"Warm… hot… ah!"
Su Xingye suddenly opened his eyes.
Darkness swallowed everything around him. It wasn't the normal kind of darkness you get when you turn off the lights—this was the kind that made you wonder if your eyes were even open at all.
The air felt stuffy and tight, like he had been wrapped inside a giant dumpling with no way out.
He blinked slowly. Nothing changed.
Still dark.
"Am I dreaming?" Su Xingye muttered, his voice sounding small and strange in the empty space. He paused to think, then nodded very seriously to himself, as if he had just solved a difficult math problem.
"Yes. Definitely a dream."
After all, wasn't this exactly how dreams worked? Strange environment, weird feeling, zero logic—classic dream behavior.
Satisfied with his brilliant conclusion, he closed his eyes again and pulled a non existent blanket over himself.
"Let me sleep again."
A few hours later, he opened his eyes.
Still dark.
He blinked once.
He blinked twice.
Silence filled the space.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!"
A heaven-shaking scream exploded into the darkness, so loud that if there had been walls, they would have cracked on the spot. His voice echoed endlessly, bouncing around the empty space like a siren that refused to stop.
Just as his panic reached maximum level, a calm, emotionless voice suddenly echoed inside his head.
[Host, calm down.]
Su Xingye froze for exactly half a second.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
This time his scream reached a pitch so high it could probably shatter glass. If there had been an audience, they would have immediately called an ambulance—or an exorcist.
'I've gone crazy.' Su Xingye mind was racing to get the answer for this current situation.
The voice spoke again, still calm, still robotic, and completely unbothered by his dramatic reaction.
[Host, I am your System 013.]
Su Xingye stopped screaming.
"…System?"
His brain suddenly sped up like a computer with ten thousand tabs open at once. Countless memories of novels flashed through his mind—transmigration, rebirth, revenge, cultivation, CEOs, idols, villains, systems—every cliché plot he had ever read rushed back in a single second.
Didn't transmigration only happen after death?
His heart skipped.
Am I dead?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
He had just finished reading Chapter 1,284 last night. He still hadn't seen the wedding scene. There was no way the universe would kill him before the happy ending.
Taking a deep breath, Su Xingye forced himself to calm down. He straightened his invisible posture and tried to sound mature and composed—even though just moments ago he had been screaming like a chicken during a festival.
"So…" he asked carefully, "how exactly am I with you?"
The system answered immediately.
[Host died while reading a book and was bound to me.]
Su Xingye stood there in stunned silence.
First, he really had a system.
Second—
He was dead.
Out of all possible causes of death in the world—illness, accidents, old age, heroic sacrifice—he had died from reading a novel. Not from danger. Not from disease. Not even from bad luck.
He felt like his soul had left his body again from pure embarrassment.
What would his parents think when they found him lying in bed, wrapped in a blanket like a dumpling, his phone still glowing in his hand? What would his friends say when they heard the news? And worst of all—what would those neighborhood aunties say during their daily gossip sessions?
He could already imagine it clearly.
"Did you hear? That boy from next door died while reading romance stories."
"Aiyaa, such a young man… no girlfriend, only novels."
"So embarrassing."
Su Xingye covered his face in shame.
Extremely embarrassing.
His reputation as the cold, quiet, mysterious young man had been completely destroyed in one night. His deepest secret—staying up late to read cheesy romance novels—would be exposed to the entire world without mercy.
His social life was officially finished.
"Huff… huff…"
He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. After thinking for a while, he suddenly straightened his posture, as if he had reached enlightenment.
"Never mind," he said firmly. "I'm already dead anyway."
Once you're dead, reputation doesn't matter anymore. People gossip for a few days, drink tea, complain about the weather, and then forget everything.
Problem solved.
His mood instantly improved.
"System! System!" Su Xingye called excitedly, his fear completely replaced by curiosity. For years, he had secretly wished to transmigrate into a novel world.
It had actually happened.
All those wishes were not in vain, he thought proudly. Reality was far better than imagination.
A mischievous grin slowly appeared on his face.
He finally had the chance to become a villain.
The reason was simple. Every transmigrator became the hero. They saved the world, protected the heroine, defeated the villain, and lived happily ever after. The plot was always the same.
Boring.
Too predictable.
So of course, he would choose the opposite path.
He would become the villain.
At the very least, he could slap the male lead once or twice to release all the frustration he had built up after reading thousands of chapters where the protagonist kept chasing the heroine but never confessed properly. His anger had been building for years, ready to explode like a dam under pressure.
Fake young master. Real young master. Cold CEO. Arrogant rich heir. Jealous second male lead.
He had seen them all.
No one can be more scheming than me, he thought confidently.
Even if he ended up as a background character whose total dialogue was shorter than the male lead's dog's screen time, at least he would have some presence. He could sit quietly, watch the drama unfold, and enjoy the chaos like an audience member eating popcorn.
Then a sudden thought struck him.
Wait… what if the system is evil?
What if it gave him impossible missions like conquering the world in three days, confessing to the heroine immediately, or saving humanity before breakfast?
Terrifying.
That would be the real disaster.
Su Xingye crossed his arms and nodded seriously.
"Never mind," he declared. "If the system bullies me, I'll just become a salted fish and rob it."
System 013: "…"
For the first time, the system seemed completely speechless.
After a brief pause, the mechanical voice spoke again.
[Hold tight, Host. You are going to become the biggest shining star.]
A strange pulling force suddenly wrapped around Su Xingye's body, as if invisible hands were dragging him through space.
[Transporting host to new body. Countdown starting.]
[3… 2…]
"I'm ready," Su Xingye said confidently.
Then he suddenly froze.
"Wait—did you just say shining star?"
His smile slowly disappeared.
"You didn't explain anythi—"
[..1. Transport successful.]