Chapter 244: What The Hell!!

Chapter 244

"No problemo my good sir, one status screen coming right up!" the chibi chirped cheerfully, before snapping her tiny fingers together with a dramatic flourish, as if she were some kind of game show host revealing a grand prize.

In the next second a blue translucent looking panel flickered into existence directly in front of Alex, hovering like some sort of hologram in the dim lighting of his room as lines of glowing text came into view.

[Status — Updated]

[Name: Alex Walker]

[Age: 21]

[Body Condition: Mid Elite Superhuman]

[Vitality: Very Strong]

[Strength: 1905]

[Speed: 1875]

[Agility: 1950]

[Perception: 1845]

[Charm: Very High]

[Baseline Charisma: Very High]

[Libido: High]

[Desire Points: 8200 points]

[Desire Energy: 799/900]

[System Rank: B]

[Skills:]

• Aura Of Seduction (Lv.1)

• Profit Instinct

• Spatial Storage Space

• Infinite Skill Absorption

• Deathfrost Bloom

• Eye Of Chronos

• Celestial Thunder

• Void Step

• Crimson Supernova

• Lifespan Symbiosis

• Universal Linguistics Mastery [NEW]

[Physical Development: High]

[Current Length: 10 inches]

[Harem Slots: 7 / ∞]

[Titles Earned:]

• The Indomitable Cockroach

• Harem Predator

Alex’s eyes immediately zeroed in on his Desire Energy slot, scanning the number over and over as if to fully make sure he wasn’t hallucinating or anything. He even made sure to pinch his arms hard just in case before a wide, almost giddy grin slowly began spreading across his face as the number sank in properly.

The last time he had even checked his status panel, the Desire Energy bar had still been sitting somewhere around five hundred. The number that had previously felt so far away from his next breakthrough.

But now, after all the precious Desire Energy he had gained over the past few days, tonight’s little escapade with Julian included, it had shot up dramatically to a staggering seven hundred and ninety-nine, agonizingly, deliciously close to that coveted nine-hundred mark.

At this rate, mentally doing a quick maths he estimated that sleeping with just one more Awakened woman should be more than enough to completely max out the bar and finally push him over the threshold into his next rank.

Damn, that freaking thought alone was enough to make him want to pump both fists into the air and let out a victorious shout. He felt so excited that he almost thought he might actually pop from the anticipation alone.

"Grade A," he muttered under his breath almost reverently while staring up at the glowing panel like it held the secrets of the cosmos. "I’m actually this close."

The chibi floated closer, studying his giddy expression with a small smile at the corner of her small lips. She clearly looked almost amused by how excited he looked.

Then in a tone that sounded far more thoughtful than her usual playful teasing, she said.

[I don’t mean to be a downer or anything, especially when you’re this excited,]

she said gently, while drifting lazily in a circle around his head,

[But even once you level up into A Rank, you really should keep in mind that there are still plenty of powerful individuals sitting in classes far above that. So don’t get too comfortable just because you’ll soon be sitting in Master Realm with no danger threatening you at that moment, after you’ve rescued your two wifeys.]

She paused, her large watery eyes taking on a rare note of what definitely looked like genuine seriousness as the once playful mischief that usually danced within them began dimming quite considerably.

[Even during peaceful times, you still need to remember to keep grinding, to keep growing stronger, if you really want to properly protect your family and everyone you care about going forward. Then you should really know that power like that isn’t enough, Alex, and trust me when I say the world out there won’t always stay this quiet. Threats have a funny way of showing up right when you least expect them.]

With that, Alex watched as she offered him a small, almost motherly smile, one that felt strangely out of place on her usually mischievous cute features, before beginning to fade gradually away as her small form began to turn translucent.

[Anyway, that’s enough lecturing for one night, I think. Goodnight, Alex. Time for this adorable little girl to get her well-deserved beauty sleep.]

And then, just like that, she vanished completely out of his sight, leaving Alex alone in his now quiet room.

It didn’t really take too long for the excited, and buzzing energy that had been flowing through him moments ago to slowly drain away, and get replaced by an even more serious expression as her words settled firmly into his mind, sinking in deeper the longer he sat with them.

"Yeah," he murmured quietly to himself, staring up at the ceiling above his bed, his earlier excitement tempered considerably. "She’s right. That’s actually some pretty solid advice."

He lay there for a long while afterward, with his arms folded behind his head, as he mulled her warning over and over in his thoughts. It was easy to get swept up in the thrill of rapidly climbing through the ranks, especially after everything he’d accomplished recently, like defeating the blasted Bone Demon General’s forces, surviving that nightmare of a sea queen monster, crippling Julian without breaking a sweat.

But power, real power, you know? the kind capable of protecting the people he actually cared about, wasn’t something he could afford to get complacent about, not when there were still entire realms above him he hadn’t even begun to comprehend yet. Like Transcendent Realm. And who knew what lay even beyond that.

Eventually, his eyelids grew heavy as the exhaustion of the night’s events finally caught up with him despite his racing thoughts, and sleep claimed him before he even realized he’d drifted off.

******

In a large hall filled with various students and a professor who walking about, Alex was busy staring down at the pop quiz paper with a frustrated expression etched across his otherwise handsome features.

Seriously, between battling regenerating sea monsters in underground caverns, helping orchestrate the downfall of a powerful underworld ruler, crippling spoiled rich kids in nightclubs, and juggling a dozen other increasingly chaotic side quests life kept throwing his way without any warning whatsoever, he genuinely hadn’t found a single spare moment to flip open a book in what felt like ages.

Hell, he could barely even remember the last time he came to class without his mind.

And of course, naturally, today of all days, their notoriously stern professor, the kind of man who looked like he hadn’t smiled once in his entire fifteen years career, had apparently decided it was the best time to spring an unannounced pop quiz on the entire class.

Just my luck, Alex thought bitterly, drumming his fingers lightly and impatiently against the edge of his desk as he scanned over the intimidating wall of questions printed neatly across the page in front of him.

Around him, he could hear the anxious shuffling of papers and the occasional sighs from his classmates, several of whom looked like they were already internally panicking.

But then, as his eyes skimmed further down the paper, pausing on a particular question, something clicked in the back of his mind.

Wait a minute! Wasn’t he technically someone who’d already lived through an entire previous life before all of this chaos began? Sure, in that past life he hadn’t possessed any system, hadn’t gone through any of these wild, death-defying adventures involving monsters and Awakened abilities and secret underworld organizations and harem slots of all things. His previous life had been super ordinary by comparison.

But still, academically speaking, hadn’t he already covered material almost exactly like this before, back when he’d actually had the luxury of focusing solely on something as trivial as schoolwork?

A slow, confident grin crept across his face as the realization fully sank in. He actually remembered the answers to most of these questions, dusty and distant as those old memories were, buried somewhere deep beneath decades of accumulated knowledge from a life that technically no longer existed.

Without wasting another second, Alex snatched up his pen and began scribbling down answers at an impressively rapid pace. Things like all those complicated equations he hadn’t thought about in ages, it all came flooding back surprisingly easily, like riding a bicycle he hadn’t touched in ages but somehow still remembered perfectly down to the smallest detail.

Within a fraction of the time most of his classmates were still taking, many of them still looked like they were agonizing over the first few questions, Alex finished scrawling out his final answer with a satisfied smile, gave the paper one quick but very thorough once-over to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and then rose confidently from his seat to submit his paper well ahead of everyone else.

After submitting it, Alex casually walked out of the lecture hall afterward with one hand resting lazily against the back of his head, as a smile full of satisfaction played across his lips as he made his way down the crowded hallway and out through the building’s main doors.

Once outside Alex couldn’t help stretching his arms high above his head since they were a bit sore from fighting those abominations yesterday.

He was already mentally planning out the rest of his day. Maybe grab something decent to eat, catch up on some much-needed rest, perhaps even swing by and check in on a few people he hadn’t properly seen in a while now.

But as he rounded the corner near the student parking section, his easygoing pace came to an abrupt halt, and the relaxed smile that had been on his face disappeared like it hadn’t been there a second ago.

What the hell!! Clustered around his car were a group of several dudes who were all laughing obnoxiously among themselves like someone high on laughing gas as they gleefully shook the cans of spray paint to continue spraying more crude and ugly graffiti on the hood and doors of his baby. His car!

Couldn’t his car rest for one damn moment without getting targeted by some bastard!!