The World Devouring System

The conspicuously beautiful actress Koi Ilana emerged from an inconspicuous room in a certain building. She first looked left and then looked right, scanning with her eyes to see if anyone spotted her. Thankfully, the answer was no.

Her heart was still pounding quickly and beads of sweat glistened on her forehead. She quickly made her way to the restroom.

A minute or two later, the 26 year old rising star, Pascal Margrave exited the same room. Correction – he was a rising star no more. His recent success definitively changed his status from "rising star" to just "star", perhaps more.

'This celebration event has gone on for long enough. It's time to say goodbye and head home.'

Pascal wasted no time in acting on his thoughts as he made his way towards the main venue. Several hugs and goodbyes later, he was seated in his luxurious car, driving home. About an hour later, he had finally reached his destination.

'Parties are fun and all, but there is something magical about this place called home.'

After making his way inside, Pascal sank into his comfortable sofa, letting its cushions embrace him. His relaxed gaze rested on the ceiling of his house.

'This is really happening, isn't it? Although my childhood was pretty rough, the last few years of my life have been nothing short of a dream. The amount of success I've had both in my personal and professional life is… unreal.'

'But then, what's with this flicker of dissatisfaction I feel? What else do I want from my life? Is it a sense of thrill and adventure that I seek?'

What kind of a man was Pascal Margrave, really? Even Pascal himself couldn't answer that question. For as long as he could remember, he had been acting. In the beginning, he acted to ensure his own survival, but now it had become his profession. Somewhere along the way, he lost his true self and merely adopted whatever persona best suited the circumstances he found himself in. He was like water, taking on the shape of whatever cup it was poured into.

'Right… what is it that I truly desire, the real me?'

Pascal was lost in his own thoughts as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Gradually, his eyes lost their focus, drifting into a distant void. And then he spoke aloud with great conviction, as if he had arrived at the answer to his problems.

"The world itself is boring. What I seek cannot be found here. Power, Immortality, Dominance!"

Suddenly, light returned to Pascal's eyes and he shot up from his sofa.

'Were those my thoughts? Did I just say that out aloud?' He looked around just to make sure there wasn't anyone in the room who happened to hear those embarrassing words. As expected, he was alone. He did not know what had come upon him in that moment. He wasn't the type to randomly blurt out words like that.

'I should cut down on my acting practice for a few days. Don't want to end up developing any split personalities.' While thinking so, he looked at a bookshelf. One of Pascal's favorite pastimes was picking a random book from that shelf, imagining himself as a random character from that book and then trying to act as them. He decided not to touch that bookshelf for a week or two.

Right next to the bookshelf was a desk with a computer on it; the computer he was going to immediately touch! Another one of Pascal's hobbies was playing video games. Not many of his fans knew about it since he wasn't particularly vocal about this hobby of his. At the same time, it wasn't as if he went to great lengths to keep it a secret.

The new game that he was playing was especially good. It was kind of surprising that he hadn't seen people enthusiastically talk about it on the internet already. But Pascal did not pay it much mind. He took a few minutes to freshen up, sat down in front of his desk and booted up his latest obsession.

It was a single-player game, rich in meaningful choices that added serious replay value. This was his third playthrough, and he'd stumbled upon something intriguing.

'I've already gotten one bad ending and one good ending. But this one? It feels... different.'

Maybe it was because Pascal had made more selfish, reckless decisions this time, venting some of his real-life stress through the game. Without realizing it, he'd unlocked a hidden, ambiguous ending.

'I teamed up with the villain and betrayed all my goody-two-shoes allies. And now—thanks to some crazy choices I made before—I have the option to backstab the villain too? Hell yeah! That's an awesome twist.'

In the final showdown, Pascal betrayed and defeated the villain, entering a dark chamber with a stone pillar at its center. Floating above the pillar was a black orb. When he interacted with it, a prompt appeared: 'Are you sure you want to devour the world?'

The prompt made sense—he'd basically become the villain now. Curious, Pascal clicked 'No,' just to see what would happen.

'Nothing changes. I'm free to roam and finish up side quests or take on hidden bosses... but I've already done all that. Clicking "Yes" should end the playthrough. Let's see.'

He interacted with the orb again. The ominous prompt reappeared: 'Are you sure you want to devour the world?'

Without hesitation, Pascal selected 'Yes.'

A blinding flash of light engulfed the screen. Pascal vanished from his room. The game crashed, leaving only his default startup screen behind.

Pascal's sudden disappearance would spark a missing person investigation—a case the police would never be able to solve.