The Villainess Awakens

"Marcella, do not test my patience. I am giving you two options right now. Either divorce me, or I will cheat on you."

A cold, unfamiliar voice sliced through the suffocating silence of the sprawling living room.

Marcella Vance swallowed back a bitter, cynical laugh that threatened to bubble up her throat. Cheat on her? Who in the vast universe possessed that kind of spectacular death wish? She might discard someone when they bored her, but no one ever threw her away. She did not care if the thought sounded arrogant; it was the simple truth of her existence.

A sudden, piercing ache spiked behind her temples. Marcella blinked against the sudden onslaught of dizziness, gripping the armrest of the plush leather sofa to steady herself. Her vision blurred for a fraction of a second before snapping sharply back into focus. She tilted her chin down and stared at the owner of that icy voice.

Instantly, a heavy wave of disdain curled in her gut.

Bright crimson hair clashed with matching red contacts. The styling was atrocious, lacking any sense of subtlety or grace. He looked like a walking, talking traffic hazard, and staring at him actually made her eyes hurt.

The red-haired man was kneeling on the polished floorboards right before her. Despite his submissive posture, his broad shoulders were rigid with tension. Raw humiliation and simmering anger radiated from his crimson eyes. Marcella furrowed her brows, preparing to deliver a scathing critique of his fashion choices.

Before she could utter a single syllable, a massive tidal wave of foreign memories crashed into her consciousness, catching her off guard. The influx of information hit her like a physical blow.

She had died. Her past life was over, yet somehow, she had been granted a miraculous second chance at existence.

Unfortunately, she had not awakened in some peaceful paradise. She found herself trapped inside the chaotic plot of an aether beastworld novel she had casually read. Worse still, she had transmigrated into the body of an obscure, doomed, villainous female supporting character.

The original owner of this body shared her name. Marcella was a girl born in the grimy, unforgiving slums of this futuristic beastworld. Her life turned around when she struck the genetic lottery upon reaching adulthood, awakening a C-tier psionic body. The universal system immediately matched her with five handsome, wealthy mates, elevating her from the gutters to a life of enviable, effortless luxury.

However, the original Marcella possessed an insatiable greed that ultimately sealed her fate. She was never satisfied with her designated harem. Instead, she recklessly fixed her obsessive gaze upon the novel's untouchable, god-tier male leads. In the cruel narrative of this world, any supporting female who dared to compete with the beloved S-level heroine for a man's affection was destined for a gruesome, tragic end.

Through a series of engineered traps and subtle manipulations by the heroine and her elite suitors, the original Marcella was pushed into a bitter, deadly rivalry with another female supporting character.

Her opponent was Gemma Rowe. Gemma also hailed from the slums, had also awakened a C-tier psionic body, and harbored the exact same foolish ambitions to pursue the male leads.

But the system heavily favored Gemma. The five mates the system matched for Gemma were infinitely superior to the original Marcella's partners in every conceivable way. Gemma's men boasted breathtaking looks, elite aristocratic backgrounds, and formidable supernatural abilities. They owned premium real estate, top-of-the-line flying cars, and advanced robot helpers. Gemma's mates even acted as willing wingmen, helping her pursue the untouchable male leads.

The original Marcella demanded her own mates do the exact same thing. Terrified of offending the heroine’s powerful harem, the five men outright refused.

Comparisons bred deep, festering resentment. Consumed by jealousy, the original Marcella abandoned her futile pursuit of the heroine and focused her toxic venom solely on Gemma. This relentless harassment backfired, pushing her own five mates right into Gemma's welcoming arms. Her official partners transformed into Gemma's loyal, fawning lapdogs.

They begged the original Marcella for a divorce every single day, but the stubborn woman refused to let them go. Eventually, the five men gave into their desires and cheated on the original Marcella with Gemma.

In a final fit of hysterical rage, the original Marcella laced their food with lethal poison, intending to kill her five mates and Gemma. The plan failed. She ended up dying alone, leaving behind a notorious reputation as the archetypal deranged villainess. Meanwhile, the heroine and the male leads resolved two major inconveniences without lifting a single finger.

Marcella processed the tragic storyline and mentally scoffed.

The system literally mandated polyamory. Why would anyone chain themselves to five ungrateful, treacherous men and give up a boundless forest?

*Good heavens, girl. Why did you have to do that? There are plenty of other fish in the sea. We do not want other people's discarded lapdogs!* Marcella mused internally, adjusting her posture on the comfortable sofa.

After all, she held the power to take as many men as she desired from the endless pool of available males. Ten mates? A hundred? Ten thousand? That would be perfectly fine, too. Ten thousand mates meant claiming a new partner every single day. Marcella did not even know how many years it would take to cycle through a harem of that magnitude. The possibilities were endless, and none of them involved fighting over this pathetic, kneeling bunch.

With that liberating realization solidifying in her mind, Marcella lifted her gaze back to the red-haired man. Her previously tense posture relaxed into an attitude of supreme, confident authority.

"Let us do it, then. I do not want any one of you."

Jaxon Hensley rocked back on his heels. His crimson eyes widened to almost comical proportions, mirroring profound shock.

"We will do it?"

A sharp, sarcastic smile tugged at the corner of Marcella's lips.

"Yes, divorce. All five of you. I will not ask a single one to stay."

She harbored zero interest in claiming another woman's lapdogs, regardless of how handsome or well-built they supposedly were. Besides, looking at Jaxon, none of them fit her refined aesthetic standards at all.

As soon as the words left her mouth, the other four mates scattered around the expansive living room froze in their tracks. They exchanged stunned, wide-eyed glances, unable to process the sudden shift. Half a year ago, the system had bound them to this exact female.

She was undeniably beautiful—bright, striking, carrying an aggressive, intimidating allure that commanded attention. Combined with a genetic compatibility score exceeding ninety percent, they had genuinely planned on building a happy, devoted life with her, despite her mediocre C-tier psionic power.

But Marcella had treated them with disdain. Instead of nurturing their bond, she set her sights on the five legendary mates belonging to the S-level female, Sylvia Rostova. Not only did she plot to trade her mates for Sylvia's, but she relentlessly demanded her mates help her court the rival group. Since they were terrified of offending the S-level elites, they refused, leading Marcella to take out her endless frustration on them.

Gemma, also a C-tier female, liked Sylvia's mates too, but she treated her own partners with soothing kindness and endless patience. By comparison, and after much interaction, Marcella's beaten-down mates naturally fell for Gemma's gentle facade.

Then, they started demanding a divorce from Marcella every single day. Unfortunately for them, their female refused to give an inch.

The beastworld laws were brutally strict. The system allowed males to propose a divorce, but only after enduring an agonizing three-year cooling-off period. Females, however, possessed ultimate authority. They could initiate a divorce immediately, severing the bond in an instant.

Marcella's mates did not want to wait three long years. They desperately wanted to shed their current ties and become Gemma's mates as soon as possible.

Now that Marcella had casually agreed to the divorce, they could hardly believe their ears.

Could this manipulative female be tricking them?

"Are you serious?"

"Marcella, you are not joking, are you?"

Marcella rolled her eyes in profound exasperation. Her usually familiar face was now distant, cold, and stripped of any lingering attachment.

"Who said I was joking?"

Even if men were incredibly scarce in the sprawling aether beastworld, she would never stoop so low as to accept someone else's lapdog. Divorce was absolute and non-negotiable. She needed to stay far away from the book's heroine and the male leads, avoid the story's fatal ending, and enjoy a glorious life surrounded by gorgeous, obedient men.

As for the financial terms of the separation, there was no need to even bring them up. The universal system protected the female's interests above all else.

For example, immediately after matching, the mate's property became jointly owned with the female. Once the mating bond was successfully sealed through physical intimacy, every single asset belonging to the mate automatically transferred to the female's name via the system's irrefutable authority.

Upon divorce, if the bond had not been sealed yet, the male was legally obligated to surrender half of his entire property to the female as compensation. If the bond was already sealed, the female only needed to return a measly one-tenth of the wealth to the male.

Furthermore, at the time of divorce, the discarded mate had to pay his female an extra ten thousand merits. Males risked their lives slaughtering terrifying mutant beasts and vicious insectoids on the battlefield to earn merits. Females, on the other hand, generally earned their merits effortlessly by performing soothing psionic resonance on their males.

The five mates paused briefly, searching her face for any sign of deception. Once they confirmed Marcella was serious, a massive wave of shock and unadulterated joy filled their chests.

They immediately scrambled off the floor and raced toward their respective bedrooms at record speed. The frantic thud of boots and the slamming of doors echoed through the hallway. They packed their belongings with frantic desperation, terrified that even a single second's delay might make the capricious female change her mind.

A few minutes later, five breathless men stood in the foyer, bags slung over their shoulders, practically vibrating with impatient anticipation.

Marcella glanced at the group and slowly rose from the sofa.

"Let us go."

From birth, each female in this universe received one hundred merits and ten thousand galactic credits per month as living expenses until she reached adulthood and matched with males. Meanwhile, the governing terminal placed all orphaned females in the galaxy's heavily fortified, exclusive Female Aegis Shelter.

Once a female successfully matched with mates, the system granted her a house, a vehicle, and a butler robot, all strictly scaled according to her specific psionic power level.

Marcella's psionic power level was C. Consequently, the system bestowed upon her this sprawling C-tier villa, a sleek seven-seater flying car, and a standard C-grade robot helper.

But there were hidden tiers within tiers. The system had blatantly favored Gemma, granting her the absolute pinnacle of the C-tier rewards.

After a female's psionic power improved through resonance, she could formally request upgraded houses, faster cars, and smarter robot helpers from the system.

Since this current estate boasted an excellent, secure location within the city, most females chose to live in the system-assigned house indefinitely. Marcella was no exception. She stepped out of the front door and walked briskly down the sunlit driveway toward her vehicle.

She slid into the comfortable, genuine leather passenger seat and tapped the sleek dashboard console, instructing the metallic C-grade robot helper to take the wheel. The machine whirred to life, its optic sensors glowing a faint blue as it gripped the steering controls. Once settled, Marcella rolled down the tinted window and looked down at the five mates hovering uncertainly near her car.

"Hurry up, or I will change my mind."

With that sharp command, her bright, striking face lifted into a haughty, arrogant smile. The expression was so casually dismissive and devoid of the desperate clinging they were used to, that it ground the five mates' teeth in synchronized frustration.

Though their family backgrounds did not hold a candle to the monstrous wealth of the book's untouchable male leads, they were far from poor. Each man possessed his own high-end personal flying car. They rushed to their sleek vehicles, anti-gravity engines humming to life with a low, powerful thrum.

As Marcella's car lifted smoothly off the manicured lawn and merged into the designated skyway lane, the five trailing vehicles fell into tight formation, tailing closely behind her. Marcella rested her elbow on the window frame, watching the futuristic metropolis blur past. Towering skyscrapers intertwined with massive, bio-engineered flora stretched toward the clouds, a constant reminder of the alien world she now inhabited. She felt a profound sense of liberation wash over her. She was free from the doomed plotline, free from these ungrateful men, and ready to exploit every single advantage this society offered her.

Half an hour later, the convoy descended through the bustling aerial traffic. The imposing, massive architectural marvel known as the Dome of Mating Affairs loomed ahead. The group touched down seamlessly on the designated landing pad, mere moments away from finalizing the separation.