More than anything else, it was the Empress who felt the sudden, impossible changes happening to Alex's body.
Deep within his consciousness, she had been comfortably resting.
Usually, she stayed asleep, conserving her energy unless she was in the mood to tease him or if she was awakened by the heavy, intoxicating spikes of his lust and emotional shifts.
This was supposed to be one of those moments.
She had felt his frantic arousal from her previous teasing and was just about to materialize again to push him completely over the edge.
But she suddenly stopped.
She watched, bewildered, as the mana inside him violently expanded.
Just minutes ago, he formed his Sword Seed and broke to the E-Rank. But then, right before her inner eyes, the energy compressed and exploded again.
The bottleneck shattered. D-Rank. And the surge didn't stop there.
A massive, steady wave of freezing Yin mana continued to flood his veins, solidifying his mana core until his presence hit the C-Rank.
Even with all her ancient knowledge and centuries of cultivation, there was no reasonable explanation she could think of.
It was very easy for her to improve someone else's strength from nothing to even higher than C rank in a matter of minutes, but the way it happened to Alex she couldn't understand how it happened.
How? It was not impossible for her to not know everything, but at least there must be some traces for every change, however here she couldn't find any.
Her mind immediately went back to the very first day.
She remembered the strange, invisible force that protected Alex's soul when she tried to possess his body for herself.
It was that exact power that forcefully bound them together, allowing a weak human boy to tap into her Heavenly Enchantress power and her progenitor-class Naagin Bloodline.
She initially brushed it off, thinking that kind of special power was just some self-protection mechanism, perhaps a life-saving card left on him by a powerful ancestor, and that its energy had been completely used up blocking her possession.
Only now did she realize she was wrong. It wasn't just a shield.
Feeling the sudden changes stabilizing in his body, the Empress didn't wait any longer.
The air in Alex's small bedroom instantly plummeted to freezing temperatures.
Wisps of icy, blue-white smoke gathered on the edge of the mattress, solidifying into her breathtaking form again.
This time, she wasn't wearing a white shirt or a leather harness.
She sat relaxed on the edge of his bed wearing a tight, navy blue t-shirt and black, skintight leggings.
The thin fabric of the shirt stretched desperately over the massive, soft weight of her heavy breasts, clearly outlining her hard nipples, while the leggings hugged the wide, perfect curve of her hips and thick thighs.
She looked effortlessly casual, yet dangerously predatory.
"Hey," she purred smoothly, leaning back on her hands. "I didn't expect the special power that protected you to be this powerful, are you hiding something from me?"
"It not only protected your soul, but it's helping you improve your strength this fast... It must be quite a powerful artifact."
Alex, who was lying on his back panting heavily from the simulation feedback, was startled by her sudden appearance.
But her words made his heart skip a massive beat. His dark eyes widened in pure panic.
'She knows,' his mind screamed. 'She noticed it!'
Seeing the sheer terror flash across his flawless, flushed face, the Empress smirked.
She closed her eyes for a brief second, concentrating her spiritual power to read the frantic, chaotic thoughts racing through his panicked mind.
"Hmmm..." she hummed, her full lips curving into a wicked smile. "What do you call it? A... System?"
Alex froze completely. His breath hitched in his throat.
"What?" The Empress let out a sudden, musical laugh that vibrated against his eardrums. "Everyone that crosses to another world has one? Transmigrators? Is it mentioned in comic books? Hahaha!"
"Hahahaaa… How laughable!"
She leaned forward, her silver hair spilling over her shoulders. "Fuck, that's all bullshit, darling."
"Even though I can't clearly see through what it is hiding in your soul, I guess you're just lucky to have stumbled upon such a high-tier artifact to help you cheat your way up."
Her glowing blue eyes trailed down his sweat-drenched body to his naked small breasts that are exposed freely and hypersensitive.
"Hehehe... who knows?" she whispered, her voice dropping into a sultry, mesmerizing purr.
She crawled closer, her heavy breasts swaying slightly beneath the tight blue shirt. "Maybe one day, that artifact will become mine. What do you say, my little vessel?"
Before Alex could scramble backward, her icy, delicate hands reached out.
"Ah!" Alex let out a high, breathy squeak.
Her cold fingers brushed deliberately over his chest, gently squeezing the small, aching mounds of his new breasts.
The contrast of her freezing touch against his burning, feverish skin sent a blinding jolt of electric pleasure straight down his spine.
His back arched off the mattress involuntarily. Her thumbs flicked over his puffy, hypersensitive pink nipples through the wet fabric, making his legs tremble wildly.
She didn't stop there. Her hands slid lower, tracing down his cinched waist and gripping his newly softened, widening hips.
She squeezed his thighs, feeling the dense, coiled Serpentine Musculature hiding beneath his impossibly smooth skin.
"So soft," she teased, watching a fresh wave of sticky, sweet pheromones leak from his pores as he moaned helplessly, completely at the mercy of his mutating body. "And already so desperate."
The Empress's laughter died down, replaced by a predatory hunger as she looked down at Alex.
He was a mess, trembling, flushed, and utterly exposed.
"A 'System'..." she whispered, her voice a low, vibrating hum that seemed to echo inside his very bones. "How funny. You thought you had a secret advantage, didn't you? A little cheat code to help you survive in my world."
She crawled forward, her movements fluid and feline, until she was straddling his waist.
The weight of her body pressed against his newly sensitized thighs, and Alex let out a sharp, involuntary gasp.
The friction was electric. Every nerve ending in his body was screaming, tuned to a frequency of pure, unadulterated lust that he couldn't control.
"But look at you now," she purred, leaning down so her lips were brushing against his ear. "Your little System didn't warn you about this, did it? The way your body is betraying you."
But just as the overwhelming tension threatened to snap Alex's mind again, the cold pressure of her hands suddenly lifted.
"Well my time seems to be up," Her solid body began to dissipate, the edges of her tight clothes and silver hair dissolving back into wisps of icy smoke.
"For now, I'll let you have some fun with your little toy," her voice echoed, fading into the corners of the room. "You might need all that sudden strength to survive what's about to happen to you soon my sweet darling... Hehehee!"
With a final, chilling giggle, she vanished entirely. The oppressive cold lifted, leaving the room quiet and warm once more.
Alex let out a long, shuddering exhale, his chest heaving as he stared at the empty ceiling.
He was so tense, his heart hammering a frantic, painful rhythm. He was absolutely terrified that his most important secret had been discovered.
But then again, as his breathing slowly leveled out, he realized he shouldn't be surprised. The Empress was an ancient, terrifyingly smart monster living inside his own head.
He made huge leaps in strength right in front of her. She was bound to figure out there was something wrong with him. She had just confirmed it.
Even with the uncontrollable, lingering pleasure running through his thighs and chest, his mind began to clear under the sudden, sobering blanket of fear.
Her final warning chilled him far more than her touch. Survive what's about to happen soon.
He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and clenched his delicate, pale hands into tight fists.
He didn't know what kind of disaster was coming for him.
He didn't know what the Empress was plotting, or how far this Ecdysis phase would push his body into becoming a woman.
But he wasn't the weak, useless F-Rank delivery boy anymore.
He looked at the glowing blue interface still hovering in the air. What might happen in the future, Alex didn't know, but with the help of the system…
He wouldn't remain helpless.