Divine Milking System

Chapter 410: 410 | A Punch for Me, A Kiss for Her

Something flickered across her face. Emotion she wasn’t prepared to name or display. She adjusted her glasses again and left without responding.

Naomi lingered a moment longer. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead, soft and warm and carrying more meaning than any words could convey. Her lips brushed against my skin for exactly three heartbeats before she pulled back.

"I fell too fast," she whispered. "You told me that was okay. That we’d figure it out together."

"I remember."

"Then don’t die." Her brown eyes held mine with an intensity that had nothing to do with buffs or System mechanics or extraction values. "I don’t care what it costs. I don’t care what you have to do. Just... don’t die."

She left before I could respond.

The room felt emptier without them. Quieter. The only sounds were the steady beep of monitoring equipment and the distant murmur of hospital activity beyond the closed door.

I closed my eyes.

The ceiling could wait. The System could wait. Everything could wait for just a few minutes while I remembered how to breathe without feeling like I was running out of time.

The door slammed open with enough force to crack the drywall.

My eyes snapped open as combat instincts I didn’t consciously remember acquiring screamed warnings through my nervous system. Hand reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there. Body tensing for a fight I was absolutely not prepared to have.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE."

That voice. Loud enough to carry through walls. Rough enough to sandpaper steel. Carrying more profanity per syllable than should be linguistically possible.

Addison Baxter stormed into my hospital room like a natural disaster with goth aesthetic and anger management issues.

She looked like she’d run here directly from wherever she’d been. Her black and purple hair was escaping its messy bun in wild strands that framed her face like chaos given physical form. Her Obsidian uniform was rumpled and partially unbuttoned, revealing enough cleavage to make the monitoring equipment spike in ways that had nothing to do with my injuries. The lollipop stick jutting from the corner of her mouth bounced with every furious step.

Those violet eyes found me immediately.

"You absolute fucking moron."

"Hi, Addison. Nice to see you too."

She crossed the room in four long strides, her combat boots loud against the tile floor. The lollipop transferred from mouth to hand. Her free arm cocked back.

I had approximately half a second to process what was about to happen.

Her fist connected with my shoulder hard enough to rattle the bed frame.

"OW. What the actual fuck?"

"That’s from me." Addison’s voice carried satisfaction that bordered on malicious glee. "For jumping off a cliff into a Void Gate to save someone who didn’t fucking ask for your help."

"I didn’t jump off a cliff to save her specifically. I jumped to avoid the leopards that were about to eat everyone."

"Semantics." She shoved the lollipop back in her mouth. "You still did something phenomenally stupid that almost got you killed. Multiple times, from what I’ve heard. Something about fighting a dimensional guardian with your bare hands?"

"It was one hand. Technically."

"Even fucking dumber." But something in her expression shifted. The anger was still there, burning bright behind those violet contact lenses, but it wasn’t alone anymore. "You scared the shit out of everyone, Monroe. The news footage showed them carrying you out. You looked like someone had run you through a meat grinder and then set the results on fire."

"Felt like it too."

"Good. You deserve to suffer for being that reckless."

She stood over my bed, arms crossed beneath her considerable chest in a way that pushed everything upward. The spiked bracelets on her wrists caught the fluorescent light. Her fishnet stockings showed through the tears in her tactical suit, which she apparently hadn’t bothered to change out of despite the damage.

Addison Baxter. Second-year. House Obsidian. Aurora’s best friend and personal attack dog. Reaper’s Edge ability that manifested dual scythes from death mana and gave her a psychological feedback loop that made her want to kill more the longer she fought.

She was also, I remembered suddenly, very much on my radar as a potential target.

36F bust. Silver tier. A-rank ability that could be stolen if I brought her to three orgasms.

The thought felt wrong in a way I couldn’t fully articulate. Like trying to solve a math equation when someone was screaming in your ear.

"Aurora wanted to be here," Addison said. Her voice dropped. Lost some of its aggressive edge. "She was pissed when she found out what happened. Started packing a bag to fly out immediately."

"What stopped her?"

"The guild she’s been shadowing. Vermillion Dawn. They got called out for an emergency gate clear about six hours ago." Addison’s jaw tightened. "She tried to refuse. Told them her friend was in the hospital. They told her that if she wanted any chance of a position after graduation, she needed to prioritize guild operations over personal attachments."

"That’s bullshit."

"That’s the industry." She pulled the lollipop out again, inspecting it like she was considering stabbing someone with the stick. "Aurora’s good. Better than most of the second-years and half the third-years. But good isn’t enough when you’re competing against guild kids with family connections and trust funds. She has to prove she’s indispensable. That means not missing callouts, even when her best friend’s maybe-boyfriend is lying in a hospital bed looking like death warmed over."

"Maybe-boyfriend?"

"Don’t fish for compliments, Monroe. It’s pathetic."

I laughed despite myself. The motion sent pain radiating through my chest, but it was worth it for the way Addison’s expression flickered between annoyance and something softer.

"She asked me to deliver a message."

"A message?"

"Two, actually." Addison set the lollipop on the bedside table. Her hands came up to frame my face with surprising gentleness. "The first one you already got. That punch was from me, for being a reckless idiot."

"I noticed."

"This one’s from Aurora."

She kissed me.

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