Blood.
That was the first thing Gu Yena tasted as her face struck the marble floor of the penthouse. Coppery, warm, thick. It coated her tongue like rusted wine, bitter and violent.
Her head throbbed. Her vision swam. The chandelier above her, once a crown of diamonds sparkling in the night, now spun like a mocking carousel of stars, casting fractured light across the room. Every crystal drop glinted red in her dazed eyes.
She blinked. Once. Twice.
A sticky warmth spread across her chest, soaking through her silk blouse the same blouse she'd chosen for her engagement dinner. White. Elegant. Untouched.
Now it clung to her skin, crimson and clotted.
Her fingers twitched. Trembled. She tried to push herself up, but her palms slipped in the puddle of her own blood. The floor was colder than she remembered. Her breath came out ragged, hitching as she forced herself to crawl forward.
Then she heard them. The footsteps.
Measured. Unhurried.
Two silhouettes loomed ahead, framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the glittering city. Distant sirens wailed below, too far to save her. The stars twinkled cruelly in the sky above the skyline.
Li Zihan.
Her fiancé.
Impeccably dressed, his obsidian suit tailored to perfection. Not a hair out of place. Not a speck of blood on his polished shoes.
He had held her every secret. Had whispered promises of forever. Had kissed her forehead that very morning and said, "Tonight, everything changes."
He hadn't lied.
Beside him stood Tang Ruxue.
Gu Yena's best friend since high school. Her sister in everything but blood. The woman who had held her through every heartbreak, who had screamed in joy at her product launch, who had toasted champagne on Yena's rooftop when her company crossed the billion-dollar mark just a week ago.
Now, Ruxue was smiling. That same dazzling smile Yena had trusted a thousand times.
Only now, it looked like poison.
Yena's throat cracked as she whispered, "Why…?"
Zihan crouched down slowly. His cologne cool mint and cedarwood wrapped around her like a noose. He gently brushed a strand of hair from her blood-matted cheek with a tenderness that made bile rise in her throat.
"You were never supposed to be the star, Yena," he murmured. "Just the stepping stone."
Ruxue's laughter rang through the room like shattered glass. She clicked closer, her red stilettos tapping against the marble.
"You made it so easy," she cooed. "All that ambition. All that trust. You really thought they loved you your board, your clients, him." She tilted her head, mock pity in her eyes. "This empire? It was always built on sand. And now it's ours."
Gu Yena could hardly breathe. The knife in her side pulsed with pain, but it was nothing compared to the agony that ripped through her soul.
"I gave you everything," she rasped. "My loyalty. My trust. My life."
Zihan's gaze hardened. "And we took it. As we were meant to."
A flash of movement then a boot pressed to her shoulder, shoving her onto her back.
"I should thank you," Ruxue purred, towering over her. "You opened every door for us."
Yena tried to scream. Tried to fight. But the world was already slipping away. Her body numbed, her heart shattered.
Then
Darkness.
Light.
Cold. Artificial. Flickering fluorescent tubes.
Yena's eyes snapped open.
She gasped, sitting upright, breath heaving. Her hands clutched the thin sheets of a hospital bed.
But something was wrong.
The scent of antiseptic clung to the air, sharp and unfamiliar. A breeze drifted through a cracked window, carrying the scent of blooming jasmine and summer heat. Birds chirped outside. A child laughed distantly in the corridor.
Summer? Her mind reeled. It had been winter. The night of the betrayal, the wind had screamed against the penthouse windows.
She threw off the blanket, heart pounding.
Her side bandaged. Yes. But… no wound? No scar?
Frantic, she stumbled toward the mirror on the wall. Her legs felt light, younger. The muscles responded faster than they should have.
She froze in front of the glass.
Staring back at her was a girl.
Smooth skin. No crow's feet. No fatigue under her eyes. Full cheeks. Shining hair. Unmarked by age or time.
She looked… twenty.
Her fingers trembled as she touched her reflection.
"What the hell…" she breathed.
Then it came.
A sound not heard but felt.
[System Activated.]
The voice was mechanical, cold, female. It echoed in her mind like a code being written directly into her brain.
[Welcome, Host. You have been granted a second life.]
[Your mission: Steal the luck of your enemies. Survive. Rewrite fate.]
She staggered back. "This this is a hallucination. Some kind of psychosis"
[First Target Identified: Tang Ruxue.]
[Luck Value: +97. Success Probability: 84%]
[Would you like to proceed with revenge?]
Her breath caught. The name. Ruxue. Her smile. Her voice. That boot pressing down on her chest.
The rage came like a storm.
Hot. Blinding. Unrelenting.
She gripped the edge of the sink, nails digging into the porcelain. Her heart thundered, not from fear but from clarity.
They had killed her. Stolen everything. Turned her brilliance into a ladder for their own greed.
But now?
Now she had time.
Knowledge.
Power.
And a mission.
Her lips curved into a bitter smile as she whispered, "Yes."
But then her eyes darkened, and her voice dropped into a whisper sharp as a blade.
"But first… let's pay the Shadow King a visit."
Two weeks later.
The city looked different from the ground floor. Quieter. More dangerous.
Yena slipped through the alley behind Club Erebus, her breath fogging in the humid summer night. The bouncer at the front entrance would never have let her in this was no place for fresh-faced girls in borrowed heels.
But she wasn't just a girl anymore.
The System buzzed in her mind.
[Location confirmed: Erebus, South Wing.]
[Target: Shen Liwei a.k.a. The Shadow King.]
[Skill Acquisition Probability: 43%. ]
Yena's pulse quickened. She'd heard of Shen Liwei before she died the first time. Kingpin. Tech ghost. The kind of man who never left fingerprints but always left corpses. It was said he could erase a person's digital existence with a single keystroke or make one from thin air.
She needed him.
To rewrite fate, she needed information. Power. Allies who had no love for the elite.
And Shen Liwei hated the elite.
She slipped into the back hallway, bypassing two guards in low conversation. The System had already uploaded the building schematics into her mind.
Basement. South wing. Private suite.
Her heartbeat echoed in her ears. The marble floor under her feet was cold like the one in the penthouse. She didn't flinch.
Not anymore.
She reached the door.
No lock. Only a retinal scanner.
[Override Engaged.]
[Hack in progress: 92%... 100%. ]
The door clicked open.
And there he was.
Shen Liwei sat behind a glass desk, surrounded by low light and shadows. His eyes, sharp and calculating, rose the moment she entered.
He didn't reach for a weapon. He didn't shout.
He simply stared.
"Gu Yena," he said quietly. "I watched your funeral livestream."
She stepped inside, chin lifted. "Then you know I don't stay dead."
A pause. Then he smiled.
It was not a kind smile.
"Interesting."