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Chapter 3: Reach
The cart groaned as it rolled over cracked stone and shallow ruts. Its wheels squealed with each turn, pulled by snorting, six-legged beasts that looked more like mutated bulls than horses. Inside, the air was dense with tension.
Ethan sat shackled among a dozen others, his back sore from the jerking ride. No one spoke much. Most were still processing the brutal truth: they had been summoned, evaluated, and tossed aside like garbage.
Just like him.
The barred slit near the rear wall offered only glimpses—trees thinning into scrubland, clouds turning gold with the setting sun. But Ethan wasn't looking outside anymore.
He was watching the others.
> [System Active.]
[Conversion Progress: 11% — Subject: Ren Arlow.]
[New Targets Detected: Scanning…]
[Subject: Elias Vahn — Compatibility 27%. Status: Angry . Combative.]
[Subject: Jiro Namiki — Compatibility 61%. Status: Passive. Lonely. Low Self-Worth.]
[Subject: Tomas Krell — Compatibility 15%. Status: Religious. Resistant. Denial reflex strong.]
Ethan's breath caught. The system wasn't just scanning—it was analyzing people's souls.
Why do I know all this? Why am I seeing this?
He clenched his fists, glancing toward a wiry man muttering to himself in the corner—Jiro Namiki. The man didn't meet anyone's gaze. He just stared at the floor, hugging his knees, shaking slightly.
> [Subject exhibits internalized guilt, desire for acceptance. Prime Tier I candidate.]
Ethan looked away, disturbed.
So it's not just about strength... it's emotional state. Isolation. Weakness. Dependency.
> [Correct.]
"Stop reading my mind," he hissed under his breath.
> [You are not thinking. You are processing. I am part of that process now.]
Ethan blinked. For a second, he wanted to scream.
Then his eyes drifted to Elias Vahn—a scarred man in his late twenties, glaring daggers at everyone. He had a black eye and a split knuckle from a scuffle earlier in the day.
> [Compatibility: 27%. Subject exhibits dominant tendencies. High resistance. Hypermasculine posturing.]
Ethan squinted. So the system doesn't just work on "weaker" men—it works better when they're emotionally cracked. But strength doesn't block it—resistance does.
> [Accurate. Physical power can be overcome. Willpower takes longer.]
Across the cart, Ren stirred beside him.
"Are we… close?" the boy asked quietly, his voice softer than before.
Ethan didn't respond right away. The bruises on Ren's cheek had faded even more. His posture was different too—shoulders sloped, movements more delicate. And his eyes kept drifting toward Ethan like a tether was forming.
> [Conversion Progress: 13%]
[Attachment Strength: Building. Suggestive responses now 16% more effective.]
It's changing him, Ethan thought. It's rewriting him.
He glanced through the small barred window. A soldier walked beside the cart. Tall. Broad. He glanced toward the slit, and for a second, their eyes met.
> [Soldier #3: Male. Compatibility: 34%. Curiosity rising. Susceptibility unstable.]
The soldier blinked and looked away quickly.
It's not just flukes… it can reach beyond this cart. But why femboys? Why submission? Why me?
> [You did not ask to be born hungry. But you are. The System simply gives shape to your buried need.]
Ethan's stomach twisted.
"I didn't want this," he muttered.
> [That is not the same as refusing it.]
The sun dipped lower. The forest thinned, trees giving way to a broken, dying plain of ash-colored rock and twisted, blackened roots. A lifeless expanse spread out beyond the hills.
The cart slowed.
A guard banged the side. "Wake up, flukes. We're here."
Ethan looked out and saw the horizon split open into a jagged wasteland, veined with red cracks and ruins. Black towers loomed in the distance. The sky was no longer blue—it was a muted violet bleeding into gray.
Welcome to the Wastes.
He glanced around the cart once more—Ren, curled like a loyal pet beside him; Jiro, too quiet; Elias, still boiling with rage.
The system buzzed faintly in his head like a heartbeat not his own.
Ethan swallowed hard.
If this thing is going to drag me into hell… I need to understand how it works first.
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