Chapter 35: A Very Soft Landing

As soon as I stepped into the bathroom, I closed the door behind me. After making sure Eris couldn’t throw another pillow at me, I let out a deep breath.

"Finally, some peace and quiet..."

I stripped off my dirty clothes and stepped into the shower. The first burst of cold water made me flinch, but once I adjusted the temperature, my entire body began to relax.

Warm water plastered my blue hair to my face and ran down my shoulders as I closed my eyes.

Meeting Eris hadn’t ended in quite the disaster I’d expected.

She had noticed that my way of speaking had changed, that I had suddenly started working out, and that I could cook when I’d apparently never possessed that skill before. She had even come disturbingly close to the truth when she joked about an ancient spirit possessing my body.

Still, I had answered her question about our childhood correctly and explained the changes in my behavior by saying I wanted to reinvent myself before starting university.

For now, she seemed to believe me.

At least, I hoped she did.

Eris knew Noctis better than anyone else in this world. If I continued being careless around her, she would notice more than just the changes in how I spoke. Eventually, she might realize how many gaps there were in the memories I was supposed to have.

And she was staying at my apartment tonight.

Hiding my identity through messages was difficult enough. Spending hours together in the same apartment would be far more dangerous. I had to be careful about everything I said and how I acted.

However, after standing beneath the warm water for a few minutes, another subject began occupying most of my thoughts.

The five-star card.

I opened the System’s mission screen again.

[Mission: Place in the top three at the NovaCon Grand Cosplay Contest.]

[Reward: 5★ Card]

The blue text remained perfectly clear even through the falling water.

I still didn’t like the idea of entering a cosplay contest. I had no idea what costume I would wear, what I would do onstage, or how I could possibly defeat professional cosplayers.

None of that would change my decision.

In a world filled with Nexus users who could tear buildings apart and Overlaps capable of swallowing entire cities, I couldn’t turn down such an enormous opportunity to gain power simply because I was embarrassed.

"No matter what happens, I’m getting that card."

My voice echoed inside the shower.

If I had to cosplay, then I would cosplay.

If I had to wear makeup, I would grit my teeth and endure that too.

In the worst case, I would lose my dignity for a few hours and gain an ability that might one day save my life. After winning the contest, I could always look for a way to erase the memories of everyone who had seen me.

For now, it was a flawless plan.

Once I finished showering, I turned off the water and reached for a towel. Drying my hair took longer than expected. The blue strands seemed to absorb the water and kept sticking to my face no matter what I did.

Eventually, I gave up and left it damp.

After putting on a clean black T-shirt and a comfortable pair of shorts, I stepped out of the bathroom.

When I didn’t see Eris in the living room, I briefly thought she might have gone home. Then I noticed her jacket on the couch, one sock beneath the coffee table, and the other still hanging from the wall lamp.

That possibility disappeared immediately.

The faint sound of keyboard clicks was coming from my bedroom.

I had a bad feeling.

I headed toward the room and found Eris sitting on my bed. Her back rested against the wall, her bare legs stretched out in front of her, and my laptop sat on her lap while her fingers moved across the touchpad.

Still rubbing my wet hair with the towel, I frowned.

"Hey, what are you doing on my computer?"

Without taking her eyes off the screen, Eris replied, "Checking your search history. I was curious what kind of porn you watch."

The towel froze against my hair.

My face heated up within seconds as I glared at her.

"I don’t watch anything like that!"

"I can see that," she said in a bored voice. "I’m disappointed."

"You went through my computer without permission, and now you’re telling me you’re disappointed?"

Eris ignored my question and scrolled farther down.

"Why is your search history full of Nexus users, global power rankings, and Overlaps?"

My angry expression faltered for a moment.

When I had first started using the computer, I’d tried to learn as much as I could about this world. I had researched everything from how Nexuses worked to the Overlaps consuming human territory, then looked through profiles of the strongest people in the world.

That was also when I’d found Lucian Evernight’s profile.

I casually shrugged as I approached the bed.

"I was bored. There wasn’t any important reason."

Eris’s hand stopped moving across the touchpad.

"Noc..."

The change in her voice made me look at her. The girl who had been teasing me about my porn history was gone, replaced by someone who looked genuinely worried.

She lowered the laptop slightly and pressed her lips together.

"Do you still feel bad about not having a Nexus?"

"Where did that come from?"

"You’ve looked through all these pages. You spent hours researching the strongest Nexus users, different types of Nexuses, and Overlap clearances." She avoided my gaze. "Maybe you thought you could still find a way to awaken one."

Thanks to the System, not having a Nexus didn’t bother me anymore. Ability cards and statistics gave me a path of growth completely different from this world’s Nexus users.

Eris didn’t know any of that.

In her eyes, I was still the childhood friend whose family had branded him defective for failing to awaken a Nexus before eventually casting him out.

"I don’t blame you for not giving up," she continued. "But if you keep looking at these rankings and comparing yourself to your father or siblings, you’ll only hurt yourself."

I sighed deeply.

"You’re worrying for no reason. I told you, I was only looking around."

"You even went through Lucian’s mission records."

"I wanted to see what my father was up to. That’s all."

Eris’s head snapped toward me.

"Is your father trying to kill you?"

My right eye twitched.

The fact that murder was the first possibility she jumped to when my father ranked seventh in the world said more than enough about the Evernight family.

"Nothing like that is happening. That old bastard hasn’t cared whether I exist since he kicked me out of the family."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. My siblings still call occasionally to mock me, but that’s all."

The concern on Eris’s face immediately turned into anger.

"They’re calling you again?"

"It’s not a big deal."

"Tell me which ones. This time I’ll teach them a lesson."

Her red eye began to glow faintly.

A moment later, the room’s temperature rapidly rose.

Red lights appeared around Eris’s shoulders as thin waves of flame formed in the air. The ends of her crimson hair lifted in the heated breeze, and the tiny sparks crawling over her skin grew brighter with every passing second.

A thin trail of smoke began rising from the bedsheet.

My eyes widened.

"Hey! Don’t use your Nexus in my room! You’re going to burn the place down!"

Eris snapped out of her anger and looked around. When she noticed the smoke rising from the edge of the sheet, the red glow in her eye faded and the flames surrounding her quickly dispersed.

The room returned to its normal temperature within seconds, though a faint smell of something burning remained in the air.

Eris ran her hand over the sheet, trying to hide the small black mark.

"I had it under control."

"You were burning my bed."

"It only got a little warm."

"It was smoking!"

"You’re exaggerating."

"You can give the firefighters the same explanation when they get here."

Rather than answering, Eris pouted and returned her attention to the laptop. Her anger hadn’t completely disappeared. The fingers gripping the corner of the screen still looked tighter than usual.

I sat down beside her.

"Don’t worry," I said more calmly. "Nothing they do matters to me."

Eris gave me a doubtful look.

"Really?"

"Just because they think I’m defective doesn’t mean I actually am. One day, I’ll prove that to all of them."

Unlike most of the explanations I’d given her, those words were completely sincere.

I still didn’t know how powerful the System would allow me to become. Even so, when I eventually stood before Lucian Evernight, I wouldn’t be the same Nexus-less boy who had been cast out of his family and couldn’t even manage a single pull-up.

Eris studied my face for several seconds before the tension finally left her shoulders.

"I’m glad to hear that."

"Now give me back my computer."

The moment I reached for it, Eris pulled the laptop against her chest.

"I’m not finished yet."

"You’ve gone through enough of my search history."

"I haven’t checked your downloaded files."

"You absolutely will not."

I grabbed one edge of the laptop and tried to pull it toward me. Eris gripped the other side with both hands and refused to let go.

"Noc, if you aren’t hiding anything, why are you getting so nervous?"

"Because it’s my computer!"

"Just wait a few more minutes."

"No. Give it back now."

When I pulled harder, Eris slid backward across the bed, but her hands remained firmly locked around the laptop. Drops of water fell from my damp hair and ran down my face as I placed one knee on the edge of the bed to get better leverage.

Eris pulled the computer toward herself with an irritating smile.

My Strength had increased by another point today, but I was still nowhere near strong enough to compete with her. Even though I used all my strength, the laptop moved only a few inches while my arms had already begun to tremble.

"Let go!"

"Ask nicely first."

"Give me my laptop, Eris."

"You could be a little more polite."

Gritting my teeth, I pulled again.

At the same moment, Eris suddenly jerked the laptop toward herself with far more strength than I expected. My weakened arms abruptly bent, and my entire body was thrown forward.

"Wait—!"

Eris fell backward onto the bed as well.

The laptop slipped free from our hands and landed safely on the pillow beside her, but I couldn’t stop myself. I tried to brace my hands against the mattress, only for my arms to give out beneath me.

Eris lay flat on her back.

And I fell completely on top of her.

My face was buried between the soft breasts outlined beneath her thin T-shirt.

Eris went rigid beneath me, and I didn’t even dare breathe.