Hmm...?
When I opened my eyes, the sky above me was dark, pitch black, starless, the kind of oppressive darkness that swallowed everything whole.
But despite the absence of light, my vision was crystal clear.
I could see everything around me with perfect clarity, as if the night itself had become my friend.
Every crack in the pavement, every discarded piece of trash, every shadow in the alleyway, all of it was visible to me.
My supposed weak body, the one that had always tired easily and remained perpetually sleepy because of my prolonged genetic illness, was nowhere to be found.
What I felt now was explosive, overwhelming power coursing through my veins.
My body was energetic, practically humming with vitality. My muscles felt coiled and ready.
My lungs drew in air without the slightest resistance.
I was no longer struggling to see distances without the help of my glasses.
My expensive academy uniform had been replaced by ragged, filthy clothes full of holes that barely qualified as garments.
And my position, I had been sleeping on the cold, hard street, with only a cheap, thin blanket as cover.
The fabric smelled of mildew and dirt and the lingering desperation of whoever had owned it before me.
I stared blankly ahead, processing the situation.
This wasn't just me.
It was likely all the players from the Academy who had been given this same starting background: homeless vagrants dumped on the streets, forced to survive for one entire week in a world filled with cruel, predatory ghouls that hunted human beings for food.
And homeless people were the easiest targets.
They were invisible.
They were uncared for.
And they were disposable.
To a ghoul, a homeless person was just a free meal that no one would come looking for.
No investigation. No manhunt. No consequences.
Just silence and hunger satisfied.
When I looked around, I found that I was the only one who had woken up in this particular spot.
Not all of my classmates had been dumped in the same area.
They were probably scattered in all directions across different districts, different wards, different parts of this country.
Some might be together.
Most would be alone.
Each of them would have to figure out how to survive on their own.
And then I noticed something interesting.
I had been sleeping precisely in front of Arisu Sakayanagi.
My own classmate.
The girl who had claimed to have someone she liked.
The girl who had dismissed my interest with a few simple words.
She lay on the ground only a few feet away, wrapped in the same kind of ragged, threadbare blanket, wearing the same torn and filthy clothes that clung to my own body.
Her soft lilac hair was tangled into dirty knots, matted with grime.
Her delicate features were smudged with streaks of dirt, yet even under the filth her beauty remained sharp and unmistakable.
She was still unconscious, her breathing slow and steady, her expression strangely peaceful despite the nightmare the game had thrown her into.
I stared at her for a long moment, mind racing with dark possibilities.
She was completely vulnerable.
Helpless. Asleep. Entirely at my mercy.
Despite the grime, the ragged clothes, and the desperate situation, Arisu Sakayanagi could not hide what she was.
Even dirty and disheveled, she was stunning, delicate features, that soft lilac hair, a petite body perfectly proportioned in every soft curve.
My arousal, already stirred from the earlier encounter with my other self, only grew hotter and harder as I pressed myself against her from behind.
My body molded tightly to the curve of her back, the heat of her skin seeping through the thin, filthy fabric between us.
My hand shot out and cupped her petite chest through the thin, torn shirt, fingers squeezing and rubbing the soft, yielding flesh beneath.
Her eyes flew open in pure shock: wide, panicked violet eyes locking onto nothing as her body jerked instinctively under my touch.
"What are you doing?! Who are you?!" she hissed in a low, panicked whisper.
Her voice was deliberately quiet, barely more than a breath, she didn't want anyone nearby to hear that she was being sexually assaulted.
She didn't want a single soul to witness her humiliation.
Her pride would never allow it.
But her body kept moving.
She tried to push me away, hands pressing uselessly against my chest, legs kicking weakly in the dirt.
Her attempts were pathetically powerless against me.
I was an SSS-rank ghoul now, a true powerhouse in every sense of the word.
Her struggles meant nothing.
I grinned down at her, savoring the fear and confusion flickering wildly in those violet eyes. "Chad Yagami. We're in the street, remember? The game gave us the identity of homeless vagrants. You know what happens if you shout and resist, Arisu-chan…"
I leaned in close, lips brushing the shell of her ear as I whispered the rest. "There are many homeless people here. Starving. Desperate. And you're a beautiful girl, all alone, with no one to protect you…"
I didn't need to finish the sentence.
She understood the implication perfectly.
The threat of what would happen to a beautiful girl caught alone in a homeless encampment: defenseless and vulnerable was far worse than what I was doing to her right now.
She bit her lip hard enough that a thin bead of blood welled up, her body trembling violently beneath mine.
Every small shake of her petite frame pressed soft curves against me through the thin, filthy fabric. "I don't understand why you're doing this… We had a pleasant, intellectual conversation earlier. If you liked me, you could have asked me out properly. Taken me on a date first. At the very least, not in a place like this…"
I chuckled playfully at her words, the sound low, dark, and amused in the thick darkness of the alleyway.
"Where is your previous pride, Arisu-chan? Just a few hours ago, you were telling me you had someone you liked. You were so confident. So untouchable. And now look at you, trembling under me like this."
"But, well, don't worry about them," I added, gesturing vaguely toward the unconscious forms scattered around us, other homeless players who had been dumped in this filthy area, still lost in their forced slumber.
"If they opened their eyes or noticed us even in the slightest, I'd gouge their eyes out and kill them. Believe me, they'd stand no chance against me. Not anymore."
Hearing that, she pushed me harder.
Her hands pressed against my chest with every ounce of strength her delicate body could muster, fingers digging uselessly into the ragged fabric of my clothes as she tried to create even an inch of space between us.
But it was a completely powerless resistance, the desperate, trembling resistance of someone who already knew she had lost, who was simply going through the empty motions of defiance for the sake of what little pride she still had left.