[EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! System detected abnormal fluctuation! Host has deviated from the set role!]
"Charlotte, did you trade sex with Leo for the idol championship?"
"How long was your affair with Leo?"
"Do you have any comment on this?"
Flashes of white light exploded before her eyes, and the surrounding noise assaulted her ears.
"So loud…"
She shook her head, trying to clear her dizzy mind until her vision gradually sharpened.
The dark room was dimly lit, and a crowd of people with flash cameras were aggressively flashing her.
The most noticeable person among them was a young woman wearing glasses and holding up a cell phone—its screen was glowing with a red dot!
A live stream?!
She tried to sit up but paused when a sharp, cold sting touched her skin, immediately making her feel a growing sense of dread.
She looked down and, sure enough, under the blanket, she was naked.
No, not just her. Another man she had never seen before was also lying nude in the bed.
The man's handsome, aggressively striking face finally twitched, his eyes slowly opening due to the sudden commotion.
She subtly shifted her body and then pretended to casually look at him. His skin looked dry and clean; clearly, there was no sign of them having sex…
Moreover, the man's breathing was shallow, and his face was flushed, suggesting a possible reaction to drugs…
Connecting the dots, she was certain they hadn't had sex.
So, had she been set up? What on earth was going on…
The young woman shoved her phone in the man's face and picked up a pill bottle labeled "Aphrodisiac" from the nightstand. "Leo, are you having a 'deep discussion' with trainee Charlotte?"
It looked like this group were indeed reporters. Wait a minute…
Leo?
Wasn't that the name of one of the male leads—a renowned director—in the novel The Bosses' Starlight Shine? But the one who'd seduced Leo for a "casting couch" opportunity in the novel was the villainess, Charlotte Whitman, who shared her name…
So she was Charlotte now, and this whole farce was the famous scene where the wicked supporting character gets caught climbing into the famous director's bed to get ahead?
But she distinctly remembered setting her latest Otome nutrition pod to transmigrate as the heroine, Emily Harrington. Why…
Leo seemed in pain from being woken up, clutching his forehead. When he finally saw the chaos before them and their naked bodies, his face instantly froze over.
He shot her a look of disgust, then said, his face ashen, "This matter…"
His cold voice snapped her back to reality. A thought flashed through her mind: Leo was about to shift all the blame to the original Charlotte…
Her gaze darkened. No, she couldn't let him speak first.
"Waaaah…" Charlotte pulled the blanket up to her chest, tightly wrapping herself in it, and began to cry loudly.
No screaming, no covering up—her reaction successfully preempted Leo's response.
Before anyone could react, she dramatically knelt on the bed, forced out a few tears, and put on an intense show of regret and misery.
"Waaah, Leo… please don't be mad… I… I didn't know anything… I… I was just drunk… I'm sorry…"
Charlotte's seemigly self-incriminating statement was like dropping a bomb into the already chaotic room. The reporters present and the live stream chat went absolutely wild!
[Comments: #CONFIRMED! She admits to being drunk and drugging him!#]
[Comments: #Poor Director Leo, forced by a schemer!#]
Charlotte felt another barrage of camera.
"Charlotte, are you admitting to drugging him?"
"Was Leo completely unaware of the drugging, or was it half-hearted consent?"
Charlotte looked up at the camera through her tear-filled eyes and cried out emotionally, "No, I didn't! I really didn't! I was just too much of a fan of Leo, so I…"
She seized the opportunity of faking a sob to leave a vague, ambiguous answer, then acted as if she were about to pass out, mumbling into the blanket, "It's my fault… don't blame me…"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Leo swallow his words, then a flicker of confusion and alertness crossed his eyes. Clearly, her abnormal behavior was completely unexpected based on what he knew of the original Charlotte.
"Stop all photography immediately! We reserve the right to press charges for your illegal entry and invasion of privacy!"
"Everyone out!"
Just as the reporters were digging deeper for dirt, a young man who looked honest and simple, claiming to be an assistant, ran in from outside with security guards and hustled all the reporters out.
"Slam!"
The world instantly fell silent…
Inside the room, the assistant trembled as he showed Leo his phone. "Leo, the hot search… it has exploded online!"
"Netizens are tearing you apart, demanding that both of you withdraw from Starlight, or they'll boycott the show…"
"Should we try to take the trend down or hire trolls to shift the public sentiment?"
Leo suppressed a splitting headache. His eyes, now ice-cold, focused on Charlotte, whose tears had instantly stopped as she ceased her acting. He spat out two words in a low voice: "Call the police."
"Call the police?" Charlotte's lips curled into a cold mocking smirk. She leaned back against the headboard nonchalantly. "Pfft! Are you kidding me?"
"If you call the police now, Starlight will be suspended indefinitely, and you'll lose hundreds of millions. What's more devastating is that you, the renowned director, will be officially tarnished by a scandal. Your professionalism and authority will become a laughing stock…"
She stared intensely into Leo's eyes, speaking slowly, deliberately: "Have you thought through the consequences?"
Leo's pupils constricted abruptly, and his fists clenched tightly.
A deathly silence settled between them, neither willing to yeild in the standoff, while the assistant nervously paced in circles.
She didn't wait for Leo's answer. Her gaze lowered. She picked up the clothes scattered by the bed and headed to the bathroom, leaving the two men alone —a way of giving him a chance to save face.
Locking the bathroom door, Charlotte quickly rushed to the mirror to examine her appearance.
Reflected was a stunningly beautiful, youthful face. She had wide, doe-like eyes and soft, moist red lips… alluring and captivating. Good, she looked exactly like her real self.
[Ding-dong! Welcome, Host, to the Otome Game World. Nutrition Pod Game System 520 is at your service.]
A mechanical voice and an alarm suddenly sounded in her mind…
[Warning: Host has severely deviated from the role of the wicked supporting character—Charlotte!]
[Alert! Alert! Out of Character! System stability is rapidly declining! 50%... 40%... 30%...]
[If the system collapses, the Host will face permanent neural connection disconnection!]
Brain death?! Charlotte's heart stopped. She wasn't just playing a game! She was playing… for her life?!