Chapter 1: Back From the Crossing
"[Throwing confetti! Congrats, host Audrey Grayson, on achieving the 'Eternal Queen' ending in the seventh small world and earning 36.86 million energy points.]"
"[You are also the ninth transmigrator in the Fast-Travel Bureau to complete every mission. According to your request, we will now begin your revival process and send you back to the real world.]"
"[You're seriously amazing, no joke. As expected of my host! And because you did such a ridiculously good job, the abilities you gained in your previous worlds can all come back with you too, as a reward.]"
The voice had started off sounding proper and official, but by the end, it couldn’t keep pretending. Its original upbeat nature leaked right out, bright and bouncy.
Hearing it, a faint smile appeared on Audrey Grayson’s delicate, flawless face. There was joy in her expression, but also a bit of dazed disbelief, like she still hadn’t fully snapped out of it.
Audrey Grayson, seventeen years old, a student at No. 8 High School in Rongcheng. She had been taken in by Grandma Grayson when she was little. After her grandmother passed away, she lived on her own. Later, she was spotted on the street by a talent scout and entered the entertainment industry. But right after signing her very first ad contract, before filming had even started, she was shot and killed.
Audrey still couldn’t figure it out. She was just an ordinary student. Strictly speaking, she hadn’t even really set foot in showbiz yet. So whose path had she crossed? What exactly had she done to deserve getting murdered?
After her death, she bound to a fast-travel system. The system told her she was actually a cannon-fodder supporting character in a novel called The Frail Fake Heiress Is Everyone’s Darling, and that she wasn’t fated to die yet. As long as she completed the missions assigned by the Fast-Travel Bureau, entered seven different stories, changed the original hosts’ destinies, and gathered enough energy, she could be revived.
Audrey didn’t want to die. More than that, she wanted the truth behind her death.
So she got to work, one mission at a time, seriously grinding through it. From a complete newbie, she clawed her way up under the pressure of survival, growing at an absurd speed, until in the end she became the first mission runner to clear all seven small worlds.
After seven worlds, she was no longer the naive, simple Audrey she used to be.
"[Across the seven worlds, you collected a total of 122.75 million energy points. Reviving your body will cost 100 million points. You have 22.75 million points remaining, which can be used in the shop.]"
Audrey opened the shop, and a dazzling wall of items jumped into view.
The very first one was The Frail Fake Heiress Is Everyone’s Darling. Price: exactly ten million points.
Back when she had just died, the system had already told her that she was a character inside a book, and not even an important one. She had always wanted to know what kind of role she had in this so-called plot, so she tapped exchange without hesitation.
The moment she confirmed it, the book’s plot turned into streams of light and rushed into her mind. The amount of information was massive. Even with Audrey’s now-powerful mental strength, her head throbbed so badly it felt like it might split open. She shut her eyes, bit down hard on her lower lip, and forced herself to digest everything.
The heroine of The Frail Fake Heiress Is Everyone’s Darling was Cecily Grayson. Pure, kind, so fragile she looked like she’d fall over in a breeze. She had a fiancé who doted on her to the bone, Laurence Kincaid, and family members who cherished her like treasure. But when Cecily came of age, the Grayson family discovered that she wasn’t their real daughter.
The true Grayson heiress was Audrey Grayson. Seventeen years earlier, the two babies had been switched by a careless nurse.
So the Graysons brought Audrey back from outside. But this real heiress, Audrey, was crude in behavior and made one joke after another of herself in high society, standing in sharp contrast to the elegant and poised Cecily. Because of her identity, Cecily kept giving in to Audrey, but Audrey only pushed further, finding fault with the kind heroine at every turn and constantly trying to compete with her. Just to beat Cecily on an exam, she even cheated, and after getting caught, she tried to pin it on Cecily.
The Grayson family was thoroughly disappointed in her. To the outside world, they only said Audrey was their adopted daughter.
The Audrey in the book couldn’t accept it. She even tried to seduce Cecily’s wealthy fiancé, only to be humiliated by the male lead, Laurence Kincaid, and completely lose face. On top of that, dirt from her past in the entertainment industry was exposed—claims that she had slept her way up for opportunities. She became a punching bag across the entire internet. In upper-class circles, her reputation was beyond rotten. No one wanted anything to do with her.
Audrey blamed everything on Cecily and hated her to the core. In the end, she even bribed someone to throw sulfuric acid on Cecily. Once the plot was exposed, Cecily’s obsessive, overprotective suitors disfigured Audrey, broke her hands and feet, and dumped her on the street to beg, ending her life in utter misery.
In this book, Audrey was basically Cecily’s walking comparison prop. Her viciousness and vulgarity existed purely to make Cecily look even purer and gentler. The more Audrey bullied Cecily, the more everyone pitied Cecily and spoiled her to the skies.
And after Audrey died, kind-hearted heroine Cecily sighed a few times and shed a single tear. That one tear made everyone ache for her even more. They all said Audrey didn’t deserve it, and Cecily really was a beautiful, soft-hearted little angel.
After fully absorbing the plot, Audrey opened her eyes.
Her striking features were already stunning, but now, under that chilled expression, they looked like a frost-blooming flower on ice—gorgeous, sharp, untouchable.
She hadn’t even spoken yet when the system started sniffling dramatically.
"[Host is way too pitiful. You’re clearly the real heiress, but everybody stood on the fake heiress’s side. Boohoo.]"
That interruption instantly diluted her turbulent mood with a wave of speechless annoyance.
"Shut it first."
Whether it was the blood-boiling plot or the system’s fake crying, Audrey’s headache was now on another level.
"There is no way I would do any of the stuff in that book." She said it flatly, without a trace of doubt. Her breathtaking face, bright as a peony, carried open confidence, and her tone was firm. "From figure to face, I’m obviously prettier than her by miles. Why would I be so jealous of her that I’d want to ruin her face?"
If anything, shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Still, this book wasn’t completely useless. At least now she knew who her enemy was.
The one who had shot her dead was one of Cecily’s pursuers in the book—Emilio Vance.
According to the novel, Emilio was the ace of an international assassin organization called Dark Night. During one mission, he was gravely injured and was saved by the heroine Cecily, who hid him in her home and treated his wounds. After that, Emilio regarded Cecily as the only patch of purity in his heart and silently protected her from the shadows. When he found out Audrey had tried to hurt Cecily, he personally snapped the tendons in her limbs and cut out her tongue. In other words, the Audrey in the plot was practically killed by his own hand.
But the real Audrey, at that point, hadn’t even been taken back by the Grayson family yet. She hadn’t met Cecily either. And still, she had died at Emilio Vance’s hands.
She lowered her head and looked at her abdomen.
The gunshot wound had long since been healed by the fast-travel system. There wasn’t even a scar left behind. Her skin was still pale and smooth like white jade. But in that exact spot, there was still a faint lingering ache, ghostlike and cold.
A thoughtful look rose in Audrey’s clear eyes.
Had her identity been exposed somehow, so Emilio had come in advance to eliminate any future threat for the sake of his precious angel?
If Audrey knew where he was right now, she would absolutely go collect this blood debt in person.
While she was still thinking, a sudden ringtone yanked her back to reality. Audrey lowered her gaze and saw two words flashing on the screen: Sister Wang.
Sister Wang was her agent. In the book, although Audrey was useless in almost every other way, she had a face that nobody could pick apart. Director Milton Prescott from the TV world happened to take a liking to her. So Sister Wang arranged a dinner, slipped something into the drinks, and ruined the book version of Audrey’s innocence.
The moment that thought hit, Audrey felt her fists tighten.
She swiped to answer, and Sister Wang’s voice came through.
"Audrey, I’ve got good news for you. Director Prescott happened to see your photo and thinks you’re a great fit for a role in the drama he’s preparing. You know how capable Director Prescott is. This project’s got over two hundred million invested in it. No clue how many young actresses are fighting over this supporting role. You seriously cannot miss this chance."
"Come over to the company right now. I’ll set up a dinner. You can have a drink with Director Prescott and thank him properly for appreciating you."