“Please… step on me again…”
A plaintive voice came from below her.
Su Yingli blinked, dazed, and looked down toward the sound.
A tall man was kneeling before her. His black combat uniform had been pulled open and hung loosely around his waist.
A sheen of sweat covered his taut chest. With each breath, his abs rose and fell gently. From above, the two perfect V-lines at his hips formed suggestive contours.
A bead of sweat slid down his chest, moving as if in slow motion before disappearing beneath his waistband.
This is what I wake up to?!
Su Yingli held her breath, afraid to move.
When she didn’t respond, the man shuffled closer, his knees pressing against the tips of her boots.
His large hands trembled as he tried to cradle her hand and plant a reverent kiss on it.
Su Yingli instinctively pulled her hand away, and a flood of images flashed through her mind.
She’d been transported[1]In Chinese web novels, transmigration involves entering another world or story, sometimes by taking over an existing character’s body. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); into an interstellar Sentinel-Guide novel[2]Sentinel-Guide fiction is a speculative-fiction genre featuring Sentinels, who commonly have heightened abilities, and Guides, who can help regulate their mental states. The rules vary by story. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
And she’d become the villainous female supporting character, the one meant to serve as a foil!
The original owner of her body was the Su family’s real heiress[3]A common Chinese web-novel trope contrasts a family’s biological daughter, often raised elsewhere, with a “fake heiress” raised in her place. The labels describe family identity, not moral … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, born into a wealthy household but lost to them as a child.
When she was twelve, she awakened as a rare S-rank Guide[4]S-rank is a high ability classification in many fantasy and science-fiction settings. This novel has not yet explained its complete ranking system. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, and the Su family brought her back.
On her coming-of-age day, they sent her to the Danger Zone under the pretext of giving her practical experience.
As the only S-rank Guide in the Danger Zone, the original owner neglected her duties and allowed the Sentinels to go berserk. Only after she’d had her fill of watching them would she grudgingly give them a tiny dose of guide serum[5]A substance used in this setting to help manage a Sentinel’s unstable condition. Its composition and precise mechanism have not yet been explained. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and perform guidance at the very limit.
She also manipulated Sentinels who weren’t receiving guidance, using them to satisfy her growing sadistic urges.
The more they struggled, the more excited she became, and the more brutal her games grew.
Su Yingli had landed right in the middle of one of the original owner’s self-destructive acts!
In a month, the heroine—the fake heiress—would arrive and heal the Sentinels the original owner had abused.
Afterward, they would jointly send the original owner before a military tribunal, where she would be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Finally, “kindhearted” Sentinels would sneak in and quietly kill her, then dump her in a polluted sea, where mutated fish would devour her until only scraps remained.
The man kneeling at her feet was Charon, one of the S-rank Sentinels the original owner had ensnared.
And “ensnared” was the right word, because—
The original owner’s spirit form[6]In this novel, a spirit form is an animal-like manifestation connected to a person’s abilities. The full rules governing spirit forms have not yet been established. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); was a Thorned Morpho Butterfly. The scales it shed could provide guidance, but the thorns on its wings had hallucinogenic effects.
She had used her unusual spirit form to make these top-tier Sentinels “willingly” let her lash them with a little whip.
Seeing the scarlet whip marks along Charon’s waist, Su Yingli sucked in a sharp breath.
Of all the Sentinels the original owner had provoked, he was the most vindictive and defiant—a swaggering, headstrong man.
He was also one of the Sentinels who had been most willing to kill her in the end!
She had no intention of being sentenced to life in prison.
And she definitely didn’t want to be eaten by mutated fish.
Seeing that he was still kneeling, she quickly reached out. “Um, why don’t you get up—”
“Smack!”
Before she could finish, he slapped her hand away.
The back of her pale hand instantly burned with pain.
Clutching it, Su Yingli explained, “I was only trying to give you mental guidance…”
His condition was dangerous; the slightest misstep could send him into a violent episode.
But before her words had even left her mouth, the man, who had looked so pleading just moments ago, suddenly snapped out of it. He knocked her hand aside and clamped his palm around her throat.
Rage contorted Charon’s striking face.
“You used your spirit form to make me hallucinate? You vicious, insane woman!”
His chest heaved. Veins bulged at his temples, and every word came out as cold as ice.
A Flame-Mane Lion wreathed in fire appeared beside him.
It glared at Su Yingli and growled, its long, flaming tail lashing against her ankle as it bristled at her.
Su Yingli grabbed his arm and struggled to explain. “It wasn’t me…”
How was she, the unlucky one who’d ended up in this body, responsible for the original owner’s crimes?
And yet she couldn’t even argue her case!
“You dare deny it?”
Charon tightened his grip.
Lack of air turned Su Yingli’s face red, and she struggled to breathe.
She grabbed Charon’s arm and tried to kick him away.
But against an S-rank Sentinel, her strength was no more than a kitten’s scratch. Charon barely felt it, and she was the one who ran out of strength first.
Su Yingli felt a powerful sensation of suffocation, and her vision went black.
Just a moment ago, she’d been at an archaeological site. Then she’d fallen into an excavation pit, broken her neck, and died.
Now she was about to be strangled to death again.
What did her neck ever do to anyone?
With what little awareness she had left, she spotted Charon’s wrist-mounted computer glowing red and frantically grabbed his wrist.
A sharp, urgent alarm blared.
“Warning! An S-rank Sentinel’s rampage level has exceeded 85 percent, and he is in a frenzied state. Emergency protocols are about to be activated. Sentinel, undergo guidance immediately!”
The warning repeated twice before Charon reluctantly released her.
He took a tube of guide serum from a nearby cabinet and injected himself. Only then did the alarm stop.
“Just you wait!”
With that, Charon kicked over a chair and hurried out.
Saved at last, Su Yingli clutched her throat and coughed several times. She drank a glass of warm water, and only then did she gradually recover.
Landing at this point in the story was going to get her killed!
Charon hadn’t even squeezed that hard, and she’d nearly died.
Su Yingli was numb with disbelief.
After catching her breath, she followed the route in her memories back home.
What had just happened was too much. Once she got back, Su Yingli collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.
She had no interest in touring the luxurious detached villa. All she could think was that the sword of Damocles[7]An allusion to an ancient Greek story about a sword suspended overhead by a single thread, symbolizing an ever-present threat of disaster. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); was drawing closer.
The good news: she knew how the plot would unfold.
The bad news: all she knew was that she was the villainess, and how her story ended.
She only knew a little about the other characters. As a villainess, she wasn’t privy to the other characters’ individual storylines, so she couldn’t dodge every danger perfectly.
She’d have to figure things out herself and change her situation bit by bit.
Su Yingli lay on the bed, looking dejected.
The hatred directed at the original owner was practically maxed out!
If she couldn’t change the plot, then in a month, when the fake heiress heroine returned, all she could do was wait to die.
To patch up the mess the original owner had made and avoid that insane ending, she needed to come up with a solid plan to stay alive.
If she, whom everyone saw as the instigator, suddenly tried to imitate the heroine and heal them, she’d be practically begging for a beating.
For now, she could only keep her head down, fulfill the guidance duties assigned to her by the White Tower[8]A fictional institution that assigns her guidance duties and has authority over her work. Its full structure and responsibilities have not yet been explained. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, and change the original owner’s vile reputation.
Then she needed to give them something they couldn’t do without, so the White Tower would have no choice but to protect her.
But what could she possibly offer that was valuable enough?
Su Yingli thought it over carefully.
The original owner’s spirit form had the ability to cause hallucinations.
The intelligence department had already developed it as a supplementary interrogation method.
Some high-level pollution entities[9]Dangerous beings in this fictional setting that are classified by level; some possess independent consciousness. Their origins and full classification system have not yet been explained. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3716510_1_9').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3716510_1_9', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); had a degree of independent consciousness. Once captured, the ability could be used to locate other pollution entities.
That would be invaluable to the front lines.
Unfortunately, the original owner was rebellious to the core. She disliked the interrogation room and loathed pollution entities, so she refused to cooperate properly. She had only done it once.
But Su Yingli remembered that interrogation had been a great success.
And in gratitude for her outstanding contribution, the commander-in-chief and the administrative officer had made an exception and agreed to provide her with independent spaces for living and working.
That was unique even in the Danger Zone.
It showed just how valuable her ability was.
Su Yingli’s eyes lit up.
That was it!
This sweep operation had been so difficult even with a top-tier Sentinel like Charon. The pollution entity must be high-level.
The intelligence department would probably try to find clues by searching it.
If she volunteered to help them, then at least for now, Charon wouldn’t be able to do anything to her!
With a plan in mind, Su Yingli finally felt a little better.
Her stomach growled twice.
She was just about to find something to eat when the doorbell rang.
“Who is it?”
Suspicious, Su Yingli opened the identification panel. A handsome, striking face appeared on the screen, right outside her door.
“Su Yingli, open up! Let’s see where you can run now!”
There was a note of smugness in Charon’s voice.
Wait—how did that make any sense???
References[+]