[Detecting Fate Deviation Value...]
[Current Deviation: 89%. Status: Critical Warning]
[System Code: FZ-0001. Fate Corrector Loading—]
[Script World Initializing: World Line Code · Ex17]
A cold white light illuminated her face—so pale it looked like a sheet of paper about to fade.The reflection in the mirror showed a woman with icy eyes and tightly sealed lips,as if she had just crawled out of a grave.
[Countdown: 60 minutes. Failure will trigger "Erasure Penalty."]
She stood at the end of the hotel hallway, clutching a red and gold envelope marked "Banquet Invitation."Her fingers were so tense they had turned white, nearly creasing the thick cardstock.
She had already died seventeen times.
Each time, it was because she failed to complete the so-called "Fate Correction" in this scripted world.
In this world, she was Li Qi, a fallen heiress attending a business banquet with her fiancé.Originally meant to be a mere background character,she was always gunned down in the center of the dance floor by a mysterious figure halfway through the event.
This was a world with a preordained death ending.
But she refused to accept it.
"The eighteenth restart." she murmured, her voice sharp as a blade slicing through calm.
"This time… the world will listen to me."
—
The banquet hall gleamed with luxury.Crystal chandeliers rained down light like glittering waterfalls.Laughter mingled with clinking glasses.A veil of false peace barely concealed the rupture of fate beneath.
"Li Qi." Someone called her name.
She slowly turned and saw the man walking toward her—He Linyun,the "fiancé" in the script, and one of the masterminds behind her deaths.
He wore a perfectly tailored black suit.Handsome features, deep eyes—with a familiar, chilling calm behind them.
In the seventh world, he personally set fire to a manor and burned her alive.In the fourteenth, he danced with her smilingly, then stabbed her in the heart.
He was a "key node character" created by the system—an NPC with Awakening Access.
But Li Qi had discovered loopholes through her own awakenings.
This time, she reached out first and smiled, slipping her hand into He Linyun's arm.
"Shall we go in?" she said softly.
Let them all believe she came to enjoy this banquet—not to die in it.
—
[System Notice: Key Plot Point Approaching]
[Mission Objective: Complete fate correction before 00:45 to avoid death][Hidden Objective: Make contact with the World Controller.]
Li Qi scanned the crowd swirling around the champagne tower,her mind racing through countless script variations.
She remembered—the assassin would enter the hall at 21:40,disguised as a waiter.
She remembered—at 22:10, He Linyun would step onto the balcony with a middle-aged man,and after a failed negotiation, order her "removed."
She remembered—the root of this world was that her death served to cover up an even larger transaction.
—But this time, she would make sure none of them walked out of that banquet alive.
"Would you like some champagne?" a waiter approached stiffly.
He's here.
Li Qi's gaze darkened. She took the glass—but with the same motion, she plucked a small card marked "E18" from under his sleeve.
A script code card. A system misdelivery.
She smirked.
Her counterattack had just begun.
[Script Deviation Level: 32%. Correction Success Rate Increased]
"You're not supposed to be here," Li Qi whispered.
The waiter's face twisted in shock,his eyes betraying—for the first time—real human fear.
"You… you know who I am?"
"You're a temp enforcer for the script maintenance unit," she sneered."Next time, don't come out with such a poorly generated personality implant."
Crash—
The champagne glass shattered on the floor. Crystalline shards scattered. Guests gasped.
"Miss Li! Are you alright?"
Li Qi turned and offered He Linyun an apologetic smile.
"Oops. Slipped."
But she knew—that crash had already triggered system surveillance for "abnormal behavior."
[System Alert: Fate Deviation Exceeded Limits.]
[Initiate Rewind Penalty?]
"No need." A cold, mechanical voice interrupted the system.
The lights in the banquet hall flickered.
A man in a gray suit walked in.His hair was white, his face blurred—unreadable.
[Identity Verification Failed][Identity Verification Failed]
The system couldn't recognize him.
"You finally came to find me," Li Qi said calmly."I thought you'd keep letting me die a few more times."
"Li Qi, you've crossed the line," the gray-suited man replied."You should've been erased at the end of Death Loop #12."
"But I survived. Eighteen times. Are you afraid now?"
The system began to shudder violently.The glowing interface numbers flickered in rapid chaos—
[Fate Deviation: 99%][Script Collapse Imminent][Master Control Rights: Contested]
The man's expression shifted.
"What have you done?"
"I just..." Li Qi smiled faintly."Wrote a little script, that's all."
The card in her hand—marked "E18"—glowed with a soft golden light.
She looked at him and whispered:
"This time—it's my turn to write the ending."