Is Down With The System: A Memoir Worth Reading?

After I was caught in a dockside explosion, I was bound to a Survival Program. It gave me twenty-five years and four designated targets. If even one target’s Love Score or bond score reached 100%, I could wake up in my real world. But I failed all four. Because every target I tried to reach eventually turned toward Sophia Lane, the heroine of this world. They called my pain a performance. They called my tears manipulation. They said I was only pretending to break down so they would choose me over Sophia. But if they never loved me, why did they lose control when my mission failed and I chose to leave this world for good?

Everyone in my family knew I was a Bond-Seeker with ninety-nine lives. And still, not one of them loved me. During the holiday, I woke up early making breakfast for my family. My mother threw it all angrily. “You filthy little curse. Don’t dirty my kitchen.” When my father was hospitalized after a car accident, I stayed by his bed for three days and three nights. The moment he woke up, he grabbed the IV bottle beside him and smashed it against my head. “Was killing your twin sister not enough for you? Now you want me dead too?” I used my scholarship money to buy my elder brother a brand-new laptop. He threw it straight off the balcony and watched it shatter on the ground below. “I’m not using anything bought with a cursed girl’s money. I don’t want it shortening my life.” On my eighteenth birthday, I handed a love letter to Ethan Whitmore, the boy next door I had secretly loved for years. He tore it to pieces right in front of me. “What, were you hoping to trade my feelings for points? Get lost, Natalie. I don’t want you getting me killed.” In the end, the System ruled that my bond had failed. Then it took my life back. I thought no one would grieve for me. But before it disappeared, the System spent the last of its energy broadcasting every memory I had across every major platform.

I was from a rich family. But after I finally returned home, my parents made me sleep in the store room and eat leftover food. Yet, they still felt like they had wronged their foster daughter. When the government introduced the Children’s Fairness System, my parents immediately bound the entire family to it. My father breathed a sigh of relief and said, “With this perfectly fair system in place, Annie won’t be treated unfairly anymore.” My mother gently held my hand and said in an unyielding tone. “Ever since you came back, you’ve taken everything that was meant for Annie. This is unfair to her.” My elder brother never showed a hint of kindness toward me either. “I only acknowledge Annie as my sister. You’ve gotten way more than you deserved already, so don’t push your luck,” he said. I looked down at the cheap clothes I had worn for five years. Then, I glanced at Annie’s lavish bedroom and countless luxury items. I found it all utterly ridiculous. However, when the system took effect, they all ended up breaking down.

I have transmigrated into this toxic romance novel for three years. The system tells me that as long as Kendrick Miller's affection level for me reaches 100%, I can finally go home. For the sake of returning home, I spend three years acting like a hopeless simp. One day, the system suddenly tells me to catch him cheating, claiming it is just a little game couples play to strengthen their relationship. It says, "Layla, Kendrick deliberately let you discover him at the hotel with his first love because he's trying to make you jealous! Men love seeing women fight over them! "Quick! Rush in and join them. Become part of their little game and his affection will definitely skyrocket! "Trust me, this is exactly what he's waiting for. He wants to see that you care!" Listening to the system's passionate encouragement, I gather my courage and shove open the hotel room door. But instead of gaining Kendrick's affection, I am met with his cold, disgusted gaze and a stack of cash thrown directly at me. He sneers, "Are you trying to get my attention with this stunt again? Take the money and get lost. Stop bothering me." To my humiliation, the security drags me out of the hotel unceremoniously. I am left crouched over in the rain, shivering from the cold. I wipe away my tears and exclaim, "I'm such an idiot! I let that stupid system trick me again!"

My mom is a woman who takes frugality very, very seriously. When I suffer from a high fever, she feeds me moldy chicken noodle soup. In fact, I can only wear my older sister's hand-me-downs since I was a little girl. After working hard for so long, I finally qualify for the final interview of a top-500 company. I keep telling my mom repeatedly to not cause any trouble for me. Alas, my monitor winks out when I've reached the most critical point of my interview. At the same time, the router has lost access to the internet. I rush out of my room hurriedly, only to see my mom flipping off the main switch in the darkness. "Why did you leave the lights on at night? Imagine how much money you'll have to pay! I've already calculated everything for you. If we turn off the lights, we get to save a few pennies per night!" Thanks to those pennies, I end up losing my job that can guarantee an annual salary of a million dollars. Later on, my older sister, Andrea Fletcher, is diagnosed with a kidney disease. In order to latch onto Andrea's rich husband, Kirk Herrera, my mom forces me to work overtime at a shady factory just to gather enough money for Andrea's medical bills. Even when I'm about to die, my older brother, Anthony Fletcher, and my dad keep blaming me. "You can't even get hired at a proper factory! You really are useless, Alice! Your mom went through all those frugal nonsense just to raise you for nothing!" When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I'm about to attend the online interview. I just chuckle coldly as I look at Andrea, who has just found out about her kidney disease and is waiting for me to earn enough money for her kidney transplant. Then, I toss her expensive, specialized medication into the trash can. "What use is there for you to take the medicine, Andrea? What a waste! Mom already stated many times that being frugal is the way of life! "You should drink more water instead. Once your rich husband finds out how good you are at saving money, he'll definitely compliment us for knowing how to balance our finances!"

He was supposed to be nobody. Born with crippled spiritual roots in the weakest corner of the Mortal Heaven Continent, he spent his early years mocked by peers, dismissed by elders, and written off as a waste of a bloodline. The world had a plan for people like him — obscurity, mediocrity, a quiet death at the bottom of the cultivation ladder. Then the System arrived. Rude, chaotic, and absolutely unhinged, the Infinite Chaos System begins issuing missions so absurd they border on cosmic comedy — slap an arrogant Young Master, steal from a forbidden ruin, insult a Heavenly Lord to his face. And somehow, at the end of every ridiculous task, he walks away stronger than before. What begins as a shameless scramble for survival slowly reveals something far more terrifying. His talent isn't crippled. It was sealed. His bloodline isn't ordinary. It was buried. And the System that appears to be helping him? It was never designed to help anyone. As he rises from a forgotten boy in a forgotten kingdom to a figure that shakes the foundations of all Nine Realms — and the ancient dimensions lurking beyond them — the truth peels back in layers. The history of the cosmos is a lie. The gods who rule from their thrones are terrified. The first user of his System already conquered everything and nearly destroyed it all. And somewhere at the end of every road, a question waits: what do you do when you've beaten every enemy, unraveled every secret, and the universe itself asks you to become its next ruler? He laughs, pockets another ancient treasure, and causes more problems.