Last night, in that cold apartment, after confirming that Sarah had escaped with serious injuries and was temporarily safe.
The feeling of exhaustion after surviving the ordeal didn't last long. Instead, it was replaced by a cold, bone-chilling sense of crisis.
Raynor sat slumped behind the door, but his brain was working at an almost insane speed.
"Cassius understands."
The Sons of Medusa Squad, the most threatening force on this hive world, had their eyes on him and Sarah.
Escape? Where could he escape to?
The hive world was sealed off in layers. The upper spires contained the nobles and the Adeptus Arbites, while the lower sumps were a paradise for mutants and heretics. How could they even leave the hive? Without a spaceship and without proper clearance, leaving the protective shield meant facing deadly radiation and the void of the wastes.
Hide? Sarah's lair had been discovered, and she needed time and resources to recover from her serious injuries. Cassius's team possessed state-of-the-art detection equipment; finding them in the relatively isolated environment of Hive City was only a matter of time.
War? With his and Sarah's current strength, could they possibly fight against a well-equipped, experienced, and slaughter-dedicated annihilation squad of the Sons of Medusa?
That was no different from suicide.
Despair set in, as if thick alloy walls were silently closing in from all sides. He and the "secret" in his mind were about to be crushed.
Just as despair, like a cold tide, was about to engulf the last dam of his consciousness, an absurd, insane thought originated from the depths of his soul—the soul of a galgame player from his past life.
Like lightning in the darkness, it cleaved through the chaos of his thoughts.
"Can the system bind a second target?"
The moment the thought occurred to him, even he found it utterly absurd. Other people's galgames involved building harems with various beautiful girls. In his case, the "main heroine" was a Tyrannid-adjacent monster, and the "side quest" he wanted to unlock was a hairless "canned food" in power armor.
But...
"If the system can really bind a second one..."
Raynor's heart skipped a beat.
He struggled to his feet, staggered to the data panel, and with trembling but determined fingers, clicked on the pink system interface that stood out starkly against the dark and cruel surroundings. He kept manipulating the system with his mind, opening various pages hidden in the corners until he saw a line of text:
[Side Quest for "I Want to Fall in Love in the 41st Millennium!"]
Note: Given the current host's condition, forcibly binding a side character carries extremely high risks.
Raynor stared at the words flashing on the screen, his breathing suddenly becoming rapid.
"It really works!"
As Sarah's favorability and his own strength increased, the system's "side quest" function had actually unlocked!
Although there was currently only one spot available and the binding risk was extremely high, this meant he no longer needed to choose between "being wiped out by the Sons of Medusa" and "fleeing in panic with Sarah only to be killed by other forces."
He could take a third path—a crooked path that was more insane and more dangerous, but one that could also yield massive rewards.
"Cassius..." Raynor murmured the name, his eyes narrowing with ill intent as he licked his lips. Rather than sit and wait to die, he preferred to take a gamble.
"Let's do it!" Raynor's eyes were filled with a do-or-die determination.
So, the next morning, he had walked toward the Sons of Medusa's stronghold, his face pale and his eyes bloodshot. There was no longer any panic in his heart, only an almost cold calm and a hint of excitement at the start of a crazy gambling game.
...
At this moment, in the warehouse.
The psionic chains were deeply embedded in Cassius's consciousness, and the system's binding protocol was forcibly operating in an overbearing manner. The severe backlash caused Raynor to bleed from all seven orifices; he knelt on the ground, his vision blurring as he felt as if his soul was being drained.
But he held on.
Because he "saw" it—next to Cassius's phantom consciousness, which was entangled in psychic chains and struggling violently, a brand-new, pink system sub-interface was being painstakingly generated.
[Side quest binding in progress...] [Target: Son of Medusa, Sergeant Cassius (Male)]
A short while later, the system notified Raynor that the binding was successful.
"The first side story," he gasped, his voice hoarse yet carrying an undeniable authority, "will begin with you, Cassius!"
Immediately afterward, the system interface shone brightly! An eerie, warm, pale yellow light seemed to emanate from nowhere, casting a hazy, unreal filter over the warehouse. It looked like the setting sun at the end of a school day in a high school anime.
The rusty pipes and metal walls became blurred, and it seemed as if invisible cherry blossom petals were floating in the air. The images of Raynor and Cassius were also transformed by the system's power. Two distinct character portraits were generated and floated on the dialogue interface at the consciousness level.
Raynor's character design was that of a young man with black hair, a pale face, and a determined look, with blood at the corner of his mouth while wearing a tattered tax officer's uniform. The background was a hazy, neon-lit cityscape with faint pink heart-shaped special effects flashing around him.
Cassius's character design depicted him bald after removing his helmet. His face was as hard as a stone carving, and his deep blue eyes held a lingering rage and confusion. He wore heavy emerald-green power armor. The white insignia of the Sons of Medusa was clearly visible on the shoulder armor against a background of abstract patterns of steel and flames, though the edges were permeated with pink light.
The entire scene was filled with an extremely bizarre, absurd, and even somewhat "ambiguous" yet inescapable atmosphere. Raynor stared at the familiar galgame dialogue interface, feeling the "romance game" atmosphere the system was forcibly creating.
Unidentifiable fragments of memories from the Terra 3K era of his past life suddenly surged uncontrollably into his mind. His dramatic flair instantly ignited. Then, Raynor—in a tone that even he himself found nauseatingly cheesy, yet strangely fitting the current "atmosphere"—uttered the first line of dialogue:
[Raynor (His character portrait shows him leaning slightly forward, his eyes terrifyingly "sincere")]:
"Senior Cassius! I... I have something I'd like to say to you!"
Cassius's character portrait shook violently, as if he had suffered a tremendous mental shock. His physical body remained bound by psionic chains, unable to move, but his consciousness roared furiously through the chat interface:
[Cassius (The flames in the background of his character portrait seem to burn even brighter, and his deep blue eyes are filled with raging fury)]:
"?"
A simple question mark, yet it contained a murderous intent and bewilderment powerful enough to tear a mortal soul apart. However, the system's power forcibly restricted his movements.
[Raynor (Bows at a 90-degree angle, speaking with utter sincerity)]:
"I admire you, Senpai!
From the first time I saw you, I was captivated by your powerful, calm, and efficient demeanor!
Please, let me be a part of your life!
Please be my best friend, Cassius-senpai!!!"