Minh Trường stopped trying to understand the world as a story.
That mindset was already outdated.
This world no longer followed logic.
It followed priority.
The realization came when the System updated without his input.
[World Priority Adjustment Detected]
[Primary Objective: Narrative Continuity]
[Secondary Objective: Anomaly Suppression]
[External Variable Status: Conditional Acceptance]
He read the lines twice.
Conditional acceptance.
Not rejection.
Not removal.
The world had decided something crucial.
As long as Minh Trường did not break the story, the story would tolerate him.
Inside the Astral Express, events accelerated.
Too cleanly.
A minor conflict that should have taken hours resolved in minutes.
A mechanical failure corrected itself before anyone noticed.
Dialogue flowed smoother—almost unnaturally so.
March 7th blinked. "Huh… that was easy."
Dan Heng frowned. "Statistically improbable."
Kafka smiled.
She could feel it.
The world was cheating.
Minh Trường felt the pressure again—but stronger this time.
Not a push.
A constraint.
Invisible rules forming around his existence.
[Observer Limitation Applied]
Passive Observation: Allowed
Emotional Resonance: Restricted
Intent Projection: Locked
"So I'm being sandboxed," he murmured.
He could see.
He could hear.
But the moment his thoughts leaned toward wanting something to happen—
The System reacted.
Hard.
A brief red flash cut across his vision.
[Warning: Intent Influence Detected]
[Priority Override Engaged]
The scene shifted.
A character who was about to hesitate suddenly acted decisively.
A risky choice became the "correct" one.
Tension collapsed—not because it was resolved, but because it was skipped.
Minh Trường clenched his fists.
The world didn't want depth.
It wanted outcomes.
Far away, in a sector unimportant to the main plot, something went wrong.
An enemy failed to spawn.
Not delayed.
Not altered.
Skipped entirely.
The System froze for 0.8 seconds.
[Critical Notice: Probability Gap Detected]
Minh Trường felt it like a crack in glass.
The world had overridden too much.
To preserve the main story, it had sacrificed consistency.
And consistency was the foundation of reality.
Kafka's eyes widened slightly.
She sensed it too.
"Ah," she whispered. "Now that's dangerous."
Minh Trường understood the next truth instantly.
If the world continued prioritizing results over logic—
It would become unstable.
Not today.
Not tomorrow.
But inevitably.
And when that happened, the System would need a scapegoat.
An external variable.
An observer.
Him.
The System displayed one final line before going silent.
[Recommendation: Reduce Synchronization]
[Failure Consequence: Role Reassignment]
Role reassignment.
Minh Trường leaned back slowly.
So this was the real game.
Not surviving inside the story.
But deciding when to stop watching.
Because the moment the world decided it needed a cause for collapse—
It would finally look straight at him.
And this time, it wouldn't pretend he wasn't there.