Playing the Villainess, He Fell for Me

The crowd, just moments ago uncertain about the reward money, was now mostly convinced. They all volunteered to join the rescue, and the number of responders kept growing.

At that moment, Joanna Kennedy was incredibly grateful for her high-profile career as an actress.

The large excavators couldn’t make it up the mountain, so they had to rely on manpower. People from neighboring villages heard the news and came to help, signing their names on the rescue list before joining the effort.

Stone by stone, the entrance to the mine was cleared. The cold November wind whipped against Joanna Kennedy. Her heart seemed to struggle with every beat, each throb a dull, heavy ache. But she couldn’t cry.

’I can’t show any fear. I can’t let them see how fragile I feel.’ Simon Lockwood’s life... was in her hands.

Ambulance and police sirens wailed from the base of the mountain, mingling with the noise of the crowd. The tension in the air was palpable, spreading to everyone present.

No one spoke; they all just focused on moving stones. Suddenly, someone shouted, their voice trembling with excitement, ”Look, I see clothing!!!”

Several people quickly cleared away the rubble, revealing two unconscious men underneath. They were heavyset. It wasn’t Simon Lockwood.

”Two of them! I found two!” the middle-aged man who first spotted them exclaimed, his expression ecstatic and his voice trembling. He sought confirmation, ”That’s four hundred thousand, right?”

”Yes.” Joanna Kennedy only realized how parched her throat was when she spoke. Her voice came out as a rasp. ”We’ll write down your name first. I’ll go to the bank to withdraw the money in a little while.”

”No, you’ll give it to me now!” The middle-aged man was giddy with the thought of the four hundred thousand. The moment he heard ”in a little while,” he grew frantic. ”You’re not trying to back out of it, are you!”

”Give it to me now! Hurry up!” the man snarled, looking like he was about to get physical. No one stepped forward to stop him.

He grabbed at Joanna Kennedy, causing her to stumble. Just as she was about to say something to control the situation, disaster struck. A small fissure suddenly split the ground beneath their feet.

Amid a violent tremor, she heard someone scream her name. ”Joanna Kennedy!!!”

Someone tackled her, shielding her with their body and letting out a pained grunt. The sky seemed to open up as rocks rained down again, and Joanna Kennedy lost consciousness.

The mountain shook for an indeterminate amount of time. From a distance, the rugged, natural mountain forest looked as though it had been snapped in half, its top portion completely flattened.

Broken and withered trees lay crisscrossed over the slopes, obscuring the view. The entire town of Oakhaven fell into an unprecedented, deathly silence.

SNAP. The soft sound of a twig breaking underfoot. Liam Valentine gazed at the scene before him, a veritable tomb, his expression unchanging.

A faint, weak groan broke the silence. Liam Valentine raised an eyebrow as he saw a girl staggering to her feet in the distance.

Joanna Kennedy couldn’t hear or see clearly. Everything felt wet. She raised a hand to her face and brought it back covered in bright red blood.

’Is it my blood?’ The scene from before she blacked out flashed through Joanna Kennedy’s mind. Someone had shielded her.

She crouched, her hands trembling as she pulled away the rubble. She saw the man’s refined face clearly. It was... Charles Jennings.

’Why? How could it be him?’ Joanna Kennedy, her face deathly pale, reached out and placed her hand on the side of Charles Jennings’s neck. There was nothing. No movement, no pulse.

Charles Jennings was dead. Because of her.

Joanna Kennedy was completely frozen. After an unknown amount of time, she blankly raised her eyes and looked around.

She saw a man standing quietly in the distance and thought it was an illusion. Then she saw him walk toward her at an unhurried pace, stepping over an unidentifiable body as he came.

He had an air of noble grace, yet for some reason, the sight of him sent a chill down the spine.

”Joanna Kennedy, a Jornheimer. Grew up in an orphanage. Attended Jornheim First High School and graduated from the Jornheim Film Academy.”

Liam Valentine’s voice was clear. ”Bound to System 166. Your assigned role is the villainess, and your mission is to advance the plot between the male and female leads.”

Liam Valentine slowly crouched down, his expression gentle. ”I’m very sorry, but your mission is a failure.”

”It’s time to accept your punishment, Miss Kennedy.”

............

...............

One second, then two. Staring at Liam Valentine’s refined, gentle face, Joanna Kennedy suddenly let out a low chuckle. The chuckle grew into a laugh, louder and louder.

Her heart ached until it was numb. She couldn’t feel the pain anymore, only a sense of absurdity, of incomprehension.

’No wonder, no wonder...’

’Everything seemed to have an explanation, and yet nothing did. But... it didn’t matter anymore.’

Joanna Kennedy was smiling, but tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. ”Li... Oh, no. I suppose I should call you Mr. World Consciousness.”

Joanna Kennedy slowly got to her feet, her tone devoid of emotion. ”Am I so important that you had to make all these people die with me?”

’Is this my punishment? Why am I the only one who survived?’ Joanna Kennedy didn’t understand. She couldn’t comprehend it.

”You could have just killed me directly. Why go to all this trouble?” Joanna Kennedy said with a bitter smile, but her eyes were filled with utter grief and despair.

”If you were to die...” Liam Valentine sighed softly, as if conflicted, but said it anyway. ”Simon Lockwood would lose his mind.”

”And if he loses his mind, this world is finished.”

”Let me correct a misconception you have. I’m not the only World Consciousness,” Liam Valentine said, a trace of pity in his eyes. ”And Simon Lockwood isn’t just the male lead of this world.”

”...............”

A blue screen of light materialized before her, covered in dense lines of code about this world. The information flooded into Joanna Kennedy’s mind, impossible to resist.

At the dawn of this world, the World Consciousness split into two opposing halves, like two sides of a mirror: one ”Unfeeling,” the other ”Empathetic.”

The ”Empathetic” one could interact with humans, while the ”Unfeeling” one could only be the leader, commanding all the systems and enforcing the rules of the world.

Over the long eons, the world’s operations became increasingly flawed. To solve the problem, the ”Unfeeling” consciousness decided to experience human emotions for itself. And so... Simon Lockwood was created.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. But then, an anomaly occurred—Simon Lockwood fell in love with Joanna Kennedy.

This was against the rules. The ”Unfeeling” one was allowed to fall for the heroine as per the plot, but it was not allowed to develop genuine emotions.

Liam Valentine had tried many ways to stop this, but nothing worked. In the end, he was forced to take this step: end ”Simon Lockwood’s” life, and then use the protagonist energy within Joanna Kennedy to force Simon Lockwood to return to his original self.

”It would have been better if you’d fallen in love with me.” Liam Valentine glanced around, a hint of regret in his voice. ”If you had fallen for me and left Simon Lockwood, none of this trouble would have happened.”

Simon Lockwood was too wary. This was the only method he could use, even though it needlessly cost so many innocent lives.

However, once Simon Lockwood returned to his true form, time itself would be reset, and all these people would come back to life.

As for Joanna Kennedy...

Joanna Kennedy finally understood everything. She took a deep breath, slowly closed her eyes, and as a single tear fell, she asked for confirmation, ”Simon Lockwood will live, right?”

”Of course,” Liam Valentine said.

Joanna Kennedy asked again, ”And these people will live too, right?”

”Yes.”

”............”

’That’s enough.’

Specks of starlike blue light began to float out of her body. Joanna Kennedy couldn’t feel any pain as her consciousness slowly faded. Her last words were, ”Can I... see Simon Lockwood one more time?”

Liam Valentine sighed, his tone gentle, but his words were cruel. ”I’m sorry.”