Chapter 16: Chapter 16 – Hugh: Screw you, System!

Even though it was a Saturday, I woke shortly after sunrise. So much had happened yesterday and I'd been so drained, that I'd ended up going to sleep early. Time to check those system messages.

Except I wasn't totally sure how to do that since I hadn't ever pulled up one that I'd already dismissed. The system, though, was strangely intuitive in a lot of ways. Despite the lack of help screens, it seemed to work on an intent basis, so I simply focused on my desire to read the first of the messages that I'd missed.

A blue box immediately popped up.

That message, down to the number of XP received, was exactly what I had expected. The next box, though, held a minor surprise.

Nat had been 75 XP from Level 3, so, obviously, the 90 she received at the mall, which ironically wasn't outside, would have pushed her up to that level. The combination of the streaking quest and the one I would much rather forget even happened and kind of hoped she didn't even get rewarded for must have been valuable enough to get her all the way to 4. Nice. I pulled up the next message.

I quickly pulled up my status.

I pulled up my status screen.

Not only had I leveled up, but I was in spitting distance of doing so again since the increase stayed constant at 50 XP. Since going from 1 to 2 had required 50 and from 2 to 3 needed 100, I'd been afraid it was going to double again. That could have gotten out of hand quickly.

All in all, my character sheet was still looking pretty sparse, but it was definitely moving in the right direction.

I thought that I'd only dismissed three messages during that frantic drive home last night, but it was better safe than sorry. I willed the system to pull up any others that I missed.

I hadn't had an opportunity to figure out what advancing to the second level for the Quest Giver skill gave me, but, given the title. my suspicion was that the second level of Invite would expand the number of System Users I was allowed to recruit.

That was concerning, very concerning. I immediately texted Natalie.

<Are you up? We need to talk.>

She responded seconds later.

<Come over.>

It took me a little while, obviously. I needed a quick shower, and I had to shave and brush my teeth and dress. But I hurried as much as I could, arriving at her apartment about a half hour later. When she opened the door to my knock, the first thing that I noticed was that she was wearing a nightshirt that reached midthigh on her with no apparent bra on underneath, and, even though I'd seen her wear much less yesterday, the fact that I knew she probably let very few people see her like that made me very interested in her appearance. Which led to the second thing I noticed - she appeared almost frantic.

"Sit down," she said. "Please."

Only her tone wasn't cordial. It was almost pleading.

"Look," she said as soon as I took my seat, "I came on way too strong yesterday. I was too clingy, too needy. I understand what you're feeling, but please rethink this."

I literally had no idea what she was talking about. "Rethink what?"

"Breaking up with me."

Do what? Huh?

"What on earth makes you think I want to break up with you?" I asked.

"You texted me that we need to talk!"

Apparently, "we need to talk" was code for "I'm going to break up with you." Who knew? There was a lot about girls that I was going to have to learn.

"I need to talk to you about a quest that I received."

"Oh," she said.

It bothered me that she thought that I wasn’t interested in taking things further with her.

"You need to understand something very important. Breaking up with you is the exact opposite of what I want. In fact, Natalie, would you go out with me on a date? Nothing big or elaborate, just dinner and a movie tonight? No quests or system or flashing or anything else. Just the two of us."

"I ... of course. Yes." She put her hand over her face. "I'm such an idiot."

You are reading story The ENF System at novel35.com

"You are not. At all. You're adorable."

"After last night, putting myself out there like that, and then the text..."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I worded that text wrong. It's all my fault."

There was one thing about women that I learned from my dad - it was always best to apologize even if you've done nothing wrong.

"So," she said, "a quest?"

I told her about the terms of Expand and my suspicions of what that meant.

"That's a good thing, right?" she asked. "More people to spread the burden, and you'll get more experience points for them leveling. It won't all be on me."

"Nat, think about how we get you points. Yesterday morning, I would have been all for finding as many System Users as possible but now? Would you really feel comfortable with me doing those kinds of things with another girl?"

"Do I have a choice?"

I tried to answer that, but she talked over me.

"I have high hopes for where you and I are heading, but we're not even close to being official yet. We're only going to have our first date tonight. It would be stupid of me to try to force you into exclusivity this early."

"I get your point, but I have high hopes, too. Before yesterday, I was like, 'Girlfriend? I can take it or leave it.' Now I’m willing to fight to give you and me a chance."

"Good," she said. "I like hearing that, but I don't see what one has to do with the other."

I blew out a breath. "I have no desire to cheat on you. I honestly don't think I would ever cheat on anyone. It's not in my DNA. I'm the type of guy who is content with what he has, and I've never dreamed of dating multiple girls at once. I'm totally down with monogamy."

"But..."

I grimaced. "This system. It's like everything about what it's leading us to do is designed to arouse me to the maximum degree. And I’m not alone in getting carried away, either.”

She blushed.

“With you and where it looks like we're headed,” I said, “I am not objecting at all to our reaction. In fact, it’s fantastic, but I don’t want to risk having those feelings about another girl. No matter how much I have no desire to cheat on your or to do anything sexual with anyone else, I just don’t completely trust myself not to give into temptation if it was right in front of me. Again, it’s just not a risk that is worth taking."

Natalie relaxed, and it wasn't until her shoulders became less rigid that I realized how tense she'd been. "I'm obviously not going to fight you on this. I mean, I don't want to be the reason you're making this decision - or at least I don't think it's fair of me to ask that of you - but I can't help but agree with you." She paused for a moment. "Devil's advocate, though, are there any workarounds? Could you give the quests but not be with her when they're carried out?"

I thought about that for a moment. "I guess something like that could work, but, let's be honest, doing the sort of stuff we did yesterday is dangerous for a girl. I'm still kicking myself about my behavior at the mall. Those construction workers or frat guys could have followed us, and I'm not much of a fighter. I don't know if I could have kept you safe. And that's not even talking about legal trouble. I mean, would you feel right about giving a girl a quest like that and telling her she's on her own to complete it? I'd never forgive myself if something ended up happening to her."

"That would definitely be an issue, but maybe we could find a girl with a really steady boyfriend who could be trusted?"

"That's an interesting thought. My only concern there is finding the right couple might be difficult considering that the guy would be watching his girlfriend gain superhuman abilities while he was left behind. I guess there are some guys who could do that, but it seems like it would put a strain on the relationship."

"Yeeps," she said. "I hadn't considered any of that."

I kind of chuckled.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just this whole situation. The litrpg genre has a lot of harem stories, and I've never really gotten into them. I just can't help but feel that the system is trying to push me in that direction. I swear, if I get a quest that tells me to start one, I'm so done."

"Good!" she exclaimed.

We both laughed. It was a relief to have that decision made.

You can find story with these keywords: The ENF System, Read The ENF System, The ENF System novel, The ENF System book, The ENF System story, The ENF System full, The ENF System Latest Chapter