Now alone in her apartment, Jennifer felt her breathing even out, her heartbeat settle, and her brain whirr back to life like the apartment lights flicking on.
Whew. The effect Adrian had on women was a public health hazard.
How dare he smile at her like that? She distinctly remembered forbidding it.
He also called her a goddess. That part had been disturbingly calm — as if he were stating a job title. And when he called her beautiful?
For some reason, her memory blanked out immediately after that.
Her traitorous brain replayed the lift conversation anyway. She could still feel the heat rising to her cheeks at the memory of answering him with nothing but breathless "yeses."
What kind of goddess writes a side character with brain-melting powers that only work on her?
Probably the same kind of goddess who writes alien portals into her perfectly lovely and peaceful neighborhood.
Jennifer found her laptop balanced on the sofa exactly where she had left it. She powered it on.
She desperately needed to check her earlier drafts. She was absolutely certain she hadn't published them.
And why was Adrian an Awakener?
It was like she was one of those lazy webnovel writers who reused side characters.
Oh my god.
She reused main characters too.
Why did Damien and Angus end up in an Awakener university?
Pandora Awakeners University.
PAU.
That was the local university they had just enrolled in.
If the Awakener university was real — along with Awakeners and Class A Restoration potions — then what else was real?
The first thing she noticed on her webnovel platform was that all her current novels had uploaded new chapters again.
All of them.
Updated exactly at 12:00 a.m.
All five webnovels.
Yes. Five.
Including the new one — with a five-chapter first release.
Of course she clicked on the new novel first.
That wasn't supposed to be published.
That wasn't even spell-checked.
And definitely not released with all five chapters at once.
Those were drafts.
But the book was neatly edited. Professionally formatted. Launched with a sleek cover and a bold title:
PANDORA'S BOX UNLEASHED
A chill slid down her spine.
It wasn't anything she hadn't written.
So why was dread pooling in her stomach?
What if…
What if her webnovels were playing out in real time?
PANDORA'S BOX UNLEASHED
CHAPTER 1: A NEW BEGINNING
QUINTIN'S POV
Here I am.
A small farm boy in a big city.
I still can't believe I received a scholarship from PAU. It feels like my life is finally turning around. Maybe the heavens have seen my hardship. Maybe justice does exist after all.
Back in my sleepy countryside home, my parents ran a farm. They worked hard, and our land was good — but the mayor and the small-time gangsters who ran the area made life miserable for ordinary folks.
I still tried to be the good guy.
I studied hard. I got good grades. I even asked my childhood crush out.
I wasn't rich, but I would have been content with what I had. Life isn't fair. The powerful always reign above us. But I had naively believed I could still be happy with my lot.
Mabel and I would build a modest home. I would work hard and earn a better life for us.
Little did I know that even this humble dream would be trampled.
My parents' farm had to cough up larger and larger "fees" just to continue operating.
Administrative fees to the mayor's office.
Protection fees to the thugs.
Eventually, the savings they had set aside for my education were gone.
The mayor's son — and his gang of high school delinquents — often bullied me.
Despite my grades, my scholarship applications were rejected again and again.
And then came the final blow — the last nail in the coffin.
At my lowest point, I reached out to Mabel for comfort.
Only to find her with the mayor's son.
"I feel sorry for you," she said. "But I don't want to live a life of poverty. Please forget about me. I'm moving to greener pastures."
"But…" I wanted to argue. I had been willing to give up everything for her. I worked part-time jobs just to afford our dates and the gifts she wanted. I ate packed leftovers every day so I could buy her fresh juice in the mornings.
Her smile was worth it.
I loved her sincerely.
"Quintin." Mabel smirked. For the first time, her smile looked ugly. "You're a smart guy. I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner. Why would a beautiful girl like me choose you?"
She laughed — and it was an ugly sound too.
"Didn't you notice? I only met you when I needed help with schoolwork. Thanks to your free tutoring, I scored well enough to get into PAU."
"And the mayor's son?" I asked.
"Oh, Mike?" she said lightly. "He wasn't planned. Just a happy bonus. Dating you made him notice me."
Something inside me shattered.
"No…" I whispered.
Then I fell to my knees and shouted at the heavens.
"Why would you do this to me?!"
Oh.
Jennifer blinked.
Quintin was a lot more dramatic in his head than the quiet boy standing in her lobby tonight.