The Cannon Fodder Stole the Male Lead’s Script GL - Chapter 67

[Ding~ Your mission romance progress has been updated.]

Yan Kuo was lying on the bed, unable to get up after a joint beating from both of his parents, when he suddenly heard the system’s prompt. The shock made him spring upright, but with a loud crack, the arm the family doctor had just reset broke again.

The pain twisted his face into a grimace.

But he had no time to care about the pain. The moment he opened the system panel and saw the romance progress, his vision went dark.

[Current Romance Progress: 52%.]

It had increased again?
It had jumped by ten percent!

His eyes turned red with fury. What had those two shameless people done behind his back this time? If things continued at this pace, by the end of the second semester of the first year of high school, he would be the one getting expelled.

In the original storyline, Zhan Rao had only stayed at Yinchuan High School for a year before she became the target of the vicious supporting character, Jiang Yun. However, with the male lead’s help, they had struck back together. As a result, Jiang Yun was completely disgraced and forced to drop out of school by the end of the first-year’s second semester. That moment marked the conclusion of the [School Arc].

Jiang Yun did not appear again until the later [Entertainment Industry Arc], and even then only sparingly. By that point, the Yan family had grown increasingly powerful. Meanwhile, the Jiang family declined due to poor management and Jiang Yun’s reckless behavior. She was the sole heir, and her actions hastened the family’s downfall. Eventually, the Jiang family was replaced entirely by the Yan Corporation. In the end, Jiang Yun received the ending she deserved by spending her life behind bars.

However, the way things were going now, Jiang Yun was steadily gaining a positive reputation among her classmates. Her grades were also improving at a stable rate. She was both popular and successful. The romantic progress with the female lead was also shifting in her favor.

When the romantic progress reaches sixty percent, the main world will re-certify the identity of the protagonist. If it turns out that the female lead is not in love with him but with the supporting female character instead, the entire plot will fall into chaos. His role as the male lead will be re-evaluated.

Without the protection of the protagonist’s halo, what place would he have in this world?

He stared at the glowing task progress panel, calculating how to deal with Jiang Yun and how to separate the two of them. Although he had collected quite a lot of evidence, it was still far from enough.

The gap between him and Jiang Yun was simply too large. That meant he would only have one chance to take her down.

And that one chance had to succeed without fail.
He had to ensure Jiang Yun’s complete disgrace, forcing her out of Yinchuan High School. Only then would Zhan Rao return to his side.

Just as he was immersed in thought, Yan Kuo noticed a new purple-colored button labeled [Modify] that had appeared next to the task confirmation button in the lower right corner of the system panel.

Yan Kuo asked, “System, what is this button?”

The system immediately responded to his call and popped up on the screen. However, once it heard the question, it began spinning in circles continuously. The entire panel started to lag, and garbled code flooded the screen.

Startled, Yan Kuo quickly shouted, “Enough! Stop spinning!”

[Apologies, Host. Unable to retrieve information related to the ‘Modify’ function. According to this system’s judgment, this function may be a bug. Would you like it to be removed?]

Yan Kuo was speechless.

Once this task was completed, he was definitely going to file a request to replace this system.

What a useless pile of junk!

“Forget it. Do not delete it. Leave it for now so I can examine it.”

He stared at the [Modify] button for a long time, then hesitantly reached out and clicked it. A line of blue text immediately appeared to the right of the button.

It was his current incomplete mission:

[Current Task: The female lead Zhan Rao is injured. In order to win her affection: 1. The tasker must kneel and sincerely call her “Mom.” (Completed) 2. Duration: two months. Win her heartfelt emotion. (In progress…) 3. Make her sincerely say the phrase, “Good boy.” (In progress…)]

His brow furrowed.

He reached toward the text and discovered that it could be selected. Wherever his finger moved, the cursor followed.

It looked just like a Word document where you could delete text.

Yan Kuo activated the delete key in an attempt to erase both tasks but a white prompt box popped up instead:

[Sorry, with current romance progress below 100%, full task information cannot be modified.]

Yan Kuo was stunned.

Despite the intense pain from his broken arm, he managed to push himself upright. His eyes widened as he stared at the screen, utterly stunned by what he saw.

So it really was possible to modify the task information!

He studied the message closely, hoping to glean more details, but there was nothing else.

If full modification was impossible under 100%, then what about partial changes?

He tested deleting one full sentence. As expected, a prompt box appeared again.

He then tried deleting one less character. Bit by bit, he experimented. Finally, when he tried deleting nine characters, the prompt said:

[Sorry, current romance progress below 90%, cannot modify nine characters of the task information.]

He tried deleting eight characters.

[Sorry, current romance progress below 80%, cannot modify eight characters of the task information.]

Seven characters.

[Sorry, current romance progress below 70%, cannot modify seven characters of the task information.]

According to this logic, with the romance progress currently at 52%, he could only delete five characters.

Yan Kuo thought for a moment and chose five specific characters from the task text, focusing on the phrases “emotionally moved” and “good boy,” with the intention of altering them.

But the system responded with another message:

[Sorry, your opportunity to modify two characters and three characters has already been used. You can currently only modify five characters.]

He had already used those options?
And this meant the five characters had to be continuous?

Yan Kuo’s frown deepened.

He carefully examined the task again.

Then he selected a different string of five characters: “female lead Zhan Rao injured,” and changed them to “supporting role Su Mei burned.”
He clicked confirm.

The task panel now read:

[Current Task: Supporting role Su Mei is burned. In order to win her affection: 1. The tasker must kneel and sincerely call her “Mom.” 2. Duration: two months. Win her heartfelt emotion. 3. Make her sincerely say the phrase, “Good boy.”]

Since the first task had already been completed, only the second and third remained. That made things much easier.

Sure enough, just as he finished modifying the task information, a scream came from downstairs. It was his mother, Su Mei.

He could also hear the sound of maids scurrying about and shouting in panic.

“Something terrible has happened! Madam has been burned! Bring the ointment quickly!”

Yan Kuo curved his lips into a smile.

He immediately got up and rushed downstairs.

He ran to Su Mei, who had just been burned, and asked urgently, “What happened? Mom, how did you get burned?”

Su Mei had been avoiding him for the past few days and had no interest in dealing with him. However, she was completely unprepared for what happened next. Her son, who now stood nearly six feet tall, suddenly dropped to his knees with a loud thud and bowed deeply before her in a solemn and forceful kowtow.

“Mom, I am sorry! It was my fault. I made you and Dad disappointed, which distracted you and caused you to get hurt. Everything is my fault.”

Yan Kuo’s mother was stunned.

All the maids throughout the Yan household were frozen in shock.

Even Yan Kuo’s father, who had just entered the room, was caught off guard.

After a brief pause, Su Mei quickly helped her son up. “Xiao Kuo, what are you doing? Hurry and get up. I was burned because of my own carelessness. It is not your fault. You are already an adult. Why would you kneel so suddenly?”

Yan Kuo’s eyes were red as he looked at his mother’s burned hand. “Mom, I am truly sorry. This is entirely my fault. Let me apply the medicine for you.” While speaking, he took out the burn ointment and continued, “Mom, I was too young and too immature. I offended Jiang Yun and the Jiang family, and because of that, I dragged our family into this difficult situation. Please rest assured, from now on, I will not let you and Dad worry about me anymore. I am sorry, Mom.”

Yan Kuo’s mother was moved to the point where her eyes turned red immediately.

She gently cupped her son’s face and said, “Good boy. It means everything to me that you care like this. It is true that your father and I have been too harsh on you. We are sorry, son.”

[Ding~ Your task has been completed.]

[Your current total Luck Value is: 6.]

While carefully applying the ointment, a small smile gradually lifted the corners of Yan Kuo’s lips.

A Luck Value of six. This was unprecedented good fortune.

Jiang Yun, he really ought to thank her.

He stood up and said goodbye to his parents. As he walked back upstairs, his expression turned cold, and he summoned the system.

“I want you to report to the Main System immediately. Request a full investigation into the consciousness of all characters and examine everyone in this world who might possess a system. I suspect that a supporting character has already awakened and may have a task system just like mine.”

The system was taken aback by Yan Kuo’s command. Apparently, its cognitive capacity had deteriorated to the point where it could no longer function smoothly. Otherwise, it should have understood the host’s order without difficulty.

[Please confirm the contents of your report.]

After speaking, the system displayed a line of text.

Yan Kuo read it quickly and confirmed the request.

[Reporting to the Main System will take seven hours. In human time, that equals seven months. During this period, this system will be offline. Task information will automatically appear on the brain panel. Please check it yourself. In case of any unexpected incidents, all responsibility falls to you. Please confirm that you understand this message and click agree.]

Impatiently, Yan Kuo clicked agree.

Now that he had six Luck Points, it was more than enough to handle the next six months of tasks. Even if he chose not to complete any tasks, he would not run out of luck entirely.

As long as he kept the task progress below sixty percent, there would be no protagonist identity reassessment before the Main System’s review. This would give him the time he needed to destroy Jiang Yun.

In a world like this, only the person with the task system should awaken. If anyone else becomes aware, they must be eliminated.

If a system enters this world without the Main System’s approval, it too will be hunted down and listed as a fugitive across the system network.

At that point he would have not only completed his task in this world but also performed a great service and earned an upgrade in his system level.

Suddenly, it felt to Yan Kuo as though the dark clouds had parted and he could finally see the light.

——

Meanwhile, Jiang Yun also heard the notification that Yan Kuo had completed his task.

She found it hard to believe.

She opened Yan Kuo’s task panel and saw that his mission information had been altered. The purple [Modify] button had already dimmed. This meant that Yan Kuo had discovered and used that function.

Was this because the romance progress had reached fifty-two percent?

Things were going to become troublesome from now on. She could no longer freely change his tasks or create problems for him.

And with a Luck Value of six, could it mean that his protagonist aura was coming back?

[Not only that. We are about to face serious trouble.]

The system, which was usually lazy and somewhat listless, suddenly spoke with a calm and serious tone.

Jiang Yun was startled. It took her a moment to realize it was her system talking.

“You are not sleeping anymore?”

Her system typically lounged about lazily and disliked being disturbed. Unless she had questions that could not be answered directly through the panel, the system rarely responded.

Strangely enough, even though the screen often could not provide certain information, her system was able to explain those things in detail.

She instinctively believed that her system was much more powerful than Yan Kuo’s.

[Now that I am well-rested, of course I am not sleeping. Also, please do not compare me to that idiotic and useless system.]

Jiang Yun: …

“What do you mean by serious trouble?”

[There can only be one system per world, and only one task user. That means only one person can awaken consciousness in any given world. That person is the one bound to the task system. If there is a second person who awakens, the Main System will erase them. Any system that enters without permission will be hunted and placed on a global system alert list.]

Jiang Yun: …

“So you are saying we are doomed.”

[Exactly. You are the unintended awakened character, and I am the system that infiltrated this world.]

“What happens after we are erased?”

[You will no longer exist.]

“And you? If you get hunted, what then?”

[I will just keep running.]

Jiang Yun: “What? You mean you are already on the run?”

The system fell silent.

[I can leave right now if you want but are you really willing to sit here and wait while that useless system of Yan Kuo brings the Main System here to erase you?]

Jiang Yun frowned deeply. She was clearly unwilling.

[So, if you do not want to be erased, and I do not want to be marked as a fugitive system, we only have one option. We must turn the tables.]

Jiang Yun asked, “How do we do that?”

[It is simple. Before the Main System arrives, we must steal the protagonist identity. Once the protagonist identity is locked in, it means that most of the plot has already played out. At that point, the Main System cannot interfere, because systems exist to serve the story. If the plot proceeds well, even the Main System cannot do anything. In fact, the Main System might even identify them as the fugitive system and the illegally awakened supporting character and deal with them instead. The only problem is that time is tight.]

[We have to finish this within seven months. I suspect that Yan Kuo has already told his system to report us to the Main System.]

Jiang Yun: …

“No wonder you told me I could take the protagonist role. You were doing it for yourself.”

This system was unbelievably cunning!

Suddenly, Jiang Yun thought of another question.

“Wait! I have another question.”

[Go ahead.]

“If you are a fugitive system, then what is the Destiny Override task about? Aren’t all tasks issued by the Main System?”

The system went quiet again.

[You can think of it as a form of motivation. The Destiny Override task helps you understand your current condition. Once you complete the requirements of my system, I can help you avoid some of the harsher plots usually assigned to villainous supporting characters. Wouldn’t you agree that is fair?]

“If you are that capable, why not help me bypass all the villain arcs entirely?”

[That is not allowed. You must follow what lies within the rules. I can only change what lies beyond them. Darling, even I have limitations~]

Jiang Yun was completely exasperated. If only this system did not sound so flirtatious, she might actually believe its reasoning.

But now she had a clearer picture of what kind of system it was. It was more advanced than Yan Kuo’s. It was highly autonomous, self-aware, and able to establish rules on its own. However, once those rules were set, the system could not change them.

From what she could tell, this system had always been a fugitive, operating beyond the Main System’s control. It had already set the rules for the Destiny Override task and waited for a suitable awakened supporting character. Only then could it remain within a given world.

Once that supporting character completed the task, the system would receive a reward in return.

It was a kind of mutual contract with clear boundaries and rewards.

The system created the rules. If the rules were fulfilled, it would be rewarded.

“What is your real goal?”

Jiang Yun still felt that the system was not being fully honest.

The Destiny Override rule would allow a supporting character to become a protagonist. Could it really be that the system just wanted to enter the Main System’s jurisdiction openly?

No, that could not be it.

[Ahem. I knew you were sharp. Any supporting character who manages to awaken is not to be underestimated. Fine, you have nearly figured me out. I will be honest. I was born as a supporting character system, just like you. But who wants to live in someone else’s shadow forever? The protagonist system receives incredible rewards for completing tasks and can even upgrade itself. The supporting character system gets nearly nothing. I have traveled through hundreds of worlds. I am experienced and powerful. Why should I stay a supporting character system forever? You could say I am just unwilling to accept that fate.]

[If you complete your mission and successfully rise to become the protagonist, then I can justifiably become a protagonist system. More importantly, I will have a chance to enter the Main System’s domain and challenge its rules.]

Jiang Yun listened in a daze.

She did not know much about the system world.

But she could understand how the system felt.

No one wanted to remain a supporting character, stepped on again and again, cycling through endless reincarnations without ever seeing a way out.

If there was truly a chance to defy that fate, why not take it?

Though the system made it sound so easy, Jiang Yun knew that only the system itself could understand the danger it had faced. Escaping its original world, breaking free from its limitations to create new rules, wandering through different worlds, and waiting for a compatible host.

Every step required immense patience and an iron will.

In essence, she and the system were the same type of person.

Neither of them accepted failure. Neither of them accepted fate.

But still, she was furious. She had been manipulated from the very beginning by this system!

Damn it!