Chapter 1
It was the third year I had spent with Daniel Grant, the so-called lovesick second male lead.
The female lead, Natalie Shaw, had a fight with the male lead, Lucas Ford, and flew back home.
She showed up at my door again in the middle of the night, throwing herself into Daniel's arms.
"Loving Lucas is just too exhausting. Daniel, can we be together?" she pleaded.
I opened my mouth, about to speak.
Daniel must have thought I was about to make a scene again. He frowned, his gaze full of disapproval.
"Natalie just got back and has nowhere to go, so I added her fingerprint and access code to the villa," he said.
"Sophie, be reasonable. Don't say anything that might hurt her," he added.
I simply nodded. "Okay."
Daniel froze, caught off guard. He had been ready for a tantrum, for jealousy, for a scene.
He never expected me to accept it so easily.
What he didn't know was that the moment he left me on the highway for Natalie, the system had already marked my mission as a complete failure.
To earn enough points to return to my original world, I decided to play the role of the gentle, considerate wife he always wanted, at least for these last few days.
But who would have thought that Daniel, who once carried himself with such pride, would end up lowering himself and begging me to go back to the way things were?
*****
It was our third anniversary, and Daniel and I were celebrating at the villa, surrounded by friends and a steady flow of drinks, soaking in the night.
Out of nowhere, the sharp beep of the fingerprint lock at the front door cut through the chatter.
Daniel and I both glanced up instinctively.
A petite, delicate figure burst in and threw herself straight into his arms.
Natalie Shaw cried, "Daniel, Lucas is off at some business club with his secretary again!
"He won't even pick up my video calls. I waited for him all night, worried sick and miserable. I'm just so exhausted; I can't do this anymore.
"Can we just be together, please?"
Daniel's eyes darted toward me by reflex.
He pulled Natalie aside, a frown deepening as he spoke.
"Alright, Natalie, stop talking nonsense just because you're upset. Come inside and pull yourself together," he said.
Natalie didn't budge, staring him down with stubborn, tear-filled eyes.
She demanded, "Why can't you just say yes?
"Daniel, you don't love me anymore, do you?
"You promised you'd marry me when I grew up, and even the villa's passcode is my birthday. So why is everything different now?"
Tears streamed down Natalie's cheeks. "I hate you!" she choked out, letting the tears fall.
She spun on her heel and bolted out of the villa.
Outside, the sky suddenly opened up, and the rain came down in sheets.
Daniel stood there, stone-faced, as if nothing could rattle him.
But I noticed his hand at his side, white-knuckled and clenched into a fist.
As thunder roared and lightning split the sky,
He didn't hesitate for a second before turning to go after her.
The atmosphere in the villa turned ice-cold; every eye in the room fixed on me.
"Daniel," I called out.
Daniel looked back, his eyes narrowing with a sharp, thin-lipped edge. "Sophie, Natalie's falling apart right now. Can you just find some grace and drop the theatrics? I'm completely tapped out."
He expected me to blow up like I usually did.
But I just stared at him calmly, not saying a word.
I asked, my voice steady, "I just wanted to ask—are you two planning to stay at a hotel tonight, or will you be coming back home?
"If you're staying at a hotel, don't forget your ID."
Daniel went still.
He clearly hadn't expected me to be this composed, let alone make no move to stop him.
Daniel looked back, his eyes narrowing into a sharp, judgmental flicker. "Sophie, can you drop the passive-aggressive routine? There is absolutely nothing between Natalie and me."
"I know, you grew up together. And it's late—it's really not safe for a girl to be out alone. I'm not overthinking it," I replied, sounding like the picture of understanding.
After that, I even handed him an umbrella, just to be thoughtful.
Pretty gracious of me, right?
That was all triggered by a system ping two weeks back.
System said, "Host, you've pursued Daniel for six long years, yet his Favorability remains capped at an 85."
System said, "I've already logged a mission-failed report with the main hub. If you want to bypass the wipe and return to your original world, you'll need 90 credits. You can liquidate Daniel's Favorability for credits on a 1-to-1 basis."
I hesitated for a long moment before replying, "But Daniel doesn't love me."
System said, "Don't worry, host. Favorability isn't just about romance. It covers family, gratitude, guilt... Human emotions are messy."
System said, "Look on the bright side. If you assist him in pursuing Natalie, his Favorability for you might actually trend upward."
It felt surreal.
If this had happened before, I would've tossed and turned all night, feeling like I was drowning, my chest aching so much I could barely breathe.
I would've been obsessing over where they were and what they were saying to each other.
But now, I could steadily see off every dinner guest, my composure absolute and without a single flicker of distraction.
And I tracked their whispers, too—completely detached.
"Isn't Sophie just Daniel's ultimate doormat?" one of them snickered.
"Now that Natalie's back, that wedding is as good as canceled," another added.
"She's getting crafty, though, leveraging a 'strategic retreat' just to keep him on the hook," another laughed.
I didn't feel a sting of pain. I just curled up in bed with Buddy, my little rescue, and drifted off to sleep in no time.
In my dreams, I remembered how my parents died in a car crash when I was a kid, and how I was tossed around like a ball between relatives fighting over the insurance settlement.
Later, the system appeared in my life.
It asked if I wanted to try redeeming the lovesick second male lead.