CHAPTER 103 – Gu Yanzhou Refuses to Fade
While the Roots confronted one another, laying bare the ancient history of the Core, Gu Yanzhou clung to existence by sheer, defiant will.
The First Root's presence was actively accelerating his deletion, threatening to rip him out of the narrative completely.
His body flickered in and out like a broken light bulb.
His heartbeat stuttered, missing several painful beats.
His breathing fractured into ragged gasps.
But every time the black void tugged at him, trying to claim the deleted character, he held onto Xiao Xi's chaos threads wrapped around him, his mind fixed only on her.
"Xiao… Xi…"
His voice cracked with pain and the sound of digital snow dissolving.
"I still have something… I need to tell you… I can't leave until I say it…"
He tried to lift himself, fighting the pull of oblivion, but his arm disintegrated completely at the elbow with a sound like tearing paper.
He gave a fierce, pained growl through gritted teeth.
"NO— I'm not dying before saying it—! Not before she hears it!"
Ling knelt beside him, glowing with a weak but determined light, trying to use her energy to hold his form together.
"Gu, please, don't strain yourself! You're tearing your own narrative apart!"
He ignored her, pouring every ounce of fading consciousness into his gaze.
His eyes, brilliant and fiercely alive despite the dissolving edges of his face, locked onto Xiao Xi's back, which was still facing the Root Protagonist.
"Xiao Xi—"
Her head turned sharply, hearing the desperation in his broken voice even over the Root Protagonist's deep monologue.
Her gaze softened instantly—terrified, devoted, her battle focus shattered by his pain.
"Yanzhou—don't speak. Hold on! Please, just hold on for two more minutes!"
He shook his head, a final, weary gesture.
"No… I have to say it now.
Before I lose the ability to speak."
Shen crouched nearby, supporting Gu's flickering shoulder, his usual cocky demeanor replaced by fear.
"You idiot, save the romance for the recovery chapter! Wait until you're fully alive!"
Gu ignored him too, his world narrowed down to the woman before him.
His voice trembled, each word a monumental effort that threatened to break his remaining form apart.
"I loved you… before I even understood why.
Before you even gave me the code to love."
Xiao Xi's heart stopped, the chaos around her faltering for a terrifying second.
Gu forced the last words out:
"And even if I disappear,even if I'm just a deleted file again,
I need you to know that the first thought I ever had was you."
His body flickered violently, half his chest dissolving into static.
"Xiao Xi… I love you."
She screamed, a high, heartbroken sound that was part human, part Root.
"NO—DON'T SAY GOODBYE! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO!"
Her chaos threads surged wildly—
reacting to her raw, paralyzing fear of loss.
Reacting to the immense, stabilizing shock of his love.
Reacting to him.
She threw her power toward him, a blast of pure, corrective energy—
And his body stabilized, solidifying for two seconds.
Two precious, impossible seconds.
He smiled faintly, the ghost of his charming, perfect smile.
"…See? I told you.
You always save me."
And then, his brief stabilization broken, he collapsed entirely, the last of his consciousness fading as he fell, finally, into her trembling arms.