Chapter 37: DEPENDENCE

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GRIEVANCE LOG

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Target: Sarah Angi

Subject: Husband

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> Forgets Anniversary

> Poor Hygiene

> Ignores her at dinner

> Dismisses her Feelings

> Stifles Creativity

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[!] Stockholm Syndrome:

Feeling worthless by her

husband all the time, Sarah

seems to think she has to

be with Hubert, even though

she hates it.

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Oh, fuck off. What do you mean? She still wanted to run back to him even when her loyalty was at dead zero? This was fucking crazy. Fuck, fuck, fuck! And here I thought I had her entirely in the palm of my hand. This was just so annoying.

I quickly pulled up her relationship matrix to see what the hell was overriding her lack of loyalty.

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TARGET: Sarah Angi

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[ RELATIONSHIP ]

> Partner: [Hubert]

> Loyalty: 0%

> Dependence: 88%

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[ SYSTEM SYNC ]

> Favor: 100% [!!!]

> Threat: None

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> GRIEVANCE LOG

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"Of course," I said, instantly forcing a supportive smile over my irritation. "Whatever makes you happy, Sarah. I’m sure you two can... figure something out."

"Mm." She nodded, looking immensely relieved by my reaction. "Thank you, Chance. I... I should get going."

❤︎‬‪‪❤︎‬‪‪❤︎

A few hours later, long after she had slipped back upstairs, I sat down at the dining table and booted up the system interface. Since her Favor stat with me had maxed out at one hundred percent, those three flashing exclamation marks were practically screaming for attention. I needed to see what kind of milestone reward I had unlocked.

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FAVOR 100%

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Sarah Angi has reached

maximum Favor.

Choose one reward.

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[1] Overflow [☐☐]

> Sexual EXP gained

from encounters x2

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[2] Absolute Trust [☐☐]

> 50% chance to accept

any request without resistance

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[3] Irreplaceable [☐☐]

> Favor can never

fall below 80%

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A secondary tutorial UI materialized right beside the menu. It explicitly warned me that once I allocated a point into any of these three masteries, the selection would lock permanently, and her current Favor would reset back to zero percent. However, if I managed to grind her Favor back up to one hundred again down the line, I could upgrade the same perk. For instance, putting a second point into the first option would bump the modifier to a four-times multiplier for sexual encounters.

"Well... the first one sounds way too good to pass up."

I tapped the screen, locking my choice into Overflow, and watched the interface refresh. From here on out, any intimate encounters with Sarah would yield double the experience rewards. Nice. Though it definitely sucked that my baseline Favor with her dropped right back down to zero. Guess I had a little bit of a grind ahead of me to get her back on the hook.

"Now, time for the real leveling up..."

I had ten unassigned attribute points to spend, and I needed to utilize them logically. Reviewing my current baseline stats, my Charisma was at fifteen, Endurance at eight, Perception at seventeen, and Luck at a miserable three. To get the absolute maximum utility out of my points, I needed to hit the milestone thresholds. Every ten absolute levels invested into a core attribute unlocked a unique evolutionary perk. The distribution math was perfect.

I dumped five points straight into Charisma, pushed two points into Endurance, and assigned the final three points to Perception.

The moment the attributes locked in, my vision swirled. Because I had successfully pushed Charisma and Perception to twenty, and brought Endurance up to a solid ten, I had triggered three evolutionary milestones simultaneously. Three distinct, neon-tinted selection menus stacked themselves right in front of my face. It was a little overwhelming, but the apartment was completely quiet now. I had all the time in the world.

First up was the Charisma evolution tree.

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MILESTONE REACHED

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Attribute: CHA [20]

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Choose your Evolution:

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[A] THE KINGMAKER

> Social Authority

Effect: People naturally

look to you for guidance.

Targets with 50% or above Loyalty

are more likely to follow your

lead in uncertain

situations.

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[B] THE HIDDEN HOOK

> Emotional Imprint

Effect: Every meaningful

interaction leaves a

lasting mark.

Once a Target reaches

50% Favor, Favor decay

is permanently reduced

by 75%.

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SELECT ONE TO CONFIRM

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This choice was a complete no-brainer. I selected The Kingmaker and hit confirm. I didn’t really have a use for a decay reduction perk right now, considering Sarah and I were literal neighbors in the exact same building and I was bound to run into her every single day. Maybe if I started targeting multiple chicks across town it would make sense, but not right now.

Next was Endurance. Scanning through the available choices, my eyes immediately locked onto the final option on the list. It was completely impossible to pass up. The perk unlocked a steady stream of Daily Quests, mostly involving structured gym routines and physical conditioning, and it offered a compounding consecutive reward modifier. The longer I kept the streak alive every single day, the better the system drops would become.

"Fuck yeah." I tapped the selection, confirming the physical upgrade.

Finally, I pulled up the milestone choices for Perception. This was easily the most critical attribute in my entire arsenal. It was the specific skill that allowed me to read the hidden grievance logs and see behind people’s facades. I had to evaluate these options with extreme caution.

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MILESTONE REACHED

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Attribute: PER [20]

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Choose your Evolution:

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[A] EMOTIONAL READER

> Feel The Moment

Effect: You gain a better

understanding of a

Target’s emotions.

Reduced chance of saying

the wrong thing during

important interactions.

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[B] WATCHFUL EYES

> Nothing Unusual

Effect: You naturally

notice suspicious actions,

awkward glances, and

changes in behavior.

Increased chance to spot

lies and hidden tensions.

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SELECT ONE TO CONFIRM

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It had to be option B. While my baseline Perception was already passively picking up on subtle cues, actively amplifying my ability to spot outright lies, hidden social tensions, and micro-expressions would make executing my plans a hell of a lot easier. Without a single shred of doubt left in my mind, I pressed the screen to confirm my selection.

The interface flickered, recalculating my entire identity profile.

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MAIN MENU

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NAME: Chance Brooks

LVL: 8 [92/485]

RANK: Homewrecker

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[ CORE STATS ]

> CHA: 20

> END: 10

> PER: 20

> LCK: 3

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[ ENERGY ]

> LUST: 170/170

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[ACTIVE PERKS: Expand]

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SIN POINTS: 1120

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"Luck is still a little low... but it’ll have to do for now, I guess."

I stood up from the table, stretching my limbs as the new physical stats settled into my muscles, and walked into the kitchen. I yanked the fridge door open and grabbed a half-eaten, cold sandwich from the top shelf, taking a massive bite. There was still one massive hurdle left if I wanted to completely isolate Sarah and fully steal her away from that brain-dead husband of hers. I had to dismantle her absurdly high dependency stat.

I brought up her target profile one last time, staring intently at the numbers.

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TARGET: Sarah Angi

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[ RELATIONSHIP ]

> Partner: [Hubert]

> Loyalty: 0%

> Dependence: 88%

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[ SYSTEM SYNC ]

> Favor: 0% [☑]

> Threat: None

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x2 Sexual Encounter EXP

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> GRIEVANCE LOG

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"Soon," I muttered around a mouthful of food, a dark, completely confident smile pulling at the corners of my lips. "Very fucking soon..."

❤︎‬‪‪❤︎‬‪‪❤︎

It had been two days since I updated my PER skill. I’d also earned a decent amount of EXP in that time. One quest required me to walk ten kilometers, another five kilometers of running. Both completed. I hadn’t realized just how inactive my lifestyle had been until now.

Two birds, one stone. I was getting healthier and leveling up.

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MAIN MENU

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NAME: Chance Brooks

LVL: 8 [140/485]

RANK: Homewrecker

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[ CORE STATS ]

> CHA: 20

> END: 10

> PER: 20

> LCK: 3

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[ ENERGY ]

> LUST: 170/170

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[ACTIVE PERKS: Expand]

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SIN POINTS: 1120

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"Nice." I pulled my hoodie down and dropped onto the bench, breathing hard. "Phew... fuck. I’m dead."

There still weren’t any new updates on Sarah’s Grievance Log. She and Hubert were clearly still on bad terms, but I hadn’t heard any arguing from upstairs lately. They’d reached that quiet, cold stage where they just tolerated each other’s existence.

I sat there catching my breath. I never realized I lived so close to a place like this. It was a long, U-shaped running path that looped around a small green area, with dog parks on both sides of the curve. Wooden benches lined the path at regular intervals. A few joggers and people walking their dogs passed by under the late afternoon light. Across the far side of the path sat a small, quiet coffee shop with a second-floor balcony overlooking the park.

My phone buzzed in my back pocket. I shifted and pulled it out.

Sarah was calling.

"Hello?"

"Hey," she said. "Look back."

I turned and looked toward the dog park.

"A bit more to the right."

I shifted my gaze further right and spotted her. She was sitting at a table on the coffee shop balcony, waving at me.

"Oh," I muttered. "Hey."

"Wanna join me for a cup of tea? They make the best tea around here."

"Nah, just finished running. I’m sweaty as hell. Need a shower first." I smiled. "But thanks for asking."

"Your loss, Chance."

"You’re still in your work clothes?" I asked. "Haven’t gone home yet?"

"I... uh... just wanted to... you know. Drink some tea."

Right. She was stalling. Delaying going home for as long as possible so she wouldn’t have to see Hubert. Her loyalty had dropped, but the dependency was still there. Stockholm Syndrome in real time. Fucking idiotic.

"Hmm." I nodded. "Well, I need to go shower. Text me once you’re home... if you need an excuse to stay out of that horror-house a little longer."

"Y-yeah," she said quietly. "I’ll... yeah. Bye, Chance."

"Bye. Take care."

"Mm."