Your Girlfriend Calls Me Daddy-Chapter 45 | I Try To Study The Meta But There Is A Devil In My Kitchen

Chapter 45: 45 | I Try To Study The Meta But There Is A Devil In My Kitchen

I pushed the Thai food containers around on the counter. The plastic spoons that came with the order looked cheap, so I grabbed actual silverware from the drawer. Plates too. Nobody looks at a person who puts takeout on real plates and says, "This guy doesn’t have his shit together."

Mera’s singing echoed from the bathroom, some pop song I didn’t recognize. Her voice wasn’t bad. A little pitchy on the high notes, but confident. Like she didn’t care who heard.

"YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME BUT YOU LIED..."

I smiled despite myself. Twenty-four hours ago I was panicking about a death timer.

Now I had a red-skinned devil girl in my shower washing my cum off her thighs while she belted Taylor Swift.

I opened my phone and pulled up the hero rankings. If I was going to replace Nolan as protagonist, I needed to understand what that actually meant beyond "getting the girl."

The novel was called My Pure Love Hero Diary, not My Pure Love Gets Laid Diary. The hero part mattered.

The AP Top 100 loaded on the screen. America’s Professional Hero Rankings, updated monthly based on some insane algorithm that factored in villain capture rates, civilian rescue metrics, property damage mitigation, and public approval polling. The rankings determined agency placement, sponsorship deals, media appearances, and patrol territories.

Numbers mattered in this world. Everything was quantified.

Number one: Supernova. Five-star hero specializing in light manipulation, heat generation, and solar energy absorption. Could supposedly convert his entire body into pure light for short periods, though most of the footage I found showed him using controlled energy blasts instead. Blonde, classically handsome, six-three, with a red and white costume that looked like what Captain America would wear if he moonlighted as a lifeguard. Currently attached to Daybreak Agency in New York.

Number two: Phantom. Five-star stealth hero capable of complete invisibility, intangibility, and some form of short-range teleportation. Dark purple and black costume that covered her entirely except for her eyes, which glowed bright blue when her Essentia activated. One of the few five-stars operating independently without agency affiliation. Specialized in infiltration, extraction, and high-value target acquisition.

Number three: Mammoth. Five-star tank hero with permanent Root-Type modifications that left him nine feet tall with reinforced skeletal structure, enhanced musculature, and thick armored skin plates across his chest, back, and shoulders. Had the proportions of a normal human but scaled up, with a head that looked too small for his massive frame. Wore minimal clothing—basically armored shorts and shoulder pads—to show off the biological armor. Vanguard Agency, Los Angeles branch.

Four and five were Atlas and Valkyrie, a husband-wife duo operating under the same agency in Chicago. Both were flight-capable with secondary abilities—his was gravity control, hers was weather manipulation. They wore matching blue and silver costumes with wing motifs and did a ton of joint appearances, charity work, and couples photoshoots for lifestyle magazines.

All five-stars. All looking like they stepped out of comic book covers. All making more money per year than most small countries.

The shower turned off. Mera was still singing, but softer now.

I kept scrolling, scanning through the rest of the top twenty. Most were four-stars with one or two abilities at exceptional levels rather than the multi-ability packages the top five showed. There was a clear power scaling throughout the rankings, with the gap between a low five-star and a high four-star being much smaller than the gap between number one and number five.

"Whatcha dooooing?"

Mera appeared in the kitchen doorway wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her torso. Her red skin glistened with water droplets, and her black hair hung wet and heavy down her back. Her tail swished behind her, still slightly damp.

"Research." I set my phone down. "Food’s here."

"I can see that." She walked over and peered at the containers. "Why’s it on plates?"

"Because we’re civilized people."

"Speak for yourself." She stole a piece of chicken with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. "Mmm. Still hot."

"Unlike your shower manners."

"You complaining about seeing me naked?"

"Not even a little bit."

She grinned. "That’s what I thought. So what are you researching?"

"Heroes. Rankings. The whole system."

Mera hopped onto the counter, the towel riding dangerously high on her thighs. "Trying to figure out how to climb the ladder?"

"Something like that." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She stole another piece of chicken. "So what’s the plan? You gonna be number one?"

I handed her a plate of pad thai. "Eventually."

"Ambitious."

I loaded my own plate with curry and rice. "If this works the way I think it does, I can keep absorbing abilities. Keep getting stronger."

"While sleeping with half the hero course."

"Only the ones with good powers."

She kicked my shin lightly. "Ass."

"You asked."

Mera twirled noodles around her fork. "You know there’s more to being a top hero than just power, right? It’s politics, public image, agency connections."

"I know."

"Angelo Corp helps with the connections part. But you’re still the rich playboy everyone thinks is coasting on daddy’s name."

I winced. "That obvious?"

"I did research before talking to you." She shrugged. "Everyone did."

"And yet here you are. In my kitchen. In a towel."

"I’m a good judge of character." Her yellow eyes fixed on mine. "The Rome everyone thinks you are wouldn’t have stopped when I asked. Wouldn’t have cared what I wanted. Wouldn’t be putting takeout on plates to make it fancy."

Something warm and uncomfortable settled in my chest. "Maybe I’m just playing the long game."

"Maybe." She didn’t sound convinced. "Or maybe you’re better than you want people to think you are."

I focused on my curry. "So tell me about Titan."

"Smooth topic change."

"Thank you."

She rolled her eyes but went along with it. "What do you want to know?"

"I met her this morning. During the villain thing. She gave me her card."

"I heard. The whole school heard."

"She’s with Vanguard, right? Same as Mammoth."

Mera nodded. "Vanguard’s got five of the top twenty, plus a bunch of up-and-comers. Biggest agency on the west coast, maybe in the country. Super selective about recruitment."

"And Titan’s interested in me."

"Of course she is. She saw a hot rich guy who didn’t panic during a villain attack. That’s like hero catnip."

"Think I could get in?"

Mera set her fork down. "To Vanguard? With your current rank? Not a chance in hell."

"What about after the Sports Festival?"

"Maybe. If you place top five. And even then, they’d want to see your Vitae Scan results first."

That was a problem. The system had given me a cover story about being a "Passive Null," whatever that meant. But I’d been openly using stolen abilities all day. The whole "not registered" thing might fly for a few days, but eventually I’d need documentation. A plausible explanation.

"So I need to win the festival."

"That’s your takeaway? Not ’I need to figure out my cover story’ or ’I need to stop using powers in public until I’m registered’?"

"Those too."

Mera sighed. "You’re impossible."

"So I’ve been told."

She finished her pad thai and set the plate aside. "If you want to win the festival, you’ll need to start training. Like, actual training. Not just draining girls and stealing their powers."

"Why not both?"

"Because one is sustainable and the other is going to get you arrested."