Bloody Triangle in a Romance Fantasy
Riley, the rich young lady of the Evons household, had always lived a wanton life, doing things as she liked with no one daring to deter her to do otherwise.
However, at some point of her life, something within her seemed to have changed.
As to at what point…
Perhaps, it all started from that one particular incident.
On a certain bright sunny morning.
Somewhere in the middle of the vast ocean, a three-decker ship rode the curling waves with ease, its superior-quality exterior shimmering exquisitely under the sun.
The sea was calm and the wind wasn't that particularly fierce and yet, it was exactly at this moment that a huge rock suddenly emerged out of nowhere, causing the ship to jolt back and forth.
Chaos erupted upon the collision, the noise and sharp movement stirring the then dozing young captain of the ship awake from her sleep.
"W-What happened?"
Having just been forcefully yanked out of her dreams, Riley rubbed her bleary eyes to slowly adjust to the brightness of the room, her shoulder-length black hair a mess and her bearing of a supposed leader nowhere to be found.
The 19-year-old young lady blinked and blinked. Although the rocking movement had ceased after a short while, her confusion hadn't been settled but rather elevated as she caught sight of a book sitting right under her eyes, its surface glistening with some ambiguous liquid.
Unsurprisingly, she had recognized whom the liquid belonged to but not the book.
In the first place, how can the thing enter her room without her knowledge? Riley creased her eyebrows.
Finding the book's presence questionable, she swept her sleeves against the cover to clean the stain and squinted at the title, nearly blinded by the glaring words in bold.
<< Bloody Triangle in a Romance Fantasy >>
Yuck, What the hell is that!
In normal times, the illiterate Riley who would get migraine whenever she was faced with a wall of text and plain text only without any interesting pictures in it would've dumped the book straight to the trash bin and leave without a word however, today, she had actually missed her throw, accidentally dropping the book to the ground.
It was official then. Her mood had been successfully dampened for the day.
And yet, as if it wasn't enough, the book – as sneaky as it was – used the chance to perform exceptionally and flipped open to expose a page with an exquisite picture where there sat a tragic figure she couldn't be any more familiar with.
'Yo, isn't that yours truly, the great me?'
Riley's eyebrows rose, the ends of her lips twitching as if impressed.
How bold.
Someone had actually got the gall to write a fanfiction about her, and in a book with such a promiscuous title at that?
Truly atrocious. She laughed.
It would be a lie if Riley wasn't offended at this point. However, her curiosity had long overshadowed her annoyance, thriving miles away that she couldn't stop her hands from reaching out to take JUST a single look, at first.
Initially, it was all just pure curiosity that stemmed out from her desire to know just how bold one could be however, the more she read, the more obsessed she got. It was to the point where she simply couldn't peel her eyes away from the text that kept on flipping page by page on its own.
And thus, time ticked and without any trouble, she finished them all in one sitting.
In fact, it wasn't as if it was that amazing or mind-blowing of a book. Rather, it was anything but that.
Slap!
Finally, after reaching the last page, Riley closed the book and let out a cold sigh, her head giving out steam.
This… What the hell did she just put herself through? Was this even fitting to be called a piece of literature?
Riley frowned, her lips curling to form a sneer.
<< Bloody Triangle in a Romance Fantasy >>
Hah.
At least, the thing had stayed true to its name.
The book was truly no more than a corny love triangle where the playgirl female lead's heart hovered in between two hot, handsome and influential hunks, being wishy-washy whilst not knowing who to choose.
Throughout the entire book, the three were involved in numerous ridiculous but supposedly romantic disputes, pushing and pulling till they stumbled on some random rock and oops, somehow reached the final ending.
No world-building. No background. No substance at all and only kissing, kissing, and more kissing with the additional angsty 'forced' type to add more drama and pad up more word count!
But that was not the worst.
What's worst was, she, the great Riley, had actually only appeared in one scene and preposterously kicked the bucket a few lines of text later, her role nothing more than a tool for the second male lead to further advance his 'awesomeness'!
Riley nearly broke her teeth after gritting them for too much.
Where's the promise of the book being a fanfiction of the great her?!!!
This is a scam! A SCAM! She demanded a refund!
Riley banged the table hard.
But first of all, and most importantly, who's the bastard who wrote this piece of trash?
Who's the moron who dared to reduce her into a villainous cannon fodder who wasn't even worth a few more extra screen time?
"Who dared to belittle me like this?!!" Riley bellowed, her voice blaring loud as they rang through each and every corner of the three-decker ship.
If it was any other ordinary day, her supposedly reliable handmaiden slash right-hand assistant Lily would've rushed into the room with teary eyes, hitting her chest dramatically as she expressed her extreme remorse for letting her lady down.
However, instead of the girl's dramatic entrance, all Riley heard was the beeping sound of something mechanical and foreign.
Riley lifted her head and saw something too otherworldly to be true.
"What are you?" She raised a finger to poke at the blue screen hovering in the air, unsurprised when her finger caught nothing and simply passed through it.
The screen let out a few beeping sounds before it flashed multiple times in excitement.
[Congratulations Host, for successfully breaking the Fourth Wall! As a reward to your prestigious achievement, you will now be bound to the Self-Saving System!]