When the doctor pronounced that she had only three months left, Lin Xiaoman calmly signed the consent form to refuse treatment.
After twenty-two years with congenital heart disease, she had long since learned not to plead with fate.
Until one rainy night, a ball of light crashed into her hospital room:
[Plane Energy Collection System No. 007 at your service.]
[Transmigrate through twelve worlds and complete your missions in exchange for a healthy heart.]
[90% chance of death.]
[Don't want to go? Then your chance of death is 100%.]
Lin Xiaoman pulled out her IV needle. "Deal."
Then she was dumped into a morgue in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
[Current heart integrity: 15%.]
[Estimated survival time: 2 hours.]
Lin Xiaoman: "...System, you call this a beginner's village?"
System: [This is a hellish start. Host, find an antidote as soon as possible, or this System will find a new Host.]
In a world where human lives were cheaper than bullets, her only bargaining chip was a pair of hands that could heal wounds, and a cold-hearted wanderer who had saved her with three bullets, then stolen her watch.
"Escort me to the Noah Laboratory," she said. "I'll treat your injuries, and you'll keep me alive. Fair trade."
The man pressed his gun to her forehead and smiled. "Fair? In the wasteland, fairness is a delusion of the weak."
"Then I'll make myself indispensable to the strong."
She cured his viral infection, stitched up his knife wound, and pushed her heart past its limits to keep him alive amid a zombie horde.
In return, he lured away raiders, fought off mutant beasts, and snatched her back from a cannibal's pot.
"You owe me three lives," he said.
"Then let me live long enough to repay you."
From a post-apocalyptic wasteland to a magic academy, from a cultivation sect to an underwater prison.
Twelve planes, twelve life-and-death bargains.
She thought this was just a fair exchange, one life for another.
Until one day, all the "trade partners" from every plane appeared in the real world at the same time.
The System finally broke down: [Host, I told you to collect energy, not men.]
Lin Xiaoman: "It just happened along the way."
[Reading Guide]
The heroine is genuinely frail from the start, but grows stronger. She's neither a bleeding heart nor a fake innocent.
The male lead is cold and puts self-interest first at the beginning, but later falls hard. The romance is slow-burn.
Episodic stories and the main plot progress together. Each plane has its own story, and the male lead appears in different forms, or is a different person in each plane.
Her healing ability is her core golden finger, but every use makes her heart sound the alarm, balancing wish fulfillment with danger.
Theme: In a desperate situation, your only bargaining chip is yourself. When the world throws you into a morgue, learn to negotiate beside the corpses.