In my peripheral vision, I saw his expression go blank for a split second. His eyelashes trembled, but his face remained a mask.
But his eyes… his eyes were instantly bloodshot.
The villain quickly weighed his options between me and Sophie. He grabbed Sophie, a sharp box cutter pressed against the artery in her neck. As she screamed, he dragged her backward, moving farther and farther away from me, even farther than he was from
the police.
The police swarmed him, creating a standoff.
Ekyter 2
It seemed I was safe.
Still shaken, I tried to stand up.
The next second, someone threw themselves at me, pulling me into a desperate embrace.
13
Aidan was shaking.
He held me in an iron grip, so tight I could barely breathe. The collar of my shirt slowly grew damp.
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I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t. All I could do was what I had done countless times before, stroking his back again and again. “It’s
okay. See? I’m fine. I told you I’d be okay. Why don’t you ever believe me?”
The man in my arms didn’t speak. His heart, which had been hammering against his ribs, finally began to slow under my touch.
“??? Didn’t he hate the ex–wife? Why was his first instinct to hug her?”
“Hate her my ass! You can’t fake a subconscious reaction. It’s obvious he’s madly in love with her!”
“Then what about our Sophie?! Sophie’s still in the hands of a psycho!!!”
A cold dread washed over me.
I tried to pull away. “Let go. Everyone’s watching. Sophie is still in danger, we have to get her out of there…”
“Even now, you’re thinking about someone else?” Aidan cut me off, his voice ragged, trembling with a restraint that was about to
break. “Why did you shield her? If I had been one second later…”
“I wouldn’t have died,” I said quietly. “Even if I die here, I’ll just go back to the real world.”
But it was different for Sophie. Once a host decides to stay in the book, their real–world body dies. Their entire existence is confin-
ed to the story. If Sophie died in the book, she would be dead for good, in every sense of the word.
Aidan’s expression slowly hardened. Even his breathing seemed to turn to ice, leaving only a faint, moist trace of red at the corner
of his eye. He looked down at his own trembling hands and laughed, a self–mocking sound. “How pathetic. I was worried for nothi-
- ng. I almost forgot you don’t belong here.”
“That’s right,” he continued, his voice laced with venom. “You have your precious husband in the real world, don’t you? You’re proba-
bly dying to get back to him.”
14
I called for my System.
But there was no response.
My mind was a chaotic mess. Just as a splitting headache began to bloom, Sophie’s voice suddenly echoed in my head.
“System! System! Get out here!” she was practically screaming. “You told me Aidan had gotten rid of all the villains! What the hell is
this?”
I sighed silently. In the chaos, I had caught a glimpse of the villain’s face and recognized him. He was one of the orderlies from the psychiatric hospital, the one who had used his size and position to bully the child–version of Aidan.
The night we escaped, Aidan had smilingly shattered both of the man’s legs. If it hadn’t been for the horrified, pale look on my face,
the man’s skull would have been next.
In the years since, Aidan had faced countless major villains, all of them worthy adversaries in terms of intellect and status. He had
completely forgotten that in some dark corner, this single, evil little shrimp still existed.
He’s a minor villain,” a strange, emotionless System voice replied. “He posed no threat to the male lead’s career, so he wasn’t on
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“He’s a minor villain,” a strange, emotionless System voice replied. “He posed no threat to the male lead’s career, so he wasn’t on the list. He kidnapped you simply to kill you for revenge. After all, everyone thinks you’re the male lead’s one true love.”
Sophie’s voice trembled with panic. “I don’t want to die! You have to… you have to save me!”
The System remained unmoved. “When you signed the agreement to stay, you were informed of the risks. Our contract was termi- nated. I can no longer provide you with any assistance. Besides, weren’t you the one who kept saying you’d fallen in love with the male lead? That you’d rather die than leave him? Now you get your wish. If you die, he might just remember you forever.”
Was it my imagination, or was there a hint of mockery in the System’s voice?
Sophie broke down, sobbing. “Who said I fell in love with him? We’re not even a real couple! He only acts like he’s in love with me in
public in private, he’s cold as ice! Being with him is like being a widow!”
“If it wasn’t for the good life he could give me, why would I have stayed? If I’d known he’d get me killed, I never would have saved
him! Someone else could have had the job for all I cared!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
The reaction from the comments was even more intense than mine:
“I’m done. I thought this was a true love story, turns out it was just a business arrangement.”
“I shipped a pile of crap… The ex–wife was better than this. At least she actually went through the hard times with him.”
“Right? The second Tasker did nothing. She just showed up to enjoy the good life.”
“Am I the only one who feels bad for Aidan? Everyone is just using him.”
“He’s so tragic. He keeps giving his heart away, only to be betrayed again and again.”
“Wait a minute, who said Aidan ever fell in love with the second Tasker? Is it possible… they were just using each other all along?”
My head snapped toward Aidan.
He stood on the edge of the crowd, arms crossed, watching the scene unfold with a calm detachment. The panic from moments
ago was completely gone. He was a spectator.
“Host, did you call for me just now?” My own System’s familiar voice finally sounded in my head. “Sorry, there was an internal equi- pment malfunction. It’s possible there was some signal crossing. Did you happen to hear another System and its host?”
I shook my head and asked a question that had been bothering me for a long time. “The Darkness Value and the Affection Meter…
can they be faked?”
“Theoretically, no,” the System replied. “But theory is bullshit. The male lead is capable of defying even us… Is there anything he can‘
t do?”
I was stunned. “Defying you?”
15
The System told me everything.
After I left, Aidan had his second dark relapse. The extreme Darkness Value caused a severe physical backlash. The pain was wor-
se than death, a torment that pierced his very soul.
Because of this, the System had applied to have all of Aidan’s memories of me erased, to reset him to his initial state, as if I had
never existed.
But Aidan was too smart.
C
But Aidan was too smart.
Too smart to be controlled.
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The moment the memory wipe began, he had calmly, smilingly, shattered one of his own legs. First the ankle, then the knee, then
his wrist. While enduring the agony of the backlash, he had coolly used his own body to fight the System.
Memories could be erased, but restoring a body came at a great cost.
The System had no choice but to emergently halt the memory wipe.
As a last resort, they came up with a desperate plan: send in Sophie, a star Tasker who had successfully redeemed countless villa-
ins, to see if someone else could save him.
16
In the end, Sophie was rescued.
By the time it was over, she had fainted from the shock of seeing the villain taken out by a sniper.
Amidst the chaotic crowd, I sat in a corner, wrapped in a blanket, endlessly picking at my fingers. My System had just informed me
that the hospital was demanding payment again. The money in my account would only cover three more days.
Over the past few years, to pay for the exorbitant hospital bills, I had given up the career I loved, sold my house and my car, and
spent every penny of my savings. I was drowning in debt. I worked numbly, day and night, just to make money, but I could never
keep up with the hospital’s bills.
The System tried to persuade me again. “Listen to me, stop this pointless effort. No matter how much money you spend, he’s not
going to wake up. He’s important to you, but… is he more important than you are to yourself?”
I stubbornly shook my head. “I won’t let him die. I can’t accept it.”
My distress caught the attention of someone nearby. A female police officer leaned down, her face full of concern. “Why are you
crying like that? Were you scared? Do you want me to take you to see a therapist…?”
“You can get back to your work. I’ll stay with her.”
Aidan had walked over at some point. He looked down at me, his eyes swirling with an emotion I couldn’t decipher.
The officer hesitated. “And you are…?”
“I’m her husband.”
Aidan showed her our marriage certificate.
“Holy shit. All this time I’ve been calling her the ‘ex–wife‘… turns out she’s the real deal.”
“So he put on this whole tragic, brooding act, but he couldn’t even bring himself to throw away their marriage certificate?”
“What do I do? I was just hating on her, and now I’m kind of shipping them.”
I covered my eyes, my mind a mess.
Aidan’s voice was cold. “Lina, who are you crying for?”
I didn’t answer.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” he scoffed. “It’s not like I want to know anyway.”
A few seconds passed. Then he demanded, “Do you love him that much?”
I looked at him, my eyes red–rimmed, and slowly nodded.
And do you love me?” he asked again.
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“And do you love me?” he asked again.
I nodded again.
Aidan was silent for a few seconds, then let out an exasperated laugh. He stood up and paced back and forth, as if trying to forcibly calm himself. He punched a half–solid block of concrete, sending dust flying.
The beautiful bones of his knuckles were now a bloody mess.
He grabbed my shoulders, his voice a furious, gritted whisper. “Lina, you’re not even pretending anymore, are you? What are you thinking? Do you think I’m still the same man from three years ago, the one who would let you walk all over him?”
17
Three years ago. The year Aidan loved me the most.
His Affection Meter had once reached two hundred percent. Even after learning the true purpose of my mission, he had tried to
make me stay. He shed every layer of his pride, knelt before me without a shred of dignity, and begged me, utterly defeated.
“Lina, I love you. You can’t do this… you can’t make me fall in love with you and then just abandon me. Lina, I’m not asking you to
give him up for me, but you can’t… you can’t just throw me away so easily.”
“Can’t you just have one more person to love? One in the book, one in reality? I won’t interfere. As long as you’re happy. You don’t
