Chapter 222: 222 | The Unforeseen Returns on a Wardrobe Investment [PS BONUS]
"That’s a good philosophy."
"It’s the only philosophy that makes sense. People spend so much energy trying to hide what they feel and position themselves for advantage. It’s exhausting just watching it. I’d rather be honest and deal with the consequences."
We reached the 1-B dormitory entrance. Through the windows, I could see the common room had filled up again. People moving around, conversations happening, the usual chaos of twenty young heroes learning to live together.
"Same time next week?" Felicity asked.
"What?"
"Shopping. We still need to work on your pants situation. And your shoes are a disaster that we haven’t even begun to address."
"My shoes are fine."
"Your shoes are a crime against fashion. But we’ll fix them. One disaster at a time."
She reached out and squeezed my arm, the same gesture she’d used throughout the day. Warm and friendly and completely platonic despite what my treasonous body wanted to interpret it as.
"Thanks for today, Lukas. I had fun."
"I had fun too."
"See? Joy isn’t that hard. You just have to let yourself experience it without analyzing it to death."
She disappeared through the dormitory door, leaving me standing outside with my shopping bags and my complicated feelings and a System notification blinking in my peripheral vision.
〘 Side Quest Complete: Mall Crawl 〙
〘 Reward: 500 Skill Points 〙
〘 Note: The Host managed to spend an entire day with an attractive woman without incident. The System is genuinely impressed. This will not last. 〙
I dismissed the notification and headed inside.
The common room was louder than I expected. Caden had claimed the center couch and was doing something with his phone that kept making Marco laugh. Percy sat in his usual spot near the bulletin board, notebook open, pen moving. Rina had claimed the corner chair again, her sheep mug clutched in both hands while she watched the room with wide eyes.
A few people looked up when I entered. Then a few more. Then the entire room went quiet.
"What?" I asked.
Caden was the first to speak. "Dude. What happened to you?"
"I went shopping."
"You look like a completely different person."
"I look like myself in different clothes."
"That’s what I said. Completely different person."
Marco leaned forward, studying me with the intensity of someone solving a puzzle. "The blue really works with your complexion. Brings out your eyes."
"Thanks?"
"You’re welcome. Fashion advice is free. Relationship advice costs money."
Camille appeared from somewhere near the kitchen, a protein bar in her hand and suspicion in her eyes. She looked me up and down with the kind of assessment that made me feel like a specimen under a microscope.
"Fitzgerald’s work?" she asked.
"Hardy’s."
That got a reaction. Camille’s eyebrows shot up and her mouth opened slightly before she caught herself.
"The blonde one? The one with the illusions?"
"That’s her."
"She dressed you?"
"She helped me shop."
"For clothes."
"That’s typically what shopping involves, yes."
Camille’s expression shifted through several emotions I couldn’t quite identify. Surprise. Interest. Something that might have been jealousy if I was reading it right.
"Interesting," she said finally. "Very interesting."
She walked away before I could ask what that meant. Probably for the best. Camille’s version of interesting usually came with complications I didn’t need.
I hauled my bags up the stairs and down the hallway to Room 205. The door clicked open and I stepped inside, dropping everything on the bed and collapsing into the reading chair by the window.
The room was quiet. The golden evening light filtered through the curtains. I could hear distant sounds of conversation from downstairs, but up here everything felt still and peaceful.
I pulled up my status display and examined the changes.
The 500 skill points sat in my inventory, waiting to be spent. The gauge updates blinked at me accusingly. Felicity at 14%. Sloane at 86%. Diane somewhere in the background at 60%.
And now there was a new entry that hadn’t been there before.
〘 Camille Ortega: 6% 〙
〘 Note: Attraction to transformed appearance combined with curiosity about shopping companion. Competitive instincts engaged. 〙
Great. Now my new wardrobe was generating romantic interest from women I hadn’t even talked to directly.
The Ecchi Logic trait was doing its job. Bending probability toward situations that maximized romantic tension. Making sure that every interaction, every improvement, every moment of visibility pushed at least one woman’s gauge in an upward direction.
I couldn’t win.
The System had designed an impossible game. A game where success and failure both led to the same destination. More women. More gauges. More complications.
The only question was how I handled the journey.
My phone buzzed.
Sloane: Dinner in 20. Don’t forget.
Me: I won’t forget.
Sloane: You look really good in that shirt.
Me: You said it makes me look washed out.
Sloane: I said the hoodies make you look washed out. The shirt makes you look like someone I want to rip the shirt off of. Different things.
Me: That’s aggressively flirtatious for a text message.
Sloane: I’m an aggressive person. You knew this when you started dating me.
Me: Fair point.
Sloane: 20 minutes. Cafeteria. Be there or face consequences.
Me: What kind of consequences?
Sloane: The kind that involve fire and disappointment. Not necessarily in that order.
I put the phone down and stared at the ceiling.
Somewhere on campus, Felicity was probably talking about our day with whoever would listen. Sloane was probably picking out what to wear to dinner while thinking about ways to mark her territory. Camille was probably analyzing my new clothes and wondering why they bothered her so much.
And I was lying in a reading chair, surrounded by shopping bags, trying to figure out how to navigate a life that got more complicated by the hour.
The System notification appeared without my permission.
〘 Main Quest Update: First Step To Harem King 〙
〘 Progress: 3/3 Meaningful Contacts Established 〙
〘 Bonus Objective Complete: Rivalry Condition Met (Imara Steele) 〙
〘 Quest Status: Ready for Completion 〙
〘 Reward Available: 2000 Skill Points + Gacha Token (Silver) 〙
〘 Accept Reward? Y/N 〙
I accepted.
