MMORPG: Birth of the World's Luckiest Player-Chapter 136: The Echoes of My Heart

The days after Marcus handed over that letter became the most agonizing stretch of his life. Every morning began with expectation and ended in disappointment, his thoughts circling endlessly around Anya and the hope that she might give him some kind of response, even a brief acknowledgment. But as one day slipped into the next and an entire week vanished without a word, the silence grew unbearable. The letter he had placed so carefully into her hands felt as though it had been swallowed by a void, leaving behind nothing, not even an echo.

He couldn’t stop himself from questioning everything. Maybe Anya truly felt nothing for him. Maybe he had misunderstood every smile, every shared moment, convincing himself there was something more when there never had been. The doubt pressed down on him constantly, yet he refused to give up. As long as she hadn’t explicitly rejected him, he clung to the belief that there was still a chance, however small. To Marcus, silence did not automatically mean no.

That belief, however, began to crack as their encounters grew more strained. Whenever Anya spotted him, her discomfort was unmistakable. She would lower her gaze, pretend not to notice him, or excuse herself so quickly that he barely had time to greet her. Each interaction felt like a small, deliberate wound. Eventually, the uncertainty became too much to bear. He needed an answer, and he resolved to confront her, to speak plainly and put an end to the torment.

Before he could do so, she disappeared.

Without warning, Anya left Crestwood University. She was simply gone, and every path that might have led to her was cut off at once. No messages, no explanations, no chance for closure.

The realization struck Marcus with brutal clarity. She didn’t love him. She wasn’t hesitating or confused; she was avoiding him entirely. For someone hopelessly and recklessly in love, the truth was devastating. What he had treasured as intimacy had been, in her eyes, nothing more than a comfortable friendship. The moment he tried to change that, he destroyed the fragile balance between them, leaving her with no choice but to run.

To hell with being just friends. Marcus had never wanted that. He had wanted her completely, wanted to give her everything and be everything to her in return. And yet, he had failed, not just in winning her heart, but even in being seen as someone worth considering.

At that time, Marcus was young, proud, and painfully full of himself. He had been so certain of his own importance, so convinced that she would accept him, that no one else could possibly suit her better. Having that confidence crushed so thoroughly was more than his hot-blooded temperament could endure. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

In a surge of wounded pride, he made a decision that was as immature as it was hollow. He would find another woman, someone even more beautiful and exceptional than Anya, and prove that she had been wrong to turn him down. He wanted her to regret her choice, to recognize what she had lost. Without realizing it, he turned love into a petty contest, a way to protect his bruised ego rather than heal his heart.

What he didn’t understand then was the simple, brutal math of the heart: if Anya didn’t love him, it wouldn’t matter if he found ten better women, or a hundred. To her, it would mean nothing at all.

His first love left him broken. It had arrived like a violent storm, intense and overwhelming, but because it moved too fast, it never had the chance to take root. It withered before it could bloom, leaving behind only regret and ache.

It was during this time, while he was still nursing his pride and plotting his misguided revenge, that Marcus grew close with his bros on the basketball team: Andrew, the eldest; Leo, the second; Silas, the fourth; and Vance, the fifth. Through Andrew, he also met his sister, Serena; one of Crestwood’s celebrated "It Girls," and widely considered the kindest and most gentle of them all.

Andrew and Leo were a year ahead of Marcus, while Silas, Vance, and Serena were in the same class as he was.

At the time, Marcus was little more than a walking bundle of frustration and bitterness. Serena’s sudden presence felt almost unreal, like a gift dropped into his life by some merciful twist of fate. Beautiful, soft-spoken, and possessing a warmth that naturally drew people in, she stayed by his side when he was at his lowest.

For three months, Serena became his quiet refuge. She soothed the lingering pain of his first heartbreak, patiently mending wounds he hadn’t realized were still open. Without force or expectation, she helped him step away from his obsession with Anya and guided him into a love that was deeper, steadier, and far more real than anything he had known before.

From the very beginning, Serena looked at Marcus as her anchor. Her world revolved around him, and for someone who had just been discarded, that devotion brought overwhelming comfort and validation. His damaged pride was healed by her sincerity, and before he realized it, he had fallen for her completely. She became his most cherished treasure.

Serena brought color back into his life. Under her gentle influence, his desire to spite Anya faded away entirely. He stopped caring about proving himself to someone who had already moved on and instead immersed himself in the warmth of the love he shared with Serena. The unreturned passion he once held was redirected toward the girl who chose him without hesitation, whose affection was steady and forgiving, like calm water.

By the time Anya returned to Crestwood five months later, Marcus had already sealed away his first love. The pain, the longing, and the bitterness had been buried deep in his heart. Their relationship settled into exactly what Anya had wanted from the beginning: a simple, uncomplicated friendship.

But life was not finished with him yet. The invisible weight of social standing, family expectations, and rigid hierarchies descended without mercy. The unspoken rules of prestige created a wall Marcus and Serena could not climb. Their sincere love, no matter how real, had no place to stand against such overwhelming pressure, and eventually, it was torn apart.

When Marcus looked back on his journey through love, the differences were clear. His feelings for Anya had been a wild storm, the reckless infatuation of an arrogant boy who wanted possession without understanding. It arrived loudly and vanished just as suddenly, leaving behind a bitter lesson.

His love with Serena, however, had been grand and consuming. For three years, they shared happiness, passion, and devotion, believing wholeheartedly that they would never be separated. When it ended, it did so in a way neither of them could accept or forget.

And now, there was Lily.

What he felt for Lily lacked the chaos of his first love and the dramatic intensity of his romance with Serena. Instead, it was calm, grounded, and enduring. It was built on mutual respect and quiet understanding, a sweetness earned through hardship rather than impulse.

His love for Lily was like a river, gentle on the surface yet carrying immense strength beneath. It did not fight obstacles head-on, but wore them down over time, flowing steadily no matter what stood in its way. What they shared might seem simple, even unremarkable, but as time passed, it only grew stronger and more unyielding.

Marcus knew this with absolute certainty.

No matter what happened, he would never let Lily go. He would never allow her to suffer, not even for a moment.