Forced to Date 3 Alphas in a Comic: CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2: System Online

What? A mission? Chao Xun was startled by the voice that had suddenly begun echoing through his head, but he recovered quickly, averted his eyes from where he had been looking, and found a relatively quiet spot outside to stand still. He looked around nervously in every direction: “Who’s talking to me?” “Stop looking. I’m inside your head.” A calm, low voice resonated from somewhere in his mind, as though someone were murmuring just behind him. “You may call me the System.” “The System?” Chao Xun, who read the occasional novel, froze on the spot. First came surprise, then a surge of excitement: “There’s actually a system?” As though he had finally found something to lean on, he immediately asked with a mild hint of complaint: “Why did you only show up now? Every other system in every story introduces itself to the host right at the beginning and explains everything straight away. You, on the other hand, left me in a panic for an entire day.” The System responded flatly: “Were you not sleeping very soundly?” Chao Xun was left speechless. That was true, he supposed, but he had still been frightened on the inside. And unexpectedly, the System did not just respond but pressed further: “Also, who are these ‘other systems’ you’re referring to?” “Ones from novels.” Chao Xun answered honestly, then softened his tone. “That’s not important right now. Hurry up and explain what’s going on. Why am I here? Did my original self die? Was there a plane crash? Why did you bring me in? Can I go home?” “You ask a lot of questions.” The System was entirely indifferent. Chao Xun stared in disbelief. This system was nothing like the ones in novels. It was so cold. He looked left and right from his corner, confirmed that nobody could see him acting this strangely, and then said to the System: “Fine. Answer them one by one.” The System was sparing with words: “You died. Complete the mission and you can go back. First mission is now being issued.” “I can actually go back?” Chao Xun could not contain the light that lit up in his eyes at the news. He genuinely did not want to be here for a single moment longer. He asked immediately, unable to wait: “What’s the mission?” “Pursue the protagonist Mi Yu. Become the obstacle in the path of his relationship with Yuan Chuan Si.” “……” Chao Xun asked carefully, wondering if he had misheard: “Shouldn’t that be stepping stone rather than obstacle?” The System ignored his question entirely, its voice steady and without warmth: “Don’t do anything unnecessary. Just win Mi Yu over.” How had it gone from pursue to win over? Chao Xun was bewildered. Chao Xun felt wronged. He hadn’t done anything, so why had the weight on his shoulders just gotten heavier? So he pressed the point: “Is it just pursue or actually win over? If I have to win him over using the original host’s methods, doesn’t that mean I’ll never make it home?” The System replied simply: “Be a student. Win Mi Yu over.” In other words, as long as he kept his behavior within what was expected of a student, his personality and approach were his own to figure out. He didn’t have to force himself to be an extrovert when he was an introvert. Well, that was something at least. Chao Xun had just let out a breath of relief when the full implication hit him: “Win him over?” Good grief. What had started as playing an NPC had turned into a full conquest mission. The difficulty had gone up a whole tier. Chao Xun’s head throbbed. Not only did he have a terrible reputation right now, his gender was all wrong too. Court the school tyrant? Would he really not get beaten to a pulp? He appealed to the System without hesitation: “System, this isn’t what I signed up for. I’ve never even pursued a girl and now you want me to pursue a guy……” “Signed up for what, exactly?” The System cut him off, delivering cold words in a pleasant voice. “Ready to give up already? Don’t want to go home?” Chao Xun, corporate drone, immediately stopped complaining: “No no, I’ll do it! I’ll start right now!” System: “Good. I’m going offline. I’ll be back to check your progress in a while.” And then silence. Why did this system talk exactly like his supervisor, right down to checking up on him. Left standing there alone, Chao Xun scratched his hair. He had spent all of yesterday reading novels, drawing on the experiences of every story he could find to learn how to be a proper plot device, and then on the very next day the mission had changed on him. Before he had even had time to recover from the weight of that realization, the class bell rang, pushing him to go face reality. There was nothing for it. Chao Xun had no choice but to get on with things and think about the mission when he could. Back in the classroom, ignoring the many eyes that followed him, he walked naturally to his seat and sat down. A good seat. By rough estimation, at least a hundred thousand miles from the campus heartthrob. His seatmate and friend Ke An’an immediately leaned over: “Why didn’t you reply to any of my messages yesterday? Are you feeling all right?” Chao Xun looked at this round-faced, sweet-looking omega. The first thought that surfaced in his mind was “this cute boy can get pregnant,” which he immediately wiped away along with all the other jumbled nonsense: “I’m fine.” Ke An’an seemed to sense the heaviness in him and leaned a little closer, peering at him as though noticing something: “How come you’re not wearing makeup today?” He seemed to catch himself immediately and backpedaled: “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way, it’s just that I’ve never seen you without makeup before……” Chao Xun answered warmly and with complete understanding: “It’s fine. I just didn’t feel like wearing any.” Please. Setting aside the question of whether he even knew how, he simply did not have the psychological fortitude to continue performing as an omega without missing a beat after being publicly exposed. “There are actually a lot of makeup styles that work really well for betas.” Ke An’an made an effort to be encouraging. “And look, you’re already very good-looking. You could go in a totally different direction from now on.” Then he looked more carefully at Chao Xun’s face, as though about to offer some specific suggestions, and the longer he looked the more something felt off. The original host, in his effort to soften his facial features and read as an omega, had worn an extremely heavy eye look. Eyeliner, lashes, aegyo sal, elaborate lower lid shading, not a single detail left out. Now, with nothing on his eyes at all, what was revealed instead was a natural clarity to his gaze and the clean, unaffected handsomeness that belonged to youth itself. His skin was naturally smooth and fine, his lips pink and his teeth white. So this was what Chao Xun actually looked like. Ke An’an was stunned. His makeup skills must have been extraordinary to have hidden this for so long. He looks more like a beta now, Ke An’an thought, and wisely kept it to himself. He understood better than anyone how much the original Chao Xun had cared for Mi Yu, and being a beta meant being even further from Mi Yu who was an alpha. But the way he looked right now was genuinely more pleasing than before. Ke An’an, as a fellow omega, said sincerely: “You look really good like this.” Chao Xun, caught off guard by the compliment and unsure what to say, simply gave him a smile: “Thank you.” Ke An’an went still and didn’t come back to himself for a good few seconds. That smile was as clean and easy as a late summer evening breeze. It was something he had never once seen on Chao Xun’s face before. Chao Xun seemed different somehow. And that offhand smile happened to catch the eye of a boy sitting on the other side of the room, who nudged the person behind him with a slightly surprised look: “Mi Yu, look at Chao Xun real quick. Different vibe today. He looks pretty good when he smiles.” The boy sitting at his desk flipping through a book did not look up: “Ji Yonging, are you looking to get hit? Go to the hospital if your eyes don’t work.” The boy sitting next to Ji Yonging burst out laughing: “Hahaha Ji-dog, how do you dare say that name in front of Mi-ge? You’re asking to get punched.” Ji Yonging shrugged. Everyone knew Mi Yu was thoroughly sick of Chao Xun the human leech, but Ji Yonging was just the type who couldn’t help poking at things. Besides, seeing Chao Xun today without the makeup and without the theatrics had been surprising enough to slip out. The heartthrob’s seatmate Zhuang Xu said: “He probably doesn’t have the nerve to come near him anymore.” “He stuck around this long though, I doubt he gives up that fast. He’s probably been home these past few days cooking up some new approach,” Ji Yonging remarked, casting another glance at the boy across the room who had already put his smile away and was sitting quietly. “Ha, a new approach, he really does have a death wish doesn’t he, hahaha.” Hearing them still talking about that beta, Mi Yu raised his head with a cold expression: “I don’t care what approach he comes up with. If he dares come near me again, I’ll flatten him on the spot.” Before, he had assumed Chao Xun was an omega, and as annoying as it was, he had held himself back from actually doing anything. Now it was all out in the open. Just a beta pretending to be an omega. He had zero reason to hold back anymore. Ji Yonging quickly waved his hands with a grin: “Don’t worry about it, I was just saying. Maybe he’ll finally know when he’s beaten and back off. His gender kind of settles it.” Mi Yu heard the words and for a moment thought of the brief eye contact he and Chao Xun had shared before class. The obsession and feverish intensity that had always been there before were completely gone. Those eyes had been clear and yet lost, carrying a timid uncertainty, like a stranger who had wandered into the wrong place. But the moment their eyes met, he had looked away immediately. As though frightened. Tch. Scared of getting hit, more like. Mi Yu thought about it. The nerve of this human leech, pretending to be an omega and harassing him for a full year and a half. Half of what should have been a good three years of high school had been contaminated by it, and even looking back later would be annoying. “Hm.” Mi Yu was still in a foul mood. “Don’t bring him up in front of me again, or I’ll punch you too.” Right. His highness was still angry. Ji Yonging and Zhuang Xu exchanged a look and reached that conclusion together. What they didn’t know was that although the Chao Xun they had been discussing hadn’t done anything over these past two days, he was in fact about to begin developing a new approach. Chao Xun was still thinking about the mission. He had no idea how to pursue someone, but he did know how to use the internet. His plan was to first absorb the collective wisdom of the online community and write it all down in a notebook. That way, even if the mission showed no progress, when the System came back to check on him he could pull out his notes and declare with complete confidence that he had been putting in the work. He had always been a laid-back sort of person. Work assigned by his supervisor he would finish properly, but he would never do a single thing beyond what was required. In his daily life he stayed home reading and playing games, with almost zero social interaction. Which was also precisely why he had never been in a relationship. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he even had a single close friend. The person he had been in the most contact with turned out to be his supervisor. Sigh. True office drone Chao Xun could not help letting out a quiet breath. The homeroom teacher walked into the classroom at that moment. Chao Xun decided to set the mission aside for now, first establish the image of a reformed student, and simply be a good student. Then he discovered that after six years as a working adult, most of what he had learned in high school had long since evaporated from his memory. And the original host had been a poor student on top of that, his textbooks pristine and completely free of any notes, with no sign whatsoever that he had ever paid attention in class. The original host had consistently ranked near the very bottom. For Chao Xun, who threw himself fully into whatever he set his mind to, the class was an excruciating experience from start to finish. He understood almost nothing, but he still copied down everything he could from the blackboard. When class ended, the homeroom teacher noticed his diligent efforts and gave a small nod of approval, concluding that he had done some genuine reflection during his week away. “Chao Xun. Come with me for a moment.” The Chao Xun who had been called closed his book obediently, stood up, and followed the teacher out. “Was that Chao Xun?” “It was. I almost didn’t realize he was here.” “I figured he’d just drop out. He lost all his face, after all.” “Come on, Mi Yu is still here. He’d never leave voluntarily.” “True. And besides, he never cared much about face to begin with.” The students murmured among themselves, gossiping about their classmate who had been absent for a week. Chao Xun, already out in the corridor, did not hear any of it. The homeroom teacher led him to a quiet section of the hallway and stopped. She spoke to him with measured sincerity: “Chao Xun, I understand that what happened last week must have been very painful for you. But the root cause was your own behavior. Have you done any real reflecting this week at home?” Chao Xun nodded quickly: “I have, teacher. I spent this whole week thinking it through, and I’ve realized that being a student means acting like a student. Studying hard and improving every day is what matters most.” The homeroom teacher was genuinely surprised that he had come around so quickly and nodded with approval: “That’s exactly the right attitude. You’re in second year now, and third year is only a few months away. If you don’t put in the work, you won’t have the scores for the placement exam, and then there’s no guarantee you’ll be lucky enough to stay in the same class as Mi Yu.” What? There was a placement exam too? With his current grades there was absolutely no chance he’d end up in the same class as Mi Yu. So when the male lead’s love interest appeared in third year, would he just be written out of the story entirely? Chao Xun felt the urgency press down on him. So he said earnestly: “I understand, teacher. I’ll work hard from now on.” Original host, just you wait. I was a student at a top university in my previous life. I will absolutely turn your grades around. “Saying it isn’t enough.” The homeroom teacher also sighed. As his homeroom teacher, was she not fully aware of how serious his problems were? The discipline office had called her in for a talk multiple times. “I’ll speak to the other teachers about your situation. If there’s something you don’t understand, go to the staff office and ask. If you start working hard now, you still have a chance of getting into university.” The university student from a top-ranked institution in his previous life felt his face burning. Being said this to was genuinely mortifying. “I understand. Thank you, teacher!” “And as for Mi Yu……” the homeroom teacher paused, studying his expression. “The school doesn’t want to let this escalate any further, and the posts have all been taken down. We know you have feelings for Mi Yu, but what happened this time went too far. Keep yourself in check going forward and don’t provoke him again.” This was a polite way of warning him to be careful about getting beaten up. “Understood……” Chao Xun lowered his head and delivered an apology in a practiced tone. “I promise I won’t behave the way I did before.” “Good. Very good. Go back to class, and come find me if you need anything.” After saying goodbye to the homeroom teacher, Chao Xun stood in the corridor and let the breeze move over him for a while, letting the gentle May air carry the heat away from his face. Wonderful. He now had a side quest added to the list: study hard. Ha. Could studying possibly be harder than courting someone? Chao Xun allowed himself a quiet, confident smile in his deserted corner. By the next small exam, he was going to move up twenty places and stun everyone into silence.