Death was not what Kaito Liu had expected.
He remembered the crushing weight, the splintering of bone, the final, futile apology whispered into the uncaring stone of the dungeon floor. He had accepted the end.
So, when consciousness returned, not as a void, but as a place, it was the first of many surprises.
He stood in an infinite library. Bookshelves carved from what looked like solidified starlight stretched into a forever that hurt to look at. The air hummed with a silent, potent energy, smelling of old paper, ozone, and something sweetly alien. It was a silence that was not empty, but full—a chorus of a billion unread stories.
"Kaito Liu."
The voice was melodic, a chime in the vast quiet. He turned.
She was beautiful, in a way that was both enchanting and intimidating. Her eyes, the color of amethyst, were partially obscured by large, heart-shaped sunglasses perched on her nose. She wore robes that seemed woven from twilight and starlight, a corset cinching her waist, and her hair was an elaborate confection of dark locks and subtle sparkles. She floated a few inches above the polished, nebulae-swirled floor.
"Who are you?" Kaito's voice was a rasp. "Where is this? Am I... in the afterlife?"
"You can call me the Librarian," she said, her feet gently meeting the floor. "And this is not an afterlife. It is a nexus. The repository for every LitRPG novel with an Infinite Harem System ever written across the omniverse."
Kaito's gaze swept over the endless shelves. "Every... one?"
"Even those lost to time, burned by tyrants, or deleted by frustrated authors. They exist here, in perpetuity." She gestured with a slender hand. "Their worlds, their characters, their systems... all are real within these pages."
"Why am I here?" The question was desperate. "Haruto... the others..."
"The Silver Blade, Haruto Yamamoto, is gone," the Librarian said, her voice softening with a genuine, ancient sorrow. "As are Hardi, Cedonia, and Juniper. Their threads have been cut. But yours... yours snagged on the fabric of possibility."
"A second chance?" Hope, painful and sharp, flared in his chest.
"Of a sort. I can rewind the tape of your life to the moment before you entered that dungeon. A one-time reset. But simply going back will not change the outcome. You were not strong enough."
Kaito's fists clenched. "Then what's the point? I'm a Level 4 adventurer. A washed-up novelist. I couldn't save them then; I can't save them now."
"The point," the Librarian said, a sly smile playing on her lips, "is that I am offering you a new genre. You've been living a standard LitRPG adventure. I am offering you the key to the ultimate power fantasy." She extended her hand, and a single, shimmering mote of light appeared above her palm. "The Infinite Harem System."
An interface, sleek and intuitive, materialized before Kaito. It was nothing like the clunky, utilitarian screens he was used to.
System Notification: Do you wish to bind with the Infinite Harem System (Omniverse Edition)?
[YES] / [NO]
He didn't hesitate. "I'll do anything to save him. To save them all."
His finger passed through the [YES] option.
And then the world dissolved into a flood of light and information.
System Notification: Binding complete. Welcome, Kaito Liu.
System Notification: You have the ability to summon the Infinite Harem from the LitRPG novel "Infinite Harem of Beautiful Girls."
System Notification: You have the ability to summon the Infinite Harem from the LitRPG novel "Succubus System."
System Notification: You have the ability to summon the Infinite Harem from the LitRPG novel "Magic: The Collection System."
The notifications cascaded, a waterfall of impossible promises. He saw titles flash by—"Eden Girls System," "Harem x Harem," "The Dragon's Infinite Harem"—on and on, an endless scroll of potential. He could feel them, the countless heroines from countless stories, waiting in the wings of reality, their presence a comforting, exhilarating pressure at the edge of his mind.
His heart hammered against his ribs. This wasn't just a power-up; it was a key to every fantasy he'd ever read, ever written, ever dreamed of. The possibilities were not just beyond his wildest dreams; they rendered his old dreams quaint and small.
The interface glowed with a soft, ethereal light, its potential searing itself into his soul. He knew, with absolute certainty, that his life—and perhaps all of reality—would never be the same again.
As the last notification faded, the Librarian's voice reached him, faint and distant. "Your leveling path is unique, Kaito Liu. Remember that. And remember the cost..."
Then, he lost consciousness, tumbling back towards a world he had left in ruins, armed with the power to rebuild it.