Inside the Trainer's Office, Logan stared blankly at Tokai Teio, whose cheeks were puffed out in a mock pout.
"Lazybones Trainer. Sleeping in the middle of the day?" After a few seconds of trying to hold her stern expression, Teio broke. She covered her mouth and giggled. "Sorry, I couldn't resist teasing you when I saw you passed out. Did you stay up late tweaking the training regimen again?"
Logan blinked rapidly. The sensation was disorienting, like waking from a century-long coma.
He reached down and pinched his own thigh—hard. Sharp pain shot through his nervous system to his brain. Logan shuddered, the sensation electric. Not satisfied, he stood up, closed the distance to Teio, and cupped her face in his hands. They were close enough to share the same breath.
"Trai... Trainer? What are you..." Teio mumbled, her lips squished slightly by his palms.
"It's not a dream... I crossed over. I actually crossed over!"
After three months—over a hundred days of silence—Logan had finally arrived in the real world. She was alive. The Tokai Teio standing before him was a living, breathing person.
Overwhelmed by the sheer ecstasy of rebirth, he pulled her in and planted a loud kiss on her cheek.
Teio's tail stiffened and twitched violently twice. Realizing what he had just done, her face exploded into a shade of crimson. She pulled back, clapping her hands over her kissed cheek, stammering, "Trainer! That sort of thing... that sort of thing should be done in the room!"
With that, she turned and bolted out the door.
What was that?
Logan stood frozen, confusion washing over him.
In the other world—the Glitch World—it didn't matter what he did to Teio. She never reacted mentally. She was a doll he could arrange in any pose.
Aside from the scripted daily routines, his interactions with the girls there had been reduced to base instincts.
For instance, when he pushed the "Teio unit" to her physical limit during... night activities, she would cling to him and make adorable, kitten-like mewling sounds before collapsing on the bed, panting with flushed skin. But those were automated responses. Biological macros triggered by stimulation, bypassing the brain entirely.
And Teio wasn't the only one with "functions."
After nearly a hundred days of living in a consequence-free game, Logan had forgotten the social contracts of human interaction. Was it frowned upon to walk up to a woman, weigh her chest in his hands, check the texture, and decide if she was suitable for bed-warming duties that night?
Probably. He was definitely out of practice with civilized society.
More importantly, in that frozen world, he had maxed out Teio's [Affection] stat until the heart icon was throbbing. He wondered if that carried over.
While Logan was trying to piece together his reality, the door creaked open. Teio slipped back in. She checked the hallway left and right, shut the door firmly, and locked it. Then, she walked up to Logan, stood on her tiptoes, and pecked him on the cheek.
"No more surprise attacks... okay? Trainer," she whispered, her face still glowing pink.
Logan stood there, stunned.
Is this... what max affection looks like in reality?
He couldn't see a status bar. The UI was gone. This was unmitigated reality, stripped of gamified overlays. It was jarring. If his progress had carried over, that begged the question: what about the others?
He had maxed out two other specific targets: Chairwoman Yayoi Akikawa and Head Secretary Tazuna Hayakawa.
He had prioritized them for two simple reasons. First, they were exactly his type. Second, accessibility.
Perhaps due to the system's logic in the Glitch World, all he had to do was call the executive office and say, "I have a problem," and they would appear. It was much easier than chasing students through the corridors.
Logan recalled his "experiments" with the Chairwoman. Yayoi looked small and cute, but her figure was surprisingly dangerous. Her waist was soft and tender, and her feet were smooth, possessing a natural, milky scent. They were incredibly comfortable to hold. Whether using her as a body pillow or a lap pet, she was a top-tier option.
He wondered if they, too, would treat him with this level of intimacy now.
"Trainer! Stop spacing out!" Teio reached up and tugged at his cheek. Once his eyes focused on her, she pouted. "You've been acting weird all morning. Did you really not sleep well last night?"
"...Last night?"
Logan paused. His memory of the immediate past in this timeline was blank. If he arrived here three months ago in the Glitch World, what was the "Logan" of this world doing?
"Wait. Yesterday was just normal training, right? And..."
"And what?" Logan pressed.
"And you took a nap on my lap! You're such a sleepyhead, Trainer."
It matches.
Well, partially.
Based on Teio's account, the events aligned. He had hugged them, played with their tails, rubbed their ears, and massaged their feet. However, the memories of dragging them home to use as living sex dolls were missing.
It was like finishing a visual novel only to find several corrupted files in the CG gallery.
What was this? System auto-correction?
Logan was a healthy young man. Trapped alone in a world populated by unresponsive, beautiful gynoids, he hadn't exactly remained a saint. He wasn't a monk; he was a guy with needs. He knew exactly what he was—a man who appreciated beautiful women.
The isolation of the Glitch World had been torture. Overthinking led to despair. So, he had let his lower brain take the wheel to secure some dopamine and keep the madness at bay.
In the Game World, he had done everything he wanted to do, with everyone he wanted to do it with. He passed the time grinding stats and waiting for the world to change.
Today, it changed.
The histories were different, but his habits remained. Looking at Teio's ears now, his hands moved on autopilot. He began rubbing the soft fur at the base of her ears.
Teio's tail swished rhythmically, and a low, purring rumble vibrated in her throat.
Okay, Affection is definitely maxed. If he tried this with a stranger, she'd have kicked him through the wall.
And that wasn't a metaphor. During training, he had watched Teio push a boulder weighing several tons. If a Horse Girl got genuinely angry and punched him, Logan would be instantly isekai'd to the afterlife. Even if he was the "Player," he was physically human. Their biology was vastly superior.
"Trainer, you're so weird today." Teio leaned into his touch, eyes closing in bliss. "I came here to tell you something super important, and you keep distracting me."
"Important? What is it?"
"The Debut Race, obviously!" Teio abandoned all pretense of personal space, hugging Logan's waist and nuzzling her face into his chest. "Lord Teio is finally facing her debut! You have to watch me win!"
The Debut Race.
Logan remembered. The Trainer's Manual on his desk had the date circled.
It also marked the start of the specific pre-race training block. That date was today.