ーHELIOSー

"Pursue me?" The male NPC chuckles. His hands which are wrapped around the male player's throat move upward to palm the player's cheeks. He leans closer to the player's face, glancing at you as he gives him a peck on his lips. "Can't you see that I'm having a moment with my boyfriend?"

"Yeah, but you're going to kill him, right?" You smile. "And you will eventually forget about him three days later so why not give me a chance?"

Seeing that you were hellbent on ruining his time with his beloved, the male NPC's pretentious smile eventually wears off as he merely stares at you. This gives the male player a chance as he punches the NPC's face, causing him to topple over. You let the player runs, and before the NPC could run after him, the player disappears from his eyesight and you know that the man had successfully logged out.

You aren't able to feel triumphant for long though, because the next thing you know, your hair was pulled over by the NPC you wished to pursue. With a scowl on his face and a bruised cheek, his grip on your hair is enough to make someone howl in pain. Fortunately, players couldn't feel pain so any of his attempts to hurt you would be futile.

"Come on. We all know that he's not going to log in for a very long time," his face is awfully similar to that person that you couldn't help but tease him. "He himself doesn't seem to love you that much, so why bother to stay loyal?"

His grip on your hair tightens and you're starting to fear becoming bald.

"You're wrong," he seethes. "He will come back. He has to. He told me himself that he loved me."

"After what you did to him?" You chuckle in disbelief. "I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" He laughs, grabbing you by the jaw with his other hand, his nails digging into your skin. "He wanted me to love him more and all I did was to answer his feelings. He wanted this himself so why would he abandon me?"

Is he serious?

You're starting to look at him with pity. You don't know if he was naive or just stupid, but did he really have that much hope on the player who slapped and punched him like he was nothing? You guess that 89% love meter really did a wonder on his IQ.

As if sensing your mocking gaze, his jaw clenches in anger and the male NPC suddenly pulls you to the nearest street lamp, bashing your head on the pole, and despite not feeling any pain, your vision starts to turn clouded.

Before you could even process what had happened, the male NPC mercilessly pushes you away, and you could feel yourself falling into a thorny bush. As you hear him walk away, you can't express how fortunate you are not to encounter this situation in real life, lest you probably would have been scarred for life.

As your vision starts to come back, a pair of hands suddenly grabbed yours, and you are pulled up. Your (E/c) eyes meet with a pair of brown ones.

It was so sudden that you don't even know what to feel.

"For you to put yourself in danger like that, do you love Hayun that much?" He tilts his head.

"Hayun?" No way, even his name is the same?

He probably thinks that it was love at first sight, because the man suddenly starts to disclose information about the NPC who just rejected you.

"That man is Hayun. He's a university student and he attends classes at the Iberis building. His room is G201 at Gaillardia Dorm," he says. "His boyfriend is Zwen and they have been dating for almost two months, but anyone with eyes can see that it's over now."

"Uh thanks," you pull away from him. "But why are you telling me this?"

The man seems to be taken aback by your question. He then starts to ponder before leaning closer with a lazy smile, "because I love seeing you who is so obsessed over him."

『6% ー> 10%』

Wondering what kind of kinky fetish he is into, you then realize that this man didn't have a username on his head. He glances at your head which got bashed earlier but didn't do anything. You conclude that he knew that no matter how fatal the injury is, as long as the receivers are the players, there's nothing to worry about. Or maybe his love meter for you is too low for him to care.

"Your love is really attractive," he comments. "If you need help regarding Hayun, you can come to me."

It seems that only your love is attractive to him because the NPC didn't even bother to know your name as he takes his leave. You touch the place where it got hit by the pole earlier and saw blood on your hand.

"..." guess enough playing for today.

Opening your phone, you tap on the setting and log out. Your heart missing your cat already.

The next day when you log in, you see that you are now back in your room. You stare at your phone screen for a while, clicking on the ||Daily Quests|| to see that they are four quests in total. Each rewards the players with 200 coins, 1 point, and 100 EXP. The quests are fairly easy; talk to an NPC, give an NPC a gift, attend classes, and join club activity. You scroll down to see your information is displayed at the bottom.

Username: (y/n) (l/n)

Lvl: 2

Status: player

In-game Age: 17

Class: 3-a

Room: c401 (carnation dorm)

Love interests: ー

Club: ー

Charm: 0/100

Strength: 0/100

Reputation: 600/1000

Coins: 9999999

Points: 1

『 charm and strength can be raised by exchanging points while reputation can be raised and lowered depending on your actions 』

『 the higher your level the easier for you to befriend npcs. this is good to maintain a stable and healthy relationship without involving love 』

『 low charm will cause npcs to think of you as unattractive. this will likely cause high-class npcs to ignore your pursuit while high charm will make it easier to pursue npcs, but with the risk of them getting more deranged than usual 』

『 low strength will make you unable to get out of a life-threatening situation. the npcs can grab your hand and you will never be able to run while high strength will make it easier for you to dominate the npcs, but the risk of them killing you instead of confining you will also steadily increase 』

So it's like a double-edge sword? You tilt your head in confusion. Clicking the『x』button, you then tap on ||Conquers|| and just as expected, it's a list of NPCs that exist in the game, though almost all of them are locked except for three people.

Hayun, Helios, and Iara.

Ignoring the other two as you had absolutely no interest in them, you click on Hayun and find his display information.

Name: hayun.

Age: 18.

Status: NPC

Date of Birth: 29th april.

Room: g201 (gaillardia dorm)

University Building: Iberis

Places Often Seen: [Recess];『LOCKED』 School Hours]; click here to teleport. [After School];『LOCKED』[Weekends];『LOCKED』

Department:『LOCKED』

Favorite Gift:『LOCKED』

Hobby:『LOCKED』

Favorite Food:『LOCKED』

Love Interest: zwen (lvl 27)『89%』

Yandere type: necrophiliac

Love Meter: -5%

Backstory:『LOCKED』

If you hadn't seen Hayun strangling his boyfriend last night, you were pretty sure that his yandere type would be locked. Perhaps that's what happened to Zwen, lest you don't think someone like him would have the gut to pursue someone like Hayun.

Though, to think that it's only -5%, you smile to yourself. He likes you more than you expect.

You then proceed to open the ||World Chat||.

hello

im new here and i wish to pursue hayun

do any of you know his favorite gift?

#8901: are you perhaps that girl who got her head slammed on the light pole last night? 🤣

#3692: newbie, youre lucky that hayun only kills the one that he loves

#3692: or else you might need to spend more money just to create a new avatar

is hayun famous or something?

#8901: kinda

#8901: hes famous for having an attractive face that can attract newbies like you

#8901: like, his appearance is perfect

#3692: yeah, until you realize that hes not worth the risk

#3692: i advise you to attend class right now and get to know other npcs

#3692: honestly, its a waste of time and money to pursue hayun

i don't mind

i have a lot of time and money to spend 😌

#3692: ...

#8901: ...

#8901: im also quite attractive you know?

#8901: how about you pursue me instead?

#3692: shameless 🙄

jokes aside

can anyone tell me what does he like?

#8901: 🤷‍♀️

#0220: hayun likes money

#0220: as long as youre rich and let him spend your coins, hes all yours

how do i even gift him coins?

#0220: you cant

#0220: thats why you need to give him your phone instead

#0220: so that he can spend freely till your coins dropped to zero

#0220: it can be quite annoying because unlike other npcs, theres no guarantee that his love meter will raise for you after spending so much coins on him

#0220: and even if it did, the ending that awaits you is dead

#8901: such a high maintenance guy 😤

okay thanks

but why do you know so much?

#0220: i used to be one of the newbies that got fooled by his look 😓

#0220: fortunately, i stop before we could even date

The knowledge that the man you want to pursue was so famousーor rather infamousーshould have caused you frustration, and yet you couldn't help but felt a hint of pride in your chest. No good, you roll around on the bed. I'm too weak against his face.

After taking a deep breath, you thought of what you wanted to do. Although the idea of teleporting into his class is quite tempting, you're not that stupid. Hayun hates you right now so showing your face in front of him would only cause his love meter to fall further. In the end, you decide to pursue him from scratch after his memory reset.

As for Zwen. Well, if he had the gut to show his face in this game before three days are over, you have ways to ban him from this world.

Smiling to yourself, you glance at the time; it's noon. You still had time to attend classes and get to know your classmates in the process. Jumping down from the bed, you went to take a look at your wardrobe to see the school uniform.

A wave of nostalgia hits you as you take it. How long has it been since I last wore this? You're too lazy to count. Putting on the uniform, you're now ready to go to school.

#8901: damn, if i had known that girl was rich. i would have lent a helping hand last night 

reader: sorry, you arent my type