Chapter 1

Chapter 1: 001 – The Last Task

“Beep. Beep. Beep…”

“Mission host detected. Initiating transfer…”

“Transfer in progress…”

“Transfer complete. Please receive the memories, host…”

In a luxury hotel suite, a woman lay sprawled across pristine white sheets. Her eyes snapped open—bright, almost unreal, like starlight poured into glass.

Then the light drained into something colder. Older. A flicker of amusement curled at the edge of her gaze, sharp enough to cut.

She pushed herself upright and leaned back against the headboard, silk whispering over her skin. A smile touched her lips—sweet on the surface, poisonous underneath.

“Who told you to send me here?”

Her voice was low and cool, the kind that slipped under the ribs and squeezed. The teasing lilt at the end made it worse, all velvet and hooks, impossible to ignore.

She let out a soft laugh that held no warmth. “Heh.”

“Xiao Hua Hua.” She said it like a pet name, like a threat. “Are you looking for death?”

Each word landed with the chill of a blade.

A transparent thing shaped like a little flower cat quivered in midair, fur and whiskers rendered in pale light.

“M-Master…” The sound came out broken, as if even its voice were shaking.

“This is your last task,” it forced out. “If you succeed, you’ll be completely free.”

“If you fail… f-fail… fail, then…”

Qiao Qing Yan tilted her head, watching it tremble. Her smile didn’t change, but the air around her seemed to drop a few degrees.

Little Tabby Cat clenched what passed for its teeth, squeezed its eyes shut, and blurted the rest as if sprinting off a cliff.

“If you succeed, you’ll be completely free and leave the Quick-Transmigration Bureau. If you fail, you’ll be erased.”

Erased.

Qiao Qing Yan’s expression didn’t shift. The word settled in her mind like ash.

Erased… as if the Bureau’s garbage had the ability.

What a joke.

Before being transferred, she’d carved her way through the Quick-Transmigration Bureau until the place nearly collapsed under the weight of its own alarms. Did they really believe that tossing her into a mission world would make her obedient?

Qiao Qing Yan swung her legs off the bed.

She didn’t bother with shoes. Barefoot, draped in a white silk nightgown, she crossed the suite without hurry, as if taking a midnight stroll. The balcony doors were already unlocked. She stepped out into the cool air, the city lights glittering below like spilled jewelry.

Little Tabby Cat hadn’t even found its words when—

Something silver flashed.

Blood sprayed hot against the night.

And the slender figure vaulted the balcony railing in one clean, graceful motion.

Little Tabby Cat froze.

…What?

The host—she… she killed herself.

—

Qiao Qing Yan opened her eyes again.

Five minutes earlier.

Same bed. Same suite. Same sterile luxury. Even the faint scent of expensive detergent clung to the sheets, unchanged.

This time, Little Tabby Cat hadn’t managed to speak yet.

Outside, beyond the glass, the balcony waited—quiet, indifferent.

Five minutes later, the scene played again.

Silver. Blood. The fall.

Little Tabby Cat’s mind went blank.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four—

Qiao Qing Yan confirmed it with a patience that wasn’t patience at all. No matter how many times she ended her own life, she always woke on that bed five minutes earlier, as if the world had a hand on a rewind button and nothing else mattered.

A cold laugh slipped from her throat.

So this was “erased”?

This was it?

She had been tired of quick-transmigration for a long time—so long she couldn’t remember what a normal lifespan even felt like. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have nearly torn the Bureau apart just to feel something different.

Little Tabby Cat stared at her, stunned by the chain of calm, violent tests. This was the host who’d turned the Bureau upside down. The one who always looked ready to blow the roof off anything that tried to contain her.

Qiao Qing Yan yawned, languid boredom rolling off her like perfume.

“Xiao Hua Hua. Tell me about this mission.”

If she couldn’t die, then the Bureau really was as useless as ever.

Since she’d been thrown here, she might as well make herself comfortable.

Little Tabby Cat snapped to attention. “I’ll send you the plot and the mission right now.”

“Refused.” Qiao Qing Yan stretched like a cat—slow, lazy, careless. “Suddenly I don’t feel like knowing.”

Little Tabby Cat went silent.

It wanted to cry.

Then her voice came again, light as a sigh. “Forget it. Go back. As for the mission…”

Little Tabby Cat blinked rapidly. “Host… you’ll be fine, right?”

Qiao Qing Yan smiled, all sweetness and warning. “Good. A good child should go to sleep.”

She lifted her hand and flicked her fingers.

The world fell quiet—as if someone had shut a door on sound itself.

—

At the same time, in a building across from the hotel, a tall, refined figure stood by a window and watched with unhurried interest as the same scene replayed—again and again.

Those dazzling phoenix eyes glimmered, curiosity threaded with amusement.