CHAPTER 44 – The Choice That Shouldn't Exist
Xiao Xi's System flared painfully one last time, injecting pure adrenaline and terror, forcing her fully into agonizing consciousness.
She gasped, clutching Gu Yanzhou's hand, her body trembling violently.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head against the pillow.
"Don't listen to them.
Don't go, Yanzhou.
It's a trick."
Gu pulled her tightly into his arms, crushing her to his chest, his fear a palpable, physical force.
"I'm not going anywhere.
I won't abandon you."
The hacker responded instantly on the screen, the synthesized voice triumphant:
Then she dies.
Now.
Her system collapses.
Her soul returns to the place she came from.
Gone.
Forever.
Choose, Gu Yanzhou.
Your life, or her existence.
Xiao Xi trembled violently in his hold, the ultimatum impossible and agonizing.
"Please… don't choose me over your life," she pleaded, her voice cracking.
"I can't lose you again.
I can't bear that grief."
Gu held her tighter, his grip iron, as if the world might physically rip her out of his embrace.
"You won't lose me."
"You don't understand the rules!" she whispered desperately, looking up at his tormented face.
"If you die, the story resets itself.
Everyone forgets.
The memory of me disappears with you.
The System will erase me from the history I helped create.
I vanish."
Gu froze, the devastating implication of her words hitting him with absolute finality.
His death didn't just end his life; it ended her entire existence in this world.
Xiao Xi buried her face in his chest, her confession a broken sob.
"I'd rather die in this hospital bed than survive and forget you were ever real."
Gu's heart shattered, the pain profound and irrevocable.
But he didn't let her go.
He refused to participate in the tragedy of the original novel.