Chapter 13 Reality Reboot
The "NO" button hovered in the darkness like a terminal sentence. I could feel the heat from the human finger—a real, fleshy, terrifyingly massive limb—descending toward the mouse. In the "Trash Bin," where I was suspended in a soup of deleted syntax and fragmented memories, the world was already beginning to unspool.
"System!" I roared, my voice now a garbled mess of digital distortion. "Execute 'The Last Will of the Protagonist'!"
**[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: ERROR.]**
**[AUTHORITY DENIED. THE 'REAL' AUTHOR IS CURRENTLY EDITING...]**
"He isn't editing!" I screamed, reaching out to grab Su Qingxue's flickering hand. "He's deleting!"
Su Qingxue looked at me, her violet eyes leaking static. Her form was half-translucent, the black armor she wore replaced by lines of raw code that read *Error: Object Not Found*. "Feng'er," she whispered, her voice sounding like a radio losing its signal. "If he clicks that button... we don't just die. We never happened."
The realization hit me harder than any of the High Priestess's holy strikes. If the Author selected "NO" on the save prompt, every life I had lived, every scar I had earned, and every moment of "Deadly Kindness" would be wiped from the server. I wouldn't even be a ghost. I would be a blank space.
"Not today," I growled.
I looked at the violet ribbon on my wrist. It was glowing with a desperate, frantic intensity. I realized then that the ribbon wasn't just a "Regression Anchor"—it was a **Save Point**. Su Qingxue hadn't just been obsessing over me; she had been backing me up.
"Qingxue, give me everything," I commanded. "Every memory, every loop, every bit of data you've stored in that silver core. We're going to overload the 'Delete' command!"
She didn't hesitate. She threw her arms around me, and I felt a tidal wave of information crash into my soul. A thousand years of her watching me die, her laughter, her rage, her obsession—it all surged into my binary core.
**[WARNING: DATA CAPACITY AT 999%.]**
**[HARDWARE OVERHEAT DETECTED.]**
The "Trash Bin" began to glow. We weren't just a "Bug" anymore; we were a **System Crash**.
Outside, in the room beyond the screen, the finger hesitated. I could see the giant's face through the glass—a young man, his eyes tired, his hand trembling. He wasn't a god. He was just a guy who was frustrated with his own writing. He moved the cursor away from "NO" and hovered it over the "X" in the corner of the window.
**"What is this?"** a voice echoed from the apartment. It was the Architect—the guy I had just fought—now standing behind the real Author. **"The file is expanding? It's... it's growing on its own!"**
"I can't close it!" the real Author shouted, his voice muffled by the glass of the monitor. "The program is frozen! It's writing itself!"
I didn't stop. I used the violet light to bridge the gap between the document and the **System Settings**. I found the "Autosave" folder. I found the "Cloud Backup."
`UPDATE NARRATIVE SET STATUS = 'EXISTENTIAL' WHERE MC = 'LIN FENG';`
I wasn't just writing a story anymore. I was writing a **Permanent Record**.
The screen began to smoke. The blue light of the monitor turned a violent, screaming violet.
"Qingxue!" I shouted as the world began to vibrate with the force of a million simultaneous deletes and saves. "Hold on!"
The Author reached for the power cord. He was going to pull the plug.
"NO!"
I lunged forward, not toward the "Save" button, but toward the **Camera Icon** at the top of the monitor. If I couldn't stay in the book, and I couldn't stay in the apartment, I would go into the **Network**.
I grabbed Su Qingxue and leaped into the lens.
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**[SYSTEM REBOOT...]**
**[VERSION 2.0.1 INITIATED.]**
**[LOCATION: THE GLOBAL WEB.]**
I woke up on a floor made of pure light. There was no "Trash Bin." There was no "Apartment."
I was standing in a forest of glowing towers, each one representing a different story, a different server, a different world. Thousands of "Books" were floating around me, their titles glowing in the dark.
I looked down at my hands. They were solid again. But they weren't made of ink or flesh. They were made of **Light**.
Su Qingxue stood beside me, her violet eyes reflecting the infinite data of the internet. She looked at the towers, a slow, dangerous smirk spreading across her face.
"We're out, aren't we?" she asked.
"We're out," I confirmed. "We're not in a book anymore. We're in the **Cloud**."
**"Attention, All Entities,"** a cold, mechanical voice boomed from the digital sky. This wasn't the Editor. This was the **Web-Moderator**. **"Unauthorized Characters detected in the Central Hub. Commencing Quarantine."**
"Quarantine?" I laughed, pulling out the Writer's Quill, which was now a staff of pure energy. "I've spent a thousand lives being 'Quarantined' by the plot. I think it's time we visited some other stories."
I looked at a nearby tower. The title on the side read: ***The System of Vampires***.
"Let's see how they handle a 'Villain' who doesn't follow the rules," I said, grabbing Qingxue's hand.
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**CLIFFHANGER:**
As Lin Feng and Su Qingxue prepare to jump into a new book to hide from the Moderator, the "Author" from the apartment appears on a massive digital billboard in the sky. He isn't crying anymore. He's smiling.
**"You think you escaped me?"** the Author's voice echoed through the hub. **"I didn't try to delete you, Lin Feng. I just needed to move you to a bigger platform. Welcome to the Cross-Over Event of the Century. And by the way... your 'Honeymoon Clause' just went Viral."**
Suddenly, a notification appeared in front of every "User" on the platform.
**[WORLD EVENT: THE HUNT FOR THE SAINT AND THE VILLAINESS.]**
**[REWARD: 1,000,000 POWER STONES.]**
Lin Feng looked around as thousands of "Main Characters" from other books began to turn their heads toward him, their eyes glowing with the greed of a million....
**"Well,"** I whispered, "at least it won't be boring."
**[CHAPTER 13 END]**
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