[System Alert: Unauthorized script alteration detected][Termination protocol initiated: Subject L-000 classified as high-risk variable][Executor activation in progress... KILL ORDER ISSUED]
Li Qi dreamed of fire.
In the dream, countless eyes stared at her. Eyes without pupils, hollow like surveillance data feeds, silently scanning every cell of her body.
The System had its sights on her—completely.
When she awoke, her palms were ice-cold. A red slash mark now branded the center of her hand.
Like a deletion flag programmers place on broken code—on a BUG.
She rolled up her sleeve. The mark stretched up to her wrist—slowly expanding.
"Is this... a countdown to termination?"
Before she could think further, her phone vibrated.
[Su Ying: Qiqi, I can't come to school today. Someone's watching me. Be careful of Lin Yao—he's... not right.]
In that moment, a vague suspicion Li Qi had harbored solidified into certainty.
Lin Yao wasn't human.
He was the System's pre-installed "Cleaner", designed to correct script deviations and eliminate aberrants like her—those who dared to rewrite fate.
But she couldn't stop. The more they hunted her, the more she knew—
She was writing in the right direction.
At school.
"Li Qi, you've seemed... different lately." Lin Yao walked beside her, voice as gentle as ever. "Did something happen? I can help."
She smiled. "Is that so? Then tell me—why do you think I tried to 'save' Su Ying?"
A subtle sharpness flickered in his eyes. "Because you're dreaming."
"Really?" She stopped walking, looking straight at him. "Funny, because in my dream... you were the first one to die."
His brows twitched.
He hadn't expected her to see that far ahead.
[Alert: Subject L-000 exhibits "Dream Mapping Foresight" ability fragment detected...][Accelerate termination protocol. Initiating localized "Script Compression" directive.]
The loudspeaker blared:
"All students, please report to the laboratory building for a surprise safety drill."
Li Qi's eyes went cold.
"This isn't in the script," she whispered. "The System's sealing me in."
She immediately dialed Su Ying.
"Don't come to school—the lab building is a trap."
But on the other end of the call came a stranger's voice.
"She's unavailable, Li Qi. You're next."
Click.
Call ended.
Fifth floor, laboratory building.
Li Qi followed the crowd upstairs, face calm.
But in her pocket, the system panel flashed:
[Current coordinates designated as Termination Zone][Escape route initializing][Activate "Fate Masking" to simulate normal script behavior?]
"Activate." She responded without hesitation.
Her uniform morphed into that of a drill volunteer.
And at the end of the corridor—stood Lin Yao.
No one else was present—the system had cleared all non-essential NPCs.
He finally dropped his mask.
"You're smart, Li Qi," Lin Yao raised a hand, a surge of electric code crackling at his fingertips, "but you still made the wrong choice."
"You shouldn't have written the wrong script."
She didn't retreat. Instead, she stepped forward.
"I didn't write the wrong script. You shouldn't have written my fate."
She yanked the chain from her neck.
Inside the pendant—a mini notebook: [Script Fragment Pages].
She had long begun copying Su Ying's lost code, slowly reconstructing her own "fate sequence."
She opened the book, fingers flying across the page:
[Node Rewrite: Lin Yao targeting disrupted. Data jump failure initiated.]
The system panel trembled violently.
Lin Yao's hand froze mid-air. The space around him began glitching, pixels collapsing, data streams scattering.
"You—"
"Your code's already corrupted by me," Li Qi smiled. "Goodbye, Cleaner."
His form began to fracture—force-deleted.
[Reverse overwrite successful. Cleaner: Lin Yao temporarily nullified][Cost: 20% vision degradation, logic fragment loss]
Standing on the desolate fifth floor, clutching her eyes in pain, Li Qi laughed—a cold, victorious laugh.
This time, she won.
But at a steep cost.
She now knew: the true Central System Consciousness had taken notice.
And next time—it wouldn't just send a Cleaner.