I was having lunch with Clara, and I think this was actually the first time we'd ever gone to eat together while staying on campus. Usually, whenever we had lunch together, we'd end up going somewhere outside the campus after finishing our duties at the library. This time, however, we had decided to stay inside the campus, which made the whole situation feel a little different from what I was used to.
And naturally, people were looking at us.
Quite a lot of people, actually.
I could hear the whispers coming from different tables, and while some people were trying to pretend that they weren't staring, they weren't exactly subtle about it. A few of them would glance at us, quickly look away whenever I noticed, and then whisper something to the person sitting beside them.
"Why is Senior Clara with that guy?"
"What's their relationship?"
"I heard they're working part-time jobs together. Is it possible that he's following her around again, like what he did to someone back then?"
"But why is Senior Clara even humoring him?"
I couldn't really blame them for being curious.
Even though my appearance had changed considerably, my REPUTATION was still incredibly low, while my INFAMY remained high as fuck. Those numbers weren't exactly something I could proudly show off, either.
People remembered the old me.
Apparently, changing my appearance, and becoming more capable didn't automatically erase the reputation I'd built before.
If anything, it seemed like people were still trying to figure out whether the person they remembered was actually the same person sitting here with Clara.
═══════════════════════
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Leon:
STATUS:
STRENGTH: 135
STAMINA: 150
AGILITY: 60
INTELLIGENCE: 155
LOOKS: 75
S-SKILL: 115
CHARISMA: 35
COMMUNICATION: 150
LUCK: 75
REPUTATION: 7
INFAMY: 88
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
═══════════════════════
As much as possible, I didn't want to use the ♥︎ for this particular situation.
Those ♥︎ could be useful during QUESTS, and I didn't want to waste them simply to raise my REPUTATION or lower my INFAMY. There was no reason to burn through something potentially useful when I could probably improve those stats naturally.
For now, I thought I should increase them through QUESTS instead.
Well, that was easier said than done, apparently.
Finding missions that could directly improve either stat wasn't exactly simple. The system didn't seem interested in handing me convenient opportunities just because I wanted to fix my reputation.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure whether the system had missions specifically designed for that purpose.
Still, as things stood right now, I didn't think my REPUTATION and INFAMY were completely terrible.
At least, they weren't causing me serious problems yet.
Unless my REPUTATION started directly affecting something important, I didn't think there was any real reason to spend ♥︎ just to increase it.
The same went for my INFAMY.
Besides, I had a feeling that increasing those stats exclusively through ♥︎ might have some kind of limitation attached to it.
I couldn't exactly assume I could cheat my way through the entire system by throwing ♥︎ at every problem I encountered.
That would be way too convenient.
And whenever something in my life became way too convenient, there was usually some kind of catch waiting somewhere.
"By the way, why did you suddenly want to eat lunch?" I asked Clara. "And why did you even pay for mine?"
That was something I still couldn't quite understand.
Clara had actually paid for my food as well, which wasn't something I'd expected when we'd decided to eat together.
Well, she was rich, so I knew paying for another person's meal probably wasn't particularly difficult for her.
Still, having a woman buy my food for me felt kind of unmanly, not going to lie.
It wasn't like I was offended by it or anything.
I just wasn't used to it.
"Well, you seem to have done well on your exam, so I wanted to congratulate you," Clara explained. "I also won't be able to go to work at the convenience store today, so I probably won't be able to meet you later and congratulate you properly."
"Oh."
I nodded after hearing her explanation.
"Well, that's kind of you to do something like this."
I genuinely meant that.
Clara was busy with her own responsibilities, yet she'd still taken the time to have lunch with me because she wanted to congratulate me.
It wasn't anything particularly dramatic, but I appreciated the thought behind it.
═══════════════════════
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Clara
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 80♥︎
Lust: 10♥︎
Status: Sex Friends
Preferences: Hardcore Sex (Masochistic)
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
═══════════════════════
Looking at Clara's overall status right now, I couldn't help feeling like I'd made some pretty significant progress with her.
Her AFFECTION had already reached 60♥︎, which wasn't exactly a small number.
I wondered what her STATUS would look like if I managed to push her AFFECTION all the way to 100♥︎.
Would something change?
Would her status evolve?
Or would absolutely nothing happen and I'd simply be staring at a bigger number for no reason?
I honestly had no idea.
The system wasn't exactly generous when it came to explaining itself.
While Clara and I were talking, someone suddenly approached our table.
"Can I also, like, sit here?"
I looked up from my food and saw a beautiful woman standing in front of us.
She was looking down at our table with an incredibly pouty expression.
It was Samantha.
"Uh..."
For a second, I genuinely didn't know what I was supposed to say.
═══════════════════════
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Samantha
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 10♥︎
Lust: 10♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
═══════════════════════
Looking at how low her MOOD was right now, I had a pretty good idea what might have caused it.
Maybe seeing me having lunch with Clara had put her in such a terrible mood.
Her expression certainly made it look that way.
She looked like someone who had walked into a situation she definitely didn't want to see.
"You are Samantha Nyxford, aren't you?" Clara asked, looking at Samantha with an expression I couldn't quite understand.
"What of it?" Samantha replied, looking directly back at Clara. "Why are you asking me that?"
Her tone made it pretty obvious that she wasn't planning on backing down.
The atmosphere between them immediately became slightly tense.
And, naturally, the people around us noticed it almost immediately.
"Why is Samantha Nyxford also coming over to him?"
"It seems like they're, like, really close to each other."
"I saw her earlier coming over to greet him, so that wasn't just nothing?"
"Why is that bastard getting all the beautiful girls...?"
"Is he perhaps two-timing them?"
"If that's the case, even if he's become a little famous and has good looks now, he's still a scum, isn't he?"
"I don't know. I don't think they're actually dating him."
"They seem more like they're still pursuing him."
Honestly, I didn't really mind all the attention.
Still, being placed directly in the center of everyone's attention was making me feel slightly embarrassed.
It was one thing to have people whisper about me from a distance.
Having them actively watch me while I was sitting there eating lunch with Clara was something else entirely.
I wasn't exactly accustomed to being surrounded by this much attention.
It was honestly a little nerve-wracking.
At the same time, I suddenly received a notification.
═══════════════════════
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Some people are starting to see you in a new light. Most people are still thinking of you as a scum, but because of your show like this, they are beginning to think you might not be bad at all.
[+2 REPUTATION]
[-2 INFAMY]
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
═══════════════════════
Oh, speaking of that, my REPUTATION had increased while my INFAMY had decreased at the same time.
Would you look at that?
Apparently, something as simple as this could influence how people viewed me.
I wasn't going to complain about that.
If anything, I was pretty happy to see those numbers moving in the right direction.
While I was looking at the notification, Clara suddenly extended her hand toward Samantha.
"I am Clara," she said. "Clara Cadranda. We've actually met before during one of your photoshoots, since you've modeled for our brand before."
Samantha's eyes widened slightly after hearing that.
"You're from, like, the Cadranda family? What a surprise. I didn't expect that I'd meet someone from such a high-ranking family in a place like this."
"I am more surprised to see you here myself," Clara replied. "Why don't you sit down and have lunch with us? And, of course, it's going to be my treat."