Divine Milking System-Chapter 8 | A Digital Leash

"Resourcefulness."

"You got lost six times."

"I found my way eventually."

"By accident."

"Still counts."

The app finished downloading. I opened it and the login screen came up asking for my student ID number and birthdate. I found both on the orientation packet and typed them in.

The interface loaded.

Holy shit.

It was everything. Class schedules automatically synced to a calendar. Building maps with real-time navigation. A meal plan tracker. A point balance display showing my current total at zero. A messaging system for student-to-student communication. A simulation chamber reservation portal.

There was even a section labeled MONTHLY EVALUATION RANKINGS that was currently grayed out with AVAILABLE AFTER FIRST EVALUATION written across it.

"This is incredible," I said.

"It’s basic student infrastructure." Belle had gone back to eating her salad. "Every school has something like this."

"Not where I’m from."

"Where are you from that doesn’t have student apps?"

"Nowhere worth talking about."

She gave me that look again. The one that said she knew I was being evasive and she was deciding whether or not to care.

I opened the map feature. The blue dot appeared. JACE MONROE - CURRENT LOCATION. Zone 4, Dining Hall, Table 14, right next to where Belle’s dot had been on her screen.

I zoomed out. The whole campus spread across my phone screen in perfect detail. I could see everything. The residence halls. The academic buildings. The simulation complex. The restricted zones at the north end of the island.

There was even a legend in the corner explaining what all the different colored zones meant.

"This is going to change my entire experience here," I said.

Belle snorted. "Dramatic much?"

"You don’t understand. I have a terrible sense of direction."

"Clearly."

"This app is going to save my life."

She rolled her eyes but she was smiling a little. "You’re welcome for showing you something you should have known about six hours ago."

"I owe you."

"You do."

I zoomed in on Zone 3 and found Building C. Fifth floor. I could see my room marked as 5E. Belle’s room was four doors down at 5C. The entire floor plan was visible if I tapped the building.

Two master bedrooms per apartment. Shared living space. Kitchen. Bathrooms.

"What’s your schedule look like?" I asked.

Belle pulled up her app and tapped through to the calendar view. "Hunter Theory at eight. Physical Conditioning at ten. Mana Control at one. Guild Economics at three."

"Same first two," I said. I checked my own schedule. "I’ve got Dungeon Ecology instead of Guild Economics."

"Lucky. I hate economics."

"Then why’d you pick it?"

"I didn’t pick it. The system assigned it based on my ability classification."

That tracked. Support-type abilities got funneled into economics and logistics courses because the academy assumed anyone without combat potential would end up in administrative roles at guilds.

"You could petition to change it," I said.

"To what?"

"Something you’d actually want to take."

Belle looked at me like I’d suggested she could fly. "Lottery students don’t petition for schedule changes."

"Why not?"

"Because it draws attention. And attention means scrutiny. And scrutiny means they look harder at whether you deserve to be here."

She said it matter-of-factly. Like this was obvious. Like she’d already run the cost-benefit analysis and decided that suffering through a class she hated was worth avoiding the risk of administrative review.

The survival instinct again.

I got it. I didn’t agree with it, but I got it.

"Fair enough," I said.

She finished her salad and pushed the plate aside. Checked her phone. Put it down. Picked it up again.

Nervous habit.

"You have somewhere to be?" I asked.

"No. Just. Orientation is technically still happening until six. There’s a house meeting in the common room at seven."

I checked the time on my phone. 5:47 PM.

"We should probably head back soon then," I said.

"Yeah."

Neither of us moved.

The dining hall was at capacity now. Every table full. The noise level had gone from loud to actually overwhelming. Someone dropped a tray two tables over and the crash made half the room turn and look.

Belle flinched at the sound.

I stood up and grabbed my tray. "Come on. I’ll walk with you."

She looked surprised. "You don’t have to."

"I know. But I have the app now and I want to test it."

That got a small laugh. She stood and picked up her own tray and we walked to the dish return station near the kitchen entrance.

The walk back to Building C took eight minutes according to the app’s navigation. I didn’t get lost once.

Belle noticed.

"See?" she said. "Not complicated."

"It’s literally pointing me exactly where to go. That’s different from reading signs."

"Signs also point you exactly where to go."

"Agree to disagree."

We reached Building C and took the elevator to the fifth floor. The hallway was empty. Most students were probably still at dinner or exploring campus or doing whatever first day orientation activities involved.

Belle stopped at her door. 5C.

I stopped at mine. 5E.

She looked at me for a second. Like she was deciding something.

"Thanks for sitting with me," she said.

"Thanks for showing me the app."

"You really would have just wandered around lost all semester, wouldn’t you?"

"Probably."

She shook her head but she was smiling. "Good luck with your roommate."

"You too."

She went into her room and the door clicked shut behind her.

I stood in the hallway for a moment. Timer in the corner of my vision updating.

69 hours. 14 minutes.

I’d spent thirty-three minutes with Belle Fox and accomplished exactly what I needed to accomplish. Established contact. Started building rapport. Made her laugh twice. Got her to smile multiple times.

The charm effect from Snake Eyes was cumulative. Every interaction built on the last. 18% attraction wasn’t enough to get me an extraction session. But it was a foundation.

I’d see her at Hunter Theory tomorrow morning at eight. I’d see her at Physical Conditioning at ten. I’d see her in the hallway, at meals, in the common room during house meetings.

Proximity was half the game.

I unlocked my door and went inside.

The apartment was still empty. No roommate yet.

I walked to the window and looked out at the ocean again. The sun was lower now. The light was doing something orange and gold across the water.

Somewhere on this island there were women with Silver-tier essence, Gold-tier essence, abilities worth stealing, stats worth training against.

But I had to start somewhere.

The Divine Milking System was degenerate as hell and I hated everything about how it worked.

But it worked.

I pulled out my phone and opened the academy app. Checked the map. Checked my schedule. Checked the meal plan balance.

Then I opened the messaging system clicked on the top selection of Belle Fox.

I typed: thanks again for the app. you saved me from a semester of getting lost and accidentally ending up in janitorial closets.

Three dots appeared. Then disappeared. Then appeared again.

Belle Fox: you’re welcome. try not to die before classes start.

I grinned.

Jace Monroe: no promises.

The dots appeared one more time. Then stopped.

I put my phone down and sat on the couch and looked around the apartment that was supposed to be home for the next year.

Clean. Modern. Comfortable.

A prison disguised as luxury housing on an island I couldn’t leave without permission.

Sixty-nine hours left before the system killed me.

I had a target. I had a plan. I had an app that would prevent me from getting catastrophically lost.

It wasn’t much.

But it was a start.