanished—when Raina stopped crying for her lost dignity and simply accepted being "livestock"—Kaelen felt the toy had finally broken.

"... Alright."

So he decided it was time to update his entertainment.

(Clac... clac... clac!)

After a long search, his steps led him back to that alley where the architecture seemed sick, where the air vibrated with the static of the forbidden.

"Have you already tired of your first choice, young master?"

In that place, the old man's shop awaited him immutable, as if time had not passed, where that same figure waited.

"That is the problem with talented players... they finish levels too quickly."

Without hesitation, Kaelen set the box on the counter with a sharp motion.

"Fue... entretenido por un tiempo."

There was no spark in his eyes, only a nihilistic hunger demanding to be satiated once again.

"But the 'winner' turned out to be too fragile. I want something that lasts. Something that requires a more... patient approach."

In response to his words, the old man nodded, understanding the nature of the addiction before him.

"In that case, this RNG file might interest you... Although if you treat it as roughly as the previous one, you will lose it very quickly... So... why not take your time?"

Saying this, the old man reached under the counter and pulled out a new case, which he immediately handed over.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Once again, Kaelen made the bank transfer without asking the price and, taking the new game, left the store without looking back, leaving the old man satisfied once more.

"This time... I won't be in a hurry."

Back in his room, Kaelen started the new game as he leaned back in his chair, allowing the darkness of the room to envelop him while the loading bar advanced slowly.

"Let's see how long it takes for you to fall apart."

The screen flickered, revealing the synchronization interface, and the file's RNG began processing the data, drawing the features of a new profile.

"It will be a pleasure working with you..."

His eyes scanned the biographical data appearing in the lower margin...

"... Mayuri."

Calling out the name of his new toy.