Chapter 81: Debt

Tom entered the mall with one problem and very little time to decorate it with feelings.

’Just get a corporate attire, expensive enough to survive the eyes of a building like Goldy Realty Group.’

He found the right floor, walked into a formal menswear section, and stopped at the first rack of suits long enough for the price tags to hit him in the old way. For a second his body reacted before his mind did.

’Too expensive, unnecessary, not for him...’

Then he took out his phone and checked his account. Initially, to just give his eyes the confirmation that that wasn’t for him.

However, the balance sitting in his account stared back at him, solid and still a little unreal. He knew he could buy three of the suits in front of him and still leave with change. The old reflex faded under that fact. He was not shopping with the same pockets anymore.

While he was still sorting his thoughts, a slim brunette attendant appeared at his side with the smooth timing of someone who had already decided he was worth the effort. Her smile was open, she looked interested in everything that concerned him. The kind that did not bother hiding itself behind professional politeness.

"Looking for something formal?" she asked in an exaggerated girly voice.

"Corporate, I need it to look proper." he replied.

Her eyes moved over him once, quick and approving and she opened her teeth again. "Then you’re lucky I got to you first. A man with your frame shouldn’t be left alone with the racks."

She helped without waiting for more instruction. She went through the colors first, then cuts, then ties... She held up the ties against his chest with the easy familiarity of a woman testing how close she could stand.

"This one," she said, lifting a darker suit. "It’ll sit well on your shoulders. Make you look like you give orders for a living." Her smile tilted. "Or like you should."

Tom took the hanger from her. "I’ll try it."

"Please do." Her voice lowered just enough to make the next sentence land harder. "I’ve always been better at judging fit when I can see what the clothes are working with."

She guided him toward the dressing rooms and waited outside while he changed.

When Tom stepped back out, the difference was immediate. The suit held his shoulders cleanly. The lines were sharp without being loud. In the mirror he looked less like a man borrowing respectability and more like someone who could walk into a serious building without apologizing for existing.

The attendant’s reaction was even less restrained than before.

"Oh," she said softly, then smiled wider. "That’s unfair. You walk out looking like that and expect me to stay professional?"

She stepped closer, her fingers brushing the front of the jacket as if adjusting it, though it already sat properly. "The shoulders are perfect. The waist too." Her eyes lifted to his. "I could come in for the next one. You know help with the tie and make sure everything stays exactly where it should."

There was no confusion available in the offer. Her meaning was plain. If he opened the door, she would follow him into the changing room and forget the shop floor completely.

The System chimed at once, openly pleased.

```

[SIDE MISSION]

Host’s lust presence is effective.

Test your current capacity.

Get the attendant to have sex with you in the changing room, knowing she could lose her job for it.

[REWARD]

$50,000

[TIME LIMIT]

30 seconds

[Accept / Reject? ]

```

Tom’s eyes moved from the panel back to the woman. She was already half-convinced. The readiness sat openly on her face. If he asked properly, she would go in with him. That much was obvious.

But then there was the mission that brought him here...

Before he could make his decision, the System spoke into the pause.

[This is not random indulgence,] [Host has become shameless enough, and lust-driven enough, that handling more than one pressure at a time should no longer be beyond him. A proper host does not freeze the rest of the board because appetite enters the room. Desire and objective. Together. That is the test.] The system explained.

00:00:25

The timer continued to fall.

Tom looked at the woman again, at the open invitation in her posture, then at the clock in his own head; Ten o’clock with a gold chest on one side of the morning and a brutal penalty on the other. He could already read the result of the side mission without taking it. What he could not do was afford to spend the next twenty minutes proving a point the System already expected him to pass later.

He rejected the panel.

Then he looked at the attendant and closed the door without leaving space for negotiation.

"That won’t be necessary. I’ll take this one, and the other two as well."

Disappointment flickered across her face, but she quickly covered it by a professional smile that no longer reached as high as before. "Of course."

Tom paid, remained in the new suit, and left the store with the remaining bags in hand. The fabric moved well when he walked. Even he could feel the difference.

In the car, the System broke the silence first.

[Host chose efficiency over appetite.] There was still amusement in its voice, but the edge was sharper now. [Useful. Still cautious. A fully matured host would have looked for a way to secure both.]

Tom started the engine. "I have a timed mission. That comes first."

[For now,] the System said.

Tom pulled out of the parking structure. "Instead of testing shop attendants, you could have given me a tip on how to ente Goldy easily."

[I could not.]

"Why not?"

[Because the mission is not asking whether Host can follow instructions. It is asking whether Host can create access where none has been handed to him.]

Tom scoffed under his breath. "Convenient answer."

[Accurate answer.]

Tom rolled his eyes then checked the time. 9:40 a.m. He started the engine.

And the drive to Goldy Realty Group began... By the time the glass front of the building came into view, his hands were steady but his thoughts were not light.

He watched how people moved in and out of the main entrance in a clean stream, they were holding their badges visibly, visitor passes clipped where they could be seen.

Tom parked and waited.

00:9:50.

00:9:53.

At 9:55, he stepped out of the car and walked toward the entrance. The building threw his reflection back at him in dark glass: better clothed than before, better composed than before.

The security officer at the front barrier looked up as he approached. He was calm, looking exactly like the sort of man who had turned away well-dressed people before and would do it again without losing sleep.

"Identification and purpose of visit," he demanded.

Tom stopped in front of him and did not rush the moment. He let his posture settle, opened his shoulders and controlled his expression. When he spoke, he pushed every useful part of himself into the tone; charm without eagerness, authority without volume, the quiet pressure of a man who expected the next door to open because he had come to use it.

"I have a mutual inside, they’re expecting contact this morning." Tom said calmly.

For a second, something in the delivery worked. The security officer’s eyes moved over him more carefully. The suit helped. The voice obviously helped more. It created a brief pause where ordinary dismissal might already have landed.

Then the man exhaled through his nose, unimpressed in a tired way.

"You’re too well put together to be standing here embarrassing yourself. Come back with proper identification. Mutuals don’t clear this desk." he said.

Tom held the man’s gaze one second longer, but there was no second route in the man’s expression. The barrier remained closed. Behind him, people with badges continued to pass through as if the morning belonged to them by default.

Then the System’s chime cut through the moment with no sympathy at all.

```

[MAIN MISSION — PART 1]

Status: Failed

Time limit reached.

[PENALTY APPLIED]

$100,000 debt

-15 Authority

```

Tom’s jaw clenched.