Chapter One

A beautiful woman leaned over the back of a man's chair and spoke into his ear, "Hubby, do you think you can do me a favor?" The man in the chair didn't show any reaction as the woman ran her slim fingers through his slick black hair. He gave the women a small glance and she took it as a sign to continue. "Hubby, there's this one woman at the set that's really annoying me. She shows no respect to me. There was one time where I even heard her talking about me with her assistant behind my back!"

The handsome man's eyebrow wrinkled slightly and his face darkened, "She dared?"

The woman nodded enthusiastically, "She did! She dared to, and right in front of me!"

The man nodded stiffly, "I understand." He turned around in his chair and rubbed the woman's head, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." The woman smiled sweetly and kissed the man's cheek. "Thank you! Hubby's the best!"

The man gave a hum of approval and pressed a button on his desk, "Mr. Leng, please assist Ms. Sung out of the building."

Ms. Sung gave the man a surprised look and said, "You're not going to come down with me?"

The man gave her a small conservative smile, "Sorry, I'm a little busier today, I'll be seeing you later."

"That's all right, make sure to do your best! Make a lot of money!"

After the women peacefully left the building, Mr. Leng walked back into his boss's office.

Mr. Leng knocked on the door, "Boss Lu?"

"Come in."

Mr. Leng walked into the room and looked at his boss, who pathetically lazed back in his chair. "Aiya, finally she's gone." Boss Lu raveled up his gelled hair with his hand, "She even touched my hair this time, did you see? You were watching from the window right? Don't leave me alone with her, ai, I'm scared she might pounce on me and use me till I'm dry!"

Mr. Leng's facial expression didn't change at all at seeing this kind of boss. Who told his boss to act like such a spoiled child out of the view of Ms. Sung? What's with the almighty powerful CEO aura he's always producing around her? If you're trying to seduce her with your manliness, why are you complaining about her behind her back?

Although Mr. Leng's expression stayed apathetic, Boss Lu already knew what he was thinking. Was he faking? Yes. But did he have a choice? No. This Boss Lu was the protagonist. He's been traveling through worlds since the beginning of his existence. Ever since the compiling of his data, he's been playing the part of the protagonist in an unimaginable amount of worlds. His job is simply to mindlessly play his part. To become the leader of the story, live through them, forget them, and then travel to another. This should have been easy for any other protagonist, but with Boss Lu, he's been aware of everything for a while now.

One day, Boss Lu ended up with an error in his system, this error ended up breaking the order of events that a protagonist was supposed to go through to reincarnate into another world. Ever since then, Boss Lu has been aware of who he is.

"Leng Zheng, so you think I can go home early? I don't wanna be here anymore." Boss Lu complained as he propped his face in his hands and pouted. "I wanted to stop and get some hot pot before going home."

"Boss Lu, It's improper to call me by my full name in the workplace. Please refrain from doing it again." There was no point in saying these things. Leng Zheng doesn't know how many times he's repeated this sentence.

Boss Lu, of course, didn't take Leng Zheng seriously. He got up from his desk and threw his arm over his friend's shoulder. "Oh, Leng Zheng, stop acting like a stingy old man, you make me look like a toddler asking for candy."

Leng Zheng "..." I'm not the one making you look like a toddler, Boss.

"Don't be angry, Leng Zheng. Of course, you can come with me, you don't even need to ask!"

Leng Zheng wouldn't say that Boss Lu wasn't a good boss. Because saying that would mean that he's wrong. Boss Lu and Leng Zheng have known each other for years, ever since both of them were in high school. He knew Boss Lu's personality almost inside and out. This trashy boss of his was very competent. He was born from a noble family and raised as the heir, after soaring through college with straight A's he immediately took over the family business and brought it to new heights. And Mr. Leng had been following him for the whole time.

"Leng Zheng, Leng Zheng, are you not paying attention to what I'm saying."

"Mmm?" Mr. Leng up from his chopsticks to his boss.

"Leng Zheng, you weren't paying attention to my story were you..."

"I apologize."

Boss Lu, "..." at least try to pretend!!!

"Whatever fine." Boss Lu turned his head away with a pout. Leng Zheng could swear that Boss Lu was only doing this to annoy him.

Suddenly Boss Lu's demeanor switched. His face turned flat and his back straight. He looked a little uncomfortable with the hold of his chopsticks and out of place in the welcoming hot pot restaurant.

Mr. Leng showed a small amount of surprise and looked around the room. His boss had just changed. Where was ms sung? Who's he trying to seduce? They were in their room, no one else was in here but them. Was Boss Lu perhaps trying to seduce him!?

Boss Lu also didn't know what happened. He was shocked by the sudden loss of control in his body. But it all made sense when he heard a familiar robotic voice in his mind.

"You're causing more trouble. Haven't you had enough?"

Ah. Of course. The timely system has come to scold him.

[Oh, come on. I haven't done anything yet.]

"Ms. Sung just walked into this restaurant. The employees were talking about how you had just stridden inside yelling out for a private room."

Ah. Oops.

[Dear system. Can't you tell let that be? It's not like she could immediately dislike me just because of this, right?]

"Right."

Boss Lu could feel his arms moving. It awkwardly picked out the meat and placed them into a bowl, he had picked them out too late as they were a bit overdone. This system!! This was too much!!

[Ah, really? Then why?] If the women's emotional opinion of him doesn't change, then why does it matter? It's not like she hasn't heard rumors before, she shouldn't believe them, they were all baseless!

"Because the employees' manager, who is currently helping Ms. Sung find clues of her lost father, is currently informing her about your increasing visits to this restaurant. Including with the employees speaking, she is having suspicions. That's breaking character."

[...System! You're too stingy!] Give me back control, damn it!

"These were the rules that we established. There is nothing 'stingy' about it. Combined with the rumors of Boss Lu's eccentric personality, news of you buying sex toys, pictures of you dumpster diving, and the reports of you standing outside of girls high schools, Ms. Sung has begun to doubt your words, despite my interference."

Boss Lu internally sighed. Why is it that this woman only starts to doubt him now? [And what are you going to do now? Fulfill the contract?]

"Of course. Please hold still as I reset your system."

This was the contract that he and the system created. Breaking character, acting out of the norm, going off script, all of these were things that he couldn't do. Doing these things meant that the system had all rights over his life. He wasn't allowed to struggle anymore and had to peacefully get restarted. All in all, it meant, cause trouble, get restarted.

"I regret letting you go all those years ago. Who knew you would cause trouble after all these years? Why did you have to start breaking the rules now." The system had thought that Boss Lu was very behaved. Before, Boss Lu never struggled against the acting program that was placed in his data. It was only when Boss Lu first woke up that the system showed himself to placate him and put him back into his place. That's when the system made the contract with him. For many worlds now, Boss Lu was very obedient and sensible to the system, the system didn't mind that one of the protagonists had malfunctioned, he was that obedient.

Boss Lu gave a low laugh at the system's words, [and I don't even get to say goodbye? A System, even after all these years, you're still so cruel.] Boss Lu tried to move his arm that didn't listen to him. That arm stopped mid-air and trembled like a leaf in the wind. Mr. Leng watched his straight face boss and called out, "Hey, Lu Jiang, are you alright?"

"Please hold still as I restart your system." He could hear the system's words in his head once again. His struggling arm froze. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't move.

"They're no need to panic. After restart, nothing would change, although your program would immediately be pulled from this world. This story's ending is ruined, it will be destroyed and recycled to be a different one."

Boss Lu knew what the system meant. They don't destroy worlds, they recycle. They erase all evidence of an old story and replace it with a new one. Usually, this would mean that the world would change drastically, usually ending with an apocalypse.

Boss Lu's thoughts paused as his vision distorted. It became very hard to see, and his vision lost its color. He could hear Leng Zhang calling out to him, and the sudden slam of the door. He could faintly see a woman standing at the doorway. Ms. Sang had probably burst into the room, she must have been trying to catch him red-handed. Yet all she found was Boss Lu's dazed eyes as he swayed lightly. And his arm was locked in the mid-air, not moving.

[It's a pity.] He said to the system.

"It was meant to happen sooner or later. I should have done it when I first detected an error."

[Yes, I guess that's the first mistake that you made.]

Boss Lu wasn't scared. It wasn't that he wouldn't mind getting his mind scrapped over. That's why he wasn't scared.

Because he knew that he would be just fine.

In fact, he was excited. So excited that if he had control of his body, he would jump with joy and a big corny smile would be planted on his face.

Finally. It was finally happening.

His vision blacked, as his eyes closed. His body tipped and fell to the ground. Yet right at that last moment. Amidst the callings of the people around him. Boss Lu could feel his body free itself.

He could hear the system call out, "What the? What did you?"

[You don't know how much I love you right now.]

"What did you do? Why can't I-"

Boss Lu's eyes abruptly shot open. His pupils turned to look into the corner of the room, and there he spotted something he had never seen before. There flouted a large ball of fog. Without needing assurance Boss Lu could tell that this was the system's form.

[wow, system, not only are you cruel, but you're a creep too. Hiding out in the open like that.]

The system seemed even more surprised, "Y-you can see me?" a system was not a part of the story, therefore, it can not be seen by partakers in the story. Its job is to watch over the actors' programs and fix them when necessary. A system cannot make itself known to the characters of the story. Boss Lu was only different because he had an error in his system, he already knew everything there was no point in pointlessly hiding it.

Instead of answering through his mind, Boss Lu opened his mouth and said with a smile, "System is very beautiful. Like a big ball of fart." Mr. Leng saw that Boss Lu opened his eyes. Leng Zheng helped him sit up. "Lu Jiang, is something wrong? Do I need to call an ambulance?"

Boss Lu drew his attention back to him and gave him a wide smile, "Leng Zheng, I really am amazing aren't I?"

"..."

"Well as long as you're not dying. Don't freak me out like that again. Or else I'll turn in my resignation letter." His face was serious. Really. He already has the letter signed and all. Someday his threat would come through and he'll throw it into this scum Boss's face.

"Eihh? Don't be angry Leng Zheng, I'm sorry, really!"

"You said that last time."

"Well, you also said you were going to turn in that resignation letter last time..."

"Do you want me to?"

"Ah! No! I'm sorry!"

The system stayed quiet as it studied Boss Lu. "You, you tricked me into deleting the acting program didn't you?"

Boss Lu's expression didn't change, only his eyes glinted with mockery. [Why would I only stop at the acting program? System, you should know by now that I'm a very ambitious person.]

The systems orb body quaked slightly, "So you mean, al-also the-"

[Don't worry, system. I won't be a problem for you anymore. After all, I'm no longer your responsibility.]

[From now on, you dumb systems wouldn't be able to stop me from doing whatever I want. Because you, yourself, just deleted the only things that were keeping me in control. Restart my ass, you think that I would let myself be in such a pathetic state? Never again.]

That's right. Never again.

From now on. This Protagonist is a free man.