My Cuckhold System

Chapter 266: Best of Both Worlds?

West lowered the phone slowly onto the table before leaning his head backward against the couch.

His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling.

"...I don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel anymore."

Inside the summon space, Seraphyra quietly watched him for once without teasing.

Even Gor’thala remained silent while Aurethia sat cross-legged nearby polishing her saber as she occasionally glanced toward him.

The summon bond made his emotions impossible to fully hide from them.

Confusion, conflict, anger, sadness... all flowed through the connection.

Eventually West exhaled heavily. "...I need sleep."

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Misty High City.

Jax stood outside the massive entrance gates of Misty High Metropolitan University while staring upward.

The place looked ridiculously expensive.

Tall silver-white structures stretched into the skyline while holographic banners floated overhead displaying enrollment announcements and academy rankings.

Students moved everywhere while security drones hovered calmly around the premises as administrative staff guided people toward registration halls.

Jax adjusted the collar of his Shadow Reapers jacket proudly.

The black and crimson jacket rippled with the wind, giving Jax a certain kind of charisma with the gang insignia rested sharply across the back.

He looked cool as hell... and he knew it.

Jax had made his choice with his parents concerns in mind.

He’d enroll in college but he wasn’t abandoning Shadow Reapers either.

A few nearby students whispered quietly while glancing toward him.

"Shadow Reapers?"

"Isn’t that the fast rising small gang?"

"I heard their gang leader’s insane."

"Yeah they made the news a bunch of times recently!"

Jax grinned slightly while entering the administrative hall casually.

The moment people noticed the gang attire, the atmosphere changed.

No one dared bother him or argued when he cut the lines.

Even the workers suddenly became extremely polite.

A receptionist with short silver hair immediately stood straighter.

"H-Hello sir. Registration?"

Jax left eyebrow raised. ’Sir? Damn. This awakened stuff really is life changing.’

"Uh... yeah."

"Of course. Right this way please."

The process went absurdly smoothly afterward.

Every form, document and process had no issues whatsoever.

One dude who originally tried complaining that Jax skipped part of the queue instantly went pale the moment he noticed the Shadow Reapers emblem.

Jax almost laughed. ’Not gonna lie... The respect feels addictive.’

Eventually he finished registration and exited the building with his new student ID spinning casually between his fingers.

"Wow," he muttered. "That was way easier than normal human life."

A familiar voice suddenly spoke nearby.

"You’re smiling too much."

Jax turned and noticed Nina leaning against the railing nearby with crossed arms.

Jax blinked. "...Why are you here?"

"West sent me to make sure you didn’t accidentally enroll into culinary school or something stupid."

"Rude."

Nina snorted softly as her gaze lowered toward the student ID.

"You actually did it?"

"Yeah."

"How do you feel?"

Jax looked toward the university campus briefly before shrugging. "...Honestly? Weird."

Nina leaned beside him quietly as Jax sighed.

"My parents aren’t completely wrong."

She was surprised at his admittance, after knowing how badly he was against higher institution initially. It was West who encouraged the thought of giving it a try without leaving the world of awakeners.

"I still wanna be awakened," he continued. "Still wanna be Shadow Reapers."

His fingers tightened around the ID. "But maybe they just wanted to know I’d still have a future if something goes wrong."

Nina remained quiet before softly adding; "You can have both."

Jax glanced toward her while she shrugged.

"We’re not some suicidal gang."

"...Tell that to West."

"Fair point."

They both laughed lightly afterward before leaving together.

•••

Meanwhile... the Iron Vultures base had become a complete disaster zone for the second time in less than two weeks.

The first incident involving the bowel catastrophe had already damaged morale badly enough.

Now the current situation was somehow even worse...

Because unlike diarrhea and vomiting, money problems threatened the actual existence of the gang itself.

Inside the large underground operations hall, dozens of members shouted over each other while technicians scrambled around holographic monitors and glowing system interfaces.

"Try it again!"

"I AM TRYING IT AGAIN!"

"Then why the hell is it still failing?!"

One of the finance officers slammed both palms against the desk angrily as another failed transaction warning flashed red across the monitor.

[TRANSACTION FAILED]

[ERROR CODE: INVALID ROUTING STRUCTURE]

"THIS MAKES NO SENSE!"

Another operator nearby cursed loudly.

"We can’t pay for supply runs!"

"Half our fuel requests are getting denied!"

"The weapon shipment didn’t go through!"

A third member nearly ripped his hair out.

"The Bureau rejected our ruins reservation again because payment verification failed!"

Meanwhile, Bloodstain stood in the middle of the chaos looking like a man approaching the edge of sanity.

The massive dark tattoo covering half his face twitched visibly while veins bulged slightly across his neck.

"...Explain this to me again."

The trembling finance officer swallowed hard.

"Boss... every time the system processes a transaction..." he clicked rapidly through several screens. "...something reroutes the payment structure."

Bloodstain narrowed his eyes dangerously. "What does that even mean?"

"It means the money exists but the system keeps flagging the transactions as invalid."

"Then fix it."

"We’re trying!"

Bloodstain slammed his fist into the nearest desk.

BOOOOOM!

The entire thing collapsed inward instantly causing everyone nearby to flinch violently.

"I AM SICK OF HEARING ’WE’RE TRYING!’"

The room fell silent and nobody dared speak for several seconds.

Then one nervous-looking technician slowly raised his hand.

"...Boss?"

Bloodstain’s murderous gaze snapped toward him.

"What?"

The man looked terrified already.

"...I think it might be a bug."

"A bug."

"...Yes."

Bloodstain stared blankly before slowly rubbed his face.

"...You’re telling me one of the top 100 gangs in Misty High City is currently being crippled..."

He pointed toward the screens flashing failed transaction warnings repeatedly.

"...By a damn software bug?"

Nobody answered because unfortunately, that was exactly what was happening.

They had already brought in specialists, system analysts, digital technicians and even a low-tier awakened hacker.

Unfortunately, nobody fully understood what was happening yet.

The bug was bizarre and well hidden... every time they thought they fixed one issue, another appeared.

Funds rerouted incorrectly, payment confirmations vanished, trade approvals corrupted, supply authorizations failed.

The gang couldn’t properly purchase resources or reserve ruins orconduct large-scale transactions.

The longer it lasted, the worse things became.

Bloodstain slowly sat back down heavily in his chair.

"...How long until it’s fixed."

The room remained silent again and that answer alone or the lack of it, was an answer in itself.

Bloodstain exhaled sharply before quietly muttering; "...Whoever is behind this..."

His eyes darkened dangerously. "...I’ll skin them alive."

None of them realized that the culprit was currently laying comfortably on a couch several districts away while eating chips.

West sat lazily inside his apartment with one leg resting over the other while a screen panels was laid out before him.

Thanks to Aria, the Iron Vultures bug had honestly turned out better than expected.

He originally only wanted to annoy them, instead, their entire operations structure was collapsing.

"...Maybe I overcooked a little," he muttered.

Seraphyra snorted from nearby while sprawled upside down across the couch.

"There’s no such thing as overcooking revenge."

"That sounds psychotic."

"Thank you."

West shook his head slightly before focusing back on the floating system panels before him.

Specifically, his sub stats. Something relating to them had been bothering him lately.

For days now, no matter how many Cuckpoints he attempted using... the numbers remained frozen at 120 points.

West frowned while selecting Strength again.

[SUB STAT LIMIT REACHED]

"...Again?"

He tried Speed and it displayed the same thing.

Every single sub stat displayed the exact same notification repeatedly and they were all currently at the 120 mark.

West leaned forward slightly now.

"...What the hell is going on?"

That wasn’t normal especially since his Cuckpoints balance was more than enough.

[CURRENT CUCKPOINTS: 29,320]

He should’ve been able to increase multiple stats easily.

Instead, everything remained locked.

West rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then his eyebrows furrowed as a memory suddenly resurfaced.

[ Threshold met ]

That strange notification from earlier after all his sub stats hit one hundred... he wondered if it had something to do with this.

But at the time, nothing happened afterward. He was still able to keep raising his substats until he got them to 120.

West slowly narrowed his eyes. "...Don’t tell me..."

The system interface shimmered softly before him but unfortunately, there were no additional explanations.

West sighed heavily while leaning backward again.

"This system seriously explains things in the worst possible way."

Inside the summon space, Aurethia looked over curiously.

"Perhaps your body has reached a temporary limit."

West frowned slightly. "Maybe."

Gor’thala spoke calmly nearby. "Growth rarely remains linear forever, Master."

Seraphyra stretched lazily. "Or maybe master is already too handsome."

West ignored that entirely while his thoughts drifted elsewhere again.

’Threshold met... What threshold? What changed?’

Before he could think deeper, his phone started ringing again.

West glanced toward the name displayed on the screen.

~ Dad ~