Chapter 10: The Author's Final Draft
The world of obsidian palaces and violet sunsets didn't just crumble; it began to bleed red ink. The starlight ink from my quill turned into a jagged, frozen line of static that burned my fingers. I looked up, and the grey void of the Null Zone was gone. In its place was a colossal, blindingly white parchment that stretched to infinity.
A giant, crimson fountain pen descended from the clouds like a spear from a god.
**"PLOT HOLE DETECTED,"** a voice boomed, vibrating through the marrow of my bones. It was dry, clipped, and utterly bored. **"UNAUTHORIZED NARRATIVE DEVIATION. LIN FENG AND SU QINGXUE HAVE EXITED THE ASSIGNED STORYBOARD. COMMENCING DELETE."**
[**SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: THE 'EDITOR' HAS ENTERED THE NARRATIVE.**]
[**STATUS: TOTAL LOCKDOWN.**]
[**WARNING: YOUR 'EXISTENCE' IS BEING MARKED FOR REVISION.**]
"Lin Feng!"
The voice wasn't Lilith's. It was the only voice that had ever truly mattered—the one that had hunted me through a thousand lifetimes.
Su Qingxue stood at the edge of the dissolving world. Her black plate armor was cracking, shedding flakes of darkness to reveal the shimmering, golden "Heroic Halo" I had tried to escape. She wasn't the "Final Boss" anymore; she looked like a woman whose obsession had finally met a wall she couldn't break with a system.
"You followed me here?" I wheezed, my body flattening as the 3D world collapsed into 2D sketches. "To the Null Zone? You're going to be erased along with me!"
"I didn't follow you to be erased," she said, her violet eyes burning with a terrifying, unyielding light. She lunged forward, grabbing my collar as the giant red pen slammed into the floor a mile away. The impact created a **[DELETE]** zone—a white, empty nothingness that consumed everything it touched. "I told you, Feng'er. As long as you are the 'Hero,' I am the only thing allowed to destroy you. This 'Editor' is an intruder."
**"CHARACTERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO ADDRESS THE REVISOR,"** the Editor sighed. **"SU QINGXUE, YOU WERE A TOP-TIER ASSET. BUT YOUR OBSESSION HAS RENDERED THE PROTAGONIST UNPLAYABLE. YOU WILL BOTH BE RECYCLED."**
The red pen moved toward us, a line of absolute erasure trailing behind it.
"System!" I shouted. "I snapped the Halo! I'm not the Hero! Let me die so she can go back!"
[**ERROR: THE HERO'S FATE IS BOUND TO THE HEROINE'S REGRET.**]
[**STATUS: INSEPARABLE.**]
Su Qingxue let out a harsh, beautiful laugh. She pulled me closer, her forehead resting against mine. Even as the red ink began to dissolve her boots, she didn't look at the sky. She only looked at me.
"You still don't get it, do you?" she whispered, her voice faltering as the Neuro-Link spiked with the agony of being deleted. "I didn't make you a Hero because I wanted you to be good. I made you a Hero so you would be **immortal**. I wanted to lock you in a body that could never leave me, in a story that could never end."
"And now the story is ending anyway!" I roared, the red ink touching my heels.
"Not yet," she said.
She reached into her chest. Instead of pulling out the black heart of a villain, she pulled out a glowing, silver core—the "Regressor's Seed." It was the source of her power, the thing that allowed her to remember the thousand lives I had lived.
"If I give you this," she panted, her skin turning into translucent paper, "you won't just remember the past. You'll be able to see the **margins**."
"Qingxue, don't—"
"Save the story, Feng'er," she murmured, her lips brushing mine in a kiss that tasted like static and tears. "Save it so I can find you in the next draft."
She shoved the silver core into my chest.
[**SYSTEM REBIRTH INITIATED!**]
[**ABSORBING 'REGRESSOR'S SEED'...**]
[**EVOLVING CLASS: THE AUTHOR'S ANOMALY.**]
The world exploded.
I wasn't Lin Feng anymore. I wasn't the Villain or the Hero. I was a smudge of ink that had suddenly gained its own pen.
I reached out and grabbed the giant crimson fountain pen of the Editor. To the "Being" in the sky, I must have looked like an ant grabbing a skyscraper, but the Silver Core gave me the strength of a thousand cycles.
"My turn to edit," I snarled.
I didn't swing the pen at the Editor. I swung it at the **Chapter Title** floating in the void. I crossed out "The Red Ink Execution" and wrote, with trembling, golden hands:
**[CHAPTER 11: THE REBIRTH OF THE UNWRITTEN]**
The red ink turned into gold. The white space filled with color—not the sterile white of the hospital or the ivory of the academy, but something new. A world of untamed chaos, where the lines between hero and villain were blurred into grey.
But Su Qingxue was gone.
The price for the "Edit" was her existence. She had sacrificed her place in the narrative to give me the power to rewrite the ending.
I stood in the center of a new, half-formed world. The Editor's voice was fading, sounding like a distant, frustrated teacher. **"YOU... YOU CAN'T... THE PLOT... THE CONTRACT..."**
"The contract is null and void," I said, looking at my hands. They were no longer glowing. They were solid. Real.
I looked down at the ground. There, lying in the dirt, was a single, violet ribbon from Su Qingxue's hair. I picked it up, tying it around my wrist.
[**SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:**]
[**NEW WORLD ESTABLISHED.**]
[**CURRENT ROLE: THE UNKNOWN.**]
[**OBJECTIVE: FIND THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERS.**]
I looked at the horizon. The world was still being drawn, the trees and mountains manifesting as I walked toward them. But in the distance, I saw a familiar silhouette standing on a hill. She was wearing a simple white dress, looking at the sunset.
I started to run. My heart—my own heart, beating in its own rhythm—thundered in my chest.
"Qingxue!" I called out.
The figure turned. But as she did, her face didn't belong to the CEO or the Priestess. It was a blank mask. No eyes, no mouth. Just a placeholder.
[**DING!**]
[**CRITICAL ERROR: CHARACTER DATA NOT FOUND.**]
[**THE EDITOR HAS TAKEN THE HEROINE.**]
A massive, red "X" appeared over the girl's body, and she vanished into a cloud of digital dust.
I stopped. The wind howled through the empty world, carrying the sound of the Editor's laughter.
**"YOU CAN WRITE THE WORLD, LIN FENG,"** the voice echoed from every corner of reality. **"BUT I OWN THE CHARACTERS. YOU WANT HER BACK? YOU'LL HAVE TO CLIMB OUT OF THE BOOK AND TAKE HER FROM MY DESK."**
I looked up at the sky, my eyes turning a dark, vengeful violet—the same color as hers.
"Then clear your schedule," I whispered, gripping the violet ribbon on my wrist. "Because I'm coming for the inkwell."
**[CHAPTER 11 END]**
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