Chapter 2 Confessing to the Whole School

"I understand." I covered my mouth, trying to will up some crocodile tears after being rejected. However, I couldn't help but burst into triumphant cackles when I heard the system notification.

"Congratulations, you've unlocked a side quest. You will be rewarded two million for this quest!" said the system.

'If one confession is worth one million, then confessing to 8 billion people would—'

"Do have some shame!" The system quickly nipped my idea in the bud and added a line in small text. "There's a limit of 10 million."

When I heard this, I knew right then that money was where it mattered. Love? I couldn't survive off love, could I?

…

Back in the dorm, Melissa was talking to Hailey about something. When she saw me walk in, she immediately stomped over to me. Hailey tried to stop her, but the latter shoved her away.

Then, Melissa grabbed my collar and snarled, "Lily, do you know that you've ruined our reputation?"

I was stunned by her words. After all, I was the one who got rejected, so what does that have to do with her? Why was she bringing collective honor into this?

However, I swiftly recalled that the author of this novel was wearing such ridiculous plot armor that it was likely the author was brainless, too. If I took that into consideration, incidents like these weren't all that surprising.

Everyone tended to treat the protagonist with blind devotion. Frankly, it was quite ridiculous, but this was my life now.

The novel world I was in was a rather straightforward one as the whole world basically revolved around the female lead. People were either with her or against her.

Once I learned that I had transmigrated into the vicious villainess, I decisively chose to focus on raking in the cash rather than in romance.

When I first started out, the system only gave two measly options.

One was to pursue Caleb, who was also the male lead of this story. If I succeeded, the system would grant any one of my wishes.

My second option was to pursue Andrew, the second male lead. The reward for winning his heart was a chance to return to my original world.

The money was just a side quest and was placed there for laughs. In a twisted novel world like this one, people grew up thinking that confessing to someone was basically asking for social suicide.

Yet, each rejection came with a compensation of one million dollars.

Still, one's reputation would get worse each time they confessed. In the end, they would just end up becoming a pariah.

Fortunately, I was built different. I didn't care for such things because I had absolutely no shame.

After all, why would I care about my reputation when I was already a villainess?

"I like you," I said calmly. There wasn't even a sliver of rage in my heart as I smiled at her. I picked my nails, blew on them, and coyly met her gaze.

Her face turned bright red, and I could basically feel the heat wafting off it from where I was standing.

"W-What I mean to say is that you should pay more attention in the future…" she valiantly continued.

"I like you," I repeated with a roguish smirk.

Melissa clammed up and fled to her bed before pulling the curtain shut. After a moment, I heard her muffled voice through the curtains, still laced with embarrassment. "There is no future between us! You should just give up!"

I didn't mind getting rejected once more. If anything, I was on cloud nine as I listened to the system broadcast. Nevertheless, something was bothering me. What I was doing right now wasn't efficient enough.

So, I found a random confession template online and sent it to all the students via Instagram.

The system immediately called me out for cheating when I did that.

"Ah, you don't get it." I waved my hand in dismissal. "Confession is about sincerity, not form."

…

The counselor called me into his office the very next day.

"Explain yourself." He pushed his phone toward me, his face stone cold.

I looked at it and was amazed by how many complaints there were about me.

"I'm doing a research project." I handed him the thesis I had managed to churn out overnight. The title was "Love Patterns in the Internet Era."

"I want to investigate how the internet has affected relationships, especially when it comes to dating culture and building platonic relationships. I also wanted to look into how love is expressed during this technologically advanced era.

"I wanted to understand whether the internet…" I sold him a scientific-sounding bullshit.

The counsellor could only stare at me, utterly stunned after listening to my explanation. Then, he pushed his glasses up and parted his lips to interrupt me before I could confuse him further.

I knew what he was about to ask, so I smoothly interjected, "My confessions to Caleb and Andrew were meant to serve as a control group."