"Ugh... ahhhhhhhh... I feel so stiff."
'Does having sex really take this much stamina? I feel like I've been drained to the core, no matter how much water I drink from this cup.'
Ren was sitting at the kitchen dining table. He had just finished eating his dinner and was drinking hot tea from a mug, staring into the distance. To anyone else, it might have looked like he was lost in thought, but Ren was examining the system—picking up from where he left off before Aoi burst in.
Name: Ren
Rank: Devil-Born [ 0 / 1000 CE ]
Corruption Essence: 14
Mission: Target 1 — Ongoing
Next target available in: 06d 22h
Skills:
[Eyes of Desire Lv.1] [Deal Maker Lv.1]
Partner: [Aoi — Deal Active]
Nights completed: 1 / 7
Next meeting: Tomorrow, 7:45 PM
[Enhancements] [List of Partners] [Status Window]
'Where were we last time? Ah, right—Status Window.' Ren thought about it, and the screen changed.
STATUS WINDOW — Ren
Strength: 12
Stamina: 15
Composure: 10
Energy: 15/40
Ren stared at the glowing window in front of him, going over the list of stats. 'Interesting. It feels like a video game status window. Most of them are obvious things Strength for physical power, Stamina for endurance, Composure for wisdom and intelligence, and Perception for keen senses. But what do Energy stand for?'
As soon as Ren had the thought, the system began explaining.
[ENERGY REPRESENTS YOUR CORE VITALITY. IT IS USED TO FUEL SKILLS.]
'Wait, don't skills use CE as fuel?'
[THAT IS ALSO CORRECT. HOWEVER, SKILLS THAT REQUIRE CE ARE SPECIAL ONES. ORIGINALLY, THE FUEL FOR YOUR SKILLS IS ENERGY, AND LOSING A LOT OF IT LEADS TO EXTREME FATIGUE.]
'Oh, I see.' The pain and stiffness Ren felt wasn't from having sex it was from using his skills. He was a little annoyed because he had genuinely thought his skills didn't require anything to be activated for now, but it turned out he had a limit.
'I used Eyes of Desire three times, and my Energy is down to 15. That means... hmm, 5 Energy for each use of Eyes of Desire, and 10 for each use of Deal Maker. Damn, that's steep.'
Ren stayed silent, pondering it for a second before taking a sip of his tea.
'I can upgrade my stats with the CE I have, right?'
[YES. 1 CE IS EQUAL TO 1 POINT THAT WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR STATS.]
Ren dived deep into his thoughts. He currently had 14 CE. If he distributed it across all stats, it would mean adding 3 points to four stats and 2 points to one stat—a difference that might not even be noticeable yet.
'Maybe I should wait for the week to end. If I corrupt Aoi successfully, I'll get 500 CE, plus additional CE from the acts I perform throughout the week.'
Leaving it at that, Ren exited the Status Window and checked Enhancements. But when he focused on it, the menu refused to open, and the system spoke:
[THE ENHANCEMENTS WILL BE UNLOCKED AT RANK 2.]
'What? I can't even preview them? That's cheap.'
[THE ENHANCEMENTS WILL BE UNLOCKED AT RANK 2.]
Ren didn't bother continuing the argument. He spent the rest of the night learning more about the system and getting familiar with it before going to bed
Soon after reaching the bed, Ren looked at it—it was very messy, wet, and smelled completely different.
'Ah, I forgot I need to change the bedsheet.' Find the original chapter at g.com.
With that, Ren replaced it with a fresh one and climbed into bed. He lay there staring at the ceiling as memories of Aoi returned—the intense ride, her body, her voice, her touch, everything. But with those memories came that same nagging, bad feeling he had felt the moment she left.
'It feels like I'm missing something, but I can't put my finger on it. What is this, System?'
In seconds, as usual, the system answered:
[WHAT YOU ARE EXPERIENCING MAY BE A SIDE EFFECT OF YOUR PERCEPTION STAT.]
'A side effect of Perception? That means I must have missed something important.'
Ren thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't figure out what it was. The System couldn't tell him exactly what it was sensing either, since his Perception stat was low. Deciding it was better to look into it in the morning, Ren gave up for the night—it was getting way past his bedtime.
'I don't want to be late for school again.'
With that thought, Ren closed his eyes and fell asleep seven minutes later.
In the morning, Ren did his usual routine and got ready for school. Nothing was unusual. He left the house at the same time he did every morning and took the same route. After thirty minutes, he arrived.
It was quite early, so not many students were there yet except for those on morning duty.
Ren walked through the school building toward his classroom, reached his chair, and sat down. He began studying as compensation for last night when he hadn't studied. As time went by, students slowly trickled into the classroom.
However, Ritsu and Takeshi were nowhere to be seen, which was weird—they weren't the type to come late, especially Ritsu.
Time passed, and the class was nearly full. At that moment, the two of them finally walked into the room, and Ren noticed something right away: both of them were silent, and there was a strange seriousness on their faces.
Usually, when they came to class, they would both go to say hi to Ren, but now they walked straight to their seats.
'Weird. Did something happen that I don't know about?'
Ren's bad feeling flared up again—that same strange sensation he had felt before returned. At that exact moment, the teacher opened the door, and the students who were standing quickly took their seats.
Ren saw Takeshi looking at him with a strange gaze before the teacher spoke.
"Is Ren here?" The teacher called out for him.
Confused, Ren raised his hand and answered, "Yes."
"Ah, there you are. Please take your stuff and go to the headmaster's office right now. They need you there."