Chapter 57: FOR ONCE

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MAIN MENU

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NAME: Chance Brooks

LVL: 11 [468/614]

RANK: Homewrecker

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[ CORE STATS ]

> CHA: 25

> END: 11

> PER: 25

> LCK: 4

> IBE: 11

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[ ENERGY ]

> LUST: 200/200

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[ACTIVE PERKS: Expand]

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SIN POINTS: 1520

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By the time I got home the adrenaline was still running hot.

Sitting at that table, winning like I belonged there, talking back to men who could probably make people disappear... it had felt good. Too good. Thank fuck those idiots had only been playing for entertainment. They probably just wanted a shot at getting into Jodi’s pants. Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about her most days. But I still didn’t want to watch her get chewed up by people like that. So much for being the pure bad guy. I was doing a pretty shitty job of it.

I closed the door and locked it, then leaned back against the wood and let out a long breath.

Something felt off. I had left the lights on when I went out, a small precaution in case Cole decided to try the door. They were off now.

"Chance Brooks."

His voice.

I stepped forward and saw him sitting on the edge of my bed like he owned the place. Two heavy-looking men stood behind him.

Fuck.

I spun and fumbled for the lock. One of the thugs was already moving. He reached me just as I got the door halfway open and slammed my head forward into the wall. Pain exploded across my forehead. I groaned, hand flying up to the spot.

The same thug grabbed me by the throat, squeezed hard, then drove his forehead into my face. I dropped to the floor on my ass, vision swimming.

Cole stood up from the bed and walked over in no particular hurry. Completely calm. "You just love playing the white knight, huh?" he said, almost conversational. "Are you... perhaps an idiot, my man?"

"What do you want from me?" I asked from the floor.

He stopped in front of me, one hand resting on his hip, and looked around the tiny apartment like he was inspecting something unpleasant. Then he chuckled.

"You live in a shithole," he said. "I almost feel sorry for you, Chance."

"Lucky me."

He stepped forward and kicked me across the face. The impact put me flat on my back. Blood started running from my nose. He reached down, grabbed a fistful of my collar, and hauled me halfway up so we were face to face.

"One more time," he said quietly. "I see you one more time... and I start cutting fingers. You hear me?"

I nodded.

"Good boy." He glanced back at his men. "Even more trainable than my dog, eh?"

They both laughed. Cole looked satisfied. He straightened up, spat on me, then turned and walked out. The two thugs followed.

Through the open doorway I saw Karim standing in his own doorway across the hall. A smirk sat on his face. He gave me a sarcastic little wave, then dapped Cole up as he passed.

Of course.

"You lied," Karim called, still smirking. "You weren’t home. I had to make Cole wait."

"You..."

I shoved myself upright and slammed my door shut hard enough to rattle the frame.

"Bastards..." I punched the door once, then again. "Goddamn bastards!"

Blood from my nose dripped onto the floor. My head was ringing. The apartment felt even smaller than usual.

I locked both locks with shaking hands and leaned my forehead against the wood, breathing hard. Cole had been inside my place. And Karim had let him in.

How could I have been so damn naive?

I already knew exactly what kind of person Karim was. I had watched him try to force Abigail right there in his own apartment. And still I hadn’t expected him to open my door for Cole. Now it had come back around and fucked me properly. It felt like the entire universe had decided to take turns kicking me while I was down.

But I wasn’t giving up.

One day I was going to take whatever little Cole had and leave him in the gutter. Just wait. One fucking day.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. At first I ignored it. Then the continuous vibration started grating on me and I pulled it out. Jodi. Of course. Probably calling to ask for more money or to complain. I just wanted the day to end.

"Yeah," I answered, keeping my voice flat as I walked to the bathroom.

"Holy fucking shit, Chance." Her voice was loud. "That was so unlike you!"

I put the phone on speaker, set it on the counter, and turned on the sink. Blood still streaked my face from earlier. I started washing it off.

"Unlike me?"

"Super cool," she said. "Good job. You finally did something for me."

"Shut the fuck up."

I hung up and kept scrubbing. Finally did something for me, huh? All the money I had sent her over the years could have put a down payment on a decent place with an actual front yard. She was the pure definition of a leech. She would keep draining me until there was nothing left.

She called again. I let it ring on the counter without answering.

I walked back to the bedroom and dropped onto the bed, still aching and exhausted. I needed a shower. I needed sleep more. Laziness won.

I closed my eyes and was out in under a minute.

??????????

Next morning was... different.

The storm outside was bad, wind slamming against the windows, cold air seeping through every gap. I ran the indoor loop again anyway. Kitchen to living room to bedroom and back, over and over, until the progress bar finally filled all the way.

Endurance quest completed. The reward was 250 EXP.

I stopped, breathing hard, and almost laughed. That was a serious payout. Worth every miserable lap. I had finally leveled up.

I dropped onto the couch, ready to open the system and spend the points. But a knock at the door stopped me.

I stood, checked the peephole, and saw Jason, the landlord, standing in the hallway with a clipboard under one arm.

I opened the door.

"Morning," he said. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t enjoy being the messenger. "Official notice. The city flagged this whole block as high-risk for the incoming storm. They’re advising everyone to stay indoors after eight tonight. Winds are expected to get a lot worse, possible power issues, the usual. Just... don’t go out if you can help it."

I nodded. "Got it."

He started to turn away, then paused when I spoke again.

"Hey. Did Karim talk to you yesterday?"

Jason frowned slightly. "Yeah, actually. He said you forgot your key inside and asked if I could let him in to grab it for you. I gave him the spare."

My jaw tightened. "Don’t do that again."

He blinked. "Okay... why?"

"Just don’t. Please."

I closed the door before he could ask anything else.

For a few seconds I stood there with my forehead against the wood, exhaling slowly. Then I walked back to the couch, sat down, and opened the system interface.

The level-up was waiting.

And so was everything else I still had to deal with.

Alright. Five points to spend, five stats staring back at me.

IBE was the clear priority. It had already proven itself the most immediately useful. Perception came second. Charisma could wait a little longer.

I dumped all five points into In Bed Experience and confirmed.

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MAIN MENU

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NAME: Chance Brooks

LVL: 11 [104/689]

RANK: Homewrecker

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ CORE STATS ]

> CHA: 25

> END: 11

> PER: 25

> LCK: 4

> IBE: 16

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ ENERGY ]

> LUST: 200/200

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ACTIVE PERKS: Expand]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SIN POINTS: 1520

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Better. If I called Star again, maybe I wouldn’t embarrass myself this time. Maybe I could even finish that revenge quest properly.

Sarah was still the bigger priority, though. Her Dependence was sitting dangerously low. If I didn’t keep pressure on it, there was a real chance she and Hubert would patch things up and the number would climb again. I couldn’t let that happen.

I grabbed my phone and dialed her.

She picked up after a few rings. "Hello?"

"Hey. Morning."

"Morning."

"You hear the news?" I asked. "Landlord just came by. Said nobody should go outside after eight because of the storm."

"Yeah, it’s bad," she said. "I had a night shift today, but I’m not going in. Poor trainee’s going to have to handle everything alone."

"I’m sure she’ll manage."

"Yeah." A small chuckle. "Oh—crap. Hubert’s coming. I have to go, Chance."

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye."

The call ended. I exhaled and set the phone down.

Short. Too short. I could’ve pushed the conversation further, but there hadn’t been time. Phone calls were never going to be enough anyway. I needed to see her face-to-face. With Hubert home and the weather this miserable, that was going to be difficult.

Inviting her to run was off the table. The storm made that impossible. All I could do for now was wait and hope Hubert opened his mouth at the wrong time. One more argument might shave a few more points off her Dependence. It was a thin hope, but it was the only realistic play left today.

I leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

For once, the smartest move might just be to sit still and let the day happen.

????????????