I picked up the pace, driving into her with enough force that the bed frame creaked.

She came again, her third orgasm, and I finally let myself go. The release hit hard, and I groaned as I filled her.

For a moment, we just lay there connected, catching our breath.

"That’s three for me," she said. "One for you. We’re not even close to done."

She wasn’t wrong.

We went four more rounds after that. Each one started with me thinking I couldn’t possibly get hard again, and each one ended with Diane moaning beneath me while I thrust into her like my life depended on it.

By round seven, she could barely form words.

"Lukas," she whimpered as I moved inside her. "I can’t... I can’t..."

"One more," I coaxed. "Give me one more."

Her body obeyed even if her mind resisted. The seventh orgasm was weaker than the others, but it still made her tremble and gasp.

I came for the seventh time shortly after, completely spent in every possible way.

We collapsed together, sweaty and exhausted and tangled in sheets that would need to be changed.

"Seven," she mumbled against my chest, barely coherent. "We did seven."

"We did."

"Good." Her eyes were sliding shut even as she spoke. "I’ll need... the data... for my analysis tomorrow."

I held her the way I had every night for the past two weeks, waiting for her breathing to slow and deepen into actual sleep. Usually took about fifteen minutes before I could extract myself.

Tonight it took ten.

Seven rounds had completely wiped her out. Her body went slack against mine faster than it ever had before, and within minutes she was dead to the world.

I waited another five just to be sure. Her breathing stayed slow and even, her face slack with genuine unconsciousness.

I carefully extracted myself from her grip and slipped out of bed. Found my clothes on the floor and dressed quickly.

Before leaving, I looked back at her. She lay on her side, hair spread across the pillow, completely vulnerable in sleep.

Something twisted in my chest. Guilt, maybe. Or something worse that I refused to name.

I left her room and crept back to mine, closing the door softly behind me.

2:17 AM. Right on schedule.

I collapsed onto my bed without bothering to shower. I’d wake up in three hours anyway to do it all again.

As I lay there staring at the ceiling, I checked my status screen out of habit.

〘 STATUS UPDATE 〙

〘 STRENGTH: 34 (+2) 〙

〘 AGILITY: 36 (+2) 〙

〘 DEXTERITY: 37 (+1) 〙

〘 ENDURANCE: 42 (+2) 〙

Seven rounds with Diane plus my morning training with Sloane equaled consistent gains. The math checked out.

But something else nagged at me.

The System had been quiet. Too quiet.

For two weeks, not a single quest notification. No side missions. No main objectives. No emergency prompts demanding I grope someone or seduce a new target.

Just... silence.

I’d gone from constant harassment to complete radio silence, and that felt wrong.

The System didn’t do quiet unless it was planning something.

I pulled up the quest log.

〘 ACTIVE QUESTS: 0 〙

〘 PENDING QUESTS: 0 〙

〘 TUTORIAL PROGRESS: 67% 〙

Sixty-seven percent. Same number it had been two weeks ago despite all my progress with Diane.

I checked her Temptation Gauge.

〘 DIANE FITZGERALD: 58% 〙

〘 STATUS: ATTACHED 〙

Fifty-eight percent. Up from forty-two when we first slept together, but still two points away from the Devoted threshold at sixty.

Two weeks of nightly multi-round sessions and she hadn’t crossed it yet. What the hell did it take to break someone into devotion?

Or maybe that wasn’t how it worked with Diane. She had Read the Room. She processed social dynamics and attachment differently than normal people.

Maybe fucking her brains out every night wasn’t enough because she could still separate professional from personal. Still maintain boundaries even while screaming my name.

〘 SLOANE FITZGERALD: 75% 〙

〘 STATUS: DEVOTED 〙

Eight percent higher than when we’d officially become a couple. All from kissing, touching, training together, and the thousand small intimacies that built over two weeks.

But I needed one hundred to complete the tutorial.

The math was simple. The execution was harder.

Especially when Sloane refused to go further until after Halloran.

I understood her reasoning. She wanted it to be special, wanted to celebrate our acceptance together. It was romantic in a way I hadn’t expected from someone who usually communicated through explosions.

But it left me in a strange position. Diane filled the physical need, but Sloane was my best path to hitting one hundred percent and unlocking whatever came after the tutorial.

The System knew this. The System always knew.

So why had it gone quiet?

I stared at the ceiling, my exhaustion fighting with paranoia.

Thirty days until the Halloran entrance exam.

One month to somehow push Sloane to one hundred percent or break Diane past sixty and hope that counted.

One month to pass the exam and prove I belonged at the world’s number one Hero academy despite being registered as an Unmarked who’d only manifested two weeks before applying.

One month while the System plotted something I couldn’t see coming.

〘 ... 〙

There. A notification. Finally.

I sat up, pulse quickening.

〘 TUTORIAL PHASE: FINAL STAGE APPROACHING 〙

〘 NEW PARAMETERS WILL BE ISSUED WHEN COUNTDOWN REACHES ZERO 〙

〘 TIME REMAINING: 28 DAYS, 23 HOURS, 41 MINUTES 〙

My blood ran cold.

Final stage. New parameters. Countdown.

The System hadn’t been quiet because it forgot about me. It had been quiet because it was waiting.

Waiting for something big. Something that would force me to act.

I lay back down, but sleep felt impossible now.

Whatever was coming, it would hit in exactly thirty days. Right before the exam.

Perfect timing to fuck with me when I could least afford distractions.

I closed my eyes anyway, forcing my breathing to slow. Boundless Stamina would help me recover, but even that had limits.

The System’s countdown ticked quietly in the corner of my vision, a constant reminder that the easy part was over.

The real test hadn’t even started yet.