Charlotte's voice softened, becoming husky, a sound that tugged at Leo's heart. She walked back towards the man on the sofa, her steps deliberate and slow.
Leo, who had just started to get up, instantly froze when he noticed her abrupt shift in demeanor.
"The business is done. But…" Charlotte reached the sofa and gently pushed, settling Leo back down.
She leaned in, her dark hair falling forward, carrying an enticing fragrance. She whispered softly into his ear, "I haven't talked to you about… 'personal business' yet."
She lifted her hand, her index finger lightly tracing his Adam's apple, then sid down from the collar of his bathrobe to his collarbone.
Her eyes had completely changed. Gone was the cool detachment of the negotiation, replaced by a naked, provocative possessiveness—a primal drive for dominance.
Leo's pupils narrowed. He suddenly reached out, gripping her wrist tightly, and pulled. Her body tumbled into his embrace. "What act are you trying to pull now?"
Charlotte smiled even more seductively. Her hands rested lightly on his chest, a few strands of hair dangerously grazing his neck. "I heard you never take part in the casting couch. I wanted to see if…"
"If it was true…" Her voice was barely a whisper. Under his gaze, which burned with feverish heat, she lightly kissed his thin lips.
Leo's body tensed. Her provoative challenge instantly ignited his own desire to dominate.
He fiercely cupped the back of her head, returning her kiss like a hunter's urgency, trying to strip away her pretense...
Just as he was about to press her down, her hand gently blocked him, and she deftly untied his bathrobe.
He went back to intensely kissing her. His hand stroked her back, but she subtly guided it behind him.
While he was distracted, she used the bathrobe's belt to bind his wrists. As he watched, puzzled and astonished, she slipped out of his grasp like a water snake.
With a smug, arrogant smile, she stood up from the sofa. The physical intimacy was abruptly broken.
"It seems the rumors were wrong." Charlotte chuckled softly, watching Leo's gaze clear and his face turn ashen. "Leo, not so fast. I said I wanted to 'see' if it was true; I didn't say I wanted to experience it. What's more…"
Charlotte tauntingly gripped at Leo's bathrobe collar, her eyes both teasing and cautionary, and whispered close to his ear, "My value isn't just my brain and the center position. To get me, you'll have to show some real sincerity."
[Ding! Detected intense emotional fluctuation in Capture Target Leo! Affection unlocked, Affection +15%, Capture Progress 20%! Host temporarily released from elimination crisis!]
Charlotte sbreathed an internal sigh of relief, yet maintained that mysterious, dangerous smile on her face.
She knew she had succeeded. Before this power-broker, she had successfully established a dual identity—an inscrutable creature that was both quarry and predator.
She winked playfully, then bid Leo farewell in excellent spirits. "I look forward to our next bit of 'personal business.'"
With that, she turned, pulled open the door, and left without looking back, her confident, dashing figure disappearing into the hallway.
As soon as she stepped out of the room, 520's voice sounded in her mind again.
[Warning! Host has activated the 'Center Spot' Side Quest.]
[The Host has entered the crosshairs of a High-Risk Target!]
A High-Risk Target, she thought? It seemed the mastermind behind the scheme had noticed her.
A spark of fighting spirit flared in Charlotte's eyes. Her opponent had given her such a setup; she had no reason not to return it.
Over the next 24 hours, she had to start her counterattack within the program using her new identity and rules.
She had to debut as the center, she had to catch the mastermind, and most importantly, she had to survive!
She tightly gripped the original owner's phone. She would absolutely get justice for her!
Although it was late when Charlotte left the hotel, but instead of returning to the dormitory prepared by the production team, she rented a secluded guesthouse nearby.
She quickly processed the large sum Leo had given her, anonymizing and laundering the funds through cryptocurrency, and withdrew the necessary capital.
She called the assistant, Lucas. "Do me a favor. Transfer my grandmother to a private nursing home with the highest security."
Lucas proved to be Leo's capable aide. Less than ten minutes later, he initiated a video call.
As she looked at the kind, white-haired eldery woman on the screen, Charlotte adopted the original owner's coaxing tone. "Grandma, this is my friend. He's taking you to a new place to recover. Remember to be a good girl and listen to the doctors, okay?"
"I'm a big star now and I have lots of money, so don't worry. I'll come see you very soon."
After patiently listening to her grandmother's instructions, Charlotte immediately hacked into the original hospital's system, changing her grandmother's transfer information to "Discharged" to mislead any potential trackers.
Following her instructions, Lucas left an encrypted tablet with the nursing home nurse so Charlotte could contact her grandmother later.
"Ding!" At seven in the evening, just as Charlotte finished the last sip of her juice, her phone popped up with the live link to the Starlight emergency press conference.
On the screen, Leo, impeccably dressed in a suit and looking grave, faced the camera. His first sentence was forceful and clear.
"I, Leo, deny all accusations of a 'casting couch' scandal. Everything that happened last night was an organized, premeditated, malicious frame-up!"
After Leo spoke, the screen immediately switched to a medical record and played a voice recording—a message the original Charlotte had sent to her best friend before meeting Leo.
"...Grandma... is sick. I'm so scared… I need money, I need money to save Grandma…"
Leo then shifted the public focus. "My trainee, Charlotte, dared to take a risk for her loved one and has suffered secondary injury from cyberbullying!"
"But now, we have scientific evidence! Residual traces of a new type of sleeping agent were found at the scene! This was an 'assassination plot' targeting the production team!"
A professional forensic report was displayed in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Leo gravely announced, "We will not allow this conspiracy to succeed. However, given the enormous impact this incident has had on both trainee Charlotte and the show, we have decided to…"
"Turn over the right to decide her fate to the most impartial judges—the audience!"
"Starting now, for 24 hours, Starlight will launch a 'Verdict of Destiny Vote.'"
"The audience's vote will determine whether Charlotte can return to the stage. We trust the audience's judgment!"
Leo's live stream ended, and a voting interface immediately popped up on the screen.
The audience's frenzy was instantly ignited. The comments were dense, and the voting data was skyrocketing.
#Charlotte Verdict: SUPPORT 30% / AGAINST 70%#
The 70% rejection vote was a heavy mountain pressing down on her.
Charlotte knew that the traffic Leo gained by playing the 'pity card' was pushing her towards the abyss. She had only 24 hours.
She opened her newly purchased laptop and her fingers flew across the keyboard.
[Warning! Fluctuation detected in the underlying data!]
A cold smile curled Charlotte's lips. Before she even started her own hack, an IP address disguised as an internal staff member of the production team had already injected a program to tamper with the underlying data of the voting system!
"Want to play a numbers game?" she murmured to herself, her eyes shining with excitement.
She tapped the last line of code on the keyboard, making slight modifications to the program her opponent had planted.
"I'm here, 'Hunter.'"