The Healing Harvest

Half an hour ticked by. Marcella slowly drew her psionic energy back into her core, wrapping up her very first group resonance session without a single hitch.

The fifty male therians blinked, surfacing from their euphoric trance. They looked dazed, clearly reluctant to let the soothing sensation fade. Then, the reality of their internal monitors kicked in.

The hall erupted into pure chaos.

"My contamination level!" A burly therian gripped his head, his voice cracking with intense emotion. "It dropped from ninety-five straight to thirty! Thirty!"

"I am not going to die young anymore!" Another fell to his knees, slamming his fists against the floor. "I can finally return to the front lines!"

The sheer, explosive joy in the room was deafening. The men shoved past their initial shock and turned their burning, reverent gazes toward the platform.

"Thank you, Ms. Vance!"

"Ms. Vance, you saved my life! You saved us all!"

"Ms. Vance, are you looking for a mate? Please pick me!"

The fifty imposing figures surged forward like a tidal wave of muscle and desperate gratitude.

The center's staff did not hesitate. A wall of uniformed personnel intercepted the crowd, forming a human barricade around Marcella to shield her from the rabid adulation.

"That concludes today's group resonance session. Thank you for your cooperation." A senior manager barked into a megaphone. "Step back! Keep shouting and you will find yourselves on the Resonance Tower's permanent blocklist!"

The staff quickly ushered Marcella out the side door and into the private VIP elevator. The heavy metal doors slid shut, cutting off the frantic cheers echoing through the hall.

"I am so sorry, Ms. Vance. They act like wild dogs when they get excited. Did they scare you?" The staff member standing beside her let out a long breath and offered an apologetic smile.

Marcella smoothed her skirt and gave a faint, dismissive shake of her head. "It is fine. I understand their reaction."

She truly had not suffered a single scratch.

The staff member stared at her in mild shock. "You are incredibly considerate, Ms. Vance."

"It is a simple exchange of benefits." Marcella offered a polite, small smile.

The male therians got their contamination levels slashed, and she harvested a massive amount of vitality and karma points. It was a flawless win-win scenario for everyone involved.

The elevator chimed at the top floor. Marcella stepped out and walked straight to her private resonance suite.

Cassian was waiting for her. He had finished his morning shift and gained clearance to enter. He stood by the dining table, arranging an elaborate spread of food.

He stepped forward, naturally taking her hand to guide her to a plush chair. "Ms. Vance, I ordered these desserts from a place that is trending online right now. You should give them a try."

Marcella glanced over the table. The center’s staff had prepared a mix of savory bites and coffee, but Cassian had clearly gone out of his way to add a mountain of sweet and salty pastries. He must have assumed she preferred traditional, comfort flavors based on her dinner choices the previous night.

Her stomach gave a quiet rumble. The sweet aroma of baked sugar and butter hit her senses, making her swallow reflexively.

She picked up a small silver fork. "This looks perfect. Let us eat together, Cassian."

"I am not hungry yet, Ms. Vance. Take your time with the snacks. I will head to the kitchen and start preparing your lunch." Cassian shook his head, a soft smile playing on his lips.

Marcella did not argue. She remembered the culinary masterpiece he had whipped up the night before. The center had stocked the fridge with premium, fresh ingredients, and she had no intention of letting them go to waste. They were not exactly items she could pack up and take home anyway.

As she took a bite of a flaky pastry, a familiar mechanical chime echoed in her mind.

"Ms. Vance, would you like to review your updated dashboard?"

Marcella froze, her fork hovering in the air. She had been so caught up in the food that she almost forgot to check her loot.

"Yes. Pull it up now." She instructed in her mind.

A translucent blue screen materialized before her eyes.

Dashboard: 'Vitality Points: 60 days+'

'Karma Points: 9.9'

'Available Resonance Targets: All male therians'

'Available Partners: Dante Alarie, Cassian Vane, Xander Croft, Ryker Vossen, Kaelen Bellerose'

'Psionic Power Tier: S-tier (Progress 0%)'

'Wood-Based Ability Tier: 1-Star (Progress 0%)'

Marcella stared at the first line. Sixty days of life. A massive wave of euphoria washed over her. She was doing this. She was actually buying herself time to live.

Then, her gaze drifted down. She frowned. Her eyes locked onto the bottom two lines. She had read enough interstellar therian novels to know how this usually worked.

"System, explain this to me. I just purified ninety-nine male therians over the last twenty-four hours. Why is the progress for my psionic power still sitting at absolute zero?" She set her fork down, her mental tone hardening.

The system chimed back without missing a beat.

"Ms. Vance, reducing a male therian’s contamination level only yields vitality points and karma points. It does not provide any experience or enhancement to your psionic power or your abilities. Allow me to clarify your unique physiology. Ordinary females can absorb beast cores and insect cores to improve both their psionic power and their special abilities. You are different. You can only use those cores to upgrade your Wood-Based ability. To raise your S-tier psionic power, you must engage in intimate, sexual intercourse with your male mates."

Marcella sucked in a sharp breath. Her triumphant mood rapidly crashed into a wall of deep frustration. "Why in the world is sleeping with men the only valid method to upgrade my psionic power?"

"Because you possess a special constitution. Besides, gaining immense power while experiencing supreme physical pleasure with top-tier males is a massive bonus, is it not?"

Marcella sat in stunned silence.

If she stepped back and looked at it objectively, gaining power through sex was not a terrible deal. But relying on it as the sole method? She would have vastly preferred throwing beast cores at the problem and keeping her personal space intact.

"And if I simply refuse to sleep with men?" She challenged.

The system emitted a static sound of pure shock.

"Refuse? How could you even entertain such a thought? That is highly unacceptable, Ms. Vance. Just sleep with Cassian tonight. I guarantee you will change your tune. You will even start resenting your menstrual cycle for interrupting your progress."

"I already resent my menstrual cycle." Marcella shot back flatly.

The system went dead silent. It clearly realized she lacked the context of just how incredible therian stamina was.

"Let us look at the financial reality, Ms. Vance. A 1-Star beast core or insect core currently costs one hundred merit points and ten thousand galactic credits on the market. The price scales exponentially. A 10-Star core requires one million merit points and ten million galactic credits. Are you prepared to shoulder double that financial burden if you refuse intimacy?"

Marcella blinked. She quickly pulled up her personal bank account interface. The numbers staring back at her were decent, but they consisted almost entirely of the divorce compensation squeezed out of her five ex-mates. The Vance family had cut off her allowance ages ago.

Ten million credits for a high-level core.

If she had to buy cores for both her psionic power and her wood ability, she would be bankrupt before she hit mid-tier. The sheer, staggering cost twisted her stomach into knots. Spending double the money of a normal female just to avoid her legal mates was financial suicide.

She let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Fine. I understand. Maybe upgrading my psionic power by sleeping with my mates is not such a bad arrangement after all." She pinched the bridge of her nose, forcing herself to accept the harsh, pragmatic reality.

This way, she only had to hemorrhage money on cores for her wood ability. It was the only logical path forward. The imminent prospect of dragging Cassian into her bed tonight loomed over her, but her wallet was safe.

"We are thrilled that you understand the situation. Encouraging you to sleep with men to enhance your psionic power is genuinely for your ultimate benefit." The system sounded incredibly smug.