Three years. Three years of trying to win over Evelyn Reed. And I was still listening to the system drone, “Affinity: one percent.” I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. “There are so many amazing women around me. Why am I stuck on Evelyn?” I grumbled to the void. “It’s like staring at a feast I’m not allowed to touch.” To my surprise, the system sounded even more shocked than I was. “You can scroll through the target list, you know.” “You… didn’t know that?” 1 I stared blankly at the system interface. “Are you kidding me? Why didn’t you say so sooner?” “You never asked. I just figured Evelyn was your type.” A bitter taste filled my mouth. Evelyn Reed was the youngest attending physician at the hospital. Stunningly beautiful, with an aura as cold and distant as a winter morning. She was a glacier, gorgeous and unthawable. In the three years we’d been “dating,” I doubt she’d said more than fifty words to me in total. My fingers scrambled to swipe on the target list. It scrolled. And scrolled. There were over twenty more pages. For three years, I had turned what was supposed to be a harem-building game into a painfully slow-burn, one-sided romance. Anyone watching would have thought I was her number one, die-hard fan. It all started when I was on my deathbed. The system bonded with me, giving me a new lease on life, but I started with only a hundred dollars to my name. “Every affinity point translates directly to cash in your account,” the system had explained. “One point is a thousand dollars.” The cap was ten thousand points. Three years! My bank account had never broken a thousand bucks. God only knows how I survived. My phone buzzed, the screen flashing “Evelyn.” Her voice, cool and clipped, came through the speaker. “Working late.” My response was pure reflex. “Should I bring you dinner?” The moment the words left my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. Old habits die hard. I expected a swift rejection, but after a pause, she replied, “If you want.” So, of course, I went. I bought her favorite meal and headed to the hospital. I had held onto hope for Evelyn so many times, just like this. And every time, I told myself this would be the last chance I gave her. I could find Evelyn’s office with my eyes closed. As a senior physician, she had her own. But when I got there, the room was empty. I spotted one of the nurses at the duty station. “Excuse me, is Dr. Reed in surgery?” I was a familiar face on this floor, a regular delivery boy for Evelyn. But today, the nurse’s expression was… awkward. She tried to hide it, but I could see the pity in her eyes. “N-no, she’s not.” She subtly pointed down the adjacent hallway. “Dr. Reed might be on her rounds. Maybe you could check there?” I did a full circuit of the floor, meal container in hand, but Evelyn was nowhere to be found. Just as I was about to call her, a clear voice drifted from the nearby stairwell. “Dr. Reed, when can I finally call you my boyfriend?” The name froze me in my tracks. Evelyn’s reply was muffled by the door. “That depends on your performance.” The stairwell door was cracked open just enough for me to see. Evelyn was leaning lazily against the wall, a picture of casual indifference. Standing before her was a young male nurse, his head bowed as he leaned in to kiss her. One of Evelyn’s hands was tucked into the pocket of her white coat; the other rested lightly on the nurse’s waist. She watched him, neither responding nor pulling away. “Dr. Reed,” the nurse murmured against her lips, “won’t your boyfriend be angry?” Evelyn’s gaze drifted up, and her eyes met mine through the crack in the door. Her reply was meant for him, but her words were aimed squarely at me. “Would he dare?” My knuckles whitened around the bag’s handle. I pushed the door open. The nurse jumped back, startled, and tried to hide behind Evelyn. I ignored him, my eyes locked on her. Evelyn met my gaze without a flicker of emotion. “Evelyn,” I said, my voice dangerously calm. “Is this why you called me here? For a show?” She pulled out a cigarette and lit it, the tip glowing in the dim light. She took a long drag, then flicked the ash to the floor before letting the cigarette dangle from her lips. The ash drifted down, and my heart sank with it. It finally hit me. Not with the cold, digital finality of a system notification, but with a raw, gut-wrenching certainty. She didn’t love me. It had all been in my head. “This is boring.” She exhaled a cloud of smoke in my face, her voice flat. “Leo, you’re just so incredibly boring.” She finished the cigarette, stubbed it out in a nearby bin, and slung an arm around the nurse’s shoulders, moving to brush past me. “Evelyn,” I called out, stopping her. “This is the last meal I’ll ever bring you.” I added, with a bitter laugh, “Not that you’d ever eat it, anyway.” I dropped the food container into the trash can, right next to her dead cigarette. A fitting goodbye. This time, I didn’t watch her leave. I turned my back first. Evelyn’s brow furrowed. She stepped in front of me, blocking the door. “Where are you going?” I pushed her hand away. “We’re done. It’s none of your business.” She let out a short, sharp scoff. As I walked away, I heard the nurse ask her, “Aren’t you going to go after him, Dr. Reed?” And Evelyn’s voice, draped in its usual icy calm: “He’ll come crawling back when he’s done with his tantrum.” Like hell, I thought. I never go back. Just then, a message popped up on my phone. [Hey, Leo! Are you free tonight? There’s some lab data I could really use your help with.] It was from Lily, a junior in my department. I typed back: [Give me half an hour. I’m on my way.] Half an hour later, I was in the lab. Lily peeked out from behind a computer monitor. “Leo! You made it!” She had an innocent, puppy-dog face, framed by wavy chestnut hair. Every word she spoke seemed to end with a cheerful lilt. I walked over. “What’s the problem?” She pointed at a string of figures on the screen, looking utterly defeated. “I’ve run the calculations a dozen times, and it’s still not working.” I scanned the data. “You’re using the wrong constant here. You can’t just plug that one in directly.” Lily’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh! That explains everything! You’re amazing, Leo. You saw it right away.” I chuckled. “I’ve just worked with this experiment a lot.” She blinked her big, doe-like eyes at me. “Still, you saved me! As a thank you, let me buy you dinner?” I hesitated for a second, but then the system’s voice chimed in. 【New Target: Lily.】 【Affinity: 100.】 【First-time 100 Affinity achievement unlocked. System Reward: Five Million Dollars.】 Simultaneously, my phone pinged with a bank alert: [Deposit: $5,100,000.00. Current Balance: $5,100,012.50.] My eyes nearly popped out of my head. Three years. The floodgates had finally opened. To hesitate now would be a profound disrespect to money itself. “Sure,” I said, my voice smoother than I felt. “Let’s go. I haven’t eaten yet.” Lily’s face lit up, surprised by my quick agreement. “There’s a new Sichuan place that just opened near campus. How about we try that?” “Sounds good.” As I turned to leave, I didn’t see her flip over the lab report she’d had sitting face-down on the desk. The data on it was identical to the corrected version I had just given her. Fueled by a newfound sense of civic duty—taking from the rich (the system) and giving to the people (local restaurants)—I had fully intended to pay. But Lily had sneakily settled the bill while I wasn’t looking. During the meal, I noticed she had a dimple that appeared whenever she smiled at me. It was ridiculously sweet. The food was great, and by the end of it, my affinity with her had netted me a few hundred thousand more. I’d almost forgotten what it felt to have money. The last three years with Evelyn had been a miserable, penny-pinching existence. “Oh, this table is free! Dr. Reed, let’s sit here.” Speak of the devil. A few feet away, the same male nurse was holding Evelyn’s hand, guiding her to a table. Her gaze was locked on me, heavy and dark. “What’s wrong, Leo?” Lily asked, looking up from her bowl like a curious hamster. I tore my eyes away from Evelyn, shrugging nonchalantly. “Nothing. Just some nobody.” I tried to ignore them, but Evelyn couldn’t stand it. She stalked over to our table, her usual calm facade cracking to reveal a simmering anger beneath. She stood beside me, her voice sharp. “Leo, is this what your ‘love’ for me looks like? One thing to my face, another behind my back? Don’t tell me you were secretly seeing other women the entire time we were together.”
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