After a Straight Man Became a Romance Game’s Love Interest

[Completed. Please leave a full-subscription review!] [Planned bonus chapters: Cupid's Love Cards; What If Li Chengyan Became a Dating Sim Character?] Pei Chi is a handsome lifestyle influencer with millions of followers. To keep his account popular and fresh, he posts handsome photos in all kinds of styles every day. Sometimes he's a fit college student in a tank top, sometimes a young husband in a suit and watch, and sometimes a handsome high schooler in a Japanese school uniform on a date aboard a train. With his top-tier, perfectly sculpted face, every style earns him millions of likes. One day, a rating system suddenly appeared on Pei Chi's phone. A rating appeared in the upper-left corner of every photo he took. Some were R, others SR, and still others SSR. Only he could see these ratings. Pei Chi thought his phone was broken, but before he could get it fixed, a message suddenly popped up on the screen: [The new romanceable character Pei Chi is making his heart-stopping debut in the dating game Heart on a Timer!] [Three limited card sets are launching at the same time: Train Ride with Chi: Lime Prelude; Chi's Steadfast Love: A Poem in Warm-Toned Suits; Chi in the Breeze: Poolside Sea-Breeze Melody.] Pei Chi tapped to open them and saw that the three card sets were based on his photos: a date in a Japanese school uniform, a boyfriend-looking shot in a suit, and a wet, muscular tank-top look by the pool. Pei Chi: ... What the hell? * In the year 2126, the dating game Heart on a Timer became a global sensation. The game offered an immersive, lifelike experience. Once inside its virtual world, players could meet their romantic interests in person through holographic projections. One romanceable character, Pei Chi, set the entire internet ablaze as soon as he launched. His stunningly beautiful card art, everyday-life settings, and perfectly sculpted face that appealed to men and women alike drew countless players into spending money on him. The game company made a bold promise: the player who spent the most on Pei Chi and reached the highest intimacy level would win a precious chance to go on a date with him. A player named Yan spent a fortune, dropping twenty million on Pei Chi and causing a sensation across the server. Before long, people dug up clues suggesting that this player named Yan was none other than Li Chengyan: A handsome, still-single heir to the richest family in City A, and the dream catch of everyone who wanted to reel in a wealthy husband. * After binding himself to Heart on a Timer, Pei Chi could earn a cut of card sales. When the first card sets launched, thirty million went straight into his account. A third of that came from one top spender. The game company told Pei Chi that this player would come to meet him and spend a day with him. Pei Chi prepared to welcome his wealthy female fan, but the person who appeared before him was a powerful CEO, 1.9 meters tall, with a handsome face as sharply chiseled as a blade. The CEO couldn't help pinching Pei Chi's cheek the moment he laid eyes on him, saying, "This feels way too real." Pei Chi: ... So he'd really mistaken him for a game character. The next second, the CEO pulled Pei Chi into his arms and, without a hint of hesitation, asked this "game character" for a kiss: "Honey, kiss me." Straight guy Pei Chi's face turned bright red. Could someone please tell him what to do?! Coming soon 1: After My Rich Dad Claimed Me, I Became a Special Admissions Student: During the summer break of his sophomore year, Shan Yang, who attended a high school in a small town, suddenly acquired a rich dad. After claiming him, his father told him to attend an elite high school in an international metropolis. Unwilling to flaunt his trust-fund-kid status, Shan Yang decided to keep his identity secret. He aced the special admissions exam and quietly enrolled as an outstanding special admissions student. All he wanted was to graduate in peace and get into the university of his choice. But things didn't go as planned. After he enrolled, strange people kept popping up around him. Rich kids who looked down on him for being a special admissions student; a conglomerate heir who wanted to rally the whole school to ostracize him; the son of the richest man, who tried to hire him as a fall guy and leave a paper trail; the student council president, who deliberately held back his scholarship... Shan Yang had originally wanted to keep to himself, but with no other choice, he cracked his knuckles and looked at the troublemakers giving him a hard time. What a pain. He really hadn't wanted to reveal the nickname he'd earned at his old school: Tyrant of Jiangbei. * Shan Yang's dad was always worried that his son would be bullied at an international school while keeping his identity secret. He often called to ask how things were going, adding that if it came to it, he could just buy the school and put it in Shan Yang's name. Over the phone, Shan Yang sounded as if he were talking to a classmate. Amid the noise, he casually told his dad, "It's going fine. Don't worry." But just before they hung up, his dad heard Shan Yang's voice turn cool and mocking, followed by two sharp smacks against someone's cheek: "You gonna try that again? Hm?" A trembling male voice answered over the phone, "N-No, boss..." Shan Yang's dad: ??? I thought my son was getting bullied at his fancy school. I didn't realize he was the boss?! * When Lu Haoze, chairman of the school board, heard that his younger brother had bullied a special admissions student, he hurried to the school to clean up the mess. The moment he saw Shan Yang standing with his head bowed in the corner, slender and slight, Lu Haoze stared at him as if he'd been bewitched. Then he heard that Shan Yang was an inspiring student from a small county town: excellent grades, a poor family, and a hardworking attitude. Lu Haoze turned around and slapped his younger brother hard across the face. "Are you even human? How could you bully such a good classmate?!" His brother's eyes widened. He pointed at Shan Yang and tried to make excuses, only to get another slap from Lu Haoze. "Go apologize!" After his brother apologized, Lu Haoze straightened his suit, which had gotten rumpled while he was disciplining him, and went over to introduce himself to Shan Yang. "Hi, I'm Lu Haoze, Lu Xun's older brother." Shan Yang, who had just been bullied by Lu Xun, shot him a puzzled sidelong glance without saying a word, then brushed past him. Lu Haoze cleared his throat, undeterred. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not like my brother." At that, Shan Yang finally stopped and glanced at him lazily from under his eyelids. "How are you different?" Lu Haoze stood straight and adjusted his tie. With all the seriousness of someone answering a question on a blind date, he said: "I'm different in every way." A tough, high-achieving special admissions student who can't be pushed around and is great at fighting x a CEO who falls for his little brother's classmate and shamelessly pursues him despite being seven years older Coming soon 2: Reborn, I Got Together with the Gloomy Guy Who Had a Crush on Me: In his previous life, the protagonist was a total heartthrob with countless admirers. The love interest was a gloomy guy at his company who had a secret crush on him: introverted and insecure, with a twisted, brooding personality. Whenever the protagonist wasn't paying attention, his gaze would cling to him. After being reborn, the protagonist learns that the world he lives in is a dark harem novel, and that his boss, coworkers, classmates, and others all want to force him into captivity. Given a second chance at life, the protagonist decides to find the person who killed him in his previous life and stay alive in this twisted harem novel. His boss offers to drive him home after work; a coworker hands him a drink after stepping in to stop someone from pressuring him to drink at a dinner; a college roommate asks him to come over for a while after a reunion... All of these seemingly normal gestures now look like poisonous tongues flicking out at him, and he wants nothing to do with them. Only then does the protagonist realize that the gloomy, dangerous man everyone had warned him to stay away from was actually the kindest man in the entire book. To turn down everyone else's advances, the protagonist decides to make the first move and seduce the gloomy guy who has a crush on him, until he asks them to be together. His seduction strategy? Become an even gloomier version of the gloomy guy: Gloomy Guy Pro Max. The protagonist picks up a cigarette butt the gloomy guy had smoked in the stairwell, still glowing at the tip. He puts the butt, marked with the gloomy guy's bite, into his mouth, looking as if he's savoring the taste of the man's mouth. He picks up the T-shirt the gloomy guy left on a chair, presses the garment carrying his scent to his nose, and closes his eyes to inhale it with longing. He keeps the broken glasses the gloomy guy once wore, carrying the frames in his bag and taking them out to fiddle with whenever he misses him. After all the protagonist's efforts, the gloomy guy finally can't take it anymore. He brings him to the stairwell and, face red, confesses his feelings. Then he says, "If you like, you can have anything I've used from now on, but don't do that anymore..." The protagonist thinks he's gotten so gloomy that even the gloomy guy can't stand his behavior. But the gloomy guy watches him anxiously and says softly: "If someone else sees... it's not good." * After getting together with the gloomy guy, the protagonist asks him a question: "How did you feel when you saw me put the cigarette butt you'd smoked in my mouth?" The gloomy guy's Adam's apple bobs. Blushing, he stammers, "I-I felt like I was about to explode." A handsome, curly-haired love interest who's gloomy on the surface but a pure-hearted romantic underneath x a sunny, cheerful, energetic protagonist who's secretly a flirt Coming soon 3: After the Top Idol Switched to Tennis: In his previous life, Dou Shiyan won Asia's first men's singles tennis Grand Slam at the age of seventeen. By the time he was twenty-five, Dou Shiyan had won double-digit Grand Slam titles and was just one step away from a double career Grand Slam. His future should have been limitless, but a failed brain surgery left him paralyzed. He never returned to the court and died in despair. One day, Dou Shiyan woke up in an entertainment-industry novel, in the body of a cannon-fodder character with the same name. The character was a top idol, handsome and fit, and a full 1.9 meters tall. Unfortunately, he was all looks and no substance. He had no real talent and kept causing trouble out of jealousy toward the protagonist. In the end, he died under the wheels of the protagonist's love interest's car. When Dou Shiyan transmigrated into the book, a management contract was lying in front of him. The company said that if he signed it, they could groom him into a top idol. Dou Shiyan didn't even glance at it before turning them down. When the company asked why, he smiled gently and said, "I want to play tennis." * Before making his debut as an idol, Dou Shiyan went viral across the internet with a dance practice video. His dancing was truly terrible, but his face was breathtakingly handsome and his physique was exceptional. He was supposed to be the group's visual, but the night before his debut, he suddenly announced that he was leaving the boy band. For a while, the entire internet was filled with abuse. The boy band debuted without Dou Shiyan and rode the wave of attention to set a sales record with their debut single. Everyone mocked him, calling him a talentless, ambitionless loser who wasn't born for riches. Then one day... While watching the Wimbledon broadcast, they saw the young man at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Dressed all in white and holding his racket in his left hand, he made it through the qualifiers without dropping a set, on a wild card. Ranked 300th in the world, he took down the sixth seed in the first round, pulling off the biggest upset in Wimbledon's history. That day, he made the sports headlines around the world, and gained 800,000 followers on Instagram overnight. * After transmigrating into the book, Dou Shiyan recreated his legendary achievements from his previous life, winning Wimbledon at the age of seventeen. He was even a month younger than he had been in his previous life. As Dou Shiyan accepted a check for three million pounds before members of the British royal family and other high-profile guests, a reporter asked him: "Mr. Dou, some people say you almost debuted as a boy band idol. What made you decide to switch to tennis?" Holding the Challenger Cup engraved with his name, Dou Shiyan glanced at the microphone the reporter held out and smiled brightly for the cameras. "I couldn't be the ACE in a boy band, so I came to the court to serve aces." The crowd broke into thunderous applause. The broadcast helpfully displayed the men's tennis ace leaderboard. Dou Shiyan topped the list with an average of 30 aces per match and 210 aces over a single Wimbledon tournament. That evening, the hashtags #DouShiyanWimbledonChampion and #IHadToServeAcesOnTheCourt both topped the trending lists. The idol once mocked as a talentless loser never performed on a music show again. He only appeared on the evening news. Related upcoming novel: After the Sweet Boy Became the CEO's Dating Sim Love Interest: The protagonist is a small-time influencer, a sunny, cheerful college guy with a sweet smile and an adorable puppy-like vibe. One day, while taking photos, he suddenly notices the letters SSR in the upper-left corner of one of them. Other photos are marked R, SR, UR, and so on. He thinks his phone is broken, but the moment he touches the screen, he's pulled into a virtual world. Before him stands a cold, icy-looking man, along with a virtual pop-up bearing a bold message: [Find a way to make your player fall for you!] He has become the custom-designed protagonist of a dating game. * The love interest is a cool, aloof CEO: taciturn and emotionally detached, wearing only black, white, and gray all year round. To treat his condition, his doctor recommends a dating game that lets him customize the protagonist. The CEO isn't particularly interested. He clicks "Random Generate" and gets a male lead who's a sweet, puppy-like college student. CEO: ... He hates energetic, chatterbox college students more than anything. And he's supposed to actively pursue this guy? Not a chance. * Unless he completes the tasks, the ratings on the protagonist's phone won't disappear, and he'll be bound to the game forever. To escape the game, he has no choice but to do everything he can to "seduce" his player. When the CEO gets off work late, the protagonist messages him: [Tired? Want to grab dinner with me at the snack street behind campus?] When the CEO gets bored, the protagonist messages him: [Are you free today? How about... we go see a movie together?] When the CEO hasn't logged in for days, the protagonist messages him: [Why haven't you come to see me? I miss you so much.] The CEO never planned to play this game. But the characters in it are so lifelike that it feels as if there's really a college student in another world who loves him and is waiting for him to pursue him. So one day, when the protagonist invites him to play again, he can't resist clicking accept. Then, in the game, he sends the protagonist a virtual rose that increases their intimacy level. * The protagonist never expected that the gifts his player sent would actually appear in his real life. The day after his player sent him flowers, he received a gorgeous bouquet of roses at school. As their intimacy level rises, his player sends him more and more gifts, each more expensive than the last. The gifts gradually go from roses and jewelry to luxury designer bags, and then to an expensive sports car... The protagonist is overwhelmed by the attention: P-Please stop sending me things! There's nowhere left to put them in the dorm!!! The CEO tops up the game with several million more, smiles, and says, "Then I'll send you a villa just for your gifts." Protagonist: !!! Is his player getting a little too obsessed with this game?! Theme: Love makes us brave.