My Succubus Harem System In The Reverse World

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Monogamy Means Death

The front door clicked shut, and even though Gianna was already out of sight, I didn’t cut the flow of mana right away.

I wanted to see just how far the leash would stretch before the connection gave out. I closed my eyes and focused on the ethereal thread still linking our minds together through the Synaptic Hive, letting my senses ride along with hers.

Ten meters passed as she walked down the hallway toward the elevators, yet the mental hum remained sharp and clear, vibrating as steadily as a heartbeat in my ears.

Twenty meters, then thirty.

She stepped into the lift, and I could actually feel the slight drop in elevation through her sensory feedback as a tiny dip in her stomach mirrored mine.

At forty meters, the thread began to pull taut, humming like an overstretched guitar string in my head until she hit the fifty-meter mark, somewhere in the ground-floor lobby, causing the link to snap cleanly.

There was no pain or sudden mental backlash, just a dissolution of energy as the tether retreated into my core.

[Appraisal Link Severed: Out of Range]

[Current Spatial Limit: 50 Meters]

[System Tip: Increasing your Intimacy Level with the bound target or upgrading the Synaptic Hive sub-routine will expand your operational radius. Higher tiers allow for full-map dungeon synchronization.]

Fifty meters wasn’t a bad starting point for a baseline tactical ability,

In a dungeon corridor or a standard boss arena, it gave me more than enough room to keep three frontline Vanguards anchored to my network without losing the tether.

Before I could dive any deeper into the system’s upgrade trees, the brass lock on the front door clicked open again.

Jenna stepped in, kicked off her shoes, and stopped mid-motion, nose lifting toward the kitchen.

"Why does it smell so good in here?"

"Gianna cooked."

Jenna actually laughed.

"That girl hasn’t touched a stove since she was fifteen. You’re a miracle worker, Rev."

"I just showed up and ate it."

She shot me a look over her shoulder, amused, knowing, and disappeared into the bedroom.

When she came back, she’d traded the guild leathers for a crimson slip that clung to her like it had somewhere better to be.

She sat in the chair and had her dinner quietly.

By ten o’clock, the apartment was silent again, and the lights were dimmed down to a warm glow as we climbed into bed.

I lay on my back, staring straight up at the ceiling fan while my mind spun through endless simulations of tomorrow’s gate break, wondering how I was going to handle three unknown teammates without Gianna there to cover my blind spots.

I had to manage my mana output without flinching, keep the five percent feedback loop locked down under intense stress, and figure out how to weave the Appraisal chains between total strangers without overwhelming their nervous systems.

Jenna crossed straight to the bed, sat on the edge, and looked at me.

"Shirt off."

"I have the raid in the morning."

"I know."

"Gia and I just—"

"I know that too."

She pressed two fingers to my lips before I could finish, and whatever teasing had been in her face a second ago was gone.

"I watch the sensor feeds every afternoon," she said.

"I watched a girl who hasn’t cooked in years stand at a stove for you tonight. You don’t have to explain yourself to me."

"Then don’t make me do this right before I need a clear head."

"This is the clear head, Revien."

She said it flat, no softness in it, and that got my attention more than anything else she could have said.

"You’re not a man who gets to fall in love with one girl and call it a life," she went on.

"Not at this moment. I didn’t buy you so you could play house with my daughter. I bought you because the gates are getting worse and I’m stuck at Level 145 with nowhere left to climb. You are the only thing in this city that’s still growing."

"So I’m a tool."

"You’re a weapon I happen to care about. Both things are true."

"I’m a sex battery."

"You’re making your own assumptions."

"I refuse to be one."

"I agree. But you know how it goes."

I hated that I understood her. I hated it more that some ugly, quiet part of me, the part that had been humming warm and hungry since the moment Gianna’s fingers left my collar, agreed with every word.

"I’m not going to stop caring about her because it’s inconvenient for your guild," I said.

"You’ve known for two days."

"And that’s supposed to make it easy."

"I never said that."

"I won’t stop liking her."

"I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you not to let it slow you down. There’s a difference."

"Is there?"

"You’ll find out."

She said it like a dare, and something in my chest twisted, not lust, not yet, just the specific, ugly frustration of being told exactly what I already suspected and hating the person who said it out loud.

I wanted to fight her on it. I wanted a version of this world where I got to pick one person and mean it completely, no math, no percentages, no system quietly grading every kiss.

That world didn’t exist.

I was starting to understand that the system hadn’t cared what I wanted from the very first blue box.

It had been trying to make me into someone I wasn’t.

Treat the women like stepping stones for the growth. Manipulate them, corrupt them, and steal their power.

Was that who I was supposed to become?

Can’t I be my own person?

[Emotional resistance detected.]

[Optimal outcome unaffected.]

I swiped it out of my vision so hard my hand shook.

"You’re angry," Jenna said.

It wasn’t a question.

"I’m angry that you’re right."

"Good," she said.

"Stay angry. It’ll keep you human longer than the rest of us managed."

That line landed somewhere I wasn’t ready for, and I didn’t get the chance to ask what she meant by it, because she reached up and slid the strap of her slip off one shoulder, patient, unhurried, watching my face rather than her own hands.

The heat came anyway. It always did. My pulse spiked, my core lit up warm and greedy under my ribs, and this time I didn’t build the wall to hold it back.

I let it come. I pulled my shirt over my head.

Jenna smiled, small, satisfied, a little sad around the edges in a way I didn’t have time to name, and let the fabric pool at her waist.

"Including me," she said again, quieter now.

"You don’t belong to just one person. I need you to actually believe that before tomorrow, not just agree with it to make me stop talking."

"I don’t know if I can."

"You will," she said.

"Everyone does, eventually. That’s not a threat. It’s just what the class is."

I looked at her for a long moment, and for the first time since I’d woken up in this world, I felt something colder than fear underneath the heat building in my chest.

I didn’t know if it was hers or mine.

"You’re not making me do this."

"I know."

I closed the gap between us.

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