Tony's eyes drifted open. Not willingly, but as if some invisible hand tugged at the threads of his consciousness. At once, a tempest of angry voices flooded his skull. Hatred. Agony. Rage. They swirled around him like a maddened hurricane.
All he saw was darkness, and all he felt was rage and fury. Honestly who wouldn't be, after losing his job, wife, and apparently his life, to the man that screwed his wife. The man who had been enthusiastically rearranging his wife's organs, behind his back all this while.
So yes, rage was reasonable.
However, he wasn't fully conscious. His awareness existed only in his mind, and even that fragile sanctuary was unstable. It was as though the fury simmering inside him had followed him into this afterlife of endless blackness, still boiling in the deepest pit of his soul.
Flashes passed through his head, and those three gunshots echoed louder than the other voices in his head.
The stability of his mind seemed to be going haywire with every passing minute, and the angry voices in his head got louder.
He grabbed his head subconsciously, thrashing instinctively in the void as though trying to escape the crushing pressure inside his skull. It felt like his head was trying to explode… with his mind spinning wildly… his heart ramming and throbbing. It got worse and worse... intensifying every passing second, and then...
It all stopped, and a soft feminine voice echoed through his head.
[Transmigrator syncing to host body]
Tony jolted.
"What the fuck?" he bellowed, his voice seeming to echoe through the void of his own mind.
Suddenly...
Like being drawn from a really bad dream, his eyes opened. His vision wasn't the best either; it was blurry and foggy, and his mind felt cramped together like it had been squeezed intoanother mind. It felt more like being shoved into a space that didn't originally belong to him.
Slowly, his mind cleared. And it turned out he hadn't even been awake, not entirely. He had only been conscious in his head.
Slowly, his eyesight dilated gradually as well, and the ceiling he had been staring at became clear. He squinted his eyes, trying to wrap his head around the voice he heard earlier and, of course, the strange ceiling he was seeing for the first time in his life.
"Is this a hospital or an afterlife?" he pondered, still staring at the ceiling, which suddenly felt so familiar.
"The hell…" he muttered. "Where have I seen this...."
"Ouch!" A sharp, fleeting pain hit his temple, and he clutched it reflexively.
The voice returned, very feminine and soft.
[Transmigrator-to-host sync successful]
[Host has awakened the forbidden system]
[Name: Tom Quin]
[Welcome to the forbidden system, Tom Quin]
[System unlocked: A Maniacal System]
[Countenance: A Path to Retribution]
Tony sat up quickly, totally aghast and baffled.
"I'm what now?" he asked himself, replaying the name he just heard in his head 'Tom Quin.'
"My God, I made it to heaven," he muttered to himself. "But what's with the forbidden system shit? Nothing forbidden should be here in heaven… And who the fuck is Tom Quin? I'm not Tom Quin!"... what the fuck is happening?"
He looked around the room, wide-eyed. It was nothing he had seen before. It was rich, tinted, massive, and overwhelming.
A neat and well-polished table with subtle designs and markings was to his right. It contained an expensive neon lamp, neat drawers, a computer, and a few books scattered books on top of it. It also held a plain white sheet dusted with powder, a tiny satchel brimming with more of the same, and a lonely straw lying beside them.
"God… someone actually did coke in here?" he muttered, his voice a mix of disbelief and fury, as he pieced the scattered remnants together on the table.
With a disgusted looked painted on his face, he turned away from the table and continued his assessment on the room.
A big wardrobe with a glossy surface was opposite the bed he lay on., To its side sat a cushioned lounge chair, another modern standing lamp, a mini glass shelf with assorted perfumes, a basket of neatly folded towels, and a marble-tiled area leading to what was clearly an attached private bathroom.
Just then, it clicked.
"Di-did I… did I really transmigrate?" he asked himself, as if there was a third party in the room. "Or is this some kind of after-death dream?"
He frowned. "And also, what was that I heard about some maniac system?" he asked again.
And just like timing the question, the voices returned in his head.
[I'm Miss Maniak, your system guider]
[Tony Gregor A.K.A. Tom Quin, of age 24. You have unlocked a Maniacal System.]
[You have been chosen to walk the Path of Retribution: a path to reclaim, avenge, and return suffering to the vixens who harmed you in your past life.]
[Your missions are plain, specific, and quite simple:]
> Locate the vixens
> Through seduction, double your wealth by taking all the wealth they took from men
> Seduce, gain their trust and love, and screw them over
> Through seduction, unleash karmic consequences on them
> If they survive, redeem them
[Tom Quin, do you hereby accept the Maniacal System?]
[Yes / yes]
Tony blinked.
Then blinked again.
Then again, rapidly, to make sure he wasn't hallucinating and wasn't a weird dream. He shook his head further to be sure he wasn't going nuts either.
Honestly, this kind of situation was the kind he had known only to exist in isekai fictions. And of course, he used to be an anime lover, a webnovel lover, before his job as a reporter busied him down and stole his hubbies.
But as much as transmigrating was a whole new baffling scenario and now a non-fictional experience, that question with a "yes/yes" option was totally maniac and lunacy.
"The fuck?" he squinted. It was no funny situation, though, but he had to ask.
He gulped
"Eeh… Miss Maniak?" he said, not sure what he was actually talking to, but the system guider to his surprise replied.
[Yes?]
"Wow," he mumbled, fascinated, "it's literally just like calling Siri."
"Ahem… eeeh... shouldn't that be a yes/no question?" he asked, a bit desperate.
Maniak's soft female voice echoed through his head. With a reply that sounded almost amusing.
[Should it?]
Tony exhaled. Well, not like he was going to say no. As much as this situation was confusing, it was also exhilarating... 'a clear chance to unleash the hell that women unleashed on men.' It was total badass.
Who wouldn't pick that chance? Well, unless the person was lucky enough not to have experienced such.
Apparently Miss Maniak agreed, because her voice suddenly echoed brightly: [Just like I thought], startling Tony.
"The fuck…" he flinched, a bit wildly.
"So you are reading my thoughts? How dare you?"
A weird smile emoji appeared in Tony's mind's eye:
[(●_●)]
[I can't help it, Mr. Quin. I'm a system inside your head too.]
"Crap," Tony muttered as he climbed down from the bed. It felt so weird when his legs touched the floor; they wobbled as though his legs were baby legs.
"What the hell…" he cursed. "Am I old now?"
He held the table next to the bed for support and stretched himself, his body releasing pleasurable cracking sounds from his joints, and he let out a soft, involuntary sigh.
"uh… okay… that felt weirdly good…"
"Mmm," he breathed. Then slowly he positioned himself to stand and left the table. His aim was to walk over to the mirror and see his new self.
However, it was like learning how to walk again. Every step he took came with a heavy fear that he might fall.
"Oh God, don't tell me this Tom guy has a problem with walking," he grumbled. In truth, he knew the weakness was from him. But blaming the original owner felt better.
He felt weak both in mind and body. It was like the transmigration process had taken a real toll on him and used all his energy as fuel.
"Come on, Tony… you can do it. You faced death; now all you have to do is walk to that damn mirror."
With determination, he forced his legs into motion. His strength slowly returned, his balance stabilized. The room was spacious... so spacious that it took eleven awkward, baby-deer steps to reach the mirror.
When he reached it, he grabbed it and stared into it.
For a while, he didn't say anything. He just stared at his reflection.
Then, just like a man who had finally managed to talk to his crush, a satisfied smile curled on his lips.
"Not bad," he murmured. "Not bad."
The new him was what girls would relatively call hot.
His hair was black and full, though scattered for now but effortlessly handsome. His eyes; unlike the black ones he had before; were brown and sexy. Perfectly poised for the mission at hand. At least seduction, or eye-seduction, shouldn't be too hard, should it?
Now the jawline was another world altogether. It gave his face a handsomeness that Sarah wouldn't have cheated on, even if Bill Gates was the one that seduced her.
But the one that amazed him the most was the body structure. Unlike his almost thin and not-on-a-good-diet frame, this one was definitely something to write home about.
A strong build with nice, strong shoulders. An average muscular outline that suited his smooth face.
The smile on Tony's face turned into a grin.
"Not bad at all," he sneered.
"GOD!" He flinched as Maniak's words echoed into his head.
[Activating host memories]
Tony shut his eyes as he exhaled.
"Man, I've got to get used to that…"
Immediately after the words left his mouth, everything seemed to spin as a sharp, piercing pain rippled through his brain, searing through every nerve and vein.
"Ouch!" he cried, grabbing his head and clenching his teeth.
The next instant, memories flowed... memories that weren't his but Tom Quin's.
[Tom Quin, a citizen of Nethros City. Aged 24, with the personality of a drug addict. An adopted child of Aurelia Quin CEO of Elysian Crown Haircare Corporation. A lazy, stupid playboy that uses drugs to maneuver his anxiety. Schooled and graduated from Velmor Institute of Advanced Arts and currently working at his mom's company. A lavish spender who wastes everything on drugs.]
More memories flowed until Tony knew every humiliating and overall detail of his new self, and he was disappointed.
"God, I'm very disappointed," he muttered, his head instinctively turning back to the table where the coke and all was. "So it was definitely me... that did the coke in here", he bit his lips.
Somehow it was going to be hard since first of all, he had to change Tom into a brand-new decent person.
In every way, he hated being put in a body with such a silly personality and an "I don't care" attitude. But maybe it was good, because join the right mind to a good body and there: you have a better person.
"Speaking of a better person, how can a drug addict have such a good build?" he asked. But just to get another startling voice in his head.
[Mr. Tony, your karmic essence and your energy were used to rejuvenate the body of Mr. Quin and take over his mind.]
He exhaled from the flinch.
"Hmm," he hummed, nodding proudly. "No wonder I felt weak."
[Initial karmic essence: 100 [-87]]
[Karmic essence left: 13]
[Wealth: $— ; spent on drugs]
[Carry out your missions to acquire additional wealth]
Tony exhaled as he looked around the room one more time.
Well, Tom's personality sucked: A drug addict. A spoiled brat. A useless playboy. But at least he was rich and handsome.
"I wonder what more he may have…" he muttered.