Chapter 1: A Pawn in This Cycle of Vengeance
Ben slumped on the worn leather couch, his feet propped on the coffee table littered with empty soda cans and chip bags. The living room was bathed in a dull gray light, filtered through poorly drawn curtains. On the giant TV screen, the logo Apex to Supremacy still flickered faintly. Three weeks. Three weeks of nonstop gaming, sinking into the tortured world of Eden, a half-angel, half-demon supposedly the hero of an epic tragedy.
Ben’s eyes were bloodshot, dark circles hollowed from sleepless nights. He felt a strange bitterness in his mouth, as if the aftertaste of humiliation had lodged itself in his molars.
"So I’ve been playing a damn eroge this whole time?" he muttered aloud, his eyes heavy.
He’d been lured in by the website’s summary—a deep, bloody, and cruel RPG, seinen-rated, not for the faint of heart. Eden, son of a fallen archangel and a demonic prince. Two enemy races. He wasn’t supposed to exist. Upon learning the truth, he embarks on a quest to avenge himself against the bastards who took everything from him.
There were powerful antagonists with deep backstories.
Lucifero, Aeshma... And especially Daemon, with genuine development, transforming from a hedonistic young master into the embodiment of the devil.
But barely three minutes in, Eden had already slept with his adoptive father’s disciple. Literally. No warning, no preamble. Just a "press X to remove her thong."
"Well... it’s for the story..." he’d reassured himself at the time.
Five minutes later, it was his cousin. Barely older than him, introduced as a childhood friend. There had been tears, flashbacks... Then an explicit scene, shaky camera, and moaning in the background...
"There’s something weird here..."
Ten minutes. His professor, Gold Saintess Luxia.