Free Web NovelChapter 25: Do or Die
[1:23]
David stared at the countdown with the focused expression of a man trying to defuse something.
’Okay,’ he thought. ’First thing. Plan. I need a plan.’
He breathed in slowly through his nose.
’What exactly is the plan here.’
His vision pulsed.
[Player note: Consent is not a variable factored into this quest parameters.]
He stared at that for a long moment.
’So what,’ he thought, ’I’m just supposed to force myself on her?’
The answer the system offered was silence. Which was answer enough.
’Absolutely not.’ He shut that down before it finished forming. ’That is not happening. That will never happen. So figure something else out.’
He was still turning it over — trying to find some angle, some conversational thread he could pull that would lead naturally, organically, without pressure — when Holly’s voice cut through. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"Hey." She tilted her head slightly. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He blinked back to the present. "Yeah, I’m good."
She watched him for a moment, then something shifted in her expression — a glint of something, half amusement, half challenge.
"You know," she said slowly, "for someone who just gave that whole speech about real men..." She trailed off. Let it hang.
Then she seemed to catch herself. Pressed her lips together. Looked away briefly.
"All I’m saying," she continued, carefully, "is that the cookie jar isn’t just going to open itself. If you actually want to get there, you’re going to have to earn that walk." She glanced back at him. "I’m not just anyone."
David nodded, very seriously. "I know."
"Good."
"About the movie night," he said. "We still have that. Let’s just start there."
Something softened in her face. Quietly. She smiled — not the guarded kind she’d been deploying all evening, but a smaller, more genuine one, the kind that arrived before she could curate it.
"Yeah," she said. "Let’s start there."
For a moment, the two of them just sat with it. Easy. Comfortable in a way that the last hour hadn’t quite managed to be. Even the number floating beside her had climbed —
[Temptation Level: 33%]
— though she had no idea about that.
What she also had no idea about was the separate notification currently screaming in the corner of his vision.
[Time Remaining: 0:52]
David kept his expression completely neutral.
’Okay,’ he thought. ’How. How do I do this naturally. How does this happen in a way that is not insane.’
No answer came.
[0:41]
He was still problem-solving with the quiet desperation of a man who had fully committed to not risking what the system was threatening — because two inches was not a risk he was willing to take, not for anything, not under any circumstances — when Holly’s phone buzzed against the table.
She glanced at it.
The name on the screen read: Aria.
She looked up at him apologetically. "Sorry — I have to take this."
She picked up, turned slightly, and murmured something low into the receiver. David watched the clock.
[0:28]
[0:21]
She was wrapping up. He could hear it — the shift in her tone, the short affirmatives.
[0:14]
She pulled the phone from her ear and looked at him. "I’m so sorry. I have to go. Can we just — rain check? Pick this up later?"
She was already reaching for her bag.
[0:09]
[Criteria has been breeched!]
[Skill: OathBound Gaze has been deactivated.]
David stood.
"You’re really going to leave like that?" he said. His voice came out easy. Unbothered. "You won’t even give me a hug?"
Holly paused.
She looked at him for a moment — something flickering behind her eyes — then exhaled through her nose, a sound halfway between reluctant and fond.
"Come here," she said.
She stepped into him, one arm going around his back. He felt her press against him — genuinely, not performatively — her cheek turned slightly into his shoulder, her grip tightening just once in that way that meant she actually meant it.
[0:06]
It was, in all honesty, a warm moment. Real. The kind that didn’t need embellishment.
[0:05]
’Now or never,’ David thought.
[0:04]
His hand, which had been resting at her back, traveled down.
[0:03]
[0:02]
He did it. His hands nested against the supple curves of her ass, confidently unmoving as he remained perfectly still.
Holly went still.
Not rigid. Not alarmed. Just — still. A single suspended second where the world paused around her. Then, very quietly, almost without sound, a soft sound escaped her lips — somewhere between a gasp and something she would absolutely deny later.
"Mm—"
[QUEST COMPLETE]
[+300 points]
However, the small victory quickly faded as her lips were at his ear.
"What are you doing?"
The words came out quiet. Not loud enough to be a scene. Just — directed. Precise. Aimed directly at the side of his face from approximately two centimeters away.
David did not move, mostly because he felt if he answered wrongly she would probably take his ear with her teeth.
"Nothing," he said.
His voice came out completely innocent. Impressively so, really, given the circumstances.
Holly pulled back. Slowly. Her hands found his shoulders and she created distance between them with the careful, deliberate energy of someone choosing not to make this a moment. She stepped back once. Twice. Stopped.
She reached up and smoothed the hair that had fallen beside her face, fingers moving with practiced calm. Her other hand found her handbag strap and held it. She looked at him.
A long moment passed.
"I have to go," she said.
Nothing else. Just that. She turned and walked.
"Holly — "
She didn’t stop.
David watched her go. Stood there for a moment after she’d rounded the corner, the space she’d occupied still somehow present in the air around him.
Then he sat down.
’This system,’ he thought, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose, ’has genuinely ruined me.’
He could already feel the weight of it settling — the wrongness of it, the fact that he had let a floating countdown talk him into something he wouldn’t have otherwise done, and now she had walked away with that look on her face, that quiet controlled look that was somehow worse than anger —
His eyes drifted to the side.
He stopped.
[Temptation Level: 32%]
He stared at it.
’Wait.’
He stared at it longer.
It had gone up.
After all of that — after she’d pulled away, after she’d smoothed her hair and picked up her bag and said exactly two words before leaving — the number had gone up.
His jaw loosened slightly.
’What.’ David thought, ’is actually going on inside that woman’s head?’
