“When I watched *Attack on Titan* before, I was honestly stunned by its grand worldbuilding and tightly interlocked plot. I feel that’s exactly what our country lacks—works daring enough to write boldly, speak boldly, and question and challenge tradition. Look at the new anime and web novels coming out now. Almost all of them are stamped from the same mold. The male lead starts out invincible, the heroines throw themselves at him, and as long as it feels good, that’s all that matters. It’s assembly-line production for capital to rake in money.”

“Still, it’s lucky we get the second season of *Re:Zero* this year. Too bad I heard Rem doesn’t have many scenes.”

After confirming his relationship with the “Liang Zhiming” beside me, we walked along the pedestrian street. The guy quickly opened the floodgates.

“Actually… to be honest, I still can’t really believe you like anime. At least, from what I’ve seen, there really aren’t any girls around me who are into the otaku side of things.”

“This is your job, right? Like those paid gaming companions. Whatever the customer likes, they like too.”

He talked to himself for about five minutes. I simply linked my arm through his and listened in silence.

After a brief pause, Liang Zhiming carefully glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

“Still, even if you’re just pretending, that’s fine too. If you were my ex-girlfriend, she wouldn’t even let me touch her like this. If she caught me watching anime or playing games, she’d lecture me for ages. She went home every day to follow celebrities and watch dramas, yet she wouldn’t let me have any hobbies.”

“Mm…”

I raised my head and gave him a huge smile.

“As for anime… Xiaoxue really wasn’t lying. I just stayed quiet because Xiaoxue thinks interrupting people is rude.”

“Ahaha, my bad. My bad.”

When he saw my smile, Liang Zhiming froze for a moment. Then he scratched his head awkwardly.

“Look at me. It was my first time placing an order through that app. The customer agreement clearly stated everything, but I ended up saying things I shouldn’t without realizing it…”

“That’s not it.”

I let go of his arm, puffed out my cheeks, and pretended to be angry.

“Xiaoxue really, really likes anime!”

“Huh?”

“Like *Attack on Titan*, which Brother Zhiming mentioned. Xiaoxue has watched everything—from the anime to the manga, and even all kinds of setting books.”

I felt that the way I was speaking sounded a little like the legendary “green tea” type.

Because… this was the first time I’d called myself “Xiaoxue” so often.

When most girls acted like this, people would find them unbearably fake. But there was one exception.

That was when the girl was beautiful and looked innocent and adorable—so adorable that it surpassed the point where anyone could call her fake.

I was quite confident in my appearance.

There’s a saying that goes something like this…

If a man is powerful and influential, rules his own territory, does whatever he wants, and is devastatingly handsome, people call him a “warlord.”

But if another man is powerful and influential, rules his own territory, and does whatever he wants while being ugly, people usually call him—

a local thug.

It worked the same way with women.

When a pretty girl acted cute, it was adorable. When an ugly girl did the same thing, it was affected.

That’s just how Earth Online works.

If you don’t like it, don’t play.

“R-Really?”

After hearing me, Liang Zhiming still looked doubtful.

“Then what about *Attack on Titan*, for example? Have you actually watched it?”

“In *Attack on Titan*, Ymir fought for Historia. Reiner and Bertholdt were warriors who wanted to return home, and Annie was their companion. They’re all flesh-and-blood people. In Annie’s movie, the song ‘Call Your Name’ was even sung by a female vocalist. In my heart, it’s an era-defining anime. The plot, the art style, the characters, even the meaning behind the entire story—it’s flawless.”

I made full use of my “beautiful girl” advantage and protested:

“If this were only for work, there’d be no need to go this far, right? Watching all three *Attack on Titan* seasons, plus the movies and side stories, would take an enormous amount of time. From when Brother Zhiming placed the order to when Xiaoxue accepted it, there simply wasn’t enough time to prepare all that.”

Actually, boys who liked anime were the easiest to please.

That was the main reason we hadn’t canceled Liang Zhiming’s order. I figured this one hundred and fifty yuan would be easy money.

In my impression, most girls hated this type of guy.

But the problem was that boys who loved anime and the otaku world looked down on almost every real-world girl. Add in all the gaming and anime-watching they did, and the possibility of them cheating was practically eliminated.

Think about it.

If your boyfriend liked Rikka Takanashi, you could buy a Rikka cosplay outfit and bring it home. You’d become his goddess instantly. You wouldn’t even need to capture his heart first.

Wasn’t that easy?

If you and your boyfriend had a fight, and he liked Madoka Kaname, you could put on a similar little dress before going back to argue with him.

Then see if he could still keep the same hard-line attitude.

Forget arguing. If his girlfriend showed up wearing a cosplay outfit of his favorite anime girl, you could probably make him kneel and apologize. You could even make him lick your feet and call you “Queen, I was wrong.”

The guy would probably agree to all of it.

Gifts were even simpler. If he liked Chino Kafuu, just copy her name into Bilibili’s member store, order something cheap, and that man would become completely obedient.

“You even know about Annie’s side story?”

Seeing me discuss *Attack on Titan* so fluently, the young man looked incredulous.

“Then what about *Re:Zero*? The opening has the feel of one of those transported-to-another-world stories with a male protagonist. I remember most girls don’t really like that kind of thing.”

“As for *Re:Zero*…”

Recalling Rem’s appearance in the anime, I walked in front of him. I placed my legs inward, crossed my hands in front of me, and gave a slight bow.

“Rem has always believed…”

Imitating a certain maid’s appearance and voice, I stared at the otaku in front of me.

“If it’s 486-kun, then everything will be all right.”

To be fair, I really hadn’t watched *Re:Zero*. But that didn’t stop me from knowing the character Rem.

I had simply sidestepped Liang Zhiming’s question. I knew otaku were incredibly weak to this kind of move.

“Whoa, you…”

Just as I’d expected, the young man looked astonished after seeing my performance.

“That was incredible! You look exactly like her!”

“I just realized it. Your figure is practically identical to Rem’s! If you cosplayed her…”

The young man took a step forward.

“Do you have a maid outfit?”

“Ah… no.”

I awkwardly shook my head.

“I can’t afford one yet.”

The young man refused to let it go.

“A decent one only costs three or four hundred yuan. With shoes, it’d be five hundred at most.”

But I was still in debt, big brother!

Forget five hundred. I couldn’t even produce fifty yuan!

If I were really that rich, would I be working as your rental girlfriend?

Although I had complained about this guy countless times in my head, I still put on a shy expression.

“By the way… what about that class reunion?”

“Oh, damn! Look at me—I almost forgot.”

Only after my reminder did the young man come back to his senses.

“You’re seriously too cute. I got completely lost in happiness. Wait here while I call a taxi.”

He took out his phone. After apparently opening some ride-hailing app, Liang Zhiming entered his account password and spoke to me.

“Don’t worry. It’s a proper hotel. You can eat whatever you want. I still had some standing in our class back in high school.”

If he had that much standing, how did his high school buddy steal his girlfriend?

By then, I didn’t even know how to judge this guy anymore.

From middle school through high school, he’d rather go hungry than refuse to give his girlfriend money during every holiday. He paid whenever they went out, whether they were playing or shopping.

And in the end, this guy hadn’t even held his girlfriend’s hand?

“Let’s wait at the exit up ahead.”

After finishing on his phone, Liang Zhiming pointed toward the exit of the pedestrian street.

“My ex-girlfriend’s name was Wang Qian. That buddy of mine is Wang Lei. He was fine during our first year of high school, but in our second year, his family suddenly became rich after their property was demolished for redevelopment. After that, he stopped hanging out with us at the internet cafés.”

“I honestly never thought he’d set his sights on my girlfriend… Oh, he’s the one who paid for this class reunion too.”

I understood.

Standing obediently beside the young man, I instantly realized why Liang Zhiming’s girlfriend had broken up with him.

Because she’d met someone richer.

To be honest, I didn’t have particularly strong feelings about girls like that. After all, that was how biology worked.

Pursue benefits and avoid harm.

A lioness chose the strongest male lion as her mate. If an even stronger lion appeared one day, she’d abandon the previous one.

Human society worked the same way.

Females longed for a better life.

That was simply biological instinct.

“Once we get to the hotel, we’ll play ** if nothing comes up. My buddy will probably come over and mock me a little. Don’t talk too much. You’re way prettier than my ex-girlfriend. As long as we act affectionate enough, my buddy will definitely get jealous.”

After getting into the taxi, Liang Zhiming took out his phone.

“What’s your ID?”

“Mine…”

I thought for a moment.

“How about I register a new one? We can use matching couple names.”

“Sure. That works.”

The smooth little car traveled through the bustling streets of Vanilla City. Before long, it brought us to the entrance of a grand hotel.

“Payment’s done.”

After showing the driver his phone screen, Liang Zhiming pulled me out of the car.

So big…

Looking at the hotel in front of me, I had only one thought.

I’d saved the money for dinner tonight.

And…

The stockings from the supermarket were terrible quality.

Following behind Liang Zhiming, I quietly pulled my black over-the-knee stockings higher.

The fabric was rough. Since the weather was warm, even a little sweat made them uncomfortable.

I’d thought stockings costing 9.8 yuan a pair would at least be passable. But now…

As expected, you couldn’t trust anything sold at school.

Hmm…

I should order some better-quality stockings online when I got back. Black stockings, white stockings, garter stockings, pantyhose, striped stockings, lace stockings…

There would probably be plenty of similar jobs in the future. They’d come in handy.

With that thought, I linked my arm through Liang Zhiming’s again and entered the hotel with him.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you have a reservation?”

“Yes. Room 520.”

“Fifth floor. This way, sir.”

The attendant led us up to the fifth floor. When he opened the door marked “520,” two large tables filled with people immediately came into view.

“Brother Zhiming!”

“Brother Zhi!”

As soon as we entered, several people in the room called out to him.

Then they noticed me beside Liang Zhiming.

“Brother Zhi, who’s this?”

“Let me introduce her to everyone. This is my girlfriend. We met in a game, and she’s also from Vanilla City.”

He pulled me into the group of men and women, then introduced me proudly.

“Her name is Ji Xiaoxue. She’s seventeen and a college student. She confessed to me not long ago. Hehe, she’s a rather shy girl, so don’t bully her.”