Chapter 8: Haters and Hypocrisy

A flurry of question marks filled the group.

"Five wins, how is that possible?"

"Even Drew and Taylor’s team lost one."

"Looks like this team match, the biggest contributors are Jessie and Sam."

"The prize money…"

Our team had weekly team match prizes.

First place, each gets a thousand; second, each gets five hundred.

Taylor was worse than me at games.

But every week, by cozying up to Drew, she got into his top team and took the first prize.

Finding out her prize was stolen, Taylor’s eyes turned red:

"How is this possible? The game must be bugged. I don’t believe you got five wins, show your match record if you dare."

Match records were public anyway.

I didn’t mind, posted screenshots in the group.

Those girls, seeing Logan and Blaze’s IDs, instantly turned red with jealousy.

Especially since the Ace they had just been sucking up to in the group was also there.

"I don’t believe they want her skins. She must have promised them something else privately."

"What else could it be? A woman who can get so many top players—who’d believe she’s not selling herself?"

"Damn, when did she hook up with Ace? Didn’t she join our team just to seduce Ace?"

I felt physically sick at these malicious speculations and rumors.

Jessie seemed to have muted the group and didn’t respond.

So I posted a screenshot of her transfer to me.

About five seconds of silence.

Then the boys all said:

"Damn, she really is a rich woman!"

"I think I get why Ace and the others played with her."

"Wuwuwu, if you give me three grand, not to mention team matches, I’d let you beat me up too."

Seeing the boys all fawning over Jessie—

Taylor and the girls immediately said:

"Can’t you have a little self-respect? Who knows where her money comes from. Being so generous, she must be kept."

"Or she’s selling herself. Anyway, it can’t be her own money. That’s why she spends so freely."

"So what if she’s generous? We have self-respect. We’d never give up our dignity for that kind of money."

"Yeah, it’s just a few thousand. Which of us doesn’t have that? We’re real socialites, we’d never do something so attention-seeking."

It was the kind of gossip you’d expect from a reality show, everyone pretending they’re too good for everything but secretly drooling for a piece of the pie. Small town, big drama.