Love Collector Ch. 9

Minor edit, going to have the heroine registrations count as 100LP now. Will go back and change Stacy's to reflect.

---

Mia route; confirmed.

All was right with the world as everything that happened with Stacy repeated itself. There was a shift in the music playing inside Oliver's head, and for the first time since this phenomenon began, it wasn't painfully grating on the ears or mind-numbingly generic.

Mia's theme was a slow and quiet acoustic guitar song that evoked her family's country of origin, and every so often, there was an interspersal of maracas that livened up the otherwise introspective melody. It gave the tune a fierce edge, striking whenever he let his guard down and got too used to the quietness.

Oliver tried not to think too hard about his powers giving his Mexican friend a stereotypical Latin American backing track and what that might say about him. He was just happy to hear something that sounded halfway decent for once. It would probably grow annoying after eight hours of working together, but still.

Much more important was the profile that showed up to the left of her face.

--- New Heroine Encountered! Mia Rosas

+100 LP ---

--- Graphic Goes Here ---

First of all, Oliver had to appreciate how adorable the cartoonish portrait of Mia was. It really emphasized the laid-back, kuudere vibe she had going on that he liked so much. Besides the illustration, the profile was exactly the same as Stacy's, save for one crucial and surprising difference. Mia's affection meter had six pink segments, and the text inside read '60'.

Oliver only had a sample size of two girls to draw from, but sixty seemed a little high to him. Assuming that filling up the bar would cause one of the empty heart icons to fill up, he was close to reaching the first one and had no idea why. He couldn't help wondering what he'd done to endear himself so much to Mia.

The big question on Oliver's mind now was whether or not this definitively meant she liked him.

It was a somewhat silly concern since rounding up sixty out of a hundred meant that Mia liked him more than she didn't, but Oliver had never experienced this feeling before. Not in real life, anyway. He always got excited when looking at the progress he'd made with the heroine in one of his dating games, but seeing it here and now with Mia was more vivid and raw than anything he'd ever felt.

There was floating evidence right there in front of his eyes that not only did he have a shot with the girl he was interested in, but that he was presumably close to hitting the first milestone. This wasn't enough to cure his anxiety outright, but it went very, very far.

It was like a floodgate of potential had been opened just from getting a tiny glimpse of insight into the way Mia looked at him.

Oliver briefly wondered what life might've been like if he had access to this ability sooner, but he recognized it for the mental pitfall that it was and nipped that in the bud. It was no use dreaming about what could've been or how much easier things would've been.

Not when the here and now was staring him in the face.

He smiled up at her, responding to her earlier question, "Nothing, just talking myself."

"Do that a lot, do you?" Mia asked flatly.

"Yeah, actually. It helps calm me down when there's too much on my mind."

"Nothing wrong with that," Mia nodded out of respect and then sat down next to Oliver on the bench, frowning at him all the while. "What's going on, though? You look even worse than you did yesterday. Hate to say it, but that's saying something."

Oliver looked away and scratched the back of his neck. It seemed like the boost to his mood brought about by Mia's heroine reveal apparently didn't help clear up the signs of his rough morning. That, or she was way more insightful than he gave her credit for.

He'd already told Stacy the truth, at least the part that didn't involve dating sim-inspired hallucinations, so Oliver figured he might as well do the same with her. "Can I be real with you for a second?"

Mia tilted her head. "Were you not being real with me before now?"

"Can I be even more real than I already was?"

"You may."

"I took an edible last night, and it hit me really fucking hard for whatever reason."

There was a moment of quiet while she registered his words, and when Mia spoke, she didn't give much of an indication of her personal views on the subject. "How hard are we talking?"

"Hard enough that I'm thinking I might be a schizophrenic now or something..." Oliver laughed awkwardly. Her continued silence had the side effect of making him want to fill it, so he let a little bit more slip than he had with Stacy. "You ever heard of the Tetris effect?"

"...That thing where the game you're playing gets burned into your retinas or whatever after staring at the screen for too long?"

"Yeah, that's it. My whole morning has been filled with text boxes similar to the game I played last night popping up left and right. It's, um... it's been pretty wild."

Finally, Mia let her mask slip enough to show her concern. "Uh-huh."

"You think I'm crazy, don't you...?"

"I said no such thing. I thought it. More polite that way."

"Right..." Oliver laughed.

"Were you strung out yesterday morning, too?"

"Yeah, um..." Oliver started to sweat again, now suddenly conscious of telling Mia about his substance use. Even though it was legal and not all that different from saying he got drunk last night, there was still a stigma to it that made him worried she might think less of him. "Look, just for the record, I really don't take edibles that often. Only two or three times a week at most, and even then, only twenty milligrams at a time. Maybe thirty."

Mia looked like she was holding back a subtle laugh. "Only twenty gets you this strung out? Fuck, dude. What brand?"

Oliver blinked. He wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.

"Uh... have you ever heard of Third Eye Highs?"

"Tried them once. They're legit." Mia looked off in the distance while thinking to herself. "I was worried you went to a shady shop or something. This whole industry is in a golden age now that it's mostly legal, so it's hard to regulate all the weirdos. Everyone wants their product to stand out, so they mix in all sorts of crazy shit like rock candy or chili powder, but that's mostly a local problem. You won't usually run into that shit if you stick with online brands."

"Huh..."

"Yes?"

"You're shockingly knowledgeable about all of this."

"Yes. Yes, I am. Got a problem with that?" She asked with faux innocence.

Oliver laughed at her deadpan delivery. "Of course not. I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I did, wouldn't you think?"

"You'd be surprised. Nobody bats an eye at your average stoner dude, but the second a girl mentions she likes to wake and bake, everyone loses their goddamn minds."

"Not me. I think it's cool we have so much in common."

"Yeah. It is kind of cool, I guess." Mia smiled at Oliver tenderly, his heart rate spiking as a result. Although her words were as chill and reserved as ever, her expression showed genuine warmth.

Just in case Oliver missed it, things were spelled out for him in terms he could understand.

--- Mia Gained 5 Affection! ---

Oliver had an even more substantial reaction than he did to Mia's smile. Watching Stacy's affection increase felt okay enough, but Mia's going up to sixty-five hit him like one of those scary isekai trucks. It was- tangible proof that he was getting closer to the girl he was interested in.

Sure, the 'tangible' part of that statement had a gigantic asterisk tacked on at the end, but its effect on him couldn't be denied.

Excitement searched through every inch of Oliver's being. None of the dopamine rushes he'd experienced throughout his many years of chasing after his 2D anime girls in dating games held a candle to the rush he experienced right then and there. It was powerful, vital, even, and it massively reinforced his desire to improve his relationship with the petite stoner girl sitting next to him on the bench.

"You shouldn't be driving in the morning if you're still strung out, though. I'm disappointed in you." Mia frowned.

Oliver looked away in shame. "Sorry..."

"Right after I told you to start taking better care of yourself, too..."

"It's not that big of a deal. It went really smooth, almost... ah... almost like I drove here in a trance..." Oliver tried to cover his slip-up with a laugh, but Mia wasn't buying it, and she gave him a funny look.

"That doesn't sound great."

"I'm fine. Seriously."

"You said you were seeing things, Ollie. Weed doesn't do that."

Mia wouldn't give up, and Oliver was once again overwhelmed by what it felt like to know someone cared. "I'm probably just stressed out from... everything, I guess."

"Sounds like a drag. Need to vent?"

Oliver didn't want to dredge up his problems, but she looked somewhat expectant. Something about the way she stared made him feel vulnerable enough to consider opening up.

"Sure you wouldn't mind? I'd hate to just unload all over you like that."

"Interesting way to phrase that."

"What?" Oliver looked at her funny and then realized his gaffe. "Oh my God, no, I-"

"Chill," Mia started laughing in her low, sleepy voice. "I don't care, dude. Unload as much as you want."

After getting over his embarrassment, he gave her a weary smile and did exactly as she wanted.