Applause filled the dark room as the sound from the piano began to fade. As the pianist gave a bow, the shouts and praises only got louder and louder, even as he walked off the stage he could hear it as clear as day.
Reaching the end of the hallway, the brunette opened the door and sighed, reaching for his phone on his desk. This was by far, one of his biggest shows, and yet he felt nothing but relief it was over, and how he didn't have to go out and mingle with his fans.
As he dialed the number of his closest friend, the screen flashed black for a split second and there he saw his face in the reflection, along with another man. Turning around out of fright, his grey orbs landed on the knife in the man's hands.
"What are you-" he started, but was soon cut off by the knife ramming into his stomach. Once, twice, three times. His phone now alone on the floor, abandoned, as he grabbed at his stomach trying to not bleed out too much.
However, it was futile. The perpetrator kicked the phone far across the room, cracking it in the process. "Goodbye, Rhys. It's been a really good few years." The man whispered as he left the room, a smile adorning his face.
Rhys, unable to stay conscious any longer, laid on the floor as the blood poured from him. At the moment, the only thing he could do was wait for death to arrive, right?
Just then, a voice appeared in what seemed to be his head. "Do you want to live more, Rhys?" the voice was as sweet as honey, and in the heat of the moment, he begged yes. Please. Just let him live.
"Welcome to the Target Capture System, you are currently in the safe space, host." The voice said once again. Just then, the room transformed into something absolutely beautiful, even to the standards of a rich and well-known musician such as himself.
The room was decorated in royal purple, red, and gold. There was a large seat in the middle with a bunch of screens all over, the biggest screen in the middle with the words "TUTORIAL LOADING".
It was at that moment that Rhys realised his body was completely fine, and that he was in some sort of foreign place. Before he could question it aloud, the voice spoke again noticing his confusing.
"Ah sorry, it's better like this right?" The voice transformed into a tiny hedgehog before him. It was quite ugly, if Rhys was being honest. It was small, looked like it's quills had a bad hair day, and looked as though someone threw up on it.
"I'm your system, in order to get back into your body, you will have to successfully complete 100 missions, without losing all of your memory! The penalty if failing anything the system gives you is losing your memory, beware!" Although it was an ugly little thing, the system still had an extremely pretty voice.
Wait, did he just hear that clearly? Did the system just say he was going to lose his memories?? And that he had to participate in some system? He thought an angel had come for him! What is this?
"The worlds of novels are now corrupted by their abandoned authors, your goal is to seduce and win the hearts of two or more male lead targets per world, and defeat the now evil female lead! Tutorial starting in five minutes!" The system continued, not caring if he was actually keeping up.
Finally getting a chance to collect his thoughts, he began to question what was happening. "Memories? What do you mean corrupt worlds, male leads, and what do you mean seducing them, I'm straight!" He yelled out.
"Ah, I guess you do want to know, huh. In five minutes, your first memory will be taken from you. You will not be able to regain your memories during your time here unless it's through an SSS mission, that's something you'll likely never accomplish." The system began, taunting Rhys.
"Second, can you believe authors actually story writing their stories midway! They completely abandon their characters, and it causes an injustice in the world! The female leads have become corrupted, and it's your job to get rid of them, and save the male leads, your capture targets! Oh don't forget to look at your screen!"
Looking up at the big screen, Rhys noticed it said "TUTORIAL LOADING 3 MINUTES". He was being serious! It was then he also noticed the man now popped on the screen, with a data file.
"RHYS HYDE RANK H-1"
"NEWBIE HOST, YEARS (1)"
"TALENTS: MUSIC, COOKING, GARDENING"
"SKILLS: NONE UNLOCKED"
"WORLDS SAVED: 0"
Was this his information? How did they even know he gardens in his free time? That's secret information, this is stalking!
However the thing that caught his eye the most was the man on screen. Although the data was his, the man looked nothing like him. The system continued despite Rhys' obvious confusion.
The man on the screen had cherry red hair with mesmerising blue eyes. He had soft pale skin, and a rather petite frame. He was short and seemed around 5'4, and had the cute little boy vibe. The exact opposite of himself.
"The system has made a mistake! You were originally supposed to save the female leads, but you seemed more like the gay type, so we just added you there! And now let me explain your new identity while we still have one minute."
Although Rhys was about to cut off the system about the totally not true gay comment, he kept his mouth shut as he felt the next part was crucial.
"Finally, you've got your attention on me. I am your system, refer to me as Kane in the future. Although your name is still Rhys Hyde, your appearance is now different, in order to differentiate you of your past and future, we can easily wipe your memories away with one of our pre made host bodies you're occupying." The system explained, with forty seconds left.
As Rhys nodded, the system continued its rules. "In order to complete a world, you must either get rid of the female lead completely, or capture the targets affection to one hundred percent on each. Friendly reminder! Even if his love for you is one hundred, it can drop. If you think you don't want to give him attention and move onto another target, you cannot do that!" Hearing that, Rhys let out a little tsk.
"The last way is to give up on the world, and you'll automatically lose a memory fragment. You have 100 key memories of your life, don't lose them! If you do, you'll be a host forever." Twenty seconds remained.
"Finally, as your system I will help you level up and gain skills, I'll tell you about along the way. If you fail any missions from the system, you get punished! A memory taken. Although you cannot physically die, your body will feel immense pain so don't be reckless! Until you level up, try to take easy missions." 3...2...1.. the world around had changed.
As Rhys rubbed his eyes, a throbbing sensation entered his head. It felt as though someone was punching him repeatedly. It took five minutes, but when it finally ended, it felt as though he had lost something, despite gaining so much information.
"System, ah, Kane, please explain this to me. My throbbing headache." Rhys asked, for once he was actually being kind to the system since he was brought into it.
"What you've just gained is an information dump and information overload! You've acquired the skill master listener 0, you'll remember all the system and host data, but the more you level this skill the more you'll be able to remember about the world around you, even if you don't pay attention." Kane began.
Hopping into Rhys' hand, he continued. "You've lost one memory according to the rules of rebirth, and that is your murderer. Please try not to forget this pain if you plan on losing more memories. Regular people can't see me, until I level up, through your help. The first target is approaching soon, so I'll just leave you be while I take a nap on your shoulder! Have fun!" With that, Kale went to sleep on Rhys.
Cursing the system under his breathe, Rhys wondered just why it had to be him. Or rather, why it had to be men! It would be okay if it were women, but he is absolute not into-
"Rhys, are you in there?" A low voice called out as knocking began. Slightly panicking, he calmed himself. As the greatest musician in his country, his own humble opinion, he has never once cared about his fans. No matter how pressure they put on him, he wouldn't let them get to him. This is the same. It's just a tutorial, anyways.
According to the information he had received the targets should all start at affection twenty and there's two. Currently he was at the office building of the Elysian corporation, a big time company related to media.
"Yes, come in." He called out, trying not to sound little. If you fake it, you'll make it he told himself. In came a man with dirty blonde hair with a split making it look as though he had a five head, in Rhys' humble opinion.
Just then, when they made eye contact, a buzz had sounded and Kane began to explain. "Don't look stupid. No one can see me, but you. Anyways, when you see a new male capture target you'll get a brief information oversight."
As Kane went back to sleep, Rhys processed the information. The man's name was Aaron Holland, and he worked as the secretary for Theodore Rosera, the CEO of Elysian. According to his memories, he was an intern that caught Theo's interest based off his cheerfulness, and by the way he worked hard. Due to this, he and Theo were going to meet.
Wait wait- isn't that too cliche of a plot? Even though this is a tutorial, shouldn't he get a better story! No wonder the author had given up on it too, what kind of male lead just randomly takes cheerful people into his office to talk!
Aaron coughed to regain Rhys' focus. "Mister Rhys, we would like to talk about actually hiring you and offering you a contract, due to your hard work the sales have significantly increased in your department." After he said that, he began to reach for a the file tugged away under his arm and presented it to Rhys.
Wait, seriously? This third rate novel is too easy on its characters! Theo had only ever seen Rhys once from afar according to the system, and they immediately got a favor of twenty? The same with Aaron, is the system serious? These two are literally labeled as the bossy and cruel CEO of the world, and his iron hearted and loyal secretary! Damn you, author.
Putting on a forced smile, Rhys took the paper from Aaron. "I'd love to! I can't wait." Rhys began, but as he said that he saw Aaron's favourability decreased as it went from twenty to fifteen.
Wait, what's happening, Kane? Right on cue Kane awoke again to tell Rhys the rule of affection.
"If you do something they don't like, your affection will decrease. Try your best to increase it. The system was the one who put you at twenty, so stop blaming the author you good for nothing introvert!"
That hurt. Although Rhys was successful and had a huge amount of pride- he was indeed friendless. He only had two friends, and he didn't even communicate with fans.
"I didn't know you were like, this, Mister Rhys." Aaron said as he turned around, ready to leave. It didn't take long for Rhys to realise he had to do something in order to raise the affection once more. He had already started using formalities and he couldn't afford that.
As Rhys yelled out "wait!" a system hint appeared on the right side of Aaron, who spun around to look at him. Since it's the tutorial, you get a hint. "Aaron likes the friendly and cute type, don't be curt or forced!" it read.
Bullshit, what a good for nothing system! So now he's being told to act? He's a musician! Not an actor. Sighing, Rhys put on his best brave yet cute face and began to run to Aaron.
"Aaron, I greatly appreciate this, you know! I'm going to do my absolute best for the company so you and mister Theo don't have to worry about my department, okay?" He gave the blonde a hug. Although he knew that his new body was so much smaller, he couldn't get used to being the one who is looked down on instead of towering over someone.
As a blush appeared on Aaron's face, the favourability increased by ten points, putting him at a score of twenty-five for Aaron. Wow, so he actually was easy. As Aaron turned away to fetch Theodore, Rhys immediately began to wipe his hands with the tissue in the room table, and rolled his eyes.
"I'm straight, I'm straight you know!" He cried out, but alas, no one would spare him his fate of the system. As Rhys sat down, he questioned Kane a few more times before his first big meeting.
"Do I really have to act? I don't want to!" Although it was a question, it sounded more like a whine. "Also, why are you so ugly?" He finally asked.
Kane bit his finger and yelled out "I'm not ugly! It's your lack of skill, maybe if you got the target to 100 already I'd evolve into something cuter!" He hissed.
A hundred?? You mean to say he could of gotten Aaron done and easy with in one setting? Was the tutorial really that simple. "The tutorial is so easy it'd take a stupid dumb idiot to fail, you know. You don't even need to meet the female lead, those two are so easy since everyone is afraid of them, just look cute, show them kindness, and try making out." The furious system spat, almost as though it read Rhys' mind.
Wait, make out?? How many times must he tell Kane he's straight! And secondly, "what's the point of an evil female lead in this world if there's no need for one." He asked.
"Ah, simple. I told you from the start. One of the ways to win is getting rid of the female lead, this is for those sadistics who want to murder or let loose their anger, the gays who are extra sadistic can make the female lead in this world watch as they makeout with the targets, too. Oh also, here's a mission!" Kane said.
Wait wasn't that too much information at once? And what is with this system and hosts in it! Also, he's straight and wait, mission? Although Kane sounded like honey and an angel, he was the devil in an ugly hedgehog skin.
"SYSTEM MISSION"
"Host must kiss one of the two, if not both, of the capture targets by the end of this meeting. Failure results in loss of (1) memory"
The screen popped up and read itself aloud. Oh no. This absolutely couldn't be happening! Perhaps it would be better to kill the female lead, if he could find her before the meeting begins!
As Rhys debated his options, he heard the door click open. He was too late to commit the felony.