Kobe

"Looks like things are worse than I thought."

After Lu Guan escorted Dania back to her dorm, a system notification suddenly popped up.

[Beep! Notification: After Dania's affection reaches the required threshold, all affection gained thereafter will be converted into Star Desire Points.]

[When her Star Desire Points get too high, she will actively seek out the host to unlock a special CG. Please keep this character's Star Desire Points under control.]

[Dania]

[Affection: 100]

[Star Desire Points: 18 (safe)]

"So how do I lower these Star Desire Points? Don't tell me we actually have to CCB? Isn't that something you can only do after an oath?"

[Notification: Some romanceable characters will lower their own Star Desire Points once they reach a certain level, but this will cause their Star Desire Points to accumulate much faster next time.]

"That raises another question. Is there no reward for getting Dania's affection to 100?" Lu Guan asked. "There were rewards at 20 and 60. Surely there can't be nothing at 100?"

[Beep! Following the system upgrade, affection rewards are now displayed visually. Please visit the character page to claim them.]

[In consideration of the host's request, red dot notifications have now been added to the system interface.]

As soon as the system finished speaking, Lu Guan noticed a constantly flashing red dot in the "romanceable characters" section of the system interface.

"Why is it like one of those gacha games..." Lu Guan grumbled.

He opened the interface and saw that all the rewards on Dania's page had been unlocked. Not only that, a red heart had appeared next to Dania's portrait, seemingly indicating that an oath was available.

The reward for reaching 100 affection was a 20% increase to his maximum Echo Energy reserves-in other words, 20% more mana. For Lu Guan, who was desperately short on mana at the moment, that was a pretty good boost.

Lu Guan lacked neither mechanics nor stats. His only weaknesses were his exorbitant mana consumption and desperate lack of mana. Resonance efficiency could be improved by repeatedly using resonance abilities, but his maximum Echo Energy determined his staying power.

In other words, since resonance stimulants didn't work on him, he would probably have to romance several more characters to shed the title of "three-second real man."

But there were limits to a person's tastes. In both his past life and this one, Lu Guan had never been into mature women.

The furthest he could go was someone like Suisui or Yangyang, who had the body of a mature woman but was actually a young girl...

Should he abandon his own tastes just to complete the romance missions?

That was what a meta slave would do. He would rather romance Doctor Lu than the mature women Lacerta and Chisa...

Back to the point: there were rewards not only for reaching 20, 60, and 100 affection, but also for completing an oath with a romanceable character.

[Dania's oath rewards: World Origin Fragment, Gaze of the Nihility Threnodian, Dania's Resonance Ability.]

The rewards were generous, but the price was steep.

The Threnodian's gaze wasn't something an ordinary person could endure, including...

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points +1]

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points +1]

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points -40]

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points -1]

A string of system notifications about Dania interrupted Lu Guan's thoughts about Aleph-1.

Girl, what are you doing?

Lu Guan watched Dania's Star Desire Points slowly rise from 18 to 60, then suddenly plunge before gradually dropping to zero. He was stunned and whipped his head toward the door to Dania's dorm.

The way Dania's Star Desire Points fluctuated couldn't help but make him think of a certain strange possibility.

!? Wawa?!

Ten minutes earlier, inside Dania's dorm.

"You escorted a girl home, and then you chose to run away?" Dania looked in the direction Lu Guan had left, frustrated with his failure to take the hint. A trace of disappointment flickered in her eyes.

"And I even gave you access to my dorm... That idiot... He didn't understand what a girl was trying to tell him at all..."

"Everything will return to nihility in the end anyway... So why not take this chance to... Mm... No..." Dania shook her head, trying to shake the suggestive thought out of it.

"I have to figure out how to get him out of Lahai-Roi... before Aleph-1 descends... That's the only thing I can do for him..."

"Idiot... You don't even know what I'm facing... yet you still said something like that, just like the protagonist of a hot-blooded manga..."

"Someone like me is probably the only one who'd believe you, right?"

"Mm..." Dania remembered the sweet scene at the café earlier, and her heart couldn't help but stir. The feelings she had suppressed for so long burst forth like a spring, yet she had no one to confide in.

"I saw the president do this alone before... The internet also said it was an effective way to relieve worries... Maybe... I should give it a try?"

She licked her lips and looked at the box of tissues by the bed.

Late at night.

Lu Guan lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

All because... the system in his head wouldn't stop chiming.

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points +1]

[Beep! Dania's Star Desire Points +1]

Here we go again...

Counting from the first time, this was already the third round in just two hours. Was it really going to be this frequent?

Now he knew why Dania usually wore gloves.

"System, can't you turn off the notification sounds?" Lu Guan said weakly. "They keep going off, over and over. Isn't it annoying?"

[Notification sounds are critically important alerts for changes in affection. They are part of this system's fundamental logic and cannot be disabled.]

[Suggestion: The host should go help Dania deal with her Star Desire.]

"What can I do?" Lu Guan said helplessly. "Before we completely break through that barrier, isn't all I can do the same thing she's doing herself right now?"

[Notification: There are no downsides to an oath.]

"No downsides? How can you even say that?" Lu Guan looked at the dorm ceiling and raised a hand, loosely curling his fingers as he murmured to himself, "Besides, there's still a hurdle in my heart I can't get past."

"If I took an oath and then went after other characters, wouldn't Dania consider it a betrayal?"

[No.]

"Definitely not?"

[After an oath, the romanceable character's affection will have a locked minimum and will not decrease because of the host's actions. Its minimum will remain at 100.]

"No... That's not what I meant."

Lu Guan said with some reluctance, "If I really treated life entirely like one big galgame, I would've taken the oath as soon as it became available..."

"But that's not the life I want... Feelings are an important part of life, sure, but people aren't creatures driven solely by their feelings."

[Do you like Dania very much?]

"Like her... Of course I like her."

[Then do you love her?]

"Love... her?"

[Then do you love her??]

The system repeated its soul-searching question, making Lu Guan feel somewhat guilty. He answered in a trembling voice, "Of course I love her..."

[Arrogance! Hypocrisy!]

Lu Guan: "???"

[You're like a hollow vegetable. You know what to do at the right time, what to say to make a girl happy, and what love is, and you're willing to give others love.]

[But you never show anyone else what's in your heart, because you've never had one to begin with. From the start, you've treated everyone else as nothing more than NPCs in your personal world.]

[You've placed all sorts of moral and ethical restrictions on yourself, but they can never hide the emptiness inside you!]

"Enough! You're just a system. You've crossed the line!"

[Heh heh...]

At the sound of the "system's" sinister laughter, Lu Guan immediately sensed something was wrong.

"No... You're the system. What system is that intelligent?"

[You finally noticed?]

The scene before Lu Guan shifted from his dorm to a dimly lit classroom. Standing before him was another version of himself, with the same face and black energy emanating from his entire body.

"Just as I thought... You're me from the Academy Dark Side." Lu Guan looked at the "dark side" before him, his expression grim. "When were you born?"

[When? Heh heh heh... Probably not long after you escorted Dania back to her dorm.]

[What? Surprised to see me?]

"Surprised? Not really." Lu Guan shook his head, but something had begun to gather in his hand. "It's a rather novel experience, getting to talk to my own dark side."

Hollow Technique: Purple!!!

[Hah! You think I wasn't prepared?]

Hollow Technique: Purple!!!

The two Hollow Techniques collided, and the resulting explosion kicked up a powerful shock wave. Both the dark side and Lu Guan himself had to brace against the walls beside them to avoid being blown away.

"You were actually prepared. As expected of my dark side."

[The original is as dishonorable as ever, I see. Too bad... As long as you haven't overcome your inner demon, I can't be destroyed.]