In the halls of St. Jude’s Academy, two names rule the leaderboard: Jaden Sterling and April Mendoza.
Jaden is the school’s "Golden Boy." With a lethal smile, a billionaire inheritance, and a consistent #1 rank, he is the untouchable idol of every girl and the envy of every guy. April, however, is his polar opposite a scholarship student who balances three part-time jobs and a fierce determination to steal his crown. To her, Jaden is just an arrogant obstacle between her and a full-ride college tuition.
But April’s world flips when she catches the "perfect" Jaden Sterling in a back-alley PC cafe, wearing a hoodie and screaming at a computer screen. It turns out the school’s star student is actually the anonymous, chaotic pro-gamer "JD-Zero" a secret that would destroy his family’s polished reputation.
Desperate to keep his double life hidden, Jaden makes April an offer she can't refuse: He will intentionally sabotage his own grades to give her the #1 spot, but only if she acts as his "manager" and fake girlfriend to keep his parents and his fangirls off his trail.
Between high-stakes exams, secret gaming sessions, and a fake romance that starts feeling all too real, April realizes that Jaden Sterling isn't just the boy who has everything he’s the boy with everything to lose.

Thursday arrived like a gift nobody had thought to ask for.


No alarm. No shift. No training session scheduled, no VODs to review, no notation in April's notebook about opponent tendencies or bracket positioning. Nova had been explicit on Wednesday night when she delivered her verdict at the end of the simulation debrief: Thursday is a rest day. Not a light training day. Not a review day. A rest day. If either of you opens a game client or a strategy document before Friday morning I will find out and I will be deeply unimpressed.


Nobody had questioned what "deeply unimpressed" looked like coming from Nova Rivera. Nobody wanted to find out.


Chapter 31 - Chapter 31: Real