The day we were supposed to get married, Perry Vance jilted me at the altar.

A shocked murmur rippled through the guests. One of his friends let out a low, appreciative whistle.

"Damn, Perry. Only a Vance could be that ruthless. You win the bet, man. I'll pay up."

Perry shot a lazy glance in my direction, his voice a study in casual indifference.

"If she hadn't kept threatening to kill herself, I wouldn't have even bothered with this ridiculous wedding."

I stood frozen on the stage, the pristine white of my dress concealing the river of blood already flowing down my legs.

The System's cold, mechanical voice echoed in my mind.

「Mission failed. Male lead has refused to marry. Host termination sequence initiated. Three… two…」

1

A sticky warmth pooled between my legs; I could feel my life draining out of me with every drop. I bit down on my pale lip, the mocking laughter from the crowd washing over me like a toxic tide, battering my fragile sanity.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, I forced back the tears, looking at him with disbelief.

"Why? You promised… you promised you’d make me the happiest woman in the world. If I don't marry you, I'll actually die."

God knows, saying those words felt like my heart was being torn from my chest. He was the one who had stayed up for three nights straight designing every detail of this wedding. I couldn't believe it was all just a joke.

But Perry only spared me a fleeting glance, his reply light as air.

"It's exhausting, you know? The constant drama. Are you always like this?" he drawled. "We're all adults here. If you take things so seriously, how is anyone supposed to have any fun?"

His lazy tone hit me like a bolt of lightning, shattering the last of my composure.

"Perry…"

Before I could finish, his friends erupted in derisive laughter, their eyes dripping with contempt.

"Haha, don't you get it? Perry's been in love with someone else for years—Bianca Sterling. You think a nobody like you could ever compare?"

"You were just a bet, sweetheart. We didn't think someone who acts so high-and-mighty would be so easy to fool."

Their words were knives, twisting in my gut. I started to tremble uncontrollably.

Perry frowned but offered no explanation.

I clenched my fists, a bitter, self-mocking smile touching my lips.

I’d gotten into a car accident in the real world. While I was in a coma, I was inexplicably pulled into this one, forced to complete a "mission": make Perry Vance fall in love with me. If he married me, I could return to my own world and live.

If I failed, I would be punished by bleeding to death.

I thought my months of devotion had finally won him over. I never imagined I was the punchline. But somewhere along the way, in this calculated game of seduction, I had truly fallen for him.

A sharp cramp seized my abdomen, and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. My heart felt like it was being shredded, but the pain was everywhere and nowhere at once, as if a saw was tearing my body apart.

The warm liquid gushed faster now, trickling down my legs and staining the inside of my gown, slowly stealing the heat from my body.

Suddenly, Perry shrugged off his tuxedo jacket and strode off the stage.

「Host's life force is rapidly depleting!」 the System's panicked voice screamed in my head. 「There's still time! You have to stop him!」

The warning jolted me from my stupor. Ignoring the searing pain, I stumbled after him, my small steps leaving a shocking trail of bloody footprints that no one seemed to notice.

"Perry, are you really leaving me?" My voice was thick with unshed tears. Even now, a part of me couldn't believe that the man who had been so protective, so tender, could abandon me like this.

He acted as if he hadn't heard me. His gaze was fixed, burning with an intensity I’d never seen before, on a delicate figure standing at the entrance of the ballroom.

He paused, and then a slow, genuine smile spread across his face.

"You finally came," he said, his voice soft. "I knew you wouldn't let me marry another woman."

I froze.

In that instant, my heart didn't just break. It shattered.

He had orchestrated this entire grand, beautiful wedding for one reason: to make his true love jealous.

2

I watched them embrace as if no one else existed. The guests, my wedding guests, erupted in cheers for them. The pain was a physical thing, a blade twisting in my chest as despair washed over me.

Just then, a hotel waitress approached, nervously holding a velvet box with a pair of custom-made rings.

"Miss Williams," she began, her eyes full of pity, "Mr. Vance had these specially made for you."

My gaze fell to the rings, and I shook my head with a bitter laugh. "There must be a mistake. We didn't order any custom rings." Besides, a single glance told me they weren't my size.

The hotel did offer a ring customization service. I had begged Perry to get a matching pair with me, but he’d refused, claiming he was allergic to metal.

At that moment, the two of them broke their embrace. Perry turned, calmly took the ring box from the waitress, and didn't spare me a single glance.

He walked back to Bianca, dropped to one knee, and slid the ring onto her finger.

"Bianca," he said, his voice ringing with emotion, "I had this made just for you. Will you marry me?"

Bianca looked down at the ring, a shy, pleased smile on her face, but she didn't answer immediately.

"Say yes!" someone shouted from the crowd.

The chant grew, a wave of voices engulfing the hall. "Say yes! Say yes!"

And there I stood, on the edge of the crowd, a ghost in a wedding dress, completely out of place at my own wedding, where my groom was proposing to another woman. Their cheers were like spikes, driving deeper and deeper into my heart.

The crowd parted. Bianca, radiant in a simple white dress, walked towards me on Perry's arm. She moved with an effortless grace I could never hope to imitate.

"Miss Williams," she said, her voice soft and melodious, "on Perry's behalf, I do apologize. I never imagined he would use such a drastic method to get me to see him."

"We've discussed it, and we'd like to offer you financial compensation. Please, don't refuse." She held out a check. For five million dollars.

Her tone was gentle, but her words were a raw, public humiliation.

"Wow, five million just like that. She's set for life."

"You don't get it. Some girls look all innocent, but they're masterminds."

"I heard she chased after Perry relentlessly."

The whispers were the final straw. Tears streamed down my face, mingling with the crimson drops on the floor. I couldn't stand anymore. I clutched my chest, my vision blurring as the pain threatened to swallow me whole.

"Was this your idea?" I managed to ask, my voice a raw, broken rasp, looking up at him. Don't people like them understand that a human heart has value?

Perry’s gaze flickered to my ashen face, his lips parting as if to speak, but he said nothing.

The crowd's murmurs had turned into outright hostility. They were shouting at me, the "homewrecker," to get out. They were sycophants, eager to curry favor with the powerful. To please Bianca, some of them even started to push me.

I was shoved back and forth until my head slammed against the wall with a dull thud. I sagged, using the wall to stay upright, my face contorted in agony.

"Stop it!" Perry roared. His eyes locked onto my colorless face. "Are you alright?"

At his side, Bianca’s brow furrowed. She shot me a venomous glare and tugged on his sleeve.

It was as if her touch broke a spell. Perry forced his gaze away from me.

"Go wait outside," he said, not looking at me. "I'll take you home later."

That flicker of concern, however fleeting, was enough to give me a sliver of strength. The fog of pain receded slightly. I glanced at his unreadable expression, then turned and stumbled out of the hall.

"Miss Williams!"

The waitress who had brought the rings was the first to see the bloody trail I'd left behind. She screamed.

I looked back at her and shook my head, a helpless, bitter smile on my face. The blood was real, but there were no visible wounds. If Perry found out now, he would just accuse me of faking it. I couldn't bear another ounce of humiliation.

For the first time, I disobeyed him. I left on my own.

I went back to my apartment, lay down on my bed, and quietly waited to die.

When I opened my eyes again, it had been two days.

To my surprise, I was still alive. My body was incredibly weak, but the bleeding had stopped. I immediately summoned the System.

「Unknown,」 it replied, its mechanical voice tinged with confusion. 「Mission failure was confirmed. By all logic, you should have expired on the wedding night. However, the Host's life force has stabilized at 0.1 percent and is no longer declining.」

We concluded it must be a bug in the system.

Not knowing when I might suddenly drop dead, I dragged myself to my office to resign. The moment I walked in, I was met with a wall of thinly veiled contempt.

"I thought she said she'd die. Looks like she's doing just fine to me."

"Pathetic. Trying to threaten Perry Vance with death."

A lump formed in my throat. I finished my handover in a daze and fled the building.

When I got back to my apartment, I found a tall, familiar figure waiting at my door.

3

The second he saw me, his expression turned to ice. He lunged forward, his fingers clamping around my wrist like a vice.

"Why didn't you wait for me that night?" he roared, his voice so loud it made my ears ring. "Why didn't you answer your phone? I found a pool of blood at the venue. I've been looking for you like a madman!"

"I thought… I thought you…"

As he got closer, I saw that his eyes were bloodshot, filled with a raw, undeniable worry. I stared at him, my heart pounding. A wild, impossible thought began to bloom in the back of my mind.

"You…?" I whispered.

In an instant, the storm of emotion in his eyes vanished, replaced by his usual cold composure. He looked me up and down, then released my wrist with a sneer.

"Weren't you supposed to be dead if we didn't get married?"

I rubbed my bruised wrist, my gaze darkening with self-pity. "I didn't know you were looking for me. My phone died."

"Sorry to disappoint you by not dying," I added, a sharp, bitter edge to my voice.

He flinched, as if I’d struck him. A complex mix of emotions warred on his face. "That's not what I meant."

「System detects male lead is showing concern for Host!」 the System chirped excitedly in my head. 「Try again! Push him!」

A flicker of hope ignited within me. I decided to try. "Perry," I said, my voice trembling with desperate hope, "I wasn't lying. I really am dying."

"Can we please… can we have another wedding? Even if it's just for show. I promise I'll disappear from your life forever after."

The System had never said we had to be a real husband and wife. I was looking for a loophole, begging for just the ceremony.

"Alright."

He only hesitated for a second before agreeing. I was stunned.

This time, we planned a simple ceremony at a chapel, with no guests. But I waited from morning until the dead of night, and Perry never showed. He didn't answer his phone.

I sat alone on the chapel steps in my wedding dress, staring up at the stars as silent tears traced paths down my cheeks.

I couldn't understand. If it was all just a bet, he never had to go that far. When I was sick, he had abandoned a billion-dollar project and flown for twenty hours on the first international flight just to see me. When he fed me, he'd always cup his hand under my chin to catch any spills, despite his obsession with cleanliness.

I wiped my tears and unlocked my phone to try calling him again. That's when a headline caught my eye: "City's Top Heir, Perry Vance, Engaged to Bianca Sterling."

My hand trembled as I clicked on the link. My world imploded.

He and Bianca had gotten engaged. Today.

He had promised me…

A familiar, searing pain ripped through my body as the bleeding started again, more violently this time. I curled into a ball on the cold stone, feeling my life ebb away. A tidal wave of resentment and hatred surged through me, wild and uncontrollable.

The System's voice echoed, filled with something like regret.

「Male lead is now engaged to another. Host termination sequence will commence. Three… two…」

"Wait," I begged. "Can you… can you let me die in front of him?"

4

The System paused. 「I have set a new program for you to die in the male lead's presence. However, due to the alteration of game rules, the system is now unstable. I cannot predict the exact time of your death.」

I nodded. As long as I could die in front of him, it didn't matter when.

My wedding dress was soaked in blood. I walked, step by agonizing step, to the hotel where they held their engagement party. I arrived just as they were leaving.

"What are you doing here dressed like that?" Perry hissed, rushing towards me. "Get out of here before Bianca sees you."

"And don't try that 'I'm dying' trick again. I'm busy tonight. Go home."

He glanced at my blood-soaked dress, his eyes filled with disgust. He thought it was all an act.

A bitter taste filled my mouth. I looked past him and saw Bianca's pale, drawn face. She looked like she was recovering from a serious illness. A team of medical staff followed her. But I didn't have the energy to care about anyone else's problems.

I fixed my gaze on his annoyed face. "Why didn't you come?" I asked, my voice hollow.

He heard Bianca's footsteps approaching and his impatience grew, his expression darkening. "Are you a child?" he snapped. "What kind of nonsense is 'I'll die if we don't get married'?"

"Do you look like you're dying? I felt guilty, that's the only reason I agreed to indulge you. Something important came up today. Couldn't it wait?"

By then, Bianca had reached us. Perry's expression softened instantly as he gently took her arm. "Why did you come out? I was just about to clear things up with her," he chided softly.

Seeing his tender care for her, I finally understood. His affection for me had never been unique.

Bianca glanced at my attire, a smirk playing on her lips. "I was just worried you'd be too harsh and scare the poor girl," she said, her smile not reaching her eyes. "She's not from our world. One's pride can be so fragile."

"Miss Williams, that check was terribly crass of us. My apologies. Please, think about what you'd like as proper compensation and contact my assistant." She pressed a business card into my hand, her voice devoid of any real sincerity.

I crumpled the card in my fist, then let it flutter to the ground, a perfect mirror of my shattered heart. I had given him my soul, and he had crushed it and handed it back to me.

A flicker of pity crossed Perry's face, but it was gone in a flash. They said nothing more and got into their car.

As I watched them drive away, a pain so intense it felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest radiated through my body. I couldn't stand. It was an agony that invaded every cell, threatening to tear me in two.

I panicked, calling out to the System in my mind.

「Host, changing the game rules has a series of unknown consequences. The corresponding punishments are multiplied.」

I regretted it. My desire to make him feel remorse had only brought all the suffering back onto me.

It wasn't worth it.

"She's bleeding! Oh my God, she's bleeding everywhere!" someone screamed. The cry was piercingly loud in the quiet night.

My consciousness was fading, my vision blurring. I heard the screech of tires.

A car door flew open. I heard Bianca's frantic, angry shout. "Perry, come back! Where are you going?"

The sound of urgent footsteps grew closer, ignoring her cries.

The last thing I saw was Perry's face, twisted in a mask of pure, unadulterated horror.