Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 646

Chapter 646: Strategic Breakfast

Vaelira hadn’t touched her food.

The sandwich sat on the plate in front of her, untouched, growing cold while the rest of the room ate and talked and existed like people who belonged here. She kept her eyes down, but her peripheral vision was doing overtime.

Alice tore a piece of crust off Kaiden’s sandwich, popped it into her own mouth, then tore another piece and held it up to him with the expectation of a priestess offering sacrament. Kaiden opened his mouth. Chewed. Didn’t blink. As if being hand-fed by the daughter of the Shadow Monarch was just how Tuesdays worked.

Vaelira’s stomach turned.

"Alright," Kaiden said, and the room sharpened. "Meeting time."

His gaze swept the room. Landed on faces. Moved on. Then stopped on her.

Clearly, she was asked to speak up.

"..." Her wrist moved on reflex, fingers tapping the slim artifact band below her sleeve. A holographic display bloomed above the table, featuring numbers, rankings, guild names - the competition standings updated in real time.

New Dawn – 88,420 P

Iron Halo – 81,300 P

Ashbound – 78,960 P ⬆

Silver Talon – 65,110 P ⬇

Black Meridian – 59,880 P ⬇

Ember Line – 51,200 P

Frostwake – 46,740 P

Riftward – 38,600 P ⬆

Dawnfall – 31,980 P ⬆

Runewoven – 24,140 P ⬇

Stonewake – — (exited competition)

Verdant Coil – — (exited competition)

Hollow Crest – — (exited competition)

Night Bastion – — (exited competition)

Pale Covenant – — (exited competition)

She straightened in her seat. This, at least, she could do.

"Fifteen guilds entered the competition," she began.

"Five have already withdrawn. Stonewake, Verdant Coil, Hollow Crest, Night Bastion, Pale Covenant. All pulled out after losing too many members. The death penalty is brutal, with ten thousand points per member lost. At a certain point, the math stops working for guilds led by incompetent losers. They’re grinding level fifty monsters for fifty points a kill while one bad encounter erases two hundred kills’ worth of progress. This was clearly put in place to penalize guilds who were ready to toss young rookies into the grinder to win."

She flicked her fingers, and the withdrawn guilds greyed out on the display. "They cut their losses."

The bitchy blonde then expanded the display with a pinch of her fingers. The top three names glowed brighter than the rest.

"New Dawn leads. No surprise there."

Her finger traced down to the second name. "Iron Halo... They’re a subsidiary of Crimson Dominion. It’s expected they do well."

Crimson Dominion was one of the big three U.S. guilds, alongside New Dawn and The Radiant Order. Iron Halo served as their proving ground, where they sent their rising talent to earn credentials without being killed due to the extremely dangerous missions the guild tends to take under its leader, Lazarus’ guidance.

She moved to the third name, and her mouth formed the word before her brain could intervene.

"The guild of hubris and incest... Ashbound."

The syllable hit different this time.

Kaiden glanced at the display, nodded once, and took another bite of his sandwich. Alice leaned over his shoulder to squint at the hologram, wrinkled her nose as if the number had mildly inconvenienced her, then went back to picking sesame seeds off her bread and eating them individually.

Aria sipped from her glass.

Luna tilted her head at the standings for about two seconds, then returned to her eggs.

Nyx yawned.

Bastet and Calypso didn’t even honor the hologram with a single look.

That was it. That was the entire collective reaction to being dead last in a competition where the gap to first was over sixty thousand points - the equivalent of 6,000 levels 26-50 monster kills or 1,200 levels 51-75 kills.

An astronomical amount.

Vaelira stared at them. Then at Kaiden. Then back at them.

’Are they insane?’

She’d briefed the notable leaders of the Nova Circuit - Runewoven alliance before, standing in the conference room as the leader of the group, excluding Kaiden’s misfits. Those people were experienced, decorated combatants. She’d watched grown men slam tables over a two-thousand-point deficit. Seen strategists fired on the spot for presenting numbers half as ugly as these.

And this group just... kept eating.

Kaiden chewed. Swallowed. Wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"Okay. Rock bottom. Got it."

He said it the way someone might comment on the weather. Overcast today. Bit chilly.

"We’ve been playing it safe. Targeting lower zones, avoiding unnecessary risk. That was the right call at the time." The casual energy in his posture didn’t change, but something behind his eyes did. "It’s not the right call anymore. We’re ready to push, and we’re pushing to the top. So let’s discuss how we make that happen."

His gaze landed on Vaelira.