Chapter 1

I stared helplessly ahead. My gaze swept over the new emperor of Cang, riding toward us in frantic haste, and General Yan, the god of war, who looked just as anxious. At last, all hope gone, I looked at the man I had been sent to win over.

He stood tall and straight, a sword in his right hand, his face cold as frost: every inch the proud, untouchable minister who held the court in his grasp. Only when he looked at the heroine, Yu Huan, did a trace of warmth soften his eyes.

“I choose Yu Zhi.”

The rebel behind me laughed wildly. “Well, well. Chancellor Qi chooses his own wife after all. It seems you can’t believe every rumor.”

Through her tears, Yu Huan called timidly, “Brother Qi…”

“…to die.”

I choose Yu Zhi…to die.

For a moment, everything fell silent. Even Yu Huan stopped sobbing.

This rebel wasn’t the sort of villain who talked himself into an early grave, especially with reinforcements almost upon him.

He slit my throat. Bright red blood gushed out, spattering my face with warmth. As I fell, I looked toward that man through the mist of blood. His face was a blur, impossible to make out, but I recognized his plain indigo brocade robes. I had chosen them for him that very morning.

Then, I had tipped my face up to his, shy and full of hope. “You’re so handsome, husband. Let me choose your clothes from now on, and you’ll look finer still.”

I couldn’t remember how he had responded. The agony in my neck lasted only a few seconds before the system pulled me out of that world.

Normally, an operative felt no pain when facing mortal danger in a minor world. But…that privilege didn’t extend to failures.

I was brought back to system space. Although this had been my first assignment, an execution order from my superiors was waiting for me all the same.

The Romance Department had undergone reforms, and its rules were merciless. It had no use for dead weight. To avoid wasting resources, failed operatives were converted into low-level systems, left to wait for a chance to become higher-ranking operatives again.

The little system assigned to me had vanished by the time I returned. It would be punished too.

They locked me in a confinement space. Apparently, this was where the conversion took place. After just three months, a living human body would become a cold, obedient half-soul system.

Everyone in the department knew that “half-soul system” was another word for disgrace.

Holding back my tears, I stepped into darkness that seemed to have no end. The space sealed shut, taking the last trace of light with it. The cold cut to the bone. Alone in that boundless dark, I waited for time to wear me away.

Curled up there, I soon lost all sense of time. There was neither day nor night. It might have been an eternity or only an instant before the space opened again.

By that light, I looked down at my pale, wasted hands. The conversion wasn’t complete. And the loose end I had left behind…had worked.

My little system’s voice crackled back to life in my head. The monitoring division had reported an anomaly in my previous world, it said. My target had lost his will and could no longer drive the plot forward. Orders had come down from above my superiors: I was to return and finish the mission.

…To redeem my failure through service.

Everything was going exactly as I had expected.