Haruto leaned back in his chair, glancing over at the screaming thugs before looking back at Daisy. "So, what's going to happen to them now?"
Daisy crossed her legs, resting her chin on her hand with a cold, calculating gaze. "Nothing too complicated. We're going to extract every detail about their slave-trading ring and use it to hunt down and bust their entire syndicate."
Haruto raised an eyebrow, recalling her theatrical display back in the alley. "Weren't you just acting totally terrified back there? Why go through all that trouble?"
Daisy glanced at him, a slight, knowing smirk playing on her lips. "A few reasons. First, I wanted to see how you'd handle a sudden threat and give you some real-world combat training. Second, it helped keep my identity as a commander completely under wraps so people don't go poking around. And third..."
She paused, her expression shifting into something a bit sharper. "...I wanted to hear them say the exact kind of disgusting things they usually say, just to give me all the legal justification I needed to completely wipe them out without holding back a single ounce of mercy."
Daisy let out a sharp, approving clap, signaling the heavy security doors of the chamber to slide open.
Two female military officers stepped into the room—the exact same two who had previously accompanied Daisy to check on Haruto at the hospital. They snapped into a crisp salute, their eyes fixed respectfully on their superior. "Reporting for duty, Commander!"
"At ease," Daisy instructed, gesturing toward the bloodied thugs cowering on the floor. "There are four thugs in here belonging to a slave-trading ring. Interrogate them, extract every location they have, but make sure you don't kill them yet. I want the whole syndicate dismantled."
The two officers grinned, cracking their knuckles as they eyed the captives hungrily. "Oh, don't worry, Ma'am. Leave it to us—we'll make sure they sing."
Daisy turned on her heel, satisfied. "Our work here is done."
Haruto lingered near the doorway, peering into the chamber with morbid curiosity. "Wait, I want to watch a bit more of how they—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Daisy grabbed him firmly by the back of his collar, cutting off his words and effortlessly dragging him backward into the lift before the doors whisked them away.
As the lift descended smoothly, Haruto tugged at his collar, shooting Daisy an annoyed look. "Oye! Why'd you drag me out like that?"
Daisy crossed her arms, a teasing smirk playing on her lips. "What, didn't you promise to go back and cook me something good? Or were you planning to stay and watch those two officers turn those guys into paste?"
Haruto winced slightly, dropping the subject.
A moment later, the lift chimed and the doors slid open to the main ground floor of the base. Standing right outside were the two young female officers who had just been assigned to the interrogation.
Haruto blinked in surprise, recognizing them immediately. "Wait, aren't those two—?"
"Keep your voice down," Daisy interrupted, gesturing toward them. "Those two are actually my real personal assistant sub-commanders."
Haruto stared at the pair in utter disbelief. "Wait, really? But they look like they're our age!"
"That's because they are," Daisy replied casually. "Which means they're young enough to still be enrolled in standard school, but don't let that fool you. They're terrifyingly powerful, know how to utilize combat tech at one hundred percent efficiency, and both of them are already sitting firmly at Level 78."
Haruto's jaw dropped. "Level 78?! That's higher than the most powerful people in the entire world!"
Daisy let out a soft, dismissive snort. "Who, exactly?"
"Feedric! Everyone knows he's the strongest human alive!" Haruto blurted out.
Daisy burst into laughter, shaking her head as if hearing a funny joke.
"Feedric? I haven't heard that name before... what level is he?"
"Level 72?"
She chuckled again, crossing her arms. "Please. Level 72 is something my girls surpassed three years ago."
Haruto stood frozen, his brain struggling to process the sheer absurdity of it all. "H-How is that even possible?!"
"Because," Daisy said, her tone dropping into a cool, confident edge, "everything you think you know about the peak of human strength is completely fake."
Haruto stared at her, his voice cracking slightly. "What do you mean, fake?! Are you telling me the whole world's perception of strength is a lie?!"
Daisy gave a nonchalant shrug. "I've seen humans who have broken past Level 90. Feedric and those mainstream 'legends' are nothing compared to the real peaks."
"Level 90?!" Haruto gasped, his brain practically short-circuiting. "How is that even possible?!"
"Because leveling up is basically just a rigged game," Daisy explained, walking toward the exit with Haruto trailing closely behind her. "The more you grind, the more you get. But some people figured out how the underlying system actually works and how to hack the progression."
She glanced back at him to make sure he was paying attention. "It's all about where you are, which layer you're in, and what you're hunting. If you hang around near high-tier boss spawn zones, your level-up speed multiplies exponentially."
Haruto tilted his head, trying to process the mechanics. "Wait... so you're saying if I stay right next to a boss area, even if I'm just killing weak little monsters there..."
"You get four times the standard XP," Daisy finished for him with a smirk.
Haruto's eyes went wide behind his mask as his mind raced, connecting the dots. Wait... if Daisy gives 4x the normal XP multiplier, and my own unique creation-tier leveling power already lets me grow 10 times faster than a normal person...
His breath hitched in his throat. Four times ten is forty... that means I'd be leveling up FORTY TIMES faster than anyone else in the entire world?!
Daisy snapped her fingers, tapping her communication bracelet. "Alright, let's head back. Retro, recall the transport bike."
With a soft hum of spatial distortion, her custom pink bike materialized right beside them. Without wasting a second, Daisy hopped on, and Haruto climbed on right behind her. With a powerful roar of the engine, they blasted out of the underground base, soaring through the transit grid until they reached the privacy of Daisy's high-security private quarters.
Once they were safely inside, the exhaustion of the day finally caught up to them. Daisy immediately demanded her favorite midnight comfort food, making Haruto whip up his signature, perfectly toasted omelet sandwich—the one she secretly loved more than anything in the world.
As they sat together eating, the conversation naturally drifted back to the mechanics of the system. Daisy casually broke down the hidden multiplier zones, expounding on how boss-proximity XP manipulation worked while Haruto listened with rapt attention, his mind racing with the insane implications of his 40x leveling potential.
They talked late into the night, the hours slipping away until complete silence blanketed the city.
Before Haruto even realized how fast time had flown, darkness pressed hard against the windows again.
Clack.
The digital clock glowed a harsh red. 3:00 AM.
Right on schedule, the mattress flipped over with a violent snap, sending Haruto crashing straight onto the cold floor. Standing over him with her stopwatch and another freezing bucket of water, Daisy's eyes gleamed with absolute, unyielding menace.
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," Daisy declared, her voice ringing sharp and clear. "Day Two of your brutal training starts now!"
As Haruto instinctively opened his mouth to protest and refuse, Daisy raised the freezing bucket of water with a menacing look. Remembering yesterday's shock, Haruto jolted upright in a flash, scrambled to his feet, and bolted straight for the bathroom to change into his gear.
Stepping outside into the chilly night air, he braced himself for the usual torture. To his surprise, the heavy aches from yesterday had dulled significantly; his creation-tier constitution was adapting to the grueling regimen at an astonishing rate. Today's session kicked off briskly with 50 push-ups followed immediately by 50 sit-ups.
Days bled into one another, and before he knew it, an entire 18 days had flown by since they captured the slave-trading thugs. Despite their brutal imprisonment, the captives hadn't cracked or leaked a single word about their syndicate's higher-ups.
As Haruto finished wiping the sweat from his forehead, Daisy strode over to him, her expression serious. "Get ready. We just got an update report from the official base—it's time to move."
When Haruto and Daisy stepped into the high-security interrogation block, the air hit them like a wall of iron and copper.
Before them lay a gruesome scene. All four thugs had taken their own lives in the most brutal way imaginable, using crude, jagged fragments of smuggled glass and sharp metal debris to slice their own throats and carve open their bodies rather than utter a single word to the interrogators.
The chamber was an absolute slaughterhouse. Blood coated the walls and pooled heavily across the cold floor, where their lifeless bodies hung suspended in grotesque angles.
Haruto stared at the carnage, a momentary, detached thought flashing through his mind: Man... the graphic fidelity in this game looks insanely realistic.
Beside him, Daisy's face turned completely pale. She slapped a hand over her mouth, a wave of nausea threatening to make her vomit, but she forced herself to swallow it down, maintaining her iron composure as she turned on her heel and walked out of the room.
The two female sub-commanders rushed out behind her, bowing their heads in deep shame. "We're sorry, Commander... the moment we pressed them for the syndicate names, they bit down on hidden venom capsules and tore themselves apart before we could stop them."
Before Daisy could reply, the heavy security doors burst open, and a swarm of military press officers and local media reporters flooded the corridor, flashing cameras blindingly in every direction.
"Commander! Who is this?" a reporter shouted, thrusting a microphone forward. "Is this a secret execution? Who is this young guy standing next to you?!"
Flashes popped incessantly, capturing dozens of close-up photos of Haruto's striking white-and-black hair and red-and-black eyes from every angle.
Knowing she had to control the narrative instantly, Daisy stepped in front of the cameras, raising a hand to silence the crowd. "Listen up. This young man is the one who personally tracked down and captured these slave traders. As for our relationship—we have no personal ties. He assisted the military operation directly."
Within hours, the story exploded across Gampid City.
The photos of Haruto flashed across digital billboards on every single skyscraper, turning him into an overnight viral sensation. Everywhere he walked in the city, crowds pointed and whispered, teasing him relentlessly. Short-form video clips of his face flooded the local networks, and meme pages dedicated to the mysterious "half-white, half-black haired outsider" took over the feeds.
While a few skeptics online claimed it was all a fabricated stunt, the moment the Commander herself officially stepped in and verified his involvement, every single voice fell dead silent, cementing Haruto's sudden, inescapable fame across the entire sector.