“No, you’re not. You’re either going to quit and end up flat on your filthy, unemployed backside, begging for another job that gives you half as much freedom as you get here, or you’re going to do what I say and change that model back to the other one. The one I like. The one everyone likes. Otherwise, you’re going to get fired so that I can change it back on my own.”

“I’ve already told you that I’m not going to, and I’ve already told you that you can go suck it, you creepy bastard. There is no way in hell I’m ever going to put on that face for a perverted, licentious, rotten bastard like you!” Liu’s face was solid red, her hair was in a tizzy, and her hands were balled up into tight fists.

“Why not? Why are you being so stubborn about this?” Lagrand, which was apparently Dray’s real-life name, asked. “Just look in the mirror. Look at how hideous you look with that scar across your face. Why the hell didn’t you get that thing fixed? No one would ever even look at you with that face, would they? Isn’t that the reason you sculpted that pretty girl in the first place? So that I would look at you? So that I would give you attention? Why don’t you just admit it and change back to the face I like so that I don’t have to be horrified by that grotesque visage of yours.”

“This scar is who I am, and who I am was never your damn plaything!” Liu shouted. “Will you stop acting like I am some part of this territory you can own? It’s gross, it’s stupid, and no matter what you do in this game, I will never be with you. Do you understand? NEVER!”

It blew Lucas’s mind that such a scumbag could exist, and it cut deep when he thought that he might have unwittingly played even the smallest role in this degenerate’s scheme, unknowingly making Liu suffer in the process. Here she is, trying to move on with her life, and this brute is only pushing her back down again? I will hurt him. I will hurt him over and over again. The scene stoked a fierce indignation in Lucas. It wasn’t just anger Liu was showing; it was hurt. Lucas could feel her pain as he watched her break under Lagrand’s words, and he knew why: that scar had probably hurt her every single day she looked in the mirror, and for reasons other than vanity.