Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Why Not Both?
I cut the flow of mana instantly, and the blue chains shattered into dust before fading away into nothing. I took a slow step back, letting the stolen energy settle deep in my veins.
It felt good, like a rush of adrenaline straight to my core, but I made sure to keep my face carefully neutral.
"You could have given me a heads-up on what I was actually capable of, Jen."
She just smiled, completely unapologetic, and folded her hands together.
"And ruin the surprise? You were doing just fine on your own, Rev."
Gianna scrambled to her feet the exact second she was free. Her chest heaved as she aggressively brushed off her combat pants, and her face was burning a vibrant red.
It was genuinely hard to pinpoint if she was furious or just embarrassed about getting floored in seconds flat by the guy she just called fragile.
I decided it was probably an entertaining mix of both, and it made her look even prettier.
Mira stepped closer, holding up a transparent tablet that was rapidly scrolling with data.
She tapped the screen a few times, her green eyes wide with disbelief as she looked from the numbers directly to me.
"Your output just spiked," Mira said, shaking her head slowly.
"I don’t know how you pulled that off, but you are putting out stats that shouldn’t match a level ten. You are a brand new transfer, so this shouldn’t even be possible yet."
"This is exactly why I hate men!" Gianna shouted.
She threw her hands up in the air, glaring at the ceiling before zeroing back in on me with those piercing red eyes.
"All my life, I train. I bleed in the gates, and I fight until I can barely stand just to get this strong, and some random guy just falls out of the sky and beats me without even breaking a sweat. How do they have this much power?"
Jenna walked over and gently placed a hand on Gianna’s shoulder, her voice dropping into a comforting tone.
"Take a breath, Gia."
Gia?
The way Jenna looked at her, the protective stance, the familiar comfort between them- it clicked instantly. The gorgeous woman who just bought my contract, the one I was enthusiastically sucking on this morning in bed, is the mother of the hot girl I just tied to the floor.
This world is going to give me a heart attack before the monsters even get a chance.
"Their bodies just function completely differently than ours," Jenna explained, calming her daughter down while entirely ignoring my silent internal crisis.
"You have to remember the history, Gia. The ones alive now are the descendants of the men who could actually withstand the apocalypse. Most men couldn’t survive the initial shifts in the world, so the weaker ones were wiped out. The ones with systems here are the survivors, so it is natural for them to possess traits like this."
Gianna crossed her arms, still refusing to look directly at me.
She kicked at the floorboards instead, pouting in a way that completely ruined her tough-girl image.
"Well, I’m just glad we have Empresses around to actually tame them. Otherwise, they would just run wild and ruin everything."
I tilted my head, catching the new and slightly terrifying term.
"Empresses?"
"They are the ones who hold almost all the political and physical power in this world," Jenna answered, turning back to me with a far more serious expression.
"Some men here... well, to put it nicely, they are overly arrogant. They think they can do whatever they want just because they have a unique class or a rare set of skills that we need."
Mira shut off her tablet and crossed her arms, leaning back against a nearby weapon rack.
"Most of those arrogant types end up locked up in high-security facilities if they cross the wrong Empress, because we simply do not tolerate liabilities. Some of the worst ones managed to escape the central governance entirely, and they fled out into the wastelands where they formed their own rogue sectors, completely cut off from the guilds."
I absorbed all of this, realizing just how dangerous my new reality actually was.
Being overpowered didn’t mean I was safe, and it just meant I was a much bigger target for people with way more authority than a local guild captain.
"Okay," I said slowly, looking between the three of them.
"So what happens to the rest of us? The ones who don’t want to get locked up or run off into the desert to play warlord? Are we breeding toys?"
"You will be sent to the Academy," Mira answered.
"We will sponsor you, but you need formal certification before you can set foot in a gate.
There will be a few other guys there, but it is heavily populated by girls. You will train with them, learn the dungeon layouts, and improve your overall compatibility ratings."
Compatibility ratings.
That was a very polite, corporate way of saying I was going to a school to learn how to sleep with women for maximum stat boosts.
I almost laughed out loud, but I managed to keep a straight face so I wouldn’t prove Gianna’s point about arrogant men.
"Your support is too important to waste on just anyone, Revien," Mira continued, unaware of how funny I found the situation.
"The Academy will teach you how to properly manage your buffs so you don’t accidentally overload someone or drain yourself dry in the middle of a fight."
"Will she be there?" I asked, pointing a thumb casually at Gianna.
Gianna’s head snapped up, her red eyes flashing dangerously.
"I don’t need to go back to the Academy. I am fully certified, and I have real work to do."
"Actually," Jenna interrupted, a wicked little smirk playing on her lips.
"I think it would be a very good idea for you to tag along with him, Gia. Since you two clearly have such great chemistry already, you can be his primary sparring partner until he learns the ropes."
"Mom!" Gianna yelled, her face flushing that bright red all over again.
"Listen, not many girls will get a chance to train with a guy this early."
"You cannot be serious. He’s a menace."
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