Tale of the Red Dragon Without Dragon's Might - Chapter 5 - : Danger Approaching?

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.

I was a genius in the Earthen Plane.

【Matrix Survival Game】

All players have the same initial resources.

Each person can explore ten rooms per day, and there may be dangers and supplies in the rooms.

Do your best to survive.

…

After reading all the introductions, Li Zheng heard a voice in his ear: The daily treasure chest is being drawn, and the quality is random…

Congratulations, you have drawn a silver treasure chest and obtained a silver-quality blueprint “Normal Edition Detector”, along with several supplies.

Congratulations, you have drawn a bronze treasure chest and obtained a bronze-quality blueprint “Air Purifier”, with some supplies.

Congratulations, you have drawn the white treasure chest and obtained the platinum quality blueprint “Ion Cutting Blade”, “Intermediate Gene Culture Solution Recipe”, “TJP Type Shield Blueprint”, and a lot of materials.

…

Congratulations, you have drawn the super god-level treasure chest, and the reward……

Li Zheng looked at the brilliant treasure chest in front of him and rubbed his hands together excitedly.

- Description from novelbuddy

He Miao transmigrated into a book, becoming the ugly, foolish female supporting character who behaved crudely, no thanks to being raised in a village. She kept hovering around the male lead and eventually provoked the female lead, who had a System, and was cheated into losing her company shares. Her own father married her off to a violent, abusive husband, and she ended her life as cannon fodder due to one of his violent fits. To avoid that tragic end, He Miao made two choices. The first was to escape the He family as soon as possible, while the second was…

Asking the male lead out for a meeting, she told him, “I don’t love you anymore. Let’s annul our engagement.” Jing Yan, who was still racking his brains on how he could get away from her annoying presence, exclaimed, “Are you serious?”Seeing that he was distrustful, He Miao took out the engagement gifts and stuffed them into his hands, ignoring his scornful reaction as she turned to leave. The annulled engagement meant half of her previous tragic fate was avoided, which improved her mood considerably. Hugging the little dog she adopted, she peppered it with kisses in her cheerful spirit, ignoring the fact that it stiffened in her arms…

Still, it started to act weird recently as it would run circles around her in the morning while throwing a fuss at night and trying to run outside, even succeeding a few times. He Miao consulted many veterinarians and experts on the matter, but she did not know that the dog’s rebellious attitude was because Jing Yan’s soul had transmigrated into it! Everyone knows that Jing Yan’s fiancee is an ugly, stupid, annoying village bumpkin who bugged him every day.

But she was at least tactful enough to annul their engagement. And yet, the same Jing Yan who had always acted high and mighty knelt in front of a fairy-like girl to help her put on her shoes as he asked unhappily, “It’s already been so long… Can we get engaged again already?”Everyone stared blankly, dumbstruck. Wasn’t his fiancee supposed to be ugly and stupid? She’s clearly enchantingly beautiful! Who spread those rumors in the first place?!