Minho finally woke up, his eyes fluttering open to something impossible—a translucent blue interface floating on his vision.
[DIVINITY SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
[Host Status]: Minho
Essence Gauge: 0.0% [0000 / 9999]
Stats:
Physique: 7
Agility: 5
Spirit: 10
Charm: 8
EP: 0
Innate Skills:
Subjects: Null
"W—what is this?" He mumbled drowsily, blinking in confusion.
He propped himself up in a seat and tried to look around his surroundings, when the translucent blue interface flickered as it dematerialized, but something else caught his vision—someone.
A white haired lady of ethereal beauty sat at a corner with her cold eyes fixated on him like a statue. Minho thought the face looked familiar, when his memories came flooding into his head, and he remembered everything that happened leading up to that moment.
"I died…?" he quickly grabbed the back of his head, caressing it for any signs of bruise or pain, but there were none. And that lady… he thought as he looked up again, that was the ghost that kissed him.
Minho yelled in panic as he quickly scrambled back till his back hit the wall, as the eyes of lady who looked too good to be true—too perfect, like she'd been carved from stone by a master sculptor, followed him like a moving statue. Her body was covered now by a familiar suit jacket that exposed the flawless, pale skin between her perky breasts down to her abdomen from the neck slit, and stopped halfway down the exposed skin of her fleshy thighs, crossed over the other.
Now, not only had she kissed him while he was dying, she'd clearly stolen his jacket after that.
Minho opened his mouth and closed them several times trying to find his voice, looking like a fish thrown out of water. But his mind went blank as his eyes fed themselves with every inch of her that lacked imperfection. He knew it was inappropriate and it was unlike him to stare at women longer than one should—but he couldn't help it.
"You're awake. Good. I was beginning to think I miscalculated." The white haired lady finally said, her voice melodious but cold.
"W—who are you?" Minho stuttered as he finally found his voice.
She smiled coldly—beautiful and terrifying at the same time. "I am a Gumiho. A nine-tailed fox spirit. Your dear grandmother trapped me in that vessel for fifty-three years." Her smile disappeared. "I was going kill you. Slowly. Make you suffer as she made me suffer. Before ripping out your heart and feeding on your liver."
Minho subconsciously crossed his hands over his chest. 'A Gumiho? A nine-tailed fox spirit? Was that even a real thing?' He thought skeptically, when he remembered the nine white tails he'd seen behind her just before he lost consciousness, and swallowed hard.
'Grandma, just what had you been doing with your life? Do you also have a dragon trapped in a bottle somewhere here too?' Minho cried silently. He had escaped death just to die—slowly, and painfully this time around.
"But before I could exact my revenge, you tried to die a pathetic death. Too easy. Too merciful. Then I had a better idea," the white haired lady uncrossed her legs smoothly and calmly stood on her feet.
"I need human essence to survive. But there are only two known ways to gather that for a fox spirit," she began taking slow, deliberate steps towards him. "One, I feed on the heart and liver of my human prey to absorb their essence, which could be very troublesome and… gruesome. And two, requires a certain level of… intimacy. Physical and emotional connections with humans. Quite difficult when you're a fox spirit and end up losing control and ripping out their heart and livers." She gestured at Minho. "But you? You're human. You can repeatedly get close to them and slowly absorb their essence. So I transferred my fox bead to you, the primal source of my power, which keeps you alive and grants you my fox spirit abilities, now manifested as the 'Divinity System'."
Like it was reacting to Miss Gumiho's words, the translucent blue interface materialized on Minho's vision once more. Assuring him there was no foreplay here.
"So, you want me to achieve this 'certain level of… intimacy' with humans to absorb their essence?" Minho asked carefully as he ran his eyes through the interface that looked a lot like an MMORPG player interface now he thought about it.
"Precisely." The Gumiho replied as she stood before him. "You will seduce beautiful women. Build trust. Become intimate with them. The essence you generate feeds me through the bead. When I have enough to complete my transformation... then I might consider letting you walk away alive."
Minho's eyes ran along her flawless pale thighs now up close, as he looked up at her from the translucent blue interface.
"And why should I?" He asked boldly. Half expecting her to pick him up by the neck and fling him across the storage closet.
The Gumiho only smiled condescendingly as she reduced herself to his height, crouching before him with her hands delicately placed on her thighs.
She leaned close, her breath warm against his ear. "You missed the part where it's my fox bead that's keeping you alive," her lips slowly parted as she said. "You're just a walking corpse."
She leaned back to stare into his gray eyes, "The moment you default and starve the bead of essence, it begins to leech off yours… till you drop dead."
At this proximity, Minho could feel her warm breath against his face, and could smell her fresh, minted breath. Staring from her mesmerizing eyes to her delicate lips, his heart was starting to beat loudly against his chest as blood was circulated in all the right places.
Miss Gumiho seemed to have finished speaking but for some reasons chose to maintain the close proximity between them as she stared between his eyes just like Minho was doing, before her gaze slowly lowered to his lips and stayed there for a minute longer. Her lips slowly parting.
A knock at the door suddenly interrupts them both, and a woman's voice calls out: "Hello? Is anyone here? I was told a shaman works at this address..."