Jade’s talent was highly valuable and worthy of an SSS-rank. Unfortunately, it was too "selfless" and could only be used to benefit others.
She was essentially a walking "SSS-rank Innate Talent Upgrade Card."
Jade knew the value of her talent, so she had never revealed it to anyone aside from Zayne, who asked about it.
"I’ll basically be a talentless person as soon as I use my innate talent, so I need the protection of someone strong, specifically the person I plan to use my talent on."
"Of course, that’s not merely the reason why I want your protection. The school gang leader, Victor Hale, had threatened to sexually assault me before, and it was only due to Kurt fighting him that he couldn’t do it immediately."
"But even Kurt isn’t truly his match, as it was only due to Victor not wanting to fight Kurt to the death that he held back."
Knowing why Jade was in a hurry to find a backer, Zayne still asked, "Then shouldn’t you find Kurt? He’s a nice person, and if you use your talent on him, he would be able to deal with Victor."
"Using your talent on him will make him owe you a huge favor, and he wouldn’t mind protecting you from Victor."
In response to Zayne’s question, Jade sighed and shook her head, "If it were only that simple, I wouldn’t have turned to you for help."
"Kurt already possessed an S-rank innate talent, so a talent upgrade to SSS-rank wouldn’t be a drastic increase in his power, at least not in a short while."
"Moreover, he is too softhearted. Even if he owes me a favor, he won’t kill Victor even if I ask him to. As long as Victor is alive, I wouldn’t be able to sleep well."
Jade knew that asking Kurt for help wouldn’t require her to offer her body and everything she had, in comparison to asking Zayne.
However, the downside was that even against evil people, Kurt wouldn’t kill due to his stating that he wasn’t above the law and couldn’t judge a person’s life and death.
"And that’s not all. Victor himself possessed an SSS-rank innate talent called Top Dog. He becomes stronger by having subordinates under him, and his subordinates also receive a power boost depending on their loyalty."
"He had offered to recruit Kurt and other male students before to join his gang to rule the campus grounds, even stating what his talent was to entice those with weak talents but who wanted power to join his gang."
Jade’s mention of Victor’s innate talent made Zayne inwardly complain, ’What the heck is the World Will thinking? Aren’t SSS-rank talents extremely rare?’
’How come this college, excluding myself, already has two people with SSS-rank innate talents?! Moreover, even Kurt has an S-rank innate talent, and there are still those who are hiding it.’
-Ding!
[Host, you should...]
’Hush, my system. You need not tell me. Victor has already offended my talent upgrade ca—ehem! I meant my girl.’
’Since he dared to lay his eyes on Jade, Victor has already found a way to die!’
Zayne convinced himself that it definitely wasn’t because he wanted to sacrifice Victor’s SSS-rank innate talent to the system, definitely not!
Jade didn’t know what Zayne was thinking as Zayne kept a poker face almost all of the time.
Zayne looked like he was still listening to her, so Jade continued, "I’ll do anything you want me to, and I’ll use my talent on you. But in return, I want you to protect me forever as well as kill Victor and his subordinates."
Zayne didn’t plan to deceive her, so he truthfully replied, "I can protect you and kill Victor and his subordinates, but I can’t promise to protect you forever."
"For example, if you encounter a dangerous threat and saving you will greatly risk my life, then I can only say sorry and let you die."
"I value my life more than others, so while I can protect you from most dangers, the only exception is those that won’t fully guarantee my safety."
Hearing Zayne’s reply that was as straightforward as ever, Jade smiled, "If it’s a dangerous situation that can even endanger your life, then let alone you, others would surely die, so they wouldn’t be able to save me either."
"While I want you to protect me forever, I don’t plan on relying on you for everything. My lack of innate talent will be inconvenient, but I still plan to gain power if there’s an available power system in this Zombie Apocalypse World. If not, then I’ll wait for the next update."
Seeing that Zayne didn’t reject her offer, Jade didn’t hesitate to use her talent on him.
As soon as Jade did, Zayne heard a notification sound in his mind.
-Ding!
[Jade Willows has used her SSS-rank Innate Talent Upgrade on the host!]
-Ding!
[It has been detected that her talent is too weak to fully upgrade the host’s innate talent.]
[As an alternative, the host can choose from these two options:]
[1. The host can use the energy of the talent upgrade to reduce the doomsday life simulation cooldown by 7 days.]
[2. The host can use it to unlock new system features or upgrade existing ones.
The following features that will be unlocked/upgraded according to the system’s optimized energy allocation are:
A.) The simulation talent draws will be increased from 5 options to 8. White grade talents will no longer be available in the talent draw pool, always starting at Green grade minimum.
B.) +1 simulation reward choice. The minimum used to be a D grade simulation score, only yielding 1 simulation reward choice. Now, every simulation will end with at least 2 simulation reward choices.
C.) Doomsday scenarios that had been chosen before are listed in a separate catalog where they can be chosen again if the host doesn’t like the options available.]
[What will be the host’s choice?]
***
Reader Quiz:
What do you think Zayne will choose?
A. Definitely the first option. That way, he can become stronger faster.
B. The second option is a no-brainer. Having those features will make things more convenient.