41. Money

Lance felt his whole body chilling.

He closed his eyes, and fatigue overcame him.

"Let's finish for today and go to sleep." Paige stood-up, not really that surprised by the system. She had already thought this was the outcome of kicking the storyline wholeheartedly.

Outside the sun shone brightly, a new day had started.

"Don't think about it too much, isn't it just acting?" She repeated the nonsense she had said before.

Lance chuckled; this could become their running gag. Following her upstairs, he stopped and said

"Good night."

"Good night." Paige directly went to sleep.

Lance lay awake a bit, but he had exhausted himself already, even without making arduous conversations. Now, he was just deadbeat, and his injuries throbbed painfully.

When they woke up on Sunday night again, having overslept the whole day, they sat down and talked with the system again, making demands and compromises.

The result of their talk was the following:

Paige will not be beaten, raped, or killed.

Paige has to make Meier her long time enemy, how can she decide herself.

Paige has to taunt the female lead at every turn, but she doesn't have to read down text because that didn't work anyway. Lance has to defend the FL if Paige is being mean.

Lance can be disgusted with the female lead, but he has to fall in love or make it at least seem like it in the following year.

Because Paige and Lance have shown a suspicious closeness since day one, they are now cousins. Not really, but the system arranged documents that could lead to this conclusion.

And they can act naturally with each other even outside.

The system compromised by stopping micromanaging them for at least now. Then, they would see how it goes.

Finally, both Lance and Paige must finish school in the next three years because the storyline will then progress to college.

"What? No way!" Paige showed the most resistance because of the school.

"Really? Not bullying or making enemies are the problems, but school? While it is your second ride anyway?" Lance narrowed his eyes. He looked a bit puffy after sleeping all day.

"I don't want to. I dropped out of school at sixteen." Paige's face, meanwhile, looked better after applying medicine. The pimples crusted over slowly.

"Then congratulations, you are back again." Lance threatened her with his eyes.

"If I have to fall in love with someone I don't find even remotely attractive, you can at least go there without sleeping!"

"But the female lead is your soulmate; where is my soulmate?" Paige demanded while she didn't have the energy for one anyway.

"What does this even have to do with school? System?" Lance asked, confused, and gave the question to the other.

[Paige Blunt has no soulmate.]

"There you have it." Lance triumphantly smiled while Paige mumbled something inaudible.

"Do I have to?" She asked them in a whiny tone.

"Paige, let me make this clear." He took a sip from the hazelnut milk he was holding because that was the only drink besides water at home. That pause made him look very cultured, especially when he sipped his drink before threatening her bluntly.

"The world will be destroyed if you don't start going to school and playing your role. And while I couldn't care less about anyone else, I don't want to die. So if I have to drag you to school, take away your TV and bed, or tie you up in front of a book, it doesn't matter to me." 

"Okay." Paige sighed resignedly

'Ha! She immediately gave up even on giving up. What the fuck is wrong with her?' Lance was grumpy because of the system and the overall situation. He was somewhat dissatisfied to be Paige's cousin, too. Maybe he wanted to be her brother more, but he didn't know himself. He could somewhat understand Paige, with this much pressure he would love to hide in his soft bed.

"Ah." Paige suddenly remembered.

"What about school? Are we not kicked out for not having attended?"

[The system had arranged for Paige Smith's sick leave. Jace arranged Lance Walker's sick leave.]

"Jace, huh?" Paige mumbled.

Lance was surprised, but maybe this came as a service with the hush money.

He looked at his phone and checked his bank account. He had his bank information written down during their awkward lunch last time, then forgot about it.

When he opened the app, he was staring repeatedly at the many zeros. He gulped.

'That is a hell of hush money.'

Lance put his phone back in his pocket, and while he felt much better, his lip twitched upwards.

"Paige, is there a way to make money in this world you know about?"

Paige took out from nowhere an empty sheet fully packed with writings. She handed it to him casually.

"The fuck is this?" Lance's mouth was open, looking at her in awe.

"Bets," she said smugly. Paige knows all too well how it is to be poor. She would never complain about not getting enough money because what she had gotten was not something she worked for herself. But that did not mean it was not hard to live at the poverty line.

So naturally, the first thing she did after transmigrating was write down all the bets the system provided her with. The system had repeatedly promised that she would never run out of money. 

And drugging the female lead, kidnapping the female lead, private detectives who stalked the female and male lead, and her war with Meier- all of this cost a ton of money.

The Original Paige would later be kicked out of her family after she went overboard. Where did the money come from?

While the original Paige could get it back by doing business, what did Paige, a High school dropout with no interest in economics, know about business?

Paige did not believe in the system, so it had told her a lot of information upfront- which Paige always had on herself.

"Hahahaha'' Lance laughed happily. Now, he felt delighted with this form of royalties. 

There were football bets, horse racing, billiards, tennis, golf- you name it, the list had it.