Lust System: Conquering the World Beauties

The silence surrounding the body had become almost suffocating.

Nobody spoke after Gregor pointed out how unnaturally light it felt. The five standing around the child simply exchanged uncertain glances, each trying to make sense of something that refused to make sense. The wounds looked genuine. The dried blood looked genuine. Even the pale skin and lifeless expression looked exactly as a corpse should. Yet there was no smell, no signs of decay, and now the body weighed far less than it possibly should have. Every answer they found only created two more questions.

Liam remained several meters away beside Leonid, his eyes never leaving the scene. His instincts had been screaming from the moment they found the body, and instead of becoming quieter as more clues appeared, they only grew louder. Something was wrong. Not strange. Not suspicious. Wrong. It felt as though they had unknowingly stepped into someone else’s carefully prepared game.

Then everything happened at once.

”Tatiana suddenly screamed.”

”Gregor, watch out!”

Her voice tore through the peaceful night with such urgency that everyone instinctively looked toward her before immediately following her terrified gaze downward.

For a brief moment...

Nobody understood why she had shouted.

Then every face froze.

The child...

Moved.

Without warning, the small body that had supposedly been lying dead in the middle of the road for days suddenly sat upright.

There was no slow movement.

No twitching fingers.

No trembling.

One moment it was a corpse.

The next...

It was sitting perfectly straight.

Its head remained lowered for only a heartbeat before it slowly lifted.

Its pale face turned toward Gregor.

Its eyes...

Were open.

Gregor’s mind went completely blank.

He simply stared.

His body refused to react.

Even someone as experienced as him couldn’t process what he was seeing.

The child smiled.

Then, faster than anyone could react, its small hand shot forward and wrapped itself around Gregor’s wrist.

Before a single spell could be cast...

Before anyone even had time to shout...

The tiny body exploded backward.

It didn’t run.

It flew.

Dragging Gregor behind it as though the fully grown man weighed nothing at all.

Branches snapped violently.

Leaves burst into the air.

The pair disappeared into the darkness beyond the trees almost instantly.

”Gregor!”

Irina reacted first.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she launched herself after them, her body becoming nothing more than a silver blur racing through the forest. The ground beneath her feet cracked as she accelerated, weaving effortlessly between thick tree trunks.

The others followed immediately.

Tatiana.

Mary.

Agatha.

Leonid.

Every one of them charged into the forest without stopping to think.

The peaceful road disappeared behind them within seconds.

The forest swallowed them whole.

Irina pushed herself harder.

Faster.

The icy mana surrounding her feet exploded with every step, allowing her to move at speeds few people in the world could match.

Yet no matter how quickly she accelerated...

She couldn’t catch up.

The child remained impossibly ahead.

Dragging Gregor effortlessly through the dense forest without slowing even once.

”How...?”

Irina narrowed her eyes.

She was one of the fastest werewolves alive.

There was no reason she should be losing ground to something the size of a child.

Then...

A powerful gust of wind blasted past her.

Whoosh!

Irina’s eyes widened.

Something blurred past her left side so quickly that even with her enhanced vision, she failed to make out more than a vague silhouette.

Liam.

He had overtaken her so effortlessly that it almost looked unreal.

The force generated by his acceleration sent loose leaves spiraling into the air behind him as he shot through the forest like a cannonball. Tree branches whipped violently in his wake while the distance between him and the fleeing child rapidly disappeared.

Even Irina couldn’t hide the surprise on her face.

She already knew Liam was monstrously strong.

But moments like these reminded her that there were still parts of his abilities she had never truly witnessed.

Within seconds...

Liam had caught up.

Ahead of him, the child continued floating several feet above the ground, drifting effortlessly through the forest while Gregor’s body was dragged behind as though attached by invisible strings.

Gregor wasn’t even screaming anymore.

His body simply bounced against roots and bushes as the strange child continued forward.

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

”Got you.”

His foot slammed against the ground.

The earth shattered beneath the force as he launched himself forward.

His body cut through the air with terrifying speed.

One leap.

That was all it took.

He reached them.

His hand stretched forward.

He collided directly with both Gregor and the floating child.

Or...

At least...

He should have.

”Pooosh!”

There was no impact.

No resistance.

Nothing.

Liam’s entire body passed straight through both of them.

Like smoke.

Like mist.

Like they had never existed at all.

His momentum carried him several meters farther before he landed heavily on the forest floor, sliding through fallen leaves and loose dirt.

He immediately twisted around.

His pupils contracted.

The child had stopped.

It was floating silently between the trees.

Looking directly at him.

A slow smile spread across its face.

Not innocent.

Not playful.

It was the smile of something that understood exactly what it had done.

Then...

Without making a sound...

Both the child...

And Gregor...

Simply dissolved into the night air.

Gone.

Liam remained frozen where he stood.

His jaw slowly fell open.

For perhaps the first time in a very long while...

He had absolutely no idea what he had just witnessed.

Only a few moments later, the others finally caught up.

Tatiana arrived first, breathing heavily as she searched the surrounding forest.

”Where is he?”

Mary’s voice immediately followed.

”Liam!”

”Where’s Gregor?”

Agatha and Leonid quickly spread out, checking between the trees while Irina scanned the area with heightened senses.

There was nothing.

No footprints.

No broken branches.

No disturbed leaves.

Nothing that suggested anyone had ever been there.

Liam slowly stood.

His eyes remained fixed on the empty space where the child had vanished.

Then he quietly shook his head.

”It was an illusion.”

Everyone stopped moving.

Liam continued.

”I wasn’t chasing Gregor.”

His expression remained unusually serious.

”I was chasing a mirage.”

The realization settled over him almost instantly.

He clenched one fist.

”Whoever did this...”

”They never even brought Gregor into the forest.”

His voice grew colder.

”They wanted us to.”

He looked around at everyone.

”They showed us exactly what they wanted us to see.”

”We ran into the woods...”

”...like idiots.”

Nobody answered.

Because every single one of them understood exactly what Liam meant.

If he was right...

Then none of this had actually happened.

Not the chase.

Not Gregor being dragged through the trees.

Not even Liam catching up.

Everything they had just experienced...

Had been carefully manufactured.

A perfect illusion.

Mary’s expression changed immediately.

She turned toward the direction they had come from.

”If that’s true...”

Her eyes widened.

”...then Gregor...”

”He never left the road.”

Nobody needed another word.

The entire group spun around and sprinted back through the forest as fast as they possibly could.

Branches whipped across their faces.

Roots cracked beneath their feet.

The distance they had covered only moments earlier now felt painfully long.

Every second mattered.

Every heartbeat increased the chance that Gregor had already been taken.

Everyone pushed themselves harder.

Everyone except two people.

Liam didn’t run ahead.

He remained near the back.

Tatiana had slowed as well.

Neither of them spoke for several moments.

Tatiana’s eyes remained fixed on the ground as they moved through the forest.

There was regret written all over her face.

She already understood.

If she had trusted Liam’s instincts from the beginning...

If she hadn’t insisted on approaching the body...

Perhaps none of this would have happened.

She quietly tightened her fists.

”...I’m sorry.”

The words barely escaped her lips.

Liam looked at her.

There wasn’t a trace of blame in his eyes.

After a moment, he simply smiled.

”Let’s join them.”

His voice remained as calm as ever.

He waited.

Tatiana understood immediately.

He wasn’t telling her to hurry.

He was telling her to go first.

She nodded quietly before accelerating again.

Liam followed a step behind her.

When the two finally emerged from the tree line and returned to the road, the rest of the group had already stopped moving.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody even seemed to breathe.

Their expressions were filled with complete disbelief.

Liam slowly walked forward until he reached the center of the group.

Then...

He saw it.

The child’s body...

Was gone.

In its place...

Lay something else entirely.

A crude doll.

Roughly the size of a young boy.

Its body had been stitched together from layers of old cloth, faded fabric, and tightly packed straw. Dark stains had been painted across it to imitate dried blood, while rough stitching created fake wounds across its chest and limbs. From a distance, beneath the illusion that had covered it, anyone would have sworn they were looking at the corpse of a dead child.

Now...

Without the illusion...

It looked grotesque.

Artificial.

Wrong.

The horrifying truth settled over everyone at once.

Whoever had cast the illusion had never placed a dead child in the road.

They had placed a decoy.

A lifeless cloth doll.

And suddenly...

Gregor’s earlier observation made perfect sense.

It had been far too light.

Because it had never been a body at all.