(Sorry for the late posting. I needed a break and to work on my original novel. You can read 5 chapter on Royal Road. The title is My 10th Transmigration.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/129193/my-10th-transmigration
You can also read up to chapter 12 on my patreon for free. It's open for Public.
Pat.reon.com/relifewithkarmicgacha Search for the 10th Transmigration collection)
[Edward POV]
Alex and I had been grinding through our AIDS research all summer in the lab, and just as the season wrapped up, we finally hit a breakthrough. We high-fived when the positive data projection lit up the monitor.
It was a program created by Oscorp that I received from one of the gacha pulls. It was supposed to predict the synthesized medicine's effect with up to 99% accuracy—just don't use it for lizard serum, and it'll be fine.
"You know, we should've drained all of your blood," Alex joked after she found out the antibody we were researching came from me.
I rolled my eyes at her. "We've done that four times already in the last few days. You're totally treating me like a blood bank."
Suddenly, she held a scalpel and looked at me like a predator. "If your blood is already that precious, I wonder what other treasures I could find if I dissect your body."
"Try it and you'll become the most wanted man in the world," I threatened jokingly. "Or is this just an excuse to cut my shirt open?"
Alex blushed, taken aback by the retaliation. "Wh–What?"
My girlfriend stared at me with an emotionless expression as she sat beside us.
"W-We should compile the paper now," Alex said, quickly changing the topic—and the location. We went inside the mansion and worked in the living room.
The research facility would take over the testing phase, and the new drug was already scheduled for clinical trials in a matter of weeks.
"We could've done this ages ago," Alex grumbled, clearly irritated that I hadn't started the research with her sooner.
I shot back with equal frustration, "How was I supposed to know it'd be this doable? It's AIDS—we thought it'd take six months just to get something mildly useful."
"You should be used to doing things fast by now!" she countered.
I narrowed my eyes. "What's that supposed to mean? I last plenty long in bed—"
A pillow smacked me square in the face before I could finish defending my honor.
"I meant you're always fast with everything," she snapped, her face turning slightly red.
Across the room, my girlfriend looked up from her phone and gave me a deadpan stare.
Ness didn't mind Alex being around—at least not since the lab incident—but she made sure to keep us both well within her line of sight these days, just in case any "academic tomfoolery" happened again.
It took hours to compile everything. We started in the morning, and it was nearly dinner time by the time we finished.
Outside the house, summer was officially over.
The Amazing Spider-Man had already been in theaters for two weeks, and word was it had crossed the $750 million mark. Sony was practically swimming in celebratory champagne.
It looked like it would definitely break the billion-dollar milestone soon.
I invited my friends to come over and watch it with me in the mansion. I had a copy of the movie at my place since I was the executive producer.
The Amazing Spider-Man was like a breath of fresh air for me—it took attention away from the documentary. I really regret doing that documentary nowadays.
Even the employees in my company were looking at me with reverence. It was suffocating.
For the premiere, I attended with Ness, which made a lot of rumors about her being my girlfriend start swirling.
However, the response online was particularly negative. Ness had to turn off her Instagram comment section.
I wanted to record a video calling people out and criticizing their behavior, but Ness stopped me. A lot of my fans online backed her up and admonished the crazy ones on our behalf. The rumors died down on their own.
Ness tried to act like it didn't bother her, but it did. She'd been slightly detached these last few days.
I was trying hard to cheer her up. I even asked if she wanted me to beat up the trolls, but she said there was no need for that.
She spoke less, and most of our time was spent just hanging out without doing much. Compared to when we went to the Bahamas... That trip was incredible. I missed seeing her like that—open, relaxed, happy.
I wished she would open up to me about what she was feeling. Maggie and Amy were on my side, and they also tried to cheer her up, but it wasn't really effective.
Maybe I should bring her on another trip abroad. Another retreat, maybe at Lake Como. My mansion there had been sitting empty ever since Leonard Hofstadter returned from Italy.
He'd grown and changed a lot during his time away. Even without the NZT, he still carried that same underlying charm he had while under the influence of the drug.
Sheldon thought he'd been replaced by a robot because of his sudden height increase and appearance changes, but Leonard eventually changed his mind—slowly, like approaching a skittish horse.
Less than three days after Leonard got back, he and Penny started dating again. Apparently, Leonard tempted Penny with his "changes," and she became intrigued.
One last notable mention for the summer—one of the girls around me found herself pregnant.
She made a series of bad decisions one night and fell in love with a short-haired delinquent.
We were all shaken by it.
Now, she's carrying a litter of his children.
.
.
.
Yup. Vader got pregnant.
There would be some kitties in the mansion soon.
I was shocked. Honestly, if anyone was going to be that irresponsible and get knocked up, I'd have bet on Max.
"Ahh! I'm finally done!" Alex stretched her back, raising her arms, which led to her stomach being exposed. She was really defenseless sometimes even though she kept framing me as a perv.
"Yeah, and now, you have to go back to school," I teased.
She pursed her lips and said, "I'm planning to graduate early. With this paper, I can skip a lot of the merits and jump straight to Caltech."
As her family was already in talks with the Caltech dean, it was highly plausible. I was proud of her.
"Great. Then I can come visit you at the college," I said jokingly.
Ness finally spoke. "So you can meet some college girls?"
I turned to her and said, "So I can poach the future talents there. Besides, if I wanted to find some attractive college girls, I wouldn't go to Caltech."
"HEY!" Alex snapped, clearly offended.
"Hey, Ness. You wanna come with us?" I asked. "We're having dinner at Alex's place."
Alex didn't have a driver's license, so I offered to drive her back home. Phil drove her this morning. He also invited me to hang out and play Halo with him tonight after dinner.
Ness shook her head, still glued to her screen. "Nah. Maggie wants me to swing by. Said she met a guy."
"Again?" I muttered to myself.
Then she paused—glanced up—and added with a raised brow, "Don't you think it's weird how you're still hanging out with your ex's family two years after you broke up?"
Alex perked up immediately and joined in with mock betrayal, sitting beside Ness and taking her side. "Yeah. That's really weird, Ed. What's up with that?"
"Alright. I'm not going to go then," I told Alex, which stunned both girls. "Yuri will send you back home."
"Really?" Alex was confused.
I nodded. "Yeah. I'll call your dad and explain, so it'll be fine."
Alex left, feeling a little anxious. She wondered if I bailed because of her words. But honestly, I was concerned about Ness.
I took the phone from her hands and asked, "Did I do something wrong again?"
Ness snapped, "Not everything is about you, Newgate."
"Oh, but I think right now, it is about me," I said. "Or are you going to keep torturing yourself by reading the negative comments and then get pissy at everything?"
Ness went quiet for a while, then said, "They said I'm only parasiting you. It's hard not to take that kind of thing personally."
I sighed and sat down next to her. "Just don't mind the comments anymore. We'll do other stuff so you won't stay glued to your phone—like finally bringing me to meet your family?"
She'd brought up her family a few times, always commenting on how I was still close with the Dunphys.
She didn't say it out loud, but she was clearly upset that I spent effort with an ex's family but never tried to meet hers.
In my defense, she didn't want me to. Her relationship with her family was rough. They basically disowned her after the nudes leakage incident. Still, I think she missed them.
"If you're afraid of me meeting your parents, what about your sister? She's in LA, right? We can dip our toes in slowly, see where it takes us." I suggested, brushing her hair gently to comfort her.
She leaned into me and rested her head on my shoulder. "Hmm… I guess I can invite Stella here."
Stella was her little sister.
"Now that's settled—anything else on your mind?" I asked.
Ness rolled her eyes, but then she actually thought of something.
"Why do you talk so much with Alex?"
I looked at her, confused and chuckling. "We're… friends?"
"No, I mean, you guys didn't stop talking for over an hour at one point. It was like watching a podcast. So loud and so long I tuned most of it out." Her tone wasn't angry, just curious. And a little disappointed.
"You never have that kind of conversation with me."
"Don't get me wrong, Ness. You're my girlfriend. But… I don't think you can actually follow the conversation. And honestly, I don't think you'd find it interesting either."
Most of what Alex and I talked about was science. Hypotheses, gene therapy, viral pathways, protein modeling—the kind of stuff Ness usually just zoned out from.
Vanessa rolled her eyes, smacked my bicep, then walked away in a huff.
"Babe, where are you going? Come back," I called out jokingly.
"I'm going to call my sister!" she yelled. "And you! Go take a shower—you stink!"
I sniffed my body, confused. I smelled lemony fresh—I'd showered after the lab—so I had no idea what she was on about.
I did call Phil afterward and explained the situation. We could still play online, but if Ness's sister came by, it'd be rude to be glued to Halo instead of getting to know her.
While waiting, I prepped some food, changed shirts, and even sent the research paper to Bernadette. She called back almost instantly, shrieking with excitement at the prospect of a new cure.
Her voice was so high I could barely hear anything.
Ness also changed her clothes. She wore a mini black dress with a white collar and a ribbon at the back, making her look modest and elegant.
"Why are you wearing your 'I'm a good girl' dress?" I asked, confused, wrapping my arm around her waist as we stood together at the front door. Stella had just pulled in and was parking her car.
Ness scratched her nose slightly and said, "Um, I just pulled this out randomly from the closet. There's no other meaning to it."
She usually touched her nose when she lied. I guessed she wanted to seem more grounded, more mature—maybe to fix her image with her family through this meeting.
"V!" Stella burst inside and immediately rushed toward Ness, pulling her into a warm hug while still wearing a long trench coat.
She was quite tall—about as tall as Claire—with slightly chubby cheeks and a not-quite-identical, but still recognizable resemblance to Ness.
Ness beamed, her whole face lighting up. "Ste—"
But before she could even finish her name and enjoy the warmth, Stella shoved her aside and lunged at me instead, throwing her arms around my neck with a squeal.
She jumped up and down excitedly like we were long-lost lovers, yelling, "EDDY! I'VE BEEN DYING TO MEET YOU!"
Both Ness and I froze.
"Uh—Stella. Nice to meet you too," I said awkwardly, prying her arms off me with careful pressure. She was trying to hold on longer than normal, applying some real strength into the hug, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.
Ness's expression twisted. The left corner of her lip curled upward like it was being hooked by fishing wire—pure disbelief and simmering rage as she watched her sister cling to me.
"You should probably take off your coat," I said, trying to redirect the tension.
Stella glanced down like she had just remembered what she was wearing. With a slow, deliberate motion, she untied the belt around her waist. "You're right. I should've taken this off first."
The coat dropped open.
"STELLA, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Ness exploded.
Underneath the coat, Stella was wearing fishnet stockings, a barely-there mini skirt, and a scandalously low-cut crop top that left almost half her chest spilling out. It was the kind of outfit you'd expect from a club girl or a high-class escort—not someone visiting her family.
"What? Oh, this?! Don't be a prude!" she deflected, brushing off Ness's anger before Ness could even fully react.
"Why are you wearing that to meet my boyfriend?!" Ness wasn't letting it go. She squeezed her body in front of me, blocking her sister from getting any closer.
"What? I always wear clothes like this!" Stella argued heatedly. Then, in a split-second switch, she shifted into a meek pose, swaying her body and biting her finger as she looked at me. "Edward, you love it, right?"
"Umm…" My eyes darted between Ness and her sister. "You better stop now! Because my girlfriend will claw your eyes out if you keep looking at me like that," I said firmly—and a little sassily—while hiding behind Ness.
"Are—are you seriously trying to seduce my boyfriend in front of me right now?!" Vanessa stepped forward, full gangster-mode, trying to intimidate Stella even though she was taller.
Stella snorted. "You can't keep him all to yourself! He belongs to the world! I've been begging you to let me meet him for years, and you ignored me!"
Vanessa blinked in disbelief, clearly taken aback.
"It's not like you have a chance anyway!" Vanessa mocked.
"You whore!" Stella snapped. "Now you finally let me meet him—but only after making sure he's yours, just so you can rub it in my face! You sly, abhorrent little vixen!"
And with that, they both grabbed each other's hair and launched into a full-on fight.
"Wait—wait!" I pulled Ness back, wrapping my arm around her with my left hand, while pushing Stella's head with my right to keep them apart.
"This has clearly taken a wrong turn. Why don't we all calm down and talk about this like civilized people?" I offered in a soothing tone.
But both of them kept clawing at each other, even though they couldn't reach.
I sighed, contemplating what I'd gotten myself into.
…
Stella was forced to wear an oversized football jersey during dinner. It was mine—and I had a feeling I wasn't getting it back.
"So," I broke the silence as we ate. "Stella, you've been asking Ness to meet up?"
Stella smiled at me, then turned and glared at her sister. "Yes. But she ignored me."
"So… are you mad because she didn't let you meet me? Or because she ignored you in general?"
"Isn't that the same thing?" Ness squinted at me, grimacing in confusion.
"No. Similar, but not the same," I said. Stella was huffing, eyes locked on Ness.
"It's not the same!" she snapped. "Asking to meet Edward is a privilege. My privilege, as your sister! But you—ignoring me for years?! You're a bad sister!"
Turns out, when Ness cut off her family, she shoved Stella away too. Stella had been defending her all along, but Ness treated her like the rest of their parents. It almost broke her.
"I didn't do that to hurt you!" Ness said, her voice defensive and shaken.
"Then explain to me why you're only contacting me now? I moved to L.A. a year ago, but you're only inviting me to your place now? You didn't want to see me!"
"I did!" Ness insisted, caught off guard by the emotion in Stella's voice. "I wanted to hang out with you too! But—"
"But what?! You abandoned me! You let me face our parents alone!"
I felt completely out of place. As the two sisters poured their hearts out, I just sat there eating my chicken in silence.
Stella—despite being a fan of mine—hadn't actually been trying to get with me tonight. That whole act earlier? Just to hurt Ness.
And it worked.
Ness looked crushed, guilty. The two of them started crying and went to the living room to talk things out. I brought them some champagne and gave them space.
Stella must've really missed her.
The incident hadn't just scarred Ness—it had hurt the entire family.
Back in my previous world, her scandal had been overshadowed by the Apple Cloud leaks, where countless celebrities had their private photos dumped online. It caused a media frenzy.
Even though I did my best to scrub the internet clean, Ness became the face of the scandal—just because she was the most recent and the easiest to mock.
If another mass leak happened today, no one would even remember her.
But for the family, it had never ended. The media moved on—but they never really processed it.
I smiled as I watched the two sisters make up. To be able to fight like that and be okay just a few minutes later—they were siblings, alright. It made me a little jealous.
While I was standing by the couch, Sage suddenly appeared out of nowhere and marched toward me with purpose. Stella and Vanessa were startled.
Ness immediately stood up. "Anna? Why are you here?"
"Edward, you need to come with me. Now." Sage grabbed my wrist and pulled me without explanation.
"Wait, Anna!" Ness protested. "I have plans with Edward tonight!"
"Your plans can wait. This is urgent—a matter of life and death," Sage said, deadly serious. My face instantly mimicked hers.
Stella scowled. "Hey, lady! You can't just break into someone's house and snatch their boyfriend—"
"Shut up, Stella," Ness snapped. "Anna's not like you."
"Hey, I was helping you!" Stella fired back.
I turned to them with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Ness. Stella. I have to go now. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Be careful, Edward!" Ness shouted, not trying to interfere further. "I'll call your dad– Wait where did they go?" Ness was confused.
As soon as we stepped outside, Sage led me through a transparent film—like a rip in the fabric of the universe—and we arrived at the docks in a single step.
"Wait—did you just teleport us?" I asked, eyes wide with excitement. But I quickly sobered up. It was the first time Sage had ever brought me anywhere using her powers. That meant this was really serious.
A dark cloud churned above the sea, swallowing the moonlight. A violent whirlpool formed out of nowhere, spiraling with unnatural force.
"What's happening?" I asked, bracing against the wind.
Suddenly, a booming, menacing voice echoed from within the whirlpool, reverberating through the storm.
"I FINALLY CAUGHT YOU—YOU THIEF!"