Chapter 201: THERE’S A SCREEN IN FRONT OF ME

While Lust and Fredrinn were doing the mental mathematics of calculating the exact amount of LP he should be getting for the night’s ’hard’ work as well as the morning sessions, Andrea couldn’t help but zone out on his lap.

She kept looking up at him with a quiet, sorrowful gaze, her hazel eyes affixed on his handsome face. His chin was tilted up slightly, his lips curled into that familiar, confident smirk.

He was staring into the distance, gazing intently at the empty air before him. And while he didn’t utter a single syllable from his mouth, it wasn’t hard to guess what he was doing.

Of course, it wasn’t like he was completely neglecting his women either.

One of his hands was stroking Andrea’s brown hair gently, his fingers running through her messy tresses with steady, comforting affection.

His other hand massaged Jenny’s slender, arching foot with a firm, rhythmic pressure, soothing the soreness out of her limbs.

Rose was already clinging tightly onto his neck from behind, pressing her plush chest against his back, and whenever the demon whispered something sweet or teasing into his ear, Fredrinn replied to her softly without missing a beat.

Neither Jenny nor Rose had seemed to notice his slight distraction, or that his true focus was glued to an invisible screen floating right in front of his nose... Or maybe they both simply didn’t care?

To them, that floating phantom display was nothing special. They weren’t like Andrea, who didn’t possess an interface of her own. For awakened beings and supernatural entities, interacting with system parameters was as routine as breathing air!

’Hah... I wish I had a screen like them too... What does it even take to become an awakened anyway? Pure luck?’ Andrea sighed deeply to herself, her thoughts turning heavy as she looked down at her own naked, soft figure resting limply on Fredrinn’s lap.

When she really thought about it, her luck in this apocalypse didn’t seem bad at all.

She had stumbled onto a ridiculously strong and handsome boyfriend who doted on her, her sister Rhea was still completely safe under their protection, and she held a respected, untouchable standing within this entire survivor collective.

On paper, it was all overwhelmingly positive. These weren’t things that would happen to a girl cursed with bad luck... But then, what else did an awakening actually need?

A specific genetic trait? High combat stress? Divine selection?

’Haah... If only I had awakened back then too, when the world first collapsed... I could’ve dived into my own status screens, studied my own magical holograms, and planned my own stats.’

A fresh surge of bitter disappointment washed through her chest. But life had always been just like this—unfair, indifferent, and arbitrary.

Nothing happened. Or at least, not yet.

She stared up at the blank ceiling tiles of Room 308, chewing nervously on the corner of her lower lip.

’What do they always say in those web novels and comics to make the interface appear again? Status? System? Should I just try it too? Status!?’

That was it.

The precise, fateful moment when everything changed for Andrea Wilson... probably forever.

There wasn’t even a tiny shred of genuine expectation in her mind that an actual screen would appear.

During the exhaustion of the night before, her mind had been so battered by sensory overload and physical intimacy that she had written off those flashing violet notifications as mere feverish hallucinations. She had completely dismissed them.

Right now, she just wanted to try. She just wanted to experience the bizarre sensation of speaking out that fabled word inside the privacy of her own head. Speaking commands directly into her own consciousness felt novel, cool, and a little rebellious, so she gave in to the idle impulse.

However... by some stroke of ridiculous cosmic luck, or maybe through the mysterious magic of unconscious manifestation... a radiant screen violently popped into existence right before her retinas!

Ping!

It was a brilliant, translucent azure blue in color—the exact standard, clean sci-fi design that she had always imagined whenever someone mentioned they were looking at an awakened system window.

To the rest of the world, it might have looked basic, but to Andrea, it was the single most gorgeous, magical, and breathtaking sight she had witnessed in her entire twenty years of living.

It may be a mundane interface for seasoned combatants, but for her, it represented a golden, life-altering opportunity.

It proved that she wasn’t just a powerless, ordinary human girl who existed merely to hide in the back, stay out of danger, and serve a powerful man like a helpless concubine or a disposable plaything.

More importantly, it meant she would never have to look down at her own hands and feel fundamentally inferior to the supernatural women standing beside him.

The screen hovering inches before her eyes flickered into sharp focus, revealing the exact same chilling, bold text from the previous night:

[ Congratulations to Host Andrea for awakening The Bully System! ]

[ Host: Andrea Wilson ]

[ System Tier: Level 1 ]

[ Scanning the memories for Bullying Targets... ]

[ Scan Complete. Two Valid Targets Found. ]

[ Target 1: Rhea Wilson — Host’s biological younger sister. ]

[ Target 2: Fredrinn Winchester — Host’s romantic partner. (System Recommended Choice!) ]

[ Note: The Host may unlock additional bully slots once the system level is upgraded through successful infractions. ]

Andrea’s brain completely stalled out for half a heartbeat. Then, pure, unadulterated adrenaline detonated straight through her veins!

"Eeeeeeep!"

She was filled with such wild, overwhelming excitement that a sharp, involuntary shriek escaped her lips. The sudden jolt sent her scrambling across the mattress, nearly rolling her clean out of Fredrinn’s lap as her bare limbs flailed against the rumpled comforter.

Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She kept blinking rapidly, desperately opening and tightly squeezing her eyelids shut again and again, terrified to death that the glorious blue window was an optical illusion that would vanish into thin air the moment she stopped staring.

But the bold blue letters remained rock-solid, tracking with her eye movements, hovering proudly in the center of her vision.

"F-F-FREDRINN!" Her voice cracked on the syllables, squeaking in utter panic and ecstatic hysteria. "TH-THERE’S A SCREEN IN FRONT OF ME!"