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Now… Lixiang might have had a point about the size of a man’s harem… but having Jiaojiao enter the harem… ahem… signing the Book of Oaths was… Wait. I think she just signed it…

Because of Lixiang and Bitong’s amusing exchange, by the time I realised what was going on, Jiaojiao had already inked her name onto the book. In fact, she was even firing off a flame arrow right now!

But that wasn’t the problem – who was it that said I only had two name slots? Was that all a lie?!

Yet just when I was about to ring System Lady and have a serious talk with her, she was already a step ahead of me…

“Ding! The system has detected an error in the Book of Oath’s usage limit… proceeding with punitive measures… a total of 2000 points will be deducted…”

I…

That’s just not fair! Isn’t the third name slot just 1000? Couldn’t you just make me pay that instead, what’s with the extra 1000 on top of it?!

“In that case, would our valued host please return the 1000 points within the next minute, the system will cancel the fine accordingly.”

Fudge…

A day might have been possible, but one minute? There’s no way I can accumulate that much, even if I can kill zombies for points!

“Rest assured, this fine will not have a permanent effect on our valued host.”

What do you mean permanent?

“Permanent means death, naturally.”

I…

Is it necessary to go that far?! Do you want to switch hosts that badly?!

“This system does not actually want to change hosts, but our valued host is quite stupid…”

I…

“Anyway, for the time being while the 2000 points are being repaid, every two points our valued host brings in will have one deducted automatically from it. Thank you for your patronage.”

Thank you for your patronage… so I was scammed then! You didn’t even tell me that such a punishment existed beforehand. That’s not right. You can’t just levy a fine all willy nilly.

“So our valued host does not mind when someone takes their possessions without asking?”

But isn’t the Book of Oaths mine in the first place? Everything inside should be mine as well!

“Ah, that was my mistake, the system has forgotten to inform our valued host about the change in his rights. Since activating the Magical Girl Harem Grooming System, whether it’s our valued host’s body or heart, they all belong to the system.”

So I’m your slave?

“If our valued host insists on tearing away the last shred of dignity the system has so generously afforded him…”

I…

“In that case, the system wishes our valued host a happy time clearing this Raid-sized Instance. Farewell.”

Fudge! Don’t use that customer service tone on me! I will sue you for copyright infringement!

I swear! Everytime I talk to the system, I just end up getting mad!

As I angrily cut off communications with the system, a soft bundle of joy dove right into my arms…

“Big brother, look, Jiaojiao can do magic now! Look, look!” She gleefully stated while pointing at a hole in the wall. “That’s the hole Jiaojiao made!”

Yes… that’s a hole… a hole that costs me 2000 points… I need to kill two thousand zombies just to pay for that shortfall… What am I to even do with her? Adorable as she may be.

Forgive her, of course!

“Wonderful! Our Jiaojiao is just the best!” I had no defenses against a soft, adorable little girl like her. And certainly no mind to scold her.

I reached out and patted her on her head. She closed her eyes like a purring kitten and leaned in closer. It was only when I felt two distinctively murderous glares on me that I came back to my senses. Now was clearly not the best time to foster a closer relationship to Jiaojiao.

I quickly pushed her away, then cleared my throat. “Ahem. I’ll start by explaining the Magical Girl System. Operating the system is quite simple. You merely will it, and the system will react to it. Initially, the system won’t have too many features as it’s newly activated. Mostly, the Marketplace and the status menu. Perhaps there might be more features in the future. The status menu is self-explanatory, but the Marketplace’s user interface is more special. You need to be near me to open it up. From now on, every zombie we kill will give at least one point. These points can be spent on actual goods that often cannot be found in the real world. Like MP potions, Skill Cards, and even magical gear…”

I briefly ran them through the system without pause; questions would have to wait till later.

Even though I had made sure to stab most of the corpses around us, the stairway up to the pavilion was a long one; there was no way to cover all of the corpses, and these corpses were beginning to rise…

“Flame Arrow!” Lixiang was the first person to notice a zombie climbing up from below. She raised her hand and fired a flame arrow right into its brain.

A split second later, the arrow penetrated its skull and exploded in a blinding red flash of light! Brain matter and flesh abound, the now headless zombie tumbled harmlessly down the stairways.

“This one’s done it! This one is the best magical girl in the world!” Lixiang exclaimed fearlessly. In fact, she seemed almost excited as she waved the doll version of herself.

“Big sister Lixiang is the best!” Jiaojiao clapped her hands.

I could even see the anticipation in her eyes at this point, something which I found incredulous. “Aren’t you guys afraid?”

While Lixiang might have been as outwardly terrified as Jiaojiao, she definitely wasn’t brave either. Who would have thought that simply gaining power would bring about such a change.

“Afraid? This one is an all-powerful magical girl!” She thrust her doll high up into the air, then did a victory pose. “Before this one’s awakened powers, all monsters are nothing! Let all who hear me tremble before the might of my powers!!”

“Okay, okay. Just cut back on the daydreaming, alright?” Even if there was no one else nearby, this was still a little embarrassing…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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The size of a man’s harem directly correlates to his power

— You Qin Lixiang

“…”

Crap. I forgot to cover it up…

Had the floor been a little cleaner, I would have already feigned unconsciousness…

“Hmph, no one is forcing you to sign the pact.” Lixiang harrumphed dismissively. Even as Bitong was still doubting my innocence, she was already drawing blood with her finger and signing the pact.

With that done, her name on the Book of Oaths started to glow in pink. Finally, the light coalesced into a beam that fired into the area between her eyebrows.

Once that strange phenomenon subsided, I found, to my surprise, that there was no visible change on her forehead; I had honestly thought that some kind of mark would have been left behind at least…

“Why the heck did you sign it?! Do you even know what it is? Do you not understand the meaning of that pact?”

Bitong bombarded her with three questions at once, but Lixiang seemed unfazed. In fact, she seemed to be sniggling.

Lixiang did not immediately answer her question. Instead, she shoved her pearly white finger right in front of Bitong. Understandably, Bitong did not understand what she was trying to prove by doing that, but a second later, her eyes went wide.

That finger she was showing us… that was the same one she bit to draw blood. It was now pearly white, and clearly devoid of any injury.

In fact, even a baby might not have a smoother finger than her.

“Self-healing?” Bitong exclaimed.

There was no doubt at all. After signing the pact, her wound had healed itself, and in an instant, no less.

“Flame Arrow!”

As if to strike while the iron was hot, Lixiang fired off a wedge-shaped bolt of flame down the passageway without even giving Bitong any time to react.

“Magic?!”

“Wait. So big sister Lixiang isn’t delusional?”

“After signing the pact, this one has begun to regain some of her lost memories…” Lixiang claimed to the shock of both Jiaojiao and Bitong. “As more time passes, this one will only regain more of her memories, returning to her former glory as a magical girl that once stood toe to toe with the gods themselves… That’s right, this one isn’t a Primal Angel of the Apocalypse at all…”

Looking at that smug look on her face, I almost wanted to smack her right in the head there and then.

What the heck was all that nonsense about being a magical girl? I get it now… Because a Primal Angel used light and dark magic, while she clearly was using fire magic back then, her brain automatically filled in the gaps by creating all that nonsense about being a magical girl…

Should I even be surprised at this point?

The human mind is a fearsome thing…

Yet even in spite of her shock, Bitong was still the same collected Bitong she always was. “But signing it…” She asked the same question as before.

“This one understands ;there’s no need for a reminder. Southern Plains has already fallen, and regardless of whether or not the government can reclaim the city in the short term, the fact is that we are now in a situation where self-protection is a necessity…”

Bitong fell silent at that point.

Lixiang was right. Southern Plains was basically a real-life zombie simulator. It was a race against time to clean up the city, and even if this clean up happened fast, there was no harm in being able to protect oneself.

Even normal human beings were a threat now, let alone the wandering zombies. Like those hoodlums we had locked up in the elevator, they were the perfect example…

“I understand. And you’re right, now’s not the time to be fussy about such minor details.” Bitong bit down on her finger, then decisively signed her name on the Book of Oaths. “But no matter what, I’m not letting anyone else have Ke!”

Just like that, Lixiang actually succeeded in persuading Bitong! Shocking, I know!

Like Lixiang before her, Bitong’s name began to glow a bright pink. The glow coalesced into a beam of light that embedded itself between her brows…

“Flame Arrow!”

Bitong raised her hand and fired off an arrow of fire at the wall, blasting a sizable chunk of it…

Having done that, she looked Lixiang squarely in the eye… was this some kind of silent throwdown?

Speaking of which, did signing the pact come with a complementary Flame Arrow spell?

“Uwah! Jiaojiao wants to do that too! Big brother, let Jiaojiao into your harem as well!”

“…” I could immediately feel myself being stabbed by a pair of piercing eyes.

Don’t look at me like that… I’m not planning to do anything to her… I know she’s still a kid… Besides, I don’t have fetish for little girls, she just so happens to be young, that’s all!

Unlike Bitong’s killing stare, Lixiang was a lot more nonchalant. In fact, she seemed even pensive. “Your Highness should indeed widen his harem. After all, the size of a harem is an indicator of Your Highness’s strength.”

“In what world?!” Bitong immediately glared daggers at Lixiang.

“All of them.”

In other words, Gaia and whatever fantasy world Lixiang was living in.

Honestly, she wasn’t wrong in some sense. The ancient emperors of the past always had a huge harem. It was one of the ways to measure a man’s power in the past.

As the saying went, a poor man might be able to marry the girl of his dreams, but could a poor man marry all the girls of his dreams?

Clearly not, because he was poor.

To do what others could not -that was the path to true strength!

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

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Even though my fire wall had completely burned away the zombies on the surface, we did not immediately leave the passageway, because the ground was still scorching hot from the flames. At the very least, we had to wait till the ground was suitable for walking before leaving.

In the meantime, I bought another Small SP Recovery Potion and gulped it down. I could feel my empty SP pool rapidly fill up again. Now, it was time to consider a very serious question: my harem…

Only because that’s how the system refers to it! This is a very important distinction, I am not calling it a harem for any other reason…

Honestly, this question wasn’t even a question for me at all. I simply opened up the Marketplace and purchased a name slot from it. Because this was my first time purchasing it, the name slot was only 100 points. Adding on the Small SP Recovery Potion, I was now down to a measly 7 points…

As I stared at my depleted account, my heart sank like that elevator descending into the shelter. For some reason, it felt like I had never once won ever since getting this system. Each time I spent my points, it felt more like a scam than anything else.

Regardless, I now had two name slots, one given and one bought. The next one would cost me 1000 points, or perhaps another mission, whenever that appeared… most likely never.

Since this crisis started, I had been observing Jiaojiao, and found that she was still immature. Her will wasn’t strong enough, so my decision was to exclude her for the time being. The best choice would be to give Lixiang and Bitong the name slots for the Book of Oaths… or rather the Magical Girl System.

Ahem, I mean the Mahou Shoujo System!

Since my fire wall had taken care of the zombies outside, there wasn’t much to worry about on that front. I turned around and began stabbing the corpses near us, lest they suddenly got up to jump us. As I did that, I began telling them about the Book of Oaths.

Naturally, that also included the harem system and what not… I definitely did not avert my eyes when I thought about that… it was all the system’s fault to begin with… I would never think about setting up such a shameless thing… not at all!

All that denying does make me seem suspicious though…

“Bitong, Lixiang, there’s something we need to discuss.”

“Hmm?”

“Your Highness?”

“Hmph… nothing for Jiaojiao then…”

“So… I need you guys to sign something…” I took out the Book of Oaths from my inventory, carefully blocking out the words harem on its cover.

Under their watchful eyes, a decidedly fantasy-esque leather scroll suddenly appeared in my hands.

“Book of Oaths?” Bitong read out the title, minus the word harem which I blocked out.

“Your Highness wishes to enter into a pact with this one?” Lixiang asked with sparkling eyes.

“Big brother, there’s some words behind your hands.” Suddenly, I felt Jiaojiao’s little fingers prying away as she cheekily said, “Let us see what’s underneath.”

“Hey. Now’s not the time to be naughty.” I quickly shut her down. “The book loses its effect if my hand leaves it.”

“What. Don’t be so stingy! Jiaojiao was just a little curious, that’s all. I hate you, big brother!”

Eh? Did I go too far there… Even so, I’m not letting go even if it kills me. If that word were to ever see the light of day… everything will be ruined…

“Your Highness, this one is a little curious as well.”

“Ke, your big sis wants to see it too.”

A cold sweat immediately ran down my back. I tried to play it cool with a dry smile. “Oh, that? That’s nothing important at all… just subtext.”

“What is it, then?” Jiaojiao wrapped herself around my arm, then deliberately tried to pull it away again. Unfortunately, she failed once more. “Come on, let Jiaojiao have a look.”

“There’s really nothing to look at.” I tried to shoo away the girl, but my strange behavior did not escape Bitong’s eyes.

“Ke, your big sis wants to have a look.” She said with furrowed brows.

“This one is very curious as well. It’s not some slave pact, is it?”

“No… no way… you guys are overthinking this…” I smiled as brightly as I could. “The pact is known as the Magical Girl Pact. I only have two slots presently. As long as you put your name on it, you will be registered with the Magical Girl System… I’m just blocking the magical girl part.” I rattled off as much as I could, hopefully that would work…

“So it’s really just the words magical girl?” Lixiang swept her eyes over me like a scanner. Then from her adorable lips, I heard the most devastating words ever. “But the area you’re covering could also contain the words slave, soul, gender-swap, bleep, and bleep…”

What do you mean bleep, bleep?! I might not be the smartest cookie, but those words shouldn’t even fit under my fingers!

And a girl shouldn’t be using such language! What kind of books are you even reading?!

“Ke, care to explain what bleep and bleep means?” Bitong’s face immediately blackened. Her lips curved into a sinister smile. “Well, Ke?”

Oh crap… it’s Black Bitong… at this rate, we’re all going to be sliced up like those zombies…

With no time to lose, I took my hands off the title. “Look. It just says Book of Oaths. There’s no way it has anything to do with the nonsense Lixiang mentioned…”

“Hahaha, I’m sure it’s a very proper book.” With nothing else to block off the subtext, she saw the full front page for the first time, and her black mist immediately thickened. “Harem, huh…”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

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Hearing the plan in full, delusional-but-not-yet-stupid Lixiang calmed down right away and began to consider the possibilities. “But those game exosuits all have an anti-theft system installed. The system within will automatically cease all motor functions outside of Game City, hast thou considered this?”

Lixiang was right, of course. Game Cities wouldn’t be able to stay financially afloat if they allowed all their customers to just ride away in an exosuit. Strictly speaking, even those entertainment exosuits were capable of killing a person…

“Ah… but I’m a hacker.” Said Bitong, chin slightly raised high. “I can break the defenses of that system easily. All I need is ten seconds.”

She basically had me at that point with her suggestion, but the moment I thought of Jiaojiao, I got a little concerned again. “But can Jiaojiao even ride an exosuit? She’s still young…”

“Jiaojiao will be fine!” Jiaojiao thumped her chest. “I’m a genius!”

“Ke, did you forget? Jiaojiao is an ace at piloting exosuits.” Bitong rubbed the girl’s head at that point. “If she wasn’t so young, she might even be a better pilot than me.”

Whether she was actually a genius pilot remained to be seen, but the exosuit should at least provide some protection if she could pilot it. She might not even be afraid of zombies at that point, since those zombies couldn’t break through the defenses of the exosuit. Furthermore, these exosuits were designed to absorb the SP in the air, and could theoretically function on its own perpetually.

These exosuits might be labelled as ‘entertainment only’, but their defenses were comparable to those used in the army. After all, players engaged in real combat with these exosuits, so a little caution went a long way.

The real way in which these exosuits were tailored for leisure purposes were their functions. Other than defenses, parameters like speed were lowered by design so that a normal player could still react to the machine.

Next, its offensive capabilities were completely stripped. Any melee weapons were set to ‘sealed’ mode. This way, there was no physical way an entertainment exosuit could ever break apart another. Its ranged weapons received the same treatment as well. Bullets were swapped out for rubber ones, and any lasers were more flashy than actually harmful.

Finally, every such exosuit had its own anti-theft system that prevented its user from leaving Game City in it, barring hacked ones. However, there weren’t many hackers who were bored enough to actually try and steal such a stripped down exosuit.

“It’s settled then.” Seeing as the girls were basically on board with the plan at this point, I clearly wasn’t going to say no either.

Naturally, grabbings some military-grade ones would have been better, but society hadn’t crumbled to the point where I would consider that yet. Besides, these were just zombies… the entertainment ones could handle the job.

“Map.” Bitong pulled out a map of the city with her AI assistant. She then pointed towards a building in the distance. “Northwest, one kilometer. That’s the closest Game City. Walking should take us ten minutes.”

“But we will have to pass by an underground shelter on the way…” Jiaojiao leaned in to have a look at the map as well. Upon noticing the shelter, her brows immediately furrowed in worry. “Maybe we should take a detour instead…”

“But this is the shortest route. Taking a detour would waste another ten more minutes.” Griped Lixiang.

“Let’s not. We will take the direct route to Game City. Each additional minute we spend outside right now is one extra minute we spend in danger.”

“Ding! Mission received: Looking for Weapons.”

Mission: Looking for Weapons.
Requirements: Enter Joyworks Game City.
Reward: Fireball, a skill that expends at least 1 SP. (Scales with SP used.)
Comments: How much fire could a firechuck chuck if a fire could chuck fire?

Nice, a mission as well. Looks like this trip will be a fruitful one. But what the heck is up with those comments?

Seeing as the system seemed to agree with this plan as well, there was even less of a reason for me to object. Off to Game City!

“I’ll take point. Lixiang and Jiaojiao will be in the center while Bitong covers our rear. If there’s any problem, yell.”

“Got it.”

Just like that, we set off towards the exit. After killing a few more zombies in the passageway, we safely made it out to the pavilion structure above ground.

I carefully stuck my head out first, and found the exterior stacked full of corpses, of which some were wearing police uniforms. Other than the corpses, there looked to be about a couple dozen zombies wandering around.

Perhaps it was because this was an innate feature of their undead nature, but the moment we popped out, they immediately sensed us and began moaning in their characteristic gratingly hollow voice.

However, I was already prepared for just such a danger.

At the same time as I had the girls back away a little, I erected a fire wall across the entry points. Any zombies who dared cross the line were instantly set aflame…

Because I only spent 50 SP on this wall, they weren’t immediately burnt to ashes, but the effect wasn’t that far off either. At times, there was that odd straggler who managed to make it through the wall, only to collapse soon after in a pile of ashes…

The wall lasted for half a minute. Its scorching heat was so strong, we could even feel it through the environmental conditioning in our shirts.

Still, the flame wall had done its job and it fizzled out without trouble. The zombies who tried to swarm us were all burnt, and the ground was painted black once more…

During the time the wall burned, I occasionally stared at my status menu, and to my delight, my points were jumping up! A whole 31 points!

At this point, I had crossed the 100 mark into 117.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE