To save the world’s brooding, future supervillain, I tried everything. I tried being his girlfriend; he dumped me in a week. I tried being his private tutor; he fired me for no reason. I tried being his stepmother; he had me thrown out of the house. For my final chance, I cashed in all my points with the System for a "Bloodline Alteration Pill." I regressed my body and mind to that of a three-year-old. Then, at the most critical moment of his arcade game, I rushed forward, hugged his leg, and yelled, “Daddy!” His body shuddered. He lost the game. His delinquent friends erupted in laughter. “Whoa, Ryder, man! When did this happen? Your kid’s already this big?” Ryder, still in his high school uniform, roared back, his voice echoing through the arcade. “I just turned eighteen! I’m still a virgin!” 1 Ryder’s shout was so loud that everyone turned to stare. His best friend, Leo, froze. He quickly clapped his hands over my ears. “Dude, kid’s right here!” Ryder glared down at me, his eyes radiating a glacial chill. “What kid? I don’t know her!” He tried to shake his leg. “Let go, kid!” I just hugged him tighter, pressing my cheek against the denim of his jeans, pretending I couldn’t hear a thing. Suddenly, strange text floated in my vision. I couldn't read the words, but luckily, an AI voice read them aloud for me. [The villain is just a kid himself. How’s he supposed to raise a kid? This mission is doomed.] [This Operator has really tried, though. Attempt #1: Girlfriend. He claimed he was allergic to women and broke up with her.] [Attempt #2: Tutor. The villain said she brought bad luck by entering the room with her left foot first. Fired.] [Attempt #3: Stepmother. He told his dad she was cursed and would kill him. His dad is… superstitious.] [If this attempt fails, the Operator will be erased, right? Then the villain will go dark, and the world will be destroyed.] I didn’t understand any of that. But it didn’t matter. I’d found my daddy! Ryder’s face grew darker and darker until he finally just kicked me away. I rolled across the floor like a little ball. Pain flared across my body, and I could already feel bruises forming. Why was Daddy being so mean? I stared at him, stunned. Leo gasped. “Ryder! What if she starts crying?” Ryder sneered. “Not my damn problem. I don’t even—” “Daddy.” I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the pain, and ran back to hug him again. “What the f—” He caught himself, a vein throbbing on his temple. “Why are you so damn clingy?” He stared at me. I stared back at him. The air in the arcade turned strangely silent. One of his buddies spoke up. “You know, Ryder… she actually looks a lot like you.” Leo picked up something that had fallen out of my pocket. He stared at it for a long, silent moment. He patted Ryder, who was still fuming, on the shoulder. “Dude,” Leo said slowly. “When… when exactly did you make this mistake?” Ryder’s eye twitched. He snatched the paper from Leo’s hand. A DNA test. Paternity confirmed. Father-daughter relationship. His anger was so extreme it looped back around into a twisted smile. He crouched down, pinching my cheeks between his fingers. “Alright, kid, tell me. Who sent you? Who faked this test? What’s your goal here?” His voice was a low growl. “Don’t you think I’d know if I’d ever been with a woman? I had a girlfriend once, but I never even held her hand!” His grip was strong, and my face hurt. He’d already kicked me; why was he still being so mean? A wave of injustice washed over me. My eyes welled up, but I bit my lip and held back the tears. “You are Fifi’s daddy!” A storm was brewing in Ryder’s eyes. He let go of my face, and my cheeks bounced back into place. The sudden release made me lose my balance, and I plopped back onto the floor. Ryder’s scowl almost broke into a laugh. He coughed a few times to cover it up. “Call the cops,” he said flatly. “Maybe she’s my dad’s illegitimate kid. He can deal with her.” An hour later, Ryder walked out of the police station with me in tow. His face was a mask of pure despair. “She’s really my kid?” “Holy shit!” 2 I tilted my head, confused. The text appeared again. [Fifi is adorable, but it’s a shame this mission is destined to fail.] [In three days, the villain’s father is going to bring home his mistress and their illegitimate son. The mistress will constantly bad-mouth the villain. Feeling misunderstood and unloved, the villain will go street racing, get into an accident, and have his leg amputated.] [After that, his personality will darken. The mistress will deliberately introduce him to drugs. He’ll completely break down when he learns his mother has remarried.] [He’ll lose everything. His friends will betray him. He’ll meet the story’s heroine, his one ray of light, but she’ll end up giving all his company secrets to the hero.] [That’s when the villain will snap. He’ll kidnap the heroine. The hero, his father, and the mistress will all die horrible deaths. He’ll even kidnap his mother’s new child… After getting revenge on everyone who ever hurt him, he’ll jump off a building.] I didn’t understand, so I ignored it. I instinctively hugged Ryder’s leg, becoming his personal ankle-warmer again. “So, what’s the plan, man?” Leo asked. Ryder looked like he’d aged ten years. He, a teenager, was already radiating exhausted dad energy. He ran a hand through his hair, reflexively wanting to shake me off but stopping himself. “Whatever happens,” he muttered, “my dad can’t find out about this.” He lifted me onto a nearby planter. “Do you have a name? Who’s your mom?” My stomach rumbled loudly. I gave him an embarrassed little smile, interrupting his interrogation. “Hehe, Fifi’s hungry.” Half an hour later, a scowling Ryder led me into a McDonald’s. I grabbed an icy Coke, but he snatched it away, frowning. “You’re having a Happy Meal. Kids can’t drink Coke.” Kids? I remembered the text. Daddy was a kid, too! Ryder took a big gulp of the Coke. Before he could swallow, I reached up and squeezed his cheeks. Hard. PFFFT— Coke sprayed all over my face. I beamed at him. “Daddy, you’re a kid, too! You can’t drink it!” Ryder’s jaw clenched. He looked at me, drenched and sticky, and took a deep, steadying breath. And another. Finally, he covered my ears and whispered one word. “Fuck.” [Wait, how did this tragedy turn into a comedy? I’m dying!] [And it seems like the villain has already accepted he has a daughter. This move was brilliant! Way better than being his girlfriend.] [Let’s just wait and see. I refuse to believe someone as rotten as the villain can take care of a child.] Whatever the text said, Ryder, despite his obsessive cleanliness, took a wet wipe and started scrubbing my face. It wasn’t working. The sticky residue wouldn’t come off. So much for Coke Zero. He pulled out his phone and typed into the search bar: [Is it okay to throw away a dirty child?] The AI read the search query aloud. I puffed out my cheeks and poked him. “You can’t throw me away!” My voice trembled. “Bad Daddy! You already kicked Fifi, and Fifi still hurts!” His gaze fell to the purple bruises already forming on my arms and legs. His fingers, holding the phone, froze. A flicker of guilt crossed his face. “...Sorry,” he mumbled. “That was… that was my fault. Don’t be mad at me.” He looked down, his long eyelashes hiding the emotion in his eyes. [HOLY SHIT, THE VILLAIN APOLOGIZED?!] [Is this the power of blood ties? After four failed attempts, this is the first time I’ve ever seen him be gentle…] [This is kind of sad. The villain has never known love. To suddenly have a daughter who depends on him completely… he must be terrified.] I didn’t understand the text. All I knew was that I had held back my tears when he was mean to me. But the moment I heard his soft, gentle voice, it was like a feather landing on the surface of a lake, becoming heavy with water, and sinking to the very bottom. My heart sank with it. My lip trembled, and big, fat tears started rolling down my cheeks. “Daddy is good,” I hiccupped. “Fifi is just a baby who’s scared of pain. Hic.” “Daddy, please don’t leave Fifi.” 3 Ryder’s pupils contracted. He froze. After a long moment, as if he’d made a momentous decision, he took my sticky, Coke-covered hand in his. His voice was a little hoarse. “Okay.” He wiped away my tears, which only made me break down completely. I started wailing. My cries were so loud that a customer at a nearby table looked around, confused. “Is someone boiling a kettle?” Ryder’s fingers tightened on mine, and his ears turned bright red. In a moment of sheer desperation, he shoved a piece of fried chicken into my mouth. The world fell silent. Thirty seconds later, I was still holding the chicken. “Dis thing (chew, chew, chew) is sho yummy! (chew, chew, chew)” Ryder sighed. “Even food can’t shut you up!” By the time he’d taken me to a department store, given me a bath, and bought me a mountain of new things, it was already evening. He held my hand, his steps slow and measured. The setting sun stretched our shadows long behind us. “Fifi Ryder,” he said. “From now on, your name is Fifi Ryder.” I giggled and hugged his leg. “Fifi’s not a stray anymore! Fifi has a daddy!” Ryder scooped me up into his arms. “What stray? You’re a princess, you know that?” He looked at my face, and a thought seemed to strike him. He pulled out his phone and called Leo. “How do I keep scumbags with bleached hair away from my daughter?” Leo was silent for a moment. “Ryder… we are the scumbags with bleached hair.” “…” That night, Ryder walked into a salon. “I want this mess dyed black. Now.” With his naturally sharp features and high nose bridge, the black hair toned down his rebellious aura, giving him a cooler, more refined look. He held me, snapped a selfie, and sent it to Leo. [From now on, bleached-blond lowlifes like you are not allowed near my daughter.] Leo: [?_?] For the next few days, Ryder skipped school. He stayed up all night, devouring five different parenting books. He even started trying to cook child-friendly meals in his small apartment. The system text was baffled. [Shouldn’t he be out street racing? Partying? Getting into trouble? What is he DOING?!] In just three days, Ryder had become an expert at tying my hair into cute little pigtails. He was about to take me to the park when his father called. “Ryder, I don’t care what you do outside of school, but didn’t I tell you to stop having your teachers call me?!” “If you’re not going to class, what are you doing? If you don’t want to study, you can just go die.” The hateful words made Ryder’s face harden. His eyes went cold, and he pressed his lips into a thin line. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the phone. I gently pried his fingers open. “Daddy, be gentle. You’re hurting the phone.” Hearing my voice, the fury in his eyes softened. He lifted me up with one arm. “Fine,” he said into the phone. “Just remove me from the family registry, and you won’t have to worry about me anymore.” Normally, his father would have exploded in a tirade of curses. But today, he was strangely calm. “Ryder, you…” Before he could finish, Ryder heard a small, childish voice on the other end. “Daddy, I wanna go to the amusement park!” His father’s voice immediately turned warm and loving. “Of course, sweetie. Daddy will take you.” Ryder’s eyes turned bloodshot. The anger he’d just suppressed came roaring back. “Got a new son already? How could you do this to Mom?” His father didn’t answer. He just hung up. [Oh no, the wheels of fate are turning… He’s going to go street racing tonight and break his leg…] [Noooo, I was enjoying the last three days of wholesome content!] [The villain’s life is so tragic. I’d go dark, too, if I were him.] Ryder’s hand tightened on the phone, his first instinct to hurl it against the wall. But then he remembered me, and he forced himself to stop. His face was blank, but I could feel waves of profound sadness rolling off him. I hugged his leg and looked up at him. “Daddy, don’t be sad.” Ryder knelt and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m fine.” I hugged him back, gently patting his back. “Daddy, don’t tell lies.” “Fifi loves you.” His body went rigid. I felt a damp spot spreading on my shoulder. “Daddy, don’t cry little pearl tears.” His voice was muffled. “Okay. I won’t.” 4 Perhaps it was the unstoppable force of the plot, but Ryder still went out on his motorcycle that night. The difference was, this time, he strapped me securely to his chest, adding several extra safety harnesses. Only when he was certain I was safe did he swing his leg over the bike. He drove slowly. So slowly that an old man jogging on the sidewalk easily overtook us. Seeing the old man’s disdainful glance, Ryder fell silent. He wanted to speed up, but when he saw me with my mouth wide open, catching the wind like a baby bird, he sighed in resignation and pulled over. He took me to a nearby ice cream shop. “Daddy, ice cream will stop the pearl tears!” I held up my cone to him with a big smile. “Daddy eats first!” [What a good girl!] [I want a daughter like this!] [Wait, did we just… solve the car crash plot point like that?] He glanced at me, a mischievous glint in his eyes. The next second, he opened his mouth and ate the entire scoop of ice cream in one bite. My smile froze. “Daddy… you… you ate it all?” “You… Fifi… Fifi is gonna—” Just as the tears were about to fall, he stifled a laugh and quickly shoved the sugar cone into my mouth. Seeing my face caught between crying and not crying, he finally burst out laughing. All the pent-up emotions, all the darkness and pressure, just seemed to evaporate into the night air. On the way home, we rode slowly, the cool evening breeze on our faces. As we passed a dark alley, we heard a woman’s desperate cries. “Let go of me! Somebody, help!” A man’s sleazy laugh followed. “You won’t be saying that once you start enjoying it.” The system text sounded confused. [Huh? This is the scene where the hero saves the heroine. Why is the villain here?] [Holy crap, he’s going in!] Ryder handed me his phone, already dialing 911. “Tell the nice police officer that some people are fighting. Then you stand right here and don’t move. I’ll be back in three minutes.” A moment later, the sound of pained grunts echoed from the alley. I felt a little scared. My voice trembled as I spoke to the dispatcher. “Officer, there’s a fight!” I stammered out the address. Three minutes later, Ryder emerged, draping his jacket over the shoulders of the heroine, Stella. His own white hoodie was stained with blood. “Thank you,” Stella said, her voice hoarse, her eyes filled with gratitude. Ryder just waved it off, more focused on scooping me up. Hearing the approaching sirens, his face beamed with pride. “Good job, Fifi. You know how to call the police now.” Seeing him, my fear vanished. I puffed out my chest proudly. “Hmph.” He laughed, the last of the darkness gone from his eyes.
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