Betrayed Groom: Trading My Life for Revenge

Just as I'm on the verge of successfully completing my mission, my System suddenly crashes and is replaced by a new one. That's when I learn the truth that Cherie Blackstone's agreement to marry me is fake from the very beginning. Not only does she already have a lover, but even her affection for me is also entirely feigned. She loathes me, the person who has been constantly pursuing her since childhood. Even her moments of intimacy with me are merely a ploy to let her true love be reborn inside my body. The new System can't bear to watch the situation get any worse and chooses to reveal the truth to me. It lets me make a choice. "If you choose to abandon the mission now, you will die together with her true love. But if you choose to complete the mission, you will receive a new body as compensation for the System switch. "However, before you receive your new body, you will lose all your memories and eventually die." So, does that mean I would forget Cherie and have her watch me die in the end? Of course I choose to continue with the mission with a deal like that. Chapter 1 The new system told me, "You may use this time to say your goodbyes." After hearing the system's prompt, I sat quietly on the balcony and smoked throughout the entire night. The date circled on the desk calendar hadn't faded yet. In fact, I just had to turn my head to see one of the birthday gifts that my girlfriend, Cherie Blackstone, had given to me. It was a stylish suit. It was a style that I particularly liked, but I had stubbornly hung it in the most prominent spot simply because it had been a gift from her. I loved her. It had been 24 years, and I'd liked her since we were still little kids. She also seemed to like me back. I had imagined countless futures involving her, and yet, the one thing I never envisioned was her wanting me dead. I glanced back at the room. The photo frame on the nightstand held a photo of us smiling at each other in front of a birthday cake. And if I were to take apart the frame right now, I would still be able to find Cherie's childish handwriting on the back of it. "I will marry Victor Pearson one day and be the happiest bride ever!" She had said those words to me over and over again over the years. However, after growing up and taking over the family company, Cherie was always busy, and she began coming over to my place less and less often. Eventually, I couldn't even tell if there was just some sort of mutual understanding between us now, or if I was the only one feeling this one-sided silence. But it didn't matter anymore. I splashed cold water onto my face and stood back up to gather the items filled with memories of her. I tossed them all into a cardboard box—including the camera that held all of our moments together—and… the ring on my finger. I traced the edge of the ring. It seemed to sense its owner's emotions, feeling particularly cold against my skin today. But when I looked down, my finger wasn't touching the metal at all. It was tracing a tear, already going cold on my skin. The ring and suit were gifts that Cherie had given me as a set. My heart had stirred with emotion the moment I saw the gifts, since we'd been childhood sweethearts before becoming a real couple. I wondered if this meant we were finally going to get married and have a happy ending together. I had actually thought that she truly wanted to marry me. I had even mentally rehearsed what I would say when I proposed to her, something like, "I want to build a home with you." It might be a little cliché and old-fashioned, but I still found it incredibly romantic. But now that I thought about it, the suit wasn't in a style or color that I liked, and I hadn't been the one to pick out the ring with her. If I calculated the timeline based on the new system's parameters, by the time the wedding actually rolled around, the missions would likely have ended a long time ago. And by then, both the ring and the suit would have found their way to the person who actually liked them that way. As for me, I was nothing more than an insignificant shadow in Cherie's scheme. And since I was so insignificant, I didn't even deserve the luxury of choice. I lay back on my bed and quietly drafted a text message, editing and revising it over and over until I finally settled on just one sentence. "I'm getting married to the person I love." Chapter 2 The one-man show that I'd been performing for more than 20 years finally came to an end right then and there. I knew that I wasn't going to get a reply to that message I'd just sent. After all, the only two people whom I knew would always stand by me forever had already left this world a long time ago. It was just as Cherie often told her friends. "Victor can never leave me. My parents are so good to him, and he also said that he doesn't have anyone else aside from me." She was right. She remembered everything. I had indeed treated her as the only person I had left in this world. But she'd forgotten that those words were originally a promise and a testament to my love for her. Now, they had simply become a way for her to mock me. When Mom and Dad first passed away, Cherie was the first person who found me. She stayed by my side and kept a silent vigil all night long amidst the carnage of that horrific car accident. And when I finally collapsed, she used her slender frame to carry me on her back, step by step, all the way home under the starry sky. Later on, no matter how often I painted the night sky, there was no canvas I could produce that could ever rival the beauty of that night. Perhaps I should have stopped gazing upward like that a long time ago. I lowered my head and quietly booked a plane ticket. Even now, I still wanted one last look at the person whom I'd spent a majority of my life chasing. I wanted to see exactly when I had become a burden she was desperate to shake off. At the very least, I wanted to know why she was forcing me to pave the way for someone else's life with my own death. … "Victor, the target is right here." The new system gave me one final bit of help before I left the city. It granted my wish and allowed me to run into Cherie just outside her office building. However, Cherie didn't notice me. She was still chatting with her companion, and the conversation topic had somehow gradually shifted to me. Her best friend, Erica Nolan, asked, "So, have you finally decided to marry your childhood sweetheart, Victor Pearson? When is the wedding going to be? You're going to have to invite a huge crowd to make it as lively an affair as possible! You know, I haven't really seen you smile much ever since Max Wheeler passed away—" "Don't use him to test me like that," Cherie said with a frown, pressing her lips into a thin, displeased line. "I will never forget him." Erica paused for a moment. Then, she sneered as her expression hardened. "You had better not forget him. Max stood by you so faithfully all those years, and he even lost his life because he loved you so much. And where were you when he needed you? Tending to your jealous childhood sweetheart on that snowy, blizzardy day. "You will always owe him, Cherie!" Cherie went silent. I hid behind the wall, quietly listening to everything they said. So, his name was Max Wheeler. I suddenly recalled the system telling me that he was Cherie's true love, and that he was also going to be the one taking over my body. Apparently, Max had been tied to a system too, and he was also playing a character whose mission was to confess and marry the target, Cherie. However, he had died after failing his mission, and now, his soul was parasitically attached to me, waiting to be reborn. It was precisely because Cherie had colluded with my original System to implant his soul inside me that my original System had malfunctioned and collapsed. I watched with a heavy heart as Cherie and Erica walked away, still chatting with each other. I then gazed up into the bright, blue sky and felt a truly visceral sense of solitary despair for the first time ever. I wondered how Cherie was feeling now. From what I'd heard, she didn't defend me in front of Erica. She just remained silent, lost in the memories of the man she'd lost. I supposed she was hoping that I would die soon. I remembered that snowy day from three years ago. It wasn't just the heaviest snowfall that I'd ever seen. It was also the day that I'd come the closest to death. Chapter 3 I had simply set out for work as usual, but the slippery ground caused me to skid on my bike right into a river that hadn't frozen over yet. The icy water engulfed me instantly. I struggled and cried out for help, but my winter clothes had soaked up so much water that they weighed me down like an anchor, rendering me unable to move. Despair set in as I slowly sank into the freezing depths. However, a passing sanitation worker happened to see me and saved me with his snow shovel. After I was sent to the hospital, I ran a high fever for several nights. At that moment, Cherie was locked in a cutthroat battle with a rival company, and I didn't want to disturb her. However, her mother, Angela Young, couldn't bear to watch me suffer any longer and finally called Cherie to check in on me. Cherie rushed over in the middle of the night and held me while weeping for hours. She looked terrible that day. Her brows were constantly furrowed, and she kept checking her phone for messages. I got worried that I was ruining her plans and tried to get her to leave, dropping hints about it, but instead, she tossed aside her phone, which had kept buzzing nonstop. I told her that I was fine, and that a little pneumonia wouldn't kill me, but she hugged me tightly and chided me angrily. "There's nothing more important in the world to me than you, Victor. They're just cheap tricks to force my hand. I'm not going to fall for them." Later on, I learned that those calls had come from Max right before he died. That night was the final deadline for his mission to win Cherie's heart. His system had given him an ultimatum—if Cherie rushed over to save him, he would succeed. If not, he would die. At that time, however, she had spoken with such certainty that I felt smug and pleased to be the recipient of such special treatment. Yet now, those very words came back to stab into my chest like a sharp knife. She lost Max because she didn't go to him that night. She thought that she owed him, and therefore, she was going to tear me apart to bring him back to life. Then, what did she really think of me? I hadn't stolen anything from anyone. I had simply succumbed to temptation and eaten the forbidden fruit that was technically and rightfully mine. Besides, Cherie was already my girlfriend at that time. And nobody told me that my girlfriend would still fall in love with another man while she was attached to me. I clutched my chest and crouched over on the ground, feeling a numbing pain spreading through me. I remembered it now. That system which had promised to bring me happiness had first appeared to me three years ago. It told me that my only mission was to win over Cherie's heart to have any wish granted—even if it was just the chance to see my parents again. It was an incredible offer. After all, I only had to win my girlfriend over. And even if I could only see my parents for just a short while, I still wanted them to see me find happiness, especially since they were still thinking of me up until their deaths. However, I'd completely messed it up. How ridiculous. The love that Cherie felt, which the system had picked up, had now become my death warrant instead. … That evening, Cherie came knocking on my door. I had never hidden my whereabouts from her, so I wasn't surprised to see her here. "What are you doing back here so early? Didn't you say that you were going to the beach to find inspiration?" I felt a bitter ache inside my chest, but I tried hard not to let it show. "I saw the suit you gave me. It's just—I don't really like the style. If we're going to get married—" "Victor Pearson! I've already agreed to marry you! What more do you want from me?" I was too stunned for words. Right at that very inopportune moment, the System chimed, "Victor, the target has agreed to the marriage. Congratulations! You've completed your mission." However, what Cherie said next completely shattered my heart.