Harem Sync: Divine Edition - Chapter 23: "The Price of Protection"

“Block him.”“He's technically still my boss.”“Then block him with dignity.”The call ended again.And then started again.I let out a sound somewhere between a growl and a sob, then finally answered with the enthusiasm of a snail crawling through salt.“Yes, Mr. Walton?”“Have you changed your mind yet?”I collapsed onto the towel and gazed at the sky as though it might consume me entirely if I pleaded sweetly enough.“Do you ever take a break?” I asked, shielding my eyes with one hand.“You're avoiding the question.”“Because it's a dumb question.”He exhaled, the sound sharp and irritated even over phone. “It's not a dumb question. It's a business offer.”“It's a weird offer-one that I already said no to.”There was a brief pause, and I could practically hear him clenching his jaw through the speaker.“You are acting unreasonably.”“ Unreasonable?” I sat up. “I'm not the one drafting fake girlfriend contracts like it's a normal Tuesday.”“Isabella-”“Certainly not, Mr. Walton.” I mimicked his tone perfectly. “I told you I'm not doing it. You need to find someone else to play pretend with.”SYNOPSISIsabella Miller thought saying no to her boss’s fake dating offer was the end of the story.But Adrien Walton doesn’t take no—especially not when he’s convinced she’s a gold digger.Suddenly, her student loans are piling up, her father’s vet clinic is on the brink of eviction and her brother is about to be kicked out of college. Coincidence? She thinks not.Adrien Walton is calm, calculating—and he's just pulled every string to corner Isabella into the perfect position.Now she’s stuck choosing between pride and survival.So she agrees to his offer: be his fake girlfriend.No feelings attached. No drama. Just business.Or so she thought.“Conference Room B. Fifteen minutes,” he said, passing by without a glance.The folder he pushed across the table landed with a thud.I opened it. The contract. All of it.---Enemies to lovers? Check.Slow burn? Hmmnyea.Banter so sharp it might file your nails? Yes.Delicious workplace tension? Of course.Tension that could melt steel?Absolutely.Smut?? Wanna find out?Welcome to corporate romance warfare. There’s no escaping this contract.

Severin Reignhart was just an ordinary gamer—until a truck accident sent him into the world of Legacy of Heroes, a novel he had once read.But instead of becoming the protagonist or even a powerful villain, he finds himself reborn as a complete nobody. An extra with no screen time, no future, and worst of all… no real strength.His so-called Talent Ability—Command—doesn’t make him stronger. Instead, it grants a 300% boost to the abilities of those who are bound to him and follow his orders. A powerful buff, but utterly useless when he is weaker than even the lowest-ranked students at Zenith Hero Academy.Thrown into a world where strength is the only law, Severin quickly learns that if he can’t fight, he’ll be crushed. Refusing to accept the fate of an extra, he turns to manipulation, deception, and blackmail, using his intelligence to twist the battlefield in his favor. If he can’t be the strongest, he’ll control the strongest.With the looming threat of world-ending catastrophes and prodigious heroes destined to take center stage, Severin must navigate the deadly hierarchy of the academy. He will recruit, betray, and outwit both heroes and villains—because in a world where power is everything, strategy is his only weapon.And one thing is certain: he refuses to die a nameless extra.

After someone took my life away from me, I felt something or someone pulling my entire being together with my memories away from me and placing them into somewhere where it was cold and hollow. And when I thought that my life came back to me...

I realized that my new life as one of the dead had already begun...

"Who am I?"

Which path will this soul choose? A path of Perseverance or a path of Ruination?

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P.S: This is my first novel that I write so there is bound to be mistakes...so go easy on me xD

The Devil’s Den was Cosette’s favorite webnovel that she had followed for three whole years. She waited for updates, wallow in those empty days during the author’s constant hiatuses, cry and laugh with the characters; it was already a part of her short life.

Cosette really wished that the novel would never end despite that she was terminally ill.

But after three years, The Devil’s Den finally came to an end. With a reader as invested as Cosette, she had mixed emotions about the ending. Not that the ending was disappointing, but what disheartened her was the ending of her favorite character; the villain Maxen Devilsin.

One year later, Cosette took her last breath only to wake up in the body of the stunning Cosette Blac; the villainess of the novel The Devil’s Den, her second favorite character after the villain.

Granted with the opportunity to live in the world of her favorite novel before the main story starts, Cosette had a plan.

That was to simp over the characters and save her favorite characters whilst hoping that the female and male lead still have their happy ending.

In a world that was already written and events that were expected to happen whether or not they wanted to, can Cosette change the course of their lives? Was overwriting the characters' fate could save them? Or would it just give them a much worse ending than what the author had given them?

Watch Cosette as she tried to become the superfan and give the dark-themed story some light.