Chapter 4

Julian remained noncommittal.

“So give me the computer, and I’ll play esports. I’m terrible at the game, so my teammates will tear me apart. Watching me get ridiculed counts as humiliation too, right?

“From now on, you won’t be the only one humiliating me. Thousands of people will be on your side!”

I delivered my speech with great passion.

One look at Julian’s expression told me that he had fallen for it.

I got the computer I had been dreaming of.

In exchange, I had to send Julian screenshots of my teammates insulting me every day.

Perfect. This was the best life imaginable.

What bliss!

…

Perhaps I had completely merged with this body, because I no longer felt any of the female lead’s resistance toward this place.

That was because this place was basically heaven! Who wouldn’t want to live here? I was even afraid Julian’s first love would come back and try to take the place from me.

Life in the basement was wonderfully comfortable. There was only one thing I regretted.

I should never have chosen such a notoriously toxic server. My teammates cursed so viciously that I had to censor their messages before sending the screenshots to Julian.

Otherwise, the screenshots would get flagged.

Just as I logged into the game again and prepared to start a match when the basement door suddenly swung open.

I had always been the one to seek Julian out. This was the first time he had come to the basement since I transmigrated into this world.

He reeked of alcohol. His eyes were bloodshot, and after staring at me for a long moment, he said only one word. “Whitney.”

I understood immediately. He was drunk and mistaking me for his first love.

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

“How could I mistake you for someone else? You lied to me! You’re Whitney Hart! Why? We clearly loved each other, so why did you walk away when I proposed to you?”

Before I could respond, the look in Julian’s eyes shifted again. “No… You’re not her. Whitney Hart is gone. She isn’t coming back.”

I understood. My wealthy captor was having another episode.

“I told you, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. What good are those ears if they refuse to listen? You might as well donate them.

“And she only went abroad for school. She isn’t dead. Naturally, she’ll come back when her studies are over…”

My voice cut off abruptly.

I was doomed.

Before, I had been fighting the female lead’s instincts.

Now, my toxic-gamer habit of talking back had taken over.

“What do you know? I love her so much!”

Luckily, Julian was drunk too. He could do nothing but keep insisting that she loved him.

“I know you love her. But is imprisoning me here really an expression of that love? Do you want to keep her captive because you can’t have her, or because she rejected your confession in front of your friends and wounded your pride?

“Refusing to hurt her and choosing to imprison me instead doesn’t prove your devotion to her. It only shows that you have no respect for either of us!”

“That’s not true! You’re talking nonsense!”

Perhaps I had struck a nerve, because Julian grew agitated.

He hadn’t tormented me lately, probably because he was afraid of being humiliated by me again. But today, he was drunk, and he seemed eager to try again.

To intimidate me into shutting up, he raised his arm and swung at me. Just before it struck me, however, he eased the force behind the blow.

He didn’t seem to truly want to hit me, but it was too late for me to pull my tongue back.

Julian clutched his wrist, his expression troubled.

When he had tried to slap me just now, I licked his palm.