Chapter 138

Huff, huff.

A girl standing in front of the full-length mirror had yet to even begin, but her breathing was already growing rough, and her right hand trembled as it gripped the bottom hem of her t-shirt.

Just like before when she had undressed to take a shower, she was merely planning to do the same again, but something was different this time. Was it because of the thoughts she harbored that made her hand unable to easily lift the t-shirt upward?

Of course.

She wasn’t just undressing to “look.”

In a world akin to an 19+ romantic visual novel, inspecting one’s body includes checking the sensitivity of one’s body. Erica had a reason that necessitated this level of checking.

If a woman like Inna were to, for instance, massage her or help her change her underwear, Erica would have no reason to refuse and would consent.

But what if touching her chest or lower body caused an intense reaction despite no contact?

Would someone like Inna merely apologize and leave, or would they continue the massage with a sadistic smile?

Of course, the continuation would be inevitable. Moreover, there was no guarantee that after such an act, Erica wouldn’t end up giving something as significant as her virginity to the other person.

In a normal world, she could confidently dismiss the idea of being raped and giving it up, but this wasn’t a normal world—it was a romantic visual novel world where such an outcome was entirely possible.

A path leading to an ending where both body and mind were forcibly taken from her.

Although it didn’t happen to Erica with Kang Yu-ri, that might only occur during an ambush when her consciousness was absent. For feelings to develop, Erica had to first experience an event while awake.

Some might argue that she was equating Inna with Kang Yu-ri too closely, but even if someone treated her kindly by preparing her meals every morning and evening, Erica didn’t trust Inna to that extent—especially in matters of intimacy.

Considering how common it was in 19+ adult games for trust in s*xual matters to lead to betrayal, it was clear that Erica shouldn’t blindly trust someone like Inna.

Rather than naively believing that Inna wouldn’t take advantage of Erica’s exposed and vulnerable state, it was necessary for Erica to examine herself and establish a reason to assertively reject any future touching. After all, there was a difference between outright refusal and hesitantly rejecting every touch.

If she lived in a real-world scenario Erica understood, merely being touched a few times would not easily “develop” someone’s body. She might just dismiss it as a coincidence, akin to being hit by bird droppings and disregarding the matter.

However, did this world, bound by the rules of romantic visual novels, guarantee that her body wouldn’t be as easily influenced?

Which led to the reason:

She needed to inspect every change in her body.

As Erica organized her thoughts along with her breathing, she hesitated no further and swiftly discarded her top.

Though her long hair posed a slight obstacle while removing her t-shirt, nothing else hindered the process.

The white t-shirt fluttered as it fell to the floor.

After several minutes of contemplation, she finally managed to take off just the top layer of clothing. In the mirror, she saw herself standing in a pink bra and underwear. She glanced at her upper body and smiled in satisfaction, nodding.

There were no bug bites, or more specifically, no hickey marks anywhere on her pale skin.

Since kiss marks often appear on the upper body, finding none on her torso was quite reassuring.

“Now, I just need to check beneath the bra…”

Upper body done. Checking sensitivity could wait until after visual confirmation.

Trying and failing to unhook her bra several times, Erica finally succeeded thanks to her rigid body that lacked flexibility.

Eventually, the last barrier—a pink bra—covering her upper body also hit the floor. With an expressionless face, the girl confirmed that there were no kiss marks on or near her chest, her ears blushing red in the process despite the room being empty.

Even though she was alone, her modesty still stirred uncomfortably as she inspected her half-n*ked figure.

“Alright, just the bottom now…”

The sudden increase in murmurs to herself was one of the methods to ease her embarrassment.

But as words were spoken:

Erica’s hand lingered far from her waistband, reluctant to proceed.

In Erica’s mind, she still saw herself as closer to male than female, and the idea of taking off underwear from her lower half—exposing everything—felt more like undressing someone of the opposite s*x.

“Do I really have to? Can’t it wait? There’s always tomorrow or the day after.”

For Erica, who typically showered with her eyes closed and quickly wiped her body with a towel, undressing to expose her lower half fully while conscious felt incredibly burdensome.

The urge to end this inspection grew stronger.

Rationalizing to herself, the girl attempted to pick up the discarded t-shirt and bra lying on the floor. As she bent down,

“Not working? Let me help then. Whoosh!”

An inaudible sound reached her ears, and her waistband loosened automatically. Not just her pants, but the underwear accompanying it dropped all the way to the floor.

Had she not fastened her belt properly? Or had her own supernatural abilities, reacting to her will, triggered this bizarre phenomenon of pulling down both pants and underwear simultaneously?

The latter seemed far more probable, and Erica, eyes closed, spoke aloud.

“Just a minute. Stop. Go back up. My powers, listen to me. Put the clothes back on.”

As one of her legs was lifted into the air to pull free from her underwear and pants, Erica was sure her supernatural abilities had caused this. She attempted to communicate with her powers to redress herself, but since this was not the doing of her abilities, her clothes did not reappear.

The invisible person behind Erica, noticing the hickey marks on her upper thighs and lower abdomen while pretending to prank her, wasn’t amused—far from it, they were furious.

“… Erica, what is this? Did you intend to stand n*ked in front of me because of this?”

The person who usually avoided using Erica’s name to adjust her mood now asked tremulously with betrayal and anger in their voice.

Unaware of her abilities failing her because they hadn’t caused this, Erica opened her eyes and through the mirror observed the marks on her thighs and lower abdomen and yelled in anger.

“Kang Yu-ri, you son of a b*tch!”

Erica was so incensed she didn’t even care if she might disturb Inna. But compared to the invisible person behind her, who was silently fuming, Erica’s indignation was nothing.

Since letting Kang Yu-ri into the house, suspicions had been brewing—if not for a new girlfriend, then perhaps something else. However, relief came when she learned Kang Yu-ri’s stay was driven by pity rather than affection. Yet anxiety lingered as Erica and Kang Yu-ri shared the same bedroom. When Kang Yu-ri announced she was leaving, Erica had been inexplicably happy all day.

Now, with all expectations shattered moments ago, another truth dawned on this woman.

The firm principle of not directly harming Erica to avoid anger had vanished entirely from her mind.

“… Whether you unknowingly or innocently kept her around out of pity doesn’t matter now. Right now, you can’t see me, correct? Thus, doing something behind your back, similar to what Kang Yu-ri did, should be fine, correct?”

This marked her ultimatum—warning Erica to stop pretending ignorance or face consequences.

Simultaneously, it was a confirmation to see if Erica reacted at all.

Given Erica’s past tendency to overlook Inna’s presence, even before losing her memories, Inna followed Erica back home, believing it was the same situation again.

Thinking this might be another deceitful setup to provoke her, Inna considered ending their connection forcibly through anger.

‘Do I really have to bear with this?’

This seemed like a trap designed by Erica to cut ties, but even if it were, the idea filled her with the urge to dismantle their relationship in ways Erica hadn’t predicted.

Inna’s well-planned summer confession strategy, aided by Kim Ha-neul, was shattered into pieces in her mind.

“Haa, there’s nothing I can do, I guess.”

Unaware of the fury behind her, Erica quickly calmed down. She had anticipated possibilities like this.

After visual inspection came a necessity to check sensitivity—but what’s done is done.

Just this:

“…Is there really nothing you can do?”

The woman listening from behind asked in genuine disbelief.

The anger was replaced by incomprehension. If she was going to forgive Kang Yu-ri’s actions, why couldn’t she do the same for herself?

The contempt and provocation were clear to Inna, although they were unintentional from Erica’s end.

Erica, who possessed the talent of immersion even before becoming a girl, had been blessed with an ability to concentrate intensely when focused on a single task—ignoring everything else—an ability that helped her in various encounters, including her battles with terrorists and school tests.

This world was a 19+ world. Erica deduced this when an H-battle system message revealed to her by the Former Queen of the School.

In the realm of romantic visual novels, heroines have weaknesses designed to allow interaction with the protagonist, and Erica’s weakness, she thought, was her inability to notice the faces of extras.

But is their name enough? Is that truly her flaw in this 19+ realm?

A more accurate one: in this world, her inability to recognize characters below a certain role. This was her true weakness as a heroine.

Though this inability wasn’t constant; typically, it broke with noise or touch, creating undue stress for Erica by slowly chipping away at her resolute composure.

This wasn’t aimed at someone like Inna, whose strength made her a worthy contender for Erica’s supernatural attention.

However, under the stress of dealing with Kang Yu-ri, Erica’s intense focus turned everyone, even Inna, into invisible entities.

Inna’s supernatural talent of assimilation into her environment further compounded this effect.

Even aware of the possibility of someone using their powers for such intimate violations, Erica’s error blocked her from recognizing Inna’s existence fully.

The worst misfortune for Erica.

Still, this wasn’t an entirely unavoidable situation.

Since the error stemmed from the stress caused by unforeseen forced actions with the Former Queen Kang Yu-ri, if Erica had engaged in an H-battle with her as the system likely intended, there wouldn’t have been any such errors.

If she had been with Kang Yu-ri, although Inna might’ve been angry, she wouldn’t have perceived the situation as deliberately provocative.

“Why is it so cold despite the summer? Is it because I’m n*ked?”

This situation arose because she deviated from the original story.

Unaware of the danger her body now unconsciously recognized, Erica hugged her arms to keep warm.

“If Inna’s about to wake up, I should calm her down now. It’s over anyway.”

Erica completely disregarded Inna’s final tolerance.

To Inna, mentioning her name now after avoiding it earlier was clearly a provocation, compounded by Erica’s continued murmuring seemingly directed at her.

Smiling faintly though not truly happy, Inna watched Erica’s actions.

“Guess I should check by touching. Hmph, Kang Yu-ri, what exactly did you do to her while she was sleeping?”

“There’s no need to act so mysterious. I could have been your tool to enjoy, but you seem to treat me more like an invisible object.”

To Inna, Erica’s actions indicated she wanted Inna to submit without resistance and enjoy it, akin to when she slept.

Yet knowing it was all overthinking,

Inna still decided to cross the line, convinced Erica had done so first.

*

“Did you realize it during the shower?”

On a Friday night as everyone went home,

A woman walking paused, doubling over laughing for moments.

Considering how wild Erica must be right now thinking she gave permission by offering her body in exchange for shelter, the woman couldn’t contain her joy.

Of course, she hadn’t actually touched Erica. There was no kiss.

When Erica was unconscious, providing “service” wasn’t appealing enough.

Instead, she used her abilities to leave kiss marks near intimate areas, making it seem like Erica had been violated 13 times over a span of a couple days.

Marks that were less physical scars and more illusions crafted by her supernatural abilities.

What will Erica do when they meet again and find out the truth?

Walking, imagining Erica’s enraged and confused expression, the woman had no inkling of the consequences awaiting Erica—and by extension, Inna.

Like a boy playing a prank on the girl he likes, she was lost in envisioning Erica’s reactions, blissfully unaware of the darkness above or the disasters her antics were about to unleash on both Erica and Inna.