𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬

13. the villain was rejected

You retracted your hand away.

"Chen Miao, have you ever thought of seeing more to what the world can offer?"

He was still in a daze from your sudden flirtiness when you suddenly shot that question to him. He looked at you in confusion.

"You see, Chen Miao, I don't have parents, but they leave me money, lots of money before they died," you explained. "I don't have much desire to begin with, but when I saw you, I instantly knew what I wanted."

Your life at the beginning was nothing but a lifeless program coded to act in a certain way, but if there was anything that has always been real to you, then surely it would be your feelings towards this classmate of yours.

After you managed to gain control of yourself, you avoided the protagonist because you felt sorry for him to have someone like you obsessing over him, but when you saw that even without you, he was still suffering, you decided to be his protector instead.

However, with the first failure you had in protecting him, how you had done nothing right in the previous timeline, and now with the existence of Kai, perhaps you were too arrogant in thinking that you can save this man.

So if you can't save him, you at least wanted to make him happy.

"Chen Miao," you reached out your hand to rub his earlobe. "Would you be willing to go on a trip with me? I'm paying, of course."

"Trip?" His cheeks turned a little red upon having his ear caressed by you.

You nodded.

"I just realize that my world is really narrow," you said. "So why don't we broaden our horizon together by going on a trip outside our hometown? You can take this as me inviting you out on a date if you wanted."

The word "date," managed to make him flushed red.

"Iー I can't."

Unfortunately, you were rejected.

You smiled helplessly. "Is it because I said that it's a date?"

"It's not like that!" He seemed flustered to explain.  "I'm very happy that you invited me out, (Y/n), but I still have many things I needed to do here."

It's true.

He has always wanted to be closer to you but he never got the chance to. That's why he's very happy whenever you approached him, even if it's only because you have ulterior motives or you just were coded to do that. That's enough for him.

He has found it weird how you suddenly took a gentle way to approach him in this and the previous timelines, but because this body is not his alone,  he couldn't indulged in your pampering as much as he wanted to in his previous life.

Though he did successfully express his desire to be with you once when he was sick. He just didn't know if you would remember that like how he had remembered everything, but wasn't able to voice it out to you.

But now that the developers couldn't control himーat least not at this momentーhe hoped to be blessed with your presence. From your beauty to your wealth and your existence, he wanted all of it, but most of all, he wanted your love and care.

He's just that possessive, because even though he's the protagonist, nothing in this world was actually made for him.

"Next time, I will invite you out, okay?" He promised. "And I will be the one to pay our expenses."

Watching his rueful expression, you couldn't really get madーnot that you will ever get mad at him.

"Then I will make sure you keep your promise." In the end, you bid him farewell, totally forgetting about Kai's existence.

Chen Miao was left feeling guilty as you left. Truly, he didn't want to reject you. Even in the previous timelines, he had never been able to do that, all those rejection were made by the players along with the developers and had absolutely nothing to do with him, but this time, he had to refuse.

He just couldn't bring himself to let you know that the world isn't as vast as you think. That outside this place, there was nothing to see.

This world isn't perfect, and he didn't want you to realize that.

"Kai..." He glanced at his doorstep.

Once that transfer student entered, he will never be able to get out, Chen Miao will make sure of this, and surely, those people will come to rescue him just like before. Perhaps, he can negotiate with them once again.

ーso that you will never be able to know the true essence of this world.

The protagonist then entered his home and closed the door.

In another world, one of the monitors who were controlling the invisible cameras of the virtual world grumbled in frustration at the actor(player) lacked of brain in his choices.

In the previous season, due to the his greed for rewards, he had volunteered to enter the VR to save the previous actor, but who would have thought that he would also be trapped inside, unable to leave.

The man shuddered, just the remembrance alone can give him trauma. It was fortunate that his boss didn't give up on the previous actor nor him, lest his real body would probably be in life support right now.

"What's the situation now?" Speak of the devil, his boss suddenly strolled inside the monitor room.

"It seems that the actor is truly convinced that the female NPC is his mother," he told her in frustration. "Seriously, what's with him and his mother complex?"

He then realized the look his boss gave him.

"Don't look at me like that, boss. I'm never going back inside ever again!"

His boss chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't send you in there. Our newest scriptwriter told me something interesting, you know."

She then changed the camera's point of view to a certain female NPC who's humming happily on her way home. Interestingly, the two of them looked identical to each other.

"Let's make a use of my avatar," she pointed. "That way, it will be less hassle for us and we can also save money."