"I'm not cheap, you know?" she said, crossing her arms lightly. "My talents are actually pretty expensive."
There was a small hint of pride in her voice when she said that. Not arrogance exactly, but more like someone who knew her own worth and had spent enough time proving it to other people.
"Yeah, I know," I replied honestly. "And I probably can't match whatever your old company used to pay you. I'm not that rich yet. But I can definitely pay you more than whatever this place is paying you right now."
"Wow."
She blinked at me after hearing that, clearly caught a little off guard.
Then she stared at me for a few seconds, looking like she was genuinely considering the idea instead of brushing it off immediately. Honestly, the fact that she even thought about it at all already felt like a small victory to me.
"Well…" she said slowly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I can't really risk changing jobs right now. I still need to support myself, you know? And my family too."
Her expression softened a little while she said that.
"Besides, you're still basically a startup. There's no real guarantee you'll succeed yet. I mean, the idea itself doesn't sound bad or anything, but realistically speaking…" She let out a small sigh. "I don't think I can go with you right now. At least not for now."
Honestly, fair enough.
I couldn't even argue with her logic. If someone randomly came up to me and said, "Hey, leave your stable job and trust me," I'd probably look at them like they were trying to recruit me into a pyramid scheme.
"But," she continued, looking back at me with a small smile, "if you still want me once you become successful… then I'd be willing to join you."
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Your CHARISMA is not high enough.
You failed to charm Verra into quitting her current job and joining your business.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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…Seriously?
So this was what CHARISMA was actually for.
That honestly felt a little insulting.
I already knew convincing Verra to leave her current job wouldn't be easy. She was smart, experienced, and realistic enough not to gamble her future on empty promises. But finding out I failed because my CHARISMA stat was too low somehow made it sting even more.
Having only 15 CHARISMA apparently made me sound less convincing than one of those crypto guys on the internet promising financial freedom while filming inside a rented car.
Damn.
"Anyway," she said after a moment, changing the subject slightly, "I don't think you starting a business is a bad thing."
Then she tilted her head a little.
"But now that you're doing that… are you going to quit your job here?"
The moment she asked that, I instinctively waited for the system to throw another QUEST at me.
Surprisingly, nothing appeared.
Which was weird.
Normally the system treated every important conversation like it was producing episodes for some drama series. But this time, it stayed quiet.
That probably meant it already knew what my answer was going to be.
"I'm not quitting," I told her.
"C-Can I ask why?"
And right on cue, the system appeared.
Of course. Timing really was this thing's favorite hobby.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST!
Verra wants to know why you refuse to quit your convenience store job.
Tell her the real reason
Reward: +MAX♥︎ Mood
Come up with an excuse
Reward: +10♥︎, +20 INTELLIGENCE, +20 COMMUNICATION
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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What the hell?
This looked way more important than the average QUEST just from the rewards alone.
And honestly, both choices were ridiculously tempting.
If I picked the first option, I'd instantly max out her MOOD stat. Which sounded useful, especially since I still had that other QUEST involving her mood hanging around.
But the second option was also crazy good.
Extra INTELLIGENCE. Extra COMMUNICATION. More ♥︎ points too.
Stat-wise, the second reward was objectively the smarter choice.
I stared at the floating options for a while, thinking about it carefully.
The logical answer was probably the excuse.
But after thinking about it longer, I ended up choosing the other one anyway.
Maybe because it felt more honest.
Maybe because I was tired of trying to calculate every interaction like some dating simulator NPC.
Or maybe because her expression while asking me that question made me want to answer seriously.
"Well…" I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. "I don't want to quit because… if I do, I'll have fewer chances to see you."
The moment those words left my mouth, I immediately realized how direct that sounded.
Damn.
I really just said that out loud with a straight face.
For a second, Verra looked completely stunned.
Her eyes widened slightly, and she froze like her brain needed a second to catch up.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
COMPLETED
Tell her the real reason
Reward: +MAX♥︎ Mood
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Verra
Affection: 42♥︎
Mood: 100♥︎
Lust: 30♥︎
Status: Complicated
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Her MOOD immediately jumped all the way to 100.
Which also meant I completed the previous QUEST too.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
COMPLETED
Verra has no idea how to interact with you. Increasing her MOOD might help with that.
Increase her MOOD to 100♥︎
Reward: 5♥︎
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Honestly, even if the first option looked less rewarding compared to the huge stat boosts from the second one, I felt like this outcome would probably help me more overall.
At least emotionally.
Well… as emotional as a system that gives rewards for flirting could get.
While I was checking her updated status, Verra suddenly looked away from me.
A faint blush spread across her cheeks almost immediately.
She looked embarrassed now. Not uncomfortable, but flustered. Like she didn't know how to properly react after hearing what I said.
And while I was watching her like that, another QUEST window suddenly appeared.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST!
Have sex with Verra
Reward: +20♥︎
Requirements: 100♥︎ MOOD, 50♥︎ LUST, 100 COMMUNICATION
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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What the hell...?
That showed up way too suddenly.
One second I was having an emotional conversation with her, and the next second the system casually dropped a QUEST telling me to have sex with her like it was asking me to buy groceries.
Part of me seriously wanted to ask the system what the hell was wrong with it.
Then again… did I really care?
Would I want to have sex with Verra?
Obviously, yes.
I wasn't going to pretend otherwise.
Still, I had already slept with Clara earlier, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel at least a little guilty thinking about doing it again with another woman on the same day.
That sounded bad even inside my own head.
But at the same time…
If I genuinely wanted a harem, I couldn't exactly afford to hesitate every single time things moved forward. That would defeat the entire point.
The real issue was the requirements.
My COMMUNICATION stat was currently sitting at 85.
The QUEST required 100.
Meaning I was short by 15 points.
I stared at my current stats for a moment before checking my remaining ♥︎ points.
40♥︎ left.
Honestly?
Fuck it.
I immediately dumped 15♥︎ straight into COMMUNICATION.
Even after doing it, I didn't physically feel any different. There was no magical enlightenment, and no sudden smooth-talker aura. Nothing.
Kind of disappointing, honestly.
But when I checked my stats again…
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Leon:
STATUS:
STRENGTH: 115
STAMINA: 135
AGILITY: 60
INTELLIGENCE: 130
LOOKS: 75
S-SKILL: 65
CHARISMA: 15
COMMUNICATION: 100
LUCK: 75
REPUTATION: 6
INFAMY: 88
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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My COMMUNICATION had officially reached 100♥︎.