Chapter 83: Sixty Minutes of Zero Fatigue and an Unexpected Setback

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Sixty Minutes of Zero Fatigue and an Unexpected Setback

"Why do you want this?"

[...]

I stared at the two unclaimed tickets floating in the inventory until the glow started to feel like an accusation.

"Now what do you want?"

[Open the roulette.]

"Do it."

[Which one?]

"Bronze."

The familiar brown-tinted wheel materialized in front of me, five panels arranging themselves in a clean circle. The options were exactly as low-tier and practical as I expected.

[Passive Trait: Kinetic Buffer (Lv. 1)]

Realigns muscle fibers across torso and forearms, increasing baseline physical durability against blunt impacts by 20%.

[Active Trait: Adrenaline Partition (Lv. 1)]

Allows the Host to completely isolate and suppress the physical sensation of fatigue, muscle burn, or lactic acid buildup for up to 10 minutes. Cost: 5 Mana.

[Passive Modification: Dermal Insulation (Lv. 1)]

Thickens the outer cellular layers of the skin, granting temporary resistance to minor chemical burns, surface lacerations, and environmental heat fluctuations.

[Active Senses: Pulse Overclock (Lv. 1)]

Temporarily accelerates visual perception of movement by 15%, allowing the Host to track high-speed kinetic trajectories or incoming physical attacks with absolute clarity. Lasts 3 minutes.

[Passive Trait: Structural Pacing (Lv. 1)]

Automatically synchronizes breathing patterns with heartbeat, reducing baseline oxygen consumption by 15% during continuous cardiovascular exertion.

"Spin it."

The wheel turned with its usual mechanical ticking.

Lights tracked around the circle in a steady blur. I watched without leaning forward, without hope, without the old instinct to guess which panel it would tease me with first.

This time there was no fake-out.

The spinning slowed, passed Kinetic Buffer, passed Pulse Overclock, and locked cleanly onto the second panel with a soft, final chime.

[Result Locked]

[Active Trait Acquired: Adrenaline Partition (Lv. 1)]

[Congratulations!]

I stared at the confirmation.

"Why didn’t you do the fakeout?"

[Host’s emotional state is unstable. Any act that further increases vulnerability will not be encouraged at this time.]

"So you know which skill I would get?"

[I decide the skill.]

Huh?

"Tch. Efficient, even when you’re pretending to be considerate."

I closed the bronze interface.

"Now the other one."

The Silver ticket activated with a noticeably different presence. The wheel that appeared was darker, cleaner, edged in a muted metallic light that the bronze version had never carried.

There were no multiple panels. No choices. Only a single result already waiting.

[Active Skill: Zenith Circulation — Sixty-Minute Infinite Stamina Loop]

Temporarily triggers an absolute, unrestricted internal energy loop inside the Succubus sub-core. For exactly 60 minutes, the Host’s physical fatigue tracking variables are frozen at 0.00%.

Stamina consumption drops to absolute zero, granting infinite physical endurance regardless of output strain.

Specific Trigger: Can only be activated while maintaining continuous, close-quarters physical touch or active energy-chain connection with an auxiliary target whose favorability is 40 or higher.

I read the description twice.

A full hour of zero fatigue. Infinite physical endurance. And the only way to turn it on was to stay in continuous contact with someone who already trusted me enough to sit at forty favorability or higher.

It’s obvious where it’ll be used.

The system’s timing remained flawless in its cruelty.

[Quest parameters were met. Host progress has advanced. Additional tools have been issued. Emotional dissatisfaction is a Host-side variable and does not affect completion metrics.]

"She doesn’t want to be close to me."

[Correctable through time and controlled re-exposure. Current distance protocol is within acceptable recovery projections.]

I laughed once, short, humorless, almost soulless.

"You framed absorbing her as keeping her safe. You told me focusing on one person was a waste. And now you’re calling the wreckage ’acceptable recovery projections.’"

[The System does not experience moral conflict. It optimizes. Host resistance to optimal pathways increases long-term instability for all linked parties. The earlier recommendation remains valid.]

A new line appeared beneath the previous ones, clean and unadorned.

[Next target: Rei Lawless]

The name sat in the air between me and the interface like a stone dropped into still water.

I stared at it until the letters stopped feeling like text and started feeling like a decision someone else had already made.

"No."

[Rei Lawless currently holds elevated compatibility residue from the prior forced evolution event. Favorability remains low, but structural openness is high. Probability of successful secondary anchor formation is within acceptable ranges.]

"I said no."

[Acknowledged. Host refusal has been logged. Recommendation will remain active until conditions change or a higher-efficiency target becomes available.]

I dismissed every window at once.

The tickets, the new skills, the quiet suggestion that the solution to losing Gianna was to reach for the woman who had already tried to claim me as a resource, all of it vanished from my vision, though none of it left my head.

The apartment felt larger than it had an hour ago. The clean counters, the faint scent of Jenna’s cooking, the low press of city noise against the glass, everything registered as background to the single cold fact the system had just placed in front of me.

It was already moving to the next target.

I walked to the window and rested both hands against the glass.

Adrenaline Partition.

Zenith Circulation.

Two new tools, both useful, both designed to keep me functional in a fight or in a bed.

Neither of them did anything about the quiet recommendation still sitting in the system’s memory.

I closed my eyes.

"System."

[Host?]

"What should I do now?"

No reply came.

The system had already said everything it intended to say.

"Rei is the target."

[Yes.]

"Should I try to absorb her core too?"

[That phenomenon occurred because the Host’s emotional dependency and compatibility with Gianna Everheart had reached their peak. You could have stopped the process and made it work as a normal intimate act. But you didn’t. You liked the power, the control, and the way she was helpless under you in bed.]

"I didn’t like it."

[You didn’t like it because she found out. The Host’s body was forced to shut down because an external force was applied. That is what made you stop, not your conscience or your care.]

"I know. Jenna gave me mild suppressants."

[Jenna is lying. Suppressants in this world cannot contain a succubus. The tablets she gave you were designed to render your core completely powerless. She lied to you. Are you still going to keep trusting her?]