Harem Apocalypse: Every Moan Levels Us Up!

Rob had sorted the hostel room by evening.

It was a good room. New walls, fresh paint, two bedrouoms separated by a shared space, significantly better than anything I’d had at Hogsby. The kind of room that should have been the highlight of a first day at School Central.

The challenge was Vapour.

He was small, wiry, and bursting with the kind of pent-up energy that only comes from spending an entire year without a roommate. The moment I stepped through the door, he started talking and showed no signs of ever stopping.

"Man, I’ve been outside the walls, bro. The environment out there is completely different," he launched in immediately. "You can actually see zombies riding horses. Swear on everything. One of them was swinging this massive rusty sword while the horse was galloping—"

No you cannot, I thought flatly. You have never seen that in your life.

I dropped my bag and looked at him. Suddenly the year without a roommate made perfect sense.

Vapour didn’t even pause for breath. "The zombie was swinging on a—"

He finally caught my expression and pivoted hard. "Hey, bro."

"Please," I said, lying back on the bed and staring at the ceiling. "Just be quiet for a while."

He actually went quiet. For about three whole minutes. I let the silence stretch while I ran through the inventory of the day in my head.

Azure had said I was welcome in her room any time. Ivy and I had locked eyes across the lunch table twice while Sherry pretended not to notice and failed. Isabelle had found me between classes and stood unusually close, the way she did when she was turning something important over in her mind and deciding whether to speak it.

One day at School Central. Six days before Bala’s mission.

The math was brutally simple, and the biggest immediate problem was the communication watch still sitting heavy on my wrist, a piece of technology I hadn’t yet figured out how to use properly. I sat up.

"Vapour."

His eyes lit immediately. The specific brightness of someone who has been quiet for three minutes under protest and has just been given legitimate reason to stop.

"Yes, bro! You want to hear the rest of the horse zombie story? Because there’s actually way more to it—"

"How does the watch work?"

He crossed to my side of the room with the energy of someone who had been useful approximately zero times today and was genuinely excited about the opportunity. Leaning over my bed, he pressed the side button. A holographic interface bloomed in the air above the watch, clean icons floating with small profile images attached to each contact.

"Tap the icon," he explained proudly. "Call whoever you want. Super simple."

"Thank you."

"You’re calling a girl," he said, already walking back to his own bed. It wasn’t a question.

I didn’t bother answering.

"Also, since we’re roommates now," he added casually as he flopped onto his pillow, "you should know I bring girls back sometimes. Regularly. Just so you’re prepared, yeah?"

I turned my head and stared at him.

He said it with the absolute confidence of someone who had been rehearsing that line in his head for an entire year with no one to say it to. I couldn’t help it, I laughed despite myself.

That is almost certainly a lie, I thought. But I respect the sheer energy.

I tapped Azure’s icon. The watch vibrated before the call could even connect. Incoming from her.

"Azure," I answered.

"Don’t tell me you’re friends with the pink haired—" Vapour started.

I gave him a look that said ’one more word and you’re sleeping in the hallway’.

"Abram Nadez." Azure’s voice came through the watch with a completely different texture — lower, softer, almost lazy. Like she was lying down, stretched out somewhere private. "How are you doing?"

"Good. You?"

"I’d say bored." There was a pause, heavy and deliberate. "So I called you. Did you get a room yet?"

"Just got sorted." I replied. "What are you doing right now?"

"Nothing much." Another pause, even longer this time. The kind of silence that meant something important was being weighed on the other end. "Just lying here... thinking about the only person who has ever fought for me." Her voice dropped even lower, almost intimate. "It’s crazy, but I keep seeing pictures in my head. You and me. Intimate."

"Really?" The word slipped out faster than I could control it.

Vapour’s head snapped up like a meerkat, eyes wide with sudden interest.

I pulled the watch away from my mouth. "Stop that, bro." Then back to her. "Sorry. Go on."

"I just can’t stop imagining it," she continued, voice husky now. "The way you handled Toddy today... the way you looked standing over him. It’s been playing on repeat."

"I think I can come over," I said. "Make it real."

"Really?" There was a spark of genuine surprise mixed with something warmer.

"Yeah. Tell me where your hostel is."

"Vale 2. Second floor. Room 45."

"I’m coming."

"The door is open," she said softly, and the line went dead. I stood up, already reaching for my jacket.

[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]

[Azure: Shapeshifting, Level 4. First private encounter opportunity detected.]

[Six days, host. Every single one of them counts. Do not waste proximity. Affinity is rising rapidly.]

I know, I told the system silently, pulling on the jacket.

"You’re going out," Vapour observed, grinning like an idiot.

"Yes."

"To the pink-haired girl."

"Good night, Vapour."

I closed the door behind me before he could ask anything else.

The hallway lights were dim and warm, the specific warmth of a building that had been designed with comfort in mind rather than just function. Vale 2 was quieter than the main campus at this hour, the evening settling into the particular stillness of students who had found their rooms and their routines.

Azure’s voice still echoed in my ear, that lazy, horizontal tone, the way she had admitted to imagining us together. The faint red stripes on her blue skin. The way her skirt had ridden up earlier in the library. The sharp little canines when she smiled.

Six days. Tonight was night one.