This Isn’t an Erotic Game?

Chapter 1
This Isn’t an Erotic Game

『 Translator – Divinity 』

To sum up my life after reincarnation in one sentence, it would be,

“Your prophetic ability is truly abysmal. Can you even make a living with that?”

“You can’t possibly inherit the family’s long-standing fortune-telling business!”

“Good heavens! All you can predict is misfortune! Predicting misfortune doesn’t bring in any money!!”

The Jericho family I was born into was a family famous for generations of prophets. A family that earns a living by reading people’s futures and receiving fees in return.

The problem was that, perhaps due to the nature of their profession, which provided many opportunities to interact with the upper class, my parents were truly terrible spendthrifts.

They chased after all sorts of events and banquets, even going into debt, and were people who lived chasing the delusional dream that they too could become part of the upper class.

It would have been fine if they only indulged in extravagance, but the fact that they also discriminated against their children based on their abilities was the beginning of my misfortune.

“Bread is wasted on an incompetent like you!!”

My prophetic ability was a dud.

No matter how much I concentrated and tried, I could hardly even glimpse the near future.

Even if I managed to see a short future of 1 to 3 seconds after struggling and trying, all the futures I could see were unfortunate events.

Naturally, starving was a daily occurrence since I was young.

My older brother and sister, who could make prophecies as easily as breathing, ate and wore all the best things, but I had to live in a dusty attic, wearing old clothes, hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

If I hadn’t had the mentally fortified spirit of an adult from Korea, I probably would have gone crazy long ago; those were truly miserable times.

Older brother, older sister, parents.

No one in this family treated me like a human being.

It’s been 20 years since I started doing various chores and all kinds of menial tasks.

One day, I saw a proper future for the first time in my life.

It was a future where my parents, older brother, and older sister all died in a car accident.

Unlike other family members who could only see happy futures, I was the only one in the family who could see unfortunate futures.

I told them about it, but no one believed me.

“Do you even know how big this party is?”

“It’s an event hosted by the mayor himself! We must attend!”

“You, who have never made a decent prophecy in your life, suddenly saw a future where we die yesterday? It’s absurd!”

“He must be lying out of jealousy. That dimwit is definitely capable of that!”

Everyone thought I was saying those things out of jealousy, and so they dressed up and went out, never to return.

I wasn’t particularly sad.

Considering how they treated me, it would be stranger if I was sad.

The problem was…

“Mr. Jericho Amael? My condolences. Your parents have accrued a significant amount of debt. Were you aware of this?”

…that those who were supposed to be my family continued to hold me back even after their deaths.

The debt was substantial.

It was so large that I had to dispose of the house I lived in, the fortune-telling business, and all the inheritance to cover it.

Overnight, I became penniless.

***

With the survival skills I had honed over 20 years of doing chores, I was able to get a job at a small restaurant near the fortune-telling house.

I spent the whole day serving food and wiping tables, and when night fell, I lay down on the small employee bed provided by the store to end the day.

Lying there like that, the intense desire that welled up several times a day resurfaced once again.

Since I had been reincarnated anyway…

Reincarnated and received skills as a reincarnation perk, skills that seemed like they were straight out of an erotic game, but still…

Couldn’t I use them to live a good life?

…to approach a rich, lonely widow with a lot of money and use my reincarnation skills to completely turn her into my sex slave and live as a kept man.

It didn’t seem like it would be bad.

If you added my shitty parents’ only redeeming quality, my superior physique and handsome appearance, to my erotic game skills, then living as a kept man became a realistic plan, not just a simple fantasy.

But as always…

Thinking about it and actually doing it were two different things.

It was all because of a single poster plastered on the wall of the restaurant where I worked.

[Using unregistered illegal magic is a serious crime!]

[If you witness someone using illegal magic, report it immediately! Immediately!]

[Make reporting illegal magic a habit! It makes the Empire and your life much safer!]

Let’s say I put my plan into action.

Let’s say I seduce a rich widow with lots of money and a lonely body, and use my skills to make her completely mine.

If one of the servants hears this widow saying something like, and reports it, I’ll be hanged immediately.

Even if I somehow manage to get the servants on my side, there’s no such thing as an eternal secret.

The fact that a good-for-nothing suddenly clings to a rich widow’s house, uses strange magic, and spends money lavishly will eventually become known.

If that happens, I’ll have to prove that the abilities I use are not illegal magic, but do I have permission from the Magic Tower? Do I have permission from the Church?

I don’t have any of that, so the moment it’s revealed, death is certain.

You might ask, why not just register them?

Absolute Hypnosis. Body Modification. Time Stop. Sensitivity 3000x.

If I try to register these, I’ll be branded a dark magician and killed.

They’re skills that anyone would think an incubus would use.

Therefore, the conclusion? Living as a kept man using erotic game skills is impossible.

Besides, what did the woman who became my source of income by being subjected to my skills against her will do wrong?

Even though I’m selfish, I don’t think I would go that far.

“This isn’t an erotic game.”

With a sigh-like murmur, I pulled the blanket over myself.

If you give me erotic game skills, you should create an environment where I can use them.

What am I supposed to do if you throw me into a country where I’ll be hanged if I’m caught using them?

The grumbling was brief.

Working at the restaurant was tiring.

Sleepiness began to weigh down my body, and before long, I fell asleep.

***

The Arcal Empire was burning.

Mountains of corpses were piled up everywhere, and rivers of blood flowed through the streets.

The desperate screams of people being burned alive echoed endlessly from all directions like a terrible concerto.

At the center of it all was a witch.

The witch, with four arms, was completely exposing her naked body to the world.

Without hiding her crazed laughter and sensual body, the witch was slaughtering people endlessly with all kinds of powerful magic.

The flames she’s spreading are getting closer and closer.

Just before the flames burn my body…

I met eyes with the witch.

With her blood-soaked, crimson hair soaring high in the sky, she asked me a question.

“Am I ugly to you too?”

One side of the witch’s face was so beautiful.

But the other side was the exact opposite.

On her distorted skin, more than ten eyes were clustered like spiders, blinking irregularly.

A horribly twisted form that made me want to vomit.

Seeing me gripped by fear, the witch laughs.

“You think I’m ugly too! Hahahaha!!”

The witch casts a spell.

Beyond the entire Empire, now the world was burning.

And I, too, was consumed by the flames.

In terrible pain, I had to add my voice to the screams of the people around me.

There was no more happiness in the world.

Only ashes, flames, screams, and monsters, who were once humans twisted because they couldn’t die, remained, screaming.

***

As I sprang up from my bed, the first thing I felt was my sweat-drenched clothes.

As if I had taken a bath, my clothes and the blanket were soaked with an incredible amount of sweat.

If I were an ordinary person, I could have dismissed the dream I just had as just a bad nightmare and moved on, but I know that what I just saw wasn’t just a dream.

Because it felt exactly the same as the dream I had right before my family died in a car accident.

There’s a clear difference in feeling between a prophecy and a normal dream.

What I saw was a future that will happen.

The problem is, when will it happen?

And who was that witch in the dream?

Even if I knew who the witch was, I have absolutely no plan as to how I would stop it.

I grabbed my head and slumped onto the bed.

“What am I supposed to do with this… What should I do?”

The only abilities I had were erotic game abilities and the insignificant prophecy ability that even my own blood relatives ignored.

You want me to use this to stop a witch who can cast magic powerful enough to wipe out the entire Empire?

I mean, how am I supposed to do that?

Wasn’t this supposed to be an erotic game?

What am I supposed to do when you suddenly show me a scene from a dark fantasy with a strong post-apocalyptic vibe?

I couldn’t sleep.

I racked my brain, trying to figure out what to do.

They say your mind works faster when you’re faced with death.

Like a lightning strike, an idea came to mind.

Half of the witch’s face was very hideous.

An appearance so terrifying that it would give you nightmares, with eyeballs clustered all over it.

And she definitely looked at me and asked, “Am I ugly to you too?”

I didn’t know what was what, but I wondered if the witch, traumatized by her ugly face, went berserk and caused this catastrophe.

Then?

Wouldn’t it be enough to heal her face before the witch goes on a rampage and destroys the Empire?

It’s a good idea.

But how?

How was I supposed to heal that horribly disfigured witch’s face?

I wasn’t a priest, nor was I a doctor trained in healing methods.

If I had been a medical student in Korea in my previous life, it might be a different story.

But I was just a science student…

“Body Modification.”

One of the four skills I was born with when I was reincarnated into this world.

An erotic game skill.

Body Modification.

This!! Couldn’t this be used to change that ugly half of her face into something beautiful?

“Status Window.”

I quickly brought up the status window and carefully read the description of the Body Modification section once again.

To summarize the skill description, which reached the peak of vulgarity and would probably make King Sejong the Great shed tears and stop the creation of Hangul if he saw it, it ultimately meant this:

It’s a skill that allows me to change another person’s body into any form I desire!

This is possible.

It’s possible to change the witch’s ugly half of her face into something beautiful, prevent the world’s destruction, and live happily ever after.

My face brightened.

And then immediately crumpled again.

[Using unregistered illegal magic is a serious crime!]

[If you witness someone using illegal magic, report it immediately! Immediately!]

[Make reporting illegal magic a habit! It makes the Empire and your life much safer!]

The contents of a poster, brazenly displayed on one of the walls of our restaurant, came to mind.

The use of illegal magic.

What do I do about this?

If I get caught using the skill, I’ll be hanged even after healing the witch.

What kind of inescapable trap is this?

If I don’t heal the witch, she’ll go berserk, the Empire will be destroyed, and I’ll die with it.

If I do heal the witch, I’ll be hanged for using unregistered illegal magic.

Why is this happening to me?

Why are you doing this to me?

Isn’t there any way to avoid being hanged even after using the skill?

A way to use the skill without getting permission from the Magic Tower or the Church.

The agonizing continued all night.

“Amael! Are you up! Let’s get ready to open the restaurant!!”

The agonizing, which continued without proper sleep, was resolved around the time the restaurant owner called my name.

There is.

A way to avoid being hanged as an unregistered illegal magic user even after using the skill.

“I’m quitting today!”

“What are you talking about? Why are you suddenly saying that?”

“Something came up that I have to do!”

After working only until that day, I received my pay and used the money to buy a train ticket to the capital.

The only way to avoid being hanged while using unregistered magic.

That was to imitate a saint.