The Vixen's Gambit: Tonight We Hunt

Early 1465, Europe, Schicksal Headquarters.

Li Bei sat atop the courtyard wall, pondering the scene below.

In the Apocalypse family courtyard, a frail-looking blonde boy stood in the snow, stretching a stick towards the branches of a tall tree. Lodged within the snowy branches was a meticulously folded paper airplane.

Unfortunately, the boy was too short, and his frail body couldn't lift the longer branches. After many attempts, he gave up. It seemed his masterpiece, which had taken him half the day to create, would have to stay there until the snow melted.

That is, if the snow didn't destroy it first.

Li Bei recognized the boy. Anyone familiar with Honkai knew this pivotal figure: Otto Apocalypse.

A man who would one day bargain with gods, manipulate the world, and commit countless atrocities all for the sake of resurrecting his beloved. 

Like Gilles de Rais, the knight who went to extremes after the death of his revered Jeanne d'Arc, Otto was a man driven to extremes by love and loss.

Except Otto was far more ruthless, terrifying, and capable.

Of course, this Otto was still a child, far from the future madman. He even seemed a bit... soft.

Which brings us to the question: What was Li Bei doing here?

The answer lies with his wonderful System.

Since he'd refused to be isekai'd from Earth, he couldn't be transported to another world. However, the System had a workaround.

It could create character profiles in other worlds and transfer Li Bei's consciousness into them!

Due to time dilation, he could power up his character in another world, and mere minutes might pass on Earth. Upon the character's death, all accumulated power and energy would be transferred back to his Earth body. 

He could level up by speedrunning character deaths, even summoning them to fight.

Character death had no consequences for him. He could just create a new one.

But how exactly did the System power up his characters?

That's where the nature of the System came in.

It was called the Bad Woman System.

Yes, really.

According to the System, Li Bei gained power by making people who cared about his character feel negative emotions: sadness, anger, guilt, jealousy, you name it.

For example:

Let's say Li Bei's character, "Mei," kills "Shuai's" entire family for no reason. Shuai would be devastated, but this act of pure evil wouldn't give Li Bei any energy.

But if Mei becomes close to Shuai, maxes out his affection, and then dies dramatically in front of him, Li Bei gets a power surge. Shuai's pain is for her.

Love breeds sorrow, love breeds fear. The deeper the emotion, the purer the energy. The more Shuai loves Mei, the more power Li Bei gets.

He could then use this energy to buy items from the System shop. With enough energy, he could become invincible.

The shop's inventory was random, constantly changing like gacha banners. Thankfully, there was a shopping cart feature to reserve items.

In short, his character had to be a manipulative heartbreaker, a "bad woman" who reveled in others' misery.

Li Bei wasn't surprised that, due to the System's nature, his characters were always female. It came from Hedgehog Novel, after all. Janky systems were to be expected.

And when he found out the System had dumped him in the Honkai universe? He wasn't just unsurprised, he was delighted.

This world was perfect for his strategy!

He wasn't a Honkai expert, but thanks to his friends, he knew the people in this world took love very seriously. Kiana, Mei, Bronya… they would all go to the ends of the earth for the people they cared about.

And then there were the heavy hitters like Otto and Kevin!

High-quality targets meant high-quality energy!

All he had to do was max out their affection, then die dramatically. Instant power boost for his Earth body!

He'd never intended for his characters to live.

Keeping a character alive, painstakingly orchestrating minor tragedies for a trickle of energy? Far less efficient than dying dramatically for a massive payout.

Besides, character strength was meaningless. Only his strength mattered. And characters were disposable. He could make a new one anytime.

He was here to break hearts, and he'd already planned 108 ways to die.

He'd initially planned to meet Raiden Mei or one of the other waifus upon arrival, but he'd ended up 500 years in the past.

Luckily, Otto was from this era. No waifus, but at least he had a source of energy.

Given Otto's devotion to Kallen, even two-tenths of that directed at his character would be a massive power boost.

His power level would go from 5 to 10, easy.

After all, 500 years of obsession was enough to turn a righteous companion into... well, Otto.

So when he learned his character was an orphan adopted by the Kaslana family, he immediately started searching for Otto and Kallen, planning to "accidentally" bump into them and shamelessly latch onto them.

He'd found Otto, but no Kallen.

He seemed to have arrived a bit too early. Otto's aircraft were still made of paper.

But arriving early had its advantages. Otto's love for Kallen was legendary. If he arrived later, he might not have a chance.

Building up goodwill now meant he'd be Otto's "friend" by the time Kallen appeared.

Unfortunately, his character's personality influenced his actions. He was finding it hard to think clearly... Is the Kaslana bloodline cursed with stupidity?!