And honestly, that sentence alone sounded completely insane.

Max opened the system interface.

Almost instantly, the familiar holographic screen appeared, displaying his naked body again like some kind of cursed character customization menu.

And just like before, his naked body appeared on the interface.By now, Max had already figured out that touching different parts of the model brought up different upgrade options—but only for certain areas.

Which honestly made the whole system feel less like a holy artifact and more like a very suspicious game menu designed by someone with specific interests.

His eyes and ears both had their own enhancement paths.

Better vision.

Sharper hearing.

Each upgrade costing around 100 FP.

Simple enough.

The same price as increasing length, which Max still considered the system’s funniest balancing decision so far.

’Enhanced eyesight or bigger dick... truly difficult choices.’ he thoughted with a chuckle

Other parts of the body were far more expensive, though.

The heart and liver had enhancement options too, but those costs jumped massively compared to the smaller upgrades.

Same with veins, blood, skin, and bones.

Max could already tell the whole thing was heavily influenced by body-strengthening cultivation techniques.

The system treated the human body like some kind of customizable RPG build.

The only thing that didn’t seem to have enhancement options?

The brain.

Which honestly surprised him a little.

But then again—

Max was already pretty confident in that department.

Especially with whatever absurd ability allowed him to instantly understand runes like he’d been born reading them.

That alone was already broken enough.

"System... there won’t be any pain, right?" Max asked cautiously, not really expecting a response.

Up until now, the thing had mostly acted like a glorified menu designed by a horny lunatic.

So when it actually answered—

Yeah, that caught him off guard.

[The host does not need to worry.]

Max blinked.

Then blinked again.

His expression slowly shifted from surprise to amusement.

’...Oh, so you can talk now?’

Interesting.

That meant the system wasn’t just automated.

It had some level of intelligence behind it.

Which honestly raised several terrifying questions Max decided not to think about right now for the sake of his mental health.

Instead, his attention immediately returned to the important matter at hand.

Priorities.

Without hesitating any longer, he selected the upgrade option.

Almost instantly, the familiar notification appeared again.

[To increase length by 1 cm: 100 Forbidden Points]

The moment he confirmed it, 100 FP instantly disappeared from the total.

And then—

Everything went black.

And then, naturally—

Max looked down immediately.

Priorities.

At first, he genuinely thought his eyes might be playing tricks on him, so he quickly compared it against his fingers again just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating from mana exhaustion or system-induced brain damage.

Before the upgrade, the limp size had been just a little shorter than his middle finger.

Now?

Yeah... there was a difference.

A very noticeable one.

It reached past his hand far more comfortably now, enough to make Max stare for a second in complete silence before a massive grin slowly spread across his face.

’...Holy shit, it actually works.’

The realization hit him harder than expected.

Not the size itself,

But the fact that the system could casually alter the human body like this overnight.

No surgery.

No training arc.

No heavenly lightning tribulation nonsense.

Just—

click.

Upgrade purchased.

Max looked back at the interface with newfound respect.

"HAHAHAH—"

Max burst out laughing loud enough that it was honestly fortunate the bathroom was outside the tiny excuse of a house they lived in.

Otherwise?

Yeah, someone definitely would’ve started yelling already.

Probably Zerena.

Possibly with a shoe in hand.

"I’m going to have the biggest dick in the world..." he declared proudly to absolutely nobody.

A pause.

Then he looked at himself again with frightening seriousness.

"No... bigger."

And just like that, another episode of Main Character Delusion Disorder activated at full power.

But that train of thought didn’t last long.

A knock on the door cut through it.

Then came Zerena’s annoyed voice from outside.

"What are you doing in there? You better not be jerking off thinking about earlier."

Max’s expression twitched instantly.

’...I was about to.’

He answered internally with equal amounts of annoyance and wounded pride.

Out loud, though?

"I’m coming out," he said quickly, grabbing the towel and drying himself off.

"Then hurry up. Ana’s gone to the grocery shop. let’s talk about what we’re doing tomorrow..." she said.

That made Max pause in confusion.

Which was strange.

He was supposed to be the impatient one here.

So why was she rushing?

Surely not because she was eager to continue dealing with the system’s nonsense.

...Right?

So then why?

Max tried thinking of an answer.

Got nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Giving up on the mystery for now, he stepped outside fully dressed and found Zerena standing there, cigarette between her fingers.

She looked oddly exhausted.

Like some finance bro who had just watched his "guaranteed winning investment" crash straight into the ground, and was now pretending the loss was "part of the strategy."

He was completely wrong, though.

Because the smile on Zerena’s face looked dangerously close to genuine excitement.

"I sent Ana off to buy groceries because something important came up..." she said.

Then her smile widened even further.

"I asked around a bit about your potion idea... and I stumbled onto some very useful information."

The moment Max heard that, he could practically see her pupils turning into gold coins.

’...Oh no.’

That was the face of a woman who had smelled profit.

Real profit.

The dangerous kind.

But before she continued, she fixed him with a sharp look.

"Before anything else..." she said, staring at him intently. "Are you absolutely sure you can make them?"

The way she asked it made one thing painfully clear—

She wasn’t looking for doubts.

She wasn’t looking for "maybe."

She wanted one answer.

Only one.

Yes.

And judging by the way her fingers tightened around the cigarette, the answer she had already built half a business plan around.