Night had fallen. Cool moonlight finally pierced through the dark clouds, spilling into Luo Hong's bedroom and providing a slight chill to the heated atmosphere.
Bronya: Level 32 → Level 33 (NEW!) | [31 → 19 NEW!]
Cangxuan: Level 13 → Level 17 (NEW!) | [75 → 64 NEW!]
Danzhu: Level 13 → Level 17 (NEW!) | [67 → 53 NEW!]
As the dust settled, the sisters, Cangxuan and Danzhu, lay hand-in-hand, staring blankly at the ceiling with looks of fulfilled daze on their doll-like faces. Bronya, still clinging to Luo Hong, didn't look much better. Her eyes were faintly shimmering with little pink hearts—a setting Luo Hong had added to the "mod."
Whenever they get excited, the hearts pop up automatically!
"You're quite the greedy one," Luo Hong smirked, stroking Bronya's smooth back. "If you wanted it that bad, you should have come to me. Why handle it yourself?"
"Pah!" Bronya spat, regaining some of her strength. "It's all because of that mark you put on my belly!"
"But you brought that on yourselves, didn't you?" Luo Hong said seriously. "If you hadn't insisted on challenging me, I wouldn't have done it. For the record, I'm a 'Pure Love Warrior'!"
"Then explain the Principal!" Bronya rolled her eyes and pouted. "We thought you wouldn't use something as low as hypnotism. We misjudged you!"
"Oh~" Luo Hong looked back at the sisters as they climbed out of bed. "No wonder your resistance was so fierce today. But for the record, I never once said I wouldn't use hypnotism. You simply projected your own expectations onto me and then got upset when reality didn't match."
He shrugged with a look of mock helplessness.
"..." ×3
The three girls thought back carefully. He was right—he had never made such a promise. They fell into a frustrated silence.
"Heh." Luo Hong chuckled and hugged Bronya tightly. "I'm just teasing you. I'll be blunt: I won't hypnotize you into 'loving' me. That would be meaningless. What I want is your sincere hearts, not just high-tech NPCs."
The reason he liked them was their unique personalities. If they were just puppets on strings, what would be the point? Of course, the fact that he craved their bodies was also a very large part of the equation.
"Hmph!"
Bronya, still held in his arms, let out a light huff after hearing his explanation. She pressed further: "Then how do you explain what happened with the Principal?" As she spoke, she wiggled slightly in his embrace, finding a more comfortable position.
"I only said I wouldn't go 'all the way' by hypnotizing you into loving me instantly. I never said I wouldn't use the power of hypnotism at all," Luo Hong stated with a straight face, devoid of even a hint of shame. "Besides, Theresa was under hypnosis the entire time and had no idea what I did to her. Doesn't that technically mean I did nothing at all?"
"At the end of the day, I was merely handling my own property. There's no wrong in that, right?"
"Uh..."
Bronya opened her mouth, stunned into silence by his "it's not a crime if you don't get caught" logic. For a moment, she didn't know how to argue back because... the scoundrel actually had a point!
Unquestionably, only their consciousness entered this world, while the ownership of their bodies here belonged to Luo Hong. As long as Luo Hong didn't let Theresa know what happened, was it any different from him using their physical forms while they were offline?
"Sophistry."
Cangxuan's cold voice rang out. "My Lord, even if the bodies belong to you, the consciousness within them was forced to cooperate, wasn't it?"
"True." Luo Hong nodded, but quickly added, "However, my deal with Theresa was fair."
"Hah!" Cangxuan sneered, continuing to tear down his excuses. "But if you had told Theresa directly what the price would be, would she have accepted?"
"Not necessarily 'no', right?" Without hesitation, Luo Hong pointed to the sisters. "Take you two as examples. I laid everything out clearly, and in the end, didn't you still make the choice you're standing in now?"
"Did you really give us a choice?" Even the composed Cangxuan couldn't help but roll her eyes. "You just offered to let us trade for intel so we wouldn't feel 'cheated'."
"Hm?" Luo Hong tilted his head innocently. "Do you think anyone else appearing before me would have a different set of options? Option A: get devoured by me without gaining anything. Option B: get devoured by me while gaining the information you want. Isn't that still a choice?"
He finished with a proud tilt of his chin.
"..."
Faced with the shameless Luo Hong, Cangxuan was rendered speechless. But thinking it over, Luo Hong providing information in return was indeed a 'win' for them, considering he could have simply taken what he wanted for free.
"Sister, stop talking to this shameless man. There's no reasoning with him." Seeing Cangxuan's frustration, Danzhu hurried over to comfort her.
"I see." Luo Hong smirked playfully. "Basically, you saw that Mei received a different treatment, and you're a bit jealous, aren't you? If you want that kind of package, I can satisfy you. I can even wipe your memories of this period so we can start over."
"Stop messing with us!" Bronya gave Luo Hong's chest a light thump. "You'd just restore those memories at the very end to watch us fall into a bottomless abyss of conflict and agony. You villain!"
"Heh~ you've gotten smarter." Looking down at the Bronya in his arms, Luo Hong dropped the playful act and said seriously, "But I can guarantee that my love for you is the same as my love for Mei; it's just expressed differently."
"Th-Then... please find a different way to express it..." Faced with this sudden, serious confession, Bronya lowered her head and lightly bit her lip.