The black fortress loomed within reach, yet separated by a wall of despair—the "Wall of Sighs."
Constructed from countless burning manuscripts and crimson **[404_Not_Found]** pop-ups, it was a graveyard of abandoned plotlines, the corpses of unfinished worlds left to rot.
"*Thud.*"
Sylvia crashed onto the rust-covered ground.
She didn't cry out, only stared in horror at her lower body—everything below the knees had simply vanished. No blood marked the severed edges, just crawling static that devoured upward like army ants.
**[Object: Sylvia_Frost]**
**[Status: Deleting... 91%]**
"Don't worry about me!" Sylvia pushed weakly at Lucian's leg, her voice fragile as candlelight in wind. "I'm a bug in this abandoned story. That wall's an 'Unfinished Firewall'—it kills discarded characters! Take your battery and get out of here!"
Lucian remained motionless, gripping Arthur's collar with one hand while coldly surveying thousands of charging red X's on the wall.
"*Cough cough*... hahaha! Despairing yet?"
Arthur, dragged here like luggage, grinned through his swollen face as if seeing his father. His laugh wheezed like a broken bellows.
"This barrier was set by the author himself! Unless that hack comes back from the dead to continue writing, nobody's getting through! Lucian, watch your woman become corrupted data! This is called—*fate!*"
Before he finished speaking, the wall transformed.
Hundreds of laser cannons shaped like old-fashioned pen nibs emerged, their dark tips ignoring Lucian to lock onto Sylvia's half-dissolved form.
**[Alert: Illegal Data Remnant Detected]**
**[Execute Logic: One-Click Deletion (Physical)]**
Ozone burned the air as blinding red light gathered.
Lucian's left eye blazed green as he reached toward the gate.
**[Command: Open_Door]**
"*Buzz!*"
The moment his code touched the wall, golden film repelled the command.
**[Error: Logic_Lock]**
**[Access Denied: Area abandoned, external writes rejected.]**
**[Awaiting author restart...]**
Lucian's hand froze mid-air.
This wasn't about power levels—it was causality. You couldn't write new chapters in an abandoned book unless you were the original author.
"Hahaha! Stumped? Feeling helpless?"
Arthur writhed on the ground like a maggot, tears and snot streaming as he laughed. "Canon is absolute law! My protagonist aura might be shattered, but you're still trash! You can't save her! You can't save anyone!"
**[Deletion Countdown: 00:00:10]**
**[00:00:09]**
Sylvia's hands began turning transparent. She looked at Lucian with a bitter smile. "Lucian, thank you... at least I got to see that bastard kneel."
Lucian ignored the touching farewell.
He stared at the red text **[Awaiting author restart]**, his expression shifting to something playful, almost perverse.
"Waiting for author restart?"
He looked down at the cackling Arthur, lips curling to reveal bone-white teeth.
Arthur's laughter died instantly, ice shooting up his spine. "What... what's that look for?"
"Since this damn door only recognizes 'authors,'" Lucian bent down, grabbing Arthur's straw-like hair like lifting a chicken for slaughter, "I'll make one."
"I'm the protagonist! I'm noble—*mmph!*"
"You're the perfect keycard."
Ignoring the protests, Lucian dragged Arthur toward the retinal scanner.
"*SLAM!*"
Arthur's once-handsome, now grotesquely swollen face smashed against the scanner glass. His features compressed into a ridiculous 2D map, his nose cracking audibly.
The scanner flashed red!
**[Scanning biometric data...]**
**[Identifying: User_Arthur_Sky...]**
**[Warning: Insufficient privileges! Peasant, begone!]**
Cannons finished charging, destructive red light gathering at their tips!
"Don't rush. Let me add a buff."
Lucian's fingers danced through virtual space beside Arthur's face, green code streams slicing into the scanner's backend like surgical knives.
**[Hacking_System...]**
**[Target ID: Arthur_Sky] -> [DELETE]**
**[Override Input: Role: Author_Avatar (VIP_Return)]**
**[Note: I'm the author's alt account (back to fill plot holes, open up!)]**
Enter key pressed.
The scanner's frantic red light... froze.
The next second, everything changed!
**[Ding!]**
**[Recognition Successful!]**
**[Author Core Code Detected!]**
**[Wahhh! Master, you finally came back to life! Opening immediately!]**
The murderous alarms instantly transformed into embarrassingly cheerful BGM—"Good Days."
The "pen nib" cannons that had been ready to fire death rays suddenly exploded—not with lasers, but with colorful fireworks and confetti!
"*Bang! Bang! Bang!*"
The mountain-thick firewall gates thundered open with joyful mechanical grinding. A pristine red carpet, apparently stored for years, automatically rolled out from within, unfurling to Lucian's feet.
The cold electronic voice now dripped with flattery:
"Welcome! The manuscripts have been waiting so long for you, Master!"
Dead silence.
Arthur's face remained plastered to the glass in Picasso-esque distortion, his eyeballs nearly popping from shock.
Sylvia forgot her disappearing body, jaw dropping at this absurd scene.
*This actually worked?*
"Same old sycophantic security system."
Lucian tossed Arthur onto the red carpet like garbage, then dove toward Sylvia.
**[00:00:01]**
Just before Sylvia completely dissolved, Lucian scooped up her remaining torso and crossed the safety line.
"*Hum—*"
The world went quiet.
**[Area Switch: Fortress Interior (Safe Zone)]**
**[External deletion commands blocked]**
Green data streams wove frantically around Sylvia's severed waist. Within seconds, her legs reconstructed completely.
She collapsed on the red carpet, touching her restored limbs in disbelief while glancing at Arthur, now serving as Lucian's doormat. Her expression defied description.
"That was..." Sylvia gasped, "the most despicable way to clear a checkpoint."
Arthur lay face-down in the carpet, muffled whimpers of humiliation escaping.
"If it works, it works."
Lucian pulled out his last cigarette without lighting it, just holding it between his lips. He looked toward the fortress hall's depths.
No guards. Empty as a massive morgue.
At the hall's center, a wall-sized main screen suddenly blazed to life.
The image wasn't high-definition but composed of countless green code pixels—a girl's smiling face. Retro RPG style from a decade ago, crude yet eerily alive.
Lucian's cigarette froze in place.
The pixelated girl blinked, massive text appearing word by word:
**"Hi, User-002."**
**"You're later than I expected."**
User-002?
Lucian narrowed his eyes. If he was 002, who was 001?
The screen text continued jumping:
**"Want that 'source code'? Sure."**
**"But first, you must survive 'this level.'"**
"*Click.*"
All hall lights died instantly.
Red dots glowed in the darkness.
Not just one pair. Hundreds. Thousands.
**"*Roar—*"**
Deep growls echoed through the vast hall with nauseating familiarity.
Emergency red lighting flickered on—not illumination, but warning.
Under the crimson glow, Sylvia covered her mouth, pupils dilating in shock.
Before them stood a dense crowd. Identical white tailcoats, brilliant golden hair, even the same arrogant smirks.
Arthur.
Hundreds of Arthurs.
They looked at the "original" Arthur on the ground, then at Lucian, speaking in perfect unison:
"Kneel, insect."
Hundreds of voices overlapped, creating echoing reverberations throughout the hall.
The "genuine" Arthur stared in stupefied confusion like a schizophrenic patient.
Lucian spat out his cigarette, surveying the mass-produced protagonists. Instead of fear, he smiled.
The smile of someone seeing experience points scattered everywhere.
"Looks like," he cracked his knuckles with audible pops, "this isn't just a battery—it's a wholesale market."
Data streams danced frantically at his fingertips, no longer defensive code but the most violent attack commands.
"Since you're all defective products, let's smash you to pieces for entertainment."