Chapter Text
[System Alert: Player “Bai Liu” and Player “Spades” have logged into the game: “Duchess' Retaliation”.]
[System Tip: Unfortunately, due to your current situation, your financial state is in dire straits. After seeing an advertisement for a “Horror Dating Show” that paid enough for a year’s worth of rent for a small studio apartment, you sign up without reading the contents of the contract.
Now, you’re at the set and have been informed that you will be staying at an abandoned castle for a week. Despite it being for a reality show, the film team have said that they will not need to go in and film so there will be no outside assistance available in the castle.
You find out that this castle used to belong to a duke and duchess a couple of centuries ago. However, the duke was not loyal to the duchess and had shamelessly humiliated her by bringing in a mistress. After months of enduring this humiliation, the duchess murdered the duke and mistress, and then hung herself above their bodies so that even during death, she could look down upon them.
Realizing that the castle probably housed some valuable artifacts, your secondary goal is to find the most valuable artifacts to sell.
Because this is also a dating show, it is in your best interest to walk out of the castle with a lover to be the winner of the dating show. Each participant will be able to see a person’s favorability level towards them above the person’s head. It can increase and fluctuate according to each interaction. Participants have the option to turn the function on or off.]
[Activated Main Mission: Have a romantic 7-day stay at the set of the “Horror Dating Show”.]
[Activated Side Mission: Obtain the most valuable artifact in the abandoned castle. Explore the entire side story to receive 50 points.]
[Activated Side Mission: Reach 100 favorability points with someone and receive 50 points.]
Bai Liu opened his eyes to a decently tidied bedroom. The bedding had patterns that you would see from a Western historical film. The decorations were all vintage with an overhanging chandelier that didn’t seem to be connected to any wires. That meant that the only light source they had were from the flashlights from their phones unless they found some other source.
As Bai Liu got up from the bed, he found a set of old slippers placed on the floor. The old slippers looked worn out, like they had been washed after years of not being used. The pattern was only visible if you brought it directly to your eyes and he found that the pattern of the slipper was the same as the bedding.
It seemed that the original occupant of this room really liked this pattern.
Bai Liu took out his phone and swiped through his home screen in a swift manner, his eyes scanning the familiar screen until he found something that wasn’t familiar.
“Found it.”
He clicked on an app and opened it, the main screen was similar to a scan. Bai Liu hovered his phone to the slipper and a message popped up on his screen.
“Duke’s Plush Slippers: 1800 yuan.
The material seems to be of the highest quality of an extinct animal's coat. Although the pattern has since worn out, it is an antique of the 19th century.
Would you like to sell this item on our market page as your only available listing slot?“
Bai Liu candidly clicked the option “No.”
[System Alert: Player “Bai Liu” has been detected to have obtained an important item: “Value Scanning App”.]
[Side Mission Completion Progress: 5%]
Just as Bai Liu received this message, his door was kicked open and a muscular man entered and walked up to him. Before Bai Liu could greet him, the guy hoisted Bai Liu in the air by the collar of his shirt.
“What the fuck did you do with Natasha, yesterday?” The man shouted frustratingly, “just because this is a dating show does not mean you can go around stealing people’s girlfriends. Where is your decency as a man to lay your hands on other people’s things?”
He threw Bai Liu back onto the bed and his head hit the headboard. Thanks to his improved panel, he did not feel much of the pain in front of the contact but his head still felt a little dizzy.
This guy reminded him of Andre, the NPC from Siren Town, except that Andre never really laid a hand on him because of his status as a rich-second generation conglomerate.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bai Liu replied blandly, “I’ve been in my room since last night.”
Angered, the NPC slammed his hand on the bed and yelled: “Oh, so you lured Natasha to your room last night, don’t think I wouldn’t know! It wasn’t even officially the first day yet you’re already chasing after my girl. Stay the fuck away, you hear me?”
[NPC: Johann]
[Character Profile: Johann is a fellow participant whom you saw the day before. Unlike most contestants who are single, Johann is with his girlfriend, Natasha, per her suggestion. He is unhappy that you have caught his girlfriend’s eye.]
[System Alert: The favorability of NPC “Johann” → player “Bai Liu” has dropped to 12%.]
Johann walked out of the bedroom and slammed the door behind him, leaving Bai Liu’s room a mess. The blanket had dropped onto the floor and clumps of dust had fallen from the chandelier.
It seemed that this dating show also included an already together couple who had potentially entered to rekindle their love. It just happened that on the day that they all entered the set, Bai Liu’s character had caught Natasha’s eye and her boyfriend, Johann, had noticed this too and had misunderstood that it was Bai Liu that initiated the first move.
If Johann was a main plot NPC, Bai Liu would have cleared up the misunderstanding in order to not be excluded from the main mission. However, he was just an extra so there was no need to go out of his way to resolve the issue.
Although, he probably should avoid any run-ins with Johann in the future.
As Bai Liu threw the blanket back on the bed, he examined the room that seemingly belonged to the late Duke. He scanned the whole room using his phone but found nothing more valuable than the slippers.
Now that he had examined the whole room and found nothing, he decided it was best to head down and progress with the story.
–
“Babe, I thought you said you had told Bai Liu it was time to eat,” Natasha pouted affectionately, “why isn’t he here yet?”
Johann, who could only hide his frustration of Natasha mentioning that homewrecking asshole, could only smile and reply: “He had just woken up when I called for him, so he might just be taking his time.”
In all honesty, Johann hoped that Bai Liu had gotten too scared to come down and stay locked up in his room for the rest of the 7 days. By then, Natasha would have gotten bored of Bai Liu and would turn more of her attention to Johann.
Bai Liu didn’t even come from a great background, he lived in a small studio house and he was on the edge of living on the streets. The only good thing was his face, so it was obvious he only came to this show for the money. But he was also a man so if he got himself a woman along the way, why would he refuse?
Johann did not want to lose Natasha to a hobo like Bai Liu.
Natasha picked up a piece of bread and dipped it in the creamy soup. Although they did not have any person from the filming team on set, there were still two designated chefs that cooked pretty decent meals. They were technically the only connection they had to the outside world for the next 7 days besides their phones.
There were 8 total contestants in this game show and only she and Johann were already a couple. Although she told Johann that she wanted to enter to have extra funds for her course in university, the truth was that she had long grown bored of Johann. Although he had a nice body, he had a plain face and was just a boring person overall.
When they both entered, Natasha saw that there were 3 other men. Although she could not really remember what the two other men looked like, she saw Bai Liu while he was talking to one of the people from the film team.
Her impression of him was… Interesting. She didn’t really care about where he came from but he was definitely a better option than Johann, so Bai Liu had automatically become her target.
But she also didn’t want Johann to question her if her favorability towards him was any less than 75%, so she persuaded him to turn his meter off. Likewise, she also didn’t want to be burdened with seeing a meter above people’s heads– it also brought to her a sense of unease– so she also had it off.
As her eyes swept through the hall, she saw someone coming from the side halls.
The man was a bit taller than Johann and had a lean but muscular build. His hair was messy and almost covered most of his eyes. His eyes seemed to wander, like they were trying to find someone.
A moment later, another person came from the side hall and this time, it was a person she knew, Bai Liu. His long hair was tied into a simple ponytail and he wore something you would see a salaryman wearing. Despite his plain outfit, he had a face to make up for it.
As soon as Bai Liu entered, he felt three pairs of eyes on him. Two were from a table near the middle of the hall, where Johann and a person he presumed to be Natasha sat with trays of food. Both of their expressions were opposite, while Johann stared daggers at him, Natasha looked at him warmly.
[System Alert: The favorability of NPC “Natasha” → Player “Bai Liu” is 63%.]
Meanwhile, the last pair of eyes…
[System Alert: The favorability of Player “Spades” → Player “Bai Liu” is 100%.]
“Bai Liu,” Spades called out as he strode towards Bai Liu.
Spades wanted to go up and hug Bai Liu. Ever since he entered reality and stayed at Bai Liu’s house, he no longer cared to enter games and find a place to sleep. None of these games had Bai Liu who would hug him while they both slept.
“Good morning, Spades,” Bai Liu greeted, “we’re currently in the game so don’t hug me casually. It may affect the favorability of the surrounding NPCs.”
While they were not close distance, it would be odd for them to suddenly hug each other, even if the surrounding people were just NPCs of a game. He still didn’t know if there were any main plot NPCs that could be affected by this show of affection, and it was a hassle to rekindle that favorability with them afterwards.
“Oh,” Spades retracted his hands reluctantly. Although, for onlookers it didn’t really look like he was sad or anything, only Bai Liu could see the slight disappointment in his eyes. It was kind of amusing.
Bai Liu extended a hand and smiled, “Bai Liu. Nice to meet you, fellow participant.”
Spades took his hand and replied, “Spades. Can I pursue you, Bai Liu?”
Bai Liu nodded and smirked– his expression was practically voicing out “straight to the point, I see.” He started a shaking action so that it would appear that they were shaking hands in a friendly manner, before letting go and returning his hand to his side.
Natasha saw the two shake hands and walk together towards the front of the hall to get their trays of food. After getting the food, they sat two tables away from both Johann and herself. The two of them probably had not met each other beforehand and were sitting together and having uninteresting small talk.
“Johann, babe,” Natasha nudged, “we should go over and say hi. They both seem like friendly people and it's not a bad thing if we come out with more friends at the end of this.”
Johann felt unhappy but he couldn’t show such a displeasing side to Natasha and scare her off to Bai Liu’s arms. He nodded to Natasha with a smile and walked with her to their table.
“Hi Bai Liu,” Natasha smiled, “we met yesterday briefly during the briefing. My name is Natasha and this is my boyfriend who called you earlier, Johann.”
[NPC: Natasha]
[Character Profile: Unhappy with her current love life, Natasha convinced her boyfriend to sign up with her on this reality dating show in the guise of spicing up their love life, however she intends to find someone new and break off their relationship as quickly as possible.]
Unbeknownst to Natasha, Johann was staring fiercely at Bai Liu. He was practically saying “don’t you fucking dare say anything that happened this morning or I’ll kill you”.
“Hello,” Bai Liu greeted in return, “this is Spades, my friend.”
Spades showed no reaction to the introduction and did not even look up to meet the eyes of Johann and Natasha. He just continued to ignore them and stare at Bai Liu.
Natasha’s smile went stiff, she often never faced any person who would deliberately ignore, let alone to her face. This guy must be so full of himself that he looked lowly on others… Where did such arrogance come from?
Feeling awkward, Natasha decided to retreat: “well, we’ll see you later. The director should message us the instructions for our first task soon. Bye!”