When you woke up, you were already lying on Chen Miao's bed, with a koolfever attached on your forehead. There was a bottle of water on top of the nighstand along with a plastic full of medicines such as paracetamol, aspirin, and ibuprofen. You laughed, having a vision of Chen Miao not knowing what medicines to buy at the pharmacy that he ended up buying these three. Seriously, doesn't he know that it's risky to swallow aspirin and ibuprofen together?

After a while, you then remembered your purpose of coming here.

"Hey," you turned at the chat screen. "Tell me where Chen Miao hid the transfer student."

『???』

『Who is she talking to?』

『???』

『has she gone crazy from the fever?』

『is she talking to us???』

『for a moment i had an illusion that she was talking to us lol』

You grumbled in frustration. "I am talking to you though?"

『!!!』

『woah?!?!』

『wtf she's really talking to us?? that's so cool!』

『So the film crew finally decided to listen to our suggestion by making the actors interact with their viewers? Nice!』

『is she really an npc? are you sure she isn't an actor in disguise?』

『wait wait does that mean kai too can interact with us ♡♡♡』

『not to burst your bubble but your kai right now is held hostage and his current condition is unknown』

『husband (༎ຶ⌑༎ຶ)』

The fact that they were literally ignoring your demand irked you for some reason. After all, they claimed to love someone, calling him husband yet didn't even prioritise his safety first? They could at least tell you where his whereabout first instead of having this needless chatters.

As you were about to get mad, the door swung open and you saw Chen Miao peeking in, a look of relief on his face.

"Thank goodness you woke up," he went to check your temperature with his hand. "I have already bought medicines but you need to eat something first before taking them. What do you want to eat?"

You glanced at the chat screen; the minority was critisizing Chen Miao for his, uh, villainy but the majority was romaticizing the both of you.

『i would like it better if he checked her temperature using forehead to forehead♡』

You almost choke on your spit imagining that honestly.

"Actually, I'm craving something sweet and cold," you sighed pretentiously, as if you were really yearning to eat that. "Can you buy me a popsicle?"

He gave you a disapproving look.

"I will eat a proper meal, I promise, but for some reason, I really feel like eating a popsicle," you mimicked the way he pursed his lips when he told you not to visit Kai. "Will you buy it for me, Ah Miao?"

His cheeks faintly turned into a color of pink as he sighed, submitting to your coquettish way of coaxing him. "Whaー What flavor do you want?"

"Hmm, what would you recommend?"

"Strawberry or honey lemon."

Were those his favorite flavors perhaps? You smiled. "Then please buy those two flavors. One for you and one for me. We can try them together."

He nodded slightly and was about to leave when he suddenly stood still at the door. "You know, Iー I'm sorry for forcing you to study even though I knew that you were feeling unwell. If I ever did something like that to you again, yoー you can hit me or... do whatever you want to me."

You were taken aback by his apology. After all, never once did you think it was Chen Miao's fault or anyone else's fault for that matter. Things just happened. Still, you didn't tell him that. "Alright. If you ever did something like that to me again, expect that I will have my ways with you, okay?"

You heard his breath hitched at your words and after a second, he quickly ran out of the room, leaving you laughing at his behavior.

You waited for a minute before jumping off the bed, throwing the koolfever attached on your forehead in the nearby trashcan. You then glanced at the chat screen and decided that you would be a fool to rely on these idiots. After all, you were pretty sure that none of them knew where Kai is. Thankfully, Chen Miao's house isn't that large so you're confident that you can find him in no time, but that's only if Kai really is inside this house.

After a few minutes, your search remained futile, but you didn't feel anxious, probably because you weren't scared of Chen Miao? Or because you trusted that he won't hurt you? Anyway, you continued searching until eventually, you arrived in front of the white door that you've never had the chance to enter despite living for several timelines already.

You turned the doorknob around and found that it wasn't locked.

Pushing the door open, you found that the light inside weren't turn off so you took a peek, but as expected, there's no stairs leading to a creepy basement nor there are torture devices inside. It's just a storage full of unused, broken things and cleaning equipments. You frowned and went in, looking left and right for any sign of the transfer student but find none.

After a while, you stopped in front of an old television placed on top of a shelf.

You noticed that there was a strange mark on the screen, shaped like a handprint, so you tried to touch it to verify whether that strange mark was simply a speck of dust or some kind of unknown liquid, but found nothing stuck on your fingers. You tried once again but the surface of the screen was smooth without any dirt. It was then did you realize that the handprints came from the inside of the screen.

ーalmost as if someone was trying to get out.

You took a step back at the thought, chuckling in disbelief. How can that be? In no way would a person fit inside a TV screen that's only as big as a human's face.

『This is interesting. Was that handprint made from blood or other substances?』

『wow i'm invested. even in the previous season, viewers usually dont get the chance to see the actor being saved. i'm glad i stick around long enough to see this』

『this is scary (QAQ)』

『break the screen! who knows if we get to see kai's head preserved inside』

『am i the only one fearing for the life of that npc? chen miao wont kill her right? in movies, this would be the part where the killer comes back』

『you dont need to search anymore ah. quickly go to bed before chen miao came back (QAQ)』

『no! our kai's safety is important. let her do her job! she's an npc anyway』

『even if shes an npc doesnt mean she doesnt have a life of her own! at least if the actors died they can still live in the real world but what will happen if an npc died? you dont know what will happen to her so stop assuming that she will be alright』

『lmao why are you treating an artificial being like a human?』

You ignored the war breaking out on the chat screen, and decided to step out of the room, in case Chen Miao is already on his way home, when the system suddenly appeared in front of you, looking suprised.

「I heard it!」it sounded breathless. 「You can speak with the viewers?」

Viewers? You narrowed your eyes. You've been noticing this for a while, but the more you interact with the system and the people in the chat room, the more you realized that rather than a game world, you're more like trapped in a show.

"Why? Can't you seeー?"

"(Y/n)?"

『aahhh he came back!!』

『quickly tell him that you were searching for a broom or something ah (QAQ)』

『stupid. why would a sick person search for a broom? to fight a burglar?』

You were silent facing the protagonist who tilted his head innocently at the sight of you inside the storage. You wondered if he's going to pretend to be dumb again.

"What are you doing in here?" he frowned, stretching out his hand. "Come here, (Y/n), you should be resting on the bed."

Well, it doesn't look like he's angry.

You stared at his hand and wondering whether you should go there, in the end, you decided this is the right time to ask him what you have been curious about after you knew that he remembered everything.

"Chen Miao, I will just be honest with you right now," you sighed. "Is it true that you remembered everything? Including how I killed you?"

The protagonist went still at the question.

"How do you know that?"

"So it's true?" You frowned. "You know, no matter how many times I think about it, I just can't understand. Why would you treat your murderer so kindly? Or was it just a facade to let my guard down?"

He remained silent for a moment, as if contemplating his answer.

"There is... There is no facade nor trick. I just truly do care about you," he finally spoke after a moment.

You looked at him in disbelief.

"BecaーBecause Iー" he cleared his throat, looking anxious as he looked down at his feet. You noticed that his neck started to gradually turn red. "ーI like you."

『...』

『am i supposed to cheer right now?』

『is this her tactic to avert his attention away from the real reason why she's in the storage?』

『i'm confused. why did the npc ask if he remembered and she killed him?』

『guys guys, i have a theory. so you knew how all this time this game is about the player(actor) having to share the same life as the protagonist(chen miao) and helped him escape death? in which the one who actually always tried to kill him is this npc? so what if the real reason why she didn't kill him anymore, is because she fell for him? hence why she's so flirty and protective of him. then what if, the protagonist actually remembered all of his gruesome deaths caused by this female npc?hence why she's in disbelief right now as to why would chen miao fell in love with his own murderer』

『wow... so are you telling me that the reason why the film crew hadn't change the plot at all (after like 7 seasons) is because they wanted to show us this confrontation?』

『mindblown. so the real mc all these times is not the actors but these two npcs?』

『huh, that's not right? i'm sure i read somewhere that the film crew stated that chen miao is ○ ○○ ○○○』

『???』

『Strange, why did it censor?』

"You like... me?" You took a step closer, trying to calm yourself down. "Despite what I did to you?"

Your voice was dripping with disappointment, anyone can hear that. After all, how could you not? Your Chen Miao is so kind to the point he would forgive his own murderer, how could you not be disappointed? You wished he would at least have a little self-respect. It doesn't matter if he would hate you, beat you, or kill you, you just felt sorry for him.

Sure, he probably understood that the two of you were not real, and you were forced to harm him, but even so, the pain is real. All those deaths you had given him, from blood loss to suffocation, broken neck and smashed head, it must have been pain and he should have hate you for that.

You moved your hands closer to his cheeks and brought it closer to your face, making eye-contact.

"Then, Chen Miao, can you confidently tell me that not once, while you were with me, have you recalled the face I made when I killed you?"

You felt his body went rigid under your touches and his eyes widened from your question.