The Heart System

Chapter 849: Chapter 849

After the little detour with Ivy, I was back at my desk in TechForge. It was a slow day, and Nala hadn’t been in her office since the moment she arrived. The board meetings, constant talking with people... she was really busy. And honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just... reading the news on my phone, maybe watching some videos as well.

Boring.

But boring was all I needed.

Meeting with Ivy had really gotten me nervous. So, a little me time wasn’t that bad. I could finally clear my mind, and while I wasn’t that busy, I could finally spend some points using the system. I had loads of credits, and it was time to use them.

”Alright,” I muttered, closing my phone and willing the system UI in front of me. ”Let’s see... hmm.”

I had a total of 14,735c now, and buying a single point would cost me 500c. Though, I really wanted to try out that Random Skill one and see what it would be like. Since that was a little expensive, however, I settled on Ability Points and bought twenty of them.

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Evan Marlowe [Level 23]

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EXP: 29290/42490

[██████░░░]

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Current Credits: 4735

Current SC: 100

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Seeing my credits drop to four digits hurt, but it was necessary. Though, it hurt a little, couldn’t lie.

I then opened my current status and took a look. ”Alright... what should I upgrade?”

The first option was Strength, which really didn’t intrigue me. The second one was Charm. Charm was good, especially since it made Honeyed Words passively have better chances.

Libido? Nah, twenty was enough for now. Pleasure was at forty-five... maybe I could push that to fifty? Oh, and Luck skill... damn, this was hard to decide. The only skill I could upgrade without resetting was Pleasure.

”Should I?” I muttered, leaning back in my office chair. ”Hmm...”

Nah. I could upgrade Pleasure later, but for now, I was going to focus on Charm. There had been situations where Honeyed Words wouldn’t even fire up because the person I was trying to persuade had a higher resistance to it or something.

I reset Charm and got half the points back, which was ten, putting the skill back to one. With that, I officially had thirty points to spend. Twenty-nine of them went directly into Charm, bringing it up to thirty.

Eh, with that one leftover point, I put it into Pleasure and confirmed.

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CURRENT STATS

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◆ Strength: 30

⤷ Crushing Presence (▩▩▩▩▩)

◆ Charm: 30

- Manipulative Charm

⤷ Honeyed Words (▩▩▩▩▩)

⤷ Gaslight (⏹☐☐☐☐)

⤷ Emotional Charisma (☐☐☐☐☐)

⤷ Seductive Allure (☐)

◆ Libido: 20

⤷ Endless Vigor (⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹)

◆ Pleasure: 46

⤷ Sensory Overload (☐☐☐☐☐)

⤷ Erogenous Insight (⏹)

⤷ Bliss Multiplier (▣▣▣▣▣)

◆ Luck: 10

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◆ Passive Skill: On a Roll

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”Ah... damn...”

My face hurt a little, my chin, my damn nose. It felt like millions of ants were crawling all over it. I shut my eyes for a few seconds, letting the feeling pass. I mean, it wasn’t that bad. It was just... annoying. Like someone scratching a blackboard with a fork. That kind of annoying.

”Dang,” I exhaled after the feeling passed. ”Phew... I guess the higher the level is, the more it hurts.”

I fished out my phone and turned on the front camera. And damn.

The change wasn’t that obvious. I hadn’t turned into a different person, but I could tell that I looked... sharper. Hell, I was handsome. Not that I’d suddenly become a model or anything, but I looked good.

”Wow.” I nodded with a smile. ”Nice.”

”Admiring yourself while working, Mr. Assistant?”

A voice came from in front of me.

I lowered my phone and saw Emma standing in front of my desk. Since she was short, I could only see her shoulders and head from where I was sitting.

”Oh, hey,” I greeted. ”Emma. How may I help?”

”Just here to check on Nala.” She shrugged. ”She hasn’t texted me back today.”

”She’s super busy,” I replied. ”Meeting after meeting. This project’s been really... rough on her.”

”I can only imagine.” She exhaled. ”I guess I’ll wait for her.”

”There’s a break room on the left,” I said. ”You can grab a coffee if you want.”

”Mm. Thanks.” She nodded. ”I’ll do that.”

”Right.”

As she left, my phone buzzed on the table, and I quickly unlocked it. Eleanor, my eyes and ears in the hotel, had sent me an ’update’ photo.

In the photo, she was with Minne, Esme and Delilah in her room, playing some board game. She was giving a peace sign, while Minne was completely focused on the game. Esme was... well, eating a giant slice of pizza. Delilah was also looking at the phone, but it was clear the smile she was flashing was a fake one.

Of course. She was still worried about Ivy finding out the truth.

”Ivy and Delilah,” I muttered, putting the phone back on the table. ”God... what am I going to do?”

”Hey,” Emma called from the corner. ”You’re not doing anything. Why not join me?”

”Join you?” I asked, then rubbed the crown of my head. ”Yeah, sure.”

”Alright.”

I pocketed my phone, got up and fell in behind Emma, walking toward the break room. It still felt a bit weird acting normal around her after... what happened that day. But it looked like she didn’t have any problem with it, so I was going to try to do the same.

”So,” I clapped my hands together as we walked. ”The, uh... video we made for your customer. He liked it?”

”Yes,” she said. ”He told me he liked your dick, by the way.”

”Wow... that’s... good to know.” I shrugged. ”Yeah... wow.”

”You don’t swing both ways, I assume?”

”Yeah.” I cleared my throat. ”You can say that.”

”Mm.”

”And...” I looked around. ”Don’t say that kind of thing out loud, please.”

”Mm-hmm.”

We stepped inside the empty break room, which was a little unusual. Then, we both got our coffees from the machine in silence and then stepped out onto the balcony.