Mia Grant had transmigrated. She'd become the villainess in a novel about a romantic free-for-all—the kind of character who gets killed off not long after her introduction.
The good news was, she'd faked her death ahead of schedule.
Right now, she was on an unnamed island, lying on a soft sandy beach in a bikini, with eight male models and eight male university students lined up, waiting to feed her.
The bad news was, two months later, something calling itself a "System" had appeared, telling her that the male leads had scattered her ashes?!
[Host! I finally fixed the malfunction and connected to you!]
A System, huh? Mia Grant had read plenty of novels, so she wasn't surprised.
"So you're only finding me now. Are you here to send me home?"
[Home, my ass! Can you please tell me why all the male leads have gone dark?! What did you do to them while I was away!]
Mia put on an innocent face. "What could a mere cannon fodder like me possibly do?"
The System refused to believe her. It pulled up the old records and replayed them, frame by frame.
When Mia Grant first transmigrated, she was locked in a sunless basement by her parents from the Grant Family for hurting the real heiress.
The maids fed her spoiled food, cut up her clothes, soaked her bed, and cursed that such a vicious person would die a horrible death...
Up to this point, the plot was proceeding as normal. In the original book, this was exactly how the villainous fake heiress, who had committed countless evil deeds, died in the basement.
No major issues there; Mia Grant was obediently following the plot.
...Until the System saw that a week after Mia had been locked up, her CEO brother accidentally entered the basement. With reddened eyes, she grabbed the hem of his suit with a small, pale hand, her own eyes welling with tears. "Big Brother, it's so dark in the basement. Mia is so scared!"
And then—
To her doctor second brother, she trembled like a leaf, grabbing his hand. "Second Brother, my chest hurts so much. Quick, feel..."
To the stoic tycoon, she cooed, "Mr. Keller, thank you for taking me in. But with us lying in the same bed... Sister won't be angry, will she?"
To the aloof top student, she choked out, "I'm sorry... Am I just too stupid? I'm nothing compared to Sister."
To the puppy-dog school bully, she stammered with a red face, "I-I didn't come to watch you play basketball! I was just... just passing by!"
"..."
Later on, after the college entrance exams, the real heiress held a party on a cruise ship to celebrate her university admission. As the fake heiress, Mia deliberately sabotaged it.
When the male leads locked her in a room to make her reflect on her actions, she faked her death by jumping into the sea right in front of them.
The male leads sent over a dozen search and rescue teams into the sea to find her. They wanted her back, dead or alive. They searched so frantically that even a passing fish would've gotten smacked.
In the end, the male leads received the fake ashes she had so carefully prepared (it was actually milk powder). Without even a glance, they scattered the ashes into the sea on the spot—
And then... one went mad, another went mad, another... went mad?
[?] After watching the previous events, the System slowly typed out a question mark.
Seeing "her own" ashes get scattered, Mia Grant mentally added a question mark of her own.
The System roared.
Mia retorted, "If you're going to blame someone, blame yourself! Who told you to malfunction!"
The System tried to argue, but she cut it off.
"Yes! I admit the process deviated from the original plot just a tiny, tiny bit. But! The ending is still great! As far as they're concerned, Mia Grant is dead and gone!"
The System freaked out but quickly accepted the reality of the situation. [Forget it. Luckily, there's still a chance.]
[Go back now and lower their corruption levels. This world can still be saved!]
"Not going."
[If their corruption levels max out, you'll be obliterated too.]
Mia talked tough. "It's just one worthless life. If I die, I die!"
[...A one-billion-dollar bonus!]
Mia silently took off her sunglasses, pulled out her phone, and called for a helicopter. "Yes, I need to leave the island. Immediately! Right now!"
「 」
How does a dead person reappear in the public eye in a logical and reasonable way?
It was a science in itself.
This was Mia's first time "coming back from the dead," so she had no experience.
While she was deep in thought, the System applied for a compensation package for her: an increase to her "frailty" stat.
[With this, you can cough every few steps, wheeze constantly, and even spit up some blood from time to time—all without any real danger of dying, of course!]
'What kind of idiotic thing is this?'
Without a second thought, Mia refused. "No, I want to be able to kill a bull with one punch and then fuck this damn world up!"
[...]
In the end, Mia accepted the System's compensation package, for one reason only: the System said it would give her a perfect excuse to act frail in front of the male leads.
Mia found a private hospital to get a physical examination.
This hospital was one of the Hughes Family's properties, and their eldest son, Hayes Hughes, was a doctor here.
It wouldn't be long before he got word of her presence.
She just needed to wait for him here.
She would pretend to be here for a doctor's appointment and let him "accidentally" discover her.
And then— 'Arise, my love!'