Phoenix jolted awake as if someone had dumped ice water down his face. His head throbbed with a pain that felt like two different movies playing simultaneously in a broken theatre projector.
One showed flashes of a cramped college dorm room, dried up and crusty tissues everywhere, textbooks scattered across a desk, and the taste of instant ramen.
The other revealed crystalline walls that hummed with soft blue energy, floating furniture that defied gravity, and the unmistakable scent of something cooking downstairs that actually smelled appetising.
"What the hell?" he muttered, pressing palms against his temples. The voice that came out wasn't quite right either. Deeper than he remembered, but not by much.
The memories crashed together like colliding freight trains. Phoenix Kai was from Earth, an eighteen-year-old kid, straight as an arrow despite his secret fascination with certain types of animated content he'd never admit to watching.
Dead from what he vaguely recalled as a spectacularly stupid accident involving a truck, a little too many energy drinks, and his complete lack of coordination.
But also Phoenix Kai Starweaver-Stormforge, eighteen years old, final year student who had just finished his exams, living on Celestara Prime in a galaxy-spanning civilisation that had left Earth's ashes behind millennia ago.
Virgin, despite living in the most sexually open society imaginable, he was terrified of intimacy to a degree that worried his family.
"Okay, this is either the most vivid dream I've ever had, or I'm actually living in one of those reincarnation stories I used to read during classes."
He sat up slowly, examining hands that looked familiar yet foreign. Same basic structure, but the fingers were longer, more elegant. The skin had a healthier glow than he'd ever managed back on Earth.
The bedroom around him belonged in a science fiction movie. Crystals embedded in the walls pulsed with gentle light, responding to his awakening by brightening gradually.
The bed itself seemed to be carved from a single piece of some white stone that felt warm and comfortable despite its appearance.
Through the window, he could see floating vehicles drifting between towers that stretched toward three moons hanging in a sky that definitely wasn't the Earth's.
Just as he was looking around the new sci-fi room, a translucent blue interface materialised in front of his face, causing him to nearly fall out of bed.
{BLUE BALLS SYSTEM ACTIVATED}
{Host: Phoenix Kai Starweaver-Stormforge}
{Current Status: 18-Year Virgin – UNPRECEDENTED ACHIEVEMENT}
{Major Reward Available: Choose Your Path}
{Body Path or Spirit Path?}
Phoenix blinked rapidly, but the interface remained floating there like the world's most invasive advertisement. His Earth memories supplied context from dozens of novels he'd consumed instead of studying.
Cultivation systems, power progression, and the classic choice between physical enhancement and magical abilities. Ignoring the name of the system, he looked at the choice.
"This is insane," he whispered, then spoke louder to the interface. "Magic path, definitely. Everyone knows that magic is better and much more cooler."
The interface flickered, text shifting and changing.
{SEARCHING DATABASE...}
{ERROR: HIGH-LEVEL MAGIC PATH MANUAL NOT FOUND}
{ALTERNATIVE LOCATED: SUPREME BODY PATH MANUAL}
{AUTO-ASSIGNING: "Primal Star Ascension Technique"}
"Wait, hold on!" Phoenix waved his hands frantically at the interface. "That's not what I wanted. Can't you change it? I don't want to punch things, I want to cast spells!"
{SYSTEM BINDING COMPLETE. NO CHANGES POSSIBLE}
{Compensation Technique is Highest-Tier quality}
{Future Rewards: Martial arts, weapons, vehicles, currency, cultivation boosts}
{Warning: Reward quality scales with restraint duration}
{Reward Scaling: Longer restraint periods = exponentially better rewards}
Phoenix stared at the interface in disbelief. Even in a magical reincarnation scenario, he was getting screwed by technical difficulties.
"Fantastic. I ask for magic and get brute force instead. This is exactly the kind of luck I had back on Earth. Also, what does it even mean by restraint?"
He continued scrolling through information on the blue interface that made his head spin.
Apparently, the longer he went without sexual release, the better rewards he would receive from this system. Martial arts techniques, weapons, even vehicles and money. Anything he could imagine, the system had it.
The current jackpot was available because he'd somehow managed to remain a virgin for eighteen years, which the system seemed to consider as the highest level of achievement before it reset.
Honestly, the more he looked at it, the weirder it felt. Why was he getting a system which rewarded him because he was abstaining? Shouldn't it be something like beat this or kill that if it were a sci-fi world?
"Phoenix! Breakfast!" A warm female voice called from downstairs, carrying an authority that made him immediately think 'mom.'
That was when the other set of memories kicked in properly.
Elena Starweaver, the government administrator, she was his primary mother figure. Diana Stormforge, a military contractor and she was his secondary mother.
Aria and Luna were his older sisters, who shared the hyphenated family name with him. Another thing was that all of them were very, very...open.
Together, they were a happy family of five.
His Earth mind recoiled in shock while his new world memories accepted it as completely natural.
The cognitive dissonance made his headache worse. He did not know much about his family because he spent a lot of time cooped up in his room. He practically lived here. The original Phoenix had been a shut-in NEET, just like his Earth self.
"Phoenix, sweetie, are you awake?" Elena's voice drifted up again, this time with a note of concern.
"Coming!" he called back, surprised by how naturally the response came. These weren't just borrowed memories. They felt real, lived-in, and part of him now.
He stumbled toward what his memories told him was the bathroom, needing a moment to process everything. The mirror reflected a face that was definitely his, but refined. Better bone structure, clearer skin, and eyes that held more intelligence than he remembered possessing. He had long flowing black hair that reached just below his neck, making him look like some kind of metal head.
The body was leaner but stronger, like someone who exercised regularly without being obsessive about it.
More importantly, according to his new memories, he was about to walk into a household where his family members were very 'affectionate' with each other.
Also, another crucial fact was that this was a reverse gender world. Meaning, the world was 90% women and 10% men, which made him a protected minority.
The only catch was that they all had an extra... appendage down there, if you can call it that.
His Earth memories insisted he was straight, attracted exclusively to women. But as images from his new life flickered through his consciousness, featuring his beautiful futanari family members, he felt a stirring of interest that confused and intrigued him in equal measure.
"I am straight," he murmured to his reflection. "But they're so feminine and beautiful, I don't really know what to feel. Is this normal?"
Phoenix took a deep breath, trying to centre himself. He had apparently been reincarnated into a world that was essentially his secret fantasies made real, complete with a game-like system that would reward him for self-control.
With this world having no 'women', it shouldn't be hard to keep his self-control right. I mean, he had preserved his integrity, rather unwillingly, but preserved it nonetheless for 18 years in his world. What were the chances someone would even like him in this one?
He had a family that loved him, he had access to a sci-fi world, and he was about to start a new chapter of existence in a galaxy-spanning civilisation. It was everything he ever wanted and never had.
The voice calling from downstairs grew more insistent, tinged with the particular worry that only mothers could manage.
"Alright," he said to his reflection. "Let's see how weird my new life can get."
The system interface flickered one final time before disappearing.
Phoenix headed for the door, toward whatever awaited him downstairs, wondering if his old life's luck would follow him into this new existence, or if maybe, just maybe, things were finally about to get good for him.