Chapter 66: Rejecting A Confession
Chapter 66
Alex lay sprawled across the comfy bed, enjoying a particularly interesting dream, where he was in the midst of his three women, enjoying the life of a king.
Just as he was about to kiss Olivia, he felt tiny, annoying movements on his face, and lazily swatted it away. For a second it looked like it worked, but then the movement continued. And this time it was even worse than before.
Mumbling a curse under his breath, he groggily forced one eye open. Lo and behold, standing right on his pillow with her foot raised for another strike was his gentle and nice system in her chibi form. Seeing that he had finally waken up, she stopped her attack and sat down cross-legged on the bed space beside him.
Alex rubbed his eyes while shooting his System an annoyed glare.
"Care to explain why you’re waking me up on a Saturday," he paused to check the time. "And it’s even... TWELVE O’CLOCK! Shit I’m supposed to go to the mall early today!"
[No kidding, Sherlock. Why do you think I wasted my precious energy trying to kick-start your brain? Yet you were there dreaming about your harem members]
Alex let out a long breath, dragging a palm down his face to wipe away the last remnant of the sleep.
"First of all," he said in a voice still raspy from sleep. "That dream was actually very important, okay. It was helping me conduct... Some very serious relationship research. Cough."
The chibi tilted her tiny head with an unimpressed face as she stared at him.
[Ah yes. Lying half-naked in a pile of beautiful women counts as research now]
"Call it whatever you want. At least in my dream, nobody was interrupting me every five seconds."
["..."]
[You know what? I’ll be the mature person here, and pretend I didn’t just hear that. Now go shower, you smell like a gym locker, and for the love of everything holy, brush your damn teeth, before you kill every person you meet today with bad breath]
Alex swung his legs off the bed and stretched his stiff muscles, from seventeen hours of pure blissful, uninterrupted rest. After he was done doing some light stretches, he turned to look at the chaos he had created yesterday morning, while frantically searching for a decent cloth to wear to the meeting.
Now staring at the repercussions of his messy action, he couldn’t help but wince. Cleaning the room had always felt like stress, heck even going to the mall felt like a different kind of stress on its own, but he steeled himself and decided that it was worth it to make this room look at the very least presentable. After all, no one could stand such a dirty room.
With speedy movements, he picked all the clothes on the ground and shoved them into the closet, then he straightened the bedsheets on the old bed which had been with him, for as long as he could remember.
After giving one long glance around the room to admire his hardwork, he nodded in satisfaction and strode toward the bathroom with a towel in his palm.
The instant he stepped in, the cold tiles of the bathroom floor met his bare feet, before moments later, all that could be heard was the sound of the shower running and a low whistling of an old catchy song from the nineties that was unfortunately not released in this timeline.
Outside, the chibi floated lazily, with a bored expression on her insanely cute face. She stretched her tiny arms while looking around for anything to relieve her boredom, but it was a pity that the room was as boring as a lecture on Monday morning. So she just settled for drifting aimlessly in the air.
Not too long after, Alex stepped out, dressed in a clean outfit that made him look good as always. He ran a towel through his thick, dark hair and stared at the incoming chibi who was nodding her head.
[Good. At least you don’t look like a walking corpse anymore]
"High praise coming from you."
[Don’t get used to it]
*****
At the entrance of a large building complex stood a busy but ordinary shopping mall, with a large crowd of people casually moving in and out.
The mall wasn’t particularly fancy or anything, but what made it extremely popular in this part of town, was the quality items that were usually sold at a cheaper price than other malls in the city.
Alex navigated through the crowd, while trying to ignore the blatant stares from a group of high school girls nearby. Just as he had thought that he had finally escaped them, one of the girls, a blonde girl with a shy expression on her delicate face, detached herself from the group and stepped into his path.
She nervously clutched the strap of her handbag until her knuckles turned white, and looked up at him with a mix of fear and hope. Her friends meanwhile, stood a few yards away, whispering among themselves while watching closely. Some were squealing into their hands while others were watching with bated breath.
Alex glanced at her, mentally praying that the girl wasn’t about to do what he was thinking about. His mind told him that maybe she wouldn’t do it, but his gut told him to stop deceiving himself.
’Please let it not be what I’m thinking of.’
[Ding! +3 Desire Energy Gained For Slight Attraction]
As the translucent panel faded from the corner of his mind, Alex was already sure that the blonde girl was going to say what he was dreading.
Sure, she might have looked beautiful and would definitely make a really stunning woman in a few years from now, but for Christ sake, she looked like she was just fifteen years old! Even he hadn’t reached that level of depravity yet.
"Um... Excuse me," she whispered softly while bumping her two index fingers together.
"Yes?"
The girl hesitated for a second, then took a small breath as if gathering her courage.
"Can I... Can I get your number?" As soon as the words left her mouth, her cheeks turned a bright shade of red. From behind her a few suppressed squeals followed.
The chibi who had been enjoying the show from his shoulder, covered her face with a tiny palm.
[Awwwn, look at that. She likes you. Why don’t we add her to the harem slot? That way you’ll be one step closer to levelling up without even putting in a single effort]
Alex ignored the system and looked at the girl’s hopeful face for a brief moment. God knows he didn’t want to break her heart, but what choice did he have. Dating a minor will make others see him as a pedophile, though it’s not like he gave a damn about what they thought.
The reason he couldn’t do this was because he was basically a forty years old man in a twenty-one year old body. So the idea of him dating a fifteen years old girl didn’t really appeal to him.
Looking at her with a calm expression, he shook his head lightly, rejecting her.
"Sorry, but I’m not interested."
The girl froze, clearly not expecting such a straight forward answer.
"Ah... I see," she said while forcing a small shaky smile. "Sorry for bothering you then."
After saying that, she turned and quickly walked back to her friends who immediately surrounded her. They consoled her while some more brazen girls shot sharp judgemental glares at him.
But Alex just ignored them and walked away. It was stupid of them to even think that trying to ask a boy who was clearly older than them, was a good idea. Didn’t they know that such a thing could land him in jail?
[That was not nice. You just threw away a golden opportunity of adding another woman to your harem slot. Are you trying to stay weak? Cause it really feels like you’re trying to stay weak]
’For your information, do you expect a forty-year-old man in a twenty-one-year-old body to date a fifteen-year-old girl who hasn’t even finished high school yet?’
[Uh yeah. Since she technically likes you, then I don’t see any problem. Don’t you humans say age is just a number]
’Yeah age is just a number if you’re older, not if you’re a young girl in highschool.’
[You humans are really strange at times... Rejecting a perfectly good emotional source just seems stupid to me]
’Do you even hear yourself?’
The chibi crossed her tiny arms, completely unapologetic.
[Look, all I’m just saying is that...]
Alex immediately raised his hand.
"No! Stop right there. Do not finish that sentence."
[All I’m just saying is that I don’t see anything wrong in adding her to your harem slot. After all it’s not like you forced her to like you] She finished defiantly.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Alex said while rubbing his head, already feeling an incoming headache just from listening to all this nonsense. "Look, even if she likes me, and I really do need desire points and energy to grow stronger, I will not date a younger girl, so this discussion is over."
[You say that now, but don’t come crying to me about missed opportunities, when you’re struggling against a much powerful opponent later]
"Sorry, but I will proudly miss every opportunity that involves a prison cell" Alex countered.
[... Such a narrow mindset]
"Such a criminal mindset."
They glared at each other for a long time before Alex sighed and resumed his walk toward the food section.
Arguing with a perverted, invisible gremlin in the middle of the mall was a quick way to get committed to a psych ward, and he already had just about enough problems on his hands without adding insanity to that list.