“There’s no need to be so polite. I made plenty anyway. It’d be a waste to leave leftovers.”
The young man replied thoughtfully.
His delicate features looked gentle and warm, his fair skin seeming to carry a fresh sweetness, creating an atmosphere of perfect tranquility.
Meanwhile, the top idol sitting beside him wore a gloomy expression like a sulking lord. Gone was his usual flamboyant, irritating attitude. He kept his head down, silently eating with a face full of worries.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Cheng-ge looked back and forth between them, suppressing a stomach full of questions.
Only after they got into the car to head to the filming set did he finally fail to hold back.
Turning around, he frowned and asked Yin Liuguang,
“Did you two make up?”
“Huh?”
The idol lazily lifted his eyelids. Distractedly tossing his new phone into the air again and again, he glanced at Cheng-ge and answered,
“No.”
“Then why are you two so peaceful? He even cooked for you!”
Catching his phone, Yin Liuguang rested his chin on one hand and stared out the window.
“Of course the last meal would be peaceful.”
Cheng-ge was stunned.
“What do you mean by ‘last meal’?”
The already unhappy Yin Liuguang grew irritated.
Turning his head, he sneered.
“It means Yan Mo is leaving.”
“Leaving?”
Cheng-ge muttered.
“That doesn’t sound right…”
Given Yin Liuguang’s domineering personality, would he really let someone leave so easily?
Especially when Yan Mo had clearly been the one at a disadvantage on the plane.
How had the situation reversed in the blink of an eye?
Cheng-ge’s expression grew serious.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“You didn’t force yourself on him and give him leverage over you, did you?”
“Tch, you’re so annoying. No.”
“If not, then why are you letting him go?!”
“What else am I supposed to do?”
Yin Liuguang lowered his eyes and pouted.
“He said if I kept pushing him, he wouldn’t just dislike me—he’d hate me.”
“He talked about calling the police.”
“He said he’d never forgive me.”
“Tch. So annoying.”
Back then, after Yan Mo finished speaking, Yin Liuguang had been completely stunned.
A genius who had always gotten everything he wanted.
The nation’s favorite top idol.
For the first time in his life, someone cornered him with words until he couldn’t argue back.
Seeing the disgust in Yan Mo’s eyes, Yin Liuguang panicked.
An unfamiliar feeling rose in his chest.
Confusion.
Pain.
How could Yan Mo look at him like that?
How could Yan Mo be angry?
Yan Mo was never supposed to treat him coldly.
His instincts told him that if he forcibly kept Yan Mo by his side, something very bad would happen.
For the first time, Yin Liuguang was afraid.
His unusually sharp intuition made him hesitate and take a step back.
Over the past two days, he had done nothing to Yan Mo.
It was as if he had become a child who had never seen his gentle mother get angry before and had been frightened by it.
Whenever he faced Yan Mo, he became hesitant and cautious, not daring to provoke him.
Yan Mo noticed this.
He didn’t continue pushing either.
He knew Yin Liuguang had lowered his head for now, but if cornered too much, he would easily revert to his old ways.
So Yan Mo told him he was leaving.
At the same time, when Yin Liuguang started to react, Yan Mo also told him that although they had broken up and he was moving out, if Yin Liuguang ever wanted to find him, talk to him, or chat with him in the future, he wouldn’t refuse.
It was essentially a soothing agent.
A way of saying:
“If you want to, you can pursue me.”
Something to calm Yin Liuguang down.
“I’m planning to pursue Yan Mo again.”
Inside the car, after an awkward silence, Yin Liuguang finally spoke.
Irritation and embarrassment mixed together, like an elementary school kid trying to act cool while secretly in love.
Hesitating, he asked Cheng-ge,
“Do you think… when he said that… he was hinting that we still have a chance to get back together?”
Cheng-ge: “…”
His eyes nearly popped out.
At the same time, a tremendous sense of danger rose in his heart.
Back then, Yan Mo had always been gentle and tolerant.
In that relationship, Yin Liuguang had always been the one in control.
But now, Yan Mo held the initiative.
As long as he kept hold of the card called “there’s still a chance,” Yin Liuguang would willingly follow wherever he led.
Cheng-ge was horrified.
Two years had passed.
Not only had Yan Mo become harder-hearted, but his methods had become far more sophisticated.
Yan Mo was packing his belongings when a familiar sound suddenly echoed in his mind.
Ding~
Then came a familiar voice.
[Host, I’m back!]
The system appeared cheerfully in the air.
The oval-shaped glowing sphere bobbed up and down as its little data-claws waved excitedly.
[Are you happy?]
[Huh? Host, why aren’t you saying anything? Host? Host!]
Yan Mo stared at it for a long moment.
Then suddenly rushed forward and hugged the glowing sphere tightly.
Holding it firmly against his chest.
His closed eyelashes trembled nonstop.
The system jumped in shock.
Completely confused, it awkwardly patted him with its three-fingered data-claws.
[What’s wrong?]
“…Nothing.”
The fear and humiliation from being pinned down in the airplane restroom.
The hatred and helplessness of being unable to resist.
The anxiety he had carried these past few days.
All of it finally surfaced.
Pressing his face against the glowing sphere, his throat tightened and his nose turned sore.
He shook his head.
“I just missed you.”
The system instantly heated up like a blushing lightbulb.
[Hehe.]
[I missed you too.]
Then it suddenly looked around.
[By the way, where is this place?]
“Yin Liuguang’s house.”
[Oh… wait, WHAT?! WHOSE HOUSE?!]
Yan Mo released the system and laughed as it began circling him in panic.
The system anxiously muttered to itself, asking whether that bastard had taken advantage of him.
Yan Mo shook his head.
“No.”
Then he told the system everything that had happened over the past few days.
Except for what happened in the airplane restroom.
The system proceeded to curse eighteen generations of Yin Liuguang’s ancestors before finally calming down.
Afterward, it spoke with a troubled expression about the information it had obtained from the Main God.
[The worlds really did merge.]
Although Yan Mo had already been mentally prepared, his heart still skipped a beat.
The system’s voice turned serious.
[To be precise, the merge happened because after we left due to failing the攻略 missions, the targets’ affection levels actually increased instead.]
The Main God was not a particularly harsh existence.
Even though Yan Mo had failed every single mission, the Main God had not punished him.
After considering the circumstances, it even approved the system’s request to return Yan Mo to his original world.
Aside from erasing memories related to the missions, it had been remarkably lenient.
The targets of those worlds were people blessed by fate.
Individuals who possessed immense influence over their worlds.
The purpose of pursuing them had been to collect their energy.
By weakening them, their wills would no longer overpower the world’s will, allowing the small worlds to remain stable.
Yan Mo’s failed missions had not caused much impact.
But unexpectedly, after Yan Mo left, the men whose affection levels had never risen began to regret everything.
Their intense desires caused several worlds to collide and merge.
Eventually, they fused together with Yan Mo’s original world, creating one massive world.
[A newly born great world is extremely dangerous!]
The system gestured excitedly.
[There are bugs everywhere right now.]
[The world’s background keeps refreshing itself.]
[The consequences are severe, and maintaining stability requires a tremendous amount of power.]
[The Main God is overwhelmed, which is why I lost contact with it.]
[And the Main God is extremely angry about this.]
The system lowered its head miserably.
[The Main God says you bear most of the responsibility.]
Yan Mo had already guessed as much.
“So… the Main God plans to punish me?”
[…Yes.]
Even after the system had shown all of Yan Mo’s mission reports and desperately argued that none of this was his fault, the Main God refused to change its mind.
[I’m useless.]
The system looked devastated.
Yan Mo immediately comforted it.
“No.”
“You’re the best system.”
“If you hadn’t stayed with me, I wouldn’t even have made it through the second world.”
The system became teary-eyed with emotion.
[Next comes the punishment.]
“Okay.”
[The Main God said that in order for the newly merged world to stabilize quickly, you must choose one of the seven men.]
[Once you fulfill his wish, he’ll temporarily become the pillar supporting the world.]
[That will give the world enough time to stabilize.]
Yan Mo froze.
[To prevent you from refusing, the Main God is also placing a buff on you.]
[No matter where you go, those men will inevitably encounter you.]
[And if you still refuse…]
The system hesitated.
“What will happen?”
[You’ll spend the rest of your life suffering from agony that ordinary people could never endure.]
[Every second. Every minute.]
[You won’t even be able to die.]
[Your lifespan will also be extended.]
[Only when that lifespan finally runs out will the suffering end.]
Yan Mo: “…”
The system looked ready to cry.
[Host…]
Yan Mo remained absent-minded for a long while.
Then lowered his eyes and let out a soft sigh.
“I see.”
“Let me… let me think about it.”
All seven of those men had once been people he genuinely loved.
Saying that aloud made him sound incredibly fickle.
But the truth was different.
When he was first chosen by the system, Yan Mo had thought he was the protagonist of some story.
He had even been excited for a long time.
The system had told him:
“All you have to do is fall in love.”