Her words were a bitter irony. Those days, when she was my only salvation, were gone forever. The person who claimed to love me was the same
person who had turned me into this ghost.
The thought made me sick.
The life–support machines blared red again, and I was rushed back to the emergency room.
Celeste paced outside, muttering to herself, a knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach. “He’ll live, right? He has to. He’ll never find out…”
That afternoon, after I was stabilized, the TV in my room was playing the local news
Julian was giving my speech at my alma mater, basking in the spotlight.
The sight, the sound… it was torture.
“Hahaha, how does it feel? To be fucked half to death by men, so broken you can’t even speak?”
The fake young master, Julian, barged into my room, his face alight with triumph. “Your dear, beloved sister did all of this. For me.”
I pretended not to hear, to feel nothing. But my heart still seized with a familiar, sharp pain. Thank you, Julian, for reminding me again that the one
who hurt me the most was my own flesh and blood.
Seeing that his taunts weren’t getting a reaction, Julian’s face twisted in fury, and he waved in a group of people.
A horde of sleazy tabloid reporters with cameras and microphones flooded the room. And trailing behind them were the very same thugs my sist- er had promised to lock away that morning.
Chapter 2
11:34
“Well, well, look who it is. We meet again, valedictorian.”
“This time, you get to star in your own little production. A little something to spice up the extracurriculars for the younger students.”
“Haha, this will sell like crazy!” one of the reporters exclaimed, his eyes gleaming.
Fresh blood began to pour from my wounds, staining the white sheets crimson.
“What are you all doing?!”
My sister threw open the door, her face paling in horror at the scene. “Get out! All of you!”
Julian quickly shooed the thugs into hiding and turned to Celeste, his face a mask of innocence.
“Sister, don’t misunderstand. Noah hired them. I think… I think he can’t accept that he’s gone from being a top scholar to a useless cripple. So he’s
staging this whole thing, playing the victim for sympathy…”
Celeste looked at me, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“I can’t believe you’ve become this kind of person. You disappoint me more
She turned to the nurses. “Stop all of his medication.”
I plunged into the abyss.
The world went silent, save for the steady, lonely ticking of a machine.
than I can say.
“Enjoy it,” Julian whispered. “This is a graduation gift from me and your family.”
I don’t know how long the agony lasted.
Then, I heard the System’s final decree.
[The protagonist is dead. World collapse commencing countdown.)
2
Meanwhile, on a popular gossip livestream, a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered.
“Regarding the new valedictorian, we’ve received a very credible tip from a fan. We won’t waste your time. Let’s just get
The screen filled with uncensored photos and videos of my humiliation.
to
the
evidence.”
“We’ve heard that this student leads a very promiscuous private life, with both men and women, and often associates with unsavory characters.”
“Even his top grades, we’re told, were earned on his back.”
The viewer count skyrocketed. In minutes, I was infamous, the “charity case” of valedictorians.
“Sister, sister, look!”
Julian projected his phone onto the large black screen used for hospital announcements. There I was, being forced into various degrading positio-
- ns.
