I was the villain’s wife. The one who died young, his one true love. Ten years after my death, a System resurrected me. My mission: to redeem him, now that he had fallen into darkness. But I had lost all my memories. So when I saw the villain from a distance, before I could even get close, his men threw me out. As I lay crumpled on the ground, a phantom comment feed flickered into existence before my eyes. 【Here we go again. I’ve lost count of how many have come to ‘save’ the villain.】 【For years, the System has been sending countless replacements to placate him, terrified he’ll destroy this world.】 【Some looked just like his dead wife, some had her exact personality, some even came armed with all her memories…】 【But every single one of them failed.】 【How long will this one, this completely unremarkable one, even last?】 1 When the System brought me into this world, the villain threatening its very stability was already thirty-four years old, with a ten-year-old son. I, on the other hand, had just woken from a long slumber. I knew nothing. I remembered nothing. All I knew was that my name was Nora, and I was twenty-three years old. The System had just told me that much. Beyond that, it had given me a thousand warnings about the villain, about how dangerous he was. It begged me not to be like the candidates who came before me, who’d lost their lives the moment they arrived. The System told me the villain’s name was Reik Thorne, a man who stood at the absolute pinnacle of wealth and power. He was cruel and ruthless, a ferocious, temperamental beast. The only shred of humanity he had left was reserved for his young son. I stared at my reflection in the mirror for a long time. “I don’t see anything special about myself,” I murmured. “Nothing that would make a man like that give me a second glance.” The System watched me in silence. After a long pause, it spoke, its tone heavy with meaning. “You’re the last chance. If even you can’t do it—” It cut itself off, its voice firming with resolve. “No. You have to be the one.” 2 The System’s endless warnings were not an exaggeration. The moment I arrived, I tried everything I could just to get a glimpse of Reik Thorne from a distance. But the hulking bodyguards trailing him spotted me instantly. Reik was dressed head-to-toe in black, a heavy coat draped over his shoulders. He was standing outside the school gates, waiting for his son. He never once glanced in my direction. I stared at the sharp, cold lines of his profile, and a strange, uncontrollable emotion bloomed in my chest. It was a sorrow so profound it brought tears to my eyes. I stood there, frozen by this inexplicable wave of grief, not even noticing his bodyguards closing in. A sharp, searing pain shot through my body as I was thrown hard against a brick wall. One of the guards, his face a mask of brutal indifference, tossed a threat at me before leaving. “Don’t look at things you’re not supposed to see.” He gave my pathetic, crumpled form on the ground a final, cold sweep. “Next time, it won’t be this simple.” 3 At that moment, the sky began to shed soft flakes of snow. I clutched my injured arm, huddled against the wall. From a distance, I saw Reik meet his son. Even seeing the boy didn’t bring a hint of a smile to his face. He just stubbed out his cigarette, looked down, and took his son’s hand. They turned and got into a car. Perhaps my gaze was too intense. Just before the boy climbed into the car, he turned his head and looked directly at me. I was a mess of blood and melting snow. Utterly wretched. Yet, on pure instinct, I managed a gentle smile for the strikingly beautiful boy. His gaze was as indifferent as his father’s. He looked me over calmly, his expression unreadable. It was just one glance. A bodyguard was already holding the car door open. It swung shut, and the car drove away without a backward glance. 4 My heart felt as if it had suddenly stepped into thin air. A deep, sinking feeling of weightlessness washed over me. Before I could even begin to process the origin of these strange emotions, lines of white text began to scroll across my vision. The text was dense, flashing past my eyes at a rapid pace— 【And here’s another new candidate.】 【Over the past decade, I can’t even count if this is the twentieth or the two-hundredth.】 【The System is seriously terrified of this guy. Terrified he’ll just decide to burn the whole world down one day.】 【So it keeps trying to shove people into his life.】 【But he only ever loved his dead wife.】 【For years, the System has sent countless ‘replacement’ candidates.】 【Some looked just like her, some had her exact personality, some even came fully prepared with all her memories…】 5 I watched the stream of comments fly by, my brow furrowed. I’d forgotten to even blink. The “guy” they were talking about had to be Reik Thorne, the man destabilizing this entire world. And all those failed candidates—that must be why the System had warned me so relentlessly about him. The System had seemingly tried everything. So why did it believe that I, so painfully ordinary, could possibly complete this mission and pacify Reik Thorne? As I pondered this, the phantom text shifted its focus to me. 【Honestly, though, the only thing keeping him stable all these years isn’t some replacement or candidate—】 【It’s the son his dead wife left him.】 【She left without a trace, except for that boy.】 【He’s Reik’s only remaining connection to this world.】 【Otherwise, with how insane he was in those first few years, he would have destroyed the world and himself, joining his wife in death long ago.】 【That’s why all those candidates failed, without exception.】 【His wife was his white moonlight, his one true love.】 【She’s the only sacred ground left in his heart.】 【He would never allow anyone to tarnish her memory by wearing her face or stealing her identity.】 【That’s why all those fakes died, each one more miserably than the last.】 【So what about this one?】 【This plain, unprepared, completely unremarkable candidate?】 【How many days will she last?】 —They even started placing bets. 【I bet she dies the next time she meets him.】 【I’m in.】 【Me too.】 Then, someone posted a laughing emoji— 【LOL, she took a pretty nasty fall just now.】 【And it’s snowing hard.】 【We don’t even know if she’ll survive the night…】 6 I lowered my gaze, ignoring the dense wall of mocking text. My eyes focused on the bloody wounds on my body. But to everyone’s surprise, my next encounter with the Thorne family wasn’t with Reik. It was his son who came looking for me. I don’t know how he found me. I only know that when I pushed open the door of my cheap motel room the next morning, he was standing there, all alone, with his school backpack on. Looking at his face, so eerily similar to his father’s, I stopped in my tracks. He tilted his head up slightly, his gaze fixed on my face. “Who are you?” he asked in a low voice. It was a strange question. He was the one who had sought me out, yet the first thing he asked was who I was. “My name is Nora,” I answered, my voice earnest. The moment the words left my mouth, his brow furrowed deeply. 7 The white text feed was relentless. The instant I spoke my name, it erupted in a unified, mocking chorus. 【Has the System just completely given up?】 【It’s tried sending girls with a similar face—】 【It’s tried sending girls with a similar personality—】 【This is the first time it’s been so blatant, sending a candidate with the exact same name.】 【The System really isn’t afraid of making him angry, is it…】 【It’s one step away from just delivering her to his doorstep and saying: You wanted ‘Nora’? Well, I brought ‘Nora’ back for you…】 Unlike the boisterous text, the boy’s face remained devoid of any emotion. He just said calmly, “My name is Noah.” After he spoke, his gaze on me intensified, as if he were observing me, waiting for some kind of reaction. Nora, Noah… His name was so similar to mine. Combined with the information revealed by the phantom text… Perhaps Reik Thorne’s dead wife was named Nora. 8 But my mind was a complete blank. I couldn’t give Noah the reaction he was looking for. The intense, burning hope in his eyes gradually cooled. Someone came rushing down the hall from the elevator. A well-dressed man in a suit, a head taller than Noah, stopped in front of him and bowed his head. His voice was pleading. “Young Master, the car is waiting downstairs. You’re going to be late for school.” Noah slowly lowered his dark lashes. It looked like disappointment. He turned to leave, his movements sharp and decisive. But after turning, he paused for a moment. His brow furrowed again. He looked at the large glass window across the hall and said, “You should get those injuries treated.” I followed his gaze to my reflection in the glass, to the crude bandages wrapped around my arm and right leg. The System hadn't given me any special advantages when I arrived. The little money I had was barely enough for food and shelter. I couldn’t afford to go to a hospital. Noah was already gone. My gaze drifted from the window to the blurred reflection of my own face. 9 There was a mottled scar on my right cheek. The System said I had died in a fire ten years ago. The System drew its energy from the world it managed. But Reik Thorne was a man who repaid every debt, real or perceived. His wife had died in an "accident" connected to the world's original hero and heroine. So, without distinguishing between right and wrong, he had exacted his revenge on everyone involved in that accident. The hero and heroine, the so-called "Children of Providence," had been dead for five years. After their deaths, Reik had taken complete control of this world. The System itself was barely surviving, clinging to a thread. Its energy reserves were always low. That was why it could only restore my body to about 80% of its original state. I was healthy, but my body was covered in burn scars of various sizes that had never fully healed. I stared at the unfamiliar face in the reflection. It was a plain, even ugly, face. To choose me as the one to win over a villain like him— I couldn’t see any hope at all. No wonder the phantom text was filled with nothing but ridicule for me. 10 But whether there was hope or not, I still had to win over Reik Thorne. That was the purpose of my resurrection. It was the only way I could continue to live. But to do that, I first had to solve the pressing problem of my own survival. I managed to find a job as a night-shift clerk at the bookstore on the ground floor of Reik Thorne’s corporate tower. I worked until midnight. The lights in the tower across the street were still blazing. I sat on the steps outside the bookstore, opening a box of cold takeout. At 12:07 AM, Reik’s black Bentley glided past. The tinted windows blocked my view completely. I knew he was inside because the phantom text was buzzing with discussion. They seemed to have an extra set of eyes, able to see right through the car window to the man inside, and they used this to heap more scorn on me. 【The System gave up, and it looks like this one has too…】 【Other candidates, the second they arrive, are already scheming how to get in front of him, trying to make an impression or find an opening.】 【But her? She’s taking her sweet time finding a job, just living her own life.】 【Was she scared off by that first run-in with his bodyguards?】 【Am I just supposed to sit here and watch her organize bookshelves all day?】 【If you’re this useless, you shouldn’t have agreed to the mission in the first place…】 I lowered my eyes, ignoring the heated comments. I noticed a stray dog had padded up beside me, its tail wagging, its eyes fixed on me hopefully. I picked out the only two pieces of meat from my dinner and gave them to the dog. Together, under the dark sky, we shared the meal. 11 I worked at the bookstore for nearly a month. By the time my injuries had mostly healed, I had another unexpected encounter with Reik Thorne. It was 11 PM, and the bookstore owner asked me to deliver a stack of pre-packaged books to the tower across the street. After passing through layers of security checks and questioning, I finally set foot inside the building for the first time. I handed the books to the client and prepared to leave. The office tower was quiet at night; most people had already gone home. As I waited for the elevator, I heard a faint sound from the end of the hallway. It sounded like someone in extreme pain. The elevator was taking forever. I turned my head and looked toward the end of the hall. The text feed screamed at me not to get involved. They even suggested I use this opportunity to sneak down to the underground parking garage and wait for Reik to get off work. But listening to that faint, hoarse cry of pain, I stood there in silence for a long moment, then turned and walked down the hall. 12 No one could have expected it. Curled up on the landing of a stark, concrete stairwell, bathed in the pale, sterile light, was Reik Thorne. He was dressed in a pure black shirt and trousers, his shoulders broad and his back straight, but he looked unusually fragile. The moment I pushed open the heavy fire door, he snapped his head around, instantly alert. His brow was beaded with sweat from the intense pain, but his eyes, when they met mine, were cold and wary. —I had stumbled upon something I wasn't supposed to see. I froze in place. Under his intense gaze, I had no choice but to force the words out. “…Do you need me to call a doctor?” Reik just stared at me, his expression icy, without saying a word. I had to raise a hand and press my white face mask tighter against my skin. Because of the scars on my face, I always wore a mask in public to avoid frightening customers or children. The pressure of his gaze was immense. I wanted to back away, to leave. But seeing the vein throbbing at his temple from the pain, seeing his deathly pale lips, I felt an inexplicable pang of sympathy. So I took a step forward and pulled a small bottle of painkillers from my pocket. I’d never seen a proper doctor for my injuries. When the pain became unbearable, I just chewed on painkillers to get through it. I never thought the pills I always carried would come in handy like this. 13 Under Reik's unblinking stare, I placed a single pill on the step beside him. As I turned to leave, he shot out a hand and seized my wrist. His palm was ice-cold, sending a chill through me. I had no choice but to look down at him. At such a close distance, our eyes met. “Who are you?” he finally rasped. The lighting was dim, but I thought I saw something flicker in his dark pupils, a flash of light that was there and then gone. He moved too fast. Before I could consent or protest, his other hand had reached up and hooked the mask from my face. Reik’s dark eyes reflected the vivid scars on my cheek. We were so close. I saw his gaze tremble. My face was still too frightening. I reached up and hooked the mask back in place. I saw his hand suddenly go slack, and a silver chain slipped from his grasp, dangling in the air. —It was what he had been clutching so tightly in his cold palm. At the end of the chain was a silver locket. In the center of the locket, I could faintly make out the smiling face of a young girl. I looked away, not daring to stare. I left the pill and walked away. This time, Reik didn't stop me. Before I left, I glanced back one last time from the doorway. Reik was still sitting where I had left him. Dressed in severe black, yet radiating an aura of complete desolation. 14 The white text feed was “criticizing” me again. They called me an idiot, completely clueless. 【I give up…】 【She is honestly the most useless candidate I have ever seen.】 【She just stumbled upon a golden opportunity, a perfect moment, and she didn’t know how to seize it?】 【She just left?】 【Shouldn’t she have stayed, comforted him, showed some concern?】 【She finally gets a moment alone with him, and she just walks away?】 【What is she even doing?】 Some of the comments were even more aggressive, trying to stir up trouble. They thought I should have been more direct, thrown myself into his arms, used the crudest methods to seduce him. After all, I was doomed anyway. Someone like me could never complete the mission. They were practically begging for me to anger Reik sooner rather than later, to meet my inevitable end. They didn’t want to watch a “candidate” like me anymore. If I died, a new, more capable candidate would naturally take my place.
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