'I guess this is good enough.'
Looking at my outfit, it was the only thing I had left that I could see myself wearing. Everything else just looked too... overbearing? Childish? For lack of a better word, except for the shoes everything else looked absolutely shit!
The previous owner of this body had an assortment of clothes like a rainbow, hence why I went with the simple outfit earlier this morning. After spending 20 minutes trying to figure out what was left, it came to my current outfit: black jeans with a white long-sleeve t-shirt paired once again with the black shoes and loose white jacket I wore earlier.
A disastrous turn of events.
'I'll give away those clothes and go shopping soon.' I shook my head and locked my door behind me as I made my way to the elevator. There were about 10 minutes left till the time I told Elena, and it would be bad to have her waiting on me. Sure, she asked me for this favor, but a part of me felt it would just be best to show up early.
Ding~
I hopped in the elevator, this time alone. With no distractions, I noticed that the speed of this elevator was pretty fast. It only took about 20 seconds to reach my 18th floor and back to the lobby. Ten seconds up and ten seconds down!
'What a smooth ride.' I appreciated the elevator's quickness, I really did. How many times this elevator would've saved me on Earth—those times I had woken up late.
With casual steps, I went to the lobby's waiting area and sat down. Elena was nowhere to be seen, which I kind of figured would be the case. Since I was going to be waiting a little bit, I decided to ask the system some questions.
'Hey system, I got a newbie gift bag from you, so can I get other rewards from you? Outside of the investment returns.'
[Yes.]
[Daily, you'll receive a random item aside from today since that was your gift bag.]
'This item... are there restrictions to it?'
[It'll only be within your realm or below, but with the investment feature I'm sure you can see that the items' grade doesn't really matter.]
'Isn't this broken then? What's the point of it restricting it to my grade if I could just invest it and score a better item?'
[You don't understand how hard it's to acquire a "Disciple" or "Lover" mark. Meiomi has skewed your view a lot, but let me say that it isn't as easy as you think.]
'Then, by all means, please go into more depth from earlier. You explained a little bit, but what exactly am I missing?'
[You already know the disciples part; you just got lucky. A fated opportunity like we briefly touched on earlier.]
[As for the lovers mark, the woman in question has to accomplish five things to be accepted.]
[1. Trust you 100%. If you told her to kill her family, she should have no hesitation.]
[Before you even say anything, it was just an example.]
I shut up before I even thought to retaliate. The system was very quick and no-nonsense!
[2. You have to find everything about her attractive. Flaws. Strengths. Even the damn wax out of her ears.]
[3. You have to have at least one child with the woman. Doesn't necessarily have to be blood related, but you two have to consider that child your actual offspring.]
[4. You two have to spend at least 90 days together—as a couple—to even start the first three points.]
[5. The other party has to be a proper living being.]
"..."
Listening to the system, the first four points made sense and were as the system portrayed them to be. They were hard indeed but nothing impossible. It was the last point that made me cringe. The concept was just something I couldn't comprehend no matter the few minutes I spent on it.
'What do you mean proper living being?'
[A being with a perfectly intact soul.]
'And how do you determine that?'
[Knowledge outside of your current strength.]
'I see. Thanks for answering the questions you could respond to.' I didn't mind the system not answering the last part. It already told me this could happen and crying over it was just something children would do.
"Ren!"
The familiar feminine voice, one filled with both maturity and gentleness, pulled my attention away from my conversation with the system.
"Elena, you look good, but I'm assuming you already know how good you look." I shook my head with an amused smile. One thing I could tell about this woman despite just meeting her is that her confidence in herself was leagues above other people. Hell, it felt like she loved herself more than how much I loved myself. If I was an S-rank, then she would definitely be an EX-rank or even Divine-grade in terms of self-confidence!
"Hehe~ It still feels good to hear from a handsome man like you."
"Pfft~, and it feels good to hear that from a beautiful woman."
Elena was wearing a similar outfit from earlier. She had on her jeans and shoes, but the only thing that had changed was her top half. She wore a black turtleneck that highlighted what was hidden earlier. My assumption being correct that she was healthy in "that" department as well.
"I saw that!"
"A natural movement of the eyes. Nothing more and nothing less."
"Hahaha~ Whatever you say."
Side by side, we walked out of the lobby into the night-covered city. Neon lights from local stores and silver lights from the city's lamps lit up everything almost like it wasn't the time for rest. The city at this time had a distinctively different feel to it compared to the day.
Sniff~
"Hm? Are you wearing a different perfume?"
"Is it bad?" she said with her golden eyes looking into mine.
"No, I actually like citrus the most!" I said with a smile. This morning I didn't recall the smell of her perfume being this strong, but I was still a little out of it from the whole crossing worlds thing.
She giggled with a hand covering her lips, which were traced over with lip gloss—something else I knew was different. It was amazing how she only added two light additions to her look and it painted her in a more beautiful light. If I had to compare it, I swear it was like she invested in her appearance and got a 50x return.
A little ridiculous, I know, but it was the best way to compare it.
"Here. You don't expect a lady to not have her boyfriend support her, do you?"
"Hahaha~, sure. While we are at it, move to my right. My girlfriend shouldn't be so close to moving vehicles."
She gave me her perfectly smooth jade-white hand and I took it into mine. The two of us didn't really say much after this, but I will admit the silence wasn't bad. If anything, it was a comfortable one.
'Dear stalker, I'll show you a bit of mercy I guess. As long as you don't go too overboard...'
I prayed the stalker could hear my thoughts, but I highly doubted the night would keep going so smoothly.