I stepped out from behind the leafy plants, making just enough noise to announce my presence. The girl jumped, letting out another little "eep!" as she saw me. Her face, which was already flushed from her struggle, turned a brighter shade of red.
"Looks like you're in a bit of a jam," I said, pitching my voice to be calm and reassuring. This was the opening move, the standard 'charming upperclassman' gambit.
"I-I'm not!" she stammered, which was obviously a lie since her arm was still being held hostage by the thorny bush. "I was just... admiring the local flora."
"Right," I said, a smile playing on my lips. "Well, admiring it from the inside is a bold choice."
"Tell you what," I offered, stepping closer. "If I just lift you straight up, we can probably clear the branches holding you. I'll be careful."
She looked at me, then at her hopelessly snagged sleeve, then back at me. Her cheeks were crimson, but she nodded, a look of pure, gullible relief on her face. "Okay... thank you."
I carefully navigated the thorns, finding a secure footing directly behind her. I reached around, sliding both arms under hers to get a firm grip. It was an awkward position, and my hands inevitably pressed and shifted all over her body according to plan. The sudden warmth of her body was a shock. After a day spent dealing with the hard ground, rough bark, and cold stone, the feeling of something so soft and warm was a stark, unwelcome contrast. She was surprisingly light. Pushing the thought aside, I lifted straight up, my eyes glued to the corner of my vision where the system UI remained stubbornly silent.
Nothing. Not a flicker.
Interesting, I thought, my mind racing. So direct physical contact, even in an 'ero' context, is worthless.
I gently set her down a few feet away, feigning difficulty. "Sorry, the angle's wrong. I can't get enough leverage without ripping your uniform." A perfect excuse.
The girl, Lia, just nodded, her eyes wide. "Oh, okay. Thank you for trying."
Time for the next test. Calculated Charm. Maybe the system needed verbal praise, a classic move from my old romance playbook.
"You must have been chasing something really beautiful to end up in a place like this," I said smoothly, leaning in to inspect the branch trapping her sleeve.
I waited for the ding. The system remained stubbornly silent.
The compliment itself was the failure. It was a pre-written line delivered for a calculated effect, and the system saw it for what it was: worthless.
Her honest reply just rubbed salt in the wound. "Oh! No, I just... have a terrible sense of direction," she admitted, her cheeks turning an even deeper shade of red. "I'm just lost."
So, calculated charm was out. This was getting frustrating. All my tried-and-true methods were failing.
Forget the performance. I dropped the act and pulled the small knife from my bag.
"Hold still," I said, my voice now blunt and practical. "I'm just going to cut the branches."
I sawed through the tough, thorny vines with methodical precision. It wasn't heroic or charming. It was just work. A few sharp cuts later, the last branch fell away, and she stumbled forward, finally free.
"There," I said, wiping a bit of sweat from my brow. "Done."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, her voice brimming with pure, unadulterated relief. Before I could even react, she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around me in a tight, spontaneous hug.
The first thing I registered was that warmth again, a stark contrast to the evening chill. Then, the same softness. Through the thin, rough fabric of my uniform, her breasts pressed against my body, and the unexpected intimacy of the contact sent a jolt through my system.
But my mind was already dismissing it. Physical contact. Another failed test.
And then, a loud chime echoed through my skull. The UI flashed a brilliant gold.
[Emotional Resonance Spike: +50 RP]
The notification was a complete contradiction to my last experiment. I had already touched her all over from the back when I tried to lift her, and the system had remained dead silent. Why now? What was different about this?
A strange heat spread through my chest, a sensation that had nothing to do with magic. A hot flush crept up my neck. And then I knew, with a sinking feeling of absolute horror, that I was blushing.
I'd been hugged before—seven girlfriends' worth of hugs, to be exact. This was different, though I couldn't explain how or why. The proof was the heat creeping up my neck. For a guy whose entire life was about calculated responses and maintaining a detached persona, an involuntary blush was a catastrophic system failure. My own body was betraying me, and I still had no idea why.
She pulled back, her face still beaming, eyes sparkling with a hint of hero-worship. "That was amazing! I thought I was going to be stuck there all night! I'm Lia, by the way. You're a real hero!"
I cleared my throat, forcing my brain to reboot past the blush and the glowing +50 RP in my vision. "Einz," I said, my voice flat. "You were just stuck. That's all."
I turned away to hide the blush, already moving. "The main path is this way. Come on, I'll walk you back."
As we walked, my mind was racing. The data was a complete mess. I had already run the test: my calculated 'rescue' attempt, which involved plenty of physical contact, yielded a perfect, round zero. I had proven that physical contact was worthless.
And yet, the points only appeared after the hug.
My carefully planned inputs were generating nothing, but a spontaneous, uncontrolled reaction from her had resulted in a massive payout. What was I supposed to make of that? Was my first test wrong? Was it her gratitude that was the trigger, and the hug was just how it was delivered? The system was illogical. It was messy. I had no clean variables to work with.
Lia kept up a steady stream of cheerful, one-sided chatter, thanking me again every few minutes, completely oblivious to the frantic calculations happening in my head. I just grunted in response, my mind busy wrestling with the infuriatingly inconsistent data.
We reached the edge of the forest where the wild, untamed trees gave way to the perfectly manicured academy lawns.
"The dorms are that way," I said, pointing. "Try not to get lost again."
"I will! Thank you, senior Einz!" She gave me one last, blindingly bright smile before practically skipping back toward civilization.
I watched her go, then turned and melted back into the shadows of the forest, completely alone.
The return trip to my camp was more productive. With the immediate 'test' over, my survival instincts kicked back in. I spotted a cluster of ripe, red berries that looked safe and gathered a handful. A little further on, I found a fallen tree with plenty of dry, dead branches and loaded my arms with firewood.
Back at my makeshift shelter, I dropped the wood as dusk settled, the +50 RP replaying like a trophy in my memory. I ate the berries, the taste of a small, confusing victory in my mouth. My first experiment was a success, but the data was a mess.
This game was far more complex than I thought. I lay down on my lumpy bed of branches, the night spent wrestling with questions, trying to turn a confusing event into a clean, replicable formula. The next school day was tomorrow.