Celine walked in, ready to scold me. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw the result of my labor.
"You really cleaned your room?"
I leaned back from my desk.
"Figured it was time to finally start taking care of myself."
She still looked unconvinced, but the System thought otherwise.
[Recruitment Probability: 0% → 1%]
So improving someone’s opinion of me could raise my chances of recruiting them. It made a lot of sense.
I also noticed I’d gained some EXP.
Now, I just needed to improve her impression enough for the System to be satisfied.
Hopefully, its standards weren’t too high.
"Aunty, I already cleaned my room. Do you have any other chores I can do?"
"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow. "What are you trying to pull?"
"Nothing. I’ve been thinking about losing weight lately. I figured helping around the house would be a good way to get moving."
She tapped her fingers against her arm.
"Suit yourself. I’m not going to say no to free labor."
I followed her out of my room, and she immediately started giving me orders: take out the trash, sweep the floors, clean the kitchen.
The list kept growing, but I didn’t mind. My EXP was growing right along with it.
That wouldn’t last forever, though. Once the novelty of my sudden change wore off, the EXP gains would start dropping too.
Eventually, even she ran out of things for me to do, and I went back to my room.
[Mission Complete]
A small box materialized in my palm, its translucent form flickering with holographic light.
[Opening Reward]
It exploded into particles and shot straight into my right eye.
’Damn it, no one told me the reward would be a real-time organ transplant.’
I wasn’t exaggerating. It felt like someone had reached into my skull and ripped out one of my eyeballs.
My vision blurred and I stumbled forward, grabbing for the wall while warm blood ran between my fingers.
"Stop..."
Another wave of pain hit.
[Warning.]
[The host is rejecting the organ due to soul incompatibility.]
"If it’s incompatible, then just fucking stop."
[The System will attempt to force the inheritance. Please endure.]
"Did you not hear what I said? Stop! I’ll die at this rate."
The pain intensified to such a degree that I had to grab a sheet and bite down on it to keep from screaming.
[Claiming Inheritance]
Wonderful. So I didn’t just steal his body; I stole his inheritance, too.
I didn’t think I could sink any lower, but here we are.
[Right Eye of Asmodeus successfully integrated.]
[Due to the host’s weak body, its power has been divided into multiple levels for safer integration.]
Ability 1: Allows you to see what others cannot.
Ability 2: Allows you to see other people’s stats
All that trouble for a feature that should’ve been part of the damn base package.
I wiped my face, expecting blood, but my hand came away clean. So, the damage was all in my head.
The pain sure as hell wasn’t.
DING!
[Host, fulfill the original Raven’s deepest desires to unlock future inheritances.]
’Unlock? More like stealing,’ I scoffed.
As if to prove it wasn’t amused by my sarcasm, another series of notifications bombarded me.
[Personal Mission: Win Celine’s Affection]
[Reward: Inheritance Box]
For a moment, I wondered if my new eye had damaged the wrong part of my brain.
I read it one last time before slowly turning toward the mirror.
"You want to seduce your aunt?" My face contorted in disgust. "You sick bastard. You deserve to—"
Oh, right. I wasn’t exactly innocent when it came to things like this. Silly me for acting like a morally upright person.
In my defense, though, she was the one who approached me and even offered an allowance. All I did was flirt a little.
’Wait. Affection doesn’t necessarily mean romance, does it?’
I scratched my chin, feeling a little silly for jumping to conclusions. Maybe the original Raven just craved a little attention.
’Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to fulfill all your lingering regrets. It’s the least I can do for you.’
Besides, getting her to genuinely care about me wasn’t exactly a bad thing. If anything, it would make living under the same roof a lot more pleasant.
With that out of the way, I left my room and headed for the kitchen, where I found her already preparing dinner.
Her husband was often away on business, sometimes for weeks at a time.
Celine didn’t strike me as someone who enjoyed being alone. With her looks, I bet she was used to getting plenty of attention, especially from men.
Going from that to spending weeks alone in an empty house must’ve been a big adjustment, and it explained why she was so short-tempered.
I activated my skill. My right eye started to warm up, though it wasn’t uncomfortable.
Name: Celine Park
— Personal Attributes —
Strength: E-
Agility: D+
Stamina: D+
Intelligence: D+
Charisma: A+
— Special Traits—
(Not enough authority)
No wonder she was so easy on the eyes. Her looks were doing most of the heavy lifting.
Not that I was trying to undermine her social skills or anything. It was just that, for women, appearance played a much bigger role.
Her other attributes seemed fairly normal. Most healthy adults probably fell between E and D, with D+ being closer to the average for men. Anything higher meant they were either athletes or exercised regularly.
I walked over, stopping a few steps away so I wouldn’t get in her personal space.
"Need some help?"
"With what?" she asked without looking back.
"Dinner."
"I can handle it."
"Okay." I pulled out a chair, deciding there was no point in pushing. "It’s pretty quiet around here, isn’t it?"
Her shoulder twitched slightly. It was such a small reaction that I might have missed it if I wasn’t watching closely.
She glanced around and sighed before returning her attention to the food.
I left it at that. Letting her feel the loneliness worked better than pointing it out.
Once dinner was ready, she realized I wasn’t leaving and put some food on my plate.
Even if she didn’t like me, helping her out earlier made her more willing to return the favor.
"This is good," I said after taking the first bite.
Celine glanced at me. "It’s just the usual."
"You’re right." I took another bite. "Still, this tastes way better than frozen food. It reminds me of my mom’s cooking."
She stopped mid-bite.
"Raven..."