Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 885: Challenged Egos

’From a listless boy watching tons of porn and being depressed in economics classes to this...’

He shook his head.

’Thank you, Demonic Pornstar System.’

The response came immediately.

[Gratitude is unnecessary.]

Kaiden knew that. The system hadn’t chosen him out of some grand cosmic design. It landed on him the way a raindrop lands on a particular blade of grass, and it stayed because that’s what it was built to do.

There was no affection in the arrangement, no hidden mentor watching over him from behind the status windows. Just magic, mechanics, and a set of instructions older than he’d probably ever understand.

’But I’m grateful nonetheless.’

The system was quiet for a long moment.

[Gratitude accepted.]

...

The sun had been gone for two hours by the time Kaiden called it.

His girls were scattered across the construction site in various states of collapse, covered in concrete dust and sweat and the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that no amount of awakened stamina could fully override.

They’d pushed past tired, past sore, past the point where any reasonable person would have stopped, and kept going because that was how this group operated.

Even with the Ironveil Collective compressing terrain and curing materials in seconds, even with Talia’s Runewoven laying wards and inscriptions at a pace that made the professional contractors stop and stare, even with Eclipse’s own fighters filling every gap they could find, the compound wasn’t going to be built in a single afternoon.

The skeleton was up. The bones were solid. But everything between the bones was still open air and ambition.

”Let’s call it for the day,” Kaiden said, loud enough to carry across the nearest work stations. ”The pros need some rest as well.”

The relief that swept through the construction crews was immediate and universal.

Most of these workers should have clocked out hours ago.

They had schedules, overtime policies, and union reps who would have strong words about the hours they’d just pulled.

But almost none of them had stopped, partly out of professional pride because no self-respecting tradesman was going to let a group of girls who looked like they belonged on magazine covers outlift, outhaul, and outpace them at their own jobs, partly because the woman standing at the edge of the site was Vespera Ashborn and nobody was going to be the first person to quit in her line of sight, and partly because the young man who’d just told the whole world he’d stand between them and the apocalypse was right here pouring foundations with his bare hands alongside them.

A foreman near the eastern quadrant pulled his hard hat off and pressed it against his chest, and the look he gave Kaiden was pure, unfiltered gratitude for finally giving them permission to stop.

Luna sat on a stack of rebar with her legs dangling over the edge, chest rising and falling in quick shallow breaths, purple hair plastered to her forehead and neck in wet strands. She looked like someone had dunked her in a river and then made her sprint a marathon.

She also looked extremely pleased with herself.

”I won,” she announced to no one in particular.

Nyx was floating three meters off the ground on a spatial platform she’d shaped into something resembling a lounge chair, one leg crossed over the other, a water canteen resting on her stomach, looking like she’d spent the afternoon at a resort rather than moving multi-ton girders with her mind.

”You absolutely did not.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. ”I moved more materials than you.”

”You moved more trips,” Nyx corrected, taking a slow sip from her canteen. ”I moved more tonnage. One girder versus your little rebar bundles? Do the math, sweaty bestie.”

”Oh, so now that you lost we’re counting by weight?! That wasn’t the deal!”

”Exactly~” Nyx giggled, taking a gulp of her cold beverage before adding, ”There was no deal. You just started running and declared it a race where ’my fat ass could not keep up.’ Well, I did.”

”You sat on your floating couch the whole time drinking water and eating snacks! You didn’t even break a sweat!”

”I’m the space babe,” Nyx shrugged, adjusting her position on the platform with a lazy stretch that made two nearby workers forget they were tired. ”Not the ’sprint around screeching profanities’ babe. That spot appears to be already taken.”

The hissing that followed was mutual, immediate, and escalated with a speed that made a mockery of the exhaustion both of them should have been feeling.

A construction worker sitting on the bumper of his truck with his hard hat in his lap watched the two of them go at it, turned to his buddy, and said with flat resignation, ”How do they still have energy for this?”

His buddy, who was lying flat on the truck bed staring at the sky, did not answer because he was already asleep.

Calypso walked over from the western staging area with her axe resting on one shoulder. Concrete dust streaked across her red skin in pale lines, and her hair was matted with sweat. She could have passed for someone who’d just wrestled a quarry and won.

She was having great fun.

”It feels good to build something for once instead of taking it apart,” she smiled.

Aria descended from wherever she’d been hovering, silver hair dulled grey with dust, and landed beside Kaiden with the kind of grace that should not have been possible for someone who’d been cutting structural steel for hours straight. She leaned into his side, pressed her face against his shoulder, and closed her eyes.

She took a strong inhale. ”The smell of a hard labor...”

”Bruh. Are you serious?” Luna had to stop the hissing fest seeing how down bad a certain yandere was. ”Stop simping.”

”Never.” Zero hesitation. ”You know I’m Kaidensexual.”

”...What I know is that you’re off the rails, woman,” the Storm Gremlin muttered. ”It’s concerning now, isn’t it?”

”Yeah, sure, whatever.” Aria wasn’t even listening, taking one more sniff before gently starting to lead him toward the dungeon gate. ”Let’s go, Kai. I’ll help you wash...”

As Kaiden began walking away, the argument died down naturally as if it never existed and all his girls followed.

The construction crews watched them go.

Every single one of those women was covered in grime, drenched in sweat, hair matted, clothes streaked with concrete dust, and somehow that made them look better.

And all of them were following one man toward a private dungeon entrance.

A welder lowered his mask, watched the procession disappear into the dark, and turned to the crew with a look that contained every injustice the universe had ever produced.

”How is that fair?”

”You watch all those women so openly love a single guy and you dare speak about fairness?”

”...I need to try harder.”

Unknowingly, Kaiden lit a second fire in many workers’ hearts.

Now that they were done with a bit of afternoon manual labor, it was time to focus on the future!