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The moment Anna opened her eyes, she knew she was dead.

The ceiling above her was wrong. Not the water-stained panels of her tiny studio apartment, but an elaborate fresco of roses and thorns painted in gold leaf. The scent in the air was wrong too: lavender and beeswax instead of instant coffee and exhaustion. Her body felt light, unburdened by the chronic ache that had lived in her spine for the past three years of doctoral hell.

Then the blue screen materialized in her vision, and everything made a terrible kind of sense.

WELCOME TO HARD MODE
 Survival Rate: 2%
 Current Identity: Emily de Valois
 Death Flags Active: 47
 Time Until Guaranteed Death: 365 Days

Anna's breath caught. She blinked, but the translucent interface remained, hovering at the edge of her vision like a migraine that had learned to speak. Below the statistics, a single line of text pulsed in crimson.

WARNING: Death Flag #1 will trigger in 8 minutes.

She sat up too quickly, and the room spun. Silk sheets pooled around her waist. The bed was massive, carved from dark wood and draped with velvet curtains in deep burgundy. Everything about the space screamed wealth, from the hand-painted wardrobes to the Aubusson rug beneath her feet. But Anna's mind had already moved past aesthetics to something far more urgent: recognition.

She knew this room. She had seen it rendered in bright anime colors on her laptop screen during those rare breaks between research papers. This was the opening scene of Rose of the Empire, the dating simulator she had downloaded on a whim after her advisor's latest rejection.

The villainess's bedroom. Emily de Valois's bedroom.

Anna stumbled to the full-length mirror and confronted a stranger. Pale skin. Silver-blonde hair that fell in perfect waves to her waist. Wide violet eyes set in a face too beautiful to be real. Twenty-one years old, according to the character profile. The adopted daughter of Duke Arden de Valois, hated by her brothers, despised by the court, and programmed to die in forty-seven different ways depending on which route the player chose.

This cannot be real. I am in the body of a character programmed to die.

The system chimed again.

Death Flag #1: The Duke's Morning Inspection
 Trigger: Showing disrespect or defiance
 Consequence: Immediate exile to the Eastern Tower (starvation route)
 Time Remaining: 4 minutes

Anna's hands were shaking. In the game, this scene always played the same way. The Duke would arrive for his weekly inspection, Emily would throw a tantrum about her treatment, and he would have her locked away. The Eastern Tower had no servants, no food deliveries, and bars on the windows. Three days later, Emily would be found dead.

The original Emily had been spoiled, impulsive, and stupid. Anna was none of those things. She had spent seven years in academic trenches, learning to smile through humiliation and bow to people who held her future in their hands. She knew how to survive powerful men who saw her as disposable.

She could do this. She had to do this.

A sharp knock echoed through the door. Anna's pulse spiked, but she forced her expression into careful neutrality. She smoothed the nightgown, folded her hands, and positioned herself in the center of the room with her eyes downcast.

"Enter."

Duke Arden de Valois was a man built from ice and iron. Tall, silver-haired, with features that might have been handsome if they ever moved beyond cold disdain. He stepped into the room with the bearing of someone who had never been told no, flanked by two stone-faced attendants.

His gaze swept over her like a blade checking for imperfections.

Anna dropped into a curtsy so deep her knee nearly touched the floor. "Good morning, Your Grace. Thank you for visiting this unworthy daughter."

Silence. The Duke's eyes narrowed slightly. In the game, Emily would already be screaming about her rights, about Jennifer, about the unfairness of her situation. The script demanded defiance.

Anna gave him submission instead.

"I know I am not the daughter you lost," she continued, keeping her voice soft and steady. "I know I can never replace Jennifer in your heart. I ask only that you allow me to serve the de Valois family to the best of my limited abilities, so that I might repay a fraction of the generosity you have shown me."

The words tasted like ash, but they worked. She watched the Duke's expression shift from expectation to confusion to something that might have been calculation.

"You have changed," he said finally.

"I have reflected on my behavior, Your Grace. It was childish and unseemly." Anna kept her eyes down, but she could see the system interface updating in her peripheral vision.

Death Flag #1: CLEARED
 Reward: +5 Intelligence, +3 Charisma
 New Passive Skill Unlocked: Perfect Etiquette

The Duke studied her for another long moment, then turned without another word. His attendants followed, and the door closed with a soft click.

Anna waited until their footsteps faded completely. Then her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the bed, heart hammering against her ribs.

The system chimed one more time.

Congratulations on surviving your first death flag.
 46 remaining.
 Good luck, Villainess.