Divorced by Five Beast Wives, I Awakened Godly Powers

Chapter 2

The clerk behind the counter stamped the last document and slid it across the glass surface without looking up.

"Five divorces registered. Contribution points and property settlements have been transferred to your account, Mr. Cole. You are now officially single."

Maxver picked up his copy and folded it neatly. Fifty thousand contribution points richer and five headaches lighter. Not a bad morning.

Behind him, the five women stood in a tight cluster near the exit, their bags already loaded, their faces glowing with a freedom they could barely contain. But none of them left without getting their last words in.

Scarlett stepped forward first, her red eyes locked on him with cold satisfaction. "Let me make something very clear, Maxver. If you go anywhere near Wesley, if you even breathe in his direction, I will personally make sure you regret it for the rest of your miserable little life."

"Stay away from the female lead too." Mira's silver wolf ears stood tall, her arms crossed, her voice dripping with the kind of contempt people usually reserved for stray animals caught digging through their garbage. "A cockroach like you doesn't deserve to exist in the same room as someone like her. Know your place."

Petra flicked her green tail and tilted her chin upward. "Honestly, I'm embarrassed I wasted six months married to something like you. My grandmother's pet lizard had more dignity."

"Don't come crawling back." Nadia's smile was bright and vicious. "Because the door is locked, the lights are off, and nobody is home for you. Not anymore. Not ever."

Kira didn't even look at him. She was already typing on her communicator, her blue ears pressed flat with complete disinterest. "I told Wesley we'd be done by noon. We're three minutes late because of you. Even in divorce, you're an inconvenience."

Maxver watched all five of them turn and walk out through the golden doors of the Matching Center without a single glance back. Their heels clicked against the polished floor in perfect rhythm, confident and certain that the world owed them everything and this was just the beginning.

He felt nothing. Not a sting, not a pang, not even the faintest bruise on his pride. These were not his women. This was not his life. He was a tourist in a dead man's story, and the dead man's problems were no longer his to carry.

"Sir, shall I bring the car around?" His butler robot's voice crackled through his earpiece.

"Yeah. Take me home." Maxver slipped his hands into his pockets and strolled out through the front entrance, breathing in the sharp metallic air of downtown New York. Flying cars streaked across the sky in neat silver lines. Holographic billboards flickered between buildings, advertising everything from beast evolution pills to luxury purification spas.

Tomorrow he'd start fresh. New wives, new life, new beginning. Maybe he'd find women who actually wanted to be around him. Wouldn't that be something.

A sharp ping echoed inside his skull.

He flinched, pressing his palm to his temple. A translucent blue screen materialized in front of his left eye, floating just inside his field of vision. The light brain, the original Maxver's neural implant, was displaying an official notification from the Terminal.

NOTICE: As a newly registered single male, you are required to undergo compatibility testing and matching within three (3) days. Failure to comply will result in a daily penalty of 100 contribution points and 10,000 star coins until resolved.

"Three days?" Maxver muttered, climbing into the back of his flying car. "They don't waste any time in this world."

The car lifted off and merged into traffic. He leaned back against the seat, watching the city blur beneath him, and told himself he'd deal with it tomorrow.

Home was a mid level apartment on the forty second floor of a residential tower in the outer ring. Nothing fancy, but clean and quiet. The butler robot had dinner ready by the time he stepped out of the bath, a simple plate of synthetic protein and seasoned grain that tasted better than he expected.

After eating, Maxver settled onto the couch and opened StarNet through his light brain. If he was going to survive in this world, he needed to understand how it actually worked.

What he found made his stomach tighten.

Male humans in this era lived under a constant invisible threat. Environmental pollution didn't just make people sick. It accumulated inside the body as contamination, and if it climbed too high, a man would mutate. Not into something stronger. Into a beast or a zerg, losing his mind and his humanity in the process.

Females were different. They carried mental power, a kind of psychic energy that could purify contamination and pull a man back from the edge. Because males outnumbered females by a massive margin, most men couldn't rely on a wife's purification alone. They had to buy synthetic purifying agents, expensive ones manufactured from female pheromones that every woman was legally required to contribute once a year. The alternative was paying contribution points directly to a licensed purification center.

"So that's why the marriages work the way they do." Maxver closed the screen and stared at the ceiling. "Men need women to literally stay human. No wonder the original idiot was so desperate to keep five wives who hated him."

He understood now. The system wasn't about love or companionship. It was survival. And without a wife or a very deep wallet, a man in this world was on borrowed time.

That thought followed him into bed, and within minutes, exhaustion dragged him under.

Then something went very, very wrong.

Maxver felt his body go cold. Not the cold of a drafty room or a thin blanket. A cold that started in his chest and spread outward like ice water filling his veins. His vision split, and suddenly he was looking down at himself, floating three feet above his own sleeping body like a ghost watching its own funeral.

"No. No, no, no." His voice came out thin and hollow, barely a whisper in the empty air. "I already died once. I am not doing this again."

His hands, or whatever he had instead of hands in this form, were translucent and flickering. Panic clawed up his throat. He'd survived transmigration, survived five beast wives who wanted him dead, survived the most awkward divorce proceeding in human history, and now his soul was just going to float away in the middle of the night?

"System!" He screamed it into the void, reaching for the only thing that had ever connected him to his old life. "Salted fish system! If you're still in here, now would be a really great time to show up!"

A sound rang through the darkness. Not a bell, not a chime, something between a gong and a microwave finishing.

[Host detected. Binding confirmed. System upgrade complete.]

A golden screen bloomed in front of him, larger and brighter than anything his light brain had ever produced. Words scrolled across it in bold lettering.

[Welcome to the Women Can Extend Your Life System. Version 2.0.]

"You upgraded?" Maxver's translucent mouth hung open. "You upgraded while I was busy getting divorced?"

[Correct. Previous salted fish protocols have been retired. New survival protocols are now active.] The system's voice was flat, mechanical, completely unbothered by his panic. [Initial scan complete. Host's current contamination value is critically elevated. Estimated remaining lifespan: twenty three hours and forty seven minutes.]

The words hit him like a truck doing ninety on an empty highway.

"Twenty three hours?" His voice cracked. "I have less than a day to live?"

[Correct. To extend your lifespan, you must receive purification from female beast wives. Each purification session will reduce contamination and award both life extension and Merit Points based on the wife's star rating, ranging from one star to ten star. Higher rated wives provide greater benefits.]

Maxver's mind was spinning so fast he could feel it wobbling. "Forget the wives for a second. Can you send me home? Back to my real body, my real world?"

[Return trip available. Cost: one hundred million Merit Points. Duration: twenty four hours only.]

"One hundred million?" The number didn't even register as real. It sounded like something a child would make up during a playground argument. "How am I supposed to earn one hundred million points when I have less than a day to live and zero wives?"

[That is a host problem, not a system problem.]

"You're useless. You're actually useless."

[System functionality is operating at optimal capacity. Host survival is the host's responsibility.]

The golden screen pulsed once, then reformatted itself into a quest panel. His remaining lifespan ticked downward in the corner, red numbers counting every second. His Merit Points sat at a fat, round zero. And the cost to go home glowed at the top like a cruel joke carved into the sky.

One hundred million.

Maxver floated above his own body, staring at that number, feeling the seconds drain out of him one by one, and for the first time since arriving in this world, the smile was gone from his face.