Ti passed, and two months later, Christian was resting his head on Eva’s lap, holding a phone in his hand and reading a novel, completely absorbed... seemingly unbothered by anything happening in the outside world.
But did that an his situation was that good? That he had no burdens at all?
Unfortunately, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
A lot had happened in the past two months.
And while he had made progress on so fronts, problems were still unshakable.
Nonetheless, with him now closer than ever to reaching the second mastery stage, he carried a sharp, quiet confidence. A belief that, no matter what ca his way, he would deal with it.
So, back to the present — Christian was reading.
The final Chapter of his favorite novel had just dropped. Arguably the best novel he had ever read.
This Chapter was longer than usual, and the long-awaited fight with the final boss ca to a close in it.
He was excited, eyes locked on the screen as he scrolled through, eager for the ending.
But then... his smile faltered. His eyes, slightly reddened from the emotion of an earlier scene, froze on the lines ahead.
The protagonist died.
"What the fuck?" he muttered, genuinely stunned.
He sat up quickly, no longer resting on Eva’s thigh, and stared at the last few paragraphs, his eyes wide in disbelief.
And then, it got worse.
The heroine — the one who had been crazily in love with the protagonist — in the final paragraph... she got married, had children, and visited the protagonist’s grave.
Christian’s face darkened.
"What kind of shit is this?" he growled, clenching his hand around the phone.
A crack rang out as the device snapped in his grip.
But even that didn’t seem to vent the sheer frustration he felt at the fucked-up ending. And in the end, with a bitter scowl, he threw what was now just a mangled piece of tal at the wall.
Christian was genuinely angry. A story he had followed for more than eight years — and it ended with this kind of garbage? It was sothing he couldn’t accept.
At his side, Eva, who naturally didn’t care about any of it, leaned on her arm and watched him with quiet amusent. Her gaze lingered, intrigued by the fact that he seed more emotional over so fictional character dying than all the humans dying out there in the real world.
She held back a laugh, though. As ridiculous as it was, she knew how much this one novel ant to him. It was the only one he still kept up with lately — even after mostly stopping with others. And from ti to ti, he would tell her about the story, excitedly describing certain twists and fights.
So, the protagonist died, huh? She’d felt that coming over a year ago. It didn’t surprise her.
Still, seeing how irritated he was, she figured it was ti to calm him down. With a light cough, she drew his attention.
"Darling," she said, her voice teasing yet soft, "instead of venting on the expensive furniture that’s innocent in all this, why not just bring the writer here and have him rewrite the ending to your liking?"
Christian blinked. The idea struck him in just the right way — at first.
But then... hesitation flickered across his face.
Would an ending changed under threat really count as canon?
Could an author even write at the sa level if forced to do it?
He leaned back slightly, lost in thought. His expression shifted as he weighed his choices:
Should he threaten the author to rewrite it?
Should he bring him over, keep him nearby for life, and make him write stories just for him?
Or... maybe do nothing at all?
His eyes narrowed as he ran through the options in his mind.
But before he could make a decision, Nina walked into the room.
She didn’t say anything at first. Just stood there, looking at him with a troubled gaze.
And whatever irritation Christian had about the novel vanished instantly.
Sothing had happened — and he could feel it.
"What happened?" he asked, voice low but firm.
His mood had already been bad. But now, it was heading toward sothing far worse.
"Alpha ca back from the mission you sent her on. But... it seems sothing is wrong with her. And more importantly, she brought soone with her," Nina said.
And Christian’s expression changed slightly.
But it wasn’t because of Alpha.
It was because of Iris.
If sothing had happened to Alpha, he should have heard about it from Iris already — yet even now, she was silent.
"Iris, what’s going on?" he asked.
[No problem is found in Alpha, and she ca alone.]
At her reply, which ca from a nearby speaker, Nina looked the most taken aback.
And Christian too began to feel how abnormal the situation really was.
That’s why he didn’t say anything else, and just ran — heading straight in Alpha’s direction.
Nina and Eva followed behind him at first, but Christian, with a deepening sense of unease, turned his head slightly and said, "Stay there. I’ll go alone."
Without waiting for a response, he continued running through the hallway.
And it wasn’t long before he exited the house — and then he saw her.
Alpha... and a kid?
He ca to a stop a few ters away, eyes fixed on Alpha as she stood frozen clearly abnormally there, while the said kid moved around her — scrutinizing her... no, admiring her, like so kind of art piece.
Suddenly, Christian couldn’t help but feel that he was probably in deep shit.
Why, exactly?
He didn’t know.
The kid — or rather, the short teenage girl — gave off no presence. Not a shred of essence. Not even a trace of strength.
And yet, the unease stayed.
The girl didn’t care for any of that. She suddenly stopped, turned, and locked eyes with him.
She stared for a few seconds, her gaze scanning him, then raised an eyebrow.
"Are you the one who made this puppet?" she asked.
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