Chapter 16: The Glitch in the Bloodline
The shadow beneath the Eastern King didn't behave like a shadow. It behaved like oil on water, shimmering with a rainbow of corrupted data. It didn't just crawl; it *boiled*.
"Father?" Su Qingxue whispered, her voice devoid of concern, sharp with curiosity.
The Eastern King didn't answer. His eyes rolled back into his skull, turning pure white. His mouth unhinged, snapping the jawbone with a wet crunch, and a hand—pale, clawed, and flickering in and out of existence—reached *out* of his throat.
**[SYSTEM ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED RESPAWN DETECTED.]**
**[ENTITY: PROTAGONIST 'ALEC' (CORRUPTED).]**
**[SOURCE: THE PLOT ARMOR BACKUP DRIVE.]**
"You..." a voice gurgled from the Eastern King's ruined mouth. The King's body exploded in a mist of red gore and digital sparks.
Standing in the center of the carnage was Prince Alec. But he wasn't the handsome, brooding hero I had killed five minutes ago. His skin was mapped with blue circuit lines. Half of his face was a void of static. And where his heart should have been, there was a gaping hole filled with scrolling text: **[REVENGE_PROTOCOL.EXE]**.
"You... skipped... the cutscene," Alec's voice glitched, sounding like two audio tracks playing out of sync. He pointed a trembling finger at me. "I... have... the Resurrection Perk. Level 99... Undying Will."
King Valerius sat forward on his bone throne, his eyes gleaming. He didn't look horrified that his guest had just exploded or that his dead son was back as a digital zombie. He looked *entertained*.
"Two heirs," Valerius mused, sipping wine from a goblet that was definitely full of the Eastern King's blood. "One born of my flesh, one born of... whatever *you* are. The System usually forbids this. But I am the Primordial King. I allow it."
He waved a hand. The doors to the throne room slammed shut, sealing us in.
"Trial by Combat," Valerius announced. "The winner takes the Crown. The loser gets deleted from the server history."
Alec didn't wait. He screamed—a sound like a dial-up modem mixed with a banshee—and vanished.
**[WARNING: ENEMY USED 'FLASH STEP'.]**
I didn't need the warning. I had read this book. I knew Alec's moveset better than he did.
"Left," I said, not moving my feet. I swung the **Glass Dagger** casually to my left.
*Clang.*
Sparks flew as my dagger collided with Alec's "Blade of the Fallen." He materialized out of the air, his eyes wide with shock.
"How?" he hissed.
"Because you're basic, Alec," I sneered, pushing him back with a burst of Villainous Mana. "You're a 'Strength-Build' with a 'Speed-Subclass'. You always attack from the blind spot. It's page 45 of the *Vampire System* guidebook."
I kicked him in the chest.
**[CRITICAL HIT!]**
Alec flew backward, crashing into an obsidian pillar. But as he hit the stone, he didn't break bones. He broke the *environment*. The pillar shattered into pixels.
"I am the Hero!" Alec roared, the hole in his chest glowing blindingly bright. **"SYSTEM! ACTIVATE 'DESPERATE RAGE'!"**
**[SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGED.]**
**[GRANTING ALEC: +500% POWER.]**
**[NARRATIVE REASON: 'FRIENDSHIP POWER' (ERROR: NO FRIENDS FOUND). SUBSTITUTING WITH 'PURE HATRED'.]**
The air in the room grew heavy. Gravity multiplied by ten. The floor cracked. Alec floated into the air, wings of blue energy bursting from his back. He was charging a "World-Ending Attack."
I looked at Su Qingxue. She was standing by the remains of her father, wiping blood from her cheek. She didn't look sad. She looked bored.
"Are you going to help?" I shouted, struggling to stand under the crushing gravity.
"The Honeymoon Clause says we have to be inseparable," she shouted back, her voice ringing clear over the energy storm. "It doesn't say I have to fight your battles, Feng'er. Show me why I betrothed myself to the villain."
"Fine," I gritted my teeth. "I'll do it the hard way."
I dropped the Glass Dagger. I raised my empty hands.
"System," I whispered. "Access the **Writer's Override**."
**[ERROR: YOU ARE NOT THE AUTHOR.]**
"I know," I smiled, blood leaking from my nose. "But I have the **Regressor's Seed**. And inside that seed is the memory of every time this idiot Hero died in the original drafts."
I closed my eyes and visualized the *Deleted Scenes*. The drafts where Alec was too weak. The drafts where the Author got bored and killed him off to start over.
"Manifest: **The Rejection Letter**."
I thrust my hands forward. I didn't fire a beam of energy. I fired a beam of *Truth*.
A massive, spectral sheet of paper materialized in the air above Alec. It slammed down on him like a flyswatter.
**[TEXT: "DEAR ALEC, YOUR CHARACTER ARC IS INCONSISTENT. WE ARE MOVING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION. SINCERELY, THE EDITORIAL BOARD."]**
"No!" Alec screamed as the giant paper pressed him into the floor. His blue wings shattered. His "Desperate Rage" buff evaporated. The weight of *rejection* was heavier than any gravity spell.
"You can't do this!" Alec wailed, his form flickering. "I have plot armor!"
I walked over to him, my boots clicking on the obsidian. I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. He felt light—empty.
"You had plot armor," I corrected, my eyes flashing with the violet light of the Anomaly. "But I have **Meta-Knowledge**. In this version of the story, the readers voted for the Bad Guy."
I tightened my grip.
"Su Qingxue," I called out. "Come here."
She glided over, stepping gracefully over the debris. She stopped next to me, looking at the struggling Wraith.
"Finish it," I said. "He's your father's killer. Technically."
"Technically, his resurrection killed my father," she mused, running a finger down Alec's glitching cheek. "But I never liked my father anyway. He was too... political."
She leaned in and kissed Alec on the forehead.
**[SKILL ACTIVATED: THE WIDOW'S KISS.]**
**[EFFECT: DRAINS ALL REMAINING NARRATIVE IMPORTANCE.]**
Alec gasped. His blue color faded to grey. The static in his chest stopped. He looked at me one last time, his eyes human again, filled with confusion.
"Why?" he whispered.
"Because the sequel needed a budget cut," I said.
I crushed his throat.
**[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:]**
**[TARGET 'ALEC' PERMANENTLY DELETED.]**
**[FILE RECOVERY: IMPOSSIBLE.]**
Alec dissolved into ash.
The gravity lifted. The room went silent.
King Valerius stood up slowly. He clapped. A slow, rhythmic sound that echoed in the vast hall.
"Magnificent," Valerius rumbled. "You didn't just kill him. You erased his meaning. That... that is a power even I do not possess."
He walked down the steps of the dais and stood before me. He took the crown from his own head—a jagged loop of black iron—and held it out.
"Kneel," Valerius commanded.
I looked at Su Qingxue. She nodded, her eyes shining with triumph.
I knelt.
Valerius placed the cold iron on my head.
**[CLASS EVOLUTION!]**
**[NEW TITLE: THE VAMPIRE KING.]**
**[SUB-TITLE: THE AUTHOR-SLAYER.]**
"Rise, my son," Valerius said. "Rise, and lead us to the surface. The humans have enjoyed the sun for too long."
I stood up, the power of the entire Vampire System flowing through my veins. I felt invincible. I felt like the story was finally mine.
But then, the ground shook.
Not the floor of the castle. The *world*.
The ceiling of the throne room—which was essentially the bottom of the world map—began to crack open. Light poured in. Not sunlight. **Holy Light**.
A giant, golden anchor crashed through the roof, obliterating the throne I had just claimed. Chains of white fire whipped out, wrapping around Valerius and vaporizing him instantly.
**[SYSTEM ALERT: GENRE SHIFT DETECTED.]**
**[INTRUSION: THE GENRE 'URBAN CULTIVATION' HAS DECLARED WAR.]**
From the hole in the ceiling, a man descended. He floated on a flying sword, wearing robes of white silk that fluttered in an unseen wind. He looked down at me, at the ashes of Alec, and at the shocked vampires.
He checked a holographic watch on his wrist.
"Is this the 'System of Vampires' server?" the Cultivator asked, his voice booming like thunder. "I'm looking for a 'Lin Feng'. He owes me 500 Spirit Stones from Chapter 3."
I stared up at him. I recognized him. He was the Protagonist from the *first* option I had rejected in the Null Zone.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered.
Su Qingxue grabbed my arm, her nails digging in deep. "Feng'er... that's Ye Tian. The 'Immortal Sword God'. He's... he's from a higher dimension of storytelling!"
Ye Tian smiled, and thousands of spirit swords materialized behind him, aiming directly at my new crown.
"Hand over the girl and the villain halo," Ye Tian said calmly. "Or I'll cultivate using your bloodline as fertilizer."
**[CHAPTER 16 END]**