When the Villain Falls Madly in Love with Me - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Threat

This was Le Le’s sixth year of suffering in this world, but clearly, the world was not ready to let her go.

She watched the chattering person in front of her listlessly. The girl’s forced innocent smile was like a coat of poor-quality paint, unable to conceal the underlying calculation.

In the gaps between her words, other sounds drilled into Le Le’s ears without obstruction, clear and grating:

Villain, System, Blackening Value, Favorability…

Le Le hadn’t started school, and a barrage of unintelligible terms followed. Judging that this strangely behaving person was definitely up to no good, she didn’t bother to pursue it and turned to walk away.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t go! I haven’t finished talking!”

Le Le listened to the person’s loud calls behind her with some exasperation. She quickened her pace—what a strange person.

【System, I’m done for! I’m going to fail again!】 The girl’s frustrated voice sounded behind her.

【Forget it, forget it. This Villain is notoriously difficult to攻略 (conquer/raid). Let’s go, let’s go.】 A cold, mechanical voice responded.

Le Le didn’t want to comment on the girl’s terrible acting. She was worse than the worst actor Le Le had ever seen on TV. If she had an agenda, she should at least show some sincerity.

“…” A wave of speechlessness.

When she looked back, the spot was indeed empty.

As if a switch had been flipped, people of all shapes and sizes began to flock to her afterward.

Men and women, old and young. Some put on smiling faces, abruptly asking to be her friend. Others wore expressions of compassion, claiming they wanted to give her a home.

Without exception, their inner thoughts were conversing with that unseen “System,” and their minds were playing out the same clumsy script titled “Saving the Villain.”

Initially, Le Le agreed to go home with one woman. She was too curious about what a home was like. Even if it was an elaborately staged deception, she wanted to briefly experience that marshmallow-like, fleeting warmth.

“Le Le, look, this room was decorated just for you. Do you like it?” The woman put her arm around Le Le’s shoulder, gently pointing to the pink-themed room piled with plush toys. Her smile was flawless.

Le Le stood at the doorway, looking at the room that was too beautiful to be real, her feet feeling as if they were stepping on clouds. Everything felt like a fragile dream.

She had her own room, but she still couldn’t help writing her name on her possessions over and over again.

On the first day at kindergarten, she didn’t cry like the other children. She just sat quietly on a small stool, watching the teacher.

So annoying. Le Le sneered inwardly, watching the group of children who were older than her noisily fussing about.

The exhausted teacher noticed her and felt like she had found an angel among the chaos—pretty, quiet, and not causing trouble. So, Le Le was made the little class monitor.

After a few tests, the teacher was even more surprised: the child had a photographic memory and an extremely quick wit. Who wouldn’t like a smart and beautiful child? The teacher became increasingly fond of her.

Since the teacher liked her, some children gathered around her. But there were always some who were unconvinced.

“Le Le! Come out! Let’s fight one-on-one. Whoever wins gets to be the monitor!” A boy a head taller than Le Le stood at the door, shouting aggressively at her.

Le Le, who was listlessly building blocks, looked over in confusion. She already had several small followers behind her.

The little girl next to her, who had finally managed to play with Le Le, shot Le Le a pitiful look, then immediately flew into a rage. She kicked away her stool and rushed toward the boy.

Wen Jing grabbed his collar, raised her fist, and shouted, “Mi Xiaohui, are you crazy or something!”

Mi Xiaohui immediately wilted, murmuring, “Violent girl, violent girl.”

Le Le, seizing the moment of their “standoff,” calmly got up and went to the teacher: “Teacher, Mi Xiaohui is bullying classmates.”

The result, naturally, was that both little troublemakers were taken to the corner for a time-out.

Le Le actually liked the kindergarten toys; they were much more novel than the broken rubbish at the welfare institution. But someone always came to interrupt her when she was concentrating on research.

Now that no one was chattering next to her, Le Le could finally play by herself for a while.

As she picked up a puzzle piece, another child came over, accompanied by a familiar internal monologue.

“Le Le, let’s be friends…”

Cliché. This was an idiom Le Le had just learned. She couldn’t be bothered and continued to manipulate the puzzle piece in her hand.

【System, if I can’t successfully complete the conquest, will I die?】 The child asked nervously.

【No,】 the System replied coldly. 【You just won’t get any points. If it really doesn’t work, we’ll just switch to the next target.】

The person breathed a sigh of relief. As she tried to redouble her efforts, Le Le suddenly looked up, staring at her with vacant eyes.

“Ah—” The child gasped in shock, nearly falling onto her bottom.

Won’t die?

Does that mean she can live forever and ever and ever?

She wanted to live forever too.

If a person’s life was infinitely long, they wouldn’t mind wasting time, right?

This thought, like a poisonous snake, instantly coiled around Le Le’s heart. If a person’s life was infinite, would they not care about wasting that insignificant amount of time?

If that were the case, perhaps… she would have been willing to take Li Xin’s last phone call, to give that burning-out, silly flicker of light a moment of worthless time?

System. How come so many people could possess such a good thing, but she couldn’t?

An unprecedented, toxic idea, mixed with envy and intense possessiveness, burst forth from the ground in her heart and began to grow wildly.

“Follow me after school,” Le Le motioned to her.

The child was stunned for a moment, then her face lit up with ecstasy. She nodded frantically.

The woman’s house wasn’t far from the kindergarten. After Le Le learned the way, she stopped letting the woman pick her up. She led the child through a maze of narrow alleys, finally stopping in a quiet, secluded corner.

The child followed her cautiously, her mind frantically discussing countermeasures with the System.

Le Le listened silently to their conversation, which eventually resulted in a “resigned” plan. “…”

【She seems to… really look down on us?】 The child was confused.

【It’s you, not us.】 The System clarified.

“W-what are you… going to do!” The child forced herself to ask calmly. Before she finished speaking, she was slammed against the cold brick wall by a powerful force.

“Ouch!” Her head hit the back of the wall, hurting badly. Immediately following, a cold, hard object pressed against her neck.

A knife!

Le Le held a knife to the child’s neck, her cold, hostile gaze sweeping over her, trying to locate the System.

Frightened out of her wits by the stare, the child was almost in tears. She raised her hands and said, “W-what are you looking for? I-I’ll give you anything.”

The child knew she came from the welfare institution and thought she was being mugged, so she quickly fumbled in her pockets.

【Quick! Quick! Quick! Manifest some money for me!】 She screamed at the System.

【I have a feeling… she’s not after money?】 The System also felt a shiver.

Le Le’s gaze finally locked onto the child’s head. She spoke slowly, her voice chillingly quiet like an underground draft: “Give me the System in your head.”

【AAAAHH—!!!】

【Warning! Warning! Serious violation! Host must not disclose the System’s existence to the target!】 The System’s shrill alarm and the child’s shriek exploded almost simultaneously!

The child was scared senseless. 【Didn’t you say she was young and her Blackening Value wasn’t high?! You call this not high?!】

“Too noisy. Hurry up.” Le Le impatiently rubbed the handle of the knife with her thumb.

【Initiate immediate payment of 10,000 points for forced exit from this world?!】 The System urgently asked.

【Yes, yes, yes! Quick! Immediately! Right now!】 The child screamed her confirmation.

Le Le was caught completely off guard. She felt a blur before her eyes, failed to grab the person, and watched her vanish instantly.

Bad luck. She ran into a coward.

She pouted, tossing the retractable toy knife back into her backpack. Sure enough, good things like that weren’t easily tricked out of people.

There would be plenty of time. Judging by the number of people she had encountered so far, there would likely be many more to come.

“Woof! Woof!”

Le Le’s thoughts were interrupted. She turned to look at a small, dusty puppy in the dark corner. It arched its back and barked fiercely at her.

However, because it was so tiny and skinny, it didn’t seem very intimidating.

Le Le stared at the wet, yet highly wary eyes for a moment. She quietly pulled a hot dog sausage from her backpack—a reward from her teacher that she had been reluctant to eat.

She carefully broke it in half, placing one half on the ground and pushing it a short distance from the puppy. She nibbled on the other half herself.

The puppy smelled the tempting meat, nervously pacing in place, the tip of its tail slightly wagging. Drool was almost dripping, but it was too cautious to step forward due to extreme vigilance.

“Eat.” Le Le looked indifferent, pointing to the sausage on the ground as she chewed.

Hunger eventually defeated fear. The puppy cautiously darted out and snatched the sausage.

While gobbling it down, it kept its eyes fixed on Le Le, guarding against a kick that might come at any moment. After all, it had experienced this sort of thing too many times.

After eating, the puppy realized Le Le genuinely had no malice, and even carried the grace of sharing food. It carefully approached and licked Le Le’s palm in a gesture of deference.

Perhaps it was the psychological effect of wanting what she couldn’t have, but the taste of this hot dog didn’t seem nearly as fragrant as the grilled sausage she smelled on the street that day. Still, she hadn’t actually tasted that one, so she couldn’t truly compare.

She returned home, where the woman had already cooked and was waiting for her to eat.

“Le Le, did you have fun at kindergarten today?” The woman’s eyes curved in a gentle smile as she served a piece of vegetable onto her plate.

Le Le looked down, bypassed the food she served, and ate something else, replying with a simple “Mhm.”

【Sigh, no progress at all. Is this child’s heart made of stone?】 The woman sighed inwardly.

【Host, our time limit in this world is almost up. If it really doesn’t work… maybe we should give up?】 The System suggested.

Le Le summarized all these conversations. She guessed they were entering this world like a game, and she was the minor boss, and they were the players. If they cleared the level, they got a huge reward. If not, they could spend points or wait out a set time to leave.

And she, clearly, was an extremely tough nut to crack.

Le Le scoffed inwardly. The so-called love and warmth these players offered was so fake that it wasn’t as real and precious as the wild dog that had just licked her hand in the alley.

Immediately, she silently scorned herself. That wild dog got half a sausage from her and at least knew to come up and lick her hand in thanks.

Meanwhile, she was gratuitously enjoying the food, shelter, and stability provided by the woman in front of her, yet felt not a shred of gratitude in her heart.

【System, System! Look quick!】 The woman’s delighted voice suddenly exploded in Le Le’s mind.

【Even though the Blackening Value hasn’t moved, her Favorability towards me has increased by 1 point! Increased by 1 point!】

【What?!】 The System also sounded very shocked. 【Wait, let me run a backend estimate…】

【Oh my god! Host! The points calculated from her 1 Favorability point are… ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand… one hundred thousand! We’ve struck gold! One hundred thousand points!】

Le Le was a bit stunned by the woman’s excited voice. So, her tiny bit of insignificant favorability could earn so many points.

Perhaps she could use this to extract more things. Even just 1 point of these players’ currency could be exchanged for a lot of this world’s money.

She couldn’t get the System for now, but at least she needed money.

She wanted money. Lots and lots of money.

【Huh? Host, wait a minute, the Favorability… why did it drop back down? It’s zero again?】 The System’s voice was full of confusion.

【Ah? I got excited for nothing…】 The woman was instantly dejected.

“You didn’t get excited for nothing,” Le Le suddenly looked up, her gaze fixed on the woman. Her eyes were so sharp they completely belied her age as a kindergarten child. “I was just testing you.”

The woman’s body stiffened. She looked at Le Le in disbelief and stammered, “Le-Le Le, what are you saying?”

“I’ll trade 10 points of Favorability for money.” Le Le answered calmly.

The woman was completely petrified, her mind blank. After a few seconds, a flash of panic crossed her eyes, followed by signs of frantic, silent communication with the System.

Le Le pursed her lips, inwardly unsure if the other party would accept the deal.

After a long while, the woman seemed to have finally reached an agreement with the System.

She took a deep breath, trying to maintain her composure, but her voice still carried a subtle tremor: “How much… how much do you want? I’ve only just started… I don’t have many points…”

“Forty thousand.” (Assuming she meant the money required for the surgery)

“I can’t trade that much… Ah?” The woman’s pretense of calmness cracked. She had prepared herself to be heavily extorted by the child.

But this was… a small request.

Le Le just wanted to cure her own illness first before discussing other matters. The old woman had said it required a lot of money. This amount should be enough to cure her.

She was very far-sighted.

In truth, Le Le had just started the middle class in kindergarten and had only recently been introduced to numbers up to ten. To her, “ten thousand” already seemed like a considerable sum of money.

“Deal!” The woman’s eyes revealed unspeakable excitement. Sure enough, children are easy to trick!