Nikki rolled her eyes.
Won would always be won?
[What do you want to do?]
[Respond?]
[Or Go on your way, ignoring her.]
I am actually curious about what she wants, so I will entertain her. Will you reward if I do good?
[That depends on how good you do.]
Nikki scoffed.
The blonde woman stood with her arms crossed, her diamond bracelets clinking together. Her two friends flanked her, their eyes raking over Nikki and Roxy with undisguised contempt.
Nikki didn’t flinch. She kept her posture straight, channeling the confidence of the man who had just kissed her hand.
"What questions would that be?" Nikki asked, her voice dangerously calm.
The blonde smiled, a brittle, ugly thing. "I’m just curious about the vetting process for the ’Director of Relations.’ Tell , did you actually have to take an aptitude test for your new title, or did you just drop to your knees in his office and hope for the best?"
Roxy tensed, her hands balling into fists, but Nikki placed a staying hand on her friend’s arm. Nikki smiled sweetly, and tilted her head.
"Actually," Nikki replied smoothly, "the baseline requirent was a basic intelligence threshold. It is a real sha they don’t test for that at the entrance of this Gala, or you and your friends would still be waiting out in the rain."
The blonde’s jaw dropped slightly, a flush of angry red creeping up her neck.
Before she could recover, the brunette standing to her right sneered, stepping forward. "Well, since you’re so smart, maybe you can explain the logistics. Does a machine even have the right... attachnts to satisfy a human? Or do you just polish his armor every night and pretend to enjoy it?"
Roxy didn’t wait for Nikki this ti. She let out a loud, mocking scoff that turned the heads of several nearby aristocrats.
"Honey," Roxy drawled, looking the brunette up and down with absolute pity. "If you saw the hardware he was packing, that cheap filler in your face would lt right off your bones. She doesn’t have to pretend a damn thing. He’s built for war, and trust , he knows exactly how to conquer."
The brunette gasped, clutching her pearl necklace as if Roxy had physically struck her.
The blonde, recovering her venom, stepped closer, invading Nikki’s personal space. The sll of overly sweet perfu assaulted Nikki’s nose.
Nikki gagged.
So much for an aristocrat.
"You think you’re so clever," the blonde hissed, dropping the fake politeness. "But you’re nothing but a novelty. Instead of wasting your pretty little ti kissing up to Sector 1 and wearing clothes that cost more than your life, why don’t you and your filthy best friend go back to the Sector 4 slums, exactly where you both belong?"
Roxy raised an eyebrow, feeling riled up, if not for her friend holding her back, she would have designed this haughty female’s face with her pocket knife.
But Nikki didn’t back down. She narrowed her eyes as she took one deliberate, intimidating step forward, forcing the blonde to lean back or risk collision.
"You want my position so bad?" Nikki asked, her voice dropping to a low, challenging whisper. "You think it’s that easy? Why don’t you give it a try?"
Honestly, It was actually very easy.
I was just too impatient and went straight to the point.
[But she doesn’t have to know that, does she?]
Of course not.
She gestured elegantly across the massive hall, toward the towering figure of General A-01.
Who had returned and got caught up with so elites.
"Go on," Nikki challenged, a wicked smile playing on her lips. "Go ask him out. Seduce the God of War. I will gladly stand right here and give you an ’E’ for effort once you do."
The blonde’s eyes widened, darting across the room. She looked at Adonis, then back at Nikki. The sheer arrogance of the challenge struck her ego. If a nobody from the slums could wrap the most powerful entity on Earth around her finger, surely a genetically perfect, highly educated woman of Sector 1 could do it better.
"Watch ," the blonde snapped. She smoothed down her silk dress, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and marched off with her two friends trailing behind her like remoras on a shark.
"This is going to be spectacular," Roxy grinned, all her anger evaporating into pure, vindictive glee.
"Co on," Nikki said, grabbing two crystal glasses of red wine from a passing automated tray. "Front row seats."
They moved to the edge of the grand staircase, granting them a perfect vantage point.
Across the room, Adonis was not alone. He stood in a circle of imnse, terrifying power. There was General B-02, beside him stood General V-05, and next to V-05 stood another General, the one nad K-09.
It’s not the first ti Nikki was seeing them, and was more familiar with B-02, but today seeing all three of them, she suddenly realized sothing.
Nikki choked on her wine.
Oh my god, she thought, clapping a hand over her mouth. Adonis nad the robotic pet dog at ho after one of his Generals.
A fit of giggles bubbled up in her chest. The sheer, petty disrespect of it was hilarious.
Maybe she could tease him with it later.
But he doesn’t feel anything, so there would be no reaction.
Her laughter subsided as she watched the blonde socialite approach the circle of warlords. The woman practically threw herself into Adonis’s line of sight, striking a pose that accentuated her cleavage and batting her eyelashes.
Roxy nudged Nikki. "Here we go. She’s going in for the kill."
Nikki watched as the blonde placed a daring hand on Adonis’s forearm. She was speaking animatedly, laughing at her own jokes, proactively trying to ask him to a private sector of the venue.
She was pulling out every trick in the Sector 1 playbook.
Adonis didn’t move. He didn’t even look at the woman’s face. Instead, his glowing blue eyes scanned the room, cutting through the crowd until they locked directly onto Nikki across the hall.
Nikki felt a jolt of electricity shoot down her spine. She quickly looked away, pretending to take a very interested sip of her wine, hiding her smirk behind the crystal rim.
Adonis looked back down at the blonde. His expression was a blank indifference.
"I do not give human pleasure," Adonis stated, his voice projected just loud enough to silence the surrounding aristocrats. He didn’t pull his arm away; he simply let her hand rest there like a piece of unwanted lint. "If you are in desperate need of pleasure, then you can get that from General B-02 here."
The blonde’s face fell. Her confident smile shattered into a look of utter, mortifying confusion.
She turned slowly toward General B-02.
B-02, who usually maintained a pleasant, almost human-like smirk, let his smile drop. His eyes, a chilling shade of silver, analyzed her from head to toe.
"I read extensively on human anatomy and romance chanics," B-02 said, his voice ringing with absolute, clinical disgust. "My analysis concludes that your structural appeal is entirely artificial, and your personality matrix is a deterrent to basic biological functioning."
Whatever that ant.
He leaned in slightly, delivering the final, savage blow. "I would rather dismantle my own core processor than subject my subroutines to your desperation."
The surrounding crowd of elites gasped in unison.
The blonde let out a strangled, humiliated sob. Tears instantly ruined her perfect makeup as she covered her face with her hands, turning on her heel and sprinting blindly out of the grand hall. Her two friends scattered into the crowd, pretending they had never t her.
By the staircase, Roxy and Nikki absolutely lost it.
Roxy doubled over, clutching her stomach as tears of laughter stread down her face. Nikki leaned against the marble banister, wheezing, her wine sloshing dangerously in her glass.
It was the most satisfying, brutal rejection they had ever witnessed.
They were laughing so hard, wiping tears from their eyes, that they completely failed to notice the massive crowd parting like the Red Sea. They didn’t hear the heavy, synchronized thud of military boots approaching them.
It wasn’t until a massive shadow fell over them, blocking out the light of the chandeliers, that Nikki finally looked up, still giggling.
Adonis, B-02, V-05, and the very unamused General K-09 were standing in a semi-circle right in front of them, effectively trapping them against the stairs.
Adonis looked down at Nikki, a dangerous, golden spark flickering in his blue eyes.
"Had your fun?" he asked.
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