Reborn to Break the System

On the very first day of my rebirth, I immediately quit my job, a dream position with a lucrative salary and weekends off. Instead, I went straight to a shady loan shark to borrow ten million dollars. In my past life, my boyfriend’s childhood best friend used a system to steal my hard-earned paychecks. She took my money and traveled the world with my boyfriend. She even went live online to donate money to retirement homes, praised by netizens everywhere as a literal angel. Meanwhile, the one million dollars I had saved up for my mother’s life-saving surgery after working overnight shifts was wiped out in an instant. I begged her to return my money. Yet, she put on a pathetic, innocent act. “Have some self-respect! If you want money, earn it yourself. Why are you forcing me to hand over mine?” My boyfriend sneered at me. “Why can’t you learn from her and be an independent woman? Would you die if you weren't so greedy?!” The very next day, rumors framing me as a gold-digger blew up across the internet, which led my mom to die of a heart attack. My boyfriend and his childhood friend took my one million dollars, bought a luxury sports car, and went on a joyride without a care in the world. As for me, I was smuggled into an offshore scam compound, turned into a cash-generating puppet, and ultimately died after having my organs harvested. This time around, I’d love to see how his childhood friend travels the world while carrying a massive, mountain-high debt! Chapter 1 “Whoa, Emily, did you seriously win the lottery? That’s crazy!” “Don’t forget about us broke coworkers now that you're rich!” In the office, everyone surrounded my boyfriend’s childhood friend, Emily Rose, who was wearing a smug, fake smile. She held her resignation letter arrogantly in front of the department manager. “I’m done working here!” This familiar scene sent a shiver down my spine. The vivid memories of my organs being harvested in my past life were still fresh in my mind. Suddenly, a robotic voice rang out in my head. [Ding! The Contract Transfer System has been activated. You may designate a target to transfer all of your contractual relationships.] My heart tightened violently. In my past life, Emily used a similar system to turn every single penny of my hard-earned wages into hers, all while claiming she won the lottery. Now, I finally had a weapon to fight back. I pushed through the crowd, walked over to Emily, and clapped my hands. “Nice! I quit too!” Everyone froze, their eyes instantly fixing on me. The smug look on Emily’s face froze, and she looked at me in disbelief. Beside me, my boyfriend, Leo Duncan, frowned and grabbed my arm tightly. “Charlotte, are you crazy?” Emily got extremely anxious, grabbing my hand. “Charlotte, I know you envy me, but you just don’t have my luck. Without a job, how are you going to survive?” “Exactly! Can’t you learn from Emily and show some ambition? Stop always thinking about quitting and expecting me to support you! I’m under a lot of pressure too!” Listening to them say the same things as in my past life, I just wanted to laugh. I looked at Leo with a mocking smile. “Leo, you make three grand a month. Who can you even afford to support?” “Hey!” Leo was left speechless, his face turning ashen. Seeing this, Emily grabbed Leo’s arm and adopted a preachy tone. “Come on, Charlotte. You don’t have a degree or a strong background. Leo pulled a lot of strings to help you get this job. Don't be so ungrateful!” As soon as she finished, the coworkers around us immediately began whispering. “So Leo got her this job? No wonder she’s always kissing up to him.” “Tsk. She has no skills herself, yet she’s trying to copy a rich girl and quit without a backup plan. What a joke.” While Leo did recommend the job to me, I passed all three rounds of high-pressure interviews through my own effort. In my past life, I was gaslit by them like this into becoming insecure and weak, turning into a tool for them to take whatever they wanted from me. “What does my quitting have to do with you, anyway? Is the money I make at work deposited directly into your bank account or something?” I sneered, staring straight at Emily. Her pupils shrank violently, her face turned pale, and she subconsciously took half a step back. Seeing this, Leo immediately shielded Emily and yelled at me. “Charlotte! Emily was just trying to give you good advice! What’s with your attitude? I think you’re just lazy! You just don’t want to work hard! If you keep acting like this, forget about us getting married!” “Fine. Let’s just break up then.” Leo stared at me, shocked. I, however, didn’t bother wasting any more words on them and walked straight back to my desk. I opened my computer, sent my resignation letter, and walked toward the door without looking back. “Charlotte! If you walk out that door today, we're really over!” Leo’s furious voice shouted behind me. Emily followed up with a shrill cry, “Charlotte, you’re going to regret this! Without Leo, you’re nothing!” I didn’t slow my pace, only sneering inwardly. I hope the two of them can still be this arrogant at the end of this game. Chapter 2 Leaving the office, I hailed a cab and headed straight to the shadiest loan shark operation in the city. “I’m here to borrow ten million.” The entire room went dead silent. Everyone stared at me as if I were a lunatic. A man with a noticeable scar across his face said, “Little girl, our rates are above thirty percent, with compound interest, too. If you can’t pay it back, you’ll have to settle the debt with something else.” His eyes roamed over me without the slightest restraint, his meaning crystal clear. “I know. Since I had the guts to come here, I can afford to pay it back. Bring out the contract.” My completely calm demeanor brought a flash of surprise to Scarface’s eyes. He waved his hand, signaling his men to bring over the contract and a pen. “Fine. You’ve got nerve. I’d love to see how you plan on paying this back.” I took the contract and flipped straight to the signature line on the last page. The moment my pen hit the paper, I thought silently to myself. 'System, transfer this debt contract. Target: Emily.' An imperceptible flash of light flickered across the contract. The name I signed, “Charlotte Brown”, instantly morphed into “Emily Rose”. Scarface picked up the contract, looked at the signature on it, and nodded with satisfaction. “Alright! The money will be in your account within the hour.” Stepping out of the loan shark’s office, I immediately used my phone to contact the top cardiac surgeon in the country. In my past life, my mother’s illness became my greatest regret and deepest pain. In this life, I would never let that tragedy repeat itself. Right after I hung up, my phone buzzed with a notification for the bank deposit. Looking at the long string of zeros, I didn’t hesitate for a second and turned straight into a dealership. Half an hour later, I drove out in a brand-new car and headed straight for the most expensive shopping mall in the city. I began a wild spending spree, living a lavish lifestyle I wouldn’t even have dared to dream of in my past life. Meanwhile, far away on the sunny beaches of Mantica, Emily was lying comfortably on a lounge chair. “Babe, do you think that idiot Charlotte actually quit? “She was just talking tough that day. If she quits, how is she gonna pay for her mom’s medical bills?” Leo snorted. “Her? She was born to suffer. There’s no way she quit. She deserves to be our personal cash cow!” Emily opened her mobile banking app, wanting to check how much overtime pay I had contributed to her today. However, no matter how many times she refreshed the app, her balance didn’t change. “Huh? What’s going on? Why hasn’t the money hit my account?” Leo leaned over to take a look. “It’s probably just delayed. What’s the rush?” Emily frowned as a bad feeling washed over her. They had always spent money recklessly, completely confident that they had me as an endless supply of cash. After waiting a few more hours, the money still hadn’t arrived. Emily finally panicked and called our ex-boss, Mr. Thomas, back home. On the other end of the line, Mr. Thomas sounded thoroughly annoyed. “Emily? Didn’t you win the lottery? Why are you calling me?” “Sir, I’m not asking about that. I wanted to ask about Charlotte...” “Charlotte? She quit right after you did!” he snapped before abruptly hanging up. Emily and Leo stood frozen in place, as if struck by lightning. Chapter 3 Half a month later, I didn’t expect to see Leo and Emily at the entrance of my gated community. Both of them looked completely haggard. Leo grabbed my wrist, squeezing so hard it felt like he was trying to crush my bones. “Charlotte! You b*tch! How dare you quit!” “You’re coming back with me right now to apologize to Mr. Thomas and get your job back! Do you hear me?!” I looked at him coldly. “Leo, who gave you the right to order me around?” By now, neighbors and passersby were drawn to the commotion, stopping to watch. Seeing the crowd gather, Leo roared at the onlookers. “Everyone, come look at this! This woman spent all my money, found herself a rich sugar daddy, and now she’s dumping me! “I worked my ass off to buy her a car and a house, and she turns around and drops me like trash! My hard-earned savings were all squandered by her!” The surrounding crowd started whispering, their eyes filled with disdain. “She looks so quiet and polite. Who knew she was that kind of person?” “Seriously, this poor guy.” I laughed out of sheer frustration. “Your money? Fine! Let’s show everyone the transaction records of everything you’ve ever sent me since we started dating!” As I spoke, I pulled my phone out of my bag. Leo’s face instantly changed. Of course he didn’t dare let me show them. All the money he had ever sent me added up to less than a thousand dollars. Seeing that I was about to unlock my phone, he snatched it out of my hand and slammed it brutally onto the ground. “A sl*t like you definitely has disgusting, filthy chat logs with other men on that phone! Smashing it is getting off easy!” Looking at my phone, broken into two pieces on the pavement, my chest heaved with anger. During those few seconds I hesitated, the surrounding crowd had already taken my silence as a sign of guilt. “Look at her dressed all nice. It turns out she’s just a gold digger!” “She’s got a great body, though. Wonder how much it costs to sleep with her?” “Ugh! Shameless wh*re!” Emily walked over to my side, smug and arrogant. “Charlotte, stop struggling. You can’t beat us.” “If you don't want to be called a whore, be a good girl and get back to work. Otherwise, we have plenty of ways to make your life a living hell!” I let out a light laugh. “What era are you living in, trying to use sl*t-shaming to force me to bow down?” I turned my head toward the ones hurling the nastiest insults a moment ago. “A bunch of gullible idiots believing whatever you hear. Keep spreading rumors about me and see if I don’t sue you! “As for you and Leo, my biggest regret in life is ever meeting you two scumbags!” With that, I swung my arm and landed a hard slap across Emily’s face. Leo rushed forward to protect Emily. Just as he was about to berate me, I raised my hand and slapped him right across his face, too. Both of them stared at me in disbelief. “You b*tch! Are you insane?! How dare you hit us!” Furious, Leo rolled up his sleeves, swinging his fist as he charged at me. “Stop!” Right then, several burly men pushed through the crowd, walking straight toward us. Leading them was none other than Scarface from the loan shark company. “Ha! Charlotte, these guys are here for you, aren't they?! “They look like trouble. What sleazy thing did you do to have people coming to seek revenge?” Emily’s eyes were full of gloating malice, dying to see me suffer right then and there. Leo looked at me with smug satisfaction as well. “If you apologize to us and promise to go back to work quietly, we might consider helping you out!” I didn’t answer and simply looked at them with pity in my eyes. Just as they were growing impatient and about to lay a hand on me, Scarface stepped up and stood right in front of Emily. “You’re looking for Charlotte, right? She’s Charlotte!” Emily excitedly pointed at me to identify me to Scarface, but he raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face! “I’m looking for you! Emily Rose!” Scarface pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it right in front of Emily’s face. “B*tch! You borrowed ten million from me earlier, and you’re half a month overdue without paying a cent back! “With compound interest, it’s already rolled up to twenty million! You’re paying me back today, or else!” “Twenty million?!” Emily’s eyes widened, and she let out a shrill scream. “When did I ever borrow money from you?!” “It’s written in black and white, and you still want to deny it? If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll really think we’re running a charity!” She was answered with a flurry of heavy punches. Seeing this, Leo tried to pull those men off her, but to his surprise, they started beating him up too. “You’re her boyfriend, right? Let me tell you, if she can’t pay up, you’re not getting away either! “Boy, get twenty million ready for your girlfriend, or I’ll make life a living hell for both of you!” With that, he waved his hand, ordering his henchmen to drag Emily and shove her into the car. In the final second before being thrown inside, Emily gripped the car door tightly, hurling a hysterical accusation at me. “Charlotte! What on earth did you do to me?!”