Part 3Eclipse of the System: The Star Outshines the Moon

It was a quiet night during my senior year of high school when I found out Selene was bound to a "System."

I was hiding out on the balcony when I overheard Selene talking to it.

"Astra is such an idiot. She's up studying past midnight again, and she's still going to rank dead last on the next exam. I'm dying laughing.

"Looking back, Mom and Dad picked the perfect names. I'm Selene, the moon, and she's Astra, a tiny star. Stars only exist to make the moon look brighter.

"Thank you, System. Thank you for being with me these past twelve years."

It felt like a bomb went off in my head.

Suddenly, memories from the past flooded my mind.

Twelve years ago, Selene and I were six years old.

Back then, I was pretty and smart. In kindergarten, I was the one singing and dancing on stage, and I helped the teacher clean up after class.

Selene was lazy. She had no interest in singing, hated practicing dance, and basically learned nothing.

When guests came over, everyone would crowd around me, asking me to perform, praising me for being so bright and talented.

They would look at Selene, who stood to the side knowing how to do nothing, and say, "Your sister is so amazing, Selene! You need to work hard to catch up!"

Maybe that was the exact moment Selene started to hate the concept of "hard work."

When her System appeared, she decisively chose the "The Lazier I Am, The Luckier I Get" trait for herself.

And for me, she chose "The Harder I Work, The Unluckier I Get."

And just like that, over the course of the next twelve years, exactly as she wished, the gap between us widened.

She put in zero effort but became more and more perfect. I gave everything I had, only to become more and more miserable.

...

That night, after learning her secret, I quietly slipped away.

I sat outside in the freezing night air wearing only a thin sweater for three hours. My body was numb from the cold, but all I could see in my mind was the smile Selene wore every time she encouraged me to "work harder."

When I was little, I never knew what to call that strange glint in her eyes when she smiled at me.

Now I knew. It was called pure malice.

The sister I trusted the most.

The sister who told me to never give up.

It turned out she was just using my blood, sweat, and tears as fuel to power her own glamorous, perfect life.

She was the main character of this world. And my only function was to stand in the shadows forever, serving as her pathetic background prop.

—But I refused to accept that.

I was going to change my destiny.

...

With nothing left to lose, I thought of a plan and sneaked into the school's broadcasting room.

I put my hand on the microphone switch and started chanting in my head.

"Calling System. Calling System."

There was no answer.

After all, it was Selene's System, not mine.

But I knew that if it was an otherworldly power, it had to be able to monitor my thoughts.

"Calling System—it's fine if you ignore me, but do you see the PA microphone in my hand? I'm assuming your existence is supposed to be a secret, right? Here's the deal: if you don't respond in 60 seconds, I'm going to broadcast your existence on a loop to the entire school. Then I'm going to post it all over social media and write letters to scientific research facilities, telling them to come dissect Selene and her little parasitic System...

"60, 59, 58..."

I only got to 50 before a burst of static buzzed in my head. Then, a weak, panicked voice spoke up.

"...Please don't do that. No one will believe you anyway."

"How about we find out?"

"...What do you want?"

"Swap my System with my sister's."

"I can't do that. Once my functions are set, they can't be altered."

I immediately reached to flip the microphone switch.

"...Wait! Stop! Have mercy!" the System wailed. "How about this... what if I just do nothing?"

"Nothing?"

"Right. Even though I can't alter the functions, I can... malfunction..."

I thought about it.

That meant, starting today, I would finally get exactly what I worked for. And my sister's luck from being lazy would vanish.

I paused. "Add one more condition."

"What?"

"Keep this a secret from Selene.

"Let her keep thinking this world is still revolving around her."