"Creak-"
The heavy palace doors were pushed open a crack, and light squeezed through, dispelling the darkness in the room.
A shrill voice followed, dripping with undisguised mockery and contempt.
"Your Highness, First Prince, your meal is here."
A pale, beardless eunuch shuffled in with a food tray and slammed it onto the table with a jarring thud.
Then he shot a sidelong glance at the lavish bed inside, his lips curling into a spiteful sneer.
"Heh, does he still think he's that awe-inspiring First Prince? Now he's nothing but trash who can't even beat a brother seven years younger than him. I'm afraid the Zhu Family's eldest young miss will suffer along with him."
The eunuch muttered to himself without the slightest reservation.
There was no other reason than the Star Luo Imperial Family's iron rule: "One mountain cannot harbor two tigers"!
The Star Luo Empire had been founded on martial might. Such struggles were regarded as a "selection mechanism" for cultivating the strong; only the most ruthless and powerful victor could lead the empire.
At the same time, the Star Luo Imperial Family's inherited Martial Soul, the "Evil Eye White Tiger," and the Zhu Family's "Hell Spirit Cat" could only unleash their full power through the mingling of their bloodlines, so the heir had to be unquestionably powerful.
Though His Majesty's decree had yet to be issued, the First Prince was now...
A prince in name only!
Strangely, there was still no movement from the bed, as though a soulless shell lay upon it!
After waiting a while, the eunuch lost interest. He gave a light snort and sashayed out, and the palace doors closed again, returning the room to a deathly silence.
An unknown amount of time passed before the figure on the bed finally stirred.
Dai Weisi's eyes snapped open.
No, more precisely, a soul from the twenty-first century named Li Wei had taken possession of this body at that moment.
A crushing headache surged over him like a tide, and countless fragments of memories that were not his own swept madly through his mind.
The First Prince of the Star Luo Empire, White Tiger Martial Soul, Soul Power at level forty-nine, engaged to Zhu Zhuyun, the Zhu Family's eldest young miss...
Scene after scene flashed through his mind.
They were Dai Weisi's pride and glory: raised from childhood as the empire's heir, he had enjoyed boundless reverence.
The scene suddenly changed.
In the arena of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, the Martial Soul Fusion Skill "Hell White Tiger" that he and Zhu Zhuyun had unleashed together was crushed head-on by the fusion skill of his own younger brother, Dai Mubai, who was a full seven years younger than him, and his brother's girlfriend, Zhu Zhuqing!
A crushing defeat!
A complete and utter rout!
The humiliation of defeat, the spectators' jeers, and... his imperial father's eyes, icy without a trace of warmth.
After his defeat, an imperial decree had forcibly summoned him back to Star Luo City, ostensibly to recover from his injuries but in truth to place him under confinement.
His right to inherit the throne, the goal he had pursued for twenty-four years, had vanished like a bubble in that instant.
Li Wei-no, Dai Weisi now-felt nothing but numbness.
He had actually transmigrated into that famously miserable cannon fodder from Douluo Continent, Dai Weisi, the First Prince of the Star Luo Empire.
A mere tool whose role from the moment he appeared was to serve as a stepping stone for the protagonist's group and highlight his younger brother Dai Mubai's successful "comeback."
A bitterness and despair too thick to dissolve spread from deep within his body. They were the last emotions left behind by the original Dai Weisi.
He had lost, and the defeat had cost him everything.
But what he could not let go of was not the supreme throne, but the woman whose fate had been bound to his since childhood-Zhu Zhuyun.
In the Star Luo Empire, there was only one fate for the loser in a struggle within the imperial family: death!
And as his fiancée, Zhu Zhuyun's fate had long been sealed as well. At best, she would be abandoned by her family and grow old alone, or perhaps even...
Be sentenced to death!
At the thought that the woman who seemed so proud on the outside yet yearned for victory just as deeply would plunge into the abyss because of his failure, the original Dai Weisi's heart was torn to shreds by endless pain and regret.
He could neither protect her nor give her a future.
In the depths of such despair, the once-proud First Prince had chosen a cup of poisoned wine to end his own life!
"What a fool..."
Dai Weisi murmured to himself, speaking as much of the original owner as of himself.
He could clearly feel the waves of cramping pain in his abdomen, a sign that the poison was still taking effect.
Was he going to die again just after transmigrating?
What was this?
A transmigration trial card?
Just as his consciousness was growing hazy and his life was rapidly slipping away, an icy mechanical voice abruptly sounded in his mind.
[**Ding!** The host's powerful desire to live and overwhelming unwillingness to accept his fate have been detected. The God-Level Selection System is now activated!] [This system is designed to help the host defy the heavens, change his fate, and ascend to the pinnacle!] [Whenever the host stands at a crossroads of fate, the system will provide three options. Different choices will yield corresponding rewards!]
System?
Dai Weisi's spirits lifted. The indispensable golden finger of a transmigrator had arrived!
His instinct for survival cleared his head considerably in an instant.
[**Ding!** The choice of fate is now available!] [Current situation: After losing the struggle for the throne, the host took poison to end his life and is now on the brink of death.] [Option one: Give up struggling and face death calmly. Who has ever lived without dying? It is only a matter of starting a new run.] [Reward: The system will preserve the host's soul and transmigrate him to another world at random. (Friendly reminder: The next world may be a peaceful modern city or a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It all depends on luck.)] [Option two: Give up the throne and cling to life. Immediately induce vomiting to expel the poison, then swear to the Star Luo Emperor never to set foot in Star Luo City again, renounce all power and status, and willingly become a commoner.] [Reward: One antidote pill, Soul Power increased by three levels]
After hearing the first two options, Dai Weisi was utterly speechless.
The first one: keep dying, then try his luck with a blind box in some unknown world?
What if he ended up in a world where demons were everywhere and ghosts were as common as dogs? Even with a system, wouldn't he have to live as though treading on thin ice?
What if he ended up in some world where commoners were treated like beasts of burden, struggled to get into university, scratched his crotch in the library, and got falsely accused of sexual harassment?
What the hell!
The second one: three levels of Soul Power? That was quite a lot!
But give up the throne and become a commoner?
Was this a joke?!
He had transmigrated and even had a system, yet he still had to live with such grievances?
Dai Weisi ranted furiously in his mind.
"Damn it, the world of Douluo Continent is great!"
"There are Martial Souls, Soul Rings, and Soul Bones. The power system is well-defined, and the path to leveling up is clear."
"And there are beautiful women everywhere: Zhu Zhuyun, Zhu Zhuqing, Ning Rongrong, Bibi Dong, Hu Liena..."
"Which of them isn't an unrivaled beauty?"
"Most importantly, I can beat the crap out of that double-standard dog Tang San with my own hands! Steal his wives and snatch his opportunities-just thinking about it feels great!"
Back when he had read the novel in his previous life, Tang San's double standards and hypocritical face had bothered him for a long time.
Now that he had the chance to enter the fray himself, how could he possibly give it up?
Dai Weisi forced himself to endure the agony in his abdomen and shouted at the system in his mind:
"What kind of garbage are those first two options? Can't you give me something fit for the living? What's the third one?!"