Clarice’s hands flew to her chest as her heart stopped beating.

Yes, her heart literally stopped supplying oxygen to the rest of her body.

She felt like a huge hand grabbed her neck and squeezed it tight that it blocked all air from entering her esophagus.

The suffocation grew as she stood rooted to the ground with a red face like a lunar eclipse, wide eyes fixated on the girl who wore a similar expression displaying shock and disbelief, but it was a result of Clarice's sudden anger.

The room became so quiet you could hear the smallest fart.

“Puuuu~” And so it came.

Feeling the awesome sensation of fresh air entering her airway and repellent air the other way out, Clarice panted in relief while drawing a huge amount of air in like a mad dog.

However, the air that came out of her butt hole emitted a strong, foul smell, which actually resembled….the smell of McDonald’s fish fingers…but in a bad way.

Clarice remembered she had that for lunch on the day she fainted, and she bought them using a coupon she discovered underneath her boss’s office desk.

That office desk had the most queer structure and embellishments ever. It was only composed of three legs, fifteen wooden drawers with hello kitty stickers on the golden handles, and countless holes for whatever reason Clarice couldn't figure out, though she did hear one time when pooping in the building’s basement bathroom that the boss hid erotic magazine cutouts in these holes so his girlfriend couldn’t see. She heard his girlfriend managed all his money and stuff.

But that reason definitely wouldn’t soothe the color of a girl's face that looked like she just peed herself in front of her crush.

Clarice’s shock was quelled as she quickly adjusted to the oddity of the situation. From seeing countless unexplainable, inhuman phenomenon, Clarice felt for the first time relieved that the situation could have had been worse but didn’t. Even more so, she felt like an expert of abnormality who obviously experienced way more than this strangely familiar girl whose expression remained static even after a long ten minutes.

She is obviously not as experienced as I am. I wasn’t even this shocked when the System thing appeared. Clarice sighed in airs of superiority.

Yen was shocked for twenty minutes at Yen's record.

System never sounded so cold and cruel to Clarice before.

Though System pinched her bubbles of feeling superior, it didn’t discourage her to explain how she got through these weird situations so the girl would look at her in admiration.

Clarice flipped her nonexistent anime long bangs, “Why so shocked, girl? Lemme teach you how to feel oxygen again. First you-”

“Pu~” The sound penetrated the air with the same foul smell that stabbed Clarice to her heart, the same feeling you get when you re-experience something you never wanted to experience again after the first time.

“Well, I guess I didn’t need to explain.” Clarice stopped breathing to alleviate her lightheadedness from the smell, then she glanced at the girl who was panting as she did before.

“Arpha, explain?”

Yen needs to be more polite.

“…”

Clarice thought System didn’t possess emotions? Let alone the mockery that came out nowhere?

“System Arpha, Could you please explain why this girl looks exactly like me when I was slightly younger?”

Slightly younger?

“…”

“I THOUGHT YOU ARE JUST A ROBOT?”

A hidden gift box had been used up.

A red dot flashed in Clarice’s mind.

Hello Yen. Would Yen still like for System Arpha to explain Yen’s previous question?

“…”

Clarice was speechless. She thought she was at least a little familiar with the System thing, but it seemed like there were still much more to learn. Like this hidden gift box thing and how it made System tease her, which was still sending cringey shivers down her spine.

The shivers quickly turned into something else.

Clarice felt an influx of warmth coming from her chest, like a ball of cat’s fur almost, but moving vertically. It wasn’t a ticklish feeling but rather calming and felt like a gentle rub from these massages that cost five hundred dollars.

Feeling herself indulged in the awesome, almost erotic sensation, Clarice let out a moan and fell like a rock on the huge bed.

Would Yen like to absorb Yen 34’s marrow?

Options appeared in Clarice’s mind while she suppressed the desire to moan louder as the feeling grew stronger and more pleasant.

“…ah..em..eh..marr-ah, marrow wha…ahh…what?”

The marrow of Yen 34. Yen could interpret it as the 34th part of your energy, or in your world’s term, soul.

“She…ahh…omg so good…she is..ahh..my..ahhhh…she is…ahhh…me?”

If Yen like to interpret it that way. Absorbing Yen 34’s marrow is essentially recycling back some of Yen’s life energy.

“Oka…ahhhh..yes….AHHHH” Clarice felt so good from the sensation that it was taking over her mind to a point where all she wanted at the moment was to melt into the feeling and let out the biggest moan to express her happiness.

Yen 34’s marrow had been collected.

And with that signal, the sensation was gone.

Clarice felt like a part of her was restored back to life.