Chapter 1: Starting in Hell Mode? Discovering I’m the Despised Villainess After Transmigrating into a Book!
“Where is this?” After waking up, Zhang Susu felt her head splitting with pain, likely due to a fever. Her mind was foggy, her eyelids unusually heavy, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
College student Zhang Susu opened her eyes.
She remembered she was Zhang Susu, a university student. Just yesterday, she celebrated her 20th birthday with her roommates. After leaving the KTV at Wanda Plaza, having drunk a little, she was hit by a speeding sports car while crossing the road and lost consciousness.
But when she woke up, this wasn’t a hospital? Where were the doctors and nurses?
Had she been killed by the car? Had she ascended to heaven? Was this paradise?
If she had been killed by the car, would her parents receive a huge compensation? Before she lost consciousness after being sent flying by the sports car, she saw that car—so luxurious! A Lamborghini!
With a car like that, her parents would surely demand millions in compensation from the driver who killed their precious daughter before letting it go!
If that were the case, it might not be so bad. Zhang Susu lowered her gaze and closed her eyes.
At least, with a massive compensation payout, her parents would be set for the rest of their lives, and her death would have meaning.
Zhang Susu opened her eyes again and realized she was in a magnificent palace. The bed, large enough to fit five people, was adorned with pure gold carvings and draped with brocade curtains. Inside the golden silk canopy, two maids were cradling her feet to keep them warm.
Beside her bed stood four more maids. When they saw her awake, they looked at her with delight, calling out, “Your Highness, the Eldest Princess! How are you feeling?”
Eldest Princess? What the hell?
Was cosplay popular in heaven now?
Anime role-playing? Hearing this, Zhang Susu frowned slightly as she took in her surroundings.
Who would have thought the cosplay trend had reached heaven? Even in death, she could keep up with the times.
Was she cosplaying some villainous eldest princess? The ruthless, crazy eldest princess from some TV drama who had a daughter as big as a chicken leg girl?
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
How tasteless, Zhang Susu inwardly complained.
Couldn’t she have cosplayed an empress? Lived a life above ten thousand people?
Couldn’t she have cosplayed a majestic female knight-errant? Experienced a carefree life in the martial world?
Instead, she had to be an eldest princess—just hearing the title gave her a bad impression, probably from watching too much TV, which had left her with an extremely poor opinion of eldest princesses.
Zhang Susu carefully examined the palace around her—resplendent and majestic, with a classical charm.
A mechanical voice sounded in her ear, “Host, I am the system assigned to you by the Time-Space Planning Bureau.”
“Last night, you were in a car accident in the modern world. Your soul was accidentally drawn by the energy of the Nine-Moon Conjunction and drifted into a world rift of the Time-Space Administration Bureau.”
The voice claiming to be the system spoke softly, “Host, according to the rules of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, souls that enter voluntarily must complete tasks on their own and earn enough energy points to exchange for the opportunity to leave this alternate world.”
“The system has detected that you previously read a female-oriented novel titled ‘The Sickly Prince’s Counterattack to Become Emperor.’ Therefore, since the Time-Space Administration Bureau also has this alternate world, you have been automatically assigned here. I am your Otherworld System Survival Mission Guide, designated number 9527. I am the third child in my family, so you may also call me A-San.”
The system’s voice remained as mechanical as ever, explaining unhurriedly, “Host, you do not need to speak aloud. I exist within your consciousness.”
“As long as you call out to me with your thoughts, I can sense what you are thinking. You can try communicating with me through mental imagery,” the system stated mechanically.
Communicate through thoughts? What kind of nonsense is this?
Zhang Susu was speechless. Being hit by a car was already unlucky enough, but now her soul had left her body?
She was only twenty years old—such a blooming age. Was she really going to die so young, withering away like this?
[I did read that female-oriented novel ‘The Sickly Prince’s Counterattack to Become Emperor,’ but if I recall correctly, the male lead was a prince sent as a hostage to the Da Sheng Kingdom after the Da Qi monarch lost a war. I heard he was a minor prince born to a low-ranking palace maid.]
Zhang Susu began to recollect, conversing with the system through her thoughts.
[And they call me the Eldest Princess? What kind of hellish start is this?] Zhang Susu felt like crying but had no tears. According to the original plot, this Eldest Princess, Su Yingxue, was the detestable and vicious female antagonist in the book.
From a young age, relying on being the younger half-sister of the Da Sheng Kingdom’s monarch—twenty years his junior—she had been utterly spoiled. The monarch pitied her for losing both parents early, and due to the old monarch’s dying wish to entrust her care, he doted on this Eldest Princess excessively.
Thus, from the moment Su Yingxue could remember, she ran wild through the Da Sheng harem, willful, arrogant, and domineering. Extravagant by nature, her actions were erratic and cruel. She perpetually abused and bullied the male lead, Xing Chen, causing him to grow up cold-blooded, ruthless, and sinister.
Later, after the male lead led his army to conquer the kingdom, the first thing he did was to flay Su Yingxue alive, stuff her with grass, and hang her upside down on the city gates as a public display!
System [Yes, host, you are indeed that Eldest Princess from the original story. However, host, your target to win over is not the male lead, but the second male lead.]
System [Host, this is somewhat good news because the second male lead is the refined, gentle, and scholarly young prime minister, Mo Yunsheng—the aloof, unattainable flower. He possesses none of the male lead’s brutality, sinister nature, or cold-bloodedness.]
Susu [Then why is it only somewhat good news?]
Since the second male lead was a gentleman, at least he wouldn’t be after her life. That was a blessing in disguise. Remembering the original story’s ending, she just wanted to survive a few more days.
System [Because in the original plot’s emotional arc, both the male lead and the second male lead were deeply infatuated with the Da Sheng monarch’s legitimate daughter, Princess Changle, Su Liyue, remaining devoted unto death.]
The system’s words reminded her of the novel’s content. Honestly, it wasn’t surprising that both the male lead and second male lead fell for the female lead, Su Liyue. Even if she were in their shoes, she would also adore someone as gentle, kind, pure, beautiful, and endearing as the girl-next-door type Su Liyue, who was as tender as a little white rabbit.
Moreover, with the female lead Su Liyue shining like a jewel, there was her, Su Yingxue—the loathsome, spoiled, arrogant, and cruel female antagonist who enjoyed tormenting the male lead and others—serving as the perfect foil.
After all, anyone who isn’t blind would prefer her niece, the only cherished daughter of the Da Sheng Kingdom’s ruler—Su Liyue, who is two years younger, more tender, more beautiful, and kinder-hearted than her, right?
System: [So, host, this conquest mission of yours isn’t simple either. According to the mission guidelines from the Time-Space Planning Bureau this time, you must raise Mo Yunsheng’s favorability toward you to 100% before Su Yingxue’s life ends in this alternate world, in order to accumulate enough energy to return to the modern era and exchange for the chance to resume modern life.]
System: [If you fail to raise the target’s favorability to 100% before Su Yingxue’s death, then your soul will perish along with the NPC body you inhabit in this alternate world.]
Upon hearing “perish,” Susu’s heart skipped a beat. Good heavens, what kind of one-sided terms were these? Could it be that she, who just turned twenty yesterday, would truly die in this alternate world if she failed the mission?
Moreover, why was it that others who crossed worlds either became female leads or at least had destinies as wealthy and noble legitimate daughters, or lived peaceful lives until old age? Why was she assigned a fate of Flaying and Grass-Stuffing? Even in death, she wasn’t granted a peaceful end, instead subjected to such cruel torture!
System: [Ahem, host. Although your mission this time is a bit challenging, I have some good news for you. The Time-Space Administration Bureau oversees a hundred million alternate worlds, each with missions of varying difficulty. The rewards for completing missions differ for each selected host. The harder the mission in the alternate world, the higher the reward amount.]
System: [For example, your mission this time can reach a B-level, nearly hellish difficulty. Therefore, if you successfully complete the task of achieving 100% favorability from the conquest target, your reward for returning to the modern era will be five million. So, as long as you complete the mission well, you can greatly improve your life back in the modern world!]