The apartment room was small to begin with. A living room, a tiny kitchen, and a small bathroom that included toilet in it. Then, there was the single bed that occupied one of three equals part of the living room, a study desk, and a clothes stand. It was easy to guess the financial situation of my identity in this world. Poor as hell. Don’t even start with the mold on the ceiling.

What remained in the kitchen was pathetic, with only few pieces of biscuits in the tin, a canned sardine, a canned tuna, a canned soup, and two packs of flavored instant noodles. Other than those, only spider web and dust adorning the empty shelves. I let out a long big sighed, pondering whether I would never be able to escape this poignant poverty. At the very least, I was glad the bathroom was clean and water running, albeit smell like public toilet.

Seeing the little panda levitating around the living room, I called out to it, “system. What is the background of the identity I am using?”

[To ensure that every host is able to cope with the new identity in each world setting, the main system solidified the new identity as similar as possible to the original identity from the original world.]

“Haha… So, I’m poor right now because I was originally poor. Does that mean in every world of the mission, I will start off poor?”

[Yes, host.]

Then a thought dawned on me. In a low voice, I mumbled out, “then, that means, in every setting I would be an orphan too.”

In honesty, I was disappointed and a bit despondent. More than being poor, it was the fact I am still alone that brought to my sorrow. Even in another world, I could not experienced how it felt to be bathed in the affection of a family.

[Host…]

Perhaps, sensing the gloominess surrounding me, the little panda went silent. Was it afraid that whatever it was trying to say would bring down my mood even more? It was cute how attentive it was.

“Alright, alright. Enough with this disheartening talk. Tell me what I need to know, and do specify the mission, please.”

[The main target for this mission is Mo Zi Qi, the most successful and powerful businessman in the C country. He was a pitiful child who grew up being scorned by his own family. The reason being was his birth legitimacy.]

“An illegitimate child.”

[Right. Despite all the hatred he received, he managed to start his own company and lead his group to what is known as the biggest and wealthiest group in the country.]

“Was this like those drama where his family was greedy for his fortune and tried to take it away for themselves even though they contributed nothing to his success?”

[Precisely so! Although he was cruel and merciless, he never harm innocent people. However, even that changed after the forced fate between him and another key person, Su Qing Ran.]

“Could it be a twisted love that drove people into madness, to the point they included innocent bystander into their drama?”

[Unfortunately, yes, it is. Which is why, your mission is not only to love Mo Zi Qi, but also to prevent the forced fate to happen.]

“What about Su Qing Ran?”

[Su Qing Ran was supposed to have her own character development for the better if not for Mo Zi Qi interference. She also was destined to a lifelong happiness with her soulmate.]

“I see. The most important thing to do is preventing their meeting. And… what does loving him entail? Do I have to chase him around like some crazy stalker and profess the word I love you everywhere he go?”

Somehow, a fragment of memory flashed into my mind. It was a classmate of mine who was a fan to one of the popular boy in school. Before class, during break, after class, whenever she had the time, she would go to his class and stared at him from the window. Or, she would bake cookies or buy some expensive chocolate as gift for him. Or, she would brought her high quality camera just to snap his picture. And she would write countless love letter and stashed it inside his desk. Truth to be told, I was appalled by her action. When I asked for some logical reasoning, she would uttered the same thing over and over again. ‘I love him’ that was all.

[Host… what kind of romance have you seen? I can’t help but worry.]

“That’s not it?”

[Was that all your understanding on love?]

“I… guess?”

[Maybe you should start by reading some psychological theory books to understand the fundamental of human’s mind, then move on to romance novels, to see different perception of what is love.]

“Good idea. A logical approach indeed.”

[However, host. Be mindful of the time and date for the meeting. You had about a month before their forced fate took place.]

“System, how did they met actually? And does they had any prior connection before their meet?”

It may be that the system was able to perceive my continuous curiosity, so it decided to tell the full story of how the plot would ensued under the control of the deviant. I would not said I was shocked but… Alright, I was. Just a bit perplexed. Maybe a lot. How could I not? The story was so similar to those one of the famously played toxic drama from my original world. To be part of those drama? Not in my expectation at all.

I could still remembered how some girls in my class used to love and hate the male lead. They loved him for his look, but hated him for how he treated the female lead. They loved his appearance and his eight pack abs, but hated how he would used his fist when confronting the second male lead. Talking about second male lead. If I am not mistaken, many fans would supported the second male lead instead because of how gentle and supportive he was toward female lead. Now that I think about it, doesn’t this plot really follow those toxic drama plot?

[Was there anything wrong, host? You look pale. Weird. Your health indicator showed nothing wrong.]

“No. I just realized something fundamentally important that I forgot to ask.”

[What would that be?]

“System… Am I not on earth?”

The confused little panda blinked it eyes. Surprisingly it could blinked it eyes. New discovery. I wonder if I asked a silly question in its eyes. But, it was crucial for me to understand where I am. How was I able to glimpse over such trivial matter?

[Host. You are on earth. However, this is not the earth you knew.]

“Care to explain?”

[Host, do you know the term parallel world? You could understand it as something as similar as that. The universe held many world other than your earth, and sometimes two or few world would overlapped with each other creating an almost similar situation or people.]

Even without further description, I was able to come to an understanding on how things work. Giving a nod of affirmation, I assured the system, “get the gist of it already. What is Mo’s status right now?”

[Checking status. Status confirmed. Mo Zi Qi had just returned from his business trip. Currently, he is taking three days break in one of his villa in the countryside.]

“When was Su Qing Ran's engagement date?”

[In three weeks from now.]

“Hmm… Let’s go to the countryside first. It’s more important to meet him first.”