Chapter 208: No Way!!!

With a wide blossoming smile that looked somewhat creepy to Fredrinn, Andrea turned to look at him.

"Freddy~" She purred in an absolutely sweet, sugary tone.

Her hazel eyes curved into narrow crescents, radiating a level of manufactured innocence so thick that alarm bells immediately began blaring in the back of his mind.

"...What?" Fredrinn asked, his voice sounding just moments away from getting traumatized.

He leaned back an inch against the wooden headboard, pulling the covers slightly higher over his lap as if creating a barrier against whatever bizarre scheme was brewing behind that sweet smile.

"How did Jenny’s idea sound?"

His gaze narrowed and he instantly replied without any hesitation.

"Trash."

"Whaaaat!" Jenny’s complaining voice tried to interfere as she couldn’t accept her idea getting trashed like that. She pushed herself up slightly from the mattress, indignant that her stroke of creative genius was getting dismissed with such blunt disrespect.

But unfortunately for the blonde beauty, she was ignored by both Fredrinn and Andrea.

"Trash? Really?" Andrea pouted, crossing her arms beneath her chest in a theatrical display of disappointment. "It sounded pretty ingenious, harmless and good to me!"

"...Should I take you to meet Tobi or whatever that doctor guy’s name was?" Fredrinn deadpanned.

He stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

"No!" She clicked her tongue, annoyed that Fredrinn hadn’t talked about the actual task yet!

Every second wasted was another second where the quest parameters might register someone else taking charge.

The prompt had explicitly demanded that he offer the scenario from his own mouth during their conversation. If she pushed him too hard, she would ruin the subtle trap entirely.

Though she wasn’t worried at all.

She drew in a calm breath, adjusting her posture.

"You know, seeing such an extreme reaction from you, I am confused if we both are even talking about the same thing or not?" Andrea asked, shaking her head in disappointment.

Fredrinn paused, his gaze squinting in her direction with distrust, but Andrea controlled her expressions completely... Enough that he couldn’t notice anything off about her.

Not a single twitch of an eyelid. Not a hint of a blush or an eager smirk. She looked completely sincere, adopting the puzzled look of a student trying to clear up a basic misunderstanding during a lecture.

After staring at her for 2 seconds, even Fredrinn knew that the atmosphere was turning awkward and he had to keep the ball rolling.

He let out a tired sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I was denying the cross dressing idea, I am never doing that." He said in a tone that left nothing to argue about.

’Should that count as him suggesting the idea? It should but do I want to risk it?’ Andrea thought, her mind working in overdrive as her brain swiftly replied with a big fat ’No.’

System prompts were notoriously pedantic. If she acted on a technicality or a half-baked denial, the interface might deem her implementation sloppy, ruining the grade of her awakening skill.

She needed absolute clarity. She needed him to define the act in plain, spoken terms.

Her expression changed and she looked at him with concern like he said something very wrong.

"You’re that worried about cross dressing? Are we thinking of different things, Freddy?" She tilted her head, "Can you please tell me what the ’cross dressing’ means for you?"

Now even Fredrinn was feeling confused.

His brow furrowed, his memories drifting back through the decades. Did the meaning of cross dressing change during these 20 years he was in Apolasia?

In that harsh fantasy realm, clothing was mostly utilitarian armor, robes, or leather hides.

Maybe Earth’s modern culture had evolved some strange nuance he had completely missed out on before the apocalypse hit.

"Cross dressing as in men wearing women’s clothes and women wearing men’s?" Fredrinn answered.

’Finally!’ Andrea smirked inwardly, though her inner thoughts didn’t show on the surface at all.

The fish had officially swallowed the hook, the line, and the sinker. He had spoken the concept into the air with his own lips, answering her direct question about the definition of the act.

At surface she simply nodded calmly and continued acting like a calm mother that wanted to teach a life lesson to her toddler.

Such a dynamic irritated Fredrinn subconsciously, but he was also feeling quite confused about what she was planning.

Andrea was acting much different than the usual and yet he couldn’t pinpoint what part about her felt off.

She was usually expressive, quick to blush, and fiercely protective of her own boundaries. This quiet, measured composure was entirely out of character for the short brunette.

The closest he could guess was that she knew her own quest and was trying to complete it while acting like she didn’t know a thing.

It was a smart approach, but Fredrinn was also on his nerves to avoid such a thing from happening.

If he managed to stop himself from getting bullied and reversed it onto her, he would be helping her get twice the rewards.

Isn’t that something only the best boyfriends would do?

A good partner helps his girlfriend farm maximum experience, even if it requires turning the tables on her playful schemes.

"Well, you weren’t thinking wrong, but you sure are overthinking it you know?" Andrea clicked her tongue, shaking her head in disagreement.

She stepped right up to the side of the mattress, leaning down with her hands on her knees so she was staring directly into his face.

"Isn’t it just some clothes? If you want we can even exchange clothes so you don’t feel weird alone. Can’t you do just this much for me?"

"..." Fredrinn hadn’t expected her to reveal her cards so soon!

His jaw clenched slightly as he stared at her smug, expectant expression.

Just now she was acting like she didn’t know her quest, pretending that her interface was hopelessly glitched and greyed out, but now out of nowhere, she wants him to cross dress?!

The transition was so sudden, so blatant, that it confirmed every single suspicion swirling in his head. She knew exactly what her objective was from the very start!

"No way!!!"