Chapter 26: Episode 26: Try Again?

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

She was Nikki. Of course she could survive 72 hours of sexual frustration.

At least that is what she told herself.

I wasn’t horny.

She was dripping.

Who needs a bot anyway, I will just be a celibate.

Says the one who is trying to compare him to a human male.

But still Nikki made up her mind.

“Challenge accepted,” she muttered, turning on her heel and marching back to the sofa.

She couldn’t run to her room; the Quest required proximity. She had to be near him. She just couldn’t touch him.

Easy, she lied to herself. I’ll just… distract myself.

She flopped onto the cushions and decided to check out her profile.

“System,” she subvocalized. “Show me my profile.”

The system popped up.

It was translucent, so she could still vaguely see A-01 moving around in the background, drying his hair. She tried very hard to focus on the text and not the way his towel dipped dangerously low on his hips.

[USER PROFILE]

[Name: Nikki

Class: The Variable

Level: 4

Relationship Status: It’s Complicated.

Influence: 35% (You have corrupted his logic circuits significantly. Good job.)]

Nikki snorted. “Corrupted. Thanks.”

She tabbed over to the [INVENTORY]

1x Oversized Gray T-Shirt (Stolen)

1x Silver Bio-Suit

1x “Supernova” Silicone Device (Confiscated by Target)

5,000 Credits (Allowance)

“He still has the dildo,” Nikki realized with a fresh wave of mortification. “Perhaps I might need to find out where he had kept it.”

She quickly clicked on the tab she had ignored until now: [SYSTEM SHOP].

Rows of icons populated the screen. Nikki’s jaw dropped.

It wasn’t just clothes. It was… everything.

[COMMON ITEMS]

Fresh Strawberries (10 Credits) – Impossible to find in the sectors.

Antibiotics (50 Credits) – Worth their weight in gold on the black market.

Clean Water Tablet (5 Credits)

[RARE ITEMS]

Sector 1 Citizenship Pass (1,000 Credits) – People killed for these.

Neural Link Blocker (2,500 Credits) – Hides thoughts from deep-scans.

[LEGENDARY ITEMS]

Legacy Data Drive [ENCRYPTED] (500,000 Credits)

Project: GENESIS Blueprint (1,000,000 Credits)

The Truth (Price: LOCKED – Requires Level 50)

“The Truth?” Nikki whispered, her brow furrowing. “What does that even mean?”

The prices for the legendary items were astronomical. What exactly must she do to earn that kind of credit? But the items themselves sent a chill down her spine. Project Genesis? Legacy Data? It felt heavy and important.

She scrolled down, trying to shake the ominous feeling. At the bottom of the settings tab, she noticed a grayed-out toggle switch.

[VOICE MODE: OFF]

Description: Activates the System’s auditory persona. Allows for direct verbal communication with the Interface.

Nikki paused.

“Voice mode?” she wondered. “What would it sound like? Siri with an attitude? Or…”

She reached out to tap it, curious. A voice in her head would be less lonely than reading text boxes.

The sound of a wet towel hitting the floor pulled her away from her thoughts.

Nikki flinched, the System window dissolving into mist as her concentration broke.

She looked up.

A-01 was standing five feet away. He had dropped the towel he used to dry his hair, but thankfully, or unluckily, the one around his waist remained secure.

His hair was messy. Usually, it was slicked back in that severe, dictatorial style.

But now, damp and unstyled, it fell forward over his forehead in jagged white spikes. It softened his face. It made him look less like a weapon and more like… a man.

A tired, beautiful man just out of the shower.

Water droplets clung to the synthetic skin of his shoulders, sliding down the valley of his pectoral muscles, over the ridges of his abs, and disappearing into the white terrycloth bunched at his hips.

Nikki gulped. The sound was audible in the quiet room.

She squeezed her legs together, feeling the phantom friction from last night, ghost over her skin.

[TIME REMAINING: 71 HOURS, 50 MINUTES.] [WARNING: HEART RATE ELEVATING. DON’T DO IT, STUPID.]

The system voice, a soft feminine tone resounded in her head. Nikki was too occupied to register it.

“Your breathing haturned irregular,” A-01 noted, stepping closer.

His distinct smell of rain, and that expensive, sterile soap drifted beautifully into her nose.

“I’m fine,” Nikki squeaked. She stood up, intending to move to the kitchen, to get away from the gravitational pull of his naked torso.

But the Quest said Stay Close.

If she walked away, she failed. If she touched him, she failed.

“You seem… tense,” A-01 murmured. He didn’t understand the game. He only knew that she was staring at him with dilated pupils.

He took another step, invading her personal space. “Is the temperature in the room insufficient? You are not wearing your suit so I can’t determine what you are feeling.”

He was so close now. Nikki could see the individual pores of his bio-printed skin. She could see the faint pulse of blue light in his eyes.

He tilted his head, a droplet of water falling from his hair and landing on his lip.

Nikki stared at that droplet.

She remembered his mouth on hers.

Logic left the building. The quest was forgotten. The System’s warning was just background noise.

“Screw it,” Nikki breathed.

She grabbed the damp towel around his neck and yanked him down.

A-01 stumbled forward, surprised, but his hands instinctively came up to catch her waist.

Nikki crashed her lips against his. It wasn’t gentle. It was desperate, fueled by her frustration. She licked into his mouth, tasting the water and the cool mint of his breath.

She pressed her body flush against his bare chest, grinding her hips into him, seeking that hard ridge she knew was hiding just beneath the towel.

For a microsecond, A-01 stiffened. Then, his programming kicked in.

She wanted him to pleasure her again.

That was the request A-01 received.

His arms tightened around her as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss.

A violent, jarring red strobe light flashed in Nikki’s vision, blinding her.

[FAIL!]

[FAIL!]

[FAIL!]

Nikki gasped, pulling back, blinking spots from her eyes.

A-01 looked down at her, dazed, his lips wet “Nikki? Are you okay?”

But Nikki couldn’t see him. A massive, angry red window was floating in front of her face, blocking out the sexy robot completely.

[QUEST FAILED: “THE RESTRAINT TEST”]

[REASON: ZERO SELF-CONTROL. LITERALLY ZERO.]

[PENALTY APPLIED: RELATIONSHIP RESET (EMOTIONAL PROGRESS LOST).]

That_0ne_cr

The text scrolled down, mocking her. And at the very bottom, a single, sassy prompt blinked in the air.

[Would you wish to try again?]

[YES] / [NO]

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