Tian Xi transmigrated a few weeks after the re-election first started.
The trio had yet to use dirty means against Lizzy but looking at her own face she knew that Lizzy was already exhausted with just this little bit of pressure, and inwardly wondered if the original soul really put up enough of a fight for them to resort to dirty schemes.
Nevertheless, in order to complete the side task, Tian Xi set her first goal--keeping her position as president by winning the election. Even if it were not a task, she would have tried to maintain her presidency unless Owen was willing to ditch Evan and run to her in order to raise the graduating class to the heavens in her place.
At this moment, Owen had the advantage because of the publicity he got with the help of his uncle, the student council advisor. Despite her own share of popularity as the cold Ice Goddess of Central, Lizzy was "too taciturn" to her peers, and there was also something about male supremacy.
Apart from that, Lizzy's memories from before she transmigrated seemed to derail from the original somewhat. Just a little bit.
For example, the current relationship between Owen and Evan appeared to be quite unstable...
Every time Evan tried to make a pass towards Owen, Owen did not reciprocate like he did in the original timeline. When Evan touched Owen, he would instead harshly grab Evan's wrist and glare at him with a malicious look that seemed as if it could kill. And when he let go, there would be a very noticeable purple bruise left behind.
Furthermore, Owen was far from submissive towards his uncle, Cain. In fact, it was like he was currently in his rebellious phase. There was not even a shred of respect for Uncle Cain.
'001, I thought they were supposed to have settled their relationship problems months ago,' Tian Xi inquired.
[Host, system is unsure how human emotions work. However, without the influence of a host the events taking place in the mission world should always be identical to the original timeline.] 001 was speaking in monotone as he gloated inwardly.
He just knew it! There was no way his host would have a peaceful ride with her shitty luck!
'Is there any way I can raise my luck stat?' Tian Xi was worried. If she had to go up against hosts in every world, she wouldn't be able to just breeze through the competition like she planned.
[Of course there is, host. Extra stat points can be rewards for missions and tasks. That is the only way for something like luck to be raised. The other stats can be raised with your hard work and effort!] 001 encouraged her.
Anyway, Tian Xi and 001 both agreed that with Owen acting so out of character, he was the most likely candidate for being the other host unless someone in the shadows was inciting disharmony between the main couple which was less likely.
If Owen really was the host, it was very likely that his main mission was the same as hers because Owen was graduating in six months along with Lizzy and he was competing for the position as president presumably to complete it.
This didn't mean that they as hosts were competing against each other for the main mission. Rather, they were in the same boat and more than likely had to cooperate with each other instead. The side task was another story but it wasn't as important point-wise.
It would take more than just one genius president to bring an entire graduating class to the top. The president could be the most effective in raising the class's morale and guiding them in the right direction. But there was only one president. It would be impossible for one to enforce the rules and standards on every graduating student in less than six months. That's why other members of the student council existed, as well as capable club and committee presidents.
The mission was to bring the graduating class to the top of society.
This meant that most if not all of the seniors had to have at least one commendable achievement prior to graduation. The underlying goal of the mission was to ensure that a good portion of their fellow classmates have leading positions in their respective trades after graduation.
Only then could their graduating class be hailed as legendary for the next hundred years or so. They had to become the role models for the present and future students.
According to her memories, Owen did not seem to be lovestruck, though he still fell for Evan's honey trap and ended up bonding with him... so that in of itself already made him unreliable to some extent.
But seeing is believing so she quickly finished up the remaining paperwork and opened the door to leave the student council clubroom only to bump into Owen who was just about to go in.
(A/N: Tian Xi will be referred to as Lizzy from this point forward to get into character.)
"Oww..." Lizzy lightly furrowed her brows at her pained nose.
When she came into contact with him, she felt a slight killing intent, but it went away just as fast as it came.
She backed away and observed him and sure enough, unlike the passionate Owen from the original timeline, this Owen's aura was so inherently depressing and gloomy that even his curly light brown hair could not brighten up the mood. He had an unreadable pair of dark blue eyes with a penetrating gaze that seemed as if they could see through her.
He flaunted a condescending temperament that seemed unique to the competitors of the void competition. Look at her, she was pretty confident because of her original life's success in addition to her first world's victory. Gu Yuan seemed to be no different.
Just being in the presence of the tall man made her certain that he was the other host in this world.
Nevertheless, in this world, now that she was inhabiting Lizzy's body, it was not recommended to fight against each other for the remaining six months unless they both wanted to fail their missions. If they continued their little war, the performance of the graduating class would not improve.
One of them had to make a concession, but that was not Lizzy's character. Otherwise she would not have pitted herself against all three sons of fate in the first place.
In contrast to her approach, the other host seemed to have no qualms over going OOC. As could be felt from his temperament, he put little effort into adapting his character to the original's.
Owen's eyes flashed slightly. His senses were extremely sharp as he must have somehow realized that the Lizzy in front of him was no longer "Lizzy."
Lizzy's eyes turned cold as she stepped aside invitingly, "Nice timing. Shall we have a talk inside, Owen Williams?"
.
.
.
Back in the clubroom, Lizzy sat at the head of the table with Owen across from her all the way at the other end.
She tapped her right index finger rhythmically on the table in frustration while Owen was leaning back on his chair with his legs comfortably propped up on the table with a light smirk pasted on his face.
"You really won't take the position?" Lizzy rubbed the space between her furrowed brows.
"You don't want the position, President?" He countered, testing her character.
The other host was playing dirty. He may not care about going OOC, but the perfectionist Lizzy wanted to make it a habit to stay in character to avoid being noticed by other hosts in future mission worlds.
Though, this guy had already somehow found out her identity by a mere first encounter...
Their argument over the position of president had gone back and forth for over half an hour already.
"I do," she interjected determinedly. "It's just that now I am extremely annoyed. You have already made such a pointless ruckus over my position, now you want to just back out?"
He chuckled but there was no mirth in his eyes as the air around him got chillier, "Even if I do, what can you do about it?"
Recalling the killing intent from earlier, she had to admit that her base-level taekwondo probably could not even add up to a fraction of this man's strength and experience. Lizzy's current body was also quite drained mentally and physically already from overworking herself for the past few weeks.
Lizzy grit her teeth, "What will you do about your uncle? And Evan?"
To her question, the murderous aura around him got denser and his eyes were unprecedently cold, "Don't talk about those disgusting animals."
She ignored his silent threat, "Professor Williams is in charge of the proceedings of the election. Even if you skew your votes toward me he could alter everything your way in the end. We will have to confront him sooner or later."
"Then you talk to him. And," He paused as he focused the killing intent onto her body, "If you know what's good for you, you would take the position."
He got up from his seat without another word and was ready to leave when Lizzy quickly added, "Oh, but Owen Williams. I will not do as you wish for nothing just because you can kill me. I am not your laborer. How about this?"
This fucker wants me to do all the work while he sits back and relaxes?!
Bitch, wrong world, that's what I do!
I dare you to kill me if you don't mind working your ass off later.
Lizzy's face was solemn as she coerced him with no room for negotiation, "Since you are so physically capable, as the president I will assign you to be the leader of the disciplinary committee."
Owen turned to stare at her after she stated her ultimatum, then snorted and left.
When the door closed behind him, Lizzy slumped back into her chair and let out a tired sigh.
In the end, Owen's main argument was that leading was not his strong point as opposed to herself and that he had originally come to the clubroom to invalidate his candidacy.
Lizzy only half-believed his claim. She was definitely a better leader than he, but as for his initial reason for coming to meet her this late in the day...
His eyes when she had bumped into him earlier were full of ruthlessness and he seemed as if he was going in for the kill. If she had not taken over Lizzy's body and had he not noticed that she was no longer Lizzy, he probably would have "gotten rid of" her.
Murdering a world resident resulted in a deduction of 95% of the mission reward, while murdering a host deducted 5%.
He had intended to kill the original Lizzy for the president's position.
Honestly, the point deduction was not too bad since the reward was only 500 points at most.
The real problem was that that host had no qualms with killing in general.
In fact, it was only a few weeks into the election, so he actually resorted to murder before anything else. This pretty much gave away the type of person he was.
This Owen was a psychopath.