"!!!!!!"

Xiao Gui'an flipped over and sat up like a carp leaping out of water, gasping for air as cold sweat instantly broke out all over his body, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably.

Hiss—

That bone-deep, soul-shattering sensation of death still seemed to linger in his heart.

[Dear host, please take deep breaths, inhale, exhale, yes, yes, calm down, although corpses don't need to breathe—]

Zero's energetic voice echoed in Xiao Gui'an's ears, though there seemed to be a hint of gritted teeth hidden within it.

Looking around and finding himself back in the light and shadow space again, Xiao Gui'an's heart tightened slightly as he asked, "Did I die again? Completely and utterly dead?"

Oh no, I'm done for.

The Zero System swayed its little light sphere body, [Not exactly, but well, 'Gui Yi' is pretty much dead in a certain sense.]

Xiao Gui'an immediately breathed a sigh of relief, only belatedly realizing who [Gui Yi] was, letting out an utterly confused single syllable, "Huh?"

[Yes, host, literally! The NPC character you were playing is deader than dead.

And I only took my eyes off you for a little while, how did you manage to stir up so much trouble? Although the 'Half-Ghost Student' acting mission was completed, the NPC's function ended up being quite different from the original assumption—]

"Is Xu Zisheng okay?" Upon learning that his acting hadn't failed, Xiao Gui'an's first concern was still Xu Zisheng's condition.

The Little Light Sphere gave Xiao Gui'an an extremely complicated look, [Not exactly good, but not exactly bad either. But us laborers maintaining the entire world's operation can't compare to someone like him. Even if both of us died completely, he would still be bouncing around alive—]

So he's fine. Perhaps the word "friend" shouldn't be uttered lightly, and as the protagonist he might not care, but he had quietly occupied a small place in Xiao Gui'an's heart.

Xiao Gui'an thought for a moment and continued asking, "Then why am I back here again?"

[Your soul consciousness should have completely dissipated into nothingness along with the destruction of 'Gui Yi's' body, but who asked you to be my specially hired acting employee with such bright prospects? So your soul is protected by our system and certain world powers...]

[But after all, the curse power in the game had exceeded what 'Gui Yi' himself could withstand, so that already not-so-great body of his directly shattered to pieces. We couldn't even try to piece it back together.]

[You're not a real player anyway, so the damage you take in the game won't reflect in reality.]

[However, the excessively powerful energy fluctuations made it impossible for your soul to autonomously return to the other undamaged 'Writer' body, so it got swept back here to the original space by the system's power.]

The system's explanation gave Xiao Gui'an a general understanding of what had happened.

"Well that's actually pretty good, wasn't 'Gui Yi' originally positioned as a cannon fodder NPC? Taking a hit for little Xu Zisheng makes perfect sense." Xiao Gui'an didn't see anything wrong with it—in scripts, there were always sacrifices like this.

[No! This is exactly what's most unreasonable!!]

[We might not want to piece you back together, but that doesn't mean others don't want to!] The Little Light Sphere materialized two hands that grabbed Xiao Gui'an's collar and shook him, clearly genuinely angry.

[The will of the Chosen Ones of Fate is incredibly firm, the trajectory of fate's threads is hard to alter, but you? You're playing a cannon fodder NPC, it's only been half a day, how on earth did you manage to touch the lifeline of the world's operation?! He actually wasted a seat on you, what a waste of heaven's gifts! What a waste! How does a cannon fodder deserve this?!]

[Now you can't even die if you wanted to, probably! Temporarily, at least?! Our workload is definitely going to increase after this, the real world will surely be investigated, how could he not investigate it!! If any loopholes are detected, it's game over!]

Xiao Gui'an's head bobbed up and down as he was shaken, not quite understanding what the system meant.

"Piece who back together? What's a seat? Why was it wasted? And what are these fate threads?"

As for fate threads, Xiao Gui'an felt he could somewhat understand based on the literal meaning, but the other scattered, vaguely mentioned things, he truly didn't comprehend.

"By the way, how long was I unconscious? How far has the game instance progressed? Has the [Real Ghost] been caught yet?"

Even though [Gui Yi] had called GG, he still had [Writer] to play—he wasn't someone who gave up halfway.

[You slept for 45 minutes, the game is still ongoing—] The Zero System released Xiao Gui'an's collar, its gaze profound.

But during these forty-some minutes that Xiao Gui'an was asleep, quite a lot had happened outside.

Almost an hour, plus the previous half hour or so, only about twenty-some minutes remained in the second round.

"What exactly happened? Why don't you explain it to me in more detail? Maybe there's still room for recovery?"

The system directly threw out a large segment of world perspective video, [See for yourself!—]