Rich Family's Substitute Sweetheart - Chapter 4

I despised her. I despised how she schemed to get married to me. I despised her because of her arrogance.

“Li Rui, you don't know how many times I have wished to kill you.”

But all of this was my illusion. Everything was a mysterious trap of lies. A trap that was laid to trap me.

“Rui, I want to protect you from this whole world. I will not ask you to love me.....just don't hate me. Hmm....”

The story of a lover that was never destined to get the girl he loved but his fate led him to her.

Five thousand years of majestic China, just one hundred years of humiliation, how many treasures have been lost overseas?

Famous porcelain, beautiful jade, bring them all!

Oriental, Western, all mine!

Eat mine and spit it out, take mine and give it back!

Antiques, cultural play, food, beautiful scenery, all are not spared!

Let’s see how Jin Muchen relied on a pair of golden eyes, full of pride and courage, and counterattacked in the United States!

- Description from novelbuddy

Five years ago, humanity’s strongest Tower Climber was betrayed at the peak of his conquest.Rael Arden, known only by his codename Phantom, was the silent genius who cleared impossible floors, crushed monsters with forbidden magic, and shaped the rules of Tower exploration. No one had ever seen his real face—yet his legend was feared across the world.But at the Tower’s summit, the teammates he carried to glory stabbed him in the back. For power. For godhood. For fear of what he might become.They thought he died.They were wrong.Reincarnated in secret, Rael awakens in a modern world that’s on the edge of collapse. Dungeons bleed into cities. Monsters evolve. The Tower is no longer just a gate—it’s infecting the world. And the very ones who betrayed him now rule from the shadows, hiding behind titles, guilds, and lies.But Rael isn’t alone. His soul split across hidden clone bodies, each designed to infiltrate, gather information, and prepare for war. As each clone reawakens, his power grows—and so does his rage.With him are three women tied to his fate:Selene, the shadow rogue who never betrayed him.Lyra, a curious researcher drawn to the legend of the Phantom.Aeris, the sword saint who still mourns his death… and may not be as loyal to the enemy as she seems.Now, Rael hunts the seven betrayers who destroyed his past.One by one, they will fall.But revenge is just the beginning.Because deep within the Tower, something else is waking—an ancient force that even Rael feared. And this time, the world may not survive unless the Phantom reigns again.

The year 1847