System 427 was quiet, listening.
"But the male leads? The female leads?" Heena's voice took on a harder edge. "They survive after getting shot multiple times. Poisoned repeatedly. Tortured for days. Do you remember the last world we reviewed? That white lotus novel where the male lead systematically destroyed the female lead—made her donate her kidney, then slowly harvested other body parts, piece by piece?"
The system nodded slowly, his glow dimming at the memory.
"And the heroine was still alive at the end," Heena continued. "Still breathing when he finally realized his mistake and chased her to the crematorium, crying about regret. She survived all of that because she had protagonist armor." She leaned forward. "Meanwhile, in that same novel, there was a villainess who got her kidney transplanted in a big, modern hospital with excellent care. And what happened?"
"She got an infection and died," System 427 said quietly.
