Chapter 2

Their feeling regret that they bothered their sisters, and the protagonist attacking their hearts little by little was enough for me to dive into this game and drown in it. I, who once chose to take a look at the game, was now drowning in the game. Reaching the end was easy, even though it was my first time playing this kind of game. It was fun, I agreed on that, however, the normal mode was way too easy even for a beginner like me. From the start, all the male lead’s interest towards the heroine started at 30%. It was to the point that it could be called easy mode, and not normal. I saw every character’s ending within 3 hours. Then a card popped on the screen, which said the ‘Hidden Ending’ with a drawing of a lock on it. “A hundred dollars? Are they crazy? Why is it so expensive?” To see the hidden ending, you needed to either pay a crazy high price for it or finish the hard modes of each character. “Shit…… It’s already midnight, though.” I thought about the class I had early in the morning. However, that didn’t last long. “Ah, whatever! Let’s get it done with!” I was insane, being controlled by the game. I wouldn’t have done anything like this usually. My fingers excitedly clicked on the hard mode button. The different prologue video played, this time, with a grand BGM. “Ooh. The heroine changed to her.” It was unexpected that the heroine changed in this mode. She was the villain from the normal mode, the fake mistress of the Duke family. The story was set before the heroine of the normal mode appeared, so it felt like a whole different story from a different game. “Maybe this is why this game’s so popular.” The detailed illustration of the heroine in the hard mode appeared on my screen， which woke me up for good. The unique system of this game was not like any other game. This made me more interested in this app. The villain who was evil to the angel-like heroine was the one who was winning the hearts of the strictly love-barriered male leads now. That gave me the excitement and heart flutters that I couldn’t quite explain. I proceeded to the main story of the hard mode. I was overly confident about this since I finished all the normal mode routes. Even though it was called a hard mode, I expected that the choices of lines would be just a bit more difficult to choose. However, that was just my mistaken guess. “Ack! Ack! Why did I die again?” Hard mode was extremely difficult. The heroine was the villainess from the first place. It was set that raising the characters’ interest was freaking hard. It wasn’t only that. The interests raised with my hard work all dropped down to ‘game over’ after just one small mistake. Not just a normal game over thing, but a very disturbing ‘death’ of the heroine. “Why did this have to be so extreme?” The illustration was also so realistic and cruel. I frowned at the illustration of the heroine getting sliced on the neck by the crowned prince. “This mad game…… .” I died several times due to the hard choices I made sincerely in the game. Frustration filled my heart at this horrible system. What was the producer thinking, making the difficulty setting like this? I died so many times that I started to feel the stress playing this. “Please let me live for once, please!” My goal was to unlock the ‘Hidden Ending’; however, it had been long ago since that goal was forgotten. I will have to see this poor pitiful villainess not die and live happily with at least one of the male leads. ‘What makes the villainess the guilty one? Honestly, it was the author who made her the villainess!’ Unlike the heroine from the normal mode, who’s gotten everyone’s love no matter which choice I made, the villainess, who was only abused and mistreated no matter how much she begged for love, reminded me of my life before. “I’m seeing the endings to this no matter what.” I was killed again due to the older bastard brothers. The sound of me gritting my teeth was heard in the room. I don’t remember how much I died here now. My two hands, which clenched my heated-up phone, trembled. I thought that I was getting too emotional about this, but I couldn’t stop my fingers from clicking the reset button. I started all over again, from the start. I chose the lines, slowly raised their interests, and got fame, glamour, and money to open up the new route. “Ack! Why! Why!” But I died again. I was annoyed to the point I had a thought of just buying the interest using money. If the producer’s goal was to make others pay for the damn thing, then they succeeded greatly. Since they made me, who treasures money like no one else does, want to use up my money for this. I didn’t use my money till the end, but I was on fire the whole night to see the ending of at least one of the characters. Die, and start over. Die again and start over. Die, Die, And die again. I only died until the sunrise. However, I wasn’t able to see the ending of any of them till then. “Fuck…… Again…… .” I, who was going to press the reset button again, couldn’t handle it anymore as I fell asleep with my phone in my hand. And when I opened my eyes. “Penelope Eckart.” Said the man with the blank gauge bar above him, with the sparkling letters written ‘Interest 0%’. “We’ll withdraw our name ‘Eckart’ from you for some time.” I was the villainess in the game, which I never got to see the ending of.