Chapter 243: Chapter 243

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REPUTATION SYSTEM (LVL 11)

VILLAIN░░░░░░░██░░░░░░░░ HERO

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Betraying your friend: -10

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Current Reputation: Good

– More EXP gain when making your

partner climax.

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Another minus point to my Reputation. Well, of course. With Delilah, as long as Ivy didn’t know about us, every time we had sex I’d get penalized like some cosmic morality system wagging a finger at me. Whatever. I’d just have to accept it.

“God, I just took a bath,” Delilah muttered, still catching her breath. “Did you really have to cum inside me?”

“The couches would’ve gotten dirty,” I said with a shrug. “So, yeah. Sorry.”

“Right. That’s why,” Nala muttered without looking up from her laptop.

“Yup.”

Delilah stood, stretching her arms. A warm trail of my cum slipped down her thighs, thick and slow. When one strand reached her knee and was about to drop to the floor, she swiped it with her finger—and popped it into her mouth.

Jasmine let out a soft impressed whistle.

Delilah blinked, looking at me. “Evan… your cum.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“It shouldn’t taste this good,” she said, licking her lips. “What even are you?”

“Right?” Jasmine said, nodding. “I swear, his cum tastes delicious.”

If only they knew. Just wait until I hit thirty points in Pleasure. The stuff would probably taste like dessert by then. And hell, buying points from Shop to reset the Pleasure skill and pump it even higher… oh, it was tempting. But no. I was saving up. If some rare shit popped into the Shop unexpectedly, I wanted the points available.

Delilah headed to the bathroom, humming under her breath like she wasn’t just filled to the brim with me. I exhaled and slumped back on the couch.

Fuck. Whatever this relationship was—it was chaotic, messy, dangerous… and addicting as hell.

❤︎‬‪‪❤︎‬‪‪❤︎

I woke up… or maybe I didn’t. It felt like I was still dreaming.

The rain outside was falling slow, heavy, almost lazy. I stood in the middle of a road, staring at her—the woman with the umbrella. Her face was hidden, the umbrella tilted forward just enough to keep her features in shadow. I tried to move, take even one step toward her, but my legs wouldn’t budge. It felt like my feet were fused to the asphalt.

Voices drifted through my head, layered and warped, nothing human about them.

“sv rh sviv ztzrm?”

“Rhm’g sv z szmwhlnv wvero?”

“Tvg srn lfg lu sviv. Sv hslfowm’g yv sviv.”

The woman tilted her head slightly, as if she heard the voices too. Then she turned toward me—

And I woke up in my bed.

Nala was asleep on my shoulder, breathing slow. Jasmine was curled up next to me on the other side, her back to me. I stared at the ceiling, trying to hold onto that woman’s face, even a detail—her eyes, her expression, anything. Nothing stuck. Just a vague impression of brown hair. The rest slipped away like it never existed.

I waited a few seconds, hoping the image would come back. No luck. Just frustration.

Quietly, I eased myself out from under them and left the room, shutting the door behind me.

When I reached the living room, I stopped.

Dierella stood by the window, wings moving lazily, watching the calmer streets outside. The storm had died down, and for the first time in hours, the city was visible again. She saw me in the reflection, smiled softly.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hey.” I stepped closer. “Will you please tell me who that woman is?”

“So direct,” she said, amused.

“Yeah, well. Sorry. Can you tell me who she is?”

“No one,” she said. “I have no idea which woman you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit.”

She didn’t turn around. “Why bite the hand that feeds you?”

“Why hide her from me?” I asked. “Who is she?”

“No one,” she repeated. “I’m here for another reason, Henrik. Not to indulge your curiosity.”

“Another reason?”

“You’re doing good,” she said. “Congratulations, Evan Henrik Marlowe. Keep going like that, and we might actually win.”

“Win what?”

That finally made her turn. Half her face slipped into the shadow, her eyes glowing faintly. “Everything.”

I blinked—

And she vanished.

Damn it.

❤︎‬‪‪❤︎‬‪‪❤︎

I rubbed the back of my head as I flipped through the folder again. Twenty suspects and one Evan. This was the list Adam gave me—the people who talked to him on the day the mole slipped through. If I was lucky, maybe one of these names would lead somewhere. But realistically? Yeah. Long shot.

Still, patterns were patterns.

Ten names stood out. Out of twenty men, eight were over six feet, and the guy I chased was, at best, five-nine. Two others were older, the type who definitely weren’t sprinting across rooftops. So that left me with ten people worth looking into. However, five of them were not here at the timeframe where I found the culprit. Adam put small notes that these five talked to him while they were leaving the company, and he didn’t see any of them entering the building again. So… total of five people.

“What am I, Detective Gadget? Or… shit, was it Inspector Gadget?” I muttered, leaning back.

“Yo.” A voice came from my left.

I looked up to see Jasmine standing in front of my desk, hands linked behind her back. Her hair was tied up neatly, pencil skirt hugging all the places my eyes shouldn’t be staring at while on company time.

“Talking to yourself?” she asked.

“Kinda,” I said. “Just trying to make sense of this mole crap.”

She nodded toward the folder. “That the list you and Nala mentioned?”

“Yep. I managed to narrow it down to ten people who make sense.”

“Good.” She crossed her arms. “So what’s the plan?”

“I talk to them. One by one.” I shrugged. “Not like I’ve got a better idea.”

“Is it going to be dangerous?”

“I’ll talk to them here, in the building,” I said. “So probably not. I mean, we get searched before coming in. They even confiscate our phones, Jas. I doubt he’s sneaking in a gun.”

“What if he stabs you with a pencil… in the eye?”

“Who is this guy, the Joker?” I asked. “Relax. I’ll be fine.”

She snorted. “I’m kidding.”

“Sure you are.”

She leaned on the desk slightly. “Anyway, I wanted to swing by and talk a bit. I’m on break.”

“You heading out with the girls?”

“Yeah. Kim and Tessa too.” Jasmine smiled. “Honestly, I’m glad we all work in the same place. Makes me feel safer.”

“Even with a mole running around?”

“Especially with that fucking mole.”

I smiled. “Happy to hear it.”

She waved, I waved back, and she stepped into the elevator. Time for me to get to work.

I stood, grabbed the folder, and headed to Nala’s office. She was already on a call. I slipped inside quietly. She looked up, smiled at me, then went right back to business.

“I have no idea where you got that information, Ms. Angle,” Nala said calmly. “But it’s not true. It is funny, though. A mole? In TechForge?”

A woman’s voice answered over the phone’s speaker. “Several of your employees reached out. We’d simply like an interview. Clarification.”

“Not happening,” Nala said.

“So you’re denying a mole exists? And you’re denying that someone is leaking information about Project Phoenix?”

“Project Phoenix is real,” Nala said, fingers tapping her armrest. “But there’s nothing to leak. We’re in the planning phase. What would your ’leaker’ even steal? PowerPoint slides?”

“Ms. Nolin—”

“I’m hanging up,” she said. “I don’t do fake news. Have a wonderful day.”

She hung up and slumped back, exhausted.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Some of the staff talked,” she said. “Probably by accident. But now the public knows Phoenix is real… damn. This was a matter of time.”

“I thought they already knew? The public, I mean, about Project Phoenix.”

“It was speculation,” she said. “Rumors. Nothing concrete. But now it’s confirmed—because someone couldn’t keep their damn mouth shut.”

“Were you serious, though? About Phoenix being in the planning stage?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “Only a quarter of it exists. Maybe less.”

She rubbed her temples.

“And that’s the problem. We need to keep the project hidden because if this leaks too early, competitors will jump us instantly. And worse—governments will try to regulate us before Phoenix even exists.”

“…Regulate?” I asked.

Nala nodded. “Phoenix isn’t just some home-security gadget. It’s an adaptive AI defense system. Think—physical security, digital security, internal threat detection, all working together. It learns patterns, predicts danger, even stops cyber attacks before they start.”

“So basically… a mini Skynet.”

“With guardrails,” she said. “But if governments hear too much too early, they’ll either try to steal it, shut us down, or slow us with regulations. And if competitors hear about it? They’ll race us—and maybe beat us.”

I nodded slowly. “So if Phoenix leaks, TechForge gets screwed.”

“Exactly.” She closed her laptop. “That’s why finding the mole matters.”

“And that’s why I have five idiots to interrogate,” I said, lifting the folder.

“I thought it was more than that?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I narrowed it down to ten. Then to five. Hopefully I’ll get something useful.”

She nodded. “I hope so.” Then she leaned back, smirking. “So… am I going to be secretary-less for a few hours?”

“Yeah. Just came to let you know.”

“You know, Evan Marlowe,” she said, puffing her chest a little, “my people usually knock before they walk in.”

“Do they?”

“And since you’re my subordinate—”

“I’m stopping you right there.” I pointed at her. “Did you just call me your subordinate?”

“Yes.” She leaned forward, cleavage perfectly centered. “What are you going to do about it?”

I chuckled. “Nala… you have no idea. Just wait till we get home.”

She grinned. “Looking forward to it.”

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