Your Girlfriend Calls Me Daddy-Chapter 42 | Survival Strategy: Collecting Girlfriends To Maintain My S-Rank Skills

Chapter 42: 42 | Survival Strategy: Collecting Girlfriends To Maintain My S-Rank Skills

I stood in the middle of my living room.

Mera dropped her bag by the couch.

Looked at me with those yellow eyes that saw through every excuse I had.

"Alright. Open one."

I took a breath.

Focused on the space in front of me.

Tried to remember what it felt like last night when the knowledge downloaded straight into my brain.

The pressure points in reality.

Where space folded back on itself.

How to reach between the gaps and tear them wider.

I pushed.

Something flickered.

A ring of amber light stuttered into existence about three feet away.

The interior was dark.

Empty.

Wrong.

It wavered like heat shimmer on asphalt.

My head immediately started pounding.

The drain on my body felt like someone stuck a vacuum hose into my skull and turned it on full blast.

Two seconds.

Maybe three.

The gate collapsed.

Snapped shut with a sound like breaking glass.

I stumbled.

Caught myself on the back of the couch.

"Fuck."

Mera walked over.

Touched my shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just. That took more out of me than I expected."

She frowned.

Stepped back.

Circled around me like she was examining something invisible.

"Try again. Bigger this time."

"Bigger sounds like a bad idea."

"Do it anyway."

I straightened.

Shook off the headache.

Focused harder this time.

Pushed with everything I had.

The gate opened.

Wider than before.

Big enough to step through.

The amber ring flared brighter.

More stable.

I could see through to the other side.

My bedroom.

About forty feet away through two walls.

Success.

Sort of.

My vision blurred at the edges.

The headache spiked into something that felt like someone driving nails through my temples.

The gate held for maybe a second longer than the first one.

Then it died.

I went down on one knee.

"Rome!"

Mera caught me before I hit the floor completely.

Her hands were warm.

Steady.

I leaned into her without meaning to.

"I’m fine."

"You’re not fine. Your nose is bleeding."

I touched my upper lip.

Came away red.

Great.

"That’s new."

"How bad is the pain?"

"On a scale of stubbed toe to brain aneurysm? Solid eight."

She pulled me toward the couch.

Sat me down.

Disappeared into the kitchen.

Came back with a wet towel.

Pressed it to my face.

"You’re pushing too hard."

"You said to make it bigger."

"I didn’t say give yourself a stroke."

I closed my eyes.

Let the cold fabric take some of the edge off.

Mera sat next to me.

Her tail wrapped around my wrist.

Gentle.

"The gates aren’t stable," she said quietly. "And they’re draining you way faster than they should."

"Yeah. I noticed."

"When I use mine, the drain is constant. Steady. I can hold a gate open for ten minutes if I need to. Sometimes longer."

"Good for you."

"Don’t be an ass. I’m trying to help."

I pulled the towel away.

Looked at her.

"Sorry."

She studied my face.

"When you copied my ability last night, how long could you hold the gate?"

"Three seconds. Maybe four."

"And now?"

"Two. If I’m lucky."

Her expression shifted.

Something clicked behind those yellow eyes.

"It’s degrading."

"What?"

"The copy. It’s not permanent." She leaned forward. "Last night you absorbed my Essentia directly. The knowledge came with it. But now that we’re not in contact anymore, the ability is fading."

I let that sink in. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

She was right.

The download last night felt complete.

I knew exactly how to open gates.

Where to pull the energy from.

What pressure to apply.

This morning that knowledge was fuzzy.

Like trying to remember a dream after waking up.

And now it was even worse.

"How long before it’s gone completely?"

Mera bit her lip.

Thinking.

"I don’t know. Days maybe? Depends on how much you absorbed and how fast your body metabolizes it."

"That’s inconvenient."

"It’s more than inconvenient. It means you can’t keep abilities long-term without repeated contact."

I stood.

Walked to the window.

Looked out at the city.

"There’s something else."

She waited.

"This morning. In Essentia training. How were your gates?"

Her tail flicked.

Nervous.

"Stronger. Faster to open. They lasted longer than usual."

"How much longer."

"Twelve minutes before I started feeling the drain. Usually I hit that point around nine."

I turned back to face her.

"And now?"

"Now they’re back closer to normal. Maybe ten minutes instead of twelve."

The math wasn’t hard.

She absorbed my energy when I drained her.

Got a temporary boost to her own Essentia.

That boost was already wearing off.

Which meant the connection worked both ways.

I made her stronger.

She made me stronger.

But only when we were together.

Only when we were.

Fuck.

"Rome?"

I looked at her.

Really looked.

Red skin flushed darker where her neck met her shoulder.

Black hair still messy from earlier.

Yellow eyes watching me like she already knew what I was about to say and was waiting to see if I’d actually say it.

"I need to tell you something."

"Okay."

"And you’re going to hate it."

She crossed her arms.

"Try me."

I sat back down next to her.

Close enough that our knees touched.

"The boost you got from last night. It’s fading because the connection between us is fading. The longer we go without fucking, the weaker the effect becomes."

"I figured that part out already."

"Right. And the same thing is happening to me. The abilities I copied from you are degrading because I’m not refreshing the connection."

"Also obvious."

"Which means."

I stopped.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Which means what, Rome."

"Which means to keep the abilities. To make them permanent. I need repeated contact. High intimacy contact."

"Sex."

"Yeah."

She didn’t react.

Just sat there.

Processing.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I mean. That makes sense. Your Essentia drains through physical contact. The deeper the contact, the stronger the drain. Sex is about as deep as contact gets."

"Mera."

"What."

"I’m not just talking about you."

Silence.

Long.

Heavy.

Then she laughed.

Not a happy sound.

"Of course you’re not."

"I didn’t design the ability this way."

"No. You just got handed an Essentia that requires you to fuck people to get stronger." She stood. "That’s convenient."

"It’s not like that."

"Then what’s it like, Rome? Explain it to me."

I stood too.

Faced her.

"It’s like I have a power that only works if I form genuine connections with people. And those connections require intimacy. Real intimacy. Not just physical."

"But also physical."

"Yeah. Also physical."

She turned away.

Walked toward the window.

Stared out at the same view I’d just been looking at.

"So what. You’re planning to sleep with half the school to collect abilities like trading cards?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"I don’t know yet."

"That’s a great answer."

"Mera."

"I’m serious. What’s the plan here? Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like you’re asking permission to cheat."

"We’ve been together for less than forty-eight hours. I don’t think we’re at the exclusivity conversation yet."

She spun around.

Eyes bright.

Angry.

"You told me I mattered. This morning. You said I mattered."

"You do."

"Then why does it feel like I’m already getting downgraded?"

I crossed the room.

Stood in front of her.

"You’re not getting downgraded. But I need you to understand what this ability is. It’s not just a power. It’s how I survive. How I get strong enough to deal with the shit coming my way."

"By fucking other girls."

"By forming connections. Yes. Which will sometimes involve that."

She looked up at me.

Hurt bleeding through the anger.

"And what happens to me when you’re off forming connections?"

"You’re still here. Nothing changes between us."

"Everything changes, Rome. You know that."

I didn’t have a good answer.

Because she was right.

Everything would change.

Already had.

The moment I woke up in this world.

The moment I stopped pretending this was anything other than what it was.

A harem story.

With me as the protagonist.

And her as the first girl.

Not the only girl.

She turned back to the window.

"I knew this would happen."

"Knew what."

"That I’d catch feelings for someone I can’t actually have."

"You have me."

"I have part of you. For now. Until someone more interesting comes along."

"That’s not how this works."

"Then tell me how it works, Rome. Because I’m really struggling to see the version of this where I don’t get my heart broken."

I moved closer.

Put my hand on her shoulder.

She didn’t pull away.

Didn’t lean in either.

"I like you. Actually like you. Not because of your ability or what you can do for me. Because you’re smart and funny and you don’t take my shit."

"But."

"But I can’t promise exclusivity. Not with this ability. Not with what’s coming."

She was quiet.

Then she said something that surprised me.

"I want to try anyway."

I blinked.

"What?"

"I want to try. Even knowing it’s going to hurt eventually. Even knowing I’m sharing you." She turned to face me. "Because the alternative is walking away now. And I don’t want to walk away."

"Mera."

"I’m not asking you to stop. Or to lie about what you need to do. I’m just asking you to be honest with me. And to come back."

"Come back?"

"When you’re with someone else. When you’re doing what you need to do." Her voice cracked slightly. "Just come back to me after."

My chest tightened.

Because that was the most generous thing anyone had ever offered me.

Permission to be exactly what I was.

With the only condition being that I didn’t forget about her in the process.

I pulled her close.

Kissed the top of her head.

"I’ll come back. Every time."

She wrapped her arms around my waist.

Tail curling around my leg.

"You better."

We stood there.

Holding each other.

While the weight of what we’d just agreed to settled between us.

Then she pulled back.

Wiped her eyes.

"Okay. Enough feelings. Let’s get back to training before I start crying for real."

"We don’t have to."

"Yes we do. Because if you’re going to be sleeping with other girls to steal their powers, you need to actually know how to use those powers. Otherwise what’s the point."

Fair.

"Alright. What do you want me to do?"