Chapter 1

I died. A psychotic episode drove me to self-harm, and it killed me.

Just yesterday, I had been actively cooperating with my treatment. The doctor had even said I'd recover soon and be discharged from the hospital. But now I was dead.

I couldn't accept it because my self-harm hadn't been voluntary.

In that moment, it felt as though an outside force had taken control of my body. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't resist. The sharpened toothbrush plunged straight into my carotid artery, and the resulting blood loss killed me.

I wasn't even a medical professional. How could I have struck such a precise spot with that kind of accuracy? If I was dead, what would happen to my little sister?

Suzy Hilton was still so young. Dad would probably go back to abusing her whenever he got drunk, and Mom would keep pressuring her for money.

Maybe my worry for Suzy was too strong to let me move on. After I died, my soul lingered instead of passing on and drifted to her side.

She wasn't at work. She was inside an extravagant mansion. It was so luxurious that even if Mom somehow won every gambling bet for the rest of her life, she'd never be able to afford a place like this.

I was dumbfounded.

Before I could figure out why Suzy was here, I heard her speak. "System, is everything taken care of?"

"The arrangements have been completed. The host's older sister died from self-inflicted injuries during a psychotic episode at 10:00 a.m. And the host's parents died in a gas explosion at 12:00 p.m."

The mechanical voice echoed through the room, and my soul froze.

Mom and Dad were dead too. That meant Suzy was all alone in this world.

Even though our parents had changed after I turned 10, they'd once loved and cared for us when we were little. Hearing they were dead still hurt, even as a soul.

At that moment, all I could think about was Suzy.

I rushed to her side. I thought that even as a ghost, I could still comfort her.

To my shock, there wasn't a trace of sadness on her face. Instead, the corners of her lips lifted into a smile. "Good job."

For a moment, I wondered if I had misheard her. My little sister, who had always protected us, had heard about our deaths without showing the slightest hint of grief. Instead, she looked happy. No, more than happy. My resilient, unyielding little sister was beaming with excitement.

I heard her tell the system that all of us, her tools, had finally been written out. Her mission would soon be complete. She would finally be able to marry the heir of the most powerful family in the city. No one would ever hold her back again.

I was completely stunned.

She kept talking to the system about all the hardships she had endured over the years.

With every sentence, my heart grew colder.

I had always wondered why Dad, who had barely touched alcohol when I was young, had suddenly become a heavy drinker during Suzy's high school years. I had wondered why Mom, who had hated gambling her entire life, had suddenly become addicted to it during those same years.

And I had always been bright and hardworking. Every teacher said I had what it took to get into one of the country's top universities. But during my second year of high school, I had suddenly been diagnosed with a severe mental illness.

So this was the truth.

Everything had happened only to create opportunities for Suzy. It was all so she could appear beside the city's elite heir as a fragile yet resilient girl who needed protecting. We had only ever been tools assigned to her by the system.

But why? Why did our lives have to be sacrificed for her wealth and luxury?

We could have lived ordinary, happy lives.