(Are you playing with me?)
(So, everything you said earlier was just to tease me, and no matter what, you'll force me to do whatever this so-called Final Exam Mission is?)
Yuu's eyes widened in disbelief, but instead of anger, he was more filled with curiosity and confusion.
"System, you weren't this sharp-tongued before. Should I say your trap-setting technique has improved or what... is this an evolved function after the Fourth Mission?"
Every time a mission was completed, the system would evolve or add some new functions.
For example, after the first mission, text prompts evolved into voice prompts; then, the electronic voice was optimized, changing the cold and lifeless prompt voice into a soft female voice voiced by a professional seiyuu, and even appearing with a chibi Hatsune Miku avatar in the World.
All of this was optional, but most importantly, the system was indeed becoming smarter and more human-like day by day—although it gave rewards without hesitation and never lied about missions, it increasingly toyed with him with words, stabbed him in the back in unexpected places, and consciously chose not to answer questions that could reveal its weaknesses.
Thinking about it, the system's response style felt very familiar, very similar to someone extremely cunning and thick-skinned...
"Don't tell me, you're a system that learned from me?"
Yuu suddenly realized this.
So, actually, it wasn't because the system's nature was evil, but because of living with him, like a fledgling imitating its parent's flight, it gradually learned his strengths and then used them back on him?
Truly filial.
"Definitely impossible." The system didn't answer, and Yuu immediately rejected the guess, "When it comes to the level of disgust, I'm still far behind this dog system. After all, I'm the one learning from it, not it learning from me, right?"
If it were him, unless he planned to use an overt strategy on the Host from the beginning, he wouldn't use such crude methods to bait the other party.
That meant, as the missions gradually completed, the system's intelligence also gradually evolved, growing independently into the cunning form it was now.
Seeing the two girls getting closer to him, he temporarily set aside the system issue. He first looked towards Yukino, pointed to the sofa in the apartment lobby, and gestured for her to talk together there.
Yukino let out another silent sigh, but her eyes showed no rejection.
Yuu then shifted his gaze back to Masuzu, who was preparing to open the door for him in the lobby. Just as he was about to say something, the corner of his eye suddenly caught a figure behind Yukino.
A woman with ample assets was running quickly towards them.
Yuu's eyes immediately locked onto those two bouncing rabbits, his pupils shrinking sharply in shock.
As she ran, they swayed violently. Even with the coat as a buffer, the front of her clothes was still pulled taut, forming various wave-like curves, producing a huge visual impact—instinctively, no man could ignore such a sight.
Almost at the moment his expression froze, Yukino turned around, following Yuu's gaze in confusion.
Once again, the stormy wave scene was reflected in her deep blue pupils that suddenly shrank.
"Ah—!"
As if struck by lightning, Yukino jolted, staggering back two steps, letting the person pass her by.
Then she quickly turned her head, glaring at Yuu with cold and fierce eyes, like a girlfriend angry because her boyfriend dared to whistle at another woman's sexy back while they were out walking.
However, seeing Yuu's quickly changing shocked expression, Yukino snapped out of her anger, and quickly realized something was wrong.
"Wait, that person..."
Long black hair spilling from her hat, black stockings under a knee-length skirt, and a mature body shape unlike a high school student.
Even without looking at her breasts, Yukino could recognize from her face that the woman running towards the man she liked was her third-year senpai, the Literature Witch Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had already been accepted into Waseda University's Faculty of Letters.
Although both had long straight black hair, both were top of their class, and both were school goddesses in others' eyes, why did this senpai's breasts feel larger than hers after more than a year...
No, that wasn't the point.
"Why is senpai here?"
(Does she live in this apartment too? Did she move like Natsukawa-san?)
(And why is she running so hurriedly, perhaps she has urgent business that needs to be handled immediately upstairs...)
(Then, why doesn't she look at the gate at all, but instead charges straight towards Tenkuji-kun?)
Various questions flashed through her mind, Yukino reacted half a second slower, and instinctively reached out to stop the other party.
Masuzu, blocked by the apartment's glass door, also stood in place.
From her perspective, she couldn't see clearly what was happening. She only knew someone was running towards her while shaking something naughty. Just as a confused thought arose in her mind.
The next second, the black-haired girl directly crashed into Yuu, as if a long-distance couple finally meeting, the two of them fell to the floor.
In front of the apartment door equipped with surveillance cameras, they held each other tightly, their hair intertwined, their bodies entangled, as if no one else was around.
Witnessing this scene unfold before their eyes, both Yukino and Masuzu were equally shocked with wide eyes like stone statues, their expressions frozen on their faces.
"..."
"..."
Ignoring the two statues inside and outside the door, the black-haired girl sat astride Yuu like riding a horse. Not only did she not get up immediately, she instead pressed Yuu's head firmly against her breasts, her face flushed, panting (from running), looking up to the sky, shouting desperately:
"Right on time! This should be enough, right!"
No one answered her. After regulating her breathing, she pulled out a black notebook from her bag. After flipping through a few pages with an annoyed face, she finally let out a relieved sigh. Her tense expression gradually calmed.
"Success, I thought I wouldn't make it... But this guy, he even remembered to catch me before falling asleep. Truly a gentleman."
Lifting Yuu's head from her breasts, the black-haired girl looked down, pinching his cheek hard in revenge, and gave a thin smile: "Hmph, no wonder so many girls like you. Too bad, you're on my blacklist... Hmm?"
In the midst of her mutterings, Utaha suddenly felt the air around her become hot, as if she had shifted from a snowy winter to a scorching summer.
Her body, already hot from intense physical activity, now felt stuffy for an unknown reason. Instantly, sweat flowed from the corner of her smooth and white forehead, as if her entire body was in hell.
"What's wrong?"
Utaha slowly raised her head, blinking a little in confusion. After looking left and right, she finally clearly saw her current situation.
To her right was a slender girl whose shopping bag had somehow fallen to the ground, with an expression slowly darkening.
To her left was a silver-haired girl standing in front of the slowly opening glass door, staring at her unblinkingly and expressionlessly.
Neither of them spoke, but those two pairs of cold and apathetic eyes, like laser beams capable of cutting steel, pierced every part of her body that was touching Yuu.
Utaha had no doubt. If they were holding knives right now, she would definitely be beheaded on the spot like a vixen, and her body would be displayed.
—The sentence "Seize the opportunity before others" actually hid risks like this?!
She was extremely regretful now, very regretful.
Unfortunately, a major mistake had been made. Just like a little rabbit entering a cage of ferocious beasts, regret wouldn't help her survive. She had to quickly find a way to fix it.
"Ahem, um..."
After realizing the situation, Utaha awkwardly coughed twice, breaking the frozen silence.
She instinctively avoided their gazes, trying to keep her voice steady, but her fingers trembled unconsciously.
This was the first time she felt such bone-chilling fear.
Even when the notebook suddenly appeared, she hadn't felt fear this deep—it felt like one wrong step would lead her to an inevitable end of death.
She took a deep breath, calming her pounding heartbeat.
Then she looked towards the handsome young man sleeping soundly in her embrace. Utaha secretly gritted her teeth, glaring at the culprit several times.
(Damn you, Kouhai, I'll note this debt again! We'll settle it when you wake up!)
Although her heart was angry, she looked up and forced a smile at her two underclassmen, trying to show goodwill.
"Calm down you two, listen to my explanation first. I really didn't mean to approach the man you like..."
Like a villain preparing to release her hostage, Utaha slowly placed Yuu's head on the floor, raised both hands, and carefully backed away.