Clang! Clang!
The sound of chains clashing shattered the silence.
"This place is…" The young man slowly opened his eyes, realizing he was in an incredibly strange place.
Yes, "strange" was the only word that could describe it.
It was a dim room, roughly ten square meters in size. The only light source was a fluorescent tube hanging above—about eighty centimeters long—that flickered occasionally as if it were about to die out.
The faint light allowed him to see the entirety of the small room.
There was nothing here except four bare walls, a cold steel table beside him, and the overwhelming stench of disinfectant that made him feel sick.
He was about to leave when—
Clang! Clang!
The sound of chains rang out again. He realized that both his hands and feet were chained to the four corners of the room, and even his torso was bound by a thick chain, fixing him to a hook on the wall.
"What the hell?! Why… am I here? Who chained me up like this?" he muttered. His mind was still hazy, his head pounding as if someone had smashed it with a hammer, but he tried to recall what had happened.
His name was Rover, and his memories stopped at the night he had gone on a date with one of his clients.
That's right—he was dating one of his clients.
In fact, that was his job.
In this city, countless beautiful and talented women existed—so dazzling they could make others burn with envy. Yet, every one of them was single.
Rover saw an opportunity to make money from that fact, and so he created a Fake Dating Service.
These women didn't want to date anyone, but were constantly pestered by families or men around them. That's where he came in—as their shield.
It was simple: he pretended to be their boyfriend, went on dates with them, and made everyone believe these women were already taken.
From then on, the sharp gaze of gossip no longer targeted those women—it shifted toward him instead.
Although the job was dangerous and sometimes even life-threatening due to obsessive men, it paid well. That was why he took the risk.
Rover thought to himself, 'Ugh! I remember I was having dinner with Marika at the restaurant. While we were discussing renewing her service, I suddenly felt sleepy, and then…'
After that, his memory went blank.
Marika was a top actress, a "Goddess" with tens of millions of fans.
She was like a pure flower—so pristine that no one dared to touch her, afraid they might taint her.
But she herself didn't want to be touched, which was why she hired him.
Not just Marika—he had also worked with the most successful businesswoman in the city, the most beautiful painter, the most famous musician, and more.
One could say that since starting this business, he had met the kind of women most men could never even dream of getting close to.
'Strange… Could I have been attacked by some crazy fan and kidnapped afterward?' Rover thought, convinced that his guess made sense.
Otherwise, why else would he be here?
Rover sighed and murmured, "I've been running this business for five years, and this is the first time something like this has happened."
He glanced at the chains, trying to think of a way to deal with whoever had captured him.
'Maybe he's jealous because I got to be with his goddess,' Rover mused. Or maybe… he just wants money.
After all, Marika had tens of millions of fans. It wasn't surprising if a few fanatics appeared.
If the culprit was a crazy fan, surviving this would be difficult—but if it was about money, things would be much easier to handle.
'Ah, I hope Marika's safe,' Rover sincerely wished. If anything happened to her, he would lose a highly profitable client.
As for himself?
Rover wasn't too worried. After all, this was a lawful society. If he went missing for too long, someone was bound to report it to the police.
In fact, he had been working with a hacker who helped him run his fake dates without any issues—that was the main reason he'd managed to stay in business for five years without a single problem.
It's just that… today, he couldn't understand why he ended up in this situation.
"Tsk!" Rover clicked his tongue and said irritably, "Maybe she's already called the police."
That's right, he had made a rule with that hacker girl: if he didn't message her within an hour, she would call the police.
Crack!
Suddenly, the sound of a door lock being opened echoed. The only rusty iron door in the room slowly creaked open.
Rover's face lit up with joy as he quickly shouted, "Let me out! Why did you kidnap me? You want money, right? I can pay you! I can—heh?!"
He stopped mid-sentence, because the person standing in the doorway wasn't some stranger—it was Marika.
"Ma… Marika?" Rover was stunned, then smiled in relief. "Ah! Thank goodness, Marika, I'm so lucky you found me. Quick, untie me."
"You can't."
"Heh?!" Rover froze, realizing something was off. Marika's voice was cold and detached, completely different from her usual tone.
Her face was also covered with an icy expression that made him shiver.
Rover swallowed hard, feeling an increasing sense of unease, and immediately said, "Oy! Marika, are you… are you dissatisfied with the contract? You've been using my service for two years now. If you want, I can give you a 10% discount—no, 20% off the service fee!"
"Besides, even though I got attacked by one of your fans and ended up locked in here, I don't need compensation—just let me go."
Rover kept talking, but Marika stood still, her hands clenched tightly, her eyes fixed on him as if she were staring at a dead man.
He trembled as fear and dread began to consume his mind.
"You… you…" Rover stammered, trying to speak, when another sound echoed.
Krit! Krit! Krit!
It sounded like someone was pushing a cart with rusty wheels.
"Selvia!?" Rover was startled when he saw the newcomer.
She was wearing a doctor's outfit—a white lab coat over a short skirt, her long, flawless legs wrapped in black stockings, looking irresistibly seductive.
Rover was about to speak, but the moment he saw the tools on the cart Selvia was pushing, he froze.
Saws, pliers, scissors, hammers—he even saw several small scalpels and a few syringes filled with strange-looking liquids.
"What… what do you want?!" Rover shouted anxiously.
He had no idea why Selvia was here, nor why Marika looked so cold and emotionless.
But his instincts screamed that he had to get out of this damned place.
"Let me go!"
Clang! Clang!
Rover struggled with all his strength, but it was useless. The chains held him tightly; his wrists and ankles scraped against the metal, tearing his skin and drawing fresh blood.
He didn't care about the pain—he just wanted to escape this place as fast as possible.
"Rover, you don't need to struggle anymore. It's all pointless." A new voice echoed.
Then, one woman, two women, three women…
In just a few seconds, seven breathtakingly beautiful women were standing before him in that small, dark room.
Rover recognized every single one of them—they were all his clients.
He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. "You… what are you all trying to do? Let me go! I'm warning you… the police have already started searching for me! If you—"
[I've already created fake evidence showing that you've left the country. No one will know you're imprisoned here.]
Hearing that familiar voice, Rover's eyes widened. He looked up toward the upper corner of the room, where a camera and a small speaker were mounted—the voice had come from there.
"Merina… you… you…" Rover's face was filled with disbelief. The person speaking was the hacker he had worked with for five years—the one he trusted the most.
All of his clients—and the hacker he trusted most—were gathered here.
What the hell was going on?
"You… what are you all going to do?!" Rover stammered in fear.
At that moment, Marika suddenly began to cry, tears streaming down her face like twin rivers. "Rover, why… why did you lie to me?"