Chapter 15: Wait, Where Did You Get That Knife From?

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This host doesn’t want the job anymore. Ugh, disgusting. Please recycle her. Whoever wants her can take her away—I absolutely will not try to keep her. Seriously.

The girl casually pulled out an air freshener and sprayed it back and forth more than a dozen times. Her private space had suffered severe contamination, and her spirit had sustained tremendous damage.

Jiang Wan Ning narrowed her eyes, her gaze sharp and assessing, with a trace of killing intent so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

“I...” The girl was about to say something else when she suddenly felt an icy chill at her throat. Two gleaming broadswords had appeared against her neck.

“Was this your doing? Were you the one who shoved me into this damned brain-dead novel?” Jiang Wan Ning’s expression was vicious and ferocious, her entire body radiating murderous hostility. If that hostility could take physical form, the girl would already have been pierced through like a sieve.

She had been dragged into the book for no reason, subjected to one bizarre death after another, then repeatedly reborn, as if trapped in a ghostly maze. She was about to go insane.

“Yes, but I don’t know why I could never get in touch with you. You somehow ended up inside without knowing what was happening, and I... Wait, where did those swords come from?”

The girl stared in horror at the enormous blades, each taller than a person, pressed to her neck. They were more frightening than seeing a ghost.

Of course, she had nothing to fear from ghosts. With a snap of her fingers, she could reduce one to ashes.

She was a system, after all, and this was her private space. Everything here shifted according to her will. There was no way anything could exist here without her knowing.

To put it bluntly, Jiang Wan Ning was completely transparent to her. She could see every detail of her at a glance. Yet, incredibly, she discovered that Jiang Wan Ning seemed to be surrounded by a faint mist—blurred and indistinct, impossible to see through clearly.

The system, who had never encountered anything like this before, was utterly bewildered.

Jiang Wan Ning was rather bewildered herself. She had merely been filled with resentment, thinking about cutting down the culprit, and then two enormous broadswords had appeared in her hands.

Oh. They were quite heavy.

But very comfortable to use for chopping people.

“Send me back to the real world. I’m not staying in this damned brain-dead novel.”

The author’s moral compass was completely warped. What normal person would casually harvest someone’s kidneys? How could someone who committed such a crime possibly be chosen as the Child of Fortune? Reading too many novels like this would rot a person’s brain.

“Once you’ve entered, there’s no way to change it, dear.”

“No way?” Jiang Wan Ning smiled wickedly.

The blades pressed closer. The system had the distinct feeling that her head might roll at any moment. She did not believe for a second that Jiang Wan Ning was joking. Jiang Wan Ning had even stabbed the male lead. Was there anything she would not dare to do?

This sensation of dancing on the edge of life and death was damnably wondrous—subtly intoxicating.

Ugh.

Help! Who threatened and kidnapped a system? What about her dignity as a system?

“There really is no way. That’s how the program is designed. You can only leave this instance after completing the tasks issued by the system. I can’t change it either. Really.”

Jiang Wan Ning examined her carefully, trying to find a crack in the system’s expression.

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The system blinked her enormous, crystal-clear eyes, looking as innocent as could be.

In the end, Jiang Wan Ning had no choice but to believe her. The system truly had not been lying.

The system cautiously nudged the broadswords away, terrified that one wrong move would leave her cutting herself.

“Let me introduce myself first. We’re the Tool System for Saving NPCs, serial number 602. Though, honestly, you’ve probably already figured it out. Our task is to advance the plot. You’ve transmigrated into the role of the female supporting character—the deceased White Moonlight of the male lead, Ji Chen. After harvesting your kidney, you die by accident. Ji Chen is devastated and even blames the female lead for your death, tormenting her emotionally until he finally comes to his senses and ends up living happily ever after with her. So the supporting character’s task is to provide the female lead with a healthy body and serve as the catalyst that brings the male and female leads closer together.”

Jiang Wan Ning stared at her as though she were looking at an idiot.

The system continued cheerfully, oblivious to the look on her face. “But lately, for some unknown reason, the NPCs in these books have been awakening one after another. Their resentment has been building, destabilizing the worlds. That’s why transmigrators like you are needed to take their place and move the plot forward. Once the story reaches its proper conclusion, you’ll have completed the task!”

There was no way such a deranged plot could ever reach its conclusion.

“I’m not doing it.” Her answer was brief, decisive, and dripping with swagger.

The system fell silent.

In all her years of existence, she had never encountered such an overbearing host. Had bringing Jiang Wan Ning into the book really been a wise choice? She seemed even less controllable than the NPCs.

Why had she drawn her?

The system bitterly cursed her own terrible luck.

Jiang Wan Ning decided that staying in this space was actually rather pleasant. The air was fresh, the sunlight bright, and the temperature comfortable all year round. There was even watermelon juice, and a table covered in sunflower seeds, more than half of them already shelled. A huge screen in the air displayed the other task-takers carrying out their missions; it was more entertaining than any movie. With sharp eyes, she even spotted the latest-model phone tucked beneath the table, its screen open to a novel.

The system was clearly slacking off. She was living quite comfortably.

Jiang Wan Ning settled into the system’s rocking chair and decided to embrace total indolence.

Why struggle outside against those crazed men and women when she could sprawl here in comfort? Who would want to play some idiotic NPC?

The girl, who had been smiling brightly a moment before, instantly let her face fall. She became as stern, cold, and rigid as a middle-school dean of discipline. Her voice underwent a complete reversal as well, turning flat and icy, mechanical and utterly devoid of life.

Well, well. The little girl had two faces after all.

“If the host refuses to accept the task, she will be immediately erased. You have five seconds to consider.”

Jiang Wan Ning remained perfectly calm, displaying the attitude of someone who had already decided that death could do its worst.

The countdown had begun on the enormous LCD screen.

Five...

Four...

Three...

Each number came faster than the last.

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Two...

The system secretly glanced at Jiang Wan Ning. It was not as though no one had ever refused a task before. Usually, once this threat was issued, every host resigned themselves to their fate. After all, anyone who was human feared death. Being erased meant vanishing from the world entirely, without even the chance to be reincarnated.

But contrary to her expectations, Jiang Wan Ning remained utterly unmoved. She was even watching the system with a hint of amusement, as if the system were the clown put on display for everyone else’s entertainment.

One...

This time, the system was truly enraged. With a wave of her hand, she erased Jiang Wan Ning.

There were plenty of NPCs. If this one would not do, she could simply find another.

Jiang Wan Ning disappeared.

Heh-heh!

Then she came back.

The system fell silent.

Then she went mad.

“Why are you still here? How are you still here? You were supposed to be reduced to nothing! What went wrong? Aaaah!”

The system frantically inspected every program. After a thorough examination, everything was intact and running smoothly. There was not the slightest problem.

Her twin tails had become a bird’s nest. Clutching her hair, the system felt as though her processor was about to burn out.

Unwilling to give up, she erased Jiang Wan Ning again.

She disappeared.

Then she came back.

She disappeared.

Then she came back.

After repeating this more than a dozen times, the system finally surrendered.

With astonishing smoothness, she dropped to her knees, hugged Jiang Wan Ning around the legs, and began sobbing so hard that tears and mucus streamed down her face.

“Please, please accept the task! If you don’t, I won’t be able to complete my progress, and my performance rating will be at the bottom this year. If I come in last, the Main God will punish me horribly. I’ll be thrown into the animal realm! I don’t want to be a pig or a dog! Please, just accept the task!”

The system felt terribly sorry for herself.

Who became a host and ended up like Jiang Wan Ning?

Who became a system and ended up like her?

She might as well wash her hands of all this and become Jiang Wan Ning’s concubine instead.

Sob.