[Chapter 25. System announcement]

  Searanox woke to a heavy feeling on his chest, "Iris... get off me."

  There was no reaction to it, he placed his hand on the body lying on top of him and pushed lightly, but instead of fur his fingers met bare skin. His eyes snapped open. It was Sarah. The platinum blonde party girl lay frozen against him, her body trembling uncontrollably. Her wide eyes were filled with raw terror, her breathing shallow and uneven.

  "I... I just thought... you would be lonely... I'm sorry... I will go..."

  "No," he said, his voice a low, steady rumble. "Stay." he sat up slowly, the blanket sliding down to his waist. Sarah stiffened, as if expecting pain, but none came. He looked at her for a moment, then smiled faintly.

  "You're not scared of me, are you?"

  "No," she lied, her voice a trembling whisper.

  "Ohhh," he murmured, amused. "Aren't you adorable." He swung his legs out of bed. `playing all tough.′

  Sarah flinched violently at the touch that never came. Her body went rigid, every muscle tensing. She did not pull away, but the muscles in her neck stood out and her knuckles were white. The sharp. Intent in her eyes had vanished, replaced by a tremor in her hands.

  He saw it clearly: the offer was not a play for power. It was a bid for survival, an attempt to align herself with the person in control of the room.

  "How far are you willing to go little one?" His breath was warm against her ear as he whispered his question. She flinched but did not move away.

  "Please... just... don't hurt me," she whispered, her body trembling uncontrollably. "I'll do... I'll do whatever you want."

  Searanox's smile widened, as she shifted on his chest.

  `No, you don't have to go that far... not yet at least.′

  His smile disappeared, before he slowly pushed her back into the mattress.

  "I won't hurt you, let's see what happens today before we move on."

  She lay there frozen as he stood, pulling on his pants and shirt. Without another word, he left the bedroom. Outside, Iris leaned against the wall, her ears were folded back.

  `She must have heard it all.′

  He looked into her amber eyes, a flicker of something unreadable in them before he walked past her into the living room. The other three captives were huddled together on a worn-out sofa, their faces pale with fear.

  They watched him, their eyes wide, bodies tense. He ignored them for the moment and walked to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. The silence in the small prefab house was heavy, broken only by the distant rustle of wind through the trees outside.

  "Relax," he said, his voice echoing in the cramped space.

  From behind him Iris wrapped her arms around him and bit into his shoulder, the bite was strong, but not enough to draw blood. It was a clear message, a display of possessiveness. Searanox flinched slightly but did not pull away. He turned in her embrace, his hands gently cupping her face. Her amber eyes were intense, a mix of jealousy, hurt, and a fierce loyalty.

  "Iris," he said softly, his thumbs stroking her muzzle. "I'm not going anywhere. But I need resources. I need allies. And sometimes, allies come with... attachments."

  Iris's ears twitched, her lips drawing back slightly to reveal a hint of teeth. She was silent for a long moment, her gaze searching his, before she finally relaxed her grip, though her arms remained wrapped around him. Just then, the world went silent. The world ground to a halt.

  It was not a sound.

  It was not a vibration.

  It was a sudden, absolute cessation of everything.

  The wind died mid-breeze. The birds froze mid-flight. Leaves hung motionless on their branches. Time itself seemed to hold its breath. Then, the sky bled. A deep, impossible crimson spread across the heavens like a wound in the fabric of reality, pulsing with a slow, cosmic rhythm. A pressure descended, immense and crushing, not on the body, but on the soul itself. The very air felt thick, charged with an alien energy that made the teeth ache and the skin prickle.

  A chime echoed, not in the ears, but directly inside the mind of every living being. A sound that was both infinitely complex and perfectly simple. A window of light materialized before Searanox's eyes, overlapping the real world, before a quiet soothing voice spoke the written words.

  The message hung in the air for a heartbeat before vanishing. The pressure intensified, the crimson sky pulsing faster. Then came the pain. Not a physical agony, but a deep, cellular rewriting. The energy of Mana, raw and untamed, flooded the planet, a torrent of alien power that saturated every atom of matter.

  `That's a bit much for a Title, don't you think?′

  He was a monster, a true monster, and now he had the title to prove it.

  Searanox felt a light tingle wash over his body, but the girls all four where laying on the floor or the couch, convulsing from pain. As quick as the feeling came it disappeared, but it left the girls twitching on the floor. Then came a second, more localized chime, directed at the five individuals in the room. A new window materialized before Searanox, this one personal.

  The crimson light in the sky began to recede, fading back to a pale, washed-out blue. The world slowly came back to life, the wind resuming its gentle rustle, the birds chirping tentatively. But the air, the light, even world felt different. The everything was different. A fundamental change had occurred, a rewriting of reality itself. Searanox looked at Iris, who stood beside him, her posture tense but her expression unreadable.

  With the four women on the floor he looked at, their bodies slowly ceasing their convulsions as they regained consciousness, their eyes wide with a mixture of pain and a new, terrifying understanding. The age of man was over. The age of the System had begun.

  Searanox slipped out from Iris's embrace, his movements fluid and sure. He walked to the door and opened it, the bright sunlight a stark, unwelcome intrusion. He flinched, a sudden, sharp pain shooting through his eyes.

  "Fuck me... that stings."

  He summoned four Recon drones, and send them to scout and map the area.

  The world outside was no longer the one he knew. The trees were taller, their leaves a more vibrant shade of green. The air was clearer, filled with a faint, sweet scent he couldn't identify. He could feel the new energy, the Mana, permeating everything, a constant, subtle hum at the edge of his senses. He looked at his hands, a faint, almost invisible aura surrounding them, a tangible manifestation of the power that now coursed through him and the world.

  Slowly he turned towards the four girls, "Who of you played video games in their free time?"

  The question hung in the still, charged air. A moment of silence stretched, heavy with unspoken terror and confusion. Then Vanessa, the redhead with the dancer's body, raised a trembling hand.

  "I... I did," she stammered, her eyes wide. "Some RPGs. Why?"

  "Good," Searanox said, a cold, calculating glint in his eyes.

  "Then you understand the concept of classes. Of leveling. Of becoming stronger." He looked at each of them, his gaze intense and unwavering. "You have a choice now. A real one. You can remain helpless, prey for the monsters that will now roam this world. Or you can become strong. You can become my assets, my party members. You won't just pick a class at random or because it sounds nice. I want to hold off and not pick anything at this moment."

  `The System is to unpredictable... I want to see if there are hidden classes or if one can get something else then the normal garbage.′

  "I will choose your classes. I will mold you into what I need you to be. In exchange, I will protect you. I will train you. I will make you strong. But you will be mine. Your loyalty, your lives, will belong to me." He let the words sink in, watching the flicker of fear and hope in their eyes. The world outside had changed, but the rules of power were the same. It was all about leverage. And he had all of it.

  "We... we accept," Vanessa finally said, her voice trembling but firm. "We'll do whatever it takes to survive."

  Searanox turned from the window, a grim smile on his face. It was by then that one of his drones picked up something abnormal, it was something that gave of a high concentration of mana. And it was only about five kilometers out from where they were.

  "Iris one of my drones found something that gives off a high amount of mana, any thoughts?" He asked while looking at her.

  "It is likely a Dungeon," she responded instantly, her administrative knowledge surfacing. "They are System-generated combat instances designed for controlled advancement. They are finite environments with a defined objective: full clearance. They scale to the world's status and provide reliable, but challenging, opportunities for leveling and acquiring resources. The entry requirement is typically Level 10. That said there are lower or higher ones out there."

  A dangerous glint entered her eyes. "It would be an excellent test of our capabilities. And a proving ground for the new... assets."

  "Interesting," Searanox murmured, a plan already forming in his mind. He looked at the four women, their faces a mixture of fear and a dawning, desperate hope. "It seems that I have to leave you for a while. I will check this dungeon out and if I'm certain that I can pull all of you through it I bring you along. Iris you keep them save until I return."

  He dismissed the drone over the dungeon and summoned a travel drone, holding on to it. As it pulled him out the door and into the distance. Searanox left the women to Iris, the wolf-woman giving him a possessive glance as he departed.

  Only five kilometers away from his current location, he didn't had to travel for long. The drone carrying him at a blistering pace.

  He arrived at the entrance, a swirling vortex of deep blue energy with a light purple touch to it, a gateway to another world.

  The drone dissolved beneath him as he landed on the soft grass. With excitement he looked at the entrance, a sense of anticipation building within him. He had reached Level 15, and he was ready for what was to come. After he took a deep breath and touched the portal.