I stood in the empty hallway watching Javier disappear around the corner, his bag bouncing with every enthusiastic step. The kid probably had a study schedule color-coded by subject and emotional intensity.
Checking my phone showed 11:08. Vale’s class started at noon. Fifty-two minutes of nothing stretching ahead of like an invitation to poor choices.
The smart move would be heading back to the apartnt, reviewing notes, maybe doing so light stretching to keep my muscles from staging a full revolt after Misato’s morning torture session.
Instead I walked.
No destination. No map. Just movent and the California sun turning everything gold.
"Getting lost on the road of life," I said to nobody, because apparently I was the kind of person who quoted ninja philosophy while wandering aimlessly now.
The campus spread out in front of in organized chaos. Zone Three bled into Zone Two sowhere around the library, and I just kept going, turning corners when they looked interesting, following pathways that curved toward the ocean or cut through landscaped gardens that probably cost more to maintain than my entire previous year’s salary.
My legs appreciated the activity after sitting through Cross’s lecture. The endurance boost from Naomi’s essence was still humming through my system, making the walk feel effortless instead of exhausting.
I pulled up the system interface while I walked, the transparent screen appearing in my peripheral vision like always.
The stat screen showed the familiar layout. Strength at E-rank, six segnts. Endurance at E-rank, nine segnts, one away from ranking up to D. Agility still lagging at E-rank with four segnts.
But what caught my attention was the upgrade section I’d been avoiding.
I tapped into it, and a new nu unfolded.
PHYSICAL STAT UPGRADES
E-RANK SEGNT COST: 50 Points per segnt
D-RANK SEGNT COST: 150 Points per segnt
C-RANK SEGNT COST: 350 Points per segnt
B-RANK SEGNT COST: 750 Points per segnt
A-RANK SEGNT COST: 1,550 Points per segnt
I stopped walking, actually stopped in the middle of the pathway, while my brain processed the exponential math.
To max out E-rank in all three physical stats would cost 500 points total. Ten segnts each, fifty points per. Doable with what I had banked.
But climbing from E to D ant burning through segnts at triple the price. And C-rank? 350 points per segnt ant 3,500 points just to fill the bar completely.
The numbers kept scaling until hitting S-rank probably required selling organs and firstborn children to the system store.
I had 1,200 points sitting in my account right now. Naomi had given 950 total across two sessions. The rest ca from miscellaneous system rewards.
I could max out my E-rank stats completely and still have 700 points left over. Or I could start climbing into D-rank territory, pushing Endurance over the threshold since it was already at nine segnts, then dumping the rest into Strength and Agility to give myself a fighting chance at Friday’s assessnt.
My finger hovered over the upgrade button.
The fat body I was stuck in made everything harder. Running felt like carrying furniture. Combat training turned into an exercise in humiliation. Even basic movent required more effort than it should.
And it wasn’t about vanity, or not entirely anyway. Sure, I wanted to look good. Who wouldn’t? But the real problem was tactical.
I was a liability.
In a real gate, when monsters targeted the weakest mber first like those Hollow Crawlers Cross loved describing, I’d be the obvious choice. The overweight lottery kid huffing in the back while everyone else moved with trained efficiency.
That got squads killed.
I wouldn’t wish this body on anyone, not even my worst enemy, because being this out of shape in a world where physical capability ant survival was basically a death sentence with extra steps.
The Limit Breaker trait promised infinite growth potential, but it still required actual work. Training. Effort. Ti I might not have depending on what gates we got thrown into and how fast the monthly evaluations ramped up difficulty.
Or I could just buy my way forward right now. Dump points into stats until my body caught up with my ambition.
My thumb moved toward the purchase button.
Then I stopped.
Naomi’s essence had given real gains without spending a single point. The sexual training multiplier from Limit Breaker was working exactly as advertised, stacking progress faster than conventional thods. If I kept that montum going, I could save the points for ergencies, ability upgrades, or the Midnight Foxes quest that promised 25,000 points if we hit top five.
But if I died in a gate this week because I was too slow or too weak, none of that mattered.
The internal argunt looped while I stood there like an idiot in the middle of campus, staring at invisible nus while other students walked around .
I closed the interface.
Not yet. I’d make the call after seeing how Friday’s assessnt went. If I was genuinely at risk of failing, I’d dump points into stats until the problem disappeared. Until then, I’d keep grinding the natural way.
The decision made, I started walking again, cutting through what looked like a sculpture garden near Zone Two, abstract tal shapes catching sunlight in ways that probably ant sothing to people with art degrees.
My mind drifted back to the extraction network I was building. Naomi was locked in at 94% devotion, producing Silver-tier essence that boosted my stats and extended my lifespan. Belle was warming up, her attraction climbing every ti we interacted. One more push and she’d be viable for a session.
Misato remained a question mark. Gold-tier essence. Elite combat training. Probably suspicious of already after this morning’s conversation about synergies and team optimization.
And Hikaru.
My roommate who heard everything last night and ran out of the apartnt this morning like the building was on fire.
Also Gold-tier. Also dangerous. Also completely immune to my charm effect because her baseline attraction was zero and she hated n on principle.
Stealing her ability would be worth the effort though. Phantom Edge at full power could cut through anything. Invisible. Silent. Deadly.
But getting close enough to make that work required solving the fundantal problem that Hikaru wanted nothing to do with and possessed enough combat skill to kill six different ways if I pushed too hard.
I turned another corner, still not paying attention to where I was going, just walking and thinking and enjoying the feeling of my body moving without imdiate exhaustion.
Then I walked directly into soone.
Not a gentle bump. A full collision that sent stumbling backward and whoever I’d hit backward half a step before they caught their balance.
"Shit, sorry, I wasn’t—"
I looked up.
Orange hair. Bright, impossible orange that caught the sunlight like fire. Long and wavy, falling past her shoulders in loose curls that frad a face that registered sowhere between model and trouble.
Green eyes, sharp and amused. A beauty mark just above her left upper lip. Curves that made her modified Obsidian uniform look obscene despite being technically regulation.
The blazer was open. The yellow shirt underneath had exactly three buttons fastened, showing enough cleavage that I forgot how to form complete sentences. Her black skirt sat high on her waist and ended at mid-thigh.
She looked at with those green eyes, and her mouth curved into a smile that promised entertainnt.
"Well hello there, freshman."
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