Prologue: The 999th Bad Ending
Beep— Beep— Beep—
The steady mechanical beeps drilled into my eardrums. A private hospital room thick with the stench of disinfectant. Beneath the cold glare of pale fluorescent lights, this was my entire world.
"Mr. Lee Ro-un, it would be best if you prepared yourself."
The doctor's dry death sentence... It wasn't even funny. Prepare? At twenty-five I'd been diagnosed with acute leukemia and spent three years fighting it. Chemotherapy had stripped every hair from my head, and my skeletal, emaciated body made even breathing torture without high-dose painkillers.
My world was already hell. The only reason I could cling to that hell with such stubborn desperation was the universe waiting inside the battered smartphone clutched in my trembling, IV-pierced hand.
The Pilgrim of Eternal Night.
A dark fantasy novel serialized for a full ten years. The story of its protagonist, Adelia, endlessly regressing to save a world marching toward ruin. I was its one and only true reader. The fact that it never went on hiatus made me wonder if the author had simply lost their mind. Or maybe that level of dedication was admirable?
She was like me. Crushed every day by the system's oppression, wanting to die yet forced to keep living. While she lost comrades, had her limbs severed, and rolled through 999 regressions, I endured 999 rounds of chemotherapy with the same gritted-teeth resolve.
Yeah. If you're still holding on, then I have to live too.
She was my friend, my lover, and my only faith. So I believed. At the end of this long tunnel of agony there had to be a happy ending. If the author was even half a decent human being, they would at least grant the woman who had shed tears of blood for ten years some measure of peace.
The final chapter has been uploaded.
With trembling fingers I tapped the screen. The long-awaited ending. But the moment I read the last line, I doubted my own eyes.
[The 999th regression has ended.]
[System: Failure. Initializing the world.]
[Hero Adelia's soul will now be permanently extinguished.]
[She could not save the world...]
[She gave up on life because the 'him' she dreamed of never came.]
"...Ha."
A hollow laugh slipped from my lips. What the hell was this? Initialization? Extinction? Just like that? After all that suffering? After everyone she loved died, after she poured her entire being into stabbing the Demon King's heart—she still failed?
"Are you fucking kidding me...?"
I immediately opened the comment section. My bony fingers shook with rage. I wanted to flood it with curses. Hey! This isn't right! If you're a god—if you're the author—you can't be this cruel!
I typed my first and last comment with everything I had left, then my vision blurred. My heart thrashed wildly. Ah. It's here.
The smartphone slipped from my hand. On the fallen screen, the illustration of a blood-soaked Adelia weeping seemed to stare straight at me. For a second she looked real.
Her crimson eyes were begging.
Someone... please save me...
"No... You can't end like this!"
I might die here, but you... you at least deserve to be happy.
"Fuck... I won't accept this..."
I spat the words with my final breath. If a god existed, if they would give me even one chance, I would tear this shitty ending apart...
Beeeeeeeeep—.
The machine let out one long tone, and darkness swallowed me whole.
* * *
"...Kuh! Uweeegh!"
The moment I opened my eyes, what burst out wasn't a scream but vomit. A burning sensation tore through my esophagus. My stomach flipped inside out. I rolled across the cold dirt floor, heaving. White pill fragments poured out mixed with bitter gastric fluid.
"Haa... haa..."
I finally caught my breath. Tears streaming down my face, I looked around. This wasn't the hospital room. No disinfectant smell, no white ceiling. A damp, shaded, neglected flowerbed overgrown with weeds. And in my hand was an empty pill bottle with tiny letters on it. Sleeping pills? The characters were unfamiliar, yet I could read them.
A headache split my skull as foreign memories flooded in.
Damn... this is insane.
I wiped my mouth with a trembling hand. On Earth I had fought desperately to stay alive, only to die—and now I woke up in the body of someone who had thrown his life away? It was absurd, but...
"Haa... Well... at least I'm alive."
My heart was beating. Cold air filled my lungs. Even if it was someone else's discarded body, it was a second chance for me. I staggered to my feet. I had to get out of here. Since I hadn't died, I needed to live.
Crunch. Crunch.
Footsteps. Instinctively I hid behind the overgrown bushes. Who would come to this gloomy, abandoned place except the 'Roy' who had just tried to kill himself?
"Haa, this spot will do."
A dry, parched voice. She sat on the old bench. Platinum hair gleaming brilliantly under the moonlight. But her crimson eyes were dull and cold, like a dead fish.
Thud—!
My heart nearly stopped. I recognized her instantly. The protagonist I had watched through tears right until my death. Adelia. My favorite character.
What? Why is Adelia here...?
The question didn't last long. She didn't even glance around. She simply took out a dagger with practiced ease. Her eyes looked exactly like the ones 'Roy' had when he swallowed the pills. No—deeper. An abyss worn down and shattered across 999 lifetimes, leaving not a single grain of attachment to the world.
"Ah, I'm so sick of this."
She muttered.
"Ah... another failed gacha. Let's reset."
Her eyes grew colder. "This time too... everyone will die before I can save a single person..."
Her hand moved. I couldn't move. It wasn't the drugs. The weight of her despair crushed me so completely I couldn't even twitch a finger.
Thud—!
The dagger pierced her left breast. Crimson blood gushed like a fountain, soaking her white uniform.
"......!!"
She collapsed. Right before my eyes. The protagonist I loved. Not as text on a page, but as real death...
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!]
[The only 'Observer' has witnessed the death.]
The blood-red windows flashed madly across my vision. It didn't matter why they appeared. All I felt was rage.
I had fought until my final breath because I wanted to live. Yet after 999 regressions she was giving up again, just like this? No. Absolutely not.
Fuck... don't make me laugh!
I burst out from the bushes, running like a madman. It might already be too late. Her heart had been pierced... But my body moved before my mind could catch up.
Just before her falling body hit the cold ground, my arms caught her. Thump.
"Cough...!"
Bright red blood poured from her mouth, soaking my uniform. It was hot. The temperature of this blood could not be a dream. Adelia's eyes, which had been closing, snapped open. In her unfocused crimson pupils, my tear-streaked face was reflected.
Her eyes shook with pure shock.
......Who?
Her lips formed the question. Across 999 deaths, she had never once died in someone's arms in this remote flowerbed. The first time feeling another's warmth. The first variable.
"Adelia... don't die... please... why are you dying..."
I sobbed, pressing on the wound, but the blood kept pouring between my fingers. Even as her consciousness faded, she stared at my face until the very end, as if trying to carve it into her soul.
Her cold hand brushed my cheek, then fell limply. Her breathing stopped. The hero died in my arms.
"Aaaaaaaaah—!!"
The moment my scream tore out, the world shattered like glass. Ding~!
Sharing of Death
[The 999th round has ended.]
[The current world will now be annihilated.]
[Loading hidden chapter: 'The Unwritten 1000th Round']
A pure white light swallowed me whole.