The note in her hand felt impossibly heavy. The Serpent's Heart was a fake. The entire plot, every detail the System had planted, was a lie designed to get her into a position of weakness. The real necklace had been in Duke Cedric's possession all along, a calculated gift from the Archduke's mother—a gift the original Selena would have known nothing about.
A new screen, colder and more menacing than any before, materialized.
"Task: Recover the Valerius Family Heirloom. Current location: Duke Cedric's office. Deadline: Tonight at midnight."
The System had adapted. It had seen her attempt to subvert the plot by going after the decoy, and now it had given her a direct, inescapable command. This was no longer about a fake rescue. It was about a break-in. It was a mission designed for her to be caught, to be seen as a thief, a common criminal in the eyes of the man she was supposed to obsess over. The punishment for her failures was not just exile to a new world; it was public humiliation and certain ruin in this one.
A chill ran down her spine. The Duke's office was a fortress. The entire building was a web of guards and magical wards. The System was forcing her into a suicide mission. There was no way to succeed without being caught. It was a test, a final push to see if she would become the villain it wanted her to be.
But the System was blind to one thing: her newfound alliance. She immediately sent a note to Liam, a single, coded word: "Serpent."
She met him on her balcony after sunset. The city lights twinkled below, but to Selena, they looked like a thousand tiny traps. Liam's usual calm demeanor was gone, replaced by a grim determination.
"The Duke's office is a golden cage," he whispered, his eyes scanning the city skyline. "It's impossible to get in without being detected. The System wants you to fail in spectacular fashion. It wants a public spectacle, a final act of villainy before it sends you to the next world."
"Then we won't go in at all," Selena stated, her voice a cold whisper.
The System's command was to "recover the heirloom," not to "steal it." It was a subtle, but critical, distinction. She could still succeed without playing by its rules. She had to think like a ghost, an invisible force that moved through a world of logic and reason.
Their plan was an act of audacious misdirection. First, they would create a diversion. Liam, with his network of birds, would orchestrate a series of "accidents" around the city—a sudden fire at a merchant guild, a burst water pipe in a noble's garden, and a carriage crash at a major intersection. The System would see these as random events, minor glitches that a background character could cause. The chaos would draw away a significant number of the city guard and magical patrols.
Second, they would not break in. They would break out.
Using her "Archducal Relations" skill, Selena had learned a small but critical detail from a bribed guard: a sealed diplomatic letter containing a list of the Duke's private, high-profile contacts was set to be sent to a foreign nation that night. The letter would be passed through a specific, unguarded window to a waiting messenger just outside. It was a rare lapse in security, a moment of vulnerability the System had overlooked.
At ten minutes to midnight, as the chaos unfolded across the city, Selena, dressed in a simple dark cloak, stood in a dark alley beneath the Duke's office. Liam, perched on a fire escape, gave a silent nod. His white finch landed on a nearby drainpipe, a tiny, feathered scout. The finch chirped twice, a signal that the guards inside were distracted.
Suddenly, a small, elegant wooden box, no bigger than her hand, slid down a thin rope from the window above. It wasn't the necklace. It was the diplomatic letter. But attached to the box was a single, gleaming diamond—the Serpent's Heart—which the Duke had intended to send as a seal. The System hadn't accounted for the possibility of the heirloom being used as a simple object, a gilded decoration on a sealed document.
Selena's fingers closed around the diamond, and the familiar green screen of victory flashed in her mind.
"Task Progress: 100%. Heirloom Recovered. Reward: 300 points."
She looked up at the window, a small, defiant smile on her face. She had done it. She had fulfilled the command without committing a single crime. The System had wanted to make her a thief, a villain caught in the act. But she was a ghost in the glass, a phantom of the plot that could not be caught.