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Beside him, despite his snobby butler expression, his eyes were darting wildly around the room, taking in the half-naked girls and the open groping on the couches.
He swallowed a heavy lump in his throat, stepping closer to Alex's shoulder.
"Boss..." Leo whispered out of the corner of his mouth, his voice slightly shaky. "This place is crazy. Every single person here is either a pervert or a crazy asshole."
"Shut your mouth and keep up," Alex whispered back coldly, his voice smooth and melodic. "You're the one who turned me into a billionaire grand-duchess. Now act like things like these don't interest us."
Forcing his breathing to slow down, Alex ignored the throbbing ache in his breasts and stepped out into the center of the lounge.
The moment he stepped into the light, the conversation near the center tables began to slowly die down.
Heads turned. The casual chatter stopped.
Even the nobles who were busy with their slaves paused, their hands freezing on bare hips and breasts as they turned to stare at him.
Under the glowing crystal chandeliers, Alex looked breathtaking.
The ivory silk suit trimmed with gold embroidery radiated wealth and power.
Soon, a tall, well-dressed man in a manager's uniform hurried over from the bar.
Walking half a step behind him was a gorgeous female slave with long, fiery red hair. She wore nothing but a golden collar and a tiny, see-through white loincloth.
Her bare chest boasted a heavy, natural pair of full C-cup breasts that jiggled and bounced with a soft, heavy rhythm as she walked, carrying a silver tray with two glasses of glowing blue spirit wine.
"Lady Veronica Sterling!" the manager greeted, stopping a few feet away and bowing so respectfully. "Welcome to the Inner Lounge! The Director informed us of your generous wagers. It is an absolute honor to host someone of your noble stature tonight."
Alex stopped his walk, shifting his weight onto one hip as he looked down at the bowing manager with cold, lazy indifference.
"I hope the entertainment here is worth my time," Alex said, letting a hint of his sultry, hypnotic voice echo in the quiet space. "I traveled a long way from the northern border. I do not like being disappointed."
"You will not be disappointed, my lady! The following fights tonight feature some of the fiercest beasts and slave fighters in the underground!" the manager said quickly, gesturing for the slave girl to step forward. "Please, refresh yourself with our finest frosted spirit wine, in the house."
The red-haired slave girl stepped timidly toward Alex.
Her bare skin was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and her chest heaved up and down nervously, offering her plump, bare C-cups right up to Alex's view.
As she approached, she breathed in the sweet scent of Alex's pheromones. Her pale green eyes widened, her thighs trembling slightly as a sudden wave of weakness hit her legs.
Alex looked at the glowing blue glasses on the tray, and then let his dark eyes drop to the slave girl's shivering, half-naked body.
Remembering his fake persona, a spoiled, dominant aristocrat who threw money around and took whatever she wanted… Alex decided to play the part.
Instead of just reaching for the stem of the glass, Alex extended his pale, slender right hand.
With slow, deliberate grace, his fingertips brushed directly against the red-haired girl's bare chest.
He trailed his warm fingers up the soft, heavy slope of her left breast, feeling the smooth, heated flesh yield under his touch, before lightly grazing her stiff, pink nipple with the tip of his thumb.
"Ah...! My lady..." The red-haired slave let out a soft, breathy moan, her entire body shuddering.
Her knees wobbled, and she had to grip the silver tray tightly to stop the glasses from spilling as a rush of liquid heat pooled between her thighs.
The surrounding nobles watched the scene with wide, hungry eyes, their whispers flaring up again.
Seeing the cold, aristocratic woman casually touching the pretty female slave only confirmed the wicked rumors Leo had spread about her tastes.
Alex smoothly wrapped his fingers around the stem of the wine glass and lifted it to his lips, taking a slow sip of the cool, sweet liquid while keeping his golden-tinged eyes locked onto the manager.
"The service is acceptable," Alex whispered, lowering the glass. He dropped his hand from the shivering slave girl's chest, leaving her blushing furiously and gasping for air. "Leo, take the briefcase. We're going to check the viewing balcony."
"At once, my lady," Leo said, his voice deep and professional, though he was secretly sweating bullets admiring how naturally Alex had just handled the situation.
With one last cold glance at the bowing manager and the panting slave girl, Alex turned on his heels, as he led the way through the parted crowd toward the glass doors of the grand viewing balcony, ready to see what kind of bloody sacrifice Clara had prepared below.
Stepping out through the glass doors of the grand viewing balcony, the cool, quiet luxury of the inner lounge vanished instantly, replaced by a wall of deafening, explosive noise.
Below them lay a massive, sprawling open-air fighting pit surrounded by towering walls of reinforced steel and stone.
The arena floor was a vast expanse of stained, packed earth, waiting eagerly for the bloodshed to begin.
Surrounding the pit, rising up in steep tiers, were thousands upon thousands of spectators. Regular civilians, lower-class gamblers, mercenaries, and fanatical fight fans sat shoulder-to-shoulder, screaming themselves hoarse.
They were cheering, cursing, stomping their feet, and waving betting slips in the air, creating a chaotic, thunderous roar that shook the very foundations of the building.
From their elevated vantage point on the VIP balcony, Alex and Leo had an unobstructed, panoramic view of the entire coliseum.
"Holy shit..." Leo muttered over the roar of the crowd, his butler persona slipping for a fraction of a second as he looked down at the sea of screaming people. "There have to be at least nine to ten thousand people down there..."
Alex didn't answer. He walked slowly toward the edge of the balcony, resting his pale hands gently on the polished gold railing.
He looked out over the massive crowd, his short black hair catching the neon light of the overhead stadium banners.
Only then did Alex realize where that continuous, massive flood of empathetic energy was really coming from.
It wasn't just the lust from the nobles in the VIP lounge behind them. It was the arena itself.
Thousands of human and beings from other races crammed into one space, all projecting intense, raw, unbridled emotion, bloodlust, greed, excitement, rage, and desperate anticipation.
Because of his Void Yin Constitution, Alex's body acted like a hyper-active siphon placed in the middle of an ocean of energy.
The invisible clouds of empathetic residue rising from the screaming stadium poured directly into his body, rushing into him like a tidal wave.
His eyes widened as the sleek, pale blue holographic screen of his system interface materialized in front of his vision.
The system logs began scrolling at a crazy, dizzying speed:
[ System Alert: Detecting massive influx of ambient Empathetic Energy (Bloodlust / Excitement / Greed)! ]
[ Void Yin Constitution: Passive absorption rate exceeding standard thresholds... Devouring energy! ]
[ Source Power Increased: +14 Points absorbed from arena atmosphere! ]
[ Source Power Increased: +22 Points absorbed from arena atmosphere! ]
[ Source Power Increased: +19 Points absorbed from arena atmosphere! ]
[ Current Total Source Power: 113 Points! ]
"One hundred and thirteen points?!" Alex gasped internally, his fingers gripping the cold gold railing tight. " This place isn't just a slaughterhouse... to my system, it's an absolute goldmine!"
And it's like it won't stop anytime soon, he felt that if he stayed here for a few more hours, he would be able to earn thousands of points of source power.
However, amidst the rush of power, a familiar, nagging anxiety made him drop his eyes to the bottom of the holographic panel.
He checked the line he dreaded most.
Fortunately, more than ninety-five percent of the emotions boiling up from the stadium below were purely competitive, bloodlust, greed, and violent excitement.
They were not related to lust or sexual desire, which meant the system wasn't violently accelerating his feminization like it did when he absorbed the heavy, erotic residue at the love motel.
Yet, as he watched the glowing numbers, his relief was short-lived:
[ Feminization Progress: Phase 2/9 (Ecdysis) - 57.8% ]
[ Feminization Progress: Phase 2/9 (Ecdysis) - 58.01% ]
"Wait... why is it still going up?!" Alex thought, his heart skipping a beat as he watched the percentage creep up little by little.
"Damn it," Even without pure lust driving it, the sheer, overwhelming volume of raw energy passing through his Void Yin Constitution was acting like a natural catalyst.
His body was filtering massive amounts of power, and that continuous refinement was slowly, unavoidably pushing his physical vessel further along its evolutionary path.
And to make things worse, the event hadn't even begun yet.