Chapter 64: Start From The Beginning
"Start from the beginning," he said. "What exactly are you?"
The system processed for a moment. Not the usual instant response. An actual pause, like it was sorting through something that didn’t have a clean answer.
[I am what remained when the Monarch was destroyed.]
[A Monarch is a being of endless growth — a living absolute. When one dies, nothing should remain. No fragment. No echo. All trace is to be removed from existence.]
[My case was different. I was the last fragment capable of growth. I survived because I escaped.]
David let that sit for a second.
"Escaped from what?"
[That information is not currently available.]
He almost laughed. Almost.
"Who killed the Monarch?"
[ACCESS DENIED.]
There it was again. Same wall, different door. He pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek and looked away, jaw tight. Fine. Different angle.
"Alright," he said. "Who put you in me?"
The system paused again. Longer this time.
[ERROR. That information is not available.]
"Why not?"
[Because the individual who bound this system to its current host is still alive.]
David went still.
He replayed that sentence once in his head, slow, making sure he’d heard it right. He had.
Still alive.
Whoever had done this — whoever had looked at David Myers, specifically, out of every person on the planet, and decided this was where a fragment of a dead Monarch was going to live — was still out there. Walking around. Breathing. Probably knowing exactly where David was right now.
"How do I contact them?"
[ACCESS DENIED. That information will become available upon reaching further level advancement.]
David pulled his hand through his hair again, except this time it wasn’t slow and deliberate. It was the other kind.
’Further level?’ he thought. ’Great. Perfect. Just what I needed to hear.’
He stood there for a moment, staring at nothing, letting the weight of it arrange itself into something he could actually work with.
Somewhere out there, someone was still alive. Someone who knew everything he didn’t. And the system sitting in his skull like a quiet passenger wasn’t going to give him a name, a face, or a direction until he was strong enough to handle it.
Which meant one thing.
He had to get stronger.
He exhaled. Rolled his shoulders. Let it go — not because it didn’t matter, but because he had nowhere to put it right now.
"Fine," he said. "Different question. You mentioned disciples. Earlier, at the beginning. What exactly is that?"
[You are an entity with sufficient growth potential to transcend the ordinary limitations of human life. A being of your caliber does not walk through this world alone. You are meant to have worshipers. Disciples. Those who serve the Monarch of Sin.]
David blinked.
"So you want me to be the harem conqueror."
[Correct.]
He stared at the notification for a long second.
’Of course,’ he thought. ’Of course that’s what it said.’
He let out a slow breath, less frustration this time, more the specific exhaustion of a man who suspected this was coming and got it anyway.
"Alright," he said. "What are the actual implications? When I take a disciple, what happens?"
[At level five, a Monarch may assume disciples — servants and companions bound in devotion, capable of dying for their monarch. Upon designation, each disciple awakens abilities suited to supporting the Monarch of Sin. The nature of those abilities is shaped by the disciple’s own potential.]
"What if they haven’t awakened yet? Normal human, no system, nothing?"
[Irrelevant. As long as the individual remains a disciple, awakening will occur. The bond itself is the trigger.]
David went quiet for a moment.
Then something clicked.
"Wait." He pointed at the floating interface like it had just confessed something. "That’s what the temptation level was for. This whole time — it wasn’t just about who I could sleep with. It was about finding the people who’d actually fight for me."
[Correct.]
"Huh."
He stood with that for a second. The system, to its credit, didn’t interrupt.
"Okay," he said. "So how does it actually work? How does disciple designation happen?"
[Three criteria must be satisfied.]
[Criteria One: The target must be fully aware and willing. She must understand she is becoming a disciple.]
[Criteria Two: Her temptation level must reach the required threshold. The minimum is eighty percent. Full certainty requires one hundred. Threshold varies by target.]
[Criteria Three: The Monarch must provide the most fulfilling sexual experience the target has ever had. Completion of this act finalizes the bond.]
David read the last line twice.
Then he looked away, rubbed the back of his neck, and let out the longest exhale he’d managed all day.
’So let me get this straight,’ he thought. ’I have to make her want it. Make her choose it. And then make it the best she’s ever had.’
He looked back at the system.
"And that’s the requirement."
[Correct.]
David immediately pulled up the disciple interface before he’d fully talked himself into it.
A panel materialized at the edge of his vision — clean, minimal, nothing like the usual system clutter.
[Mrs. Walbury — 63%]
[Holly — 48%]
He stared at them for a moment.
He looked back at Mrs. Walbury’s.
’Sixty-three,’ he thought. ’And all I need is eighty.’
He ran the math without meaning to. Seventeen percent. The gap between where she was and where the threshold started. He thought about the last few weeks. The training sessions. The way she’d stopped pretending she didn’t notice him.
Seventeen percent didn’t feel that far.
’And good sex,’ he thought. ’Just. You know. Good sex.’
He almost smiled.
’That shouldn’t be that bad.’
He let the interface sit for another second, then looked back at Mrs. Walbury’s entry. Sixty-three. She was the closest. By a margin that wasn’t even close. The path forward was obvious — he just had to be willing to actually walk it.
’Alright,’ he thought.
Fuck it.
He’d put the effort in. He’d close that gap, and he’d do it properly, and he’d stop second-guessing the thing that the universe had apparently decided was his entire deal now.
He was about to close the panel when something snagged at him.
He looked back at Holly’s entry. Forty-seven. Which was fine. Until he thought about the quest. The specific, deliberate way the system had woven Holly into his objectives.
He narrowed his eyes at the interface.
"System. Why Holly?" he said. "You’ve been pushing her since the beginning. The quest was built around her. Why specifically her?"
The system paused.
[She will prove to be a valuable disciple. The full extent of that will become clear if — and when — you succeed in making her one.]
David looked at the response for a long moment.
"That’s not an answer."
[It is the answer available to you at your current level.]
He exhaled through his nose. Stared at the ceiling. Decided, after approximately three seconds, that he was done pushing on walls that weren’t going to move.
"Fine." He looked back at the interface. "When does the next question bank unlock?"
[Level twenty.]
"Level twenty," he repeated.
He said it the way people say things they already know are going to be a problem.
’Level twenty,’ he thought. ’Right. Just level twenty. That’s all.’
He was about to wrap the interface and move on when the system added one more line, unprompted. Quiet. Almost like an afterthought.
[A note of caution. The disciple bond is not reversible. A poor choice of disciple does not simply create a complication — it creates a vulnerability. Depending on the individual, it could prove fatal.]
David read that once.
Then he read it again.
He closed the interface slowly.
Stood in the silence for a moment, staring at nothing, the full weight of the afternoon settling somewhere behind his sternum.
A dead god’s ghost living in his soul. An unknown person still alive who put it there. A woman at sixty-three percent temptation who didn’t know she was about to become something more than his trainer. And a system that kept dangling answers just far enough out of reach to be genuinely irritating.
He exhaled.
Ran a hand across his jaw.
’Alright,’ he thought, not know what to say anymore.
And so, he stood there, thinking of his next move.