Gathering Husbands with a System in a Game Like World [BL]

The interior of Warehouse 7 was larger than it looked from the street. The ceiling was high, there were ofcourse stacked crates along the walls, and a long table set near the center with enough chairs for a proper meeting, a good number of mana-lamps glowed overhead. Nothing about the place screamed ambush or evil and that made it worse, the lack of ominous Energy would lead to underestimation, that would eventually lead to a tragic end especially when impulsive Elias was in the mix.

Jake Evans gestured toward the seats with the same polite calm he had shown at the door.

"Please. Sit."

Ayan remained standing a few steps behind him, eyes fixed on the floor. He hadn’t said a word since Kai spoke his name.

Elias dropped into a chair without waiting for anyone else. Lucien followed more carefully, posture still coiled and ready. Kai sat last, every muscle tight, the System’s warning still echoing in the back of his skull.

Jake took the seat across from them, hands folded neatly on the table. Up close he looked even more ordinary.

"I’ll be direct," Jake said. "The display in the forest was impressive. Two high-authority combatants, public enough to draw attention, controlled enough not to level half the district. That kind of capability is rare. The Red Ledger has use for people like you."

Lucien’s voice was quiet and even.

"So you’re planning in recruiting us?"

"Yes."

"What if we declined the offer?" Kai suddenly blurted in, Lucien gave him a stern look and Jake particularly didn’t pay any attention to what he said so he was ignored.

Kai’s eyes twitched almost crashing out but when he remembered the reality of his situation he knew to calm it down.

"I received a similar offer once," Lucien said. "Months ago. I declined."

Jake’s expression didn’t change, but something like mild recognition passed through his eyes.

"I remember. The alchemist with the quiet reputation and the bloodline he preferred to keep unmentioned. The invitation was extended in good faith"

Kai glanced between them. The air felt heavier with every calm sentence.

Lucien studied Jake for a long moment.

"Then why didn’t you all come after me?"

The question landed softly, but it carried weight. Ayan’s shoulders tensed. Even Elias’s fingers stopped tapping against the table.

Jake met Lucien’s gaze without flinching.

"I am afraid I can’t answer that."

Lucien’s eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Can’t or won’t?"

Jake was silent for a few seconds. The pause itself felt deliberate.

"Won’t."

The word hung there.

Kai cleared his throat carefully.

"You’re asking two people who just drew half the city’s attention to walk into a syndicate that has a reputation for making independent adventurers disappear. That’s a hard sell."

Jake looked at him with mild interest, as though noticing him properly for the first time.

"You’re the white-haired A-rank. The one who flew up between them. Curious survival pattern. You’ve been present for several high-casualty events and walked away from all of them."

Kai’s skin prickled, how the hell did he know about that?

Elias leaned forward, smile sharp and humorless.

"We’re not here to impress you with our resumes. You invited us. Talk."

"I am talking," Jake replied mildly. "The Red Ledger offers structure, resources, and protection in exchange for capability and discretion. The alternative for high-value independents is usually less pleasant. You’ve already seen the pattern. Parties that refuse tend to encounter unfortunate accidents."

Kai’s stomach dropped, He was the only one in the room who knew what Ayan had told him about Astopia and the party that had been wiped out.

Elias had clearly reached the end of his limited patience. He stood up so abruptly the chair scraped hard against the floor, then flipped the table in one violent motion. Cups, papers, and the neat little ledger Jake had been keeping scattered across the warehouse floor.

"All right, enough. We didn’t come here to have a nice chat. We came to defeat you all."

The Red Ledger members stationed quietly along the walls didn’t flinch. Not one of them reached for a weapon. They simply watched.

Kai’s voice came out tight.

"Elias, calm down."

Elias wasn’t a calm type of person. He stepped around the overturned table, presence sharpening without any nullifier holding him back. The air should have felt dangerous but It didn’t. The lack of reaction from the other side only made it worse.

Elias frowned, irritation bleeding into something colder...a bruised ego.

"Fine."

He raised two fingers and drove them forward in a precise, killing strike aimed straight at Jake’s forehead. The movement was fast even by his standards, a compressed thrust that should have dropped an ordinary man before he finished blinking. Astral energy began to gather along his fingers—

Jake sat, arms and legs crossed with his eyes closed...he opened one eye.

"No."

The word was quiet. Almost conversational.

Elias’s fingers stopped a hair’s breadth from Jake’s skin. The force behind the strike simply... failed. The concentrated power that should have driven through bone and brain dispersed like smoke. The golden light that had started to form flickered once and died. Elias’s eyes widened a fraction. He tried to pull the energy back into the attack and found nothing answering him.

Jake regarded the frozen fingers with mild curiosity, then slowly closed his eye again.

"Insufficient."

The warehouse went very still.

Kai’s blood turned to ice. The exact sequence the System had described was unfolding in front of him, and they were already inside it.

Elias stared at his own hand like it had betrayed him. Lucien had risen to his feet without a sound, green light flickering weakly around his fingers before sputtering out again under the same invisible verdict. Their full power was present. It just wasn’t being allowed to work.

Jake exhaled softly, as though mildly disappointed.

"I had hoped we could reach an agreement without demonstrations. You really are capable. Just not, at present, fitting."

Ayan finally looked up. His eyes met Kai’s across the wreckage of the table, wide and guilty and scared.

Kai’s mind raced through every option the System had given him, every tool in the Astral Store he had refused to buy, every second of the four-minute window that had just started ticking.

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