Chapter 63: Greater heights

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Greater heights

Garrett tapped the notification.

[MAJOR OBJECTIVE UNLOCKED]

[OBJECTIVE: UNCOVER EMILIANA’S DEEPEST SECRET]

He read it once, the wording catching on something in the back of his mind immediately. "Deepest secret. That’s specific."

He didn’t let it sit unanswered. "What exactly do you mean by that? Her deepest secret."

The system responded without hesitation.

[THE SECRET THAT CANNOT BE DISCOVERED THROUGH INVESTIGATIONS.]

Garrett frowned slightly. "So searching for it won’t work. Asking people who know her. Looking into her family, their business, whatever’s public about the Vane name."

Garrett leaned back against the couch. That eliminated the obvious routes. He could search. He could ask questions. That was how he had always approached problems: find what he didn’t know, gather enough of it, then decide what to do with it.

"Then how am I supposed to find something I can’t investigate?"

The answer came immediately.

[HINT: ONLY DEEP ROMANTIC PROGRESSION CAN UNVEIL THE SECRET.]

Garrett stared at the screen. For several seconds, he didn’t say anything. The wording left little room for interpretation. The system wasn’t giving him a mystery to solve. It was giving him a relationship to develop.

"So you’re basically telling me to date her seriously."

The system didn’t answer that directly.

[ROMANTIC PROGRESSION IS THE REQUIRED PATH. GENUINE PROGRESSION CANNOT BE FABRICATED.]

Garrett considered that. That was the part he couldn’t cheat. He could spend money, create opportunities, say the right things at the right times. But if Emiliana didn’t genuinely feel closer to him, none of it would matter. And that made the objective considerably harder.

With Freya, things had developed naturally. There hadn’t been some carefully calculated plan behind every conversation. They had simply spent time together, talked, laughed, and eventually crossed a line neither of them had expected when they’d first met. Emiliana was different. There was too much around her: her family, her father’s expectations, Raymond, the men who had already been sent after him, and whatever Brian was involved in.

Garrett didn’t know where all those pieces connected yet. Now the system was telling him that the only way to reach the truth was to become genuinely closer to her.

He rubbed his thumb across the edge of his phone.

He was still thinking about that when another line appeared beneath it.

[ADDITIONAL HINT]

[HOST IS ADVSIED TO ELEVATE HIS SOCIAL STATUS.]

Garrett paused. "What does my social status have to do with any of this?"

The system answered immediately.

[DEEPER ACCESS TO EMILIANA’S WORLD WILL REQUIRE YOU TO BECOME SOMEONE CAPABLE OF STANDING WITHIN IT.]

Garrett’s eyes narrowed slightly. "I already have money."

[MONEY PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES. IT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY PROVIDE RECOGNITION, INFLUENCE, CONNECTIONS, OR SOCIAL STANDING.]

Garrett looked at the message again. That distinction was hard to argue with. Money had changed plenty. He could afford a better apartment, buy decent clothes, eat without calculating whether a meal would leave him short for the rest of the week.

But money hadn’t changed the fact that he was still Garrett Rafferty. A university student. Someone without a powerful family behind him. Someone Raymond could threaten because he assumed Garrett didn’t have the connections to make the threat expensive. Someone who could stand beside Emiliana and still be treated as the outsider.

Garrett exhaled through his nose. "So I need more than money."

The system didn’t respond. It didn’t need to. He understood the hint. He just didn’t know what came next. There wasn’t a button for it. No amount of money automatically translated into respect. And if the system expected him to figure that part out himself, then it had apparently decided he needed another headache.

Garrett was about to ask another question when he noticed something. He could already imagine what would happen if he tried: forced conversations, artificial gestures, trying to push Emiliana into a level of closeness she wasn’t ready for. That would defeat the entire point. Genuine progression couldn’t be fabricated.

He was still sitting with the thought when another question came to him. "And if I don’t complete it?"

The system answered without delay.

[FAILURE CONSEQUENCE: ALL BENEFITS, REWARDS, AND ADVANTAGES OBTAINED THROUGH THE SYSTEM WILL BE REVOKED.]

Garrett went still. He read the message again, then once more. All benefits. All rewards. All advantages. There was no complicated wording to hide behind. He knew exactly what that meant.

Garrett’s expression hardened. "So everything I’ve earned disappears."

[ALL SYSTEM-ACQUIRED BENEFITS WILL BE REVOKED.]

He stared at the screen. He had grown used to seeing rewards appear, money deposited into his account, opportunities showing up at exactly the right moment, things that would have been impossible for the old Garrett becoming normal.

Then another line appeared.

[THIS INCLUDES ALL ROMANTIC PROGRESSION ESTABLISHED THROUGH THE SYSTEM.]

Garrett’s expression changed. That wasn’t money. His eyes stayed on the screen.

Before he could respond, another line followed.

[INCLUDING HOST’S POTENTIAL TO BUILD A HAREM]

He reread it once, then again. "Wait. Are you saying I’m supposed to build a harem?"

The system answered with its usual bluntness.

[THE HOST’S ROMANTIC PROGRESSION IS NOT RESTRICTED TO A SINGLE WOMAN.]

Garrett sat quietly. "That’s actually part of the system?"

No further explanation came. Apparently, that was all he was getting.

He looked away from the phone. The ceiling offered no useful answers. His eyes eventually returned to the screen.

Emiliana. Then Freya. The two names appeared in his mind almost automatically. They were different. His relationship with Emiliana carried tension he still didn’t fully understand; every time he thought he’d gotten closer to her, another complication appeared.

Freya was different. She was next door. Familiar. Easy to be around. They could sit on his couch, watch something stupid, talk about nothing important, and somehow make the evening feel better than it had any right to. Garrett hadn’t planned for either of them. He certainly hadn’t planned for both.

"So you’re telling me I could lose both."

[CONFIRMED.]

That single word landed harder than the rest.

Garrett set the phone down slowly. For a moment, he simply sat there. Losing the money would be painful. But it was replaceable. He could earn money again. Freya and Emiliana weren’t possessions the system could simply list beside a balance. If he lost what he’d built with them, there was no guarantee he could recreate it. That was the part he didn’t like.

Garrett leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "That’s one hell of a condition."

The system remained silent. He wasn’t surprised. He had the information now. The objective was clear. The path was clear enough. The stakes were clear.

He needed to become closer to Emiliana without forcing it. He needed to become someone capable of moving through her world. And he needed to protect what he’d built with Freya while figuring out what he actually wanted.

For once, he wasn’t thinking about the reward.

He was thinking about the challenge.

Money had gotten him this far. Apparently, money wasn’t going to be enough to take him any further.

"What do I get in return?"

[REWARD: NEW DASHBOARD UNLOCKED]

Garrett blinked. "New dashboard?"

He stared at the notification.

"What the hell does that mean?". The system offered no explanation.

Garrett rubbed his face. "Give me a break, man."

He tossed the phone onto the bed and leaned back.

One problem at a time.

Unfortunately, the system seemed determined to give him three at once.