[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism":3,"chapter-the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-chapter-64":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1535665,1997,"Chapter 64 | The Thirty-Day Countdown","the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-chapter-64",64,"\u003Cp>I picked up the pace, driving into her with enough force that the bed frame creaked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She came again, her third orgasm, and I finally let myself go. The release hit hard, and I groaned as I filled her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, we just lay there connected, catching our breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That’s three for me,\" she said. \"One for you. We’re not even close to done.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She wasn’t wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We went four more rounds after that. Each one started with me thinking I couldn’t possibly get hard again, and each one ended with Diane moaning beneath me while I thrust into her like my life depended on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By round seven, she could barely form words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Lukas,\" she whimpered as I moved inside her. \"I can’t... I can’t...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"One more,\" I coaxed. \"Give me one more.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her body obeyed even if her mind resisted. The seventh orgasm was weaker than the others, but it still made her tremble and gasp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I came for the seventh time shortly after, completely spent in every possible way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We collapsed together, sweaty and exhausted and tangled in sheets that would need to be changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Seven,\" she mumbled against my chest, barely coherent. \"We did seven.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We did.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Good.\" Her eyes were sliding shut even as she spoke. \"I’ll need... the data... for my analysis tomorrow.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I held her the way I had every night for the past two weeks, waiting for her breathing to slow and deepen into actual sleep. Usually took about fifteen minutes before I could extract myself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tonight it took ten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seven rounds had completely wiped her out. Her body went slack against mine faster than it ever had before, and within minutes she was dead to the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I waited another five just to be sure. Her breathing stayed slow and even, her face slack with genuine unconsciousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I carefully extracted myself from her grip and slipped out of bed. Found my clothes on the floor and dressed quickly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before leaving, I looked back at her. She lay on her side, hair spread across the pillow, completely vulnerable in sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something twisted in my chest. Guilt, maybe. Or something worse that I refused to name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I left her room and crept back to mine, closing the door softly behind me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>2:17 AM. Right on schedule.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I collapsed onto my bed without bothering to shower. I’d wake up in three hours anyway to do it all again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I lay there staring at the ceiling, I checked my status screen out of habit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 STATUS UPDATE 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 STRENGTH: 34 (+2) 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 AGILITY: 36 (+2) 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 DEXTERITY: 37 (+1) 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 ENDURANCE: 42 (+2) 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seven rounds with Diane plus my morning training with Sloane equaled consistent gains. The math checked out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But something else nagged at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The System had been quiet. Too quiet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For two weeks, not a single quest notification. No side missions. No main objectives. No emergency prompts demanding I grope someone or seduce a new target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just... silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d gone from constant harassment to complete radio silence, and that felt wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The System didn’t do quiet unless it was planning something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pulled up the quest log.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 ACTIVE QUESTS: 0 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 PENDING QUESTS: 0 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 TUTORIAL PROGRESS: 67% 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sixty-seven percent. Same number it had been two weeks ago despite all my progress with Diane.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I checked her Temptation Gauge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 DIANE FITZGERALD: 58% 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 STATUS: ATTACHED 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifty-eight percent. Up from forty-two when we first slept together, but still two points away from the Devoted threshold at sixty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two weeks of nightly multi-round sessions and she hadn’t crossed it yet. What the hell did it take to break someone into devotion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or maybe that wasn’t how it worked with Diane. She had Read the Room. She processed social dynamics and attachment differently than normal people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe fucking her brains out every night wasn’t enough because she could still separate professional from personal. Still maintain boundaries even while screaming my name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 SLOANE FITZGERALD: 75% 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 STATUS: DEVOTED 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eight percent higher than when we’d officially become a couple. All from kissing, touching, training together, and the thousand small intimacies that built over two weeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I needed one hundred to complete the tutorial.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The math was simple. The execution was harder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially when Sloane refused to go further until after Halloran.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I understood her reasoning. She wanted it to be special, wanted to celebrate our acceptance together. It was romantic in a way I hadn’t expected from someone who usually communicated through explosions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it left me in a strange position. Diane filled the physical need, but Sloane was my best path to hitting one hundred percent and unlocking whatever came after the tutorial.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The System knew this. The System always knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So why had it gone quiet?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared at the ceiling, my exhaustion fighting with paranoia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thirty days until the Halloran entrance exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One month to somehow push Sloane to one hundred percent or break Diane past sixty and hope that counted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One month to pass the exam and prove I belonged at the world’s number one Hero academy despite being registered as an Unmarked who’d only manifested two weeks before applying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One month while the System plotted something I couldn’t see coming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 ... 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There. A notification. Finally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sat up, pulse quickening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 TUTORIAL PHASE: FINAL STAGE APPROACHING 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 NEW PARAMETERS WILL BE ISSUED WHEN COUNTDOWN REACHES ZERO 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>〘 TIME REMAINING: 28 DAYS, 23 HOURS, 41 MINUTES 〙\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My blood ran cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Final stage. New parameters. Countdown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The System hadn’t been quiet because it forgot about me. It had been quiet because it was waiting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Waiting for something big. Something that would force me to act.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I lay back down, but sleep felt impossible now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whatever was coming, it would hit in exactly thirty days. Right before the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perfect timing to fuck with me when I could least afford distractions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I closed my eyes anyway, forcing my breathing to slow. Boundless Stamina would help me recover, but even that had limits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The System’s countdown ticked quietly in the corner of my vision, a constant reminder that the easy part was over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The real test hadn’t even started yet.\u003C\u002Fp>",1047,"2026-06-06T06:25:41.077Z",1,"novelbin.me","c82334ce9db3dcf785b54e7f9747365dadb31d50f42d3b5f8350a7e0bf3c104e","the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-chapter-41","the-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-chapter-40",93,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-scumbag-s-guide-to-heroism-cover.jpg"]