If Chen Che had tried something like that, the coach would’ve chewed him out on the spot.
And there’s no way he’d ever go easy on someone—not even if he liked them. If their HP was low, why hold back? Might as well get his own satisfaction first.
“Which is why you totally deserve to be single,” Wen An said bluntly.
The first half of the match was surprisingly calm. Chi Zhan would occasionally ambush Seven when he wasn’t paying attention, seize the moment to push hard, and retreat when reinforcements arrived. He kept up this hit-and-run playstyle until, unbelievably, he’d taken down almost all of Seven’s towers and actually won the match.
Only afterward did Chi Zhan start to wonder—did Seven go easy on him?
Go easy wasn’t even the half of it. The guy basically opened the floodgates.
Feeling a little awkward, Chi Zhan waited until Seven ended his stream and then sent him a private message.
CHI: You really didn’t have to hold back.
Seven: That was Yan letting you win, not me.
Chi Zhan stared at the message, utterly confused. He looked up the relevant plotline and discovered that Yan and the Ice King were actually set up as ex-lovers turned mortal enemies? No wonder when the ult went off, flower petals rained down like it was some kind of wedding scene instead of a battlefield.
Seven, who just minutes ago had been slaying enemies on stream like a god, had suddenly gone all soft and gentle—maybe because he didn’t want to reveal what he was really feeling in front of him.
After thinking it over, Chi Zhan finally asked.
CHI: Did something happen today? I was watching your stream earlier… you didn’t seem like yourself.
Typing…
Seven: Got rejected by someone I like. Feeling a bit down.
Seven: [cat head droops ears.jpg]
Chi Zhan saw the familiar meme and the words in the chat window, and for some inexplicable reason, in that one moment, Seven and Song Guang seemed to… overlap.
But that was impossible. They were clearly two different people. There was no way Seven could be…
…could be Song Guang.
And yet, Seven’s name did seem to contain the character “Song” (颂).
He’d asked his cousin to take care of him after he got hurt. Chu Xingxiao had said something about “my cousin’s boyfriend.” Seven was also an e-sports player. And then there was that line:
“I saw the fireworks last night too.”
Every single clue lined up perfectly.
Chi Zhan felt a wave of dizziness. He wanted to ask, Are you Song Guang? But he also dreaded the possibility that Seven might say yes. And then what? What was he supposed to say after that—Oh, I see?
That’d be pathetic.
But no matter what, the moment Seven admitted he knew CHI was him, it meant he no longer wanted to keep it a secret.
Was there anything more shocking than realizing Seven probably liked him?
At that moment, Chi Zhan had only one thought: Play dumb.
As long as he didn’t bring it up, Seven probably wouldn’t either. They could go on pretending nothing had changed.
His thoughts were a mess until something gently nudged his calf.
At some point, the robot vacuum had rolled out of its charging dock. Its round, beady “eyes” stared up at him, and Chi Zhan suddenly felt a little guilty.
“System, you’re back,” he said casually. “What happened?”
“Why did you bring a romance target home?”
“You mean Chu Xingxiao? He’s just crashing here. He’ll leave soon.”
“Well, are you aware that Chu Xingxiao’s favorability level has already hit seventy?”
Even though the system used its usual cold robotic tone, Chi Zhan could still somehow hear the disappointment—and borderline rage—hidden beneath.
He feigned surprise.
“Seriously? How’d that happen?”
“You didn’t know? He hasn’t been acting… different around you?”
“We’re just friends.” Chi Zhan glanced toward the bedroom. “What could be ‘different’?”
Now it was the system’s turn to freak out.
“How the hell did this happen?! The romance lines in this world are completely off the rails! Oh, and by the way, your fourth romance target, Qi Song, his favorability level’s also passed the ‘just friends’ threshold! Why? Why why why? What the hell is going on?!”
The system had basically turned into a howling maniac. Chi Zhan could even detect a faint hint of utter despair in its synthetic voice.
“……”
“Calm down,” he said, trying to soothe it. “Have Zhou Yanxing and Cen Chi’s favorability levels dropped?”
The system finally quieted down.
“No… but they haven’t increased either.”
“Which means my strategy’s working.”
The system seemed to mull that over and eventually said, “For now, just keep pretending you have a boyfriend and reject the remaining two targets as well.”
At this point, the system had given up being surprised that every single romance target liked Chi Zhan. What else could it do? Their code had already been scanned by the main system and confirmed clean. The only variable left was their natural emotions.
“What do you mean by ‘natural emotions’?”
Maybe because they were now on the same side, and also because Chi Zhan had previously convinced it to share data with him, the system didn’t hide anything.
“The only wildcard in this world is the romance targets’ natural emotional responses. The code is static, but the part that governs emotions is extremely flexible. It’s controlled by the most advanced emotional AI, designed to simulate real human feelings. It’s to make the experience more realistic for players—so they don’t get bored of repetitive tropes. That’s also this game’s biggest selling point,” the system continued. “So, which player a target ends up liking is entirely decided by ‘natural emotions.’ You could think of it as similar to human ‘hormones,’ or even some kind of mysterious emotional mechanism.”
It was the first time Chi Zhan had heard this term. He paused for a moment, then asked, “So you’re saying who the romance target likes is controlled by some mysterious AI… but what if they never like the player? Wouldn’t that ruin the experience?”
“No. Because this is the ‘hell difficulty’ romance mode. Anyone who picks this mode is usually already prepared for that outcome. And if they really can’t stand not being liked, they can always switch to ‘easy’ or ‘normal’ mode instead.”
