From Villain to Virtual Sweetheart: The Fake Heir's Grand Scheme(BL)-Chapter 592: A Character Who Learned The Truth (part one)
Between the moment Micah collapsed and the moment his eyes fluttered open again, only a few minutes slipped by. But those minutes stretched endlessly for Clyde, who hovered like a restless shadow. His knees pressed to the carpet beside the bed. His fingers twitched near Micah’s shoulder, hesitant to touch, terrified it would be a cold and unresponsive body. His other hand gripped his phone so tightly the edges dug into his palm.
He kept staring at Micah’s face, the pale lips, the faint crease between his brows as if a single blink or careless glance away would make Micah vanish.
"Don’t you dare leave me..." Clyde muttered under his breath. The tranquillity he always wore vanished from his eyes, replaced by something crazed. The fear of losing Micah spread through every fibre of his body as if it had remembered it from the depths of his bones.
The screen of his phone showed a triple zero, yet Clyde had been drowned in his own world, unable to press the call button.
The suffocating atmosphere in the bedroom broke out when the silver-haired young man jerked upright like a soul dragged back from the depths of the abyss.
Clyde’s grim expression cracked. He stared at Micah as his heart settled back in his chest. The phone slid from his trembling hand, dropping onto the carpet with a thud.
As if the sound shattered some invisible barrier, Micah blinked a few times until his sight settled on the man with a worried expression.
Clyde held his breath, unsure whether Micah remembered something or had instead forgotten their earlier talk. This world had a setting, restricting how much Micah could remember. Clyde had already regretted discussing the matter of the book or reset with Micah. For a second, Clyde had thought the world was punishing him for breaking the law of causality, taking Micah away from him.
Clyde’s eyes were locked on the young man’s face, searching for certainty.
Then, Micah flashed him a brilliant smile. Not a polite lift of the lips. It bloomed slowly, radiantly. Full of indulgence and love, yet quiet heartbreak.
Clyde froze in place, mesmerised by that smile. His throat went dry. "Why are you.... Looking at me like that?" He whispered, voice hoarse.
Micah didn’t answer. His hazel eyes glimmered. And behind those unfathomable eyes, memories surged like a tide, heavy, sharp and unstoppable.
After watching his past lives replay like a film reel for some time, Micah’s emotions had finally stabilised. Upon waking up, he didn’t cry, didn’t curse, and didn’t even complain. No, he had come to realise that there was no need for it. He was the protagonist. Everything in this world was within his grasp. He could do anything. All of his memories had returned to him like a lost child returning to his mother.
He knew he was the one who had changed the story. It was all thanks to that first transmigrator and his system.
His first life. The beginning of it all.
Micah had believed he was simply a spoiled young master with too little maturity and too much time. He never questioned why the world revolved around him, why people adored him even when he did nothing to deserve it. Why did every mistake he made seem to bend in his favour, why did fate give him chance after chance, never blaming him. No. In his dictionary, this was the norm.
Until the day he lost Darcy and Clyde.
That was the moment the reality cracked. A part of his consciousness had woken up. He knew it shouldn’t end like this.
He remembered kneeling beside Darcy’s lifeless body in a cold warehouse, the overhead light flickering above them.
"No... Darcy, wake up," Micah had shrieked, clutching him tightly. "Don’t sleep okay? What should I say to mum and dad?"
Darcy didn’t move.
Micah’s hand trembled violently, tears streaming down his face. "Don’t leave," he whispered, already losing his voice from constant yelling for help. "Please don’t leave me."
The world had felt wrong, off balance, suffocating. His vision blurred and for the first time, his protagonist’s aura failed to save him from despair.
Not long after, the Ramsy family got scattered too. With their capital gone, his parents and sisters left the country, trying their luck abroad for a comeback.
Everything collapsed so quickly that Micah didn’t even have the luxury of questioning the reason. The emptiness inside him grew until it suffocated his soul. Even though those four surrounded him, his heart never felt content.
Then came the first crack in his illusion. A voice chanted in his mind, over and over, ’This wasn’t the original ending.’
Yes, he had gained self-awareness. But he still lacked. The shackles of being a foolish young master that all adored had dragged him down. He couldn’t find what had gone wrong. Until Noas Lobart stepped into his path like a man who had been waiting for years.
Micah had been seated on a bench, staring blankly at a koi pond in the garden where he lived with those four. His hands lay limp on his knees, his eyes dulled. The murmurs of the crowd filled the background, indicating a banquet was ongoing.
"Beautiful, aren’t they?" A cheerful voice said beside him.
Micah turned. A man with messy dark brown hair and curious eyes stood beside him, smiling too eagerly.
Micah didn’t recognise him. "Yes," he said carefully. "They’re pretty."
"Ahh, am I a nuisance?" Noas scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "I’m new here...and bad at social interaction."
Micah just shook his head. The young man quickly sat down beside him, began talking, expressing his desire to be his friend.
Micah had not taken it seriously. He was used to countless people flocking to him every day. Their encounter led to Noas appearing in his life too much. The way those four never got jealous of his closeness to him made Micah more wary of Noas.
Micah wanted to put a stop to his uninvited visits, yet he couldn’t. It was as if he had a compass just made for him, finding Micah everywhere he went.
Noas had tried so hard that it made Micah suspicious. So he was tight-lipped around him, especially when he tried to probe why he was unhappy, acting as if Micah was too ungrateful for the life he had. Something about him felt too wrong.
Yes, if Micah were the same as before, if he weren’t self-aware, he would have treated Noas kindly and even told him the truth. But his instincts screamed at him not to utter a word to Noas.
The fiasco continued for a year. Noas tried to be subtle at first. But subtlety was not in his nature. Eventually, his desperation swelled until it burst.
Micah remembered the night vividly. He had been dining in a restaurant with those four, Leo, Archie, Silas and Aidan, when Noas barged in, hair dishevelled, eyes feverish.
"You bitch!" He shouted. "You piece of spoiled brat!"
Micah had been wide-eyed, stunned by the insult.
Noas had pointed a finger at him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Noas’s voice shook with fury. "What the fuck more do you want? You’re ruining everything. I did everything right. I completed every task. And you... You won’t even play your role."
Micah had just stared. "What role?"
"Just be a stupid shou and whore yourself already!" Noas screamed.
"What did you just say?"
Micah’s stomach dropped. He turned his head stiffly and looked at his lovers. No one ever talked like that to him. He never once heard people calling him names. Was he really a slut? Was he selling himself? Because he had four lovers? Or was it because these big shots had showered him with gold and gifts while he had nothing to his name?
Aidan was the first to react. He had lounged to grab Noas, silencing him. But the man was too agile, dodging their advance, shouting from the bottom of his lungs. "You don’t get it, do you? You are a slut. You just have to sit around, opening your legs wide for them, while they serve you, offering their wealth to you. Why aren’t you satisfied? Why aren’t you enjoying yourself with four big shots at your feet, waiting for your orders? What the hell are you moping around for?"
Micah had been rendered speechless by his brazen probing and insults. He had looked at him in bewilderment.
Noas continued to scold him. "You trapped me here all this time otherwise, I would have left this garbage world long ago!"
This time Aidan with the help of Archie tackled him onto the ground, immobilising him. Yet, Noas’s crazed ranting did not stop. "Useless system...shut up! You can’t even use points anymore. I should never have chosen this book..."
Micah stood there, listening to his earth-shattering nonsense, too shocked to react. Noas rambled on, spilling the beans completely.
And that made Micah fully awake, realising the entire truth.
Yes. He was the protagonist. And the world pushed for his happiness. And yet, in reality, he was nothing but a foolish shou, a fictional character, at the mercy of these four gongs.
