Right on the third year of my brother's disappearance, eighteen skeletons were dug up underground in Everbloom. One of them was the worst -- 180 stab wounds, each one piercing the bone.

In his hand, he held a slip of paper tightly.

[Don't be afraid, I'm just going home. If you can't hold on, go back home too.]

The system sounded an alarm in my head.

[The value of family and affection strategy has dropped to 10%. Host, please perish and return to the original world as soon as possible.]

That evening, I put on my wedding suit and sent the suicide note to the family group chat.

My fiancée, who accompanied my adopted brother, replied, "Are you out of your mind?"

My mother, Miranda Muller, a movie queen, kept calling me, urging me to take off my suit and go over to apologize to my adopted brother, Santiago Muller.

My older sister, Megan Muller, who was a police officer, also scolded. "You knew, Santiago couldn't accept that you were going to marry Briella after he lost his memory, yet you still wore your wedding suit to irritate him, trying to make him sicker, didn't you?"

No one cared about the suicide note. No one knew I put on the wedding suit not to marry Briella, but -- to bring out the serial killer who murdered my brother, to completely break free from this world that had trapped me for twenty-five years.

Only my younger sister, Margot Muller, a lawyer, sent several voice messages.

"Sergio, do you know anything?"

"Is that corpse Timothy? Is the note left behind meant for you?"

I didn't reply to any of them, just holding my brother's photo.

Under the escort of numerous plainclothes police officers, I headed toward the hotel.

——

I sat in the wedding car and the policemen disguised as bridesmaids and groomsmen had complicated expressions.

"Have you really made up your mind? To lure out the psychopath, you might end up losing your life."

"Although this case concerns whether Ms. Muller will be dismissed, you don't have to gamble your life ...."

I responded softly, "I did this and Megan has nothing to do with it."

They had no comment and just assumed I was still angry with Megan.

Someone said, "I'll call Ms. Muller. She should be there to watch over you in such a dangerous situation."

I watched him start dialing and just curled my lips.

As soon as the call was connected, he said, "Ms. Muller, Sergio Muller is going to be a bait to catch the psychopath right away, I'm afraid it's going to be a dangerous mission, you ...."

Before he could finish his words, the call was abruptly disconnected.

And right at that moment, my phone rang. I pressed the answer button with a blank expression and Megan's angry curses were heard from the other side.

"I originally thought you were just selfish and ignorant because we spoiled you."

"I never thought you would even abandon your bottom line in order to force a marriage."

She gritted her teeth and questioned me word by word.

"Not only have you driven your own brother's condition worse, but now you're shamelessly having my colleague lie and say you want to be the bait. Do you want to deceive us into pitying you and softening our hearts to agree to your marriage with Briella?"

"Sergio, you're just like your adoptive father, a shameless bastard who dares to use such a big case to satisfy your selfish desires!"

Her words were harsh and sharp like a knife.

"Get over here and get down on your knees to apologize to your brother!"

"Make it clear in front of everyone — Briella has nothing to do with you and it's you who's being shameless and foolish, trying to steal your brother's wife!"

I listened as my grip tightened bit by bit.

When she compared me to my adoptive father in that tone, I went blank.

When she investigated the records, she found that my adoptive father had drugged me to please his lover and sent me to her bed.

I was struggling to escape, but he struck me on the head with a vase, leaving a permanent scar on my forehead.

That time, she trembled, her eyes red, as she stroked my scar and she swore in anger and determined tone.

"Sergio, I won't let any of those who wronged you go."

I let out a bitter laugh and spoke calmly.

"My adoptive father is Santiago's biological father."

"As you say, he is the one who inherited his father's bad character."

"He did try to steal his brother's marriage by acting crazy after all."

"Aren't you also accomplices?"

There were a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone and then I heard my younger brother's, Santiago Muller, frantic crying.

"Sergio, I really didn't mean to ... I was sick and I couldn't remember some things. I didn't know you and Briella ...."

"Mom, Megan, Briell. I never thought my illness would make my brother unhappy. I might as well die."

Soon, Miranda's furious roar came. "Enough, Sergio! If you still have any conscience, come and apologize now! Otherwise, we'll sever ties with you from today!"

I heard a commotion on the other end of the phone, as if someone had snatched the phone away.

It was Briella Landau.

Her voice was cold and impatient.

"Sergio, cancel the wedding immediately and come over here to kneel down and apologize to Santiago."

"Otherwise, I'll break off our engagement."

I lowered my eyes and replied calmly, "Alright."

Then she hung up the phone.

The police officers exchanged glances. No one mentioned asking my sister to keep me company again.

The wedding car stopped at the hotel entrance.

Just as I opened the car door, a fishy smell hit me in the face. Egg peels and even the fishy liquid splashed onto my suit.

I was pushed backwards and almost missed a step.

"Bastard! You stole your brother's girlfriend and you still have the nerve to force her into marriage! You even dared to use the psychopath case to act pitiful. I have to teach this bastard a lesson today!"

"Even the gentle mother of him, a former Best Actress, was driven to tears by him! Such a son is better off dead!"

I just realized, my phone call with my family was live-streamed by Miranda.

Some people pulled my hair, kicked my body and forced me to kneel down and bow, while the others were tearing my suit and holding up cameras to record my miserable state.

"Kneel and apologize to your brother and mother!"

"And this suit! Is a worthless man like you worthy of wearing it? Tear it off!"

I was so in pain that my fingers were trembling, yet I still raised my head and shouted.

"I didn't do anything wrong."

"Why should I apologize?"

The crowd was in an uproar, then Megan and Miranda's bodyguards rushed over and forcibly pushed the crowd away.

Megan was so angry that her voice trembled.

"Still dare to say you did nothing? I told you not to use your relationship with Briella to provoke Santiago. So why did you insist wearing a suit for the wedding? Why did you have to stage such a forced marriage farce?"

However, when she rushed over and saw me clearly, she froze.

The suit on my body was tattered and barely covered my body, with injuries all over. My forehead and body were covered in foul-smelling liquid.

She instinctively rushed over and tried to wipe the stuff off me.

She asked Miranda in a low voice, trying to keep her voice steady, "Mom, how could you broadcast live while we are on the phone? And also bring these people here?"

"What if this incident drags Santiago into it again?"

There was a hint of reluctance in Miranda's eyes. But upon hearing Megan said that, she replied sharply, "Who made him do wrong? He deserves it."

I took two steps back, avoiding my sister's hand and spoke calmly, "I'm not here to force a marriage. Briella's decision to cancel her engagement with me and marry Santiago instead has nothing to do with me."

"I'm here to be the bait to catch the psychopath."

Miranda's face turned pale in an instant.

Before she could say anything, Megan slapped me in the face. Her expression was complicated, with a hint of panic mixed in with anger.

"I warned you not to use a major murder case involving dozens of innocent lives as a trick to manipulate our sympathy!"

She took a deep breath, her face regained its coldness and her voice became even more ruthless.

"You're just like that brother of yours — heartless and immoral!"

"He betrayed Margot and ran away with the money."

"Afraid of being wanted, he secretly gave false testimony, slipped a note into the victim's hand and faked his own death."

"I've already told you, that person is definitely not that bastard Timothy, but that idiot Margot, really took it seriously. She was so drunk that she didn't even bother investigating the case!"

The crowd cheered up.

"Isn't Timothy the scumbag who ran away with the money back then? His passionate videos were all over the second-hand websites and you don't even need a dollar to watch them, hahaha!"

"A despicable man like him disrupted the investigation of a murder case. He deserves to die."

I clenched my hands as my heart ached as if it was being torn apart.

Three years ago, Timothy Arnaut discovered that Santiago was faking amnesia and acting insane.

However, Timothy went missing before he could hand over the evidence to me. Before he went missing, he was drugged and bullied for a whole night. The passionate video of the incident was put on a second-hand website and sold for less than a dollar.

At that time, he begged Margot, his fiancée, with red eyes, to help him with the lawsuit.

But on the day of the trial, Margot, a top and zero-defeated lawyer, sat in the plaintiff's seat, playing with her manicure from beginning to end, without saying a word and soon -- declared to have lost the lawsuit.

On the day she came out of the court, she put away her attitude and sneered, dropping a sentence, "This is what you get for bullying Santiago."

"This time we're just showing your video. Next time, we're going to sell you on the black market to be the Afronia people plaything."

That day, Timothy, who had never shed tears before, hugged me and cried for a long, long time.

The next day, he disappeared.

I spent three years searching for him, but Margot always faced it with ridicule. "He's just playing missing and wants me to find him. He wants to play as he pleases. I wonder how long he will last."

Until ... the victims of the psychopath dismemberment case were discovered in an abandoned basement in Everbloom.

In my mind, the system finally reported Timothy's death.

My brother died at the hands of a psychopath.

And the system also determined my ending.

For ten years, I had been trying to conquer family and love, but failed every time. So, the system asked me to perish and leave to the original world.

But at least, I wanted to use my death to seek justice for that poor victim.

***

Briella walked over with a sullen face and warned me. "Since you insist on going against us, then as you wish, I will cancel our engagement."

I nodded, pulled my phone out of my bag and made a statement.

[I, Sergio Muller, cancel my engagement with Briella Landau.]

I raised my phone and showed them.

"Is this okay?"

Miranda, Megan and Briella were shocked to see my behavior and stood there in a daze.

Briella looked at me in disbelief, then she gritted her teeth and continued. "Okay, then I'll have to abort the baby in my belly, so you don't have to use the baby to bother me later."