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Just as consciousness faded, a
mechanical voice echoed in his ears.“Alert!
Alert! Hero and Heroine in critical
condition with failing vitals! World
collapse imminent!”
Hero and heroine? What did that
mean? Was this a hallucination?
Before Karry could process it, he
plunged into unconsciousness. He awoke in a strange space. Lines of code floated in the air. He reached out, his hand passing through the data. A glowing orb drifted towards him, scanning him. Red
exclamation points appeared in front of
the code.
“ANOMALY DETECTED: Data
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purification required!”
“INITIATING PURGE
SEQUENCE!”
The orb’s voice was emotionless,
purely mechanical. A searing pain struck
Karry again. His memories began to fade.
He realized he was forgetting Emily!
Panic seized him. He tried to escape,
to resist, but he couldn’t touch the orb.
The orb’s next words filled him with
more dread.
“EMOTIONAL ANOMALY
DETECTED: Hero and heroine’s bond
requires narrative reboot!”
“PROTOCOL VIOLATION: Hero’s
emotional deviation toward supporting
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female character
demands immediate rewrite!”
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“CRITICAL NARRATIVE
CORRUPTION: Hero’s homicidal intent
toward heroine triggers full system reset!”
Karry finally understood. He stared at
the orb, his voice tight with rage.“You’re
controlling me? I’m the hero? Homicidal
intent towards the heroine… is that Celia?
And the supporting female character… is
Emily?”
The orb paused, then resumed.“This
system maintains the world’s
functionality. It does not answer
irrelevant questions.”
But the pause and refusal confirmed
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his suspicions. The absurdity of this world
hit him hard.
He remembered what he had heard
before he fell unconscious: Hero and
heroine in critical condition with failing.
vitals! World collapse imminent! It wasn’t
a hallucination; he and Celia were in
danger, and the world was destabilizing.
That was why he was here.
He’d thought faking his death would
break the control, because Emily had done
it before. He hadn’t had the chance to do
it, but now a new opportunity presented.
itself. If the hero’s death would
destabilize the world, and the system only
cared about stability, he had leverage.
His breath hitched, fearing the
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system would rewrite his memories. He
didn’t want to forget Emily and become a
puppet. He would rather die.
The orb flickered, seemingly
confused. He pressed on.
“Let me go. I don’t want to be the
hero. I only want Emily. You can erase my
memories, but you can’t erase my love for
her. Even if I forget her, I’ll fall in love
with her again. I don’t love the heroine. If
you force me to do what I don’t want to do, I’ll kill myself!”
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