Chapter 437
A being that called itself the “system” appeared in midair and told her it was willing to give her a shot at coming back to life.
All she needed to do was enter the novel world and take everything meant for the heroine. She’d have doting family, a husband who loved her deeply, more money than she could ever spend, and the world’s adoration.
Lydia wanted those things so badly that she agreed without a second thought, not even glancing at the contract.
‘If I’d known I’d have to give up my soul for this. Even then, I probably still would’ve said yes, Lydia thought bitterly.
After all, she was already dead in reality. Even if she somehow got a second chance, she’d still be the homewrecker everyone hated, and her suffering with that old man would vanish.
But if she could go to another world, she could have the rich life she’d always dreamed of-no shame, no scorn, maybe even be adored by everyone.
No one could say no to that kind of temptation. But now that she’d failed the mission, everything she’d ever wanted had gone up in smoke.
Lydia furiously tore the contract in front of her to shreds, scrambling up from the ground. “No. I never even read the contract. None of this counts!”
She tossed the shredded contract aside and, without hesitating for a second, turned and bolted. But all around her was nothing but endless white. No matter where she looked, it was just the same blank emptiness.
No matter how far or fast she ran, it felt like she was just going in circles, never getting anywhere. The system’s voice rang out again.
This time, instead of that emotionless, mechanical numbness, there was a barely noticeable trace of sarcasm in its tone. “Humans must pay the price for their choices.”
As the system finished speaking, Lydia, who had been running, felt herself lifted by an invisible force, her whole body suspended in midair.
It was as if countless giant hands were tearing at her soul, twisting and distorting it out of shape. Her shrill scream rang out in the endless white void, but the silence swallowed it whole; there wasn’t even an echo.
Lydia howled in agony, her screams raw and unending. “Please, have mercy. I won’t run anymore, I promise. Just give me one more chance. I swear I’ll finish the mission. I’m begging you!”
“It hurts so much. Kill me!” Lydia cried. Her pleas, once desperate for mercy, were now a desperate wish for death. But only agony answered, soul-tearing pain from the deepest part of her being.
As if the system would ever let her off that easily. To the system, a human soul was like a protagonist’s luck-pure, top-grad
tonic.
That was why it loved to hunt greedy humans, dangling the promise of “resurrection” in front of them after they died. Mission success or failure, it never lost out either way.
The system wouldn’t just gulp it down all at once. It would slowly tear her soul apart, absorbing every last bit for nourishment, making sure not to waste even a shred.
At this pace, it would take nearly ten years to completely absorb her soul. Souls never truly died. ‘The host was so afraid of dying. She should be grateful I’m letting her last another ten years, the system thought.
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Chapter 437
The system savored Lydia’s soul with delight, all the while keeping an eye out for the next greedy human to make its host, and searching for a brand new world to play its game in.
Little did it know, some of the worlds that had once been chosen because of its contracts with their hosts had already launched a coordinated campaign to hunt the system down.
The system understood human greed all too well, and it looked down on those so-called paper worlds, seeing both humans and those worlds as nothing more than nourishment for itself.
But to the people living in those worlds, they were real; flesh and blood, truly alive. No matter how advanced a world the system came from, it had no right to trample over their lives as it pleased.
Lydia’s fate was set in stone. She was destined to become nothing more than nourishment for the system. As for what would become of the system, that was another story for another day.
