Chapter 51: 51. I Woke Up To Some Game-Changing Thing! (I’ll Take It All Day~!)

It was five in the morning, a time that Mike had always found to be both honest and relaxing, especially after what he had done the night before.

Cities didn’t perform at five in the morning. They were just themselves, quiet and functional, doing the maintenance work that daylight hours were too busy for.

He had woken up in enough of them, in enough different countries, to have developed a working theory that you could understand a place better at five AM than at any other time, because that was when it stopped trying.

He lay on his back and looked at the ceiling.

Beside him, Petricia slept the kind of deep sleep that comes when a long-held tension finally eases.

She lay completely still, her breathing steady and even. She occupied space without apology, a stark contrast to her movements throughout the rest of the building, where she always seemed to carry an air of self-management and a keen awareness of how much space she took up.

Mike watched the ceiling for a moment.

’Almost two weeks,’ he thought. ’Two weeks in this city, in this name, in this apartment.’

He turned the thought over slowly, the way you turn over something you want to examine from every angle before putting it down.

’Michael Hawking. Convicted. Sentenced. Released early for good behavior that was more of a convincing performance than actual good behavior.’ He almost smiled at the ceiling. ’And now here we are. Mike Hawk. Postgraduate student. Scholarship holder. International Economics.’

’Erosyne had no idea what just moved in.’

He looked at the window. The city outside was doing its five AM thing, which was mostly nothing, some ambient light, and the occasional vehicle and the sound of a place breathing in before it had to start performing again.

’Same sky,’ he thought. ’Different name. A different face to the world. Same ol’ me.’

Most people misunderstood the concept of identity. They thought changing it meant changing yourself. They thought you had to become someone else.

Across four countries, six names, and more situations than he cared to count, Mike learned that identity was just the surface. The thing underneath was constant.

You were always the same person.

You just decided which parts of yourself you were showing and to whom and in what order.

Mike Hawk was not a lie, but it was more like a selection.

He picked up his phone.

The screen was crowded.

[MAXIMUM BOND ACHIEVED: PETRICIA SCHNEIDER — 100/100]

[DESIRE ENERGY AWARDED: 1,000 POINTS]

[DOLLAH BONUS AWARDED: 100,000 DOLLAH — TRANSFERRED TO REGISTERED ACCOUNT]

[NEW MILESTONE: FIRST MAXIMUM BOND IN EROSYNE]

[SYSTEM NOTE: SUBSEQUENT MAXIMUM BONDS WILL AWARD THE SAME ENERGY AND DOLLAH AMOUNTS. THE GAME DOESN’T GET EASIER. THE REWARDS STAY CONSISTENT.]

Mike blinked at how much Dollah he’s getting just for having sex with Petricia. ’Holy shit... I got more than a porn actor could get...’

One hundred thousand. This amount was added to the account that originally had fifteen thousand, after deducting the lease deposit and including his modest casino winnings from Thursday.

’One hundred thousand,’ he thought. ’For what? For just being myself? For paying attention? For bringing a flower to the front desk and noticing that the glass it was in wasn’t even cracked?’

He looked at the ceiling again and laughed.

Not a quiet laugh. A true laugh, brief and sincere, the kind that escaped him before he consciously allowed it.

’God, I missed this.’

Petricia made a small sound beside him.

"Mmmmm..."

He stopped.

She remained asleep. He counted to three, then noticed her shift slightly, let out a soft sigh, and settled back into stillness.

He looked at her for a moment.

Not with calculation. Just looked.

’She came up on her own,’ he thought. ’That’s the part the system keeps reminding me about, and honestly the system is right to do it.’

’She really came up on her own without me having to force her. All I did was text her to come, and she responded. After that, she knocked. She walked across the room by herself.’

’I didn’t drag her anywhere.’

That distinction mattered to him, and it had always mattered to him, which was something that would have surprised people who thought they understood him based on the file. The file was accurate about the things he had done.

It was not accurate about the reasons, because the reasons required a level of observation that law enforcement had never particularly managed with him.

He wanted people who chose to be there, not those who felt obligated or unwilling.

He wanted people who had decided.

And of course, that only works for some women who are truly devoted or submissive to him. Still, he wants some women to feel forced to be here.

’Petricia decided,’ he thought. ’She calculated the numbers in her mind—the marriage, the nine years, Gerald’s light being off, and the paperwork she hadn’t actually completed—and yet, she still came up the stairs."

"That was her.’

’All I did was leave the door open.’

’But, eh... she’s already got fucked anyway, so it’s a win.’

He went back to the phone.

"Anyway... what’s this desire energy points even for...?"

[DESIRE ENERGY POINTS — CURRENT BALANCE: 1,000] 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

[DESIRE ENERGY FUNCTIONS:]

[1. SKILL ACQUISITION — PURCHASE SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES USING ENERGY POINTS. AVAILABLE SKILLS RANGE FROM PASSIVE ENHANCEMENTS TO ACTIVE ABILITIES.]

[2. JOB PASS — ALLOWS HOST TO ENTER ANY PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT WITH FABRICATED BUT FULLY FUNCTIONAL CREDENTIALS. HOST WILL BE TREATED AS EXPERIENCED IN ANY ROLE CLAIMED. CAN BE UPGRADED TO MANAGEMENT-LEVEL ACCESS.]

[3. ADDITIONAL ENERGY — CAN BE EARNED THROUGH CONTINUED INTIMATE ENGAGEMENT WITH BONDED TARGETS (150 POINTS PER ENCOUNTER) OR THROUGH RAISING NEW TARGETS TO MAXIMUM BOND.]

’One hundred and fifty per encounter,’ Mike read, and he filed that under useful. ’Still... that’s kinda cheap for what I get for the first time."

He scrolled through the skill list when the system starts to show it to him.

’It is like a fucking video game... this is hella weird...’

’But I take it all day... the world and even God know I’m special, so they gave me some good shit like this so I can conquer my first country ever.’

It was long. Most of the notable options were priced in ranges he couldn’t reach yet, like things with names like [Perfect Recall Enhancement] and [Persuasion Amplification] and one labeled [Probability Manipulation] that was priced at 10,000 points.

’Eventually,’ he thought. ’Everything is eventual if the steps are managed correctly.’

Then he found one at exactly 1,000 points.

[SHAPESHIFT — TEMPORARY PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ALTERATION. HOST CAN ADOPT ANY PHYSICAL FORM THEY HAVE DIRECTLY OBSERVED. DURATION: UP TO SIX HOURS PER USE. COOLDOWN: TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.]

[NOTE: VOICE ALTERATION IS INCLUDED. DOCUMENTATION IS NOT. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PASS LEGAL CHECKPOINTS IN AN ALTERED FORM.]

Mike looked at that for a long moment.

’Six hours,’ he thought. ’Any form I’ve directly observed.’

He thought about the weeks he had spent constructing Mike Hawk. He focused on the dye, the posture, the documentation, and the careful reconstruction of a public-facing identity that would not reveal any connections to his actual history.

The fundamental limitation of every identity he had ever built, which was that the body underneath was always the same one, and bodies had tells that documentation couldn’t cover.

Birthmarks. He had a unique way of moving his left shoulder.

The scar on the inside of his right forearm had a story he had recounted in four different versions. The structure of his face was recorded in databases he preferred to avoid.

With Shapeshift, it removed all of that, but there’s some useful things he can do with it.

’I think this shit is good because I can use different kinds of approaches and manipulation for getting some new woman...’ Mike grinned. ’Yes, sir~! Let’s fucking take it!’

He bought it without further deliberation.

[SHAPESHIFT — ACQUIRED.]

[USE: FOCUS ON THE DESIRED FORM AND ACTIVATE. SYSTEM WILL COMPLETE THE PHYSICAL TRANSITION WITHIN APPROXIMATELY THIRTY SECONDS.]

[REMINDER: USE DESIRE ENERGY WISELY. IT IS NOT INFINITE AND THE SKILLS WORTH HAVING ARE NOT CHEAP.]

[ALSO: CONGRATULATIONS ON THE FIRST MAXIMUM BOND. THE SYSTEM NOTES THAT PETRICIA SCHNEIDER CAME TO YOUR DOOR ON HER OWN. WE JUST WANT THAT ON RECORD.]

"Yap, yap," Mike said quietly. "I know."

’You’ve said that twice now,’ he thought to himself. ’Once to the system and once out loud.’

’Maybe you actually need to hear it.’

’But still... this Shapeshift... I didn’t know that it was real, even though I once saw my associate have a good skill of changing apperance with just some make up and accessories.’

’With this... I can just shapeshift into someone’s boyfriend or husband and then do some fucked up things until their wives or girlfriends have to pay for it, yeah...’

’Yet... it’s a cowardly move that I should improve better, but eh, I’ll worry that later.’