Coincidence... maybe [R-18]

Ryan read through the summary, description, and abilities several times before wrapping his head around what the words meant.

This would allow him to travel around, fight battles, and take over the world by doing what he loved the most: conquering women.

If this was just what he got starting out with this specialty, he couldn't wait to level it up and see what was in store for him.

Not hesitating another second, he selected his path.

[Congratulations on selecting your new specialty: Harem Overlord]

As soon as that message came into focus, Ryan screamed in pain as he felt as though he was being bitten alive by millions of small ants.

His inner organs felt as though they disintegrated and reformed over and over, gaining a little strength each time.

His brain turned to mush as black stars entered his vision, and he passed out.

Waking up covered in sweat, Ryan checked his heavenly screen to assess how much time had passed, thankfully, it was only 30 minutes. In total, he had been away from the three vixens for an hour, which was much more time than he would like before he had them locked down as his harem members.

He was about to storm out of the room to confront them about this topic, but his nose caught a whiff of his stench, and he looked down in disgust.

Black goo covered his body under his clothes; the smell was positively putrid.

Quickly turning around, he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

The water was cold, but he didn't care. He retched as he started to scrum the gunk off, the revolting smell invading his nostrils.

Finally, after a good 10 minutes of scrubbing, all the black goop was off, and he thought back to earlier and decided it was probably a good idea to jack off and relieve some sexual tension.

Hopefully, mitigating the curse as much as possible.

As Ryan started to run his hand over his shaft, he pictured Aliza in the shower with him. Her beautiful breasts pressed against his chest, her mouth nibbling at his ear while her silky smooth hand stroked his shaft.

His hand-picked up the pace as he bit his lip, trying to hold back spurting, but it was no use.

Grunting, he sprayed the shower's glass wall with his sperm and, panting, almost fell to the ground as black spots clouded his vision.

He had forgotten that his body technically hadn't cum in three weeks. He had died masturbating after two days of absence, he was lucky this body was stronger than the last, or he might have had to leave this world sooner than he wanted.

As he finished cleaning himself and the shower after his session, he grabbed a towel hanging next to the shower and went over to the condensation-covered mirror.

After wiping off the condensation, his face, which he hadn't seen before, came into view, and he was stunned.

His jade-like skin shined as he ran his hand over his cheek, feeling the baby-like softness.

His face had a heavy-set jaw and a delicate look to it, depending on how he controlled his facial muscles.

He noticed that while his face did look different from his past life, they were similar. His eyes were the same emerald green, and he could vaguely see some resemblance to the younger him, but if the two would stand side by side, he doubted anyone would say they were related.

The man in the mirror was too handsome to be related to the old him, if someone claimed they were, it would just be an insult to the current him.

In his previous life, Ryan wasn't bad looking in his younger years, but after Aliza died… he fell on bad times and gave up the lifestyle he once enjoyed.

He swore he would stand atop this world, if not for himself, then to fulfill his promise to her.

Aliza had always talked about her dreams of freedom and glory but said that some things weren't meant to be because of "heaven's enforced limitations."

He assumed she meant mortality and the inevitability of death.

She had talked a lot about weird things that Ryan disregarded as ramblings, but as that line came back to Ryan, he wondered if it was just a coincidence she had used the name heavens.

"Probably just a weird coincidence," Ryan shrugged off the thought as he knew what he had to do in his first step towards achieving the promise he gave up on in his last life.

Before she died, Aliza said, "If there's ever a next life, I hope we can be together."

Ryan didn't know the strength limitations in this world, but if he could survive dying on earth, why couldn't she?

Perhaps she was out there somewhere in the universe, just waiting for him to be strong enough, but he would still try even if she wasn't.

He would become strong enough to reverse death and defy fate, even if he had to take on the heavens themselves.

===

After calming down, Ryan realized that the curse had again affected his thoughts.

But after that little episode, he had the motivation to move forward and a goal to aim towards.

It was a long shot, but it was better than not trying.

As Ryan dried off with the towel, he looked around for a fresh set of clothes since his old ones were caked in dried goo, but couldn't find any.

Wrapping the towel around him, he went out of the bathroom and towards his bedroom door.

===

Mara eyed Izzy and Lizzy in suspicion.

So far, the two had been silently observing her for the past 30 minutes, with Izzy occasionally tapping Lizzy on the shoulder for some reason.

Mara eventually figured out they were communicating somehow after Izzy's tail kept on wiggling in odd patterns as if she was expressing her emotions.

After figuring this out, she concluded she might as well start the conversation, "So you never answered my question earlier. How did you find him?"

Hearing the question, Izzy said, "If we tell you, will you tell us why you came to Ryan's room?"

Biting her lip, Mara thought for a second before nodding in agreement.

"We paid for a diviner to help us locate someone to help with our… condition. All the diviner told us was 'become a slave in the human empire'. At first, we figured she was a fake, but as our time was running out and we had no other options, we used our connections to become fallen slaves in the human empire and ended up at the academy slave house. The rest is just luck."

Mara was stunned by the story. If this was true, then either they had gotten really lucky, or they had met a real diviner!

Real diviners were extremely rare because the heavens saw diviners as nuisances.

While it did not outright kill them if one started down the path of becoming a diviner, their cultivation would slowly deteriorate until a point where they would become as weak as a mortal. While diviners could still ingest pills to live longer, their bodies couldn't handle many, and they would die a "premature" death.

This deterred a lot from the profession as one needed a high level of cultivation to start to sense the powers of the divine.

As most cultivators had an innate drive to get stronger and strive to live a long life, not many would give that up for a chance at becoming a diviner.

Mara couldn't know for sure if Izzy was being truthful, but the look in her eyes was genuine.

"Well, then, I guess it's my turn." Mara said as she took out a device from her pocket and erected a sound barrier, "But I prefer if Ryan doesn't hear this."

===

After Mara told the sisters about her shindig with Ryan and here suspicious of him being an Overlord, the girls both gave her looks of jealousy as they were hoping to be his first.

Of course, they couldn't have known that Ryan had been with many women on earth, although Ryan didn't know if he had slept with anyone on Ravier before Mara.

Eventually, the two girls calmed down and got to the real topic they wanted to discuss, "What are your intentions with Ryan? You said you came here to "confront him" but now that you know he didn't lie to you and is, in fact, an Overlord, what are you going to do?"

Mara opened her mouth to answer, but as hard as she tried, no words seemed to come out. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish before sighing, "I honestly don't know,"

"Being with him has given me joy for the first time in my life."

"He didn't care about my Icey persona and helped me in ways even my mother couldn't."

Thinking for a second, she would have blushed if her constitution allowed it, "If possible, I would like to be with him."

Lizzy, who had just been listening to the conversation for a while, spoke, "Then I think we should work together."

Both Izzy and Mara, who had been staring at each other for the past 15 minutes going back and forth, turned their heads in unison to look at Lizzy.

"What do you have in mind sis?"

Mara looked at the two in confusion and asked, "You're willing to share him?"

Laughing, Izzy said, "Oh, Hunny, you're so naïve."

"Even the empress herself would want this man, it's not like we can keep him to ourselves. He is, after all, the first male cultivator."

Mara's eyes widened, and she stammered, "W-What?!"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Izzy said teasingly, "I guess he was willing to share a bed with you but not share his secrets."

Mara looked bitterly at Izzy before slumping back against her chair, saying, "Alright, what's the plan?"