13
I was back on my bed.
My game of Goose Guard was still halfway through. The timer at the top was still counting down.
Four minutes and thirty–one seconds.
The System said: [Pocket world collapse countdown: Four months and fifteen days.]
I ignored it, pushing all that messy business out of my mind and focusing on my game. I grabbed another pot of cake from my nightstand–this one was Taro Boba flavored. The boba pearls were chewy and delightful.
I shoveled cake into my mouth while furiously tapping at my screen.
The game timer ran out, GAME OVER.
I clicked on an ad to revive.
As the mind–numbing jingle from the ad played, the System asked: (Aren’t you sad?]
I paused. “Why are you still here?”
The System went silent.
I lay on my bed, waiting for the ad to finish.
I sighed. I guess I am.” A friend I’d known since childhood had developed other feelings for me, then did those horrible things to
- me.
I rolled over. “Hey, System, can I ask you for a favor?”
What is it?]
ichewed on my spoon as the ad finally ended.
1401
Chapter
[What is it?]
I chewed on my spoon as the ad finally ended.
“Next time, don’t bother with redeeming these dark male leads. Just kill them off from the start. Why go through all this trouble?
Look what happened. Not only did the male lead go haywire, but the heroine is dead and the whole world is going to bite the dust.
Damn it, I mis–tapped!
There were only two tiles left! That stupid apple–goose looks exactly like a regular apple!
I’m so mad!
The System was silent for a long time. [They are the male leads.]
I said, “They aren’t worth saving.”
Epilogue:
Before the System left Ava for good, it asked her if there was anything she wanted.
She was out shopping with her friends, eating ice cream.
She said, “Can you wipe my memories of it? Oh, and that baby I had… it didn’t come back with me, did it?”
The System replied: [No.]
She let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
System 0687 always found it strange that it had automatically bonded with Ava. Other systems bonded with hosts who had strong desires, who were desperate to complete their missions. She had no such drive; she had been forcibly bound. She was always hap py–go–lucky, almost foolishly so.
She was so incredibly weak.
Maybe that’s what’s needed to redeem a gloomy, dark male lead, 0687 thought. A cheerful little sun.
Her first mission had been a resounding success. The male lead she redeemed was a hopeless romantic who fell deeply in love with her. After that first mission, 0687 had asked her, Do you want to stay?
She had refused. “No way. I want to go home.”
And so, the male lead had corrupted himself again. All other transmigrators sent to fix the problem failed, forcing them to call on her one last time.
Seeing how obedient she became under his hypnosis, 0687 had assumed she probably loved the male lead too. It thought, this time, she would choose to stay.
But in the end, she left.
This time, there was no need to send another transmigrator.
In the final moments before the world collapsed, she was genuinely fretting over a game on her phone.
She never once asked about that other world.
And suddenly, 0687 understood why it had automatically bonded with her in the first place.
She was cold enough.
Cold enough to choose, without blinking, to let a broken world be destroyed.
It was never meant to be saved.
