Chapter 3 — The Ultimate Backstage Power in the Universe

As cold water splashed over my body, I began to shiver violently. A faint voice sounded in my mind: 【Are you awake?】 I remained silent, realizing I was tightly bound to a chair. Not far away, Xu Fengze and Tran Ngoc Chau were sitting close together, embracing. Seeing me regain consciousness, a triumphant smile broke across his face, despite his features being swollen like a pig's head. "Chi Van Thu, you are dead today." A group of men dressed in black walked in one by one. Tran Ngoc Chau frowned and waved her hand dismissively. "Don't kill her yet; I still want to sell her overseas." Xu Fengze doted on her instantly: "Alright, whatever you say." He pulled out a small dagger, pressed it hard against my cheek, and gritted his teeth. "Chi Van Thu, did you ever imagine you would fall into my hands?" I couldn't be bothered to look at him, cursing madly in my mind to apologize to 001. Me: "I'm sorry, I failed again this time." 001 comforted me instead: 【It's not your fault; Xu Fengze is just too despicable.】 I sighed: "Please help me block the pain sensation. See you in the next world." 001 let out a cold laugh: 【No need. Since Xu Fengze dared to mess with my performance scores, today I'll show him what superpowers really are.】 Me: "‽" 001: 【Timeline confirmed. Initiating reboot.】 Me: "!"

Time rapidly reversed, spinning backward to the exact moment before I was about to step into the abandoned factory. Xu Fengze was still pretending to be dead with his eyes closed, so I strode forward and kicked him hard. He let out a shriek of agony, instantly drawing out the men in black lurking around the factory as well as Tran Ngoc Chau. "A-Zhe!" Xu Fengze cried out in utter despair: "Why did you come out?" Tran Ngoc Chau looked aggrieved by his rebuke. "She dared to bully you like that, I couldn't bear to just watch." Xu Fengze reached the depths of despair: "I was only a moment away from tricking her inside, you..." I landed a direct punch straight to his nose, drawing blood, and smiled down at him. "Impressive, isn't it? Gathering all that sleeping potion must not have been easy." "You... how did you know?" Naturally, I wasn't going to tell him that my backing was stronger than his; I just delivered another punch to his face. "Do you love me?" Tran Ngoc Chau tried to rush forward to help, but 001 immediately summoned a bolt of lightning, threatening to strike anyone who dared to move. Amidst the violent storm of my therapeutic fists, Xu Fengze finally broke. Snot and tears streaming down his face, he wailed: "I love you! I love you, alright?!" 001 quickly extracted the keyword: 【Detected target showing romantic affection toward the host. Calculating task completion.】

Back in the system space, I felt a little anxious. "Are we really not going to get penalized for exploiting bugs like this?" 001 remained utterly unconcerned: 【He already said he loved you; I've extracted that keyword into thousands of backup files. The oversight department won't be able to trace it.】 Me: "What if they find out?" 001: 【What's there to be afraid of? I am the head of the oversight department.】 Me: "‽" So my powerful backing was actually real all along! Then what on earth was the point of all those past sufferings I had to endure?

Having finalized the calculations for Xu Fengze's world, 001 immediately opened up a second mission world for me. This time, I was the legitimate daughter of a Marquis's estate, and the target was the Seventh Prince, Qi Yu. He had long been secretly in love with my half-sister, Chi Kim Ha, and because I resembled her by eighty percent, he hadn't turned me away either. Unfortunately, a substitute is always just a substitute and can never truly compare to the original. After exploiting all the resources of the Marquis's estate, he smoothly ascended the throne, ruthlessly discarded me, and married my sister as his empress. He even fabricated absurd pretexts to slaughter my entire family.

Witnessing 001's heaven-defying manipulations, I couldn't help but view it as my ultimate pillar of support. "001, this time the target has power and influence. If I beat him up like I did Xu Fengze, wouldn't I get hacked to pieces by a mob?" 001 pondered for a moment: 【This target isn't easy to handle. Let's switch to someone else.】 I mused as well: "The imperial palace is heavily guarded. If we want to kill Qi Yu, we need to plan for the long term." 001: 【...Who said anything about killing him?】 Me: "Didn't you say that if we want to change targets, the previous one has to die?" 001 suddenly realized: 【Ah, I lied to you. I simply couldn't stand Xu Fengze.】 Me: "..." Me: "So you find this guy pleasing to the eye?" 001 awkwardly replied: 【Just joking. It's just that Qi Yu is the Seventh Prince, and his destiny is entangled with too many karmic threads. Killing him arbitrarily will alert the Heavenly Dao, making us an easy target for lightning strikes.】

Recalling how skillfully 001 had summoned lightning to strike Tran Ngoc Chau in the previous world, I teased, "You handled the lightning so proficiently in the last world, why are you suddenly afraid of being struck now?" 001 answered: 【The Heavenly Dao of that world is a friend of mine, but I'm not acquainted with the one here.】 "..." So this was what they called "connections." However, not being able to kill Qi Yu filled me with disappointment. I hated Qi Yu just as much as Xu Fengze, if not more—hated him enough to want to carve out his flesh and drink his blood.

001 perceived my emotions: 【Rest assured, this time I will find someone for you who is peerless. Compared to him, Qi Yu is absolute garbage.】 Me: "Really?" This was the first time I had ever seen 001 speak so highly of a human being. I couldn't help but look forward to it. But 001 refused to reveal who the person was, only saying I would meet them when the time came.

Thus, I had a legitimate excuse to hole up in the Marquis's estate and refuse to go out. After I had fawned over him for days without showing up, Qi Yu began to grow restless and sent someone to deliver a letter. I didn't even bother to read it, casually tossing it aside. I ignored him for several days straight. Not only did Qi Yu grow anxious, but even Chi Kim Ha came knocking at my door in person. "Little sister, why haven't I seen you go out to play with the Seventh Highness lately?" She tried her best to appear friendly, but she couldn't completely mask the calculation in her eyes. I was busy flipping through some newly published novels and couldn't care less about exchanging pleasantries with her. "I won't go out with him anymore. He doesn't like me, so why should I humiliate myself trying to cling to him? After all, the person in the Seventh Highness's heart isn't me."

Chi Kim Ha forced a stiff smile. "Little sister, you must have misunderstood something. My relationship with the Seventh Highness is completely pure and innocent." Hearing this, I put down my book, offering a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes. "Meeting up to embrace each other in a teahouse—is that what you call pure?" Chi Kim Ha's face instantly turned pale. "You... how do you know about that?"

Heh heh. I was a professional simping dog; there was nothing about their shady dealings that I didn't know. I casually rattled off a few more incidents, causing Chi Kim Ha to nearly lose her footing. She could only cover her face and flee, her retreating figure looking fragile and deeply wounded. I paid her no mind and went back to reading my unfinished novel.

Evening arrived before long. 001 had recently claimed to be busy with matters and hadn't been able to chat with me. I was planning to sneak out to investigate Qi Yu's whereabouts—though I said I wanted to change targets, I still wanted to deal with him. Even if I couldn't kill him, I had to cause him some trouble.

However, before I could wait for an opportunity, both an imperial edict and Qi Yu himself arrived at the Marquis's estate. Qi Yu had arrived ahead of the decree under the guise of paying respects to the Marquis, so he hadn't left yet. He was utterly bewildered as to why an imperial edict was being delivered to the estate.