Part 1After Binding the Deathwish System, the Tables Turned

The day Vivian forced the divorce papers on me, I was bound to the Deathwish System.

The system’s command echoed in my head: “Slap her across the face and tell her to get lost.”

I trembled.

Vivian was ruthless. If I dared to stand in the way of her reunion with her long-lost love, she would tear me to pieces.

But the system’s threat was chillingly clear: “If you don’t start courting death, you’re going to die. Now.”

I had no choice. My hand flew out, and I slapped her.

Terrified, I turned and ran from the house the moment my palm made contact.

Then the system gave me my next task: smash the window of a police car parked on the street.

I was starting to think the system just wanted me dead.

But after I shattered the squad car’s side mirror, I finally understood.

The life the system wanted me to destroy wasn't my own.

It was theirs.

* * *

I stared at the squad car, my mind reeling.

“No way. That’s a crime!”

The voice in my head was cold as ice. “Court death, or you die.”

I wouldn't have believed it. But half an hour ago, that voice had appeared out of nowhere.

It told me I was the male lead in a tragedy, a story written to end with my death.

Once Vivian’s first love, Adrian Levy, returned to the country, I would be thrown out.

After a series of brutal, heart-wrenching events—being tormented, used as a blood bag, and having my kidney stolen—I was destined to be beaten to death by a group of thugs and left to die in an alley.

A shiver went down my spine. Adrian had returned last month.

And this month, Vivian had started staying out late.

Her gaze would drift when she looked at me. I found a man’s cologne in her pocket, one I didn’t wear. She’d step away to take her calls.

I knew our hollow marriage was finally over.

Today, she handed me the divorce papers.

“Adrian won’t see me,” she’d said, her voice flat. “He says we need to keep our distance now that I’m married.”

“You know his health is fragile. He can’t be left alone.”

“Just sign the papers, Ethan.”

I glanced at the agreement. There was no mention of assets. Nothing for me.

My savings had been spent years ago, helping Vivian rebuild her empire after her family went bankrupt. For the past few years, she’d been ashamed of me, forbidding me from working. If she kicked me out, I wouldn’t have enough money for dinner.

I wanted to reason with her, but the system had ordered me to slap her instead.

Everyone knew Vivian Levy, the self-made tycoon, was a shark who played for keeps. Slapping her was a genuine death wish.

Now, the system was pushing me again. “Smash it! Now!”

Terrified that its prophecy would come true, I grabbed a loose brick from the pavement and brought it down hard on the side mirror.

With a loud crack, the mirror shattered and fell to the ground.

The car alarm blared, and three officers rushed out from around the corner.

I immediately raised my hands, ready to surrender.

The lead officer gestured, and I was taken to the precinct.

In the interrogation room, an officer held up my blood test results. “No alcohol, stable mental state. So why’d you smash a squad car?”

“You do realize that’s a crime, right?”

I repeated the lines the system fed me. “I know. I did it on purpose. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

A young female officer looked at me, completely baffled.

“What’s wrong with you? Get dumped?”

I told her the truth. “No. Getting a divorce.”

The officer cleared her throat. “Full restitution for the damages, a one-thousand-dollar fine, and ten days in a holding cell.”

“You should call your family. And don’t do this again.”

I dutifully handed over my bank cards, but every single one was declined.

Vivian was already teaching me a lesson.

The officers told me to call my family. I dialed Vivian’s number ten times. No answer.

On the eleventh try, I found I’d been blocked.

The female officer used the precinct’s landline. The moment she said my name, she was cut off.

Vivian’s voice, which had once been so gentle, was now cold enough to freeze water. “Ethan? Call me back when he’s dead.”

The officers exchanged uneasy glances.

The female officer looked at my file again, at the two words printed there: Orphan.

Her expression soured. “Just take him to the holding cell.”

The ten days weren’t as bad as I’d expected. I was busy with daily routines and educational sessions, which left little time to think about Vivian.

When I got my phone back, it was flooded with missed calls from Vivian and her assistant.

I called her back.

“Where are you?” she demanded, her voice sharp.

“The file I left in my office drawer. Where did you hide it?!”