Chapter 2: CHAPTER 1 - Another turn.
Liu Quingshuang was stunned, with her nose still held high, huffed, as if she had expected the answer, folding her arms in front of her breasts, and ordered, "Hmph! Then hurry up and go to the hospital and—wait, what did you just say?!"
But her words were cut short, and her eyes went wide again, unable to believe what he just said.
Just what was going on?! Why did he suddenly turn like this? In the past, simply threatening to call off the engagement would make Fang Haoran obediently apologize and grovel for forgiveness. Then why did he agree so calmly as if he could give a fuck about it right now?
Although Liu Quingshuang had always disliked this arranged marriage and planned to formally annul it in the future when she had more freedom and power, for now, she was only using it as a threat. She never really thought about seriously breaking it off.
She just instinctively believed Fang Haoran wouldn't give up on her so easily.
"I said, Let's end the engagement. That's it. I have other things to deal with." Haoran replied, not even glancing at her, and before she could explode again, he added, "Miss Liu, you should leave. I'll visit the Liu family tonight to discuss the annulment with your father."
Again, without waiting for her response, he calmly waved his hand, calling his secretary to show Liu Quingshuang the way to the exit.
"You bastard, Fang Haoran!" Liu Quingshuang, in the end, looking at all this, finding it all too abrupt and confusing, couldn't bring herself to keep arguing.
So, after cursing Haroan, frustrated and embarrassed, she left his office under the secretary's direction.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Fang Haoran leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples.
"So... this is the 21st cycle, right?" He muttered to no one in particular, staring at the familiar ceiling above his head.
It was the same opening scenario happening over and over again.
That's right—Fang Haoran had transmigrated. He was a small-time business owner in his past life, but now he was trapped in the urban web novel Mighty and Romantic, courtesy of a "Villain Roleplay System."
That was not all, as he was also forced to play a brainless antagonist who constantly opposed the protagonist, Ye Feng.
In the original story, Fang Haoran's father had built their family empire through real estate. After his father and mother's accidental deaths, Fang Haoran inherited the family business, becoming the wealthiest man in the S City at just over 20 years old.
He fell head over heels for Liu Quingshuang the moment he saw her at a party hosted by some rich second-generation kid and began pursuing her relentlessly.
The Liu family, a once-prominent clan in decline, urgently needed a strong ally. With one side rich but lacking some powerful influence and the other influential but struggling financially, their engagement was an arrangement of mutual benefit.
But Liu Quingshuang herself was strongly against the marriage. To avoid Fang Haoran, she took a teaching job at a school in S City.
And there, she crossed paths with Ye Feng, who was one of her students.
That's when Fang Haoran and Ye Feng became rivals.
With his plot armor and protagonist's "golden finger," Ye Feng was supposed to repeatedly humiliate Fang Haoran, destroy the Fang family, and even win over Liu Quingshuang, making her one of his many love interests, and Fang Haoran, a villain, was supposed to stay down like a stepping stone.
But for the transmigrated Fang Haoran, that fate was utterly unacceptable. He wasn't going to play the masochist—delivering women, wealth, and experience points to the protagonist while asking to be slapped in return.
Ignoring the system's promise of "returning to reality with rewards upon completing the storyline," Fang Haoran began using his foresight, superior connections, and wealth to manipulate the plot.
For twenty entire cycles, he tried to eliminate the protagonist, succeeding every single time.
In the first ten cycles, using his knowledge of the story, Fang Haoran promptly seized Ye Feng's opportunities, killed all his love interests, and focused all his resources on destroying Ye Feng. Yet the world resets after the protagonist's death.
The problem was that in each cycle, he had to take a new route, targeting the same protagonist in a different way because the world, which was protecting the protagonist, wasn't going to let Fang Haoran defeat Ye Feng.
Ye Feng would somehow be able to guess the plans he had used in previous turns. So, with a lot of effort and struggle, Haoran, by using different tactics, somehow still killed Ye Feng ten times.
But after doing the same thing repeatedly—simply killing the female leads, the supporting characters, and the protagonist—Haoran couldn't help but get bored, so he started doing things differently.
By the eleventh cycle, bored out of his mind, Fang Haoran started to rope in the less annoying heroines, killing the rest, but again, he got bored, and by now, the behavior of the heroines, which seemed annoying to him before, started to look funny.
So, by the time the fifteenth turn arrived, Fang Haoran took every heroine for himself, leaving Ye Feng despairing, and somehow he finally found fun in what he was doing.
Just like that, by showing the girls what love was without being helped by the luck of the world and plot and doing some unconventional things (Extreme Sunu Sunu) along with them—things that made him see a different side of them—he completed the twentieth turn. Now, it was the twenty-first cycle.
And every single cycle started in this very office. At first, Fang Haoran found it ridiculous that his fiancée, Liu Quingshuang, would confront him over another man.
Sure, she may have only seen Ye Feng as a student, but whether Ye Feng saw her as just a teacher was another story.
Now, however, Fang Haoran was numb to it. He even found it amusing. So, he didn't feel a bit of anger or annoyance when he saw her like that; he simply sent her off as he needed some time alone with his 'precious' system.
Taking a deep breath, he mentally connected with the system. 'Hey, useless system, you there?'
[…I'm here.]
The system's voice sounded reluctant.
Why hold a grudge for so long? All it ever asked was for him to follow the storyline. Did he really need to keep calling it a "useless system" for twenty lifetimes?
'How's it? Who won?' Questioned Haoran the moment he heard the system's voice.
[…Host, you've won.]
The system's tone carried a hint of disbelief and defeat.
[It seems that after these repeated cycles, the heavens have fallen into slumber. This time, even if the protagonist dies, the world won't reset.]
"Finally..." Fang Haoran let out a long sigh of relief as he heard those words; his mind was finally relieved.
"Useless system, you lost." He repeated the words for the system as if he wanted it to know that he really did win.
No matter how hard it had been, he preserved, and in the end, he won.
[…I know.]
In their first cycle, Fang Haoran had made a bet with the system—and he'd won. The bet was made when the system said that the moment he killed the protagonist, the world would reset. Haoran didn't know when, but he was sure that there would be a limit to the world reset.
And the bet was all about reaching this point—if he could reach it or not.
The system didn't believe that Haoran could even survive a single turn, much less this long, so now that he had reached this point, winning the bet, it had to break one of its own rules. It had to change itself.
[Ding! System Updating...]
Soon, with a ding sound, Haoran saw the illusionary screen in front of him changing from color red; it was now turning blue.
[Ding! System Update Complete!]
[This system has been upgraded from the "Villain Roleplay System" to the "Villain Counterattack System."]
[The Villain Counterattack System will assist the host in seizing fortune, overpowering the protagonist, and rising to the pinnacle of life!]
And finally, the update was done, and listening to the system's words, Haoran couldn't help but exclaim, "Finally, you're useful for something, useless system!"
Fang Haoran was genuinely excited. After twenty cycles of being a passive observer, the system was finally taking action.
If it had continued being useless, he might've resorted to forcefully uninstalling it.
But just then, as if recalling the system tropes and how they went, Haoran curiously asked, "By the way, is there a newbie gift pack?"
[No.]
The system's reply, however, was instantaneous, making Haoran spring up, "Why not? Every other system has one!"
[Because I'm the 'useless system,' so there's none!]
"…" Haoran finally realized what was happening, but still, he couldn't speak for a while. He just never thought that the system would hold a grudge like this.
But not for long as he, with a righteous expression, spoke up again. "Who says so? That's just slander! Besides, as a respectable system, if you don't provide a gift pack, others might think you can't afford it."
He said whatever came to his mind. He didn't have anything to lose, after all.
And the system, seeing Haoran take a step back, did the same and spoke with a pause.
[…Congratulations, Host, on receiving a "Newbie Gift Pack"! Would you like to open it?]
"Yes!" Replied Haoran with an eager expression, and accepting his command, the system opened the gift pack.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for acquiring the skill Appraisal!]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for acquiring the skill Seizure!]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for acquiring the skill Ability Block!]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone