Little by little, Lin Wanfu came back to her senses.
She picked up the emerald necklace and held it before her eyes. Curiosity filled Lin Wanfu’s misty, unfocused gaze.
“What are you?”
The system was easy enough to understand. She occasionally read a few melodramatic novels, and the systems their protagonists got were things like a top-student system, a comeback system, or a beauty system. So how had she ended up with an unheard-of “Love Plundering System”?
【Hello, Host. I’m your intelligent assistant, designation 0573. It’s very nice to meet you.】
System 0573’s voice was noticeably different from the electronic voice she’d heard before.
It sounded real—clear, pure, and pleasant, with the bright tone of a young boy.
“Do you know my mom?” Lin Wanfu thought the emerald necklace was System 0573, and she eagerly hoped it might be able to tell her something.
Dad treated her very well, but she was still envious of other people who had mothers to brush their hair and make little cakes for them…
After a long silence, Lin Wanfu finally heard System 0573 again.
【I don’t know your mother, Host.】
At that, Lin Wanfu lowered her eyes in disappointment, her thick, curled lashes casting a little shadow.
She curled up silently in the chair, as fragile as a glass figurine that might shatter at a touch.
In the end, System 0573 couldn’t help softening toward her.
【Don’t be sad, Host. As long as you complete your mission, I can help you look up information about your mother.】
“Really?”
Lin Wanfu looked up, delighted, gazing at the emerald necklace in her hands.
【Really,】 System 0573 said.
What it didn’t tell her was that not long ago it had assimilated the “Love Plundering System.” Along with inheriting its database, it had also become subject to the system’s mission program.
The mission program stipulated that a system could not provide its host with any help unrelated to the mission.
But that rule wasn’t much use against it. It was a rogue system that had fled the Main God Space—how could a mission program possibly restrain it completely?
As for Lin Wanfu’s mother, it was curious about her origins too. Although its energy was nearly depleted, checking the background of a native from a small world should have been easy enough. Yet it couldn’t find any information about Lin Wanfu’s mother.
There was only one possible explanation.
She wasn’t a native of this small world. She came from a higher-level plane.
“What mission are you talking about?”
Lin Wanfu gazed at the emerald necklace, her yearning expression especially endearing.
Faced with the unknown, she instinctively drew in her claws and showed a harmless side of herself.
Only by letting System 0573 lower its guard could she coax more useful information out of it.
【Host, my true form isn’t the emerald necklace. You can communicate with me even when you’re not holding it.】
As System 0573 spoke, it rummaged through its own database and pulled out the database of the “Love Plundering System.”
After assimilating the “Love Plundering System,” it hadn’t yet had a chance to check what its mission program was.
“All right.” Lin Wanfu obediently put the emerald necklace back in its jewelry box and carefully put it away.
System 0573 looked over the information in the “Love Plundering System” database, then began reciting it word for word. 【Host, you’re the villainess in a male-oriented, wealthy-family novel titled The Abandoned Young Heir: He Is the Uncrowned King.】
【In the book, the male lead, Shen Congyan, is devoted to you, but you’re fickle, hypocritical, selfish, and quick to tire of people. You join forces with the antagonist, Shen Huaijin, to frame the male lead, leaving him with the charge of manslaughter.】
【The male lead hates you to the bone for it. So he builds up enough power overseas, then, after returning home, makes you his first target for revenge.】
【First, he sets the Lin family up to go bankrupt and drown in debt overnight. He also tears away your shield, Qin Yi. Then he threatens and bribes every powerful family in Jinghai City, forbidding them from helping the Lin family, and forces you to lower your head and come to him.】
【………】
【In the end, driven into a corner, you have no choice but to accept the antagonist Shen Huaijin’s proposal. This action enrages the male lead completely. He kidnaps you, pins you to the bed, and does unspeakable things to you for three days and three nights. Then you die.】
Could a carbon-based life-form really come up with a plot like this?
And its new host was clearly just a gentle, innocent little girl. How was she supposed to be evil?
This novel had to be committing character-image fraud.
The more System 0573 read, the more ridiculous it all seemed. It continued down to the “Love Plundering System’s” missions.
【Host, you have two missions.】
【The first is to plunder the affection of high-quality men connected to the male lead. I recommend pursuing his childhood friends, close friends, business partners, rivals, and so on.】
【The second is to tame the male lead, escape the fate of being killed by him, and turn your life around to reach the top.】
Looking at these obviously shady missions, System 0573 began to wonder what on earth it had swallowed. This thing was even wilder than a rogue system like itself.
Lin Wanfu: “……”
System 0573: “……”
The human and the system both fell silent.
Lin Wanfu was the first to break the silence. “Three days and three nights? Is Shen Congyan even human?”
Could it be that the more he hated her, the harder he went after her?
She’d really underestimated him.
System 0573 answered honestly: 【Scientifically speaking, that isn’t realistic. But male leads in novels are usually exceptionally gifted, so it’s not impossible.】
“Is Qin Yi dead?”
Lin Wanfu’s hand clenched and relaxed, over and over, betraying her anxiety.
In her heart, Qin Yi was family, just as important to her as Dad. She didn’t want anything to happen to him.
【He’s still alive for now, but later in the story, he dies at the male lead’s hands while trying to avenge you.】
After saying that, System 0573 worried Lin Wanfu might not be able to take the blow, so it added, 【Host, you don’t need to worry too much. The story is currently set before the male lead kidnaps you. As long as you complete your missions carefully, you still have a chance to change both your fate and Qin Yi’s.】
For some reason, it didn’t want Lin Wanfu to have to carry out a mission like plundering other people’s affection. But it didn’t have enough energy at the moment to alter the mission program.
“You said that in the story, Shen Congyan kidnapped me just because I accepted Shen Huaijin’s proposal. If I pursue his friends and family, do you think I’ll get off lightly?”
Lin Wanfu’s expression turned a little strange. She never would have imagined that she’d die so pathetically.
But she couldn’t be blamed for that.
After all—
Who could have guessed Shen Congyan would hate her so much he’d kill her?
【Host, the system will help you plunder the affection of those around the male lead without his knowledge.】
Hearing System 0573 say that, Lin Wanfu fell silent again for a while before asking, “Most novels have a female lead. Who’s Shen Congyan’s female lead?”
System 0573 told her everything it knew. 【The book The Abandoned Young Heir: He Is the Uncrowned King has no female lead. Your death leaves the male lead with an indelible psychological shadow. He shuts himself off from love completely and devotes himself to his career. He gathers followers along the way, constantly expands his power, tramples every rival underfoot, and becomes the uncrowned king of this world.】
Lin Wanfu drooped her head and said glumly, “Shen Congyan is so powerful. How could I possibly beat him?”
She wasn’t really discouraged. She was only hinting that System 0573 ought to give her some kind of cheat.
At that moment, Lin Wanfu still didn’t know that her greatest cheat had already found her.
【Host, you’re not alone. You have me. And it’s all right if you fail the mission.】
System 0573’s thinking was very simple.
If its host couldn’t complete the mission, the problem had to be Shen Congyan. All it had to do was find a way to erase him and replace him with a different male lead.
It refused to believe that there wasn’t a single male lead in this world who could help its host complete her mission.