After failing to win the hearts of the first three targets, I decide to get engaged to Natalia Stone, the paralyzed heiress of the Stone family.

Soon, I use all of my points just to swap for Natalia's ability to stand up once again.

But the first thing Natalie does after recovering from her paralysis is to cancel the engagement with me. After that, she gives Irving Schmidt the grandest and most eye-catching wedding that will take place on the cruise.

At the wedding venue, all four of my targets stare at Irving with love and adoration in their eyes.

Suddenly, I feel like going home, so I jump into the sea without hesitation.

But when my body plunges into the sea, four silhouettes can be seen rushing toward me. Regret and fear are written on their faces.

On a cruise ship not far away, Natalia Stone, who was dressed in a wedding gown, was kissing Irving Schmidt with a blissful smile on her face.

Amid the guests' cheers, a cold and mechanical voice echoed in my mind. "You failed to win over any of the targets of affection. You will be forcibly erased in two weeks."

I smiled bitterly.

After I was reborn into this body, the system had given me four targets of affection. If I could get any of them to reach 100 affection points, my body that was ravaged by a terminal illness in my original world would be cured.

Over the years, I had tried desperately to win them over. I humbled myself as much as possible. However, every single time their affection was about to max out, Irving would appear. Then, all the points I had painstakingly accumulated would be wiped clean.

Now, even my final target of affection was also about to marry Irving.

With that in mind, I turned decisively toward the edge of the deck and threw myself into the sea. Seawater engulfed my body. I spread my arms, letting myself sink toward the depths.

Just then, a figure grabbed me and dragged me back toward the surface. Fresh air rushed into my lungs again. Before I could even react, a hard slap landed squarely on my face.

"You chose to jump into the ocean on Irvy's wedding day on purpose, didn't you? Why? Did you want us to feel sorry for you?"

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and looked at the person in front of me. The disgust in her eyes caused a pang in my heart.

It was my older sister, Mavis Caldwell. She was my very first target of affection in this world.

After our parents died, she and I could only rely on each other to survive. When the car accident happened, I had shielded her without hesitation. All the impact from the crash landed on me, so I ended up with ruptured organs and a long stay in the ICU.

She had held onto me and cried until her voice was hoarse. She swore that no matter what happened in the future, she would protect me. She had said that I was her only family left in this world.

But on the day I was discharged from the hospital, I saw her bring Irving into our home. She had told me that he would be our younger brother from then on. She let Irving move into my room and allowed him to beat the little dog I had raised for eight years to death.

Every time Irving and I argued, she always took his side and scolded me without even asking what had happened. She accused me of being petty and narrow-minded despite being the older brother.

The 97 affection points I had painstakingly accumulated over eight years were all stolen by Irving in less than a single week. From that moment on, Mavis' affection toward me kept dropping. She even refused to acknowledge me as her brother in public.

When Mavis saw me sitting blankly on the ground, she took out a bottle of heart medication from her purse and threw it in front of me.

"Are you faking heart pain again? Take your medicine and get the hell out of here!" she barked.

The truth was, I didn't have any heart disease. All those episodes had been the system's punishment. Back then, Mavis had been afraid something might happen to me, so she always carried the medicine with her.

But now, there wasn't the slightest warmth left in my heart. I grabbed the bottle, poured out a handful of white pills, and stuffed them into my mouth.

Mavis froze for a split second before screaming and slapping my hand away. The pills spilled from my mouth.

She grabbed my wrist tightly and questioned in a trembling voice, "Lucian, have you lost your mind?"

Of course I hadn't. I just wanted to go home and say goodbye to my real sister.

I stayed silent and said nothing. Mavis shot me a vicious glare.

As more and more guests gathered to watch, she started to get impatient. She ordered the bodyguards to take me off the ship.

Just as I stepped onto the deck, the sound of high heels clicking against the floor sounded behind me.

The very next second, a sweet voice rang out. "Lucian, why are you here? Oh my! Why are you all wet?"

I turned my head to look at Natalia, the woman whom I had almost married. Bitterness filled my heart instantly.

So she still cared about me, didn't she? A tiny bit of warmth returned to my drenched body, which felt cold from being soaked through.

Just as I was about to speak, Natalia suddenly slapped me hard across the face. "Did you think turning yourself into this pathetic mess would draw my attention to you? Don't be ridiculous! How dare you stir up trouble at my wedding? I won't let this go so easily!"

As her words fell, she grabbed my neck forcefully and pressed my upper body over the railing.

A crushing sense of suffocation closed in, but I didn't struggle at all. I thought that maybe dying like this wouldn't be so bad.

Hence, I closed my eyes, ready to accept death calmly.

That was when Natalia panicked. She noticed something was wrong with me. Alarmed, she took a step back and stared at me in shock.

"Why aren't you struggling? And why aren't you explaining yourself? Do you really want to die?" she demanded.

If I explained, would she believe me?

I had explained myself countless times before. But every single time, she thought I was just making excuses. All it ever did was push her closer and closer to Irving.

I gave a hollow smile, my voice tinged with a quiet sense of resignation. "Either way, I've lost everything. I might as well die."

The color drained from Natalia's face. She grabbed my collar tightly, and there seemed to be tears shimmering in her eyes.

She hissed, "Your life belongs to me. You're not allowed to die!"

When I had first become engaged to Natalia, her family had looked down on me and insisted that she break off the engagement. For my sake, she had endured who knows how many rounds of punishment from her family.

Even when she was beaten until her entire body was covered in bruises, she refused to give in. After I found out, I went to the Stone residence and took the punishment in her place.

When I was beaten to the brink of death, she held onto me in terror and made me a promise. She had said that without her permission, I was absolutely not allowed to die.

I looked up at Natalia. But before I could speak, a petite, cute young woman rushed in front of me.

This was Shiloh Quale, my second target of affection. She was originally my best friend in this world.

Ruthlessly, she stepped on my face and flung a stack of photos onto my body. "Lucian, since you dared to ruin Irvy's wedding, there's no need for me to care about your dignity anymore!"

In the photos, I was tied up and beaten mercilessly. There was someone pinning me down and riding on me. One even showed me stripped naked with the word "trash" written all over me.

Every single one of those photos had been taken by Shiloh herself. She had carefully chosen the angles to make sure that my face was captured with brutal clarity.

She had done all of this just because I exposed Irving's cheating during a photography competition. Because of me, he was humiliated.

Amid waves of mocking laughter, Shiloh sneered and raised her camera to snap photos of my current miserable state. In an inconspicuous corner of the camera, there was a tiny line of words engraved—Shi & Luc.

The camera was a gift I had once given her.

Shiloh had lost her mother at a young age. Her father constantly brought different women home and took pleasure in letting them torment her.

By chance, I became friends with her. To protect her from being abused by the lecherous old men her father brought back, I had been beaten so badly that I lost my sight for some time.

To comfort her, I gave her a camera and asked her to help me capture all the beautiful sights I couldn't see. After my eyes recovered, she retained the habit of taking photos.

Later on, I discovered that more and more of her photos had Irving's figure in them.

"If you don't kneel down and apologize to Irvy, I'll upload all these photos online. Let's see how you'll show your face in public when that happens," Shiloh sneered.

When I didn't respond, her voice turned even colder as she grabbed my collar and yanked me up gruffly. Weak as I was, I fell to my knees with a cry of pain.

Seeing this, Natalia frowned. She wanted to help me, but Shiloh blocked her way.

Shiloh said, "Ms. Stone, don't be fooled by his act of pity. Back then, I trusted him too much. That was how I ended up ruining Irvy's ability to take photos ever again."

She paused and continued indignantly, "In order to compete with Irvy for first place in the photography competition, you hired those darned thugs to force Irvy into taking obscene photos! You even framed him for cheating in the contest!

"If I hadn't arrived in time, Irvy would've almost… He almost killed himself back then!"

When Natalia heard this, her gaze instantly turned glacial. "Get lost! If you keep disrupting my wedding, I'll make sure you experience everything Irvy suffered. I'll make you—"

Before she could finish speaking, I staggered to my feet and ran straight toward the road beside us.

A massive truck came roaring toward me. Just as I closed my eyes and waited for death to claim me, someone shoved me hard out of the way.

Natalia dragged her injured leg as she rushed in front of me to grab my collar forcefully. "Who are you putting on this suicidal act for? Do you think this will make me go easy on you?"

At the same time, the system reminded me, "Lucian, Natalia's affection points are going up. Do you wish to continue the mission?"

I stared at Natalia in shock, only to see her instructing her assistant to cancel the wedding. She seemed to sense my gaze and looked up at me. I calmly looked away.

In my mind, I replied, "No."

All I wanted now was to go home.

After the driver sent me back, I realized I had several abrasions all over my body. There was mud and blood everywhere. I was absolutely filthy.

I found some medicine and was about to clean myself up when someone suddenly kicked the door open.

Shiloh stormed in furiously and kicked me hard in the stomach. "Where did you take Irvy? If anything happens to him, I'll make sure you suffer a fate worse than death!"

Natalia and Mavis rushed in right behind her. Both of them shot me hostile glares.

"So that's why you kept staging those pathetic performances again and again. You did it to cover up your crimes. Let me tell you this. If anything happens to Irvy, I'll make you pay with your life!"

But how would I know where he had gone this time?

Still, their words served as a reminder. If they cared about Irving that much, maybe his disappearance really would drive them insane to the point of killing me.

When I didn't respond, Natalia shot me a hateful, vicious look. "Looks like you won't talk if we don't make you suffer a little."

She grabbed a bottle of alcohol nearby and poured it directly onto my wounds. A sharp, searing pain tore through me. Cold sweat instantly broke out all over my body.

But the women were far from done. They ordered their bodyguards to pin me down.

Shiloh picked up a pair of fireplace tongs, while Natalia kept pouring alcohol onto my wounds.

I panicked in earnest. I did want to die, but I didn't want to be tortured to death!

So, I struggled desperately. Suddenly, a wooden stick slammed hard into the back of my head.

Blood streamed down my forehead. My body trembled, and I no longer had the strength even to scream. "Just… kill me…"

Seeing that I was still stubbornly refusing to speak, Natalia picked up a knife and walked toward me. The cold gleam of the blade stopped less than an inch from my left eyeball.

"Do you think putting on such an act will make us go soft on you? I'll ask you one last time. Where is Irvy?" Natalia asked menacingly.

I raised my pale face, exhausting every ounce of strength to force out a smug smile. "Irving? I killed him. I threw his body into the sea to feed the sharks.

"Aren't you all in love with him? Don't you all want to marry him? Too bad for you. Your wish will never come true. Come on! Kill me and avenge him!"

Natalia's eyes turned bloodshot. She drove the knife straight into my chest.

I collapsed limply onto the floor.

Just as my consciousness was about to fade, I heard Irving's voice coming from the front garden. "Why is everyone here? What perfect timing. I bought some pastries. Ah! Why is there so much blood here?"