"Stephen!"
"Stephen!!"
"Stephen!!!"
The system could only on watch helplessly as Stephen vanished into the crowd, eyes locked on the woman in gray like she were some divine being, something not of this world.
He clicked his tongue, or at least made the sound. Stephen had been seduced, and the blame fell squarely on him. If only he'd caught the faint trace of the aphrodisiac when she brushed past earlier.
He needed to work fast and instantly, the system transferred itself into Stephen's mind.
Now that the boys soul had been displaced, all that remained was his memories and a blanked out mind. He could be considered a puppet now, one that would adhere to any command given regardless of its severity or implications.
"Tch." The system voiced again.
Seduction wasn't the most difficult status ailment to navigate against, but it was no easy feat. Especially since the main way to stop its effects was through physical force, something he, as a system couldn't wield.
Still there had to be something he could do to help. Regardless of its position as an arbiter that merely watched the protagonist complete his mission. There had to be something it could do to assist him.
Stephen would answer any question asked to him now truthfully, he'd follow the woman that seduced him blindly as well. He had to help him.
Or maybe it didn't need to...
It wasn't his job to ever protect Stephen, he was a mere system, a collection of mana that housed his abilities. That's all he was.
Yet...
The system focused mana into the center of Stephen's mind and in the next instance. A tear formed, a spatial rupture that led to the boys memories.
And it went through.
When a soul is displaced, it retreats into its most cherished memory, the one it held closest before slipping away. Seeing it was near impossible. But thanks to the system's unique bond with Stephen, he could.
He walked through a sea of recollections, peering into every single moment Stephen could remember. From when he was a little child, learning to ride a bike with his parents. To his school days where he walked home with friends.
He was supposed to be rushing. But something about watching that innocent grin... it caught him. This wasn't the Stephen he knew. This was someone softer.
"He should've stayed like this," the system muttered, pushing forward.
More memories came into view, these from the later years. Middle school, highschool, college. But although change was an uninterruptible force.
It felt like the boy had gone through more than just a growth spurt. He wasn't smiling anymore, and his eyes now sunken deep. He seemed... empty.
What had gone wrong?
Another memory unfolded beside him, a grey floating frame suspended in an endless black void. As he stepped through the threshold, the memory flickered to life. Color surged back in, sound followed, and the world began to move once more.
He was searching for Stephen, if this truly was his most cherished memory, then reaching him here meant he could break the trance and pull him back into his body. The problem, though, was finding him.
The system kept moving through the corridors of Langley Standard College, where Stephen had gone to school before his untimely death, and as he moved through the hallways. He scanned every face, listening to every voice. Yet, not a single mention of "Stephen" or his surname, "Garnt."
Was he even in this memory?
He had to be. The return of color was the sign, it always meant the soul was present.
As he passed a mirror, he stopped. Then walked back.
And yes, walked was the correct word. He hadn't floated through the halls. He'd walked. His body had returned. He was no longer just a floating spreadsheet.
His hands went to his face first, then to his hair, blonde and scraggly, just as he remembered it. This was what he looked like, before...
He shook it off. Now wasn't the time for nostalgia. He was here for Stephen. No detours were allowed.
He pressed forward.
And yet, even with his enhanced hearing in this memory world. Not one single person had said Stephen's name or mentioned anything about him either, this was an almost unforeseen situation.
Though this was his first time being placed into a game, Stephen wasn't his first host. The system had been assigned to several before, and whenever he'd entered their memories, finding them had been easy. It never took long to hear a friend looking for them, or even hanging out with.
It wasn't like he was invisible.
He stopped beside a student walking down the hall. In this memory world, he couldn't speak to anyone, but that wasn't what he needed.
He raised his hand to the student's head, and with a single swipe, extracted the boy's memories. Every image he'd ever seen, every conversation he'd overheard or taken part in.
Nothing. No sign of Stephen.
He did it again. Then again. Multiple students and teachers, pulled open like books. But still nothing.
Did no one know Stephen even existed?
The system kept moving, combing the school, opening doors and searching through memory after memory. The dorms made the most sense, if Stephen was anywhere, it would be there.
At the far end of a hallway, he opened a door.
The room was dim, a single light the only thing that illuminated it.
In the center stood a boy, eyes fixed on a silent TV screen. A knife trembled in his hand.
"Put me back in!" he screamed.
"Please, I don't like this place. I want to go back!"
"Should I kill myself? Will that send me back?!"
The system grabbed the doorknob, closing it was probably for the best. Someone was having a mental breakdown and it wasn't in his place to see.
"Who are you?!"
The voice cut through the silence like glass. The figure had turned, staring directly at him.
The system froze.
He wasn't supposed to be visible. No one could ever see him in here.
Unless...
"Stephen?" he whispered.
"Who are you?" Stephen asked, stepping back a bit.
"I'm... your system. You got seduced at the dance. I'm here to snap you out of it."
Stephen lunged forward, hands gripping the system's back. "Please, snap me out of it. Take me back to that other world, back to Tello. Please!"
"Yeah... I will," the system replied, arms still at his sides.
Stephen trembled just below him. The knife slipping from his fingers, clattering to the floor.
This wasn't like him. Not the Stephen he knew. Not the one weaving cons back in Eldoria with calm calculation and effortless charm. This breakdown, this desperation felt foreign.
The system glanced around the room. It had to be Stephen's dorm. But it was empty, eerily so. Just a small TV screen, a game console plugged in beneath it and then nothing else. No utensils. No clothes. No sheets on the bed. Nothing that hinted someone actually lived here.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Stephen slowly backed away, one hand to his head as he collapsed onto the bare mattress. "I'm fine. I'm sorry I rushed at you like that. Just... can you take me back?"
"Why do you want to go back so badly?" the system asked. "Isn't your goal to return here eventually? You should be happy you got to come back, even for a moment."
"Why should I?" Stephen scoffed. "There's nothing here for me."
"That's not true," the system muttered. "You have your parents. They—"
"They died a few years ago," Stephen cut in, reaching forward to grab the game controller.
The system fell silent. He looked around again, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
"There still have to be people who care about you," he tried again. "What about your friends—"
He stopped himself.
No one at the school had even known Stephen's name. Not one student had noticed him. Not one memory had mentioned him.
A game booted up on the television, its low-resolution textures and janky interface flickering across the screen.
"That looks horrible," the system mumbled.
"It does, right?" Stephen laughed suddenly, his voice bright but unsteady. "My dad gave it to me before I left for college."
Then, more somber.
"It was the last thing he ever gave me."
A wry smile tugged at his face. "A crappy harem game with a protagonist dumber than a watermelon."
"...But this is your favorite memory," the system said. "Why?"
Stephen blinked, glancing at him. "What are you talking about?"
"You were seduced by that woman at the banquet. When that happens, your soul gets pushed into your strongest memory. The one you hold closest."
Stephen stared blankly for a moment, then looked back at the screen. "This is... my favorite memory. I guess it is."
"But why?" the system asked again. "There's nothing here. No one here. Why not something with your parents? Back when they were still alive?"
Stephen looked down, thumb brushing over the controller. "This was the day I got so bored, I finally opened the present my dad gave me. The dating sim."
"This was what started it all?"
"Yeah," he said softly. "And you'll probably laugh at me if I say this."
"I won't."
Stephen smiled faintly, eyes flicking back to the screen. "I always wanted to die and go somewhere else. I think this was the first day that thought really stuck in my head."
"You got what you wanted, I guess."
"I guess I did." Stephen laughed, though it didn't last long. "You know... after my parents died... right before I got into college... I wanted to kill myself."
The system didn't speak. He just listened.
"But then I played this stupid game," Stephen continued, "And for some reason, I didn't think about all the dull parts of life anymore. All the shitty parts, and I don't know why. It's not even a good game. The graphics are garbage, the controls are broken, and the story is even worse. But somehow... it made me want to live."
The system kept watching Stephen. Remembering the way he smiled every time he spoke about taking a different path in Eldoria. Not the fake, charming grin he wore for others, but the real one.
The same smile he'd seen in the earlier memories, when he rode a bike with training wheels, when he was walking home with a stick twice his size, clothes stained with mud, which his parents would scold him for.
"It was fun." The system muttered.
Stephen looked over, lips quivering, trying to keep his voice steady. "Yeah... it was."
The system turned toward the door, giving him a moment. Behind him, he heard the sound of Stephen lowering his head. Then, soft muffled sobs echoing through the room.
Maybe not in the cleanest of ways, but now he understood. He saw Stephen for what he really was. And every assumption he'd made up to this point about who this boy was quickly crumbled.
He wasn't just some abrasive, game addicted virgin.
He was a child who'd lost everything that made him happy.
...And still a virgin.
Snapping back to the task at hand, the system glanced over. "We have to go. If we don't return soon, that lady's going to have her way with you."
"That's what she wants?!" Stephen bolted upright, trying to joke, though a tear still slid down his cheek.
"Not like that, dumbass." The system raised his hand. "I'm going to dispel the aphrodisiac's effect, and its ongoing hold on your mind. When you come to at the banquet, you should be fine for the rest of the evening."
"Wait, you have arms?" Stephen stood up fully now. "And a body? You're more than just a floating spreadsheet?"
"Of course I am," the system said with a smug grin. "Back in my day, I got more girls than you've probably ever laid eyes on."
"What about now?"
"Hm."
"Got any bodiless system baddies you're seeing on the side?" Stephen teased, trying to lift the mood.
"I was planning on going soft on you." Mana began to gather in the system's palm. "But hey, who am I kidding!"
"You should introduce me to one sometime," Stephen added, grinning. "I'm sure her stats are very attractive—"
And just as Stephen finished speaking, the breath was ripped from his lungs as a mana-charged punch slammed into his gut.
His soul was yanked free from the memory, flung back toward reality, to the golden banquet. And since the soul was no more, the world began to dissolve, the sound fading, the colors draining.
But none of it mattered.
The job was done. Stephen was back where he wanted to be, where he felt alive. Where he had fun.
The system lingered for just a moment longer, watching his own body begin to dissolve into the nothingness of the memory.
"I wonder," he murmured to himself, "if the goddess would approve my request... to let him stay in that world."
His form flickered, fading completely.
And then, back at the banquet. Stephen spun across the dance floor, smiling as if nothing had happened, the woman in gray still in his arms.
The system watched in silence.
"I really hope she will."