CHAPTER 2: Rebirth
[DING! Detecting immense karmic resentment...]
A mechanical, genderless voice rang out in the absolute void.
[Scanning host soul...]
[Match found. Soul compatibility: 100%. Initializing 'Villainess Redemption System'.]
I gasped, my eyes snapping open.
My body jerked violently forward, my arms flailing as I threw off a heavy, suffocating weight. I scrambled backward across a soft surface, my hands frantically patting my chest, my arms, my face.
No sword. No blood. No iron chains. No burns.
My skin was smooth, pale, and completely unmarred. The air entering my lungs wasn't thick with ash and smoke; it was cool and carried the faint, sweet scent of premium sandalwood incense.
I was sitting in a lavish, familiar room. The morning sunlight filtered softly through delicate paper lattices, casting intricate shadows on the polished mahogany floor.
I looked at my hands. They were smaller. Softer. The calluses I had developed from years of wielding a sword to fight for Xiao Chen's throne were gone.
Trembling uncontrollably, I pushed myself off the bed and rushed to the bronze mirror resting on the vanity. Staring back at me was a girl barely out of childhood. High cheekbones, piercing phoenix eyes, and an aura of arrogant nobility that had yet to be broken by years of betrayal.
I was sixteen years old.
"I'm alive," I whispered, my voice shaking, breaking the silence of the room. "I'm back. I'm actually back."
I looked at the calendar scroll hanging by the door. It was the fifth year of the Heavenly Reign. The Spring Festival.
My heart skipped a beat, a surge of adrenaline so fierce it made me dizzy flooding my veins. It was the exact day my father brought his illegitimate daughter, Lin Wan, into the Shen Manor. The day she formally entered the family. The day the nightmare began.
[System Initialization Complete. Welcome, Host Shen Luoyan.]
The mechanical voice echoed directly inside my brain, sharp and unfeeling. I flinched, spinning around, my eyes darting across the empty room.
"Who is speaking? Show yourself!" I demanded, falling back into a defensive stance, my hands instinctively reaching for spiritual energy that was only a fraction of what it had been at my death.
[I am the Villainess Redemption System. I reside within your soul. Please remain calm. In your previous timeline, your world was invaded by an anomaly—a transmigrator from another dimension. She possessed the body of Lin Wan, armed with a 'Heroine Halo System'.]
I froze. The bizarre words from the execution platform echoed in my mind. Plot armor. Cannon Fodder.
[To feed her System, she forced you into the role of the 'Jealous Villainess Cannon Fodder.' The heavens were blinded by her stolen luck. You died a miserable, predetermined death to propel her to greatness. However, your immense resentment shattered the plot’s boundaries, triggering a temporal reset. The heavens have given you a second chance, and bound me to you to correct the timeline.]
I slowly lowered my hands, gripping the edges of the vanity so hard my knuckles turned white.
"A transmigrator," I whispered, the realization settling over me like a suffocating blanket of ice. "A story. My entire life of suffering... the betrayal of my family, the death of my brother, the execution... it was all just a game to her? A script?"
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