Free Web NovelChapter 212: Chapter 215: There Must Be a Way to Survive
"..." Charlotte Shaw’s mouth twitched, and she looked utterly speechless. "Go on. Keep making your excuses."
Renee Sinclair picked up a strawberry from the bowl, took a big bite, and spoke as she chewed, "When I first got here, I didn’t know you were a transmigrator, too. I thought you were the real Sonia Quincy. Plus, the System told me that Felix Preston’s wife, Sonia Quincy, was an incredibly vicious and evil woman. It said that if I didn’t hurry up and get rid of you, my mission would be that much harder to complete."
"Back then, I had just transmigrated. Knowing the plot and having a System made me cocky and arrogant, and I couldn’t help it. The reason I was so harsh to you, why I slandered you—a third of it was just my own hubris. I didn’t take anyone in this book seriously."
Hearing this, Charlotte Shaw raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Then what about the other two-thirds?"
Renee Sinclair said, "It was because of my biases. The System told me you were a vicious, spiteful woman, so when I met you, I unconsciously wanted to target you as the villainess."
Charlotte Shaw was speechless.
Renee Sinclair smiled sheepishly and popped the rest of the strawberry into her mouth.
"The System told me that Sonia Quincy was a very difficult woman to deal with, and if I wasn’t ruthless, I’d be the one to suffer. I had just arrived, I didn’t know anyone, so I had no choice but to believe whatever it said. I treated its words as gospel."
"And later?" Charlotte Shaw’s smile slowly faded, her expression turning serious as she looked at Renee Sinclair. "Did you eventually realize that the real me was completely different from what the System told you?"
Renee Sinclair nodded. "Of course I realized it."
"...And you still bad-mouthed me after you realized it?" Charlotte Shaw was both speechless and furious. "Every time we met, you’d rip me to shreds and blame me for all sorts of bizarre things... Did you think I was from Kurisawa, the way you were targeting me like that?!"
"...I’m sorry." Renee Sinclair pursed her lips, trying to suppress a laugh, but she apologized quite readily.
"..." Charlotte Shaw glared at her, puffing her cheeks indignantly. "Keep going with your excuses. Why did you keep coming after me even after you realized I wasn’t a bad person?"
"I... my mental state wasn’t very stable back then." Renee Sinclair’s eyes fell, and a profound sense of despair seemed to emanate from her.
"My initial Favorability was twelve. While that’s not a lot, for a mission novice like me, it was a very respectable number. I was incredibly confident at the start. The System told me you were a wicked supporting character who committed all sorts of evil, that Felix Preston despised you and was already preparing to divorce you. The moment I heard that, my confidence swelled, and I foolishly thought there was no way I could possibly fail this mission."
"But I never imagined reality would hit me so hard. All of my smug assumptions were completely wrong. You weren’t some villainess everyone was dying to take down, Felix Preston wasn’t preparing to divorce you, and after all my chaotic scrambling, not only did I gain nothing, I even tanked my few Favorability points into the negatives."
"Back then, I didn’t understand anything. I didn’t know what it meant for Favorability to drop into the negatives, I didn’t know this mission even had a penalty, and I definitely didn’t know that if I failed to complete the mission, I would die."
"...What?!" Charlotte Shaw shot upright, the stuffed animal she was hugging tumbling to the floor. "You... you’ll die if you don’t complete the mission?!"
"Mhm," Renee Sinclair said with a slight smile. "If this mission isn’t completed, the System will obliterate me. I’ll just... disappear from this world."
"..." Charlotte Shaw’s brow furrowed in disbelief. As she looked at Renee Sinclair, her eyes held a mixture of shock and terror.
Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t seem to say a single word.
A lump formed in her throat, preventing her from speaking. She had no idea what to say.
"Haaah..." Renee Sinclair sighed weakly. When she spoke again, her voice was suddenly choked with emotion. "The System only told me I could go home if I completed the mission. It never said I’d die if I didn’t. I’m terrified of dying, so when I learned that rule, I was so scared I nearly went insane."
"I was desperate to earn Favorability, desperate to drive you away, and desperate to save my own skin. During that time, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I was terrified—so terrified I couldn’t think straight. I had no idea how to salvage the mess I’d created."
"The System was the one feeding me ideas behind the scenes, telling me to do this and that. I listened to it without question, but everything just backfired."
"Not only did I fail to recover any Favorability, it dropped all the way to the death threshold. After that, I was too scared to make a single move."
"All I could do was hide at home, enduring agonizing pain every day, completely unable to find a way to save myself. Until you contacted me and offered to make a deal."
"How... how much Favorability do you have to earn to survive?" Charlotte Shaw asked, her voice growing soft without her realizing as she looked at Renee’s gaunt, sunken face.
Renee Sinclair replied, "One hundred. As long as I earn one hundred Favorability points, I’ll get to live."
"So how do you earn one hundred?" In her heart, Charlotte Shaw already knew the answer, but she asked Renee Sinclair anyway, unwilling to accept it.
Renee Sinclair said, "You’re a transmigrator, so you know the book’s original ending. If I want to earn a hundred Favorability points, my only choice is to follow the original plot—make Felix Preston fall in love with me and end up with me."
"..." Charlotte Shaw’s expression immediately soured.
"I refuse." As much as she sympathized with Renee Sinclair’s plight, she wasn’t willing to just hand Felix Preston over.
Renee Sinclair gave a helpless smile. "I know you’d refuse. I’m not planning on fighting you for him anymore."
Charlotte Shaw bit her lip, looking conflicted. "But if you don’t fight for him, then how are you supposed to complete your mission? Isn’t there any other way for you to survive?"
"..." Renee Sinclair looked at her and suddenly went quiet.
Picking at her fingers, she sat there and muttered under her breath, ’I still haven’t forgiven you, but I don’t want to watch you die, either. It’s a real life, after all. How can it just be snuffed out so easily...?’
"It’s fine." Renee Sinclair forced down the words that had been on the tip of her tongue. She curled her lips into a smile at Charlotte Shaw, a smile that seemed a little bit cruel.
"I still have time. Maybe if I hold out a while longer, I can figure out some other way to stay alive."
"...Really?" Charlotte Shaw sounded doubtful.
Renee Sinclair raised her eyebrows. "Of course! Heaven never bars all paths. I’ll definitely find a way to survive."
"Oh, right, Charlotte Shaw. There’s a question I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time, but I’m not sure if you’d be comfortable answering."
Charlotte Shaw asked, "What question?"
Renee Sinclair asked, "Since you don’t have a System, how did you transmigrate here?"
