PAIN...
Searing pain...
"ARGHHHH!!!"
Liam couldn’t stop himself from screaming, his hands clutching his groin as he writhed on what felt like a bed. His pain tolerance was high, thanks to rigorous training in his past life—but this? This was on another level. The raw, soul-piercing agony of being kicked square in the balls.
Just as he vanished from the old man’s front, the next thing he felt was a steel-toed welco to the nuts.
’Dammit! I haven’t even been in this world for two seconds and I’m already suffering?!’ Liam cursed inwardly.
Once the pain dulled slightly, Liam forced his head up and looked around. His eyes scanned the room. It looked like a prison, thick welded rebars barred the doorway like so underground holding cell.
’All these girthy rebars... just for ?’
Then he saw her.
His body froze.
It all clicked together—the one who kicked him.
A tall woman stood before him, probably in her early twenties. Brown curly hair. Leather jacket and pants. Combat boots that looked like they’d been designed specifically for stomping people’s nuts. Her thick eyeliner made her expression even more nacing.
Only one thing ca to Liam’s mind.
’A goth woman...’
"You good-for-nothing, useless, fucking piece of shit! If I can’t have you, no one else will!" she scread, her voice like venom. She turned on her heel and stord out, slamming the rebar doors shut with such force that the entire room trembled.
Liam could only stare, caught between shock and confusion.
Then it hit him, a sharp, blinding headache. It felt like his brain was being sliced atom by atom. He clutched his skull and collapsed again.
mories.
Strange ones.
They surged through his mind, crashing into his own, rging with his thoughts. The pain peaked and then everything went dark.
---
A few minutes later, Liam’s eyes snapped open.
He felt... new.
Different.
Reborn.
The mories of his predecessor had fused completely with his own, so deeply that it felt like he’d lived both lives, two lifetis cramd into one body.
"Disgraceful..." he muttered, scowling as he sifted through the remnants of the other life.
’So, his na was Dapper, huh...’
Apparently, Dapper was a pitiful excuse of a man. Raised in an orphanage, then married off to a rich aristocrat. But instead of using the opportunity, he spiraled.
Dapper refused to talk to his wife, let alone sleep with her. And when she tried to make advances, he poured hot stew on her face. Unsurprisingly, she snapped and locked him up here.
As for the woman who greeted Liam with a kick to the nuts? That was Belinda, the aristocrat’s sister. She had bullied and harassed Dapper even before the imprisonnt.
Why?
Because she was jealous.
Her sister had landed a young, handso husband, while she was stuck with a pot-bellied rchant she saw maybe once a month. A marriage arranged just to preserve her noble status and it was only months away.
In other words, she wanted a taste of the forbidden fruit. She wanted soone like Liam. But in this world, a good-looking man was worth more than gold. And she knew she could never have one.
’My predecessor really was pathetic,’ Liam thought, sitting upright and reflecting. ’’He could’ve just seduced the woman, manipulated her, bent her to his will. Played the ga. But no—he chose stew-throwing and silence.’
He shook his head, his lips curling with mild disdain.
’But then again... not everyone can be .’
Liam glanced around the prison again, then shifted his gaze to the tray of food Belinda had left for him.
The sight alone almost made him gag.
It looked like raccoon shit.
’Belinda really hated my predecessor. I wouldn’t be surprised if she orchestrated this whole situation from the start. Still, it wouldn’t have gotten this bad if the fool had played his cards right.’
Despite it being a prison, his predecessor’s wife had at least been kind enough to furnish the cell with a bed, an air conditioner, and even a private toilet. A strange level of hospitality for soone imprisoned.
But what truly intrigued Liam was the world itself. It mirrored Earth in so ways—a modern society—but with an even more advanced civilization. Demons, humans, elves, dwarves, beastkins with animal traits, they all coexisted. And everyone had a system. Without one, people would die before reaching twenty. That was the rule of this world.
The societal structure, however, felt dieval. Nobles above commoners, and above them, stood the elites—rulers who stood at the pinnacle.
’Fascinating...’ Liam muttered.
Just then, the cell door creaked open.
Soone stood at the entrance, hesitating to enter. A tall woman, around six feet, stood in the doorway, watching him. She looked to be in her late twenties, with bleached-blonde hair, a soft oval face, and a slightly chubby figure in all the right places.
It was her.
Ruth.
His predecessor’s aristocrat wife.
Liam’s jaw slightly dropped. He knew what she looked like from Dapper’s mories, but seeing her in person was sothing else entirely. She was beautiful. Really beautiful. And those curves, especially her chest, Liam had to swallow hard and rein himself in.
As a frivolous skirt chaser, it took every ounce of discipline not to let his lust show.
’Even if she’s as awful as Dapper believed, I’ll use her to my advantage. That’s the difference between and him,’ Liam thought, keeping his face calm and unreadable.
"Why did you lock up in here for so long?" he asked, his voice low.
Ruth blinked, stunned. Dapper never spoke to her like that before. Never spoke at all.
"I... I didn’t an to," she said softly, her voice trembling. "Belinda told to scare you a little. I didn’t know what else to do, so I listened to her. I’m sorry..."
Liam stared at her, quiet.
’I don’t get it. Why are they all so obsessed with this guy? He didn’t do anything special.’
’Well... I’m not Dapper. I’ll do what he couldn’t.’
"You only made things worse by locking up," Liam said, putting on the most pitiful voice he could muster channeling the exact weak tone Dapper might’ve used. "I married you because I wanted to try. To slowly build sothing real between us. But instead... you treated like a criminal. Why?"
As if sothing snapped inside her, Ruth’s eyes widened and she rushed to him like a dog reunited with its master.
She wrapped her arms around him tightly, hugging him to her soft body, and began to sob.
"I didn’t realize it would hurt you that much... I just—I trusted Belinda. I’m sorry. I’ll never treat you badly again. I swear with my grave..."
Liam smirked into her hair, hiding his ugly grin.
Still hugging her, he whispered in a shaky voice, "I... I don’t know if I can believe you. But if you really an what you say, if you truly love ... then prove it."
He leaned back slightly, looking her in the eye.
"I want you to will half of your property to . And from now on, always listen to . That’s the only way I’ll believe you—because aristocrats aren’t exactly known for telling the truth to commoners like ."
==============================
PS: From this point on, I’ll start referring to Liam as Dapper. The System will be showing up soon. There’s a ceremony that takes place before systems are granted.
I just didn’t want this to be like every other cultured novel that skips straight to the action without any proper buildup.
To all the n of culture out there; buckle your seatbelts, because you’re in for one hell of a ride.
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