The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 107

Chapter 107: 107 | The System Approves

"Fair."

She turned to face me properly, her blue eyes searching my face. "Are you going to sleep with her again tonight?"

The question hung between us like a live grenade.

"I don’t know," I said honestly. "Do you want me to?"

"I—" She stopped, visibly struggling with the answer. "I don’t know either. Part of me wants to say no, that you should just be mine. But the other part knows that’s not realistic anymore, and pretending otherwise is just going to make everything worse."

God, she was being so reasonable about this. Too reasonable. It made the guilt press harder against my ribs.

"We don’t have to figure everything out today," I said quietly.

"Yes, we do." She crossed the space between us and poked me hard in the chest. "Because if we don’t set rules now, this whole thing is going to explode in our faces. So tell me honestly, Lukas. What do you want?"

What did I want?

The System had very clear opinions about what I should want. Multiple partners. Escalating attachment metrics. A steady stream of power upgrades disguised as relationship progression.

But what did I actually want, independent of quest notifications and reward structures?

The honest answer was that I didn’t know anymore. The lines between genuine desire and System manipulation had blurred so thoroughly that I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

"I want this to work," I said finally. "However that looks."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s the only answer I have right now."

She studied my face for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Okay. Then we figure it out together."

"Together."

"But if you hurt me—" Her hand moved to my throat, not squeezing but definitely present. "I will destroy you. Completely. Do you understand?"

"Crystal clear."

"Good." She released me and stepped back. "Now help me make my bed before I change my mind about this entire insane situation."

By the time we finished replacing Sloane’s sheets with clean ones from the linen closet, it was already past noon. My phone had been buzzing intermittently from the nightstand where I’d left it, but I’d been deliberately ignoring it.

Sloane flopped onto her freshly made bed with a satisfied sound. "Much better."

I sat on the edge, finally checking my phone. Three messages from Diane, asking how things were going and reminding me to apologize properly. One message from Felicity, still trying to establish contact. And approximately seven notifications from the Scumbag System that I’d been actively suppressing.

Time to face the music.

〘 Status review requested. Displaying current metrics. 〙

The familiar blue interface materialized in my vision, invisible to everyone except me.

Name: Lukas Belmont

(DP) 0

(SP) 6,890

[ Attributes ]

〘 STR: 50 | AGI: 50 | DEX: 63 〙

〘 INT: 63 | END: 51 〙

ACTIVE SKILLS (3/3):

Spectral Reach (Rare)

Blitz (Rare)

Lightning Cloak (Epic)

PASSIVE TRAITS (4/5):

Boundless Stamina (Epic)

False Data (Uncommon)

Sexercise (Common)

INVENTORY:

Faceless Veil (Rare · Equipment)

The High Priestess (Rare · Activatable Item)

Usurper (Legendary · Conditional Active)

Dampen (Trash · Active)

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