“Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight…”

“Fifty… Hah! Where did I lose count?” His mind went blank, and Winnie, gasping for breath, collapsed onto the ground.

His clothes were soaked with sweat, and he felt as though his bones were about to fall apart, his body limp and exhausted.

Given the poor physical condition of this body, Winnie decided to activate a self-discipline mode, determined to improve the physique that had been severely neglected by his former self.

Stamina might not be important for a mage who chooses the path of magic and Soul Armaments, but for a life-consuming player like him, it was crucial.

Without sufficient stamina, he couldn’t even lift the [Armor Fortress] he wore, let alone engage in combat.

After his encounter with the apprentice squire, Winnie threw himself into a rigorous training regimen.

Just how disciplined can a disciplined person be?

He woke up promptly at 8 a.m., had breakfast, rested for a while, and then began his training.

Wearing the [Armor Fortress], he ran laps around the capital, completing two rounds before returning for lunch.

In the afternoon, he continued with various physical exercises.

Winnie packed his day full, barely stopping except to sleep.

Of course, such relentless training without proper rest would eventually take its toll, potentially leading to injuries over time.

This is where Winnie’s advantage came into play.

After evey five days of training, he would transform into Vanessa, who would then cast healing spells on himself to mend the damage caused by the intense workouts.

During this time, he discovered something remarkable: when he transformed into Vanessa, his body automatically cast a top-tier healing spell, restoring all his stats to full.

In simpler terms, transforming into Vanessa automatically restored him to full health, full mana, and full stamina.

This was incredibly convenient, as it eliminated any worry about long-term injuries from training.

After all, this was the healing magic of a saintess, far beyond what ordinary priests or nuns could achieve.

The only downside was that after transforming into Vanessa, he didn’t need to train for the rest of the day.

The reason was simple: Vanessa’s strength was astonishing.

She could effortlessly uproot the withered old tree in the backyard.

With a maxed-out character like that, what was there to train?

Aside from her low-level Soul Armaments, limited mana capacity, and lack of magical skills, there were no other shortcomings.

Winnie had even considered living permanently as Vanessa from now on.

By completely abandoning his identity as Winnie, the hellish difficulty of this alternate world might drop significantly.

But it was just a thought. He knew he couldn’t do it.

First, abandoning his identity as Winnie would make him a complete unknown, a blacklisted individual, and he would lose the admission to the prestigious Carillian Academy granted to him by the King of Camella.

Second, just a few days ago, he had gone out for a meal and was immediately associated with the goddess by strangers.

What if certain high-ranking members of the church saw him?

They wouldn’t be so easily fooled. If they harbored hostility toward him, what then?

The presence of Dak, who had been sent specifically to spy on him, filled Winnie with caution and wariness.

He knew there was a mysterious force behind the scenes that remained uneasy about his existence, to the extent that even the fallen and nearly extinct Valeris family was still under their surveillance.

As for who this force was, he wasn’t sure.

Although he had been ostracized, no noble would be so foolish as to waste resources monitoring a magicless failure like him.

That would be a waste of effort.

Cockroaches and rats disgust everyone, but who would be bored enough to dig through sewers for rat nests?

As for Aesphyra, she certainly wouldn’t do such a thing.

It was well-known that Aesphyra was a staunch green-eyed individual who would never spend time or energy paying attention to any man, let alone monitor one around the clock.

If there were a way to display favorability, Aesphyra’s favorability toward him would likely be close to -99.

Just looking at him made her nauseous, so why would she send someone to spy on him? It wasn’t her style.

After ruling out all other possibilities, the answer seemed clear.

So, could abandoning his identity as Winnie turn this hellish alternate world journey into an easy mode?

Impossible. In fact, it might even trigger a hidden BAD END.

Aside from these two reasons, there was one more, and it was the most important.

Winnie didn’t want to abandon his male identity.

Even in this yuri-themed alternate world where men had no right to choose their partners, he didn’t want to go from being the “plug” to the “socket,” from the one doing the penetrating to the one being penetrated.

“Huff… huff…” Winnie sat on the ground.

These days, he rarely showed his face in public, even wearing heavy armor during his morning runs.

To become stronger, a month was far from enough for him.

There was, however, a way to grow stronger quickly, by accumulating virtue points.

But after unlocking the virtue skill tree, he found that activating another single skill required hundreds of virtue points, which he simply couldn’t afford.

The daily tasks he used to complete were no longer sufficient, or rather, the time spent on them no longer matched the rewards gained.

Lately, to prepare for the Carillian Academy entrance exam, he had poured all his energy into physical training, leaving no time to visit the orphanage.

By the end of each day, he was so exhausted that he didn’t even want to move his tongue, just collapsing into bed to sleep.

If only there were a way to gain a large amount of virtue points without spending much time or effort.

This wasn’t just wishful thinking, there was indeed a way.

By interacting with the main female characters of the game, he could gain emotional points from them.

However, these emotional points couldn’t be obtained recklessly.

If something went wrong, no amount of virtue points could save him.

Given the tense relationship he had with those “chosen” women, Winnie felt that this matter couldn’t be forced, so he had set it aside for the time being.

But soon, he came up with a new idea.

He remembered a minor plot point from the original story: the protagonist, Aesphyra, had encountered a group of demons in a remote forest within the Kingdom of Camella.

Those demons weren’t particularly strong, just a few low-level red demon grunts.

Aesphyra had easily defeated them, turning them into experience points for her holy sword.

Yes, Winnie had his eyes on those unlucky demons.

According to the rules of the virtue system, exterminating goblins would grant virtue points, so eliminating demons should surely yield something as well.

This was, after all, the system of the Valeris family, and the saintesses had always been sworn enemies of the demons.

Wouldn’t killing demons result in a flood of virtue points?

However, the question remained: could he actually defeat those low-level red demon grunts?

Clearly, he couldn’t.

While Aesphyra’s defeat of them was described in just a few sentences in the original story, she was the protagonist, the strongest “chosen” woman in the game, possessing both the [Hero] and [Emperor] Soul Armaments.

For her, a few grunts were nothing, even a demon general might not stand a chance against her.

But Winnie? Fighting demons? Really?

Well, now he did have something to rely on.

A faint smile crossed Winnie’s lips.

That’s right. Winnie might not be able to defeat them, but Vanessa certainly could.

He hadn’t yet tested the Blessed Angel form in combat, and this was the perfect opportunity to try it out on some unfortunate targets.

As for whether he might run into Aesphyra, as long as he went a few days earlier, that wouldn’t happen.

Since this event occurred early in the game, Winnie had some recollection of it.