Asahi didn’t talk much, mostly watching the girls talk amongst themselves, about their lives, likes and dislikes.

Both Mayumi and Fumiko quickly fell for Thea’s cuteness, natural charm, and personality. The incredibly delicious baked sweets that she brought may or may not have played a part in it.

It goes without saying that the one who was having the best time was Thea herself. She was in a room with three friends, three people that to her felt great to be around.

It had been a long time since the last time she had that feeling.

However, there was something new there as well. Those three people matched perfectly with aspects of who she was as a person. That, she had never experienced before.

Asahi cooked dinner, barring the girls from the kitchen saying that no help was needed, to give them more time together.

The kitchen table was filled by an assortment of Thai dishes, that looked quite pretty.

As he finished setting the table, he spoke loudly. “Dinner is ready.”

After the girls came back from washing their hands, and as they walked towards the kitchen, they saw the food waiting for them, which paired with the delicious smell, only enhanced their hunger.

During dinner they continued talking, and if one would look at it at face value, it would look like that Thea was hitting it off with them, as well as Asahi initially did with Mayumi.

However, there was a difference. Unlike Asahi, who had all sorts of reservations, Thea completely displayed her emotions, which is why it looked the same.

Asahi wasn’t envious of her, but aspired to be like that one day.

During dinner was when they touched on the topic of MMORPGS, and since Thea didn’t hold back, the girls, especially Fumiko who used to play Royal Decree, were stunned to find out that the cute girl in front of them was the pinnacle of all players in the game.

They barely talked about her powers of Ice Manipulation and Lycanthropy, because Fumiko and Mayumi didn’t feel comfortable asking much, for several reasons, with the main one being how she got them in the first place.

However, they did talk about her other abilities, because that touched on her relationships, which they talked about quite a bit.

As for how she could do anything with ease, Fumiko and Mayumi only found it to be really cool, but there was zero jealousy coming from them. Not only they already had someone like that in their lives, but they were both smart enough, both intellectually and emotionally, to understand the prices that she had to pay for those abilities, which the same could be said regarding Asahi.

When Thea told them about her ex, Mayumi narrowed her eyes in anger. “Motherfucker… just tell me where he lives.”

Thea chortled. “Calm down, it’s fine. The fact that he’ll probably never find someone that can move their hips like I can, is probably punishment enough.”

Fumiko interjected, pointing at Asahi. “We have a candidate right here.”

Mayumi beamed Asahi a teasing smile. “True, he’s really, and I mean, reeeally good with his hips.”

Thea smiled.  “So, you three really are more than friends.”

Mayumi nodded. “Something like that. There is no need to hold yourself back though, feel free to have a go at it.”

Fumiko chuckled.

Asahi smirked at Mayumi. “Either you stop pimping me out, or you tell the person why you’re doing it.”

Thea looked at Mayumi quizzically.

Mayumi looked at Thea’s cute face, then spoke, slightly flustered. “Urgh, fine. I get off on watching Asahi fuck other women.”

Thea’s mouth went slightly agape. “You’re into watching people having sex?”

Mayumi shook her head. “Nope, just Asahi.”

Thea looked at Asahi with curiosity. “Damn, your hips might be a match mine after all.” She then looked at Mayumi. “Sorry, but that won’t be happening anytime soon, if at all.”

Mayumi squinted. “So, you’re saying that there’s a chance.”

They laughed as they continued their dinner.

After eating, they watched Thea speedrun a couple games, which made them flabbergasted. There was no way a non-powered human being could compete, which was why she never purposefully competed with anyone, aside from the indirect competition she had in Royal Decree.

She never posted videos, or advertised her skills, because she knew that there was no point in it.

The only reason people talked about her so much in Royal Decree, was due to the server wide announcements of her achievements, which no one else even came close to match.

Losing track of time, she ended up leaving around midnight.

Before leaving, she gave each of them a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek, saying the most sincere and genuine “Thank you.” that they had ever heard, and there was no close second.

After Thea left, the three of them went to bed in Mayumi’s room, and cuddled under the blanket with Fumiko in the middle.

Mayumi smiled, caressing Asahi’s arm, that was resting on Fumiko’s belly. “Can’t she just move in with us?”

Fumiko raised her hand. “I second that, screw the social rules, I want more Thea.”

Obviously, they were joking.

Asahi laughed. “Wow, that was fast.” He then smiled. “Speaking of moving in, how are the two of you feeling about the upcoming changes?”

Mayumi sighed. “I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous, and it’s not even the three of us living together, it’s more about what is coming after six months.”

Fumiko nodded, looking at Asahi. “Me too. It’s not that I don’t trust you to keep us safe, but it’s one of the drawbacks of me being human.”

He kissed Fumiko’s forehead. “Yeah, I feel nervous too, even with the System. I know it’s almost funny coming from me, but don’t bottle things up, okay? Just talk to me.”

The girls chuckled and nodded.

With that, they slowly fell asleep.

 

Close to 4am, Asahi woke up.

[ Good morning, I evolved again. ]

‘…’

Before thinking about that, he gently left Mayumi’s bed, and teleported to his room.

‘Already? How many points do I have now?”

[ 6,897,472P ]

He blinked, then rubbed his eyes, and looked at it again.

‘There is no fucking way, this is too much. If I was reading this in a novel, I’d probably drop it, it’s too ludicrous.’

He then remembered something, which was that when he earned points of any kind, if those points were gained due to a specific person, that person’s stats and abilities would influence how many points were given.

After taking a deep breath, he cursed out loud. “Fuck.”

‘System, please, I need the best meditation manual and boost for what I want right now.’

[ Done. ]

As he read the texts, he lied down on the floor.

After he finished reading, he had a thought. ‘Can you somehow make me stop meditating at 7:30? Just in case I lose track of time.’

[ Yes. ]

He then closed his eyes, and started to meditate.

The main reason for him to do what he was doing, was to further disassociate not only Thea, but everyone else from points in his mind.

It took a couple dozen minutes for him to get used to it, but he had finally emptied his mind.

Then slowly, it started to be filled with the happy memories that he had accumulated so far.

There were no thoughts of points, stats, passives or anything System related, aside from the silly interactions and precious advice that the System had given him.

Following what he had read, he for sure lost track of time.

After what felt like either minutes or days, which he wasn’t sure while he was doing it, his backpack fell on top of him, jolting him awake.

[ It is 7:30. ]

He felt incredibly relaxed, both physically and mentally.

‘I should have started doing this a long time ago. Okay, what’s new that I should know about right now?’

[ The first thing is that the Scrying Mode has been unlocked for purchase. It costs 1,000,000P for the base range of 1Km, but it does synergize with Existential Analysis. Scrying has no range limit if the target has been entered into the Existential Analysis Database. ]

He nodded. ‘That’s great. What else?’

[ The second thing is that the Craft function has been unlocked, and among the myriad of items added to the Store, there are hundreds of new materials. ]

‘That’s good. Anything else?’

[ One last thing. Despite you never asking about it, there is an item that you wanted. The Basic Awakening Chamber has been added to the Store, at a price of 50,000,000P, already including the property discount. The chamber unlocks the abilities that the creature would have unlocked if they lived in an environment with medium-high mana density. Which stat and/or passive abilities they will unlock, depends on the person, and I am not allowed to tell you in advance, not without Intermediate Guidance. However, the Basic version only works on those who have not unlocked any of the three especial stats, and it also does not unlock any ability that has a especial requirement. ]

He took a long and deep breath. ‘Wow, the meditation really paid off. I’d probably be close to having an anxiety attack right now. You said that the basic version only works on those who haven’t unlocked any of the especial stats, meaning that the more advanced ones do. Do they work retroactively? I mean in the sense of the better ones working on people who had one or more stats unlocked by the basic one.’

[ Yes. ]

‘That’s good. Then what would be the best course of action regarding the chamber?’

[ Do not change your current plans, since the chance to buy it will come eventually. The reason I am notifying you of its existence, is the most obvious one. ]

He nodded. ‘It’s so I can talk to the girls about it beforehand. Then please, buy me the two passives that I wanted before, the Psychokinesis one and the Scrying mode. I assume that the scrying mode can’t be detected.’

[ Done. That is correct, it is undetectable. ]

He felt a distinct, but indescribable sensation run across his body and mind.

‘That felt… strange, but nice. Moving on. As you have told me before, the recording function does work with the Scrying Mode, right? Now that you said that it Synergizes with Existential Analysis, how far goes that Synergy?’

[ For 500,000P, you can unlock the synergistic passive Existential Scrying, which allows you to use the Scrying Mode to peer into any point of the target’s life. ]

He smiled. ‘Buy that too, please.’

[ Done. ]

Suddenly, a five-year-old video of a random person that once passed by Asahi appeared in front of him, a video of the person walking to work.

‘This is perfect. Now, let’s do some testing.’

Wearing only the suit, covering his whole body, he concealed himself and teleported.

Flying around, he started to test his speed, which ended up surprising him. Due to the multiplicative nature of the suit and passives, he could maintain around 1,000Km/h without it becoming cumbersome.

He didn’t stop to limit test, and went back to his room.

Focusing, he was able to feel all matter in a radius of over 200m around him.

‘Wow, the synergies between passives themselves and the suit are insane. Alright, I’ll save the rest of the points for now.’

He sat down in front of his computer and wrote a little bit, waiting for the girls to wake up.

When he felt them wake up, he went to Mayumi’s bedroom and used the pyramid device to clean everything.

As they felt the refreshing sensation, they greeted him.

Talking about how cute Thea was, they went to the kitchen to have breakfast.

As they were eating, Asahi spoke. “The System evolved again.”

The girls looked at him with curiosity.

“I bought the Scrying mode that I mentioned before, and upgraded it to be able to properly see and record people’s pasts.”

Their eyes widened.

He chuckled. “That’s not the part that should surprise you. An item got unlocked, something that I never asked the System for, and touches on a subject that we never talked about.”

Mayumi looked at him quizzically.

Fumiko almost dropped her chopsticks. “Don’t tell me that… is it something that unlock powers?”

Mayumi’s mouth went slightly agape. “Is it?”

He nodded. “But I won’t be able to afford it for a while. It costs fifty million points.”

Both girls took a deep breath.

Fumiko sighed. “That might be a good thing in a way. Neither one of us would have time to train right now.”

Mayumi nodded, slightly disappointed. “I wouldn’t be able to complete our game in time, and I wouldn’t like that. But… if the item was already here, I would go through with it.”

Fumiko caressed her shoulder. “I would too.”

Asahi stayed silent, letting them process everything.

After a bit, Mayumi smiled. “Thank you for telling us, it’s good to know in advance either way.”

Fumiko nodded. “It is. And as for buying the item, please, don’t worry about it. However, I am curious as for how it works.”

“It’s a chamber that you go in, powered by mana crystals, which is similar to the refinement chamber that mages use. This one also works as a refinement chamber, and a much, much better one than the one I’m gonna start using soon. The major difference is that it uses psionic technology to blast your body with all sorts of things, in order to stimulate it, making the abilities awaken.”

They both listened with great interest.

Fumiko sighed in relief. “I thought the item was a consumable, which made the price seem much more absurd.”

Asahi chuckled. “Sorry, that was my fault for not explaining properly from the get go.”

Mayumi chortled. “Ah, yes, that’s our resident professional storyteller.”

They kept teasing him for the remainder of the breakfast.

 

Afternoon, a little over 3pm.

Asahi was opening the front door to Trish, who was wearing a casual dress, with stockings and sneakers, and a backpack on her back. Her curly hair was loose, draping over her shoulders.

He hugged her, giving her a light kiss. “This might be the first time I’ve seen you with your hair loose, aside from when we took a shower together. You look even more beautiful; I think it suits you.”

She smiled, with a tinge of red on her cheeks. “Thank you.”

He held her hand, leading her inside. “What do you wanna do today? I already did the work that I needed to do for now. Mayumi and Fumiko will join us in a couple hours.”

She shook her head. “You spent an entire night doing what I wanted to do, so let’s do something you want.”

He displayed a pensive expression as he closed the door. “Something that I want… how about we play a co-op game then? But we will probably also be playing games after the girls finish their work, just so you know.”

She smiled. “That’s fine with me, what are we playing?”

As they walked to Asahi’s room, discussing what games they could play, they passed by Mayumi’s room, and seeing that she was focused, they didn’t bother her.

They sat down in front of Asahi’s computer, and played a simple farming game, while eating snacks.

They had a blast playing together.

 

After a couple hours, Mayumi stopped by Asahi’s room.

Seeing that, Trish put down her controller and got up to give Mayumi a hug. They had been texting each other since Trish’s prior visits, so they ended up getting closer, which was the same with Fumiko.

Letting go of the hug, Mayumi looked at Trish. “You look even prettier with your hair loose.”

Asahi, walking up behind Trish, hugged her from behind. “That’s what I said.”

Trish blushed lightly, looking at Mayumi. “Thank you.”

Mayumi smiled. “Fumiko is on her way over.”

Talking merrily, they went to the living room, and soon Fumiko joined them.

They played games, ate and talked until a little over 11pm. They also made plans for the four of them to go to Asahi’s mansion on Monday to furnish it.

When Trish was saying her goodbyes, Asahi’s displayed a deep frown.

Mayumi looked at him, concerned. “What happened?”

“Ryota is in trouble, I gotta go. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” He said, vanishing.

 

Kichijoji, Tokyo.

Inside an alley, two men, both wearing expensive suits, were talking to Ryota, with angry voices. One of the men was 1.77m-tall and Japanese, with short and well-combed hair. The other one was almost 1.9m-tall Caucasian man with short curly hair.

Ryota was against a wall, holding a grocery bag, tearing up. ‘Why do my powers not work against them?’

The Japanese man sneered at Ryota. “Kid, we’re just asking you to wear a wire and get that Kinoshita guy to tell you where he’s getting the enchanted items, it’s not that hard.” He then looked at the other man. “It’s not hard, right?”

The man replied, with a sinister smile. “Of course not. But kid, I know how to change your mind. What if we went to your place and talked to that delicious girl-”

Suddenly, the bodies of the two men froze, and out of nowhere two black beams hit their chest, which seemed to do nothing, coming from Ryota’s right side.

Asahi ended the concealment, appearing with his usual jeans and hoodie.

He had what looked like a small black rod on one hand, and something that was turning to dust on the other.

He looked at Ryota. “It’s okay, it’ll be fine now. I’m really sorry, this is my fault.”

Ryota looked at the men who couldn’t move a muscle, then at Asahi. “How did you… my power didn’t work on them, and yelling didn’t do anything, nobody even looked at us.”

Asahi patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, I’ll make sure that they won’t bother you anymore.”

Ryota seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack, trembling. “I… I just wanted to buy Se-chan’s favorite ice cream, to surprise her after her nap.”

Asahi gently pulled Ryota closer, embracing him, diverting his gaze from the men. “Everything is fine now; Setsuko is fine too. She’s still asleep at your place.”

Ryota cried, without letting go of the grocery bag.

Asahi looked at the two men, with an immensely cold glare.