[My Love Stan ❤️: The one about me being handsome]

Upon seeing the message, Sophie pressed her face into the pillow and made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a squeal. Well he’s right, stan was indeed a very handsome guy..

[Sophie: You’re impossible]

[My Love Stan ❤️: And yet here you are. Still texting me at 11pm]

[Sophie: Because you just gave me two hundred million dollars and I’m trying to process it!!]

[My Love Stan ❤️: Take your time]

[Sophie: How am I supposed to take my time when my heart is beating this fast] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

She stared at the message after she’d sent it. It was more honest than she’d intended, the kind of confession that slips out at one in the morning when defenses are low and feelings are high.

The typing indicator appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

[My Love Stan ❤️: Get some rest Sophie]

It was gentle. Warm. And completely, maddeningly noncommittal.

Sophie sighed, the sigh of a woman who had fallen for a man who treated emotional vulnerability the way a cat treats a closed door: with acknowledgment, mild interest, and absolutely no intention of opening up in return.

But she wasn’t deterred. If anything, the challenge made the warmth in her chest burn brighter.

[Sophie: I have something to ask. Please don’t be angry...]

[My Love Stan ❤️: Ask away]

[Sophie: I always thought rich guys were stingy. But you spend money like it’s water. Why?]

A pause. Then:

[My Love Stan ❤️: Boredom]

One word. Five letters. And yet it communicated more about Stan Harrison’s relationship with wealth than a thousand-word essay could have.

Sophie stared at the message and slowly shook her head.

’A rich, bored guy who spends two hundred million dollars on a livestream because he has nothing better to do on a Tuesday night.’

’And I’m in love with him.’

’God help me.’

[Sophie: How about this, I’m planning to go to karaoke tomorrow to have some fun. Want to come with me?]

[My Love Stan ❤️: Sure]

One word again. But this time, it sent butterflies erupting through Sophie’s entire body, not a flutter, not a gentle stirring, but a full-blown swarm that left her breathless and grinning and pulling her blanket up to her chin like a teenager.

[Sophie: It’s a date then 💕]

[My Love Stan ❤️: 👍]

Sophie stared at the thumbs-up emoji for a long moment.

Then she laughed, a quiet, helpless, completely smitten laugh, set her phone face-down on the nightstand, and pressed both hands over her racing heart.

’He gave me a thumbs-up. A thumbs-up. To a date invitation.’

’I am hopelessly in love with the most emotionally unavailable billionaire on the planet.’

She closed her eyes, still smiling, and let the warmth carry her toward sleep.

Across the city, Stan watched the favorability counter in quiet fascination.

He hadn’t done anything. He was lying in bed, one arm around a sleeping woman, the other holding a phone. He’d sent a few messages. Made a few jokes. Agreed to karaoke. Given her a thumbs-up.

And yet:

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 80]

The number ticked upward on its own, not from spending, not from gifts, not from any deliberate action on his part. It was climbing purely on emotion. Sophie was lying in her apartment, thinking about him, replaying their conversations, and the favorability counter was responding to the intensity of her feelings in real time.

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 85]

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 87]

He set the phone down and watched the numbers rise with the detached fascination of a man observing a stock he’d invested in early.

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 95]

’Ninety-five. She’s thinking about me right now. She’s lying in bed, alone, thinking about me, and her feelings are strong enough to move the counter without any external stimulus.’

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 100]

Stan’s breath caught.

’One hundred.’

Maximum favorability. The absolute ceiling. No woman he’d ever bound had reached this number, not Sarah, not Maya, not Xenia, not anyone. Sophie Youngs had just become the first person in the system’s history to hit perfect affection.

And she’d done it alone. In her room. At one in the morning. Thinking about a man who’d replied to her date invitation with a thumbs-up.

Stan stared at the number for a long time.

’A hundred,’ he thought. ’She’s at a hundred.’

The implications were significant. At maximum favorability, the consumption multiplier would unlock the system’s highest tier, a ten-times rebate on every dollar spent on Sophie Youngs. Ten times. The kind of multiplier that turned millions into tens of millions and tens of millions into hundreds of millions.

But alongside the financial calculation, a quieter, more uncomfortable thought surfaced.

A favorability of one hundred didn’t just mean likes him a lot. It meant total, unconditional emotional investment.

The kind of attachment that didn’t bend or flex or adjust with new information. The kind that held on regardless of consequences.

Sophie Youngs was, by the system’s measurement, completely and irrevocably in love with him.

Not infatuated. Not charmed. Not impressed. In love. The kind of love that doesn’t negotiate with reality.

The kind that makes a person rearrange their entire life around another person without being asked. The kind that, if mishandled, could turn possessive, obsessive, consuming.

’If this keeps going,’ Stan thought, ’she might cross a line. The kind of love that sits at a hundred doesn’t always stay healthy.’

Stan knew he was slowly becoming a playboy, so having a girl love him at such level was going to be troublesome.

He let out a slow, quiet sigh.

’I didn’t ask for this. I just wanted the rebate.’

But the system didn’t care about his intentions. The system measured feelings, not motives. And Sophie’s feelings had reached a level that made the financial returns extraordinary and the emotional consequences potentially dangerous.

’Handle this carefully,’ he told himself. ’Very, very carefully.’

He set the phone on the nightstand, adjusted Sarah’s sleeping weight against his shoulder, and closed his eyes.

[Sophie Youngs: Favorability 100. Next consumption event will trigger 10× rebate.]

’Ten times huh?’

The number glowed behind his eyelids like a promise and a warning, tangled together in the dark.

’Not bad for a week’s work,’ he thought, and for the first time, the familiar refrain carried a weight it hadn’t carried before.

Elon Musk can hold the number one richest for a while, it’s only a matter of time before Stan Harrison overtakes them all and become the no 1 richest on Earth...