Maids VS Apocalypse

Mark lay down on the sofa, his eyes locked onto the ceiling. It was already past midnight. Though he was exhausted after everything he had gone through since the previous night, sleep never came to him.

"I would say it is disappointment."

Lara’s voice rang in his head for the umpteenth time. The impact those six words left on him was much worse than anything she could’ve said at that moment.

His mind had been in a daze ever since he heard her say them. What little appetite he had vanished and he had to force the meal down, not even enjoying the fat man’s cooking. Once he was done, the maid inquired if he needed anything else then asked for permission to spend the night somewhere else.

The request left him stunned. Though Elya stepped in and explained that the girls should be sleeping together, the real reason was easy to guess. It had spared him a very difficult conversation, however, so he was a bit relieved that Lara took the initiative to bring it up.

"Disappointment..."

Mark had no trouble understanding why the maid would feel that way. Lara was a powerful entity from another dimension. She most definitely had some expectations for her summoner so it wasn’t strange for her to be disappointed by what she got.

"Disappointment..."

As the thoughts continued to brew, embers slowly rose in the depths of his psyche. The depression keeping him down ignited and the resulting fire filled him with rage.

"How the hell is it my fault?"

All he ever wanted was some peace and quiet. He never asked for a maid summoning system, nor did he wish for a blood-sucking dhampir maid. Both came into his life uninvited, just like the voices that tormented him for the past nine years.

After all the suffering he had endured, the last thing he wanted was to be told he wasn’t enough.

"Blame the damned System." He spat in the dark. "It’s the things that summoned you, not me..."

Mark believed he was doing well for someone whose life abruptly changed less than a week ago. Of course there were many things he could’ve done better, but when taking into account everything he went through, being alive should’ve been enough to earn him some praise.

"Damn it..."

His thoughts kept spiraling and the anger got worse by the minute, but then it all went away and he was back to feeling depressed.

Lara’s blushing face as he pinned her under him came to mind. The explanation he got from the others led him to the conclusion that he wasn’t the only one turned on back then. Despite that, she still rejected him.

He understood why she did it, but that wasn’t enough to heal the damage he suffered. He could only think about how she would rather he die than be intimate with him.

’If I wasn’t a disappointment, would she...’

His mind conjured fantasies of the way things would have gone if the maid reciprocated his approach. Instead of elevating his depression, the thoughts only made it worse. Eventually, Mark couldn’t bear listening to himself anymore and decided to use the one thing that could help him in his current state.

He opened his inventory and took out his phone and earbuds. Seconds later he pressed the play button and the chaotic symphonies of his favorite playlist chase all his worries away.

"Ha~... Why didn’t I think of this before?"

The change was so drastic it left Mark a little shocked. His thoughts were suddenly in order and everything bothering him seemed to retreat to some dark corner of his mind.

"What was I even worried about?" He muttered, feeling a smile tug on the corners of his mouth. "If I’m a disappointment, all I have to do is change that."

Only then did he remember a conclusion he had arrived at after leaving the PK HQ. Knowing he didn’t have what it takes to conquer his heroine, he made the decision to put romance aside and focus on the main plot of his story.

The event from the previous night showed that he wouldn’t always have a say in how things would go, but that didn’t mean everything was out of his control.

’I need to get stronger...’

Having regained his determination, Mark grabbed his imaginary controller and pressed the start button. There was an aspect of the System he only noticed back in the gun store. To access it he had to enter the his status screen, but before he could do so something caught his attention.

[

Name: Mark White

Race: Human

Rank: Awakened

Stats:

Level 02

HP: 100/100

MP: 64/100

Strength 7

Endurance 6

Agility 6

Dexterity 11

Focus 15 (+20)

Mind 151

Soul 117

AP:

0/30

Equipment:

Abilities:

Force Field.

Lunar Arts (Novice)

]

’What the...’

Mark got up abruptly and stared at the System screen with wide eyes.

One of the most crucial points of Ramsay’s lesson was how one’s mental state affected their stats. That manifested in the -8 debuff to his Focus, the stat that affected how fast his MP is consumed.

His mental state hadn’t improved at all since then so he expected the debuff to be the same, but to his surprise not only was it gone, it somehow turned into a buff instead.

’Don’t tell me...’

It took him seconds to understand what was happening and he quickly grabbed his phone to confirm it.

’You... you can’t be serious...’

He placed a hand on the lower half of his face hiding the smile quickly spreading over it despite no one being there to notice it. He tried it a few more times and the results couldn’t be more apparent.

A few seconds after the music starts playing, a + appears beside his Focus stat. The number accompanying it starts with 1 and steadily rises until it reaches 20. When the music stops, the number drops to 0 after which the + turns into a - and the number starts rising again.

Mark had already known that buffing one’s stat was possible, as evident by the boost to physical stats granted by Lara’s uniform. He speculated that there were some drugs that can be used to enhance Focus and Mind, but it never even occurred to him that music could be used to achieve the same effect.

’If it’s like this then maybe...’