After arriving home at midnight, everyone fell asleep almost immediately, and as the next day came, Rhys barely got five hours as Kane yelled at him.
"Wake up host! We're going make sure you practice your skills!" Kane said, jumping up and down on him. Rhys grumbled, unwillingly getting out of bed.
Tossing a notebook and pencil on the desk, Kane cheered Rhys on. "It's okay if you feel like crying, just do it! Get to writing, and listening too." Kane said, playing a podcast for Rhys.
As Rhys groggily began to write, Kane began throwing Rhys' wallet at him, forcing him to use his skill to dodge. "I genuinely despise you." Rhys cursed in his head, as he forced himself to wake up.
This continued for an hour and a half, with his dodged a bullet at level one, waterworks at level one, his eavesdropper at level zero, and penmanship at level two.
"Did you have to throw the shampoo bottle at me when I was showering?!" Rhys hissed out, combing his hair a little before heading downstairs to make breakfast.
"Yes! This was for your own good, you'll thank me in the future." Kane replied, causing Rhys to roll his eyes.
Breakfast was rather quiet, Kane had finally stop throwing things at Rhys, and he greeted Seth as usual. "Morning, Seth. I hope you've slept well. Here you go." Rhys said with a smile, handing the plate he was holding over to Seth, brushing hands and letting them linger a little.
Seth returned the smile, his affection not raising as Rhys had suspected. "Seth is probably the hardest issue right now, I'm fairly confident I could raise Erin's affection now that I can touch him." He thought.
"Why not just try making out with one of them?" Kane asked, making Rhys blush and scream at him in his head.
"Oh shut up! Just because I agreed to play offensive doesn't mean I'm going to be that intimate!" He finished, making his way to Xavier's room.
"It's not too different from what you do with Xavier. Just imagine him as a woman if that works." Kane sighed, wishing Rhys would just admit to himself he doesn't hate the thought of dating men.
As he woke Xavier and their lips met, he return it ever so slightly, giving it a little nibble, hoping Xavier wouldn't notice it at all. As Xavier slightly stirred, he pulled away almost immediately and carried him, he breathing rough, as his face enveloped a dark red blush, even the tips of his ears were red.
"You tried your best." Kane said, listening in on Rhys thoughts. He genuinely wanted to laugh, but knew he had to hold it in at least for now.
"This is the systems fault I'm not doing this willingly, yeah that's it! I wasn't going to kiss him or anything I was just pulled suddenly and bit him, that's right!" Rhys thought, coming to even the most illogical conclusions.
As he was about to calm down his raging heartbeat, Xavier's affection rose by two, putting him at forty-one. A string of profanities soon filled Rhys' thoughts.
"Please tell me he wasn't awake." Rhys thought, as Kane pretended he wasn't listening to him, going to the dining table.
By the time Rhys reached the bottom of the steps, his blush finally subsided, calming himself in front of everyone else, as he walked over and placed Xavier in his seat.
As he was about to turn, Xavier tugged on his wrist, making him turn. "You're really cute, you know?" Xavier said with cheeky smile before releasing him and taking a bite of his breakfast.
Rhys' face was now crimson once more, he was awkwardly walking back over to his seat, as Erin proceeded to laugh at him.
"He is right, the way you blush is just like a high school girl." Erin teased, when Rhys was passing by his seat. Deciding to the turn the tables, he used his waterworks and pouted.
His face still red, he leaned over face to face with Erin whining, "You're so mean to me, I'm a grown man too, you know?" moving to Erin's ears he whispered the last part, his voice a little low.
"Just what kind of novels do you read?" Kane thought as he himself almost blushed at the scene, before remembering Rhys was merely acting, as in his head he was freaking out like mad.
Erin's affection rose by two, putting him at thirty-six, seems like Rhys successfully made his heart flutter a little.
"Shut the hell up you good for nothing pest!" Rhys wanted to scream, as he finally calmed down, unable to look Erin in the eyes for the next five minutes.
He was thankful Xavier and Seth had kept the conversation going, since he and Erin were definitely out of it, unable to think.
When breakfast ended, Xavier and Erin both left as Rhys and Seth did the dishes. "You got this, host!" Kane said, knowing Rhys was probably going to do something good.
"Stop enjoying my suffering for your pleasure!" He snapped back in his head, while putting on a smile. As the two finished up washing, Rhys helped dry off Seth's hand, when he finished, he intertwined their's together, his chest touching Seth's.
"Your hands are really warm and big.. oh that's besides the point. I just wanted to thank you again for accompanying me to my house this weekend, I appreciate it. I'm sorry if you didn't get enough sleep." Rhys said with a smile, letting go of Seth as he turned to leave the kitchen.
Kane clapped at Rhys' performance while Seth stuttered a bit with his words, telling him an "Of course. Don't worry it's fine."
Sighing to himself in relief, Rhys was happy he now had at least a few minutes alone to calm his nerves. "How exactly am I supposed to get used to this?" He thought.
"With due time, I suppose. World five was my bet but I'm going to change it to world three." Kane said, noticing the quick growth in Rhys' willingness to capture the targets.
"Shut up! I'm not used to it at all! I just want to go back to my life. I'll have over a hundred lovers by the time I finish. How am I going to get married now?" He whined.
"Correction, over two hundred. There's at least two lovers per world." Kane laughed, enjoying Rhys' despair.
"You're not helping!" Rhys barked back, closing his room door and grabbing his bag, double checking he had all he needed.
"All the skills the system teaches you are useful!" Kane began to rant again, as a system mission popped up.
"OBLIGATORY SYSTEM MISSION." The voice rang. Not even a day later, and Rhys once more had to deal with a mission.
"On Saturday, visit the local aquarium with the capture targets and buy matching items and kiss at least one target with Serenity Clark watching. Rewards upon completion, failure results in (1) memory loss."
"What the genuine hell is this?" Rhys said as his eye twitched. Did the mission really say he had to do that? No matter how many times he slapped himself, this was reality.
As he was about to complain, a second system mission had popped up causing Rhys to groan.
"OPTIONAL SYSTEM MISSION" the voice rang, at least it was optional this time, Rhys thought.
"Kiss Xavier Meiyer, Hold Seth Hyls' hand, and Hug Erin Keller in front of a group of people. Host will be rewarded upon completion, no punishment."
"This is basically telling me to cheat on all of them at school!" Rhys hissed. He was about to say there was no way he's doing it until Kane perked up.
"It said a group of people, not school. That could just mean in front of strangers in a parking lot right? Secondly, there's a reason it's a mission right? Think about the affection that could go up if you play it right!" Kane cheered, begging Rhys to do it.
For five minutes, Rhys went over the pros and cons, before finally agreeing. During lunch, he'd manage to pull it off while they were in the convenience store, he thought.
As Kane sighed in relief, Rhys walked back downstairs, and waited for Xavier to finish up so they could leave.
The drive to school was fine, the coffee was great, and they all went their own separate ways to their own classroom.
Classes went by as usual, but it felt like people talked to him even longer, now that his charisma was so high. It was pretty annoying, but he persevered.
When lunch came around, he nearly bolted for the door, heading to the car. Thank goodness Ariana helped him escape from the people who wanted to talk.
As he was walking to the car, he saw the targets all there before him. "Is this the power of charisma?" Rhys thought to himself, usually he wasn't last.
The four talked and went over their days, as Rhys casually slipped in the aquarium thing once more, "This Saturday we're going to the aquarium, right? So should we do some prepping or go on blind?"
"It'd be wiser to have a plan." Erin said, not wanting to aimlessly wander around in a building packed with people.
"No! We should go in blind, I don't want to know, I want to explore!" Xavier whined, making the two to back and forth.
Finally, Seth interjected siding with Erin. "It'd be better off if we knew about the shows beforehand, right? You'd hate to miss it."
With everyone calmed, they arrived at the store and as Rhys predicted, all left to go to their own aisles. It made him happy for once, that people would stare at them.
He started with Seth, following him to pick out something to drink, and interlocked their fingers when he peeked over Seth's shoulder.
"Could you hand me a cherry coke?" Rhys asked, trying not to think about what he was doing. A couple of girls looked over and nearly squealed, Rhys only hoped it counted.
As he let go and backed off, Rhys handed him his drink with a light blush, his affection raising by two, putting him at thirty-nine.
As Rhys left, he found Erin looking at the sweets, just as a couple walked down the aisle, Rhys hugged Erin and leaned into his ear.
"You seem to be the red one now, right?" He used the opportunity to tease, sticking out his tongue at Erin before picking up a bitter candy bar.
Erin's affection rose by three, putting him at thirty-nine as well. Finally, he aimed for Xavier.
As he grabbed a sandwich and checked out, Xavier was already eating away at his sandwich, next to the counter. Rhys offered the candy to him, he excitedly opened it and started to put it in his mouth.
"Final stretch, host!" Kane said, watching Rhys leaned in and take a bite as well, lightly brushing his lips against Xavier's.
"I don't think you heard, but I asked for a bite too." Rhys said with a smile, Xavier's affection rose by two, putting him at forty-one.
Rhys exploded as soon as system space stopped the world, and he nearly cried. "I hate you I hate you I hate you!" Was all that could be heard.
"MISSION SUCCESS" meant nothing to Rhys, as he aggressively received his three attribute points, putting them into defence, and reflexes a part of defence, along with physical health.
"Be proud, host! You can now take a few hits, and you even have reflexes now! Great for a fighting world." Kane said, trying to make Rhys happy.
"And what about health?" He asked. Still annoyed, there's no way he could face them now that he actually thought about what he did.
"You're in peak physical health, if you put enough points into it, it stops your body from things like stomachaches after overeating, fatigue, poison harming you heavily." Kane listed.
"Wait.. what was that last part?" Rhys yelled out at Kane as the two went back and forth. When the safe space ended and the world unfroze, Rhys had a short scowl before using his smile skill.
"Let's head back to the car." Rhys said, Xavier nodding and followed along, finishing up his food in the car while nonstop talking to Rhys.
Much to his happiness, no one said anything about the stunt Rhys had pulled in the car ride back, Rhys nearly felt calm until Kane opened his mouth.
"But how are you going to kiss one of them in front of the corrupted female lead? When you're at the aquarium."
He wanted to scream, yell curses, cry, and lay in an abyss, but unfortunately the system would just not allow him peace for one day.
"I'll manage." Was all he thought, and even throughout the walk into the school, and halfway through class, he thought of nothing.
"Just what the hell do I say? We're going to the aquarium on Saturday and there's an exhibit at two pm you should come so you can see kiss a man of your former harem?" Rhys sarcastically thought to Kane.
"Fight on, host. It's going to be okay, hopefully, eventually, you know?" Kane motivated in his own weird way.
The cursing continued until class ended, and even through the drive home, and while they gathered to play games and watch a movie.
"You're really overthinking. Why don't you just let her overhear your plans, or leave your phone open with the plans?" Kane asked Rhys.
"Even if she is dumb, that's way too obvious. We have fourth period together, and I've already humiliated her. Don't you think she'll catch on?" Rhys retorted.
"I'm pretty sure she's stupid enough to do it, though?" Kane responded, eating a piece of popcorn.
"You're bias, you're literally the system that's against the female lead, you'll obliviously say that!" Rhys thought back.
The banter between the two went back and forth for the whole movie, and while Rhys was making dinner. He really didn't want to lose any memories, especially on an easy world after what happened in the tutorial. He can't even afford to lose one per world at the moment.
"Whatever. I guess I really just have to hope she's stupid enough to follow." Rhys prayed to the system, to just help him out this once.
Kane now felt a little bad. Originally he said it as a prank, but it seems to have gone too far, there was no way he was telling Rhys.
Just like the ring event where the two girls where already there, Serenity was going to be there anyways, he would just have to run into her and kiss a target.
"Well I suppose this is secret number one I'm going to keep with me to the grave." Kane thought while watching Rhys struggle. It was funny at first, but now it felt like he was bullying a child.
Patting Rhys on the back, he told him it's going to be okay, and to just focus on his skills for tonight. A sweet sentiment, until that last part.