Jia Hyson has experienced a few strange things in his life. Stalkers. Sabotage. School children. He's more or less shaken them off well with varying degrees.

Well. Until now, anyway.

"You..." Jia Hyson rasps out in pain as he lays dying on the street, soaking in a growing pile of his own blood. The young girl got him good, must have read about how to properly make sure someone bleed to death from her father's crime novels. He hasn't recognized her before, but now that he sees her in broad daylight he can more or less imagine the sort of trap he's unwittingly been woven into.

His murderer drops the knife from her shaking, gloved hands and runs while the chaos of the crowd draws near.

Staring helplessly as she gets away, Jia Hyson closes his eyes and tries his best to block out the pain as he dies.

...

Sliding into the realm of death feels like falling into a dreamless sleep. One moment he was in excruciating pain, and after a period of darkness, he found himself perfectly fine. Opening his eyes, Jia Hyson finds himself standing in a plain, almost empty white room. There was nothing but him and a single white chair in the middle of it.

It wasn't exactly what he would've thought Heaven would be like, but beggars couldn't exactly be choosers. Besides, it wasn't exactly like he'd been a virtuous ****** in his life either. Maybe this is just what people like him get in the holy lands.

As he looks over to study the one piece of furniture in the room, he almost jumps when he realizes items were sitting on top of the chair. Those had clearly not been there before.

Tentatively Jia Hyson picks up a very lovely slim black notebook, half the size as a standard piece of paper, and a silver bangle with delicate engravings. "Damn it looks pure too," he mutters as he admires the bracelet in puzzled awe. A bangle and a notebook. What an odd pair of items heaven decided to bestow on him.

With literally nothing to lose, he slips the bangle on.

Immediately the bangle warms up around his wrist, and the engravings begin to glow blue. A small holographic screen pops up from the glowing bracelet to hover in front of him much to his shock.

"Hello, Jia Hyson. I am Bebe, your System."

Jia Hyson squealed in a very unmanly manner, not from fright or surprise, but from pure elated excitement. A system! He's a transmigrator! This! Was! The! Best!

Bebe the system: '... this was its' new master?'

"Um, hello Bebe," he greets politely, voice trembling in delight. As a fan of online novels and stories, he's read, criticized and enjoyed many tales regarding reincarnation, world-hopping, transmigrations and system administration. Never in his wildest imagination did he think he could be a part of one.

"Hello," Bebe greets back. While obviously robotic, the voice contains a distinguished elegance that screamed it was a high-class product, and it knew it. "I am Bebe, your system. You are currently located in your provided safe space where you can stay for prolonged periods. Access to basic furniture can be unlocked once you complete the first mission."

Forgetting the fact that he was old enough to be considered an uncle, Jia Hyson jumps up and down like a child brimming with eagerness. His mind already running through various scenarios and scenes. Honestly, he feels like he should thank the girl who stabbed him since now he can finally live through one of his favourite fantasies since he first came upon the genre.

"Mission?" He prompts with bursting curiosity. Was it acting out as a main character? Cannonfodder? Trying to preserve the plot? Break the plot?

Suddenly Jia Hyson felt a little nervous. He knows himself well enough to know that while he was a reasonably skilled liar, that may not necessarily translate to talent in long term acting, especially if he had to portray a character so opposing his current introverted personality.

"Do not worry Jia Hyson," Bebe says a lighthearted tone as if sensing his sudden unease, "You were picked to be the most suitable fit for this system. Not many have the qualifications, so even if you fail a few times, we will not terminate you."

"... So the termination is still on the table then?" Jia Hyson mutters. Well. At least he's given some leeway. That was reassuring. Somewhat.

"Of course," Bebe answers revealing a slight hint of contempt. "Bebe is very important and takes up a lot of resource and energy. If you waste Bebe, Bebe will waste you."

Jia Hyson can feel cold sweat start to form on his back. It seems maybe he celebrated this whole turn of events too soon. His system also seems somewhat capricious as well. Quickly he moves back to the main subject. "What's my mission then?"

Pleased its master seemed to be a good worker, Bebe happily told him, "You have been assigned to the Beta system. This means your missions will entail improving the world's plot. It's a very good job, as long as you can improve the plot you are free to do many things."

Jia Hyson lightly frowns. He's never heard of a Beta system. And just improve the plot? What sort of vague instructions is this?

Bebe ignores his master's expression to continue excitedly explaining, "Bebe also provides you with points and p to help with your missions. Points can be allocated into skills and traits to improve yourself, p is the currency you can use to buy items from Bebe. You get 20 free points and 1000 p."

Jia Hyson's eyebrows flew up at the information. Skill points he understands, but to so candidly give him a 1000 p sounds too good. "May I see what I can buy?"

The screen flickers until it shows what looks like a generic shopping site. "Welcome to BeBay," Bebe chirps, "Use your finger to scroll through the items. Feel free to ask for any further information."

Quirking his lips in amusedly, Jia Hyson began to look at the items shown only for his face to immediately blacken. Things like food, water and bandages were only 1 to 10 p, but everything else was so expensive! "Blood replenishing pill, 300 p? Mask of Poor Deception, 500 p? Minor Event Stimulator 750 p?!" He almost spat out blood when he realizes that these were all items under the label of Dirt Cheap.

Dirt Cheap his sister!

Half-terrified Jia Hyson presses the button to see the mid-range priced items before crying blood at the number of zeros that slapped his face. He takes it back. 1000 p was not good. 1000 p was clearly too stingy!

With growing dread, he quietly asks to see how to allocate his skill points. Once the Skill Allocation screen pops up Jia Hyson wonders if this feeling of despair is what all transmigrators feel. So many skills! From attractiveness to sewing, the list seemed endless.

Worse still his basic stats seem to be lacking. His EQ, acting and crafts were some of his higher stats among a few others. With appearance being the highest at 82 points and the lowest passing skill is drawing at 53, everything else he had was below the average. Truly a depressing scene. At the very end, he only had three special skills listed in gold: [Animal Charmer Level 2], [Psychotic Break Level 1] and [God's Scribe Level 8].

...Let's ignore the second skill. He really didn't want to know _(:3」∠)_

"Alongside your own current skills, you will temporarily gain the skill levels and special abilities of whichever body you inhabit as well," Bebe reassures, making him feel much better about the matter of his meagre skillset. With renewed vigour, he looks through the list again. "Of course as Host increases your skill points, to avoid becoming too overpowered eventually this advantage will be minimized so Host would still gain the characters special abilities but have a restriction in skill levels."

Jia Hyson nods. That seems fair. "Is it possible to ask you for a recommendation of skills to add points to?" He asks as he scrolls through the dizzying number of various abilities. There was even one for learning the unicycle and holding your breath. Indeed there seemed to be every skill in the universe here.

"Of course," Bebe proudly replies. None of its previous masters ever asked for its recommendations in terms of skill allocation. Bebe found itself already warming up to its newest master, who clearly has excellent priorities. "Each world will, of course, require different talents to live successfully in. Knowing this, Bebe has been magnanimously allowed to let you reallocate 20 skill points for each new world you enter."

Jia Hyson nods gratefully at the flexibility. It's not a bad system. Assuming he can earn points from completing missions, he'll manage to slowly establish a solid foundation to his skillset while still being able to get the opportunity to invest points into any lacking skills that would be indispensable for him in the next world. "How many points do I earn per mission?"

"Based on your performance, we give you a maximum of 10." Sensing his disappointment Bebe quickly racks on, "There are also opportunities for bonus points as well, your notebook will provide you with more information on that as well as details on your mission."

"Sounds good," Jia Hyson nods again, feeling quite cheerful again. Mastery of a basic skill requires 100 points. If he gets a decent score, he should be able to rack up 6 or 7 points every completed mission, not to mention the potential bonuses. With that type of math soon, Jia Hyson will become a master at this in no time!

He's not sure what being a master will entail, but Jia Hyson was rather satisfied just thinking about that as his long term goal for now since he's got not much else to aim for. Except maybe being able to afford a nice couch for his safe space. With lots of pillows. And wi-fi. And snacks. And-

"Any more questions?" Bebe patiently asks.

Jia Hyson breaks out of his fantasising and smiles, "No, no, we can start now. I'm sure I'll pick it up along the way."

What a carefree master. Hopefully, he will do better than his predecessors. Bebe starts the countdown obediently.

"Initializing.. prepare for transmigration in 3... 2... 1...."

"Adrian?"

Jia Hyson blearily opens his eyes. His head throbs painfully as his mouth tastes dry and disgusting. With an unwilling heart, he forces himself to sit up and rub his eyes in an attempt to wipe the grogginess from it. "Mblergh?"

Suddenly he's shoved back down as a soft body tackles him in a fierce hug. Jia Hyson wants to vomit as his head cruelly hits the hard arm of a particularly worn-out couch.

"Madeline," A deeper voice chides, "you're going to end up finishing him off at this rate."

"Ah!" Mercifully the young girl releases Jia Hyson from her embrace, "Sorry! Sorry! Adrian, are you okay? I'll go make something for you, what do you want?"

Without even thinking, Jia Hyson croakily answers, "Cheeseburger."

Jia Hyson pauses for a moment. A little confused where this sudden craving came from, but the two people in the room just laugh. "Well if Adrian still wants a burger then he's fine." The male voice teases.

He can feel his cheek being patted before the giggling young female finally gets off of him. "Don't worry, I'll make you the bestest cheeseburger ever!" She declares proudly before the sound of light running leaves the room.

Blearily Jia Hyson tries to get up a second time, fueled by a strange feeling of anxiety and foreboding. This time, however, a large warm hand gently pressing against his chest stops him. "Don't get up," The deeper voice murmurs, "you collapsed from exhaustion so just sleep for a bit longer okay? I'll watch over Maddy and make sure she doesn't get too overexcited."

Helplessly Jia Hyson just nods and relaxes back onto the couch. When he finally hears the man walking away and shutting the door, he mutters, "Bebe, context please?"

"This is the novel, 'Can't stand the Heat.' It has low popularity and a rating of 2.3 stars out of 5." Bebe replies in his mind. Jia Hyson winces and not just from the way Bebe's voice makes his headache ache even worse than before. 2.3 out of 5 stars… Damn this sounds like one shitty story then. The lowest review he's ever gotten for any online works he'd anonymously posted was around 3.8 stars at least.

"What's the problem with it then?"

"The story has been given the following reviews-

'What the hell! Where are the family fluff and cooking competition we were promised?! Why is this all smut?'

'It's like author-san has totally forgotten the MC's heartwarming background and family once the cooking competition starts! Isn't that too cruel? Not even a mention of them in the epilogue?? I don't even recognize the cool, headstrong MC by the end of it!'

'Too much smut! What drama story? What story about cooking? What romance subplot? It's just straight-up porn!'

'How easy is the MC? Is the ML that handsome?? To be so rude and arrogant yet to quickly catch the MC after a single kiss? Unreasonable!'"

Listening to these angry comments, Jia Hyson can feel his diminishing headache coming back again at full force. So this is what Bebe meant by fixing the plot? Why couldn't they just hire an editor? Why does it look like the success of his whole mission seems to rely on playing cockblock?

"An editor will not necessarily have the creativity we require to alter the story into a better one," Bebe explains as it reads his thoughts, "You however are well known for creating interesting and entertaining books and online fiction. Not to mention, you have an abnormal mindset that potentially is very good for this sort of work."

Black lines cover his face. What abnormal mindset? Isn't that too rude? He happily jumps in to help, and here he is getting his face slapped.

Anyway, from the complaints, it does actually seem like he must save this world through cockblocking. Isn't this just beyond stupid? Are they screwing with him?

With nowhere to vent his irritation, Jia Hyson exhales a long and angry sigh before deciding to temporarily ignore it. He doesn't have much time left until the two people come back and he must quickly figure out who he is.

Bebe silently sends him the information into his brain. Groaning Jia Hyson skims through it and feels his face darken further.

'Can't Stand the Heat' is a story about Madeline Fenwick and her journey to be a top chef. The synopsis promises a culinary adventure that will warm one's heart with familial love, laughter, drama and some romance along the way.

Madeline and her older brother Monroe Fenwick were orphaned twice at a young age. As in they were adopted by a couple and then the couple died not two years later. Not wanting to lose any face, their step aunt and uncle took them in. However, they were cold, unlovable characters that barely provided the minimum of affection towards them who weren't even related to them by blood. The only saving grace that prevented the siblings from living a bitter, barren childhood was their cousin who tried his best to take care of them.

That cousin is Adrian Marshall. The person Jia Hyson is now.

Adrian is also the reason Madeline had taken a liking to the culinary arts. Ever since their first meeting where he comforted her with homebaked cookies, she had immediately wanted to be like Adrian who strived to make people smile through cooking.

Madeline learnt how to cook from her cousin, and the first few chapters of the story depicted snippets of her growing up with her small family in the kitchen. Soon after she turned thirteen; however, her aunt and uncle had messily divorced and were fighting over who should have the children shoved into their care. Finally, Adrian, who was nineteen at the time, couldn't take it anymore and left with Madeline and Monroe.

Life after this was very difficult for the trio. Both aunt and uncle were stingy, and expenses for Madeline and Monroe's education were barely covered much less their living expenses. Adrian, having shouldered on the responsibilities of taking care of two teenagers, had to give up his dream of being a chef to work multiple jobs to support the household.

Frankly speaking, it was a strong start that Jia Hyson couldn't really find much fault with, and would definitely be the sort of story he would be interested in reading himself. The introduced characters had distinct personalities, and their interactions, as well as responses to their problems, were both believable and enjoyable to read. After asking Bebe, it seems, just like he suspected, that at this point of the story, many readers were pleased with how it's been written so far.

The problems start when Madeline hits eighteen and announces her desire to participate in the third season of the popular television show 'Home-cooked Miracle'.

Fresh out of high school and still young, both brother and cousin disapproved her decision. After all, while they were all fans of the show or maybe because they were fans of the show, Adrian and Monroe were well aware of how pervasive it can be in regards to the participant's life. Despite how the show tries to sell itself as a cooking competition, it was still reality tv and relied on scandal, sex and behind the scenes catfights to stay afloat.

At around the same time, Adrian had somehow managed to convince someone from a famous culinary institute to consider Madeline for a scholarship there. If she went to try out for the show, she would miss her chance at a scholarship in a place they could've only dreamed of going with their current funds. Understandably, Madeline's stubborn attitude had angered both Adrian and Monroe, creating friction in the once close-knit family.

In the end, that friction led to sparks and inevitable an explosion of a fight which resulted in Madeline leaving in the middle of the night to stay at a friend's house. The next day she entered the preliminaries of 'Home-cooked Miracle.'

Then she met the male lead. Drake Lanzoni. And it officially spiralled from there.

At first, there seem to be the beginnings of a typical love-hate rival relationship between the pair. Drake insults her homely type of cooking that practically screams lower class, and Madeline, being the strong-willed heroine she is, stands up for herself. She aims to make Drake eat his words and wins the first round of the competition, earning a chance at fighting for an immunity pin that allows her to be exempt from elimination once. Her smug victory and his grudging admiration as a result of this was the sort of competitive atmosphere that would make readers burn with excitement.

However, somewhere between the second and third round, Madeline Fenwick and Drake Lanzoni got together.

Jia Hyson had to stop skimming and reread the block of text in his mind thrice before he finally caught the few sentences that could have possibly foreshadowed such an abrupt change of relationship dynamics. A domineeringly, fiery kiss after a stressful service challenge in an empty kitchen immediately jumps to heavily making out and getting groped shamelessly the very next day in the bedroom. It was enough to make Jia Hyson dizzy to the point of nausea.

Family and dreams were then put on the back burner in favour of sex and drama. The closest thing to cooking Jia Hyson could see was watching everyone eat vinegar and dogfood. Challenges became ridiculous excuses to write more relationship tropes, and soon they became so insignificant it becomes something to only mention in passing to show that time had actually kept on moving while the couple were in their own little pink world. Jia Hyson forced himself to continue reading despite the fact the diamond in the rough had long turned back into coal. But after a bit longer of persevering, his boredom couldn't be contained, and he skips to the last few chapters.

He almost regrets reading it though, as he feels himself choke with a confused anger. As a fellow author, he wants to strangle whoever wrote this in revenge for them strangling such a decent story in its infancy. The couple finally gets approval from Drake's incredibly rich and powerful family, they get married, and they give birth to a girl who is spoilt with love to the point they even have a personal chef for her.

A personal chef?! Wasn't the point of this whole story that everyone was going to be a chef? To cook and bring smiles to people? They don't even mention the main character's brother and cousin, either? This completely abandons the story's principal ideals of family, cooking and pursuing one's dreams! This shameless author clearly got bored and made a smut novel midway through.

"Hey Monroe, should we wake Adrian up? The food will get cold."

"Give him a few minutes longer, he's been working nonstop these past few days."

Jia Hyson slowly opens his eyes once the door closes again and sighs. "Bebe, how old is Madeline now?"

"Currently Madeline Fenwick is thirteen. It has been three weeks since the divorce between Adrian's parents."

He nods in relief. At least he has a fair amount of time before the meat of the story even begins. It is also not too difficult to come up with ways he can improve this plot with his own limited power.

"Bebe wants to remind Jia Hyson that he currently has a notebook in his possession that shall help him keep track of things as well as provide valuable information," Bebe adds helpfully.

Jia Hyson blinks a little dumbly. He had forgotten all about the notebook in all the fuss. After patting himself down, he finds it in the pocket of his jeans. Once it's pulled out, the notebook grows a little bigger until it becomes the size it had been before.

"Remember, the notebook is mainly to write down your ideas and edit." Bebe says before making a huffing sound, "Bebe personally believes that Bebe is good enough alone. You do not have to rely on the notebook; however, Bebe supposes the notebook will always be there if ever Bebe goes offline."

Amused by his system's indignant pride, he teasingly asks, "Then what use is this notebook if I have a system as great as Bebe then?"

"Bebe is pleased Bebe's master understands." Jia Hyson quirks his lip up into a bemused smile. It turns out his system was a very cute and haughty show-cat. "However, the notebook does have some uses. To improve the story, you may write advice or phrases that you would think would fit well into the narrative. You can also read the sum total of your bonus points that you've earned at the back as well as review the original plot to see if there are any phrases or grammar you think needs to be changed."

Jia Hyson's eye twitches as he listens to the explanation. It seems he's playing the role of editor and ghostwriter on top of everything else. Was this karma for being so terrible to his own editors in his past life and tormenting them with his flighty and lazy attitude? "What is the point of this Bebe? I might as well rewrite the whole story myself if you all just want a good story." While personally, he would hate being forced to write a work he didn't get to design himself, it still was objectively less effort than interacting directly with the world.

It was probably the one glaring flaw to system novels that Jia Hyson could never grasp. If one thinks about it objectively, there is no reason for things like the cannon fodder system existing. Some stories have defended themselves nicely, making their main characters save the villain who in turn will bring a better future for that world and so on, but most stories were about acting out cannon fodder... and failing.

While he doesn't currently have any plans to fight the system (Bebe: ...So you may have plans to fight Bebe in the future?) he doesn't feel as motivated to do his task like before.

Bebe, listening to his thoughts, wants to cough blood. Such a fickle master! Weren't you so motivated to help just a minute ago? It seems the information it had received about how several editors and lovers had left because of Jia Hyson's lacklustre and temperamental attitude was not false. At least there won't be too much stress in worrying about Jia Hyson becoming overly attached.

Knowing that they didn't have much time, Bebe tried to appease its master. Master may not die if he fails the first mission, but Bebe will lose a lot of face to the other systems. Especially since he had been boasting so happily about being upgraded to a Beta system just before it picked up Jia Hyson.

"While Bebe is not authorized to know much about the matter, I can say that the amount of energy to change a world created by a story is less than the amount of energy it takes to change the world with the author in it." Bebe appeases, "When a world story diverges, a feedback loop is created, not only does this produce extra energy to supply the systems, it also changes the author's world subtly as well."

Listening carefully, Jia Hyson understands. "It really was a matter of two birds, one stone." He brightens up at that, happy to help again. After all, that was his favourite phrase, he wouldn't dare spit on it.

Bebe: .... Bebe doesn't understand but as long as master will try his best Bebe will forgive master for being so f*cking inconceivable.

First things first, food.

Because the smell coming from the kitchen was incredible and Jia Hyson was starving. "Maddy? Monroe?" He rasps out, feeling like a pitiful hungry kitten.

Immediately like she had her face against the door just waiting for him to call, Madeline Fenwick burst out eagerly. "Dinner is ready!" She grins, proudly running down to place the plate of her food onto the shoddy coffee table in front of him. "I give you, the Mad Triple Cheeseburger special! Three patties, six slices of cheese, pickles, beetroot, lettuce, mushrooms and tomato relish on toasted bread! Your favorite!"

Jia Hyson smiles warmly at the bright and boisterous young girl. His memories as Adrian in the past hour had slowly seeped into his soul and the love he felt for both Madeline and Monroe was not weak. Even Jia Hyson who wasn't really that fond of kids over six, felt like it wouldn't be a burden to dote on such a sunny child.

Bebe: What's wrong with children over six?

Jia Hyson: All children reach peak cuteness at around two and generally stay that cute until they hit six, then it really only goes downhill from there.

Bebe: I see 눈_눈

"Thanks Maddy," His smile widens as his eyes set sight of the burger, mouth already filled with drool. As expected of the main character of a cooking story, the food she made couldn't have looked more obviously delicious unless someone wrote the word 'delicious' on top of the bun with ketchup. Even if it was messily made he couldn't help but inexplicably find the ugliness adding further to the home cooked charm. Adrian remembers that he was the one who thought her how to make simple but juicy burger patties, buttery mushrooms and create a fresh and tangy relish but while he's sure that she had cooked to his instructions, his own food while delicious and heartwarming, could somehow never compare.

Jia Hyson: Hey Bebe, will I ever get to be a main character too?

Bebe: Bebe thinks the story would have to be truly horrendous for that to happen.

Well. Never mind then.

Without further ado he hungrily begins to devour the large burger, taking large gulps of water in between to fill himself up even further. It seems, after a quick review of his recent memories, the trio had left his parents broken household and Adrian really hadn't eaten for at least three days as he worriedly tried to find even more jobs for himself on top of his current two to properly provide for everyone. His friend had at the very least kindly allowed him to burrow one of his uncle's apartments, but Adrian had both a large amount of pride and moral integrity, insisting he'll eventually pay rent after two months if they can't find anywhere else to live. Jia Hyson wants to weep a little at this poor original host's life. Such a selfless good child! What shit author would write out such a hardworking angel from their story? Jia Hyson would've given him ten spin offs!

'Bebe has seen host's works and there is a 70% chance you would have made Adrian suffer even more than the current author would have. Do not lie to Bebe.' Bebe interjects. 'Bebe knows this is one of your favorite character types to bully.'

Feeling extremely wronged for being called out on his sadistic tendencies but unable to rebut any of it, Jia Hyson ignores his system in favor of the much better and superior burger in his hands.

The inferior to a burger Bebe: ...

"This is delicious Maddy," He praises genuinely, "did you add something extra in the sauce?"

"As expected of my big brother!" Madeline cries and puffs her chest out proudly. "I bought some chili to give it a nice kick, as well as lemon and some melted cheese."

Jia Hyson stops mid-chew, feeling a little faint as new information provided by Adrian's last few days of anxious research suddenly swirls up urgently in his head. Apparently Adrian had been so scared about their sudden change in economic situation that some of the panic still lingered even after his body was taken over. Asian ingredients like chili was currently a very pricey ingredient in A country, especially in their city. It was currently the period of time before the hype of cooking competitions spread around the world and was really only for proper chefs to prove their worth so more exotic ingredients weren't as well circulated as they could be.

Now that he's no longer so ravenous, his tongue can also taste the fresh tang of lemon and tomatoes, and the smokiness of melted gouda cheese.

Suddenly the food in his mouth felt a little heavy and hard to swallow.

It seems after this he's going to have to teach the children the harsh reality of poverty.

...

The problem, Jia Hyson realizes, with the harsh reality of poverty was that he was also unprepared for it.

Jia Hyson came from an upper-middle class family and before completing his bachelor of science in university managed to snag a literary prize and multiple online awards, cementing his bright future almost immediately. The closest thing he had to a job was volunteering experience which after university he really only did whenever he felt too much like rich artsy trash. Unfortunately that still didn't change the fact he was essentially rich artsy trash.

So after a few months of running around doing multiple part-time jobs, from the ever thankless customer service to the literally backbreaking construction work, Jia Hyson wanted to die. His only comfort was that Monroe had picked up the value of money quickly and while Maddy was still trying to process her sudden life changes, she was more or less very understanding to their economic plight now and no longer pestered to buy expensive ingredients to try out anymore, choosing to experiment with cheaper items instead.

Still, despite that, there were only so many hours in a day and because Adrian had to drop out, the jobs didn't exactly pay very well. He was very lucky though, many of his bosses and coworkers were both friendly and sympathetic to his situation and always gave him a little something extra at the end of the day, from small change to candy. It didn't change the fact he had to face many jobs filled with the greedy, uncaring and just downright cruel people but since he had a good temperament he hadn't been harassed too badly in his opinion. Still, Jia Hyson curses those people in his heart and itches to write a great faceslapping story inspired by them but he really didn't even have time for that.

The idea of having to endure this for a few more years was downright depressing.

To think the protagonist would actually abandon such a good cousin like this over one fight! It was one thing to read about but now that he was experiencing the true hell of serving in retail he vows to make sure Madeline Fenwick fucking appreciates what he's been slaving away for. Especially once she marries into money.

God, Jia Hyson misses money.

Then again she had been fresh out of high school at the time and as a late bloomer was probably at the peak of teenage rebellion. Not that it's much of an excuse. Jia Hyson's way of venting as a teenager was through art, reading and depression, it couldn't compare to Madeline Fenwick who moved out of her house and had increasingly shameless sex on a reality tv show. At least Monroe seemed to be a good boy.

Jia Hyson sighs inwardly. He still has a while to seriously consider the best way to change the key plot point anyway, for now he needs all his brainpower to consider basic living expenses, rent and Monroe's future education. He'll try keep some extra savings as a pretence for Madeline's college fund but at this point that sort of thinking might as well be called delusional.

"Bebe," he groans, "next time make me a character that doesn't have to worry about money okay?" Currently he was moving crates and doing inventory at a local grocery. Even putting half his points into his physical strength didn't stop his arms from trembling after a few hours of labour.

'Bebe will take that into consideration as well as request host not to be a whiny bitch.' Bebe replies shortly.

"My system used to be so cute and in awe at the great me," Jia Hyson mutters, "what happened to us Bebe?"

'Bebe realized Bebe's cheap host was not the top quality host Bebe had been promised.'

"Cheap your sister! I am a first rate, handsome author! You're the cheap one to reduce me to this!" Jia Hyson cries in his heart as he transports a crate of citrus fruits to refill the emptying section outside in the store.

As he spends his days working and bickering angrily with Bebe in his head, Jia Hyson is completely unaware of the increasing looks always thrown his way by both coworkers and customers.

After all, both Jia Hyson and Adrian were already very good looking men. The resulting combination of both of their attractiveness stats blew through the roof. Not only physically was he beautiful, with his tall, slightly muscular figure, his pale skin coupled with blonde hair and bright blue slanted and slightly droopy eyes, his personality and temperament was equally as nice. Even the sternest boss must eventually melt and feel some sympathy toward such a handsome youth who had to work for his younger siblings' sake. Whether or not that sympathy shows through Jia Hyson's wallet is unfortunately another matter completely.

However after almost a year, Jia Hyson finally recieved the opportunity he had been waiting for.

Adrian was originally configured to be similar to the protagonist since he was her role model. He was hardworking, stubbornly moral and kind-hearted, but unlike her he was more old fashioned and a much more prideful. Adrian refused to accept money from his friends, refused to ask for help from his biological family, and refused to show his siblings how tired he was. And, most adamantly, Adrian refused to use his good looks.

This was shown very clearly in a short paragraph of the story, where the author wrote about how Adrian would occasionally reject various modeling and acting offers when life was still prosperous for the young man. It was said that Adrian found it demeaning and how his face shouldn't effect how his talents should be viewed and blah, blah, blah. Basically it was bullshit in Jia Hyson's magnanimous opinion.

What was important was that, despite getting many offers when he was still rich, Adrian only got one offer once he hit rock bottom. Jia Hyson has no idea why. Personally he thought he looked even more pleasing to the eye once he started gaining a bit of defined muscle instead of maintaining his original skinny as a stick figure. Either way, of course Adrian had rejected the tempting offer after a few days of hesitation, choosing to keep slaving away at his multiple minimum wage jobs and probably dying from over exhaustion in the end.

Jia Hyson absolutely refuses to do that.

"Adrian?" Jenna, a petite university student working as a waitress in the same cafe he works in, prompts shyly again, flushing prettily as she glances up to take in Jia Hyson's unreadable expression. "I, I know it's a lot to ask since we've only known each other for a month or so but, but I'll pay you well I swear! I mean," she rambles nervously, "you've been really tired lately, and well, modelling isn't really too hard, well amateur modelling anyway, and you're handsome anyway so, um,"

"I'll do it." Jia Hyson quickly agrees, unable to bear the the poor child's awkward

What pride? Can it be eaten? If it can't fill his stomach what's the point? The original Adrian was cute but he was a fool for refusing to use his god-given face.

"You shouldn't act so out of character," Bebe scolds, "Adrian didn't accept this offer."

"In the story, Adrian didn't immediately refuse," Jia Hyson objects, thankful that Adrian's character had been well fleshed out in the beginning rather than introduced terribly during the period where the plot was at its worst. "He hesitated for a few days as he seriously considered taking it for the sake of the money. He could have very well accepted the offer but Jenna had already turned it down for him since he was taking too long."

"So you think if Jenna let him have more time he would have said yes?"

Jia Hyson didn't even hesitate, "Of course. No matter how high his pride is, Adrian values his family more." He pauses and then squints down at his Bebe Bangle. "Adrian's main personality traits are very simple, even a child could understand... are you really sure you're not the cheap one out of both of us?"

Bebe: ... QAQ

When Adrian arrives a week later at the address he's been told by his incredibly excited coworker, he has to stifle the pure jealousy in his heart as he stares at the luxury apartment before him.

"I used to have an apartment in a building like this," he says sadly as he passes security and enters the elevator. "Actually, forget the apartment, I even bought the building because I didn't want to pay rent."

Bebe ignores the whining of his ex-local tyrant host. Over the past few months it is sure it has heard about every lavish aspect about Jia Hyson's original life and has long grew numb to it all.

"Then I thought, I'm rich, why don't I buy a bunch of apartments to get money from."

Yes. Numb to it all.

"So I bought ten but I didn't like taking care of them."

Numb to it all.

"After a week I gave up and hired a man to do it for me."

Numb...

"But it felt a lot like paying rent anyway so eventually I just bought the guy's company with the money I earned renting apartments and the royalties from my new book. Got turned into a movie you know?"

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ Bebe has gone temporarily offline.

At the notification, Jia Hyson smiles helplessly at his silly, easy to bully system. Feeling great, he steps out of the lift and onto soft carpeting. With a nervousness that's only half-faked, he rechecks the text on his phone and heads to the last door to the left, knocking softly. "Hello? Jenna it's Adrian,"

"Adrian!" Jenna flings open the door with a grinning face so fast he suspects she had been waiting by the door the whole time. He can't help but chuckle a little at how similar she was to Maddy. Her cheeks flush as she eyes up her very handsome coworker in a casual white shirt and tight blue jeans.

Jia Hyson smiles awkwardly, looking self-consciously down at his simple clothes, "Is this okay? You just said jeans and a t-shirt but I didn't-" he trails off hesitantly, ducking his head down while his blue eyes shyly look anywhere but at the young woman in front of him, seemingly like a person completely out of his depth.

It was enough to make the coldest person melt much less a young, greenhorn like Jenna. "No way! You, you look good," She stammers.

"Jenna!" A grumpy voice calls out from another room, "Is the model here yet? I have a thing in a few hours remember?"

"Sorry uncle!" Jenna calls out, not sounding very sorry at all. She even has the face to grin and roll her eyes cheekily at Adrian, very different to her usual demure appearance at the cafe. She really is a lot like the main character and he chuckles again. "My uncle has volunteered to help take photos for my portfolio, he's a bit harsh but he knows how important this is to me."

Adrian blinks and nods, following Jenna to her studio. Internally Jia Hyson was a little intrigued at where the plot divergence was leading. Jenna, this barely considered mob character, seemed to be secretly a rich second generation with dreams of being a fashion designer. Her uncle doesn't seem too simple either. If he had followed the plot and refused Jenna's offer he would have never known anything about them.

It truly feels in this moment that he's no longer in a story but a proper world.

"Hello uncle," Adrian greets politely, lowering his head in a slightly submissive pose as he feels a strong scrutinizing gaze hit him. He shivers, feeling a little violated At the assessing gaze.

"Not bad," A gruff voice finally says after a minute of uncomfortable silence, "even if he's just a vase he's a damn pretty one."

"Uncle!" Jenna cries out embarrassed at his rudeness.

Adrian straightens his back and looks directly at this uncle with a faint smile. "Well I trust you'll be able to make this vase shine for Jenna's sake," he lightheartedly flatters with a charmingly self-deprecating smile.

Unfortunately, it seems Jenna's uncle was resistant to his looks. With a snort he goes back to fiddling with his camera, "Even if you were a pile of stinking dung I can still make something acceptable for my niece."

Adrian lightly laughs but under his obedient expression Jia Hyson darkly curses. Who's a pile of stinking dung? Look at this beautiful face and have the gall to say that again! He dares him!

Bebe: Bebe has looked at your face and after careful analysis Bebe can conclude that... you're a pile of stinking dung.

The pile of stinking dung Jia Hyson: "(凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 Cheap systems should learn to shut their mouths! (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸"

Bebe: ╮(╯∀╰)╭

Jia Hyson: F*ck your mom!

Of course none of this even flickered onto his face. His past life experience of being a famous author and his current life of enduring a hundred different jobs in the service and retail industry have hardened his facial muscles to maintain a first rate gentle smile. Unless you were inside his head, no one could know he was silently writing gory, horror torture porn featuring everyone that has ever wronged him.

Bebe who is inside his head: Bebe begs its abnormal host to please stop, Bebe is sorry, Bebe cannot unsee what has been seen ಥ_ಥ

Jia Hyson: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

As Jia Hyson changes into Jenna's first outfit, he quietly admired her handiwork. "This girl has good taste," he tells Bebe seriously, "do you think she'll let me keep an outfit?"

'If she says yes Bebe recommends you take the grey suit.'

Jia Hyson raises an eyebrow as he examines a very stylish grey and silver suit. It gives off a novel futuristic without looking too ridiculous that he couldn't walk into the street with. Personally he thinks his original Asian appearance would pull it off better but there was no denying that wearing this suit would make many heads turn for him. "Bold choice, why?"

'Because Bebe believes it matches with your grey morals.'

Jia Hyson: ... system you've changed (°ㅂ°╬)

'Bebe has watched you secretly steal from the trash and scam people for money, Bebe no longer has respect in its eyes for you.'

Jia Hyson couldn't deny that. But who's fault was it to make his character be so caring while having so many financial difficulties?!

He didn't want to eat unwanted food either! But apparently schools were huge money hungry monsters that insist that he had to pay extra for Madeline and Monroe's compulsory end of year middle school and high school leadership camping trips. Adrian's parents told him that they refused to pay for it despite promising to at least cover their education costs so he had to tearfully hand over the cash. They didn't even provide the camping gear so Jia Hyson had to starve himself over a tent.

F*ck his sh*tty parents and f*ck the education system!

Walking out of the closet, Adrian smiles shyly as he spreads out his arms. "Jenna, what do you think?"

Jenna takes one look and then another, before pinching herself and squealing, "Yes! Oh, this is exactly what I wanted! This is perfect!" She greedily takes in the pure white clothes with golden edging and decoration she had painstakingly made in hopes for a prince like man to wear them. Once again she thanks all the gods out there for her good luck in getting a job at that cafe where such a high quality man worked.

Even the old uncle looks pleased at how good he looks. "Not bad kid, now sit on the couch."

Jia Hyson saunters to the couch, giving it a scrutinizing look before laying splayed out on it like a lazy yet elegant noble. He tilts his head up and stares deeply in the camera with an arrogantly seductive stare, like he was goading the camera to pull him off his magnificently high horse and dirty him up. He's an arrogant prince, a tyrant, a domineering beauty, you couldn't keep your eyes away from him even if you wanted to.

The uncle couldn't speak. No one could. Only the sounds of camera shuttering were heard while Adrian adjusts his posture every minute or so.

Jia Hyson feels rather pleased with this result. His original level in modeling was a 42 since he's participated in some photoshoots beforehand and has some idea what to do. Adrian apparently was naturally photogenic so that added an extra 10 points to his stats. During the week before this shoot, Jia Hyson snatched two fashion magazines from the trash, burrowed another from a different coworker and bought a Basic How to Model guidebook (20p) from BeBay to study intently on. Every night he would practice posing for an hour and a half with Bebe being his judge. Since Bebe was a piece of technology that made supercomputers look like children's toys it was nothing for the system to absorb information from the books and the internet and compare them with Jia Hyson's poses.

By the morning of the day, his modeling stats was a very passable 68. It didn't make him a top model by any standards, but his decent grasp of lighting and camera angles as well as a nice variety of poses allows him to have a fighting chance with the above average models.

"That's good, tilt your head a bit to the left, arms on your lap, yes, sneer a little, perfect," the camera uncle rambles, getting happier and happier at how unexpectedly well-trained this amateur seemed to be. Pulling away from his camera he cracks Adrian a satisfied smile. From the way the smile strains against his craggy face, Jia Hyson can't help but assume this old man doesn't smile too often. "You're not bad kid, this really your first time?"

Dropping his icy prince facade Jia Hyson's face softened back into the usual gentle Adrian's smiling face, his cheeks flushing a little at the compliment, "En," he confirms embarrassedly.

"Good," The uncle murmurs as he subconsciously snaps a few more shots. The smile has melted the original cold and haughty demeanor, transforming the arrogant noble into a benevolent pure prince instead. While it wasn't what either Jenna or the uncle had in mind, the change was so alluring they both knew they had to seriously consider keeping those photos. "Good, very good!"

Jenna in the background excitedly waiting with the next outfit in her hands gapes at her uncle. The amount of times her grumpy uncle had complimented anyone out of the family could be counted with her fingers. She knew when she first saw Adrian that he would be a man who could happily live on just his looks alone but she didn't really think he had this much raw talent. Not enough to garner her uncle's praise anyway.

She grins widely. It seems she hadn't mistaken a fish eye for a pearl when she asked for Adrian's help.. Not only was her uncle going to take her suggestions more seriously now it was clear her portfolio was going to be the envy of all her classmates.