CHAPTER 75: DESPAIR AND SORROW

Aric’s mind drifted like a broken film reel.

First, a small boy’s hand wrapped around a warm, soft palm—his mother’s palm. He could still feel her fingers holding his tiny ones as they crossed a street, sunlight spilling through the trees. Her shouting his name

"Kaito come here"

Then, a blur of school uniforms. His friends running, laughing, tugging him into games. The sound of bells, chalk on the board, lunchboxes opening.

But as the flashes went on, the colors began to drain.

Friends turned into faces he barely knew. Smiles became tight lips and narrowed eyes.

Competition crept in like a silent fog—marks, ranks, results, jobs. The warmth faded. The boy who once ran in the sun now stood alone.

No girlfriend. No love. A mirror telling him he was ugly. A voice inside whispering he wasn’t enough. Nights of staring at the ceiling, thinking how far he had fallen from those bright mornings.

And then—

Wind on his face. Cold concrete under his feet. The edge of a building. He remembered the leap, the weightlessness, the way the city shrank below him.

Laughter followed. Not human laughter. Deep and echoing.

A shape, blue and shimmering, eyes like a storm—The Jinn.

Its grin split the sky as it spoke, its voice like thunder breaking: "You want power? You want to escape?"

It gave him the system. The Lust System.

Names flickered in his mind like torn photographs—Darcy. Sarah. Nora. Faces, lips, touches, promises. Herbs he had gathered, goals he had carved into his heart. All of it, swirling together in a whirlpool of light and sound.

Then darkness.

Aric’s eyes snapped open.

He was in his room. The same walls. The same bed. The same smell of dust and night. He pushed himself up, breath ragged, and stumbled to the mirror.

Nothing had changed.

His face stared back at him, the same tired eyes, the same unremarkable skin. Yet something inside him trembled. His heartbeat was heavy and slow, like a drum echoing from somewhere deep.

He pressed a palm to the glass.

"I’m still me," he whispered.

But the words felt like a lie.

Because even though the mirror showed the same man, Aric knew—something had changed. It was in his chest, crawling under his skin. A quiet, electric hum waiting to wake.

Then he heard a voice in his mind dingggg .....

"Aaaa what the hell"

As he covered his ears with his hands and opened his eyes in front of him he saw

THE LUST SYSTEM : EVOLVED

"Why is it red not blue"

He tried to touch it but his hands went right through the system

"What even am I doing , was that a dream"

Aric sat on his chair still a little surprised by that flash of memories and slowly tears fell from his eyes without even realizing.

He didn’t wipe the tears away.

His shoulder shook slightly with sobs, the sound barely more than a whisper, a fragile rhythm of grief he couldn’t stop.He didn’t even realize he was crying at first . But the shaky exhale, the sound of his own sorrow filled the room.

His chest heaved with shallow, ragged breaths he couldn’t stop it.

He pressed his hands to his face, but still the sobs escaped.

Finally, he sank back against the wall exhausted.

"M..Mom.... d..dad i miss you "