Noah woke up slowly, like he was floating up from the bottom of a deep pool.
The first thing he noticed was that his body felt heavy. Not injured, not in pain, just… drained. Like he had no energy at all. Even moving his fingers felt slow.
He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a long time without moving.
"…I'm never going to survive this job," he muttered.
He slowly pushed himself up and immediately felt dizzy for a second, so he sat still and waited for the room to stop spinning.
He looked around.
VIP room.
Couch.
Dim lights.
Blanket over him.
His clothes were back on properly, belt closed, shirt buttoned. Someone had covered him and cleaned the room. It looked normal again, like nothing had happened.
He rubbed his face with both hands and tried to remember what happened last night.
VIP room.
Sylver sisters.
They pulled him onto the couch.
Things escalated very fast.
He remembered being very tired.
Then everything went black.
"…I passed out in the middle of sex," he said quietly to himself.
He covered his face again.
"I am never going to recover from this embarrassment."
After sitting there for a bit, he focused and opened the system window.
The blue screen appeared in front of him.
___'
[HOST STATUS]
Name: Noah Walker
Age: 24
Occupation: Employed
Title: None
Stats:
Stamina: 2 (Recovering)
Endurance: 5
Abilities:
Mood Scan Lv.1
Relationship Tracker Lv.1
Penis Optimization Lv.1
___'
He stared at the stamina number.
"Two," he said. "That explains why I feel like I ran across the country."
Under the stamina stat, there was a small warning message.
[Warning: Stamina critically depleted. Recovery in progress.]
That was it. No long explanation, no extra messages. Just a warning.
He leaned back on the couch again and sighed.
"I really need to figure out how this stamina thing works," he muttered.
Then he remembered something else and activated Relationship Tracker again, focusing on the Sylver sisters.
Two small windows appeared in front of him.
____
[Mood Scan – Lv.1 Activated]
Mood: Very Interested
Interest: 98%
Attraction: 99%
Danger Level: High
[Mood Scan – Lv.1 Activated]
Mood: Very Interested
Interest: 97%
Attraction: 98%
Danger Level: High
____
Noah stared at the numbers for a long time.
"…This job is dangerous in ways I did not expect," he said.
He closed the system windows and lay back down again, staring at the ceiling.
He stayed like that for a few minutes, just thinking.
Three days ago, he was unemployed and broke.
Two days ago, he got a random job.
Yesterday, he found out he was working at a nightclub full of weird people.
Last night, he passed out in a VIP room with twins who were definitely not normal.
"My life took a very strange turn," he said quietly.
After a while, the door opened and Madam walked in.
She looked at him sitting on the couch and nodded slightly.
"You're awake," she said.
"Yeah," Noah said. "Barely."
She walked over and handed him a cup of coffee.
"Drink," she said.
He took it and drank slowly. It helped a little. He still felt tired, but at least he felt like a functioning human again.
"Thank you," he said.
She pulled a chair and sat across from him.
"You pushed yourself too hard last night," she said.
"I figured," Noah replied. "I don't remember falling asleep, I just remember being very tired and then nothing."
Madam nodded slightly. "You lost consciousness."
"That sounds cooler than passing out," Noah said.
She smirked slightly.
He drank more coffee and leaned back again.
"I really passed out in the middle of work," he said. "That's a new low."
"You're still alive," Madam said. "So it's not that bad."
He looked at her.
"Is this a normal work problem here?" he asked. "Employees passing out?"
"Not usually," she said.
"Great," he replied.
There was a moment of silence.
Then Noah asked, "Do they come here often?"
"The Sylver sisters?" Madam asked.
"Yeah."
"Yes," she said. "They are regular customers."
Noah closed his eyes for a second.
"Of course they are," he said.
Madam stood up and walked toward the door.
"You're not working tonight," she said.
Noah immediately opened his eyes. "I'm not?"
"No," she said. "You're going to eat, sleep, and recover. That's your job today."
"That is the best job you've given me so far," he said.
She opened the door, then stopped and looked back at him.
"And Noah," she said, "next time, don't try to impress customers by killing yourself."
"I wasn't trying to impress anyone," he said. "I was just trying to survive."
She smiled slightly.
"Same thing in this job," she said, and then she left the room.
Noah sat there quietly for a while after she left.
He looked at his hands.
I looked at the system window again.
My stamina is slowly recovering.
Then he leaned back on the couch again and closed his eyes.
"Yeah," he muttered quietly.
"I am definitely not working in a normal place."