Wakey wakey

Everything was silent. 

Everything felt cold. 

Was this death? Had he finally died along with his Lord?

Slowly, Yu flutters his eyes open, finding himself standing in front of his status window, its blue light being the only thing softly illuminating Yu's delicate features. Panic begins to set in, and he frantically searches for his Lord but finds he does not see blood nor his Lord's cold corpse beside him, for which he is thankful for! Looking around more, he realizes he is no longer in the throne room of his demon king's castle; no, it is more than that! The space around him is an empty black void, threatening to swallow him whole at any moment.

There were no walls or ceilings. In fact, it didn't even seem like there were floors, and yet Yu didn't fall. He felt like he was standing on solid ground, but he still couldn't see anything but black and a pinging notification on his status window. He should have felt frightened, but strangely enough, he felt like this space was… familiar? Like he had been here before, if that's even possible?

Seeing nothing noteworthy, he brought his attention back to his status window. Drawing in a breath, he allows the notification to open. Suddenly, a blaring alarm sound echoed all around Yuliain, nearly giving him a heart attack! 

"Wait, could I die again in this space?" Yu thought aloud whilst pressing his long ears closely towards his head in a failed attempt to muffle the sound, only to be cut off midthought by equally loud mechanical voices.

[WARNING! SYSTEM IS BEING OVERWRITTEN! WARNING!]

[COMMENCING VIRUS OVERHAUL PROTOCOL!!]

[ERROR, ERROR, ERROR, VIRUS OVERHAUL PROTOCOL FAILED]

[DO YOU WISH TO REBOOT?]

[YES] [NO]

[PLEASE CHOOSE]

The noise only grew louder as multiple prompts asking to "please choose" popped up in front of his status window, demanding attention and completely blocking out Yu's information. Being a high-level incubus king, Yu was extra sensitive, especially with his ears. The already loud blaring alarm bells became near deafening to Yu even when he was squishing his droopy elf-like ears closer to his head. If this continued, he was sure his ears would start bleeding!

In a panic, Yu scrunches his eyes shut and reluctantly uncovers his right ear, slamming his hand onto the pop-up messages. Usually, just thinking about what you wished to do on the status window was enough to get the job done; however, in Yu's haste to stop the noise, he completely forgets this common fact.

[NO HAS BEEN SELECTED]

[PLEASE WAIT-]

The sounds stopped, but when Yu opened his eyes, his usual blue colored status window violently shifted to a blood red. Yu had never seen anything like this before! Everyone in the world was gifted a status window from the moment they were brought into the world. Even demons and wild animals had a status window as they were all bestowed onto them by the Gods and Goddesses of the world, and because they were given by the same entities, they all looked the same! Never had Yu seen a status window turn a different color. What was even more surprising was the way it had begun to shake and move around like it was breaking and scrambling itself up!

Yu was beginning to get scared. It seemed ridiculous, but it looked and felt like his status window was…angry with him? Was it because of his choice? 

[TRY. IT. AGAIN.]

[YES!] [no]

That answered one question. Since the noise was gone, Yu looked at his screen more carefully and realized he was actually grateful it gave him another chance to pick! With more confidence, he accepts the reboot.

[YES HAS BEEN SELECTED. GOOD.]

[SYSTEM REBOOTING, PLEASE WAIT…]

Seeing how the voice praised him, Yu felt a weird familiar warmth in his chest for a second before disregarding it. Sighing, he decided it was best to wait while sitting as it seemed like this was going to take a while. What he'd really love to do is look for a way out of this dark yet comforting space void, but he reasoned that even if he could leave wherever he is being held, he'd be even more useless without his system. No system equals no skills, even a weakling like Yu knew he'd be as helpless as a new born baby should the damn hero be waiting for him outside this place! He could kiss any chance to fight back goodbye because he would literally be a sitting duck!

Feeling the all too familiar sense of self-loathing creep up, Yu tucks his knees under his chin and hugs his legs for comfort, his long tail gently folds and wraps around him. This took him back to his childhood. Most, if not all, demons are usually born or hatched in their adult forms, with the exception being royals, and Yu was "lucky" enough to be one of them. This meant he was able to, in a sense, "grow up," albeit far slower than a normal human. This was so they could rule over their species for a longer period of time. 

Normally, a child demon is seen as a being close to a god and would be revered as such by their species; however, because of Yu's unique appearance and skills, Yu was more so ostracized. Either envied for his skills, scorned for his looks, or harassed by his subjects into dressing up in odd outfits, Yu felt like he couldn't relate to anyone…that was until he met his Demon King-

[DING! REBOOT COMPLETE]

[PLEASE INSERT NAME]

Yu was startled out of his reminiscing moment, releasing his legs and straightening his back, his ruby eyes widened as he looked at the screen before him. No longer that scary red hue, though it wasn't back to blue either! It seemed to mix together in the middle and became a pretty lilac color. Still concerning; however, Yu brushed it aside. He needed his system back so he could go back and save his Lord somehow!

Quickly, Yu starts to write on the screen but pauses at 'u' as a feeling of reluctance to continue washes over him. It was strange; for hundreds of years, Yu had always been called Yuliain, and it wasn't until he met his Demon King that he got the nickname 'Yu', but even then, only his Lord could call him that. Yet here in this space right now, writing 'Yuliain' felt…wrong? Like it wasn't his name anymore? No. Like it wasn't his name to begin with…

Pushing the thought out of his mind, Yu continues writing the rest of his name and enters it.

[DING! INCORRECT NAME!]

[PLEASE INSERT REAL NAME.]

Shaken but not surprised, Yu furrows his brows in deep thought. He was sure he had written his name correctly. If it wanted him to write his name in the human language rather than their demon language, then that would be difficult, as Yu couldn't read or write in the human language. He never had such interest in the humans, and with his skill to naturally absorb living essence, he saw no need to cuddle up to those disgusting beings, even less so after they incited a war and summoned the bastard hero, calling it "God's divine will" or whatever. 

Regardless, Yu was faced with a dilemma. Staring at the screen, Yu's finger hovered over the erase button. Suddenly, his gaze became unfocused, almost like he was placed in a trance. Yu clicks the button and begins to erase his name until he reaches the 'u' again, then enters it.

[DING! CORRECT NAME.] 

[DETECTING NEW USER. PAUSING PREVIOUS HOST'S PROGRESS.]

[Thank you, Host: Yu.]

[Welcome to the main system.]

[What is it that you regret most?]

The notifications jarred Yu out of his trance-like state. As he read the messages, Yu took a moment to really think about that question. What did he regret the most right now? 

Obviously, he regrets being too weak to fight with the other Sinister Sins and his Demon King! Watching on the sidelines as they each died by the hands of that bastard hero and his party, even his beloved Lord. Yu felt his face begin to flush in frustration. His emotions began to bubble over as he thought back to their demise.

Power, he wanted power to punish those bastards!

[DING! Wish 1 noted]

He regretted not being able to save his Lord in his dying moments! He wanted so badly to heal him, but he just didn't have the mana or skill to save his life, let alone protect his Lord. He practically caused his death! He would have gladly given his Lord all of his life force if it meant he could live even for one day more. Bitter tears began to pool and slide down his cheeks. He willingly allowed them to fall onto his clasped hands.

Talo, how he wanted to save him, to heal him so badly!

[DING! Wish 2 noted]

He regretted not being able to give his kingdom stronger offspring. As their king and strongest among their kind, he should have found many strong beings and reproduced with them as soon as he could, yet he couldn't. 

He hated to admit it, but since the day he was hatched, he had stayed as pure as…well, a saint. His body was untainted by the throes of sensual desire, and he hated it. It's not like he didn't try. 

At first, he went into human settlements a couple of times and visited different demon territories, however, no one seemed appealing. Perhaps it was his instinctual need as the Incubus King to pick the best of the best that made him hold off on reproducing. Oh, how he regretted not doing it at least once before he ended up here! Yu hid his tear-stained face in his hands, both out of shame for thinking such a thing at this moment and out of embarrassment for admitting he was a stupid royal virgin incubus, a first for his kind.

Children, he desperately wanted strong and capable children.

[DING! Wish 3 noted]

He regretted not being able to say goodbye to Talo, his king…his…everything… He wanted nothing more than to be by his side right now, even if it meant they died together.

[DING! Wish 4 detected! Unfortunately, Host is unaware and therefore is hidden from view until Host can determine the wish for themself!]

[Calculating! Please wait. Determining the importance of all wishes.]

[DING! Calculation completed!]

[Searching for a system to complete Host's wishes. Please wait.]

[DING! no system compatible at the moment.]

[Creating new system-ERROR- system found!]

[Now pairing, please wait. This may take some time.]

A wave of anger and frustration flushes over Yu. He felt like he had wasted enough time as it was, yet now his own system was telling him to wait even more! After about an hour of nothing but cursing and crying, Yu collapsed onto the…well, what he could assume was the ground in this empty void.

Yu wipes his face and eventually composes himself, then stares at the system's soft lilac screen for what feels like forever. After taking some deep breaths, Yu began to feel nervous, but then the excitement of getting a new personal system sent a rush of warmth to Yu's stomach. However, the novelty of it all soon dissipated as Yu continued to wait. Time seemed to crawl to a slow stop as Yu lazily stared at the three dots on his screen. 

One appears, and in the next second, another dot appears, then the next second, another dot appears, and just as the third dot shows up, they disappear and start all over again. Yu lost count how long he'd been staring at the dots, appearing then disappearing. It was becoming hypnotic and, somehow, soothing. After a while, Yu decided it would be better to lie down. His eyes began to feel heavy as he let out a cat-like yawn. 

The seconds ticked away into what felt like hours, and Yu, after having just experienced the worst possible day, being both emotionally and mentally drained, slowly fell into a deep slumber. Right as Yu enters his deep and much-needed rest, the screen goes blank, and in the next moment, a face wearing glasses appears. Taking a moment to look around, it sees Yu peacefully napping and decides to wait, being in standby mode.

A few hours later, Yu begins to stir and awakens from his dreamless sleep. Seeing Yu waking up, it makes the decision to finally get the ball rolling. 

DK01: "Good morning, Host, Yu. Did you have a restful-"

Yu: "Waaahhh!!!"

Before it can finish its sentence, Yu is immediately startled. On instinct, he flops onto his back like a cat as a sign of submissiveness and cries in earnest. Even if he was a King, he was only a King to the weakest types of demons!! At this moment, he didn't have access to his skills, and this place had him trapped! If he was going to make it out alive, he was going to have to rely on his looks alone and try begging because, at this point, it was all he could do!

Yu: "P-please don't kill me!! You won't get much experience points with me! If you let me leave here alive, I promise to give you a blow job! Y-You can even take my-"

DK01: "Stop! Please, just stop! I'm not going to kill my Host! Sigh! Let's start over. My name is DK01, and I am now your system. I am here to help you fulfill your wishes."

Yu: "My wishes?"

DK01: "Yes. Let me see here. Oh! You made quite a lot of wishes, I'm surprised they were all given top priority; no wonder no system wanted to pair with you. Well, that and…no never mind. Let's see here; your first wish, to become more powerful, common. Your second, to save the soul, Talo, hmm, oh, he's a Demon King now. Your third, oh? You want children…odd but doable. Hmm? A fourth, undisclosed wish? How interesting. Well, for now, we'll focus on the three we do know about."

Yu stood up as soon as DK01 started listing out his so-called "wishes". His ears twitched ever so slightly, and his tail swatted side to side in excitement. He perked up as realization dawned on him. His wishes can come true! This strange new system is going to help him grant his wishes! Yu stared at the interface with sparkles in his eyes and a renewed sense of strength coursing through his body! All was not lost after all!

DK01: "Okay, now Yu, I need you to look at your status window."

DK01 shrinks his face until he's at the corner of the screen and allows Yu to see his status, and what he saw nearly made his previous excitement crumble to the point of giving up on life itself! All but one of his skills, both passive and active, that he had acquired and leveled up to their max level were gone!! His 89 level bar had reset to level 1! Yet, worst of all, every one of his items were all greyed out, locked away, and completely unusable! The only thing he kept was his Incubus King title, which allowed him to keep the only passive skill, Visus Exhaurire, his ability to drain the life force of any living thing around him without the need to touch anything!

Yu, with tears in his eyes: "Wahh!! DK! Why are all my skills gone?! And I'm at level 1 again! Wahhh! Why are you so cruel!"

DK01, feeling a little bad: "I can assure you, Yu, I had nothing to do with this. It's just how these things are done…sorry…"

Yu, now full-on crying: "Wahhh!! Boo hoo! How cruel! How mean! You bully, DK! Wahhh! Give me back my hard-earned skills and level!"

DK01, giving a deadpan but solemn look: "...there, there, please don't cry..."

Yu, proceeding to cry harder: "WAAHHH!!"