Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 660: Pigs

Mariana, the S-tier awakened combatant from Colombia, leaned against the railing of New Dawn’s upper terrace with a thin cigarillo pinched between two fingers.

The mountain air was cold enough to bite, but the smoke curled lazily from her lips as if the altitude meant nothing to it. Below, the guild hall hummed with the quiet efficiency of a machine that never stopped running.

Above, the stars were sharp and close in a way they never were back home.

She pulled up the standings on her projection artifact and frowned.

New Dawn sat comfortably at the top, exactly where they belonged. Iron Halo held second, steady and predictable. Ashbound clung to third.

Her frown was reserved for fifth place.

”Runewoven,” she read aloud, as if the name itself was an inconvenience. ”62,390. Up from dead last in a week.”

Chinedu, her fellow awakened, the S-tier fighter from Nigeria, stepped onto the terrace behind her. Mariana didn’t need to turn around to know he was wearing that ridiculous silk robe again. The faint scent of cologne confirmed it.

Off-duty Chinedu was a different creature than the disciplined spear-wielder who stood at attention during briefings.

”The Guild Leader was right to be curious,” he said, settling against the railing beside her with his arms folded loosely over the robe’s sash.

”The Guild Leader is always right,” Mariana said, and the words came out a little too quickly.

Chinedu’s lips twitched.

”He is,” he agreed, generously not commenting on her tone.

Mariana scrolled through the data. Kill rates, zone coverage, and point distribution across encounters. Runewoven’s trajectory was steep and consistent, the kind of curve that came from a team operating at the edge of their capability and somehow keeping their footing.

”It’s not just Grey’s squad either...” she muttered, tapping the cigarillo against the railing. Ash fell into the dark below. ”Vaelira’s group has cleaned its act up. Their rotations are tighter, and their zone selection is more aggressive without being outright reckless.”

She pulled up a side-by-side comparison of Vaelira’s squad performance from the first week versus the last three days. The difference was obvious even at a glance.

”It’s like someone took that woman aside and told her to stop messing around.” Mariana’s braid swung as she tilted her head. ”A strict scolding from her guild leader, perhaps. She’s finally behaving.”

”Tessa doesn’t strike me as the overly scolding type.”

”Who knows.”

Chinedu conceded the point with a slight nod.

The silence sat between them for a moment.

Mariana turned back to the projection, drawing a slow pull from the cigarillo. The frown deepened, though her expression carried less annoyance than she intended.

”The Guild Leader spent twenty minutes asking us about him a week ago. Twenty minutes. On a rookie who was in last place at the time.” Her fingers swiped through the data a little harder than necessary. ”Meanwhile, we’ve been holding first since day one and received a ’good’ and a nod.”

The silence said the rest for her.

Chinedu chuckled. Low, warm, and entirely unhelpful. ”You know how he is. He doesn’t praise what’s expected.”

”I know how he is.”

”And you still want the praise.”

”I want the acknowledgment,” she corrected, chin rising a fraction. ”There’s a difference.”

”Of course there is.”

Mariana shot him a look that could have peeled paint.

”Baby, come on...” came a needy voice full of complaints.

Mariana’s gaze drifted past his shoulder to the terrace door, where a young woman in a thin sleep shirt was hovering with the uncertain energy of someone who’d been told ’five minutes’ about twenty minutes ago.

The girl caught Mariana’s eye and flinched. Whatever warmth she’d been saving for Chinedu evaporated under that stare.

”Scram.”

The girl instantly retreated back through the door and closed it very quietly behind her.

Chinedu didn’t even glance back. ”You didn’t have to scare her.”

”I didn’t do anything.”

”Is that so?”

He laughed. The sound was genuine, easy, the laugh of a man who found the women in his life endlessly entertaining, regardless of how they treated each other.

”I’m starting to understand Kaiden. Having women fight over you is pretty damn cool.”

”Don’t even insinuate such a disgusting thing,” Mariana hissed while stubbing the cigarillo against the railing and flicking the remains over the edge. ”At least one of us has standards. You, Grey, Ash...” She counted them off on her fingers with visible distaste. ”Why is every man with power also a pig? Is it genetic? Environmental? A class trait nobody’s documented yet?”

Chinedu raised an eyebrow. ”You’re comparing me to two pornstars?”

”You’re all the same species of scum.”

He grinned, entirely unbothered, which only deepened Mariana’s scowl.

Men like Chinedu were impossible to shame because they simply didn’t consider their behavior shameful.

It was the same energy she saw in Ash’s strutting, in Grey’s harem nonsense, in every awakened man who treated women like collectibles.

The Guild Leader was different.

Magnus Ashborn was a man of discipline. No affairs. No scandals. No women draped over him like accessories. A family leader who commanded respect through conduct, not charisma. That was what real strength looked like.

That was the standard Mariana measured every man against, and so far, every single one of them had fallen short.

She dismissed the topic with a sharp exhale and pulled the standings back up. Her expression shifted. The irritation bled out, replaced by the cool satisfaction of a strategist reviewing a board that was arranged exactly the way she wanted it.

”At least our move is paying off.”

Chinedu straightened slightly. ”It is.”

Mariana tapped the screen, highlighting the gap between Ashbound and Runewoven. The numbers were converging. Slowly, steadily, with the kind of inevitability that came from two teams grinding against each other instead of focusing on the competition at large.

”Two birds,” she said. ”Runewoven climbs, but their efficiency is crippled by Ashbound’s parasitic approach. Ashbound’s points are rising fast, but...” She smiled. It was a sharp thing. ”Both of them burn energy fighting each other while we hold first, undisturbed.”

”And they feed us everything we need to know about Grey’s capabilities,” Chinedu added.

Mariana’s smile widened. ”All without us lifting a finger.”

A comfortable silence settled between them. The kind shared by people who had worked together long enough to appreciate a plan unfolding exactly as designed.

”Only Iron Halo remains, but they’re not a threat. Just a bunch of loud musclebrains,” the Colombian woman added smugly.

”Were any of them ever a threat?” Chinedu asked. The self-satisfaction was faint, tucked into the corners of his words where most people wouldn’t catch it.

”No,” she admitted. ”But why crush them with brute force when we can have them do the dirty work for us?”

She closed the projection with a crisp gesture and folded her arms. With a smile, she decreed,

”The Guild Leader will be proud.”

The words hung for a moment in the cold mountain air.

Then Chinedu pushed off the railing and stretched, the silk robe shifting with the lazy movement. ”Tomorrow, we grind again. For now...” He glanced toward the terrace door where the girl had disappeared. ”It’s time to relax.”

”Disgusting,” Mariana said flatly.

”Goodnight, Mariana.”

”Don’t call me by my name.”

He waved over his shoulder without turning, already walking. The door opened and closed behind him.

Mariana watched his retreating back with the dissatisfaction of a woman surrounded by lesser men. She fished another cigarillo from her coat and turned back to the mountain range stretching dark and endless before her.

Somewhere out there, Grey and his circus of women were settling in for the night, too.

She exhaled smoke into the cold.

’All the same species,’ she thought. ’Every last one of them.’