Chapter 1

I bit down so hard that I tore the flesh inside my mouth. “Yes.”

[Understood, host. Your body will be destroyed within twenty-four hours.]

Mom opened the door and saw me. She immediately adjusted her expression.

“Millie, your father and I are useless. We only wanted to earn enough money for you to start a business after graduation, but we never expected to be scammed. Now, we’ve lost everything we had.”

Dad looked ashamed.

“We know you blame us because we can no longer give you a good life. But we’re family, so we should face this debt together. You can’t just stand by and watch your parents get driven to our deaths, can you?”

The sight of Mom’s tears made my heart ache.

If I hadn’t just heard that they bought Lily another luxury apartment, I would have felt so guilty that I might have gone out to work and repaid their debt immediately.

Mom shoved the documents into my hands.

“The loan company said that, because you have a promising future, you must be the guarantor. If you refuse to sign, they’ll cut off your father’s hands!”

Mom was certain I would take the documents without hesitation after hearing that.

I lowered my eyes and glanced at the amount.

400 million dollars.

It was far more than the combined total from my previous two lives.

“Lily isn’t even our biological daughter, yet she’s willing to shoulder half the debt. You have even less right to shirk your responsibility.”

I turned to look at Lily. She was holding an agreement too.

The seal on hers was blurry, and even the heading failed to meet proper legal standards.

The one Mom gave me was properly formatted and constituted a legitimate loan contract.

The final clause stated that if I failed to repay the debt, I would have to stay here and work without pay for fifty years to settle it.

When I continued to hesitate, Dad lost his temper.

“I told you long ago that adopting Lily was the best decision your mother and I ever made. Unlike you. We raised you for all these years, only to end up with an ungrateful wretch.”

The system could not listen any longer.

[Host, I urged you to leave this world ages ago, but you refused and paid for it with both your lives. You even tried to spend all your future points just now to clear your parents’ debt.]

[In their eyes, you’re actually worth less than their adopted daughter, who can do nothing but run her mouth!]

When I still did not move, Mom lost patience.

She shoved the pen into my hand.

“Sign it! Your father’s hands are about to be ruined. What is there left for you to hesitate over?”

I tightened my grip on the pen until my fingers turned white.

Then I noticed an inconspicuous line of fine print at the bottom of the contract.

[If Millie Brooks is unable to repay the debt or dies unexpectedly, all debts will be borne by her parents.]

“We never asked you to repay it alone. Why are you so reluctant?”

Dad’s gaze turned cold. “Or are you so selfish that you want to abandon your mother and me and run off to enjoy a comfortable life by yourself?”

The pen paused.

Then I wrote my name, one stroke at a time.

Mom sighed in relief and snatched the agreement away.

I grew curious when my parents tucked the agreement away with satisfied smiles without examining it closely.

I wondered what they planned to use to repay the four hundred million dollars after I disappeared.