Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1124: SRLE (24) | Visiting Reina

The heavy glass doors slid open, releasing a wave of warm, chlorine-scented vapor.

Rudy stepped into the cavernous, underground expanse of the Oasis Waterpark. In the post-apocalyptic world, clean water was as valuable as high-grade mana cores. Reina had retrofitted the massive wave pool and filtration systems into a subterranean purification reservoir. She provided safe water for the surrounding survivor settlements.

Reina was currently doing laps in the glowing blue water. She reached the edge, planted her hands on the wet tiles, and hoisted herself out in one fluid motion. She wore a skin-tight, black one-piece swimsuit with the zipper pulled halfway down, exposing the deep cleavage of her heavy boobs. Water cascaded down her athletic thighs and dripped from her dark hair.

She paused, spotting Rudy standing by the main diagnostic console. A sudden flush crept up her neck. She possessed no memories of their past life together. To her, Rudy was simply the breathtakingly handsome, terrifyingly powerful Awakened who had casually bypassed her security wards yesterday. Her body reacted instantly. Her pussy gave a treacherous, involuntary throb just from the sheer weight of his presence occupying her space.

"You came back," Reina said, grabbing a towel and walking over to him. "Did you leave something behind?"

"Just doing a routine checkup," Rudy stated, his eyes trailing down her wet curves before turning back to the holographic screens of her mainframe. "I wanted to see how the system was holding up after the patch your guy installed."

Reina crossed her arms, shivering slightly as the cool exhaust from the server fans hit her wet skin. "The water pressure is stable for now. My technician ran a diagnostic this morning. He claims the Awakened mana density in the reservoir is causing a feedback loop in the logic boards. He installed a dampening protocol to restrict the flow."

Rudy didn’t say anything immediately. His fingers danced across the holographic keyboard, bypassing her S-Rank security walls as if they were made of paper. He pulled up the source code of the supposed ’dampening protocol.’

He read it in three seconds and immediately knew it wasn’t a dampening protocol. It was a parasitic siphon.

The code was actively bleeding Reina’s processing power and routing her highly classified intel to an external, encrypted network. Worse, it was intentionally degrading the hardware to force her to rely entirely on the technician’s ’maintenance.’

It was arrogant, sloppy, and maliciously greedy.

"A feedback loop, huh?" Rudy murmured, a dark, dangerous amusement lacing his tone. He didn’t delete the code. He trapped the code in a localized sandbox. He kept the connection open so the rat on the other end would remain clueless.

"Yeah," Reina said, stepping closer. The heat radiating off Rudy’s body was magnetic. "He’s requesting more funds to build a dedicated mana-sink. He’s expensive, but he is the family technician."

Rudy leaned back against the console. He looked at Reina. She was a twenty-year-old girl holding a massive responsibility on her shoulders, entirely innocent of the criminal underbelly operating right under her nose.

"What’s the name of this ’expert’ technician of yours?" Rudy asked casually.

"Scott," Reina replied without hesitation. "He runs a small tech-guild out of the Eastern Ruins. Why? Is something wrong?"

’Scott.’

Rudy’s eyes darkened, the pupils dilating as a wave of cold, absolute malice washed through his mind.

Memories from the previous timeline surged forward.

Scott.

The arrogant, cowardly prick who had demanded sex from Reina in high school, got rejected, and spent the rest of his miserable life harassing her. The rat who had tried to play games with Rudy, who made Reina’s life hell, and who had fundamentally misunderstood his place in the food chain.

In the old world, Rudy had made an example out of him. He had stripped Scott of his humanity, encasing him in a permanent, agonizing prison. He had turned the man into a screaming, living monument of endless torment, known as the Statue of Fool’s Pride.

The Reset had wiped the board clean. Scott had used his second chance to crawl right back into Reina’s life, sabotaging her livelihood to force her into submission.

The sheer, unfathomable stupidity of it almost made Rudy laugh.

Reina took a step back, her survival instincts screaming at her. The man standing in front of her suddenly felt like a waking natural disaster. The sheer, crushing weight of his killing intent forced her to her knees.

Reina frowned, taking a step back as her survival instincts screamed at her. The man standing in front of her suddenly felt like a waking natural disaster. "Rudy? What is it?"

Rudy blinked, instantly reeling in his killing intent. The oppressive weight vanished from the room.

He looked down at Reina. He could reach out right now, press his thumb to her forehead, and flood her mind with the truth. He could restore her memories, take her to the floor of her server room, and fuck her until she forgot her own name.

But he held back. If he gave her the memories now, she would remember Scott. She would remember the history. She deserved to have the trash taken out before she even realized the house was dirty.

"It’s nothing," Rudy smiled, his charming, arrogant facade sliding perfectly back into place. "Your technician just made a slight miscalculation in the algorithm. It’s a common mistake."

"Can you fix it?" Reina asked with an innocent look on her face.

"I’m not going to fix the code," Rudy said, stepping away from the console and heading toward the heavy blast doors. "I’m going to fix the root of the problem."

Reina hurried after him, dropping her towel. "Wait! Where are you going? You’re just going to leave?"

Rudy paused at the door. He turned and let his gaze slowly drag up her wet, magnificent body, making her breath hitch and her pussy clench hard.

"I have an errand to run in the Eastern Ruins," Rudy said, his voice a low, dark promise. "Keep the servers running, Reina. When I get back, we’re going to have a very long, very private conversation about your network security. Be ready."

The doors slid open and shut, leaving Reina standing alone by the pool, her heart hammering wildly in her chest.

His destination was clear. He cracked his knuckles, a predatory grin spreading across his face.

The old Statue of Fool’s Pride had been a classic piece of work. But this was a new world, a post-apocalyptic timeline where the boundaries of cruelty had been stretched.

It was time to make an even greater masterpiece out of Scott.