Noah stood tall, the fire of frustration flickering in his eyes.
"Fine then," he muttered, his voice gaining strength with each word.
"I'll kill them. I'll kill every single one of the main characters, and that way the story will be forced to move forward without them."
There was a brief pause after his declaration.
Then Livia, standing a few feet away, suddenly burst into laughter.
It wasn't just a small chuckle or a sly giggle—it was an uncontrollable, uproarious laugh that had her clutching her stomach.
"Y-You?" she managed to say through gasps.
"Killing all the main characters? Oh, Noah, you're killing **!"
Noah huffed, crossing his arms.
He was serious, dead serious. And yet, here was Livia, acting like he had just told the funniest joke in the world.
Still giggling, she walked over and, to his surprise, ruffled his hair.
"Oh, Noah. You're too much," she said, rubbing his scalp like he was a little kid.
"The resolve! The courage! I admire it. Seriously, taking on the plot single-handedly, wiping out the heroes? That's a new one. Very bold."
Noah stiffened, feeling his dignity slip away as Livia mussed up his hair even more, her hands tousling it with a bit too much enthusiasm.
But Livia ignored him, her eyes sparkling with amusent.
She looked at him like a kid about to embark on an impossible task with all the naïve confidence in the world.
"Seriously, Noah. You've got guts. And honestly, I've never heard soone suggest such a direct solution.
Just murder your way through the plot!"
She bead, giving his hair one final scrub before stepping back.
Noah shot her a glare, quickly trying to smooth his hair back into place.
"I wasn't joking," he muttered, slightly annoyed.
But Livia wasn't laughing anymore.
As her hands fell to her sides, the lively mood drained from her face, replaced by sothing more serious.
Her red eyes narrowed in thought, her mind clearly racing.
"But… maybe you're on to sothing," she murmured, almost to herself.
Noah froze, catching the sudden shift in her tone.
The playful atmosphere had vanished, and now Livia was watching him with a different kind of intensity.
"What?" he asked, confused.
Livia took a step back, rubbing her chin as if piecing together a puzzle.
"I sohow envy you…" she said, her voice quieter now, more distant.
Noah frowned, his hand still fixing the ss she'd made of his hair.
"Envy ? For what?"
She nodded toward the liquid-like surface below them.
"Unlike … you'll actually get to return."
"Return?"
Noah's brow furrowed.
He glanced down at his reflection in the water beneath them, catching sight of sothing strange.
There, on his forehead, was an intricate rune—a design he imdiately recognized from the ga.
It was the [Mark of Failure], a symbol given to characters who died after failing a crucial event.
The mark branded those who fell to bad endings—an unavoidable part of the ga's cruel design.
He hadn't noticed it before, but now, with Livia's words hanging in the air, he felt a chill run through him.
"This mark…" he muttered, touching his forehead.
Livia's gaze was distant as she explained.
"It's a mark given to those who are ant to die here.
In the ga, when a character fails a pivotal mont—like dying at the hands of a boss or missing a crucial choice—that mark appears.
But Noah… I don't have it."
Noah looked at her, confusion and dread mingling in his chest.
"You don't?"
She shook her head, her voice soft. "No. Soone shot . There's no point of return for ."
The mory of his own shooting flashed in Noah's mind.
He had been shot too.
He'd died—or at least, he thought he had. But now he stood here, alive.
"Who shot you?" he asked, his voice low, tense.
Livia looked away for a mont, as if rembering sothing painful.
"I don't know. But I assu you were killed as well."
She glanced back at him, her expression somber.
"There's another variable at play, soone killing characters like us.
Whether they're trying to push the ga down a different route or just cleaning house, I don't know.
But you… you have a chance to go back."
Noah clenched his fists.
Livia gave him a long, hard look.
"Your plan might work, but you have to act fast.
If the main characters make it past the second act, there's no turning back.
They'll be consud by their own needs, their insecurities. Their weaknesses are already eating away at them."
She stopped for a mont, biting her lip as if debating whether to say more.
"Have you played the hidden act?" she asked suddenly.
Noah blinked, thrown off by the question. "Hidden act? What hidden act?"
'There were alot of hidden acts in the ga...which one could she be referring to...'
Noah thought.
He had played alot of the hidden acts and basically cruised through them all.
Livia's eyes flashed with sothing he couldn't quite place.
"It's called [Shattered Wings]," she said slowly.
"It's a special route in the ga. Hidden deep.
It shows how each of the main characters falls into darkness without the need for others. It's the ultimate butterfly effect."
Noah's stomach tightened.
He hadn't heard of that act.
He thought he knew the ga inside and out, but this… this was new.
"The ga doesn't show it unless certain criteria are t," Livia continued.
"In [Shattered Wings], killing even one main character sets off a chain reaction.
The mont they're gone, the others unravel."
She paused, then began listing off the consequences.
"Take Rylan, for instance," she said, her voice calm but her words sharp.
"If you kill everyone else but leave him alive, he tries to gain power the right way, the 'moral' way.
But while he's doing everything by the book, the corrupt nobles and those gaining power illegally surpass him.
In the end, he can't keep up. He becos desperate and, eventually, he falls. He starts using the sa illegal tactics he swore to fight against."
Noah could see it.
Rylan's weakness had always been his rigid morality—his belief that the world could be saved by playing fair.
But in a world like this? That was a recipe for disaster.
"And Amy…" Livia's expression darkened.
"Her weakness is her need for recognition.
She wants to redeem herself to her father, to reclaim her status as heir to the House of Bluerose.
But after being displaced by her younger sister, that desire becos an obsession.
If she's left alone, she'll stop at nothing to prove herself—burning alliances, breaking bonds, corrupting herself until there's nothing left."
Noah shivered.
Amy was another tragic case. Her drive to prove her worth to her family would lead her down a destructive path, one that ended in blood and betrayal.
Livia hesitated, her voice dropping to a near-whisper.
"And Xander… well, Xander's weakness is ti. But let's not go into that just yet."
Noah frowned, but before he could press her further, Livia continued.
"The point is, Noah, each of these characters has a dark path.
And if you kill the others, the last one standing will only spiral further into their weakness. It's inevitable."
He swallowed, feeling the weight of her words.
It was more than he'd bargained for.
He had thought that by eliminating the main characters, he could change the story, reset the world.
But Livia's explanation shattered that illusion.
"Even if you kill them all," she said, her voice soft but firm, "there will be consequences the ga hasn't accounted for.
This world is vast—deeper than even the developers know. It's still a mystery."
Noah stared at her, questions swirling in his mind.
Who was she?
How did she know all of this?
Before he could ask, Livia stepped closer, her gaze softening.
"My na's Eun-Ji," she said quietly, her Korean accent slipping through for the first ti.
"That's my real na, back on Earth."
Noah's breath hitched.
He hadn't expected that.
For the first ti, the reality of the situation hit him hard.
They weren't just players in so twisted ga—they were real people, trapped in a world that wasn't supposed to exist.
Before he could respond, the white expanse around them began to shimr.
He felt himself… dissolving.
His body was crumbling into fragnts of light, being pulled away from this place.
Livia—or Eun-Ji—looked at him, her expression sad but accepting.
"You're going back," she said softly, watching him fade.
"But I'm not."
Noah wanted to say sothing, to protest, but the light was overwhelming now.
His vision blurred, and the last thing he heard before everything went dark was Eun-Ji's final words.
"There will always be more than one main character… and it will always be that way."
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