Chapter 206: A Shocking New Feature
After leaving the proverbial lion’s den, Alex found himself breaking out into a deep sweat. He had never been in such a precarious before in either of his two lives. His first life was fairly mundane. He had worked hard to make a meager fortune by the age of thirty and spent all of his free time sleeping with beautiful women.
In this life, it was even easier. He had many beautiful women by his side and spent his free time fighting for a living. His fortune and everything he owned was either the result of the system giving it to him, or him inheriting it.
But now he was asked to become a hitman for the cartel? That was not exactly what Alex had in mind when he first entered this world. Sure, he was good with a gun and was an expert in hand to hand combatant. He also lacked a moral compass in general, and could pull the trigger without feeling remorse. But the life of a sicario was a short one.
If the rival cartels got his hands on him, they might cut his heart out of his chest and eat it in front of him. This wasn’t a civilized war waged between nations and their professional armies. This was a war fought between two groups of psychotic killers, from a group of people descended from literal savages who cut people’s hearts out for religious purposes.
A gang war in Mexican, and a gang war in America were two very different things. Alex didn’t realize it, but he was dropped off back in the city with nothing but his wallet and his luggage to keep him company. His first act after coming back to reality was finding a nice hotel to stay at. Which he was quick to do so.
He then spent the entire night sleeping off the sense of dread that had suddenly overwhelmed him once the adrenaline had worn off. Fighting for the cartel, only a madman or a psycho would ever think of doing such a thing!
The next morning, Alex awoke to find the Queen of Hearts sitting on his bed. She had a relatively self-satisfied smile on her face as she spoke to Alex in a very smug tone.
“Well, well, well… Look who survived the Lion’s Den. It looks like we have our own Daniel here!”
“Did you just quote the fucking bible to me? Aren’t you Asian? Why do you know so much about Christianity?”
The Queen of Hearts merely rolled her blood-red eyes in an act of annoyance before shoving her finger into Alex’s face.
“I’m a freaking system Alex! We have been over this! Just because I look like I have Asiatic faces doesn’t mean I’m even human! I know everything about this world, and the one you came from! You’re lucky that you’re pretty, because sometimes I swear that brain of yours is operating at half capacity!”
Alex ignored the Queen’s rude response, and instead got out of his bed, where she quickly gazed upon his naked body with lust in her crimson eyes. The mysterious beauty was forced to bite her lip to bring her back to reality before asking Alex the next question on her mind.
“So how do you plan to find out about these heroines of yours? Remember, you have to be extremely careful in pursuing these women, because if you fail to conquer one of them it is a game over, and I think you understand what I mean when I use such… polite… terminology!”
Alex walked over to the minibar in his hotel room and pulled out a miniscule bottle of tequila, one that was likely to be served on a commercial flight. Which he poured into a glass before drinking it all in one go. He then wiped his mouth before turning around and speaking to his lovely sister in arms.
“I have no idea…. I’m looking at the freaking map that the system gave me, but there’s not even a single woman’s profile on it other than La Madre… What is this, Selena Cortés? Is that her actual name?”
The Queen of Hearts wore a smug grin as she nodded her head before confirming that was indeed La Madre’s real name.
“Yup, btw here’s a little history fact for you. She’s directly descended from them and who brought down that once mighty Aztec Empire. You could say that mass murder is in her blood! Don’t be fooled Alex, she may look pretty, and she may have a flirtatious personality, but your current affection with her is set at the very bottom. If you piss her off in any way, she will dip into the negative, and that is a game over.
For the record, the other heroines are outside the city, and she has explicitly forbidden you from leaving the city until you give her your answer…”
Alex looked at the Queen of Hearts as if she were absolutely mental before raising his voice towards her.
“Wait, a second? I can’t leave the city, but all the other heroines are outside the fucking city? Then how the hell am I supposed to find out anything about them, and what path I should pursue? You told me I had a fucking choice on whether I became involved in this stupid war, or acted as a bystander! It doesn’t really seem like that to me!”
The Queen of Hearts once more rolled her eyes in annoyance at Alex before snapping at him in a similar way he had done to her.
“I know you’re frustrated right now Alex, but don’t start yelling at me just because you’re upset with the start of this arc! Besides…. I never said it was impossible to learn about your other heroines… It’s just going to cost you!”
Alex felt like he was being extorted, but was quick to open his wallet and pull out a pile of cash, completely misunderstanding the Queen of Hearts’ intentions as he did so.
“Alright, fine, how much? Money isn’t an object to me, anyway!”
This response caused the Queen of Hearts to break out into a fit of giggles before lecturing Alex on his own naivety.
“Like I said… You’re lucky that you’re pretty… Alex, I’m a freaking system, what possible need would I have for your mortal currency? Think about this logically for a second!”
No matter how much Alex thought about everything the Queen of Hearts had said, he could not fathom just what she meant by this ,and quickly gave up, asking her to just give him the answer instead of being so coy.
“Fuck it, I don’t know! Call me stupid all you want, just be straight with me for once!”
Despite his outburst, the Queen of Hearts merely looked at Alex as if he were an adorable plaything, before opening up a special feature that displayed itself in Alex’s vision.
“Welcome to the in-game store, as you might call it! The more heroines you conquer, and the higher you raise their affection the more of my special currency you are awarded. I’d say by now you have well over 2,500 points! Spend it wisely though, because these points are not easy to earn and the items they can buy might very well save your life!”
Alex looked over the items in the store, which consisted of items that boosted things like amount of affection earned temporarily, a temporary boost in things like attraction, sex appeal, charisma, et cetera. And then there were more valuable items like things that could revive Alex from the brink of death, or even entire dossiers on the heroines in this arc that would give him all the information he needed on how to affectively win them over.
These were the most expensive items of all, costing 1,000 points each, meaning that Alex could only buy dossiers on two of the heroines in this arc, at least for the time being. When Alex saw this he stared at the Queen of Hearts with a look of complete and utter disbelief on his face before chastising her for not revealing this aspect of the system sooner.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re telling me that this was available to me the entire time, and you are only revealing it to me just now!?!”
The Queen of hearts simply closed one eye and stuck out her tongue, while pulling down the eyelid of the other in a playful gesture before uttering a single incoherent sound.
“Teehee!”
After saying this, the mysterious beauty disappeared entirely from Alex’s sight, leaving him alone with this newly discovered feature of his system. Alex was so enraged he felt like throwing the tv out the window, but forced himself to remain calm as he looked over the options that the system had given him.
From the looks of it, there were five heroines in this arc. Two of which he had already met, whose names and profile pictures were displayed on the dossier. As for the other three, they were blacked out, and left with the description “??? Dossier.”
Knowing this, Alex had a very important decision to make, one that relied almost entirely on random chance….