My Ex's Fatal Obsession

He kills the girl on the screen without blinking, and I realize I am next.

The glow of the monitor reflects in Felixs eyescold, calculated, indifferent. We are ten years in the past, huddled in his room, but the chill settling in my marrow belongs to a future he cannot see yet.

Shes gone, Nova, he says, his thumb hovering over the controller. "Shes just an NPC. Once the quest is marked 'Complete,' the code deletes her to save memory. She doesn't exist anymore."

She doesn't exist.

The words hang in the air like a guillotine blade. He thinks hes explaining a game mechanic, but I know better. He is reading my obituary.

My fingers dig into the carpet. I am not like him. I am not the player. I am the glitch, the quest-giver, the temporary girl.

"Then you have to marry me, Felix," I whisper, my voice trembling with a terror he mistakes for childishness.

He laughs, but I don't. I lean in, desperate to make him understand the rules of this cruel, coded world. "Because if you don't bind me to you the moment our story is over, the System will wipe me out. And you will never find me again."

Chapter 1

As the game neared its end, I asked Felix, "I really liked that fairy I met this morning. Why can't I find her anymore?"

Felix ruffled my hair. "She was an NPC. Once her task is over, you won't see her again. Even if you managed to find her, the game won't let you talk to her. But," he added, "if you really want to interact with her, you can always restart the game from the beginning."

I gripped the controller, stunned, before looking at him seriously. "Felix, you have to marry me when we grow up. Otherwise, you'll never see me again, and you'll never be able to talk to me again."

The room erupted in laughter, and even Felix chuckled. No one took it seriously.

That was why, when he eventually decided to marry someone else, he did so without a second thought.

But life isn't a game. You can't just hit restart.

I, however, am reala disappearing NPC.

Two years after Felix married Laurel, I made it to the solo finals of the Apex Gunner Championship.

During the global livestream, as the contestants took the stage one by one to reveal their faces, the esports world exploded when it was my turn.

Since I had abruptly quit my guild and vanished two years ago, everyone assumed I had retired due to an accident. They never expected I had switched to solo competition.

I had no choice.

Felixs reach is limitless. He basically owns this industry. If I had joined a team, he would have definitely pressured my teammates to get to me.

As a solo player, I answer only to myself, win or lose.

The day-long grand final came to a close, and I successfully claimed the world solo championship.

In a foreign land, with gold confetti raining down on me, there was no one there to celebrate with me.

I was twenty-three.

The road to championships would only get harder from here. I bowed my head and kissed the trophy, cherishing the moment.

The nights here in the US weren't safe for walking alone, so I sat at the entrance of the arena to calm my nerves.

I found myself missing my eighteen-year-old self.

That year, I won a trophy in my very first offline tournament. After the match, my teammates and I went to the food trucks outside the venue to eat barbecue and celebrate all night long.

Felix sat in his Maybach by the roadside, keeping me company the entire night.

He hated the smoke and grease of street food, so for every tournament after that, he would book a restaurant in advance and treat all my teammates and fans to a late-night feast.

He wanted me to be happy playing games, and he wanted everyone to look after me just as he did. So, he took care of everyone involved in my career beforehand.

But now

My memories came to a halt. I pulled my coat tighter, opened my umbrella, and prepared to head back to the hotel.

A Chinese staff member rushed up to me. "Miss Nova, Mr. Felix is looking for you."

She dialed a number and held the phone up to my face.

Expected.

It had been five hours since the face-reveal livestreammore than enough time for Felix to pull strings and contact the staff here.

The call connected instantly.

"Nova! Is that you? I"

Before Felix could finish his sentence, the signal cut out.

The staff member tapped the screen in confusion. "Huh? The signal is full here. What's going on? Mr. Felix? Boss, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you. Give the phone to Nova!" Felix's voice was urgent, fierce enough to jump out of the phone.

The staff member hurriedly handed me the phone. But weirdly enough, the moment the phone was in front of me and Felix started speaking to me, the signal turned terrible.

I silently pressed the hang-up button.

There was no point in struggling.

You can't fight the System.

The staff member took the phone back and switched SIM cards, sweating with anxiety. "Miss Nova, could you leave me your contact info? Mr. He seems to have an emergency."

Indifferent, I gave her my number.

Felix wouldn't be able to get through anyway.

As I turned to leave, the staff member called out to me again. "Miss Nova, Mr. He just messaged. He says he's boarding a plane now and will arrive in Silver City tomorrow night. He told me to tell you not to run off and to wait for him to come find you."

Chapter 2

The staff member continued, "He also said" She looked at me, finding it difficult to go on. "He said that if you still intend to work in esports, don't even think about running away."

Her gaze was complex, likely speculating on the drama between Felix and me.

I smiled, thanked her, and left.

Actually, Felix shouldn't have come.

I was even more convinced of this when I saw a news report about a car crash the next evening.

Felix's car had inexplicably lost control, crashed into a concrete barrier, and flipped over. The driver was unharmed, but Felix suffered a head injury and was rushed to the hospital.

His assistant called me, asking anxiously, "Miss Nova, where are you? Mr. He is in the ICU. It's critical. I'm coming to pick you up."

I refused. "I'm not family. I'm not his wife. It's not my place to visit."

After hanging up, I boarded my flight back home. Staring out the window in a daze, I couldn't help but want to ask Felix something.

Did he remember that ordinary afternoon ten years ago?

Did he remember the words he told me himself?

Once the NPC mission is over, we will never see each other again.

Even if he finds a way to locate me, we cannot speak.

I had already given him the way to break the cycleI told him he absolutely had to marry mebut he didn't listen at all.

The bullet I fired years ago had finally found its markright between his eyes.

My role was to drive the romantic arc between Felix and Laurel.

As an NPC, I seemed destined to be a foil for the chosen ones, just a tool to advance the mission through interactions.

But sometimes, I wanted to be the main character too.

Like in the matter of falling in love with Felix.

We were engaged since childhood. Three years older than me, he took meticulous care of me, giving me the massive illusion that I could fight against the world's hardcoded storyline.

I knew exactly when Felix would have a change of heart, so I tried to prevent it.

When he started his freshman year of college, he was supposed to meet his classmate, Laurel. From the moment they met, they would be attracted to each other because of their impressive strengths.

Laurel came from humble beginnings, and with methe fiancestanding in the middle, they danced around their feelings, hesitating to move forward.

My existence was just to create a love triangle, pushing them step by step to realize who their true love was.

Then I, the NPC, would be discarded, and they would tie the knot.

That was the original main mission.

To fight against the Script, I forced Felix to go abroad for college.

At that time, everyone thought I was crazy.

Felix had decided to stay in the country and fight through the college entrance exams just to spend more time with me.

That time, I broke his heart.

"Since you're training at the youth academy and can't come to the States for high school with me, why do you have to drive me away?"

"Do you know what such a long distance means?"

"Are you not planning to be with me anymore?"

I shook my head, repeating "No" over and over.

No one was more reluctant to part with him than I was.

He was my future husband, and he had always been like a big brother to me. Felix took better care of me than my own parents. Being separated by thousands of miles felt like being flayed alive.

But everything that happened later showed just how ridiculous I was.

The System only needed a single scholarship certificate to send Laurel to the States as well.

My efforts were flimsy, futile against the world's rules. They still met and got to know each other.

Half a year after he went to the States, Felix came back to spend the Lunar New Year with me.

I excitedly went to the airport to pick him up, but I ended up picking up both him and Laurel.

Compared to the immature me, he and Laurel were a perfect matchtalented and beautiful. They really did look better together.

Chapter 3

After returning home that day, I asked Felix directly, "Do you have feelings for her?"

Felix gave a helpless smile. "You're overthinking it. We're just classmates."

But the flash of panic in his eyes wasn't hidden well enough. He had definitely caught feelings.

I hired someone to look into their interactions in the US. I wanted to see exactly how far things had gone.

If they had held hands or kissed, I would have given up right then. Id play the part of the devoted fiance for a few years, wait until they officially got together, and then make my graceful exit.

But there wasn't a single intimate gesture. Every meal was just a group gathering with other classmates.

When Felix caught me running a background check on Laurel, he lost his temper with me for the first time.

"I told you there's nothing going on between us. Why did you have her investigated?" he demanded. "Laurel is self-made. She has nothing but her reputation. Don't you dare ruin it."

The guarded look in his eyes stung me deeply.

Hot tears welled up as I asked, "Is that how you see me? As someone who would use my status to bully others?"

Seeing the tears in my eyes, Felix finally calmed down. "I'm sorry, Nova. I got a little too emotional."

I calmly accepted his apology. But after that day, I practically lived at the training base. I rarely went home.

Since I wouldn't go back to the villa, Felix started coming to the base to see me. Rain or shine, he showed up every single day.

When his break ended, I went to see him off at the airport. He hugged me gently. "Nova, please stop being mad, okay? After this semester ends, I'm transferring to Winslow State."

My parents told me to stop being dramatic, annoyed that I was risking the merger by upsetting Felix. But Felix just smiled, claiming it was his fault for not making me feel secure enough.

The US was about the size of our home country. After his transfer, he and Laurel would be on opposite ends of the countrynorth and south. It looked like their paths wouldn't cross anymore.

He proactively reported his schedule and sent me his location every day.

Especially after I turned eighteen and started competing in major tournaments, Felix never missed a single one of my offline matches. He treated twelve-hour international flights as if they were nothing more than a commute.

I gradually began to think that maybe, just maybe, I could trust him one more time.

"Nova, next year when you turn twenty-two, let's get married."

I held out my hand, letting him slide the ring onto my finger. I looked him in the eye and told him seriously, "Felix, you have to keep your word. If you marry someone else, I really will disappear."

He smiled and agreed, pulling me into a gentle embrace amidst the cheers of the crowd. "Don't worry. Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I'll find you."

But just a few days after my birthday, Laurel returned to the country.

The day she arrived was the same day I was leaving for my first international competition.

Just after we finished checking in, Felix took a call from Laurel and made a last-minute decision not to go with me. He apologized again, launching into a detailed explanation about how Laurel was in some kind of serious trouble.

I cut him off.

I knew exactly why Laurel was back and when she was coming backbetter than he did.

I turned toward the security checkpoint, leaving Felix with just one sentence: "Just make sure you remember to marry me."

Seeing that I wasn't angry, Felix breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Of course, that's a promise."

He watched me leave, unaware that after that glance, we would be parted for years.

Two of my teammates couldn't handle the local food and climate, and their condition was terrible. We made several mistakes during the match and didn't even qualify for the podium.

Toxic fans called us idiots, hurling one curse word after another. Since I was the only girl on the team, someone even threw trash at me.

Outside the arena, in the bone-chilling five-degree weather, we bowed in apology until midnight, then headed back to the hotel on empty stomachs.

On the way, we were stripped of everything by armed robbers.

One of the robbers got agitated and his gun went off. The bullet grazed my thigh.

Chapter 4

At the hospital, since my injuries werent immediately life-threatening, the staff told me to wait.

I waited until dawn. My teammate finally managed to borrow a phone from a contact, and we took turns calling home to mark ourselves safe.

As an NPC, my family bonds were scripted to be non-existent. My parents werent close to me, so I called Felix directly.

But I never expected that the first thing he would say after picking up was:

"Im sorry, Nova. Im going to marry Laurel."

I knew Laurel returned because she was young and impulsive. She had acted without considering the consequences and blown the whistle on her company.

The company had forged evidence to pin the blame entirely on her. She found out early and fled back to the country, hoping to marry Felixwho held citizenship in a non-extradition countryto use his status as a shield against extradition.

On the other end of the line, Felix explained everything in a deep voice. I stared blankly at the bloody, mangled wound on my leg, in too much pain to speak.

"Nova, Laurel spoke up for justice. I cant just stand by and let her rot in prison. Just wait. Once the case is over and shes safe, Ill divorce her. I promise Ill marry you."

Losing the match, being cursed at and humiliated, getting robbed at gunpoint in a foreign land, suffering a gunshot wound and being told to wait at the hospital

After a night of absolute hellthe freezing cold, the hunger, the painI hadnt shed a single tear.

Until this moment.

My tears fell onto my wound, mixing with the blood. It burned. God, it hurt so much. It felt like my heart was being ripped out through my chest.

"Theres no need. Felix, I wish you both happiness."

I hung up the phone, sat on the floor hugging my knees, and cried until I couldn't breathe.

He was the heir to the He empire. Finding a strategic marriage to fix Laurels legal mess would have been child's play for him