Chapter 1

When I was seventeen, my brother and I accidentally bonded with a Life-Reversal System.

He chose to reverse his life through extraordinary looks, while I chose to become a genius scholar.

In the end, he failed because he couldn't win a woman's sincere love. He lost his handsome face and ended up begging on the streets.

I, however, won the Lasker Award for medical research. I became a leader in the medical field at a young age and was pursued by the socialite princess of the elite circles.

Blinded by jealousy, my brother stabbed me to death.

When I opened my eyes again, we were back on the day we first chose our systems.

My brother rushed to pick the Scholar System before I could. He looked at me with a smirk.

"Silas, this time, I'm the one who will dominate the medical world!"

I curled my lips into a faint, mocking smile.

He was too naive. There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Everything comes with a price.

1

"I choose the Scholar System!" Rafael Sterling shouted. I suddenly snapped back to reality. We had both been reborn. We were back at the very moment of the choice.

"Are you sure about this selection?" The cold, mechanical voice of the system asked once more. He nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with greed. "Positive! Having a brain is the only thing that matters!"

Before the system could even respond, he impatiently mashed the button for the scholar life. He muttered under his breath, "This time, the fame and glory belong to me. Juno Vance will be chasing me instead!" His expression was almost manic.

I suddenly remembered the way he looked in our past life, driving a knife into my chest with such hatred. It was only then I realized how much he regretted his initial choice.

When we were seventeen, we unexpectedly bonded with the systems. My brother chose to have a tall, handsome, and perfect physical appearance. He believed that beauty was power.

But once he actually used those looks to climb the social ladder, he realized something. Beauty is the most common currency in the world of the elite.

He became nothing more than a toy for rich heiresses. They would parade him around when they were bored and discard him when they weren't. He couldn't even get close to them if they weren't in the mood.

Eventually, he couldn't secure the sincere love required by the system. He failed his missions, and his beauty was stripped away. Abandoned by those women, he ended up homeless and destitute.

I had chosen the Scholar System, boosting my IQ. I eventually became a medical pioneer and lived a life of prestige. I never expected him to kill me out of pure envy.

Rafael looked at me triumphantly. "My dear brother, this time, I'm the big shot in the medical world!"

Seeing his provocative and smug face, I just felt a surge of silent mockery. He was so naive. There is no such thing as a free meal. Success requires an immense sacrifice of time and energy.

I have to admit, the system's initial boost was obvious. As the new semester started, Rafael's grades skyrocketed. He quickly became the top student in the grade.

Everyone was singing his praises. He soaked it all up, constantly showing off his new photographic memory. That was the cheat code the system gave him.

"Rafael, you're incredible! How did you become so smart?" "Yeah, your learning speed is insane!"

The smile never left his face. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye and said, "My brother is okay too." "He studies until midnight every day. He's just a hard worker, but honestly, studying is all about the right method."

A student looking for tips immediately chimed in, "Even if you taught him, he probably wouldn't get it." "He's just naturally a bit slow."

I looked at the latest rankings. I was second in the class. If I was slow, what did that make the rest of them? Pigs? They only said those things because they had a crush on the idea of a genius who didn't have to try.

The girls in class, however, were suddenly very eager to talk to me. They even offered to help me with my chores. I knew my system was starting to work.

I had grown taller. My skin was flawless, and my facial features were becoming more defined and striking. In a crowd, I was the one everyone noticed first.

"Good looks can't buy you a career. Talent is the real deal!" "Exactly. What's the point of a student looking like a movie star?" "Rafael is the one with the real future."

Rafael was flying high on the compliments. I remained silent.

He didn't know that the Scholar System wasn't a free ride. He would have to work twice as hard to actually produce research results to complete the system's missions. Just like he had to earn sincere love in his previous life.

By the middle of the semester, Rafael was firmly in first place. He loved the way people worshipped him. But gradually, he noticed something strange. Unlike him in the previous life, the other guys didn't hate me.

He didn't understand why, after being voted as the school heartthrob, I wasn't being isolated by the other boys. Actually, there was a very good reason for that.

"Silas Sterling, I'm taking you out for a drink after school. Got it?" Maddie Monroe, the school's resident rebel queen, blocked my path again.

The Monroe family was incredibly wealthy, with ties to both the corporate world and the underground. They donated millions to the school every year. Even when Maddie went too far, the administration looked the other way.