CHAPTER 2: FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE COLD CEO.

Gloss pov

The lights in this office were too bright for my eyes. The kind that burns through your skull like a sort of exorcism until you can see your reflection trembling in the table while praying for salvation. I can’t even look up for long without feeling small.

He’s sitting at the end of the table, the man everyone fears. Dream Lancaster, the world most eligible and youngest CEO, handsome but also a tyrant at least to me. The kind of man who doesn’t raise his voice because his eyes alone were enough to erase your whole existence, his presence alone commands respect. His aura? cold as hell.

He looks perfect, unrealistic and too perfect. His black suit, his hair, those gray eyes that cut right through me like I shouldn’t exist here. It’s not even anger in his eyes, It’s disgust. Like I’m something slimy and gross that accidentally crawled into his view when having dinner and ruined his appetite.

“Maybe I am.” I sighed while mumbling to myself.

The system’s voice from last night still keeps echoing in my head. “Welcome, Host. Mission One: Survive 100 days.” I thought it was a scam, maybe a dream. But that blue panel in the corner of my vision is still floating there. Nobody else can see it, just me. Faint and glowing, like it’s waiting for me to fail.

My hands keep shaking. I’m gripping a notepad like it’s a weapon, but it’s useless. Yesterday, I was Sky Templeton, broke, hopeless, betrayed. Today, I’m Gloss Rivera, secretary to the hot devil in a suit.

And if the story I remember is real, I won’t last long.

I remember the plot too well. The secretary only lasted seven days before Dream destroyed him. Fired, humiliated, crushed. Seven days. That’s all I have before I become a laughingstock.

I keep waiting for something to save me, but all I can hear is his voice.

“Secretary Rivera.”

My whole body locks up. His voice is ice, smooth and sharp. I look up, and his eyes meet mine. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t move, just watches.

“Yes, sir,” I say. My voice comes out small, not the way I had intended.

He frowns. “Don’t stutter. Speak like a human.”

My face burns. I can feel the board members watching. Some are smirking, others pretending to look busy. I want the ground to open and swallow me.

Then the system screen flickers again.

[New Mission: Make the CEO Smile.]

[Reward: +10 points.]

[Failure: -10 health.]

Make him smile? The man who’s never smiled once in two hundred chapters? The man whose joy comes from watching people fall apart?

This system wants me dead, that was a fact.

He taps the table impatiently. “Read the report.”

“Yes, sir.” My voice is barely holding together. I open the folder in front of me and realize I don’t understand a single word. The letters blur, swimming on the page. My brain feels empty.

“You’re screwed,” a voice inside me whispers. “Just die quietly.”

But then that glowing blue panel pulses again. Make him smile.

I take a shaky breath. “The quarterly report… shows that… the company profits are…” I squint at the words. “Very profitable.”

Silence.

Every sound in the room dies. One of the directors coughs to hide a laugh. Another bites her lip to stop from smiling. Dream just stares, unmoving. The air feels cold, heavy.

“Profitable?” His voice slides through the silence like a blade.

“Yes, sir.” I force a smile that feels painful. “Profitable. Extremely. The most profitable profits I’ve ever seen.”

Someone snorts. Someone else covers their mouth and a man mutters, “Idiot.”

Dream leans back, tapping his fingers slowly on the file. “The report says losses, Secretary Rivera. Do you think losses are profits?”

My pulse starts hammering in my ears.

Think, Gloss. Do something to make him smile.

“Yes,” I say, my voice trembling but fast. “Because… losses are just reverse profits. Like… hidden profits. Very well hidden.”

A strangled laugh escapes from one of the directors before they quickly cough to cover it. Another shakes her head, trying not to smile.

Dream’s eyes stay locked on me. His expression doesn’t change. For a second, I think I’m done for.

Then, barely, the corner of his mouth twitches.

It’s not a smile. But it’s something. The smallest crack in that perfect mask.

The system chimes.

[Mission Complete. +10 points.]

Relief hits me like air after drowning. My knees almost give out under the table, but I keep it together. I want to laugh, cry, anything. But I stay still.

Dream straightens up again. His face returns to that cold perfection. “Unbelievable,” he says under his breath, snapping the folder shut. “This company will fall apart with clowns like you in it.”

A few nervous chuckles ripple through the room. My ears burn, but I don’t care. The system counted that twitch. That’s all that matters.

The rest of the meeting feels endless. Numbers, charts, words that mean nothing. I nod when others nod. I pretend to write things down. My head throbs.

When it finally ends, I stand so fast I almost knock over my chair. I grab the files, most of which I haven’t read, and plan my escape. Just reach my desk, hide, maybe cry a little, maybe scream.

But before I can move, I hear it.

“Secretary Rivera.”

My body freezes again.

He’s standing at the far end of the room, tall, composed, terrifying. His eyes find me instantly, sharp and unreadable.

“Y-yes, sir?”

He walks toward me slowly. Each step echoes in the room. Every sound feels louder, my heartbeat, my breath, my fear. He stops just inches away, close enough that I can smell his cologne. It’s dark, expensive, dangerous.

He leans slightly closer, his voice low and cold.

“You’re fired.”