Chapter 1The System Assigned Me to Win the Villain's Heart. I Chose to Start When He Was a Toddler.

The System required me to win the heart of the male lead, a boy born with telepathy who would grow up to be a ruthless, cold-blooded, and brooding psychopath.

I pondered for a moment and chose to enter the world when the male lead was exactly one year old.

The System: [?]

"Starting today, I will be his legal guardian. I will teach him to obey the law, respect women, stay optimistic, and be a decent human being," I said without batting an eye. "A truly excellent romance strategy should start with a proper education."

The System was convinced: [You make a valid point.]

So, on a day with heavy snow, I picked up the one-year-old male lead, Robin Winter, who had been abandoned at the hospital.

Six years later, at the children's home I opened, he asked me in his sweet, childish voice, "Miss Ellie, what does it mean to win someone's heart?"

I gently patted his head. "It means I want you to feel all the care and love this world has to offer."

Seven-year-old Robin's eyes sparkled, and he spun around in pure joy. "I love you too, Miss Ellie!"

Around him, the male lead's future subordinates, business partners, mortal enemies, and childhood sweethearts all swarmed around me, chirping, "We love Miss Ellie the most!"

The System: [The male lead's affection meter is maxed out. Host's mission is complete... Wait, you can do it like this?!]

* * *

After dying from severe overwork, I was forced to bind with a System and accept a romance mission.

The System transmitted the original plot to me. I looked at the files showing a handsome but utterly apathetic teenage boy and fell into deep thought.

He was being trampled underfoot, covered in bruises and cuts. His eyes were filled with an inorganic, dead gray, so indifferent that he looked entirely detached from the world.

The System spoke in a rigid, mechanical tone: [Once you enter the world, you can take him home. Right now, he is working odd jobs on the streets and suffering endless bullying. He might not trust you at first, so you will need to melt his frozen heart with love. Also, he has a childhood sweetheart, his first love. According to our projections, after he reunites with her, the two of you will have a massive misunderstanding...]

I interrupted it. "How old is he? He looks like a young teenager."

It paused for a second. [This is a photo of him at fourteen.]

"Then why is he working on the streets?" I frowned. "At that age, he should be in middle school."

The System: [...He has no money. He dropped out.]

"Public education is free and mandatory through high school. The foster system should also be covering his basic needs," I pointed out the glaring issue. "The group home he was placed in is clearly non-compliant and violating regulations."

The System was baffled by my logic. [Is... is that how it works?]

"It seems the child welfare system in this region is severely flawed," I mused for a moment. "Just send me into this world. I already know exactly what I need to do."

The System perked up. [Great! So which timeline would you like to drop into? When he's fourteen and being humiliated by customers? Or when he's eighteen and unconscious in a dark alley? Or maybe when he's twenty-three...]

I said, "When he is one year old, obviously."

The System: [?]

When Robin Winter was born, he was sickly and frail. His father was unknown, and his mother died in childbirth. When he was just a year old, his distant relatives abandoned him at the entrance of a local hospital.

It was the dead of winter, with a massive blizzard howling. Robin spiked a dangerously high fever and permanently lost a portion of his hearing.

Yet, as the male lead, he possessed a unique protagonist perk—telepathy.

From that day on, even though his physical world grew muted and quiet, the malicious thoughts of everyone around him constantly screamed in his head.

I stood at the hospital entrance, looking down at the baby sleeping soundly in my arms, and said bluntly, "Since you expect me to complete a mission, you need to give me a cheat code. Like unlimited funds, for example. Otherwise, your male lead is going to starve to death."

[Is this really allowed?] The System sounded incredibly anxious after unlocking the funds for me, asking for the thirteenth time, [Should I just fast-forward you ten years into the future?]

"Let's not be a predator," I wagged my finger. "I am twenty-two years old. When it comes to a romance mission, raising a one-year-old is acceptable. Hitting on an eighteen-year-old is not. Sixteen is absolutely out of the question, and eleven is just criminal."

The System: [...]

Bathing in the radiant light of my morality and respect for the law, it fell into a daze, utterly speechless.

"Let's go," I said. "We have a lot of work to do."

For starters, I needed to look up the licensing requirements and qualifications needed to take over an orphanage.

The Haven Children's Home, where Robin was originally supposed to end up, was horribly mismanaged. But that didn't matter. I could overhaul it myself.

I wrapped the baby's blanket a little tighter and carried him into the hospital. "Hopefully we're not too late, and his hearing can still be saved."