The air was thick with rain, the streetlights flickering as if mourning the quiet death of another forgotten evening. Rahil walked briskly down the alley, his hoodie drawn low over his head, his fists shoved deep into his pockets. The city felt cold, unfamiliar, like it knew something he didn't.
He had just come from another fight — a boy at school had called him "cute" with a smile that lingered too long. Rahil had snapped, shoving the boy into the lockers, spitting words soaked in disgust. "Freak. Stay the hell away from me."
He didn't understand why people like that existed. Men loving men. It felt wrong, unnatural. Maybe it was how he was raised, maybe it was something deeper — something he didn't have the words for. All he knew was that it made him angry. Violently so.
He had no clue someone had been following him for the last three blocks.
A shadow moved fast. Too fast.
Hands grabbed him from behind. A cloth soaked in something chemical pressed to his face. Rahil struggled, kicked, thrashed — but the world turned sideways. His limbs went soft.
Why now?
That was his last thought before everything went black.
---
He woke up cold.
Not shivering, just… absent. Like his skin remembered warmth, but his body no longer knew how to feel it.
Rahil sat up. He was still in the alley, but something was different. The colors felt muted. The air had no weight. His breathing — or what should've been breathing — made no sound.
Then he saw it.
His body.
Lying in the corner, throat slit, eyes open in horror. A stray cat licked at the blood, unbothered.
"No…" Rahil staggered back, looking down at his transparent hands. His fingers passed through the wall behind him.
"No. No, no, no. This isn't real. This can't be—"
But it was.
He was dead.
A scream clawed its way up his throat but never escaped. His voice made no echo here. Just silence.
---
For days — or what felt like days — Rahil haunted that alley. Watching the world pass. People stepped over the chalk lines. Some cried. Most didn't.
His killer was never found. It was random. Meaningless.
He thought death would bring him peace. Or hell. Or something. Instead, he was left behind. A soul so heavy with hate it couldn't move on.
One night, as he drifted among the shadows, he saw them.
Two male spirits, holding hands under the flickering light, their bodies faint and glowing blue. They kissed — gentle, sincere — and faded away together, ascending into something brighter.
Rahil watched, hollow.
Why them?
Why did they get peace?
He looked down at himself — cracked, flickering, unwhole.
And for the first time in his existence, living or dead, Rahil felt something else stir beneath his anger.
Loneliness.
Regret.
And the terrifying possibility that maybe — just maybe — it wasn't the world that was broken.
Maybe it was him.
So this is what the afterlife looked like?
No fire. No judgment. No robed angels or pitchfork demons.
Just... pink skies. Floating islands. A silver river running upside down across the sky like someone had flipped the laws of gravity and common sense.
And the people—no, the men—walking the streets of this strange glowing city?
They were all gorgeous. All male. All hand-in-hand or whispering in each other's ears. And some of them... weren't even alive. Spirits. Ghosts. Casually chatting with the living like it was nothing.
Rahil gawked from the top of a stairway made of light, his translucent feet hovering an inch above the ground. His spiritual form had followed a strange pull into this world, and now he was just standing here, completely lost.
"What the hell is this place…?"
Then it hit him.
This wasn't just any afterlife.
This was the world from that stupid web novel his little brother had been obsessed with.
He muttered to himself. "No. No way. This has to be a dream. Or a curse. Or punishment."
---
His brother had begged him to read it. "Bro, bro! It's this amazing story! Gay ghost magic, romance, fighting spirits! The main character's a total slut but in the best way!"
Rahil had scoffed every time. "Tch. Sounds like trash for pervs."
Now, he was inside it.
Literally inside the story world.
He remembered the name.
> "Phantom Bond: The Lust of the Dead"
A world where the rules of love and power were one and the same. Where the more ghosts you seduced — yes, seduced — the more power you gained.
And the protagonist?
The "biggest gay harem king in fiction."
Kael Luxem.
Golden-eyed, half-shirtless most of the time, ridiculously charming. His little brother had posters of him on the wall.
Rahil grit his teeth. "I hated that guy and I've never even read a single damn chapter."
Now… he was stuck in Kael's world. As a ghost. A dead homophobe in a land of romance, magic, and very public affection.
It was like the universe had played the longest, gayest joke on him.
---
He wandered through the city, stunned and burning with bitterness.
Everywhere he looked: ghost couples sipping ethereal tea, a man floating mid-air kissing a spectral partner, a sword duel that ended in a passionate forehead touch and dramatic line like "Even in death, I ache for you."
Disgusting. Extra. Ridiculous.
And yet... part of him felt off. Not just angry — out of place.
Was this karma?
Was this a second chance?
Or was it hell, dressed in lace and eyeliner?
He didn't know yet.
But one thing he knew for sure: he was going to find Kael Luxem, the Main Character, and if anyone had answers for how to get out of this gay ghost wonderland, it was him.
Rahil clenched his fists and muttered under his breath:
> "This world is insane. And that Kael guy better not try to flirt with me… or so help me—"
"Hey, cutie. You look lost."
Rahil froze.
A tall, shirtless ghost with smoldering blue eyes and a teasing grin hovered inches behind him.
Rahil's eye twitched.
"…Oh f**k me."
The ghost was beautiful in the worst way — glowing abs, flawless face, those smug, knowing eyes that screamed "I top from the afterlife."
Rahil backed away, fists up, panic and fury pumping through his ghostly veins.
"Don't you dare touch me," he hissed. "Stay back, you gay… freak."
The ghost raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Still using that word in this world?" He floated a little closer, lips curling. "You're cute when you're mad."
Rahil's soul flared with rage.
"I HATE this place!" he shouted to no one. "This world! These people! The rules! The magic! The MC! Everything! I want to BURN it to the ground!"
And then—
The sky above cracked like glass.
A system prompt blinked into existence before him in glowing blood-red script:
> (Host has expressed World-Destroying Intent.)
(Initializing… SYSTEM FOUND!)
🩸 CONGRATULATIONS! 🩸
You have activated the [Will Destroyer System]!
Welcome, Destroyer. Your hatred is divine. Your desire to tear down is sacred.
Rahil froze. "What the hell…?"
More text flashed, fast and furious:
> You are Awakening…
🎉 CONGRATULATIONS! 🎉
You have awakened: [SSS RANK SKILL UNLOCKED]
🧬 GENDER BENDER – SSS RANK
Manipulate the gender of any living or spiritual being.
Through physical contact, forcibly reverse their gender identity and physiology.
Make them your bound partner or servant.
Intimacy with converted partners grants new abilities and system upgrades.
Rahil stared, blinking in disbelief.
"…Is this a joke?"
> (No joke, Destroyer. The world shall bend or break beneath your will.)
A sinister grin began to curl across his lips — bitter, gleeful, chaotic.
"So… I can flip their gender?"
> (Correct.)
"And then make them my… slave?"
> (Technically yes, but in this world, we call them 'Bound Companions'.)
He slowly turned to the ghost — still smirking, unaware of what had just been unleashed.
"Alright then," Rahil said, stepping forward.
The ghost cocked his head. "What? You wanna play now, pretty boy?"
"I wanna win."
He reached out and touched the ghost's chest.
A blinding light burst out. The ghost howled in shock. His form shifted, shimmered — his hair grew long, his chest swelled, his waist narrowed. When the glow faded, standing before Rahil was a breathtakingly hot female ghost, dressed in mist and shivering with… arousal.
"W-What… did you do to me…?" she whimpered, breathless.
> (New Partner Registered!)
Name: [Unassigned]
Status: Aroused | Loyal | Spiritually Bound
Ability Unlocked: [Spectral Chain Kiss] – Use to bind other ghosts in combat.)
Rahil exhaled, laughing. "Okay. Okay. I'm into this now."
The ghost dropped to one knee before him, gazing up with wide, worshipful eyes.
"You… feel like a god…"
Rahil just grinned darkly.