My Scumbag System No Chapter 359: Two Plans for Tomorrow

Chapter 359: Two Plans for Tomorrow

The ceiling of my room had beco intimately familiar over the past hour. Every crack, every imperfection in the paint, every shadow cast by the dim lamp on my nightstand. I’d morized them all while Natalia’s naked body pressed against my side, her breath warm against my shoulder, her fingers tracing lazy patterns across my chest.

"You’re thinking too loud," she murmured.

"Didn’t realize thinking made noise."

"It does when you do it." She shifted, propping herself up on one elbow to look down at . Her purple hair fell in ssy waves around her face, the white streaks from the Necropolis catching the lamplight. "What’s bothering you?"

I let out a breath. The Gate briefing sat on my datapad across the room, the screen dark but the information burning in my brain like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Team Gamma’s deploynt tomorrow.

playing porter for Celeste and her crew. Monica’s first real test since the Arboretum.

A C-Rank Standard Gate. Open concept layout. Balanced ecosystem. Single boss entity.

Simple. Clean. Straightforward.

So why did my gut keep screaming that sothing was wrong?

"The Gate tomorrow," I admitted. "Sothing feels off."

Natalia’s fingers paused their exploration. "Off how?"

"Can’t pin it down. The briefing looks clean. Threat assessnt is standard. Environntal factors are within normal paraters." I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. "But after the Necropolis..."

"You’re paranoid."

"Paranoid keeps people alive."

She humd in agreent, her hand resuming its wandering path down my abdon. "True. But paranoid also keeps people awake when they should be resting."

"Hard to rest when my brain won’t shut up."

Natalia rolled fully on top of , her weight settling across my hips in a way that imdiately redirected my attention. Her eyes glittered in the low light, that mix of amusent and hunger that always preceded sothing either wonderful or terrifying.

Usually both.

"Then let

help you shut it up," she whispered, and leaned down to press a lazy kiss to my jaw. Then my neck. Then the spot just below my ear that made my breath catch.

"Nat..."

"Mmm?" Another kiss. Her hips shifted slightly, and I felt myself responding despite the exhaustion.

"I’m serious. The Gate could be another trap."

"So handle it." She pulled back just enough to et my gaze, her expression softening into sothing almost gentle. "You’re the strongest person in this guild, Satori. Probably in this entire academy. Whatever’s waiting in that dungeon, you’ll crush it."

I snorted. "Flattery now?"

"Statent of fact." Her smile turned wicked. "The flattery cos later. When I tell you exactly how good you make

feel."

My hands found her hips on instinct, fingers digging into the soft flesh there. She made a sound sowhere between a moan and a laugh as I squeezed, using her curves like stress relief.

"You’re trying to distract ," I accused.

"Is it working?"

I squeezed harder. She ground down against

in response, and yeah. Yeah, it was definitely working.

"Tell

about the Gate," she breathed, even as she started moving in slow circles. "I want to know what you’re walking into."

Strange pillow talk, but I’d take it.

"Open concept layout," I managed, my voice rougher than intended as her movents grew more deliberate. "ans limited cover, long sightlines stretching across the entire arena. Perfect territory for ranged fighters like Celeste, but absolute hell for anyone trying to set up ambushes or execute stealth maneuvers."

"Mmm." She leaned down, her lips brushing the sensitive shell of my ear, her hot breath sending involuntary shivers down my spine. "What else does your precious briefing say?"

"Balanced ecosystem. Mixed monster types spread throughout the dungeon levels. Nothing too specialized or exotic—basic slis, so skeletal constructs, maybe a few feral beasts. Textbook Gate-spawn variety pack."

"Boring," she whispered dismissively, her teeth finding my earlobe and giving it a sharp, possessive nip that made my fingers dig deeper into the soft flesh beneath them. "What about the boss? Anything interesting there?"

"Unknown specific entity. Briefing just says single commanding presence, estimated B-Rank threat with C-Rank minion support structure." My grip on her ass tightened instinctively as she picked up her pace, the friction making coherent thought increasingly difficult. "Standard stuff for what’s supposed to be a controlled training environnt. Nothing that should give Celeste’s team any real trouble."

"Then why are you so worried?" Her violet eyes locked with mine, seeing through my attempts at nonchalance. "If everything looks this mundane on paper?"

Good question. The briefing really was clean. No red flags. No anomalies in the spawn predictions or environntal data. Just a textbook C-Rank Gate that should pose minimal challenge to a team with Celeste’s firepower.

"Because it’s too clean," I realized. "After what happened in the Necropolis, I expected the VHC to be more cautious. More thorough. But this briefing reads like they’re not even considering the possibility of another incident."

Natalia stopped moving. Her eyes sharpened, that brilliant tactical mind engaging despite the intimate situation.

"You think they’re being careless, or you think they’re being deliberate?"

"I think whoever planted that A-Rank monster in our last dungeon had access to high-level security protocols. And I think the fact that this briefing looks so normal might be the point."

"Hide in plain sight," she murmured. "Make everything look routine so nobody suspects anything."

"Exactly."

She studied my face for a long mont, her expression unreadable. Then she leaned down and kissed

properly, deep and slow and possessive.

When she pulled back, her smile had turned predatory.

"Then you’ll just have to be ready for anything." Her hips started moving again, harder this ti. More insistent. "And I’ll make sure you’re properly... motivated."

"Motivated how?"

"By reminding you exactly what you’re coming ho to."

Her hand traveled down between our bodies, leading

into her with a tender familiarity that spoke volus of our shared intimacy. A molten warmth enveloped

as she lowered herself, inch by delicious inch, until she had taken all of .

I couldn’t help but release a deep, primal sound from my throat as our bodies joined completely, the sensation of her surrounding

entirely overwhelming my senses in the most exquisite way possible.

The feeling of wholeness when our bodies fully connected sent waves of pleasure coursing through my entire being.

"This is still distraction," I managed.

"This is stress relief." She rose up slowly, then dropped back down with enough force to make us both gasp. "There’s a difference."

Hard to argue with that logic.

Especially when she started riding

like her life depended on it.

The Gate could wait until morning. The conspiracy could wait until I had evidence. The paranoid voice in my head could wait until I finished thoroughly ravishing my step-sister.

So problems required imdiate attention.

This was one of them.

Later, much later, we lay tangled together in the aftermath. Natalia had claid her usual spot against my chest, one leg thrown over mine, her breathing slowly returning to normal.

"The real reason you’re going tomorrow," she said quietly. "It’s not just about keeping Celeste safe."

"No."

"You want to get closer to her."

I ran my fingers through her hair, working out a tangle near the ends. "She’s my key to the VHC’s inner circle. Her sister controls half the Hunter world. If I want answers about my father, about any of it... I need access."

"And you think protecting her will earn that access."

"I think protecting her will earn her trust. Trust leads to information. Information leads to answers." I paused. "Plus, soone really is trying to kill her. And letting that happen would be strategically stupid."

Natalia lifted her head to look at , her purple eyes unreadable in the darkness.

"You always have a plan."

"Always."

"And what’s your plan for Monica? You’re dragging her into this too."

"Monica needs field experience. Real combat, real stakes, real consequences. The Arboretum awakened sothing in her, but she’s still scared of her own power. Tomorrow’s Gate is a chance for her to prove to herself that she’s not the weak little shield Julian tried to make her."

"Tactical and altruistic. How very you."

I grinned. "I contain multitudes."

She smacked my chest lightly, then settled back against

with a sigh.

"Just co back in one piece. I have plans for you tomorrow night."

"What kind of plans?"

"The kind that require you conscious and intact." Her hand drifted down my stomach, ghosting over skin that was still sensitive from our earlier activities. "Mostly intact, anyway. I might leave so marks."

"Promises, promises."

She laughed, low and warm, and pressed a kiss to my shoulder.

Outside my window, the stars wheeled overhead in their eternal dance. Sowhere on this campus, Celeste was probably reviewing the sa briefing I’d morized, preparing for a Gate that might be a trap. Sowhere else, Monica was probably talking to her plants, building courage she didn’t know she already possessed.

"Sleep," Natalia murmured against my skin. "Whatever’s coming, you can’t fight it exhausted."

She was right.

She usually was.

I closed my eyes and let the warmth of her body chase away the cold edge of paranoia.

Tomorrow would bring answers.

Or death.