Stop Hypnotizing Me, Villainous Princess!

Chapter 2 : S-level plot characters

Lynn was long ready to end it all.

Feeling the cold barrel pressed to his forehead, he was strangely calm—even a bit amused.

Crossing into another world was supposed to be a dream come true, especially when it came with a bound system.

But when both crossed his path, what should’ve been a blessing became a complete "beautiful demise."

It had been half a month since he’d arrived in this world.

Now, Lynn was convinced that this system had latched onto him with the sole purpose of ruining his life.

[Character Name: Carola Beryl]

[Plot Level: C]

Glancing at the lines hovering over the sobbing Carola’s head, Lynn sighed inwardly.

Yet again, this wasn’t the right match.

With a resigned shrug, he was about to close the system.

Just then, a notification popped up in front of him.

[System is inactive. Please complete the preliminary task to unlock all features.]

[Detecting user status...]

[User currently exhibiting "negative behavior"… Warning! Warning!]

There it was again—the nagging system.

Staring at the flood of warning pop-ups littering his view like snowflakes and listening to the sharp buzzing echoing in his mind, Lynn felt numb.

"Go on, shoot."

He spoke to the burly man pointing the gun at him.

It wasn’t like he really wanted to die.

But after days of this mental assault, a fresh start sounded better than dealing with endless headaches.

In a twisted way, this system was unique. It didn’t follow the rules he’d read about in other novels, where systems threatened their hosts with all kinds of punishments to force them to complete tasks. 𝔯𝒶ꞐΟ฿Εs̈

This one didn’t punish him. It just… warned him.

And those warnings were like retinal tattoos—imprinted on his sight, bright red, impossible to ignore even with his eyes closed.

And the buzzing sound? That drilled right into his consciousness, no chance of blocking it.

As long as he didn’t complete the preliminary task, the system flagged his actions as "negative behavior," and the torment was endless.

Lynn hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in two weeks.

All he felt now was the pulsing of an unbearable headache.

Each time his head touched the pillow, it was like he’d committed an unforgivable crime, bombarded by endless pop-ups and ringing, leaving him no peace.

Drinking was the only relief he’d found.

The system’s "emotional value" far outweighed its actual usefulness, he had to admit.

And that value, if you asked? Apart from nausea? Not much.

Still, it got to him.

Fine, if this was so miserable, why not just complete the task?

That was his initial thought, too.

But after seeing the task’s details, he went straight to despair.

The task was just one line, so simple it seemed almost ridiculous.

[Please make contact with an S-rank plot character and raise their plot divergence by 0.01%.]

He set aside "plot divergence" for now.

An "S-rank plot character" had to mean someone integral to the main storyline, a character who could alter the course of events or affect everyone’s fates.

And even without the system’s guidance, Lynn knew such characters were rare.

There might only be a few of them in the entire world.

The good news was, this world came from a Western fantasy novel he’d read in his past life, so he still had a sense of the storyline.

The bad news? He was currently in Orne, a remote border city, far removed from the heart of the Saint Roland Empire.

Just from common sense, an S-rank character, rare as they were, would only appear on the grand stage of the Imperial Capital.

Most of the story unfolded there, after all.

Even if there were exceptions, they’d never be in an out-of-the-way place like Orne, which didn’t even get a mention in the original story.

So his only way forward was to head for the capital.

And that required money—a lot of it. But with his current aimless state, coming up with that kind of cash anytime soon was near impossible.

An endless cycle.

Lost in thought and assaulted by the system’s harassment, Lynn was in his own world.

The gunman, however, was bewildered.

He’d seen plenty of people beg for mercy, but asking for death was a first.

"Are you… sure you want me to shoot?"

"Do it!"

"D-don’t force me!"

"I’m begging you—just pull the damn trigger!"

"You—!"

Watching the young man clutching his head, a hint of madness flickering in his eyes, the gunman swallowed hard.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger on his revolver.

Despite his rough appearance, he’d never even been in a real fight before.

So now, in this bizarre standoff, the one pleading to be shot was facing off with someone too scared to pull the trigger.

The tension hung, comically, in the air.

"Forget it, Warner." Carola finally intervened with a sigh. "Put the gun down."

"Y-yes, sis."

The gunman, now addressing her as "sis," obediently put the revolver back in his pocket, breathing a sigh of relief.

Then, almost instinctively, he took a step back to keep a safer distance from Lynn.

"So you figured out my plan all along? When did you realize?" Carola crossed her arms and stared at Lynn, expressionless.

She had even used a bit of charm tonight to lure him in, but in the end, it was all for nothing.

He had to be certain Warner wouldn’t shoot, which meant he wasn’t afraid at all.

With that, any leverage she had was gone.

After all, she didn’t dare let her brother go down for murder.

"From the start."

The system’s warnings had finally softened, easing the pounding in Lynn’s head. He relaxed a little.

Carola raised an eyebrow. "I don’t believe it."

"It’s true." Lynn rubbed his temples. "To me, a beautiful woman is like a thorny rose. The closer they get, the more wary I am of getting pricked."

"Smooth talker." At being called "beautiful," Carola initially wanted to scoff, but she couldn’t help a slight smile.

"Still, I don’t sense any of that wariness from you."

"Fine. Maybe I misjudged you this time. Consider yourself lucky."

Leaving those words, Carola turned and walked towards the door without a backward glance.

Halfway there, she stopped suddenly.

"By the way, what’s your name?"

"Lynn."

"Lynn, I hope we don’t meet again… No, actually, let’s make sure we never do."

The thought of everything that had just happened reignited her anger.

This kid was annoyingly sly, acting innocent while making cutting remarks.

No, you two will definitely want to see me again soon enough.

Watching the pair of siblings leave, Lynn smirked.

Then he flipped his right hand, revealing two items in his palm.

One was a gun, the other, a woman’s wallet.

The gun was Warner’s, naturally, and the wallet had been lifted from Carola when she’d pushed him down.

From the start, Lynn knew he looked like easy prey for her.

But, in the end, the mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

To him, she was the perfect "lamb."

Right now, making money was his top priority.

One part of his mission required him to meet strangers and hopefully stumble upon a match to complete the task, while the other part required him to scrape together enough cash to get to the capital.

In that case, the source of money didn’t matter.