Reborn, I Turned Against the System

Shen Fan showed an extraordinary talent for drawing from a young age. The only person in the village who had ever gone to school was the village Party secretary, who had been transferred in from elsewhere. By chance, the secretary discovered Shen Fan’s artistic talent and kept talking to his parents, eventually paying out of his own pocket for Shen Fan to study art and get an education. Later, Shen Fan made it into Jing University’s Fine Arts Department and left the mountains. His own hard work was essential, but so was the village secretary’s support.

In his second year as a professor, Shen Fan received a national commission to create a large-scale oil painting reflecting the culture of the times. Just as it was nearly finished and ready for delivery, one of his students secretly smoked in the studio, and the masterpiece he had spent three years painting went up in flames. Shen Fan inhaled too much smoke while fighting the fire and fell unconscious. When he awoke, he had gained the Master System. It granted him the greatest fortune in the art world of the present age: even a casual stroke of paint could become a masterpiece for the ages. That same night, his name became famous.

But he did not know that as the System granted him fortune, it was also draining the fortune and life force of everyone connected to him who had shown him kindness. In other words, all his achievements came from the support of everyone in his life. Only as he lay dying and looked back on his life did he realize the truth. After he gained that fortune, the people around him had suffered one accident after another or been diagnosed with terminal cancer, dying one by one before his eyes. He finally understood that he had caused the deaths of everyone who had helped him and treated him well. Overwhelmed with regret, he realized that he had been so consumed by his own glory that he had noticed nothing. By the time he came to his senses, it was too late. As he closed his eyes for the last time, no one was left by his side. He said, “If only I could start over…”