Zhao Yuner, an intern in the Space-Time Bureau's Maintenance Department, was thrown into a high-risk mission just three days after becoming a full-time employee: take her sister's place in the palace and survive for 30 days.
As soon as she opened her eyes, the System's pop-up alert flashed wildly: [Nangong Siwang's Killing Intent: 75% → 80%! Extreme danger!]
Before her stood a tyrant, blood dripping from his sword tip, a scar across his brow like cracked porcelain. Behind her, Liu Qing smiled through gold-rimmed glasses, gentle as poison.
The bronze bangle on her wrist, a piece of junk issued to interns, suddenly shook with a dull ache like the aftermath of dental anesthesia. [SSS-Rank Authority Activated: Read the world's memories, and become the perfect sacrificial offering.]
The secrets of the iron box in the Cold Palace, the blood from the night the consort died, her sister's diary entry, “Liu Qing is a wolf”… fragments of memory pierced her mind.
Nangong Siwang grabbed the back of her neck. “Who sent you?”
She blurted out, “Is the iron box under the locust tree still there?”
His killing intent dropped sharply, but he grew even more suspicious.
Liu Qing offered her a handkerchief, luring her in with a smile. “The Bureau owes me thirty thousand points. Shall we work together and both come out ahead?”
The System sounded the alarm: [Illegal entrant! World anomaly!]
She redeemed [Hypnosis] and pretended to cry to save her life, all while complaining: “My overtime pay doesn't even cover painkillers, and now I have to stop the tyrant from killing people.”
The blue light of her bangle grew brighter. Blood seeped from the palace walls like rotten peach juice, and her father's life-support pod protocol appeared: [SSS-Rank vessel activated → this realm will collapse; price: consciousness erased.]
Should she lock the door and let the world end, or dismantle the plot and save everyone?
She gripped the bangle tight. “I took this lousy job, but I'm clearing the mission with the tyrant by my side.”
The System, the tyrant, or the illegal entrant: who will be the ultimate winner?
