Love Collector Ch. 15

The heroine menu popped into existence. It was a vertical list that featured the word 'Heroines' at the top and then had portraits of Mia, Stacy, and Tessa in that order running down the length with their names to their right. The empty heart icons he'd seen before were present along with their current affection levels, making it apparent that the three different women were sorted by that and not by the order they were encountered.

Seeing Mia's affection sitting at seventy-five brought a smile to his face and made Oliver remember that he was brave enough to ask for her number. He still had to text her later tonight, but that was its own battle, and he was proud of the one he'd already won.

"Before we get into that," Oliver said, tapping the word 'Heroines'.

--- A girl with whom it is conceivably possible for you to begin a romantic relationship. Not all women you meet will qualify as heroines, but new avenues may present themselves when you least expect them as you improve yourself through stat training. ---

"So it's really saying that I actually do have a shot with Stacy and Tessa, huh? Fucking crazy. What am I supposed to take away from that?"

There were a couple of different interpretations he could come up with. Either they weren't so bad after all, or Oliver had more to offer than he gave himself credit for. Tessa he could believe wasn't so bad, he'd seen a more sympathetic side to her today that opened his eyes a little, but Stacy was an enormous ask.

Thinking about it gave him cognitive dissonance, so he sighed and pressed on Mia's profile. Aside from the many gaping holes in his knowledge, the window that came up was similar to his status menu.

---

Mia Rosas

22 Years Old | Birthday - ??? | ???

Height - 5ft | Weight - ??? | Cup-size - ???

Likes - Anime, Manga, RPGs and Farming Games, Edibles, Trying New Things, ???

Dislikes - ???

Current Progress

Affection - 75/100 | To Next Heart Event - 25 | Heart Events - 0/5

Milestones

Romantic - Got Mia's Number

Sexual - N/A

Skills

(Locked)

Kinks

Wild-looking Anime Villains, ???

---

"Now we're getting somewhere..." Oliver rubbed his chin. "I can make a whole lot of inferences from this."

First off, these powers weren't omniscient. Like in an actual dating sim, it couldn't give him information about a heroine he didn't already know. Although they'd worked together for a year and a half, Mia never brought up her birthday; thus, it was listed as unknown.

Additionally, it couldn't validate leaps in logic. Oliver wasn't listed among Mia's likes as she was among his because he didn't know for sure, despite how he thought it might look like that might be the case. At the same time, she told him she'd never had a boyfriend, but that wasn't reason enough to conclude she was a virgin, so her status reflected that.

The likes and dislikes section spoke for itself. Oliver had to learn more about her, and they would fill up naturally.

After that section, though? That was where things got interesting.

"Heart Events, huh?" Oliver mused.

Really, he didn't have to ask for extra information on this one as he was positive he already knew more or less exactly what the description had to tell him. Still, verification was always nice, so he did it anyway.

--- Heart Events are pivotal moments in your early relationship. They are reached by maxing out the affection meter to one hundred a total of five separate times, at which point they will trigger either of their own volition or after certain stat requirements are met. Maxing out a heroine's Heart Events symbolizes that she has fallen completely in love with you and unlocks further possibilities. The end of a route is only the beginning of the rest of your lives together. ---

"Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I was thinking. There's gonna be stat requirements, though? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by that, but it's gonna be weird to suddenly have progress blocked off in real life..."

Next was finding out about milestones.

--- Milestones are hidden achievements unlocked via sharing new experiences with a heroine. They are the primary source of your Love Points, each granting you a preset amount. ---

"Hm," Oliver paused after reading the text. "If milestones are the primary source, then that implies there's another way to get them, which I'd wager has something to do with the quest tab on the main menu... still, this might be a problem depending on how much your average skill costs me. Things are probably rigged so that I won't be able to buy that many if I don't... well, diversify."

While the information didn't give him a lot to go off of, the knowledge he already had painted a picture of what to expect. Oliver assumed that milestones were things like first date, first kiss, first... lewd activity... and so on. Things that would naturally crop up the longer he spent with someone, like asking for Mia's phone number.

Actually, that just explained something Oliver had wondering about. He tabbed out of Mia's profile and clicked on Tessa's to verify whether or not he was right. He was. Tessa already had the milestone for getting her phone number and two additional milestones Mia didn't have. 'Texted Tessa' and 'Called Tessa'. That clarified why he currently had twenty unaccounted for LP. His total was currently at three hundred and twenty-five, but he'd only received notifications telling him he'd earned three hundred and five that day.

Guess it didn't matter that Tessa was his boss and that he only had her number for work-related reasons.

Good to know.

Other than that, there wasn't anything special to note about Tessa's profile. She was thirty-four years old, had offhandedly mentioned an ex-husband once or twice, meaning she wasn't a virgin, stood six feet tall, and liked cats. Stacy's profile was similarly blank, only saying she was twenty-two, five foot six, and enjoyed fashion, makeup, and coffee. Everything else about them was just like it was with Mia- one giant fill-in-the-blank.

To finish off everything in the heroines menu, Oliver clicked on the (Locked) text underneath Stacy's skill section.

--- Complete Stacy's route to unlock this feature. ---

"Huh. Can I buy skills for my heroines after maxing out their Heart Events...?" Oliver wondered.

That's what it sounded like, but it didn't mean anything to him since he wasn't sure what kind of skills he could buy for himself just yet.

"Okay, that's everything I can dig up out of these..."

It was time to leave the heroine menu behind and check out the inventory menu. Before he did so, however, Oliver checked his phone to see if his pizza was getting there anytime soon. No such luck. The order was taking longer than expected.

"Figures," he sighed. "Why does this always have to happen whenever I try and treat myself...?"

At least he had something interesting to occupy his time while he waited. Oliver took a long sip from his energy drink and opened the inventory. A decently-sized grid with the word 'Inventory' above it popped into existence, as did a tutorial asking if he needed an explanation on how this worked since it was his first time. He clicked yes immediately.

--- By picking up an item and issuing the vocal command 'store', you may deposit the item into your own personal hammerspace. To withdraw an item, picture the item in question, extend your hand, and issue the vocal command 'take'. There is no limit to the number of items you may store, but an item may only be stored if you could conceivably carry it yourself. Items will remain in the state you deposit them, and witnesses will not think it strange if you were to withdraw an item in their presence, regardless of how impractical it would be for you to have said item. ---

"No fucking way," Oliver stared at the text, reading it over and over. Out of everything he'd heard so far, this one seemed... well, completely insane. Sure, dating-sim protagonists had endless inventory space and carried around tons of impractical shit with them wherever they went, but so did the Looney Tunes. "This is some real game-breaking shit right here."

Naturally, he tested it out at once.

"Store," Oliver said, his phone disappearing and reappearing on the inventory screen. His eyes widened as a pop-up message informed him of his deposit.

--- Item Received! Cheap-ass Smartphone ---

"Take," he commanded, picturing the phone. It reappeared in his hand not even a second later.

It worked. It actually worked.

"Store. Take. Store. Take!"

The phone kept popping in and out of existence. Even though he'd already proved the inventory was as simple as it claimed, Oliver was amusing himself by continually testing the power out. He went around his single-bedroom apartment, sucking up household items left and right simply because he could.

Once he was done having his fun, Oliver returned everything to its rightful place and was met with the ramifications of zipping around using his exhausted body.

"Totally worth it," he groaned in pain while sitting back down at his coffee table. "There's not much else to see with inventory, so let's keep going."

Oliver went back to his main menu and opened up the quest menu. A primarily empty screen with the word 'Quest' at the top greeted him, and a subsequent pop-up box manifested to give him clarification before he'd even asked for it.

---

Quests are optional objectives that present unique tasks related to one or more of your heroines. As well as an LP reward, completing these objectives may lead to unexpected bonding opportunities and new discoveries. Currently, your quest list is empty. Interact more with your heroines and continue your daily life to begin unlocking some.

---

It could probably go without saying at this point, but Oliver wasn't surprised. The quest system worked exactly how he imagined it would, maybe even better. He just hoped this didn't imply Tessa would start asking him to go and slay ten rats in the cellar because he was pretty sure that wasn't in his job description.

Despite having no quests, the menu wasn't completely bare. There existed submenus to filter quests between his available heroines, and each of these submenus gave Oliver an option to open a list of completed quests to look back at his hard work. Interestingly, the girls all had empty spaces under a section titled 'Repeatable Quests'. He wondered what those might look like but was happy to see he'd have a way to farm LP if needed.

Oliver closed the quest menu after double-checking to ensure he hadn't missed anything. He'd avoided the elephant in the room for long enough. It was time to dive right in and see what the skill menu offered, for better or worse.