We had barely settled into our seats in the Class B room Aya, naturally, had planted herself directly beside me before I could even consider objecting when she leaned in, eyes sparkling with the unfiltered enthusiasm of someone who had never once considered the concept of personal space.
"Say, say!" she practically bounced in her chair. "Is it true you're an orphan who climbed the Awakening ranks by illegally entering Gates when you were underage and butchering the monsters inside?! And your rank?! Are you stronger than my brother?! He's C rank, by the way! You? You?!"
I scooted my chair a polite few centimeters away.
Too energetic. WAY too energetic. And the tact! The absolute lack of tact! What kind of madman no, madwoman asks a person they met five minutes ago whether she really had a shitty childhood?! 'Hey Ellen, is it true your life before this was tragic and desperate?! Tell me about your trauma, I'm curious!' Who raised you, Aya?! Oh wait. The strongest family in the world. That explains it. Rich people's kids have no filter because no one ever told them 'no' in their lives.
I kept my voice cold and flat, the Ice Beauty delivery system operating at standard efficiency.
"Ah. Not true."
Technically accurate. Ellen's backstory was barely explored in the game a few lines of flavor text, maybe, which I never bothered reading because who reads the side character lore in a porn game? And I certainly didn't inherit her memories. So whatever tragic orphan legend is circulating out there, I have zero obligation to confirm it. I'm not lying. I'm simply... declining to participate in my own mythology.
"And I am D rank."
"Ohhhhhh!" Aya's eyes went wide with genuine awe. "D rank?! You're even stronger than me! And I'm a Kang! Impressive, Ellen. Impressive!"
She nodded at nothing in particular, nodding with such vigorous self satisfaction you'd think she was the one who achieved the rank.
Why is she congratulating me like she's my proud mother? And why is she so LOUD? Everything she does has the volume turned up to eleven. She asks questions like a press conference and reacts like a game show host. Is this what having a friend is like? Constant, unfiltered noise?
...It's kind of nice, actually. Don't tell anyone I thought that.
"Being a Kang doesn't automatically make you strong," I said, in my flattest tone. "It makes you well fed."
Aya snorted. "Cold! You really are cold! Everyone said the second seat was an ice queen, but you're even better in person!"
I'm not cold, I thought, watching her laugh at her own observation. I'm a twenty year old man in an eighteen year old girl's body who screamed like a haunted house prop this morning because someone tapped my shoulder. I'm not cold. I'm panicking in a very orderly fashion.
"But seriously," Aya continued, lowering her volume by approximately zero percent. "D rank as a first year is no joke. Most of us are E. The teachers are going to have expectations. High ones. You're going to get attention from the instructors, the upperclassmen, maybe even the Guilds."
Attention. More attention. Wonderful. The one thing I wanted less than socializing is institutional socializing.
"That's fine," I said aloud, with all the warmth of a frozen lake. "Attention is just noise."
"See, that's exactly what a person who's going to get a LOT of attention would say!" Aya grinned, pointing at me triumphantly. "Mark my words, Ellen Frost. By next month, everyone in this Academy is going to know your name."
They already know my name, Aya. That's the problem.
The homeroom lecture was exactly what I expected: a tedious, droning monologue about duty, sacrifice, and the noble responsibility of protecting the helpless masses from the encroaching darkness. It was heroic garbage. It was boring. It was exactly the kind of thing that makes you want to walk into a Gate without any equipment just to feel something interesting.
SNORE.
The moment the bell rang, I didn't linger. I didn't socialize. I didn't do any of that 'first day bonding' nonsense. I bolted. I made a straight line for the Ertenaria Dormitories, my legs moving faster than my brain could process the social anxiety of passing anyone else in the hallway.
I slammed my dorm room door shut, locked it, and collapsed onto my bed.
"Oh god..." I groaned into the pillow. "Finally."
The sheer mental exhaustion of maintaining the icy facade for six hours straight was worse than any physical training. My face felt like it had been carved out of granite, and my brain was fried from constantly policing every micro expression, every blush, every tremor. I felt the stress of the day the noise, the eyes, the Aya Kang energy begin to drain away.
Ding.
[ Congratulations! You didn't challenge your teacher, didn't get defeated, and kept your virginity! You have changed your fate! Marvellous! ]
[ Reward: 2500 SP ]
I bolted upright, my heart doing that annoying flutter again.
"...Hmmmmmmmm?!"
I stared at the empty air where the notification had been.
"Two thousand five hundred SP?! It has barely been one hour since the Dean's speech!" I hissed at the ceiling. "Original Ellen! Hello?! What the fuck were you thinking about?! Challenging a teacher on your first day?! Most of the teachers here are at least B rank! You're a D rank! That's not a challenge, that's a suicide attempt!"
The implications hit me like a freight train.
"Wait... why did I gain SP? I didn't do anything. I didn't seduce anyone, I didn't orchestrate a betrayal, I didn't even do anything sexual to myself."
I paused, a slow realization dawning on me.
"Can I gain points by simply not falling into the traps of the original plot? Am I being rewarded for... basic self preservation?"
I waited. I asked the void. I asked the system. I asked my own goddamn conscience.
"...Nothing."
The system was silent. No explanation, no tutorial, no 'Congratulations on being a functional human being.' Just cold, silent transactional data.
"Fine. Whatever. Keep your secrets, you capitalist bitch."
I rolled onto my stomach, feeling the weight of my breasts against the mattress. A smirk tugged at the corners of my lips. If the system rewarded me for avoiding the inevitable corruption of the original story, then this was going to be much more lucrative than I thought. Every time I dodged a trap, every time I avoided a predictable 'fall,' I got paid.
"Twenty five hundred SP." I repeated the number. "That's... that's enough for a significant upgrade."
I pulled up the shop interface, my eyes gleaming with the hunger of a gamer who had just found an exploit. I wasn't going to waste this on something stupid. I needed survival. I needed control.
"Let's see what we can do with this windfall."
I scrolled past the Eroge skills with a disgusted scoff. I wasn't touching those yet. My goal was to become untouchable first.
[ SP SHOP OPEN ]
I began to scan. Combat passives, mana efficiency, and most importantly the [Expression Suppression] upgrades.
If I can get to Tier Three with this money... I won't just be the Ice Beauty. I'll be a fucking fortress.
***
I stared at the glowing text in the darkness of my room, the numbers mocking me.
[Expression Suppression Tier 3 Cost: 3,000 SP]
I had two thousand five hundred. Five hundred SP short. Five hundred SP standing between me and becoming a genuine fortress. Five hundred SP standing between me and a lifetime of having to pretend I'm not internally screaming every time someone looks at my ass.
"Fuck." I whispered, the word muffled by my pillow.
I needed that skill. More than anything. Now that I had actually lived through a day as Ellen now that I had felt the way the air itself seemed to caress my skin, the way a simple glance from a stranger could send a shiver of unwanted arousal straight to my core I knew I was walking on thin ice. Literally. One wrong move, one persistent harasser, one poorly timed touch, and the 'Ice Beauty' would shatter into a sobbing, flushed mess.
And the plan required more than just survival. To orchestrate the NTR routes, to manipulate the Conquerors, to become the architect of this world's corruption, I would have to step into their territory. I would have to engage with them. I would have to offer Mana Contracts, negotiate terms, and walk into situations that were designed to break women like me.
Me. An SS rank beauty, walking into a den of predators to play puppet master.
"It's not safe," I muttered to the empty room. "It's not safe at all. Everything has to be perfect. Every interaction has to be controlled."
But control required Tier Three. And Tier Three required five hundred SP.
There was only one way to get it quickly. The fastest, most direct route. The route that the system had clearly designed to be the most tempting.
[SOURCE A Personal Sexual Acts]
My heart hammered against my ribs. My face burned.
"I'm not doing this because I want to," I whispered fiercely, my voice cracking slightly. "I'm not a degenerate. I'm not some pervert who just got dropped into a hot body."
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to summon the cold, detached logic of the Ice Beauty, but my body was already betraying me. The mere thought of the SP, the thought of the power it would buy me, was sending a rush of heat straight to my thighs.
"It's... it's just for the points. Yeah. It's purely transactional. It's strategic resource acquisition."
I opened my eyes, staring at the ceiling with a desperate, self convincing intensity.
"I am a business major. This is just... market research."
With shaking hands, I reached up, my fingers brushing against the fabric of my shirt. I could feel the heat radiating from my own skin. My breathing was already coming faster, shallower. The Third Rate Sensitivity was already responding to my own touch, my own thoughts, making my nipples harden painfully against the cotton.
"Just five hundred SP," I told myself, my voice dropping to a needy whimper I immediately hated. "Five hundred SP, and then I never have to do this again. I'll be safe. I'll be untouchable."
I slid my hands down, past my ribs, to the heavy, aching swell of my breasts. As my palms cupped the soft, warm flesh, a gasp escaped my lips a sound that was far too lewd, far too eager.
"For the points," I whimpered, closing my eyes as I began to work. "Only for the points."