Chapter 231: 232 | No Secret [PS BONUS]
"Yeah," he said. "Three of them. My dad works twelve-hour days to keep them running. My mom does too. They paid for my tuition by saving every dollar they could for eighteen years." Jordan turned to face Alexis directly. "I’m proud of them."
Alexis’s expression flickered. The mask slipped for just a moment, revealing something underneath that looked almost like longing.
Then the walls went back up.
"How touching." Her voice was cold again. Distant. "The American Dream in action."
"Something like that."
Dr. Jones announced a five-minute break. Students immediately reached for their phones or stood to stretch. Kumiko excused herself to use the restroom, squeezing Jordan’s knee once before she left.
Jordan and Alexis sat in silence.
"I don’t understand you," Alexis said finally.
"What’s to understand?"
"A month ago you were pathetic. Everyone knew about the Eliza thing. Cameron told the story at like four different parties." Her blue eyes were sharp. "Now you’re dating Chloe Kim, who I genuinely thought was straight, and Kumiko, who falls in love with every boy who looks at her twice but somehow chose you specifically. You show up to class looking like you actually take care of yourself. You answer questions correctly. You’re... different."
"I told you. People change."
"People don’t change that fast."
Jordan considered several responses. He could tell her about the System, about the chemistry percentages and the quest notifications and the trait upgrades that had literally rebuilt his body from the inside out. He could explain that change was less dramatic when you had a golden interface tracking your progress in real time.
But that would be insane.
"I hit rock bottom," he said instead. "Christmas Day, in that parking lot, watching the girl I thought I loved walk into a hotel with another guy. I stood there for twenty minutes just... existing. And then I went home and didn’t leave my apartment for two weeks."
Alexis was watching him now. Really watching, not just observing.
"And then one night I looked in the mirror and decided I was done being that person. Not because of Eliza. Not because of Cameron. Because I hated who I’d become. So I started changing." Jordan shrugged. "Working out. Eating better. Actually going to class. Talking to people like they were people instead of potential sources of validation."
"That’s it?"
"That’s it."
"No secret? No magic formula?"
Jordan thought about the golden notification hovering in the corner of his vision. The System update he’d been ignoring all morning. The quest progress bar slowly filling toward something called a Gold Gacha.
"No secret," he said. "Just deciding to be different and then actually doing the work."
Alexis was quiet for a long moment. Students filtered back to their seats around them. Dr. Jones shuffled his notes at the podium.
"I think you’re lying," Alexis said finally.
"About what?"
"About there being no secret." Her blue eyes held his. "But I think the lie is interesting."
Kumiko returned before Jordan could respond, sliding into her seat with a small huff of breath. Her hand found his knee again immediately, like a reflex, like touching him was the default state and everything else was just waiting.
"Did I miss anything?" she whispered.
Jordan glanced at Alexis, who had returned to scrolling through her phone with studied indifference.
"Nothing important."
The lecture resumed. Dr. Jones explained the difference between expansionary and contractionary fiscal policy. Jordan took notes and ignored the notification blinking in his peripheral vision and tried not to think about why Alexis Van Der Berg kept looking at him when she thought no one was watching.
Forty-five minutes later, class ended.
Students streamed toward the exits, already discussing lunch plans and weekend parties and all the small dramas that filled college life. Jordan packed his bag while Kumiko carefully organized her notes and Alexis checked her phone with the intensity of someone expecting important messages.
"Jordan."
He looked up. Alexis stood in the aisle, Goyard bag slung over one shoulder, sunglasses already positioned on top of her head despite being indoors.
"Yeah?"
"If you hurt Chloe or Kumiko..." She paused, and for a moment the mask slipped completely. The threat in her eyes was real. "I’ll make Christmas look like a pleasant memory. Understand?"
"Understood."
"Good." Alexis turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the lecture hall floor. Students parted for her automatically, a school of fish making way for the shark in their midst.
Kumiko watched her go with a complicated expression.
"She is being protective," Kumiko said slowly. "I think."
"In her own terrifying way, yeah."
"Alexis does not know how to express emotions normally. Her family trained her to see vulnerability as weakness. So she converts care into threats because threats feel safer." Kumiko tilted her head. "I read an article about attachment styles. She has avoidant tendencies with disorganized features."
Jordan stared at his girlfriend. "You analyzed Alexis’s psychological profile?"
"I analyze everyone’s psychological profile. It helps me understand why people act the way they do." Kumiko smiled. "For example, you have secure attachment tendencies with occasional anxious features, probably from childhood experiences of conditional approval."
"That’s... extremely accurate."
"I know. I am very observant."
They walked out of Bluffs Hall together, stepping into the California sunshine. The campus sprawled around them, palm trees and modern architecture and students moving between classes with the particular energy of people who had places to be.
Jordan’s phone buzzed.
He pulled it out and found a System notification waiting.
QUEST TICKET MILESTONE REACHED
Current Tickets: 97
Gold Gacha Threshold: 100
You are THREE tickets away from your first Gold Gacha pull.
Recommended actions to complete daily quest requirements:
Physical Activity: 90 minutes remaining
Hygiene Level 2: COMPLETE
Grooming: COMPLETE
Social: 1/3 conversations complete (Alexis Van Der Berg)
Jordan dismissed the notification and pocketed his phone. Three tickets away from something called a Gold Gacha. The System hadn’t explained what Gold tier rewards contained, but if Bronze gave him Dramatic Tumbleweed and Silver gave him Headpat, Gold probably contained something actually useful.
"Jordan-kun?" Kumiko tugged at his sleeve. "You are making your thinking face."
"I don’t have a thinking face."
"You do. Your eyebrows go closer together and your jaw does this tiny clenching thing and your eyes get slightly unfocused." Kumiko demonstrated by scrunching her own face into a vague approximation. "Like that."
"That looks nothing like me."
"It looks exactly like you. Chloe agrees."
"You talked to Chloe about my thinking face?"
Kumiko’s cheeks flushed pink. "I said nothing. You heard nothing. This conversation did not happen."
"Kumiko."
"I have class in fifteen minutes and I need to walk very fast in the opposite direction now goodbye Jordan-kun I love you please forget everything I just said."
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