Prologue: The Number Above My Head
It was a day like any other — I'd finished hunting and come back home.
Dragging my exhausted body to the bathroom, I looked up at the mirror and brushed my bangs back.
A habit I'd picked up at some point without even noticing.
Not that the results ever changed: every single day, it confirmed I was still a virgin.
Because above my head, as always, floated the number 0.
"?"
...It had suddenly changed to 1.
What the—? Was it bugged or something?
I blinked twice, hard. Then, wondering if I was dreaming, I slapped my own cheek.
But the number stayed at 1.
That shouldn't be possible...?
Wait. Had something... happened to me while I was asleep last night?
I finished my shower and locked the door. Tight. Then I crawled into bed, trembling with unease.
The next morning, I checked the number first thing.
The mirror still said 1.
And that evening, after the hunt, it had changed to 2.
There was no denying it anymore.
'Oh. It's a level counter.'
Slowly, carefully, I leaned sideways and peeked at the numbers floating above my party members' heads.
What I saw was terrifying — in a completely different way than before.
The lowest among them was in the nineties.
Then I looked back at my own number in the mirror.
"......"
Cold sweat ran down my back.
All the snide remarks I'd thrown at my party members came flooding back, one by one.
How I'd clicked my tongue watching them slip out every night.
And all the 'terrible things' they'd once confessed to me.
What had I said to them back then, exactly?
I rewound through my memories for a moment.
'Hmm.'
Okay. Analysis complete.
I'm going to die.