"These stupid hallucinations are really starting to piss me off! Fine, confirm! There, are you happy now!" she snapped, her face scrunched up in frustration.
Her day was already garbage. There was no way it could get any worse just because she played along with some dumb hallucination.
[You have successfully bound with the system.]
[Do you wish to form a bond with one of your students?]
"Huh, I get to choose?" Natasha was actually surprised. From what she knew, systems loved shoving things down people's throats whether they wanted it or not.
"Yes." She answered anyway. She wanted to see how long this damn hallucination was going to stick around.
[Initiating Bond Selection...]
[Scanning candidates...]
[8 targets found.]
[Hana]
[Hela]
[Emma]
[Diana]
[Stella]
[Mia]
[Megan]
[Dante]
[Would you like to spin the wheel?]
'I knew it! Like hell this thing was ever going to let me actually choose,' Natasha thought while gritting her teeth.
She was an idiot for thinking even for a second that it would be any different from other systems.
"But this is really bad," she muttered. Even though she still thought the whole thing was a hallucination, she couldn't stop herself from seriously thinking about who the best pick would be.
There was always a chance this could be real.
'Honestly, I am fine with anyone other than Hana and Hela. Those two brats are completely out of control.' She went through the options one by one. 'Maybe not Dante either. I have no clue what is going on with that boy right now. Those three are the risky ones.'
She decided to head back to her room before spinning the wheel.
The last thing she needed was someone walking in on her yelling at thin air.
As she passed through the dining area, she suddenly stopped.
Something caught her eye.
She stood there staring at the empty plate Dante had left behind, and a gentle smile spread across her face.
"Sigh... What was I even thinking? He is way better than those two brats." She shook her head, feeling embarrassed with herself.
*****
Once she got back to her room, she forced herself to stop overthinking and just get it over with.
[Would you like to spin the wheel?]
"Just spin it," Natasha muttered with an annoyed look on her face.
The gacha wheel started spinning slowly after her answer and quickly picked up speed.
⟶ Hana ⟶ Hela ⟶ Emma ⟶ Diana ⟶ Stella ⟶ Mia ⟶ Megan ⟶ Dante ⟶ Hana ⟶ Hela ⟶ Emma ⟶ Diana ⟶ Stella ⟶ Mia ⟶ Megan ⟶ Dante ⟶ Hana ⟶ Hela ⟶
The wheel started to slow down.
⟶ Emma
⟶ Diana . . .
⟶ Stella . . . . .
⟶ Mia . . . . . . . . .
⟶ Megan . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The arrow shook with one last twitch.
[Congratulations! You have successfully bonded with a target.]
[DANTE ACKERMAN]
'This... It can't be just a coincidence, right? Did it pick him because I was feeling guilty about him?' Natasha wondered after seeing the arrow land on Dante.
What she did not know was that no matter how many times she spun the wheel, the arrow would always land on Dante.
The whole thing was rigged from the very beginning.
Since she had no way to prove the result was based on her feelings, she let it go.
Something else was already taking over her thoughts.
'Since when do hallucinations come with gacha wheels? What if... what if this is actually real?' she thought, getting excited.
'The only way for me to confirm this is through rewards!'
"System, explain your functions!" Natasha said with a slightly eager tone. Even though she did not want to get her hopes up too high and then drown in the disappointment later, she couldn't exactly blame herself for getting a little excited.
[You receive missions related to Dante and by completing them, you can gain rewards.]
"I can only get missions related to the person I bonded with?" she said with a thoughtful look. "Does that mean I need to bind with more of my students to get more missions and rewards?"
[Easy there. You can only bond with one person. This isn't a buffet.]
[And you cannot change the target once they are bound.]
"WHAT?!! Why didn't you tell me about this before, you fucking...!" She could not help but curse, feeling completely scammed. Before she could keep going, the system dropped another bomb on her.
[Triggering the Tutorial Mission...]
[Chain Mission: Save Dante]
[Description: Dante found out about his broken mana circuits and the world of awakeners. He feels betrayed since you hid this from him. He is thinking of cutting off all connections with you and your students and going somewhere alone. Prevent him from moving out.]
[Time Limit: 15 hours]
[Reward: Phoenix's Tear]
[Failure: Say goodbye to the system]
Natasha stared at the mission details, and her breath got stuck in her throat.
'He found out?' she thought, and her heart sank. 'How did he find out? Who could have told him?'
The system's words kept replaying over and over in her head.
Dante knew about everything, and when he confronted her about it, she still played dumb.
'That is why he was acting like that at breakfast...'
She pressed a hand against her forehead. The anger in his voice, the way he slammed the table, the way he looked at her like she was a complete stranger.
It all made sense now.
'He was genuinely hurt.'
And the worst part was that she could not even blame him.
She had kept it a secret for years.
She told herself it was for his own good. That knowing the truth would only crush him.
But looking back on it now, was that really her protecting him, or was she just too much of a coward to face him?
While she was lost in thought, her eyes stayed locked on the reward.
Phoenix's Tear.
Over the years, she had been searching for ways to fix her condition. She naturally learned about some items that could restore mana circuits, and one of them was the Phoenix's Tear. The problem was that the phoenix race went extinct hundreds of years ago. Every other item on the list was just as impossible to get.
The more time passed, the less sure she became that this whole thing was just a hallucination.
[Time Limit: 15 hours]
[Failure: Say goodbye to the system]
Her eyes locked onto those two lines.
"Fifteen hours... that means I have until tonight."
She glanced at the clock. It was still early.
If she lost the system now, she would never find out if it could have saved her. She would spend the rest of her rapidly shrinking life wondering what would have happened if she had just tried a little harder.
But honestly, that was not even the main reason she wanted to finish this mission.
'I already failed him once by hiding the truth,' she thought, clenching her fists. 'I am not going to fail him again by letting him walk out of our lives.'
****
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a Rolls-Royce Phantom pulled up in front of a bar.
Dante stepped out, loosened his tie, and walked in with his hands in his pockets. There was not a single trace left of the broken, angry young man who had stormed out of the mansion earlier.
He found a quiet seat in the corner, ordered a drink, and pulled up a familiar blue screen.
'Not gonna lie, making people lose their mind and watching it in 4K feels diabolical' He thought, barely holding back from laughing out loud as he watched Natasha pacing back and forth in her room.
He could check in on any bound target whenever he felt like it, like pulling up a live feed. The only limit was that he could only watch one person at a time.
He closed the feed and pulled up the mission panel.
'Now then,' he thought, swirling his drink around in his glass. 'Let me see just how far you are willing to go for that Phoenix's Tear, Master.'
[Chain Mission: Save Dante]
[Task 1: Typing…]
[Task 2: ?????]
[Task 3: ?????]