"I won't be going," Suzy answered without even pausing to think.
Derek blinked in surprise.
"Why not?"
Suzy coughed lightly before explaining, "My health hasn't been very good lately. I'm planning to take a leave of absence for a while."
At A University, Suzy's fragile health was practically common knowledge.
She was beautiful, but perpetually pale and delicate-looking, as though illness clung stubbornly to her. Many students privately referred to her as the campus's frail beauty.
The concern that immediately appeared in Derek's eyes warmed Suzy unexpectedly.
"Don't worry," she added gently. "It's nothing too serious."
Derek nodded slowly.
"I understand. If you need help with anything, you can always ask me."
By then, they had already reached Suzy's car.
Derek carefully placed the cardboard box into the trunk.
At that exact moment, the cold mechanical voice rang through Suzy's mind once again.
[Handsome Men Collection Guide successfully activated.]
[Compatible target detected: Derek Martin.]
[Target Level: SSS.]
[Affinity threshold reached. Binding requirements fulfilled.]
[Proceed with binding?]
Suzy's thoughts blanked out instantly.
What kind of system was this supposed to be?!
She didn't even know what it actually did yet.
But before logic could catch up, instinct answered first.
Bind.
[Binding successful.]
[Target Derek Martin successfully linked.]
[New feature unlocked: Bound target consumes supplies → host receives tenfold rebate.]
Suzy nearly inhaled sharply.
Tenfold rebate?!
So if she gave Derek supplies, once he used them, she would receive ten times the amount back?!
[Correct.]
The system's confirmation nearly made Suzy's fingers tremble.
Wasn't this basically an unlimited resource exploit?
Give one, receive ten in return.
This wasn't a person anymore—this was a walking treasure vault.
Suzy's eyes practically started glowing.
When Derek turned back around, he found Suzy staring at him with an intensity that immediately made his ears turn red.
A faint flush spread across his pale face.
Avoiding her gaze awkwardly, he asked softly, "Senior… is there something wrong?"
Suzy fought hard to suppress the smile tugging at her lips.
"Thanks for helping me carry everything," she said casually. "Have you eaten yet?"
"I already—"
Derek had just started to answer when his stomach suddenly growled loudly in betrayal.
The atmosphere froze for a second.
Embarrassment flashed visibly across his face.
Suzy almost laughed.
"You don't have to pretend," she said with a smile.
Opening the box, she took out one of the packed meals and handed it to him.
"I picked the dishes according to my own preferences, though. I'm not sure if you'll like them."
Derek accepted the meal immediately.
"I'm not picky at all," he replied brightly. "I'm sure it'll taste great. Thank you, Senior."
His smile was dazzling enough to make people instinctively soften toward him.
"Alright then, I'll head out first."
Suzy waved lightly.
She still had far too many things to do.
After getting into the car and saying goodbye to Derek, Suzy drove away from campus.
Once she was far enough from the university, she casually stored all the boxed meals from the trunk into her spatial dimension.
Then she headed straight toward the luxury resale company she had contacted earlier.
She still owned a large collection of luxury goods—designer bags, jewelry, watches, and various valuables.
But once the apocalypse arrived, none of those things would mean anything anymore.
It was far more practical to turn everything into cash now and use the money to gather supplies while there was still time.
Along the drive, Suzy also gained a much clearer understanding of the system's rules.
The Handsome Men Collection Guide System was exactly what its name implied.
Its core purpose was simple:
Collect handsome men.
As long as Suzy successfully bound a qualifying target, she would gain various rewards from the system.
To complete a binding, the target's affinity toward her needed to reach at least forty points.
After binding, additional functions would unlock according to the affinity level.
Every twenty-point increase opened a new stage.
And each stage rewarded her with random bonuses.
The higher the target's rank, the better the rewards would be.
In other words, if Suzy wanted greater benefits, she needed to bind more targets.
Suzy quietly sucked in a breath.
Wasn't this system basically encouraging her to become a full-time heart collector?
Her expression turned strange for a moment.
But after thinking about it carefully…
Maybe that wasn't entirely unacceptable.
After all, she had already confirmed something extremely important:
The rebate function applied to every bound target.
The more "resource generators" she had, the greater her future gains would become.
The more she thought about it, the brighter Suzy's mood became.
Half an hour later, she finally arrived at the luxury resale company.
After parking the car, she took out her phone and noticed several unread messages waiting for her.
Suzy first contacted the company manager to let him know she had arrived.
Only then did she begin opening the unread messages one by one.
The newest message was from Derek Martin.
Five minutes earlier, he had sent her a photo of the boxed meal, saying he had already returned to the dormitory and was about to eat.
Suzy replied with a cute sticker.
[Suzy: Does it taste okay?]
[Derek: It's delicious!]
His reply came almost instantly.
A second photo followed immediately after.
Half the food was already gone.
[Derek: Every dish you picked happens to match my taste perfectly!]
[Derek: happy.jpg]
Seeing the messages, Suzy instinctively pictured Derek's bright amber eyes again.
Then another thought occurred to her.
She had successfully bound Derek the very first time they met.
Which meant his affinity toward her had already exceeded forty points long ago.
Curious, Suzy asked the system to check the exact value.
The answer surprised her slightly.
Derek's current affinity toward her was already fifty-six points.
Once it reached sixty, another reward would unlock.
After thinking briefly, Suzy sent him another message.
[Suzy: The weather's been strange lately. You should probably stock up on supplies just in case.]
After sending it, she exited the chat window.
The only unread message left was from Wendy.
Wendy had sent a picture of the gold bracelet.
[Wendy: Suzy, are you sure you didn't give me the wrong bracelet?]
The moment Suzy opened the image, she immediately noticed the faint traces of dried blood caught within the engraved patterns.
Her brows lifted slightly.
So Wendy had already tried using blood to activate it.
Too bad the bracelet was fake.
Even if Wendy drained herself dry, nothing would happen.
What surprised Suzy more was the fact that Wendy had openly asked her about it.
That meant Wendy still wasn't suspicious of Suzy herself.
Otherwise, she would never have questioned her so directly.
Quietly relieved, Suzy maintained her usual harmless persona and quickly typed a reply.
[Suzy: The wrong one? Sis, isn't that the bracelet you wanted?]
She even attached a confused sticker afterward and proactively asked Wendy what kind of bracelet she had expected instead.
After sending the message, Suzy noticed Manager Williams approaching from a distance.
With a casual flick of her wrist, the back seat of her car instantly filled with luxury bags, jewelry cases, and watch boxes.
Putting away her phone, she stepped out of the vehicle and greeted him politely.
Manager Williams quickly called several employees over to assist.
Together, they carried Suzy's designer bags, watches, jewelry, and other valuables into the store for appraisal.
The authentication process took quite a while, so Manager Williams arranged a private lounge for Suzy to wait comfortably.
While waiting, Suzy used the time to contact Malcolm Brone and ask for information regarding several large supermarket suppliers in A City.
She had just started preparing to contact them when Manager Williams knocked on the door and entered.
"Miss Suzy, all of your items have finished appraisal."
"They're all authentic," he added quickly. "There are no issues regarding quality or legitimacy. However…"
He hesitated slightly before continuing.
"The total value is extremely high. Our company doesn't currently have enough liquid funds to purchase everything at once."
Suzy's expression dimmed slightly.
If the transaction couldn't be completed in one visit, she would have to waste additional time making another trip.
She had specifically chosen this company because she wanted to handle everything as efficiently as possible.
Seeing the subtle shift in her expression, Manager Williams immediately offered the solution he had already prepared in advance.
"If you don't mind, Miss Suzy, I can contact another luxury resale company to help purchase part of the collection."
Suzy smiled politely.
"That would be perfect. Thank you for the trouble."