Chapter: The Final Task
[Mission Progress: 80/100]
"Do I really have to do this?"
The nervous young man muttered the words while staring at the glowing interface that only he could see. His hand gripped the sword tighter than necessary, knuckles white from the pressure.
Before him, his teammates were locked in heated combat with Tier 3 mutated beasts, their movements sharp and coordinated as steel clashed against hardened scales and claws. They were all on a mission together—a mission to rid a certain town of the mana beasts plaguing it. It wasn't academy-related, nothing official like that, but rather something they'd taken on for the sole purpose of training and getting stronger.
[KILL THE PROTAGONIST AND YOU WILL FINALLY BE FREE]
[YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR WORLD]
[DON'T YOU WANT THAT?]
He gritted his teeth hard enough to hear them creak, then forced himself to look ahead once more. At the center of it all stood Jason, the so-called protagonist of this world, currently locked in a fierce one-on-one fight with a Grenox.
The massive beast towered over him, its muscular frame covered in dark green scales. Beside Jason were the heroines—not all of them had come along, but four were present on this mission, each engaged with beasts of their own.
"Jason! Are you alright?!" one of the girls shouted while barely managing to fend off a lunging beast with her twin daggers. She turned her head just in time to see Jason being pushed back several steps by the Grenox's powerful swipe.
"Don't worry about me, Jessica! It can't kill me!" he yelled back with that infuriating confidence of his. His sword suddenly blazed with roaring flames that licked up the blade's length as he dashed forward with renewed vigor, ready to strike.
"I don't want to do it. I can't..."
Eren's hands trembled violently as he struggled with the very thought of killing someone, of actually taking another person's life. But this wasn't the first time the system had made him do the unspeakable, forced him to commit acts that haunted his dreams, all for the hollow promise of going home. Every single time, it dangled that carrot in front of him, and every single time, he'd done what it asked.
[THIS IS YOUR LAST TASK, EREN. IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS NOW, YOU WILL NEVER GO HOME. EVER AGAIN.]
"..."
He stared in silence, his mind racing as he contemplated his next move. The weight of the decision pressed down on his shoulders like a physical force. His breathing became shallow and quick. Then he exhaled sharply through his nose, closed his eyes to center himself, and when he opened them again, his resolve was firm and his gaze cold.
He rushed forward without another thought, blade gripped so tightly his fingers ached, silver hair swaying wildly in the wind that whipped around the battlefield, blue eyes locked directly on Jason's exposed back as the protagonist focused entirely on the Grenox before him.
Deep down, Eren knew this wouldn't actually kill Jason. After all, he was THE protagonist of this world. There was no way a side character like him, a mere mob in the grand scheme of things, could truly kill the main character. That's what he told himself. That's what gave him the courage to do it. That's why he decided to risk it all and just get this nightmare over with.
SHINK!
Blood.
"Ah..."
Jason gasped sharply just as his flaming blade severed the Grenox's head clean from its shoulders. In that same instant, he felt cold steel pierce through his abdomen from behind. The pain registered a heartbeat later. He whirled around immediately, his eyes wide—not with surprise or confusion, but with pure, unbridled rage.
"Eren? YOU FILTHY BASTARD!" he roared, his voice echoing across the battlefield.
But before Eren could even process what he'd done or think about retreating—
SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!
From all directions, blades pierced through every part of his body. His chest, his sides, his shoulders, even his legs. The heroines had moved faster than he could track.
"URGH!"
He coughed violently and blood sprayed from his mouth, warm and metallic.
BAM!
Someone's boot connected with his chest and he was kicked hard to the ground. His body hit the dirt with a painful thud and he could only watch helplessly as the girls rushed right past him like he was nothing, like he didn't even exist.
"Jason! Are you okay?!"
"Here! Take this!" Another girl pressed a glowing red healing potion into Jason's trembling hands.
"Let's go! You need to get treated properly!" one of them screamed frantically as they all began pulling him away from the battlefield, supporting his weight between them.
"Ugh..."
Eren coughed out more blood, each breath sending sharp pain through his punctured lungs. His vision swam and darkened at the edges. But despite everything, not a single person spared him even one glance. They all just... left him there.
"Heh."
He smiled bitterly through the pain, blood staining his teeth red. It would be a lie to say he wasn't jealous of Jason—all that love and devotion, all that immediate concern and care, those were things Eren could never have no matter what he did. But honestly, he'd long come to terms with it. He'd accepted his place in this world.
He was just a mob character. Nothing more.
"System... send me home," he muttered weakly, his eyes slowly closing as consciousness began slipping away.
But...
Silence.
Nothing happened. No light, no portal, no sensation of being transported. Just... nothing.
"System," he repeated, louder this time despite how much it hurt to speak.
Silence.
"SYSTEM!"
His eyes snapped wide open again, sudden panic flooding through his veins and momentarily overpowering the physical pain.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
In fact, he could no longer feel its presence at all. That constant awareness in the back of his mind, that digital consciousness that had been with him for so long—it was just... gone.
"No... no... NO!"
He screamed the words as realization crashed into him like a tidal wave. The goddess. That manipulative, cruel goddess who'd brought him to this world. She'd used him from the very beginning. He was never going to go home. The system had just been there to make him play his part properly, to make him useful, to turn him into the perfect mob character who would betray the protagonist at exactly the right moment.
"Haa... haa..."
He gasped for air as tears began trailing down his dirt-stained cheeks, mixing with the blood pooling beneath him. His body felt cold and heavy. Each breath was harder than the last.
Suddenly, his blurring vision cleared just enough to make out someone approaching. He saw pink hair first, swaying gently with each step. Then pink eyes, cold and focused entirely on him.
He knew her. Of course he knew her.
And in that moment, all he could do was pray for death to claim him right then and there. He would rather die from his wounds than let HER do as she pleased with him. His yandere. The one girl in this entire world he'd tried desperately to avoid.
"Don't think you're going to die so easily."
Her voice was completely void of emotion, flat and matter-of-fact. She crouched down beside him and her pink eyes met his terrified blue ones.
"Oh... how much you'll beg for death."
Her eyes alone told him everything he needed to know—he was about to face unimaginable torture, the kind that would make him wish he'd died on this battlefield.