He Wouldn't Stop, Even After I "Died"

It's been five years since I started trying to win over Zachary Pierce. I even went so far as to have a child through IVF, hoping it would finally make him care.

But no matter what I do, I can never reach 100 percent affection from him. It always stays at 99 percent. Sometimes it even drops lower.

One day, exhausted and aching, I go looking for him. As I reach his room, I hear laughter coming from inside.

"She still hasn't figured out the egg wasn't even hers. The moment the baby was born, Zach's affection score for her dropped to zero."

"So what if she finds out? She should be grateful that her face looks so much like Yvonne's. Honestly, I'm done entertaining her. It's exhausting."

At that moment, everything clicks. All the hope I've held onto, every sacrifice I've made, they were all just a joke.

I turn away and say to the system, "End this for me. Send me to another world."

"Host, are you sure about this?" the system's voice echoes in my mind. "Your mother's illness is getting worse. If you reset and start a new world, she might not live to see you succeed."

Upon hearing that, I felt something twist painfully inside me.

Five years ago, I took on this mission to save my mother, who was dying of cancer.

At first, everything seemed to go my way. I got caught up in Zachary Pierce's charm and started believing in the fantasy.

Reality, though, woke me up with a slap.

Just because I touched a photo album that belonged to Yvonne Shaw and didn't wear the red dress she used to adore, Zachary left me stranded in a slum in a foreign country. He even took my passport.

I barely escaped being assaulted, stumbled into the street, and got hit by a car. It was only after I landed in the hospital that I finally managed to call him.

Zachary's voice was cold as he said, "If you didn't look so much like Yvonne, do you really think I'd spare you a glance? This is just a lesson. Once you've thought it through, I'll come get you."

After that, he went even further.

He forced me to climb thousands of steps just to pray for his deceased lover.

Once, he let people strip me bare and abandon me on a mountaintop ski slope.

Another time, he kicked me into the ocean just to retrieve a lost bracelet, even though he knew I couldn't swim.

He called them "tests of sincerity".

Meanwhile, he and his buddies would laugh behind my back, making bets on how many humiliations it would take before I gave up.

A few months ago, Zachary changed his tune. He said he wanted a child with me.

Watching his affection score finally shoot up, I was naive enough to think my suffering might actually pay off.

But the laughter coming from that hospital room hit me like a freight train.