I Died Before My Targets Regretted Everything

"Now, let us welcome the bride as she walks toward the groom."At the wedding venue, the emcee was conducting the ceremony with impassioned fervor.Wave after wave of cheers rose higher and higher.But I stood outside, separated from all the excitement by a single door, hearing only the system's ice-cold mechanical voice."Maxine, your 23rd birthday is fast approaching, and you're about to fail the conquest mission."On the flower-decked wedding platform inside, William Griffith solemnly slipped the ring onto Evelyn Swanson's finger with a twinkle in his eyes.He was one of my conquest targets and also my very last hope for survival.Unfortunately, he had fallen in love with Evelyn.When I was very young, the system found me and told me I would die on my 23rd birthday.To change my fate, I had to obtain a perfect affection score from any one of my assigned conquest targets before that day arrived.The system successively assigned me three targets, but I failed them all.When

Leonard watched me get into the cab, only looking reassured once the door clicked shut. He said to the driver, "Don't let her out until you reach the destination."Then, he threw a final, biting warning at me. "Don't try any tricks, Maxine. Just go straight home."I sat in the back seat, staring blankly ahead as if I hadn't heard a word.It was laughable, really—the once-proud daughter of the prestigious Swanson family, reduced to taking a cheap cab. But then the truth struck me again. I was no longer the Swanson family's daughter, and that house was no longer my home. My father and my older brother, Adam Swanson, had long since cut ties with me. My mother, Erica Walter, was dead. In my eyes, the Swansons' residence was nothing more than a giant coffin.When I entered the Swansons' residence, the first thing I saw was Mom's portrait; my eyes couldn't help but redden.After wiping the frame clean, I murmured, "Sorry, Mom. I can't hold on any longer. If there's a next life, I

"Maxine, you actually went so far as to injure yourself just to frame me? Do you really hate me this much?"That plaintive, mournful tone could only belong to Evelyn.She stood at the entrance of the hospital room, looking utterly devastated.William stood beside her. He, who was usually the epitome of gentle elegance, now wore a dark, suffocatingly gloomy expression. "Maxine, enough already!" William snapped. "Time and again, you threaten us with suicide and slander Evelyn's name. Weren't you the one who wanted to die? Since you love swallowing pills so much, go ahead and take them. Kill yourself right now."With a callous sweep of his arm, he grabbed a large handful of random prescription bottles from the nearby counter and threw them onto my hospital bed. Without a second of hesitation, I eagerly grabbed the nearest bottle—not caring what it contained—ripped the cap off, and began tipping the contents into my mouth. All the pills came pouring down. I managed to swallow a

That night, Angelo never showed up. Instead, Evelyn did. She was wearing a magnificent dress, twirling in front of me with an insufferable smirk. "Doesn't it look beautiful?" She giggled. "William bought it for me. I bet you're so jealous and miserable right now you just want to die. But the joke is, you can't even manage that, can you? How pitiful. You want to know a secret? I was the one who found you when you took all those sleeping pills."And then I deliberately told everyone that you'd sent me a message saying you were faking another suicide attempt for attention. I used to live in this house as a child, you know. They all think I sent you to a high-end live-in healthcare facility… but a dump like this is the only place you're fit to die in."I gave her no reaction.Displeased by my silence, Evelyn reached out and aggressively gripped my chin, forcing my face up so I had to meet her eyes."Maxine, you're not even a Swanson. What gave you the right to grow up in luxury wi

The first to rush over was Leonard. His immediate reaction upon seeing me was that I was faking my death again."What is this nonsense? Isn't Maxine supposed to be at the live-in healthcare facility? As if all her suicide attempts weren't enough, now she's using a corpse to stage her death just to fish for sympathy?"But the look in Angelo's eyes was far too chilling for it to be a prank.Besides, my corpse wasn't exactly a pretty sight. My face was pale with a bluish tint, and my cheeks were sunken. It was the undeniable picture of death."Live-in healthcare facility? I rescued her from some backwater mountain village," Angelo said, looking at Leonard with pure hatred. "Do you really think Evelyn is some kind of saint? She was the one who sent Maxine to that place, where she was watched every second, fed nothing but scraps, and treated like a prisoner!"Adam, who had just arrived, stepped in and shot back without a second thought, "That's impossible! Evelyn isn't that kind of per