Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads-Chapter 42 --

For people who didn’t know, hosts working for the System weren’t just data; they were souls in limbo—those who had died unjustly, those who couldn’t reincarnate properly, those too tired to go back to ordinary life. The pitiful, the broken, the exhausted. Most of them wanted one simple thing: another chance. Another life. Another try. The System appeared in that gap and made the offer: complete missions, get your wish. Rebirth, do‑over, freedom.

Everyone asked for that. Everyone except Heena, who had never cared about rebirth in the first place.

Killing a host wasn’t just murder. It was erasure. No reincarnation, no next life, no nothing—just wiping them out of existence. That was the one thing Heena could not forgive.

Her eyes narrowed. "So how the hell did that system even get out again?"

System 427 looked miserable. "That’s... the problem. After they arrested him, he was sent to Reformation. When he came out, he was assigned to the absolute lowest class. His job was ’only’ to assist pitiful side souls—NPCs, background characters, throwaways. He was forbidden to touch main plotlines, forbidden to harm other hosts." He grimaced. "But then he met that Serafina host. And that woman is even more feral than he is."

He flapped his wings agitatedly. "The restriction said ’he’ couldn’t harm other hosts. It said nothing about ’her’. Between loopholes and her insanity, they’ve already crossed—what, seventy‑plus worlds together? Seventy percent of a full cycle at least. Everywhere they go, damage follows."

For a moment, there was only the scratch of the clock on the wall.

Then Heena laughed.

Not amused. Not bright. Just a low, sharp sound that made the system’s fur stand on end.

"Ha. Ha."

System 427 stared. "Why are you ’laughing’?"

Heena leaned back in her chair, the wood creaking softly. When she turned her head toward him, he actually flinched. Her eyes were pitch‑black, expression utterly blank, and yet a slow, evil smile curled at the corner of her lips. She looked less like an empress and more like the final boss in a villain route.

"System," she said quietly, "did you forget what kind of worlds I pick?"

He swallowed. "N‑No?"

"I don’t take the easy missions," she went on. "I take the inhuman ones. The worlds your ’great’ systems avoid like plague. My one world is equal to your precious self‑insert department’s seventy‑two baby missions." Her smile widened, showing a hint of teeth. "And ’she’ thinks she can get away from me? That she can make me lose?"

Heena exhaled, pushing back her chair. The legs screeched slightly against the floor as she rose.

"Now," she murmured, "I’m starting to understand why that cosmic backlash was so strong."

She glanced down at her own leg—the one still aching from the earlier surge—then slammed her heel into the floor with deliberate force. The impact rang through the office like a gavel.

"Fine," she said. "If that rabid system and his little white‑lotus butcher want to play in ’my’ world—"

Her eyes burned.

"—I’ll show them what happens when you kill hosts under the Black Lotus’s watch."

System 427 hovered closer, eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Okay, last question. How did you even ’know’ it was Estov—Astov—whatever his name is?"

Heena glanced up from her papers. "I obviously searched about him."

The system nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. But ’how’ did you know who he ’really’ is? Like, even ’I’ didn’t recognize him as a support unit when I scanned this world." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Heena leaned back, fingers tapping the armrest. "Well, I saw the information sent by the shadow guards about him—"

System 427 frowned, cutting her off. He tilted his head from side to side, practically ’straining’ his little lion brain. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. That doesn’t add up." His eyes widened. "When we talk to you systems—when hosts communicate with us—you guys get ’dazed’. To everyone else, you look like you’re spacing out. So how would the shadow guards even notice something was off about him? How would they know he has a system backing him, or figure out who he really is?"

Heena smiled, almost helpless, and reached out to flick him on the forehead with one finger.

’Thwack.’

"You fool," she said fondly. "I didn’t mean the shadow guards told me he had a ’system’. I meant I recognized him by his ’behavior’."

System 427 rubbed his forehead, pouting. "Behavior?"

"Do you know," Heena said slowly, "that in all the time I’ve worked for the Bureau, there are only a ’few’ people who left a real mark on me? Do you remember how we cleared World 7?"

The system paused. His ears perked up. "Wait. He was already—"

From nowhere, he conjured a glowing ledger, flipping through pages frantically. "Oh! Oh yeah! In that world, he was the sub–male lead, right?"

Heena nodded. "Keep reading."

System 427 turned another page. His jaw dropped.

"Damn. ’Gay’ guy."

Heena’s smile widened, sharp and amused. "Yep. Estov is gay. Completely, unapologetically into men. Meanwhile, the ’original’ sub–male lead in that world? Totally straight. You know what’s interesting?"

The system looked up.

"This guy," Heena continued, "is a ’grumpy bitch’. I’ve met all kinds of people—white lotuses who are genuinely clever, black lotuses bigger and badder than me, green-tea manipulators who could sell ice to a snowman. But there are really, ’really’ few who leave a mark like ’his’."

She leaned forward, eyes gleaming with the memory.

"He entered World 7—a completely ’straight’ romance world—and turned ’half the male cast gay’ within six months. Do you know how hard it was for me to salvage that plot? The heroine was left with, like, two love interests by the end. The rest were chasing the sub–male lead or each other."

System 427 stared, horrified. "The Bureau let him get away with that?"

"They didn’t ’know’ until it was too late," Heena said dryly. "And if it weren’t for me saving his ass when the plot nearly collapsed and killed him, that idiot would’ve been erased. So yeah, I got to know his character ’very’ well. What he loves to do. How he behaves. His tells."

She tapped the desk. "So when I came to this world and started digging into the ’exiled prince’—the Empress’s cousin or whatever—I found something ’interesting’."

"What?"

"The ’previous’ Prince Ashtov," Heena said, "was a straight guy. Not a womanizer, but he had a serious relationship once. Talked to women normally, kept appropriate distance. Pretty standard noble behavior." She paused. "But then, in the last three to four months? Total one-eighty. Suddenly he’s turned at least ’ten’ previously straight men gay."

System 427’s eyes bulged. "Ten?!"

"At least," Heena confirmed. "And in this entire world, I knew only ’one’ idiot with that kind of power." She grinned. "Well, technically there are three others who could pull it off, but those three prefer working in already-gay worlds. They wouldn’t bother with a straight historical romance."

The system groaned, covering his face with his paws. "So you figured it out just from his ’gay-conversion rate’?"

"Exactly."

"That’s... that’s actually terrifying."

Heena shrugged. "That’s why I’m the Black Lotus. I pay attention." She stood, stretching. "Now, if we’re done with storytime, I have five treacherous consorts to slowly break, a white-lotus heroine to dismantle, and a criminal system to hunt down. Oh, and an empire to run."

[Estov is the real name of the host that possessing Prince Ashton body].