Chapter 1

My bestie stole my online boyfriend, who was supposedly a rich heir.

They even posted my picture on the game forum, mocking me for being ugly, poor, and short, saying I didn't deserve to play the game.

At the game's offline fan meet, she and her boyfriend stood on the stage, enjoying everyone's praise.

Wearing a brand-name knockoff, she linked her arm with his and swaggered over to gloat in my face.

I spun around, sat down in the board director's exclusive chair, and sneered at her stupidity.

"Haven't you realized yet? The guy next to you is actually a professional parasite who fishes for rich girls in games."

Right now, the game forum was absolutely blowing up.

The reason? My "rich heir" online boyfriend and I had just broken up.

He had hooked up with my bestie, Hailey, and immediately went public with their relationship right after dumping me.

To make matters worse, they teamed up to post a picture on the forum, claiming it was me, and dragged me for being ugly, poor, and short.

They said a loser like me didn't deserve to play the game.

I clicked on the photo. It was a completely random girl I had never seen before.

Hailey had just grabbed a random picture from the internet and insisted it was me. It was enough to get a mob of mindless internet trolls to cyberbully me.

"Honestly, I'm shocked Dusty put up with such an ugly girl for so long. I would've dumped her way sooner."

"Even if Luna is ugly, she’s still the number one player on the server leaderboards. Maybe Dusty just admired her skills at first? Still, exposing a girl's photo like this is a bit low, isn't it?"

"Come on, Dusty is a rich heir. He has class. Luna must have done something terrible to cross his line for him to snap like this."

Luna was my in-game username.

Well, they got one thing right, though it was actually the exact opposite.

Dusty's real name was Dustin.

It was me who tolerated his skills, not the other way around.

It all started three months ago. I joined a random dungeon raid, and Dustin happened to be in the party.

During the fight, I realized our synergy and coordination were top-tier.

But that was it. I didn't have any romantic thoughts.

To my surprise, after the raid, he sent me a private message.

He asked to partner up so we could take the number one spot on the server's Couple Leaderboard.

That was the only reason I agreed to link our accounts as an in-game couple.

Outside of the game, we barely spoke.

Soon after, I successfully claimed the number one spot on both the Individual Leaderboard and the Couple Leaderboard.

Dustin was right behind me at number two.

To stay at number one, you had to either grind dungeons endlessly or spend insane amounts of money on microtransactions.

I didn't just pay for my own account; I paid for Dustin's, too.

Thinking back, Dustin only started getting really affectionate after I began buying him stuff.

Between the gifts I willingly bought and the things he subtly hinted for, I had spent at least a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on his account.

I had told him multiple times that we were just an in-game couple and nothing more.

But Dustin ignored me. He acted like my actual boyfriend, sending me "good morning" and "good night" texts every single day.

Later, I found out that whenever I went offline, Dustin would equip the limited-edition skins I bought him to flirt with other girls in the game.

Because he was handsome in his profile pictures, he was pretty popular on the forum. Combined with the rare skins that only top spenders could afford, everyone assumed he was a wealthy playboy.

During that time, I was busy preparing for my college entrance exams, so I didn't pay much attention. But that didn't mean I didn't care.

Dustin completely ignored my boundary. He never once mentioned to his fans that I was the one who bought him those skins.

I only tolerated him because his gaming skills were decent.

But nobody expected things to escalate to this point.

Now, he was finally showing his true colors.