Meihua’s eyes quivered as she held onto the serpent's eye, barely able to hide the fact her trembling shoulders.

For Meihua, coming to the conclusion to prioritize her family rather than the people who worshiped her was a completely out of character move. After all, she never had to pick between the two, and Wei was always as self-sacrificing as she was. But, here I was, watching it unfold right before me.

If Meihua and Wei did run away, it would without a doubt complicate this dungeon room—assuming that it was operating properly at all. It would fully destroy the timeline; still, I could figure out how to save the rest of my party, but I’d never get another chance to change Wei’s past. Regaining his memories wouldn’t even matter as long as he still could cling onto Meihua for security.

Gang’s presence was barely ever noticeable other than his infrequent snide remarks, and I supposed that’s why I never realized the look on his face at the time. I wondered if that could've changed things.

“Meihua,” Gang finally asks, bringing attention back to himself, “Are you really going through with this?” His brows were furrowed and lips drawn into a thin line; the expression he wore was nearly indiscernible.

Meihua stared up at him before she looked away, biting down firmly on her lower lip. The gesture reminded me a lot of Yang.

“I… I’ll think about it. But I do harbor regret about how I’ve lived,” she said firmly, finally finding the strength to stand up once more.

Her blue, white, and pink robes whipped all around her in the growing wind. The delicate tassels and ornamentation whipped around with her long brown hair, but she wore a serene look on her illuminated face.

“Thank you, Peijin,” she said, walking up and wrapping me into a tight, almost suffocating hug. “I’ll stay true to myself. You’ve trusted me enough to sacrifice your companions, and I refuse to make it harder on any of you.

“I want to live for Wei... and for myself, too! I want to take care of the people I love, and I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise,” Meihua firmly declared, tightening her grip on me and actually suffocating me this time.

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t incredible to watch this scene take place before me. It was a complete altering of the storyline done by my very own characters.

Meihua was like an unfinished pot still on the potter’s wheel. She’d been torn down, pummeled, cracked; and in the end, she came out as something completely different—something I never intended on creating.

So my characters did have free will after all. I smiled at the thought, my mind clouded with images of my party members.

I hugged her back, my chin hooked around the soft slope of her shoulder. “Don’t thank me for being a selfish bitch.”

Ha, that was definitely a cool line. Yeah, for sure.

Observer ‘Socrates’: End my suffering.

As we began the walk back, Gang stared at the ground below him. He kicked pebbles aimlessly, not even bothering to lift his head to see where they landed; eyes glazed over and deep in thought, he once again vanished into the background of the scene.

Suddenly, a chill traveled down my spine.

A wide fox eye stared at me from just ahead, squinting and pupil rolling back as if it was in overwhelming pleasure.

“Zhige!” I shouted, the blade shooting out from my side and stabbing the eye straight in the center.

But, instead of vanishing, its pupil darted to stare straight at me, unblinking. Zhige dug into it more, fluid spilling out from the broken eye, but it only squinted more as if it was uncontrollably laughing.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, summoning Zhige back before I started sprinting through the forest. “Meihua! Gang!” I screamed, my voice cracking, “We have to get back now! Daji got even stronger!”

Meihua grabbed a pin in her hair before stabbing it into her arm, a thin trail of blood seeping out. Quickly drawing a teleportation seal on the ground, it erupted with light as all of us were transported back to the Anyang wall.

At once, chaos swarmed through my vision. I could barely make out what was occurring before I was suddenly crushed under the pressing weight of thousands of people.

“The fuc—?!” I couldn’t even get the words out before a foot slammed straight against my face; soon after, I felt a firm hand grip my arm and pull me up.

I looked around to thank my benefactor for not saving me sooner, but a voice cut me off.

“Hoist her up with the rest of them!” A barely familiar voice called out, “She’s one of them, too!”

... Huh?

Eyes searching the crowd for whoever was barking orders, they fell upon the man that Wei had flooded with spiritual energy and saved earlier. He was wielding a glowing sword now, his back straight as he defiantly shouted orders—but none of that caught my eye.

What did, however, was the fact all of the demonic limbs once sprouting out of him were gone. His skin was a perfect jade white, untouched by any elements except for the splatter of blood that covered him.

“This is the one way to save yourselves! Bring those three up!”

“H-How?” I stammered, my voice barely audible as I stared at him in utter shock.

A searing pain shot through my abdomen. When I looked down, a long blade had been stabbed through my body, blood dripping off the glistening blade.

Dark red blood shot out of my mouth and poured onto my robes and feet.

“Don’t stab her yet, you bastard!” A voice behind me shouted as the blade was promptly pulled out, “She’s not immortal!”

“Hurry, hoist her up!”

“We already got the goddess! That’ll be enough!”

Meihua?

“Z-Zhi—” I couldn’t get the words out. No matter how much I struggled to speak, blood kept flowing into my mouth. The iron taste was suffocating, coating my tongue in its toxic iron taste and forcing me to gag, only causing more to force its way up my throat.

Meihua was being restrained by a handful—no, dozens—of citizens as they suddenly hauled her up to a wall, binding her and tying her down. Although she normally would have been able to break free from such a stupid imprisonment, she was hardly stronger than a regular cultivator was since she had lost most of her worshippers.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

My eyes widened as I looked at the bodies that were strapped onto and lined the wall. Wei, Meihua, Yang, Yue, Ailun… even Amelia.

Wei’s chest was covered in blood. He barely looked conscious as I watched streaks of blood stream down his feet and splatter on the ground.

“Zhige!” I screamed, my voice cracking as the sword shot out from my side and quickly slashed through all the surrounding people. I raced forward in the path it forged, ignoring the bodies I trampled as I reached out for the wall.

Suddenly, the man, the man who Wei saved, clashed his blade against Zhige, sending yellow sparks flying.

“No!” I roared, grabbing Zhige’s hilt and swinging the blade forward, “Not now, you goddamn bastard!”

The yellow sparks only flared more before the man gave me a wicked smile, slashing his blade down and sending me flying back.

How was he so strong?

I let out a gasp as I slammed against a tree, my wound worsening as my robes were stained with blood. I desperately fought to lift my arms or legs, but nothing would move.

Move. Move, god damnit, move! I cursed myself, my brows tight-knit as my frown deepened. “Fuck!” I screamed, frustrated by how pathetic I was. After a week of hardly eating, sleeping, or drinking, of sitting there and grueling putting down each rebellion, of watching Meihua and Wei rot to the bone, I couldn’t move anymore. I couldn’t even activate Hindsight or Editor’s Pen.

An alarming amount of blood was spilling out of me by this point. I reached toward my bag for the elixirs from past dungeon rooms—at this point, I had to take one.

The man’s blade stabbed straight through the palm of my hand, pinning it against the tree as I let out an animalistic cry, wincing as my entire body tensed up.

Who the fuck was this man??

He raised his arms in the air as the people around him cheered like they were watching a spectacular theatrical performance.

“This, this is the power of Daji!” He declared, spinning around so people could see him. “This is what happens when a real divinity, someone who listens to our prayers, is worshiped!”

His hands trailed all over his body, touching his pristine skin like he couldn’t get enough of it. I wrestled with the hilt of his sword, trying to pull it off of my hand, but he quickly wielded another and pointed it straight at my head.

“Tie her up.”

“Fuck you!” I howled.

More and more people surrounded me as they picked me up, letting the sword tear through my hand instead of pulling it out. My fingers were completely severed, and I squeezed my eyes shut from the overwhelming pain that raced through my whole arm.

Yue raised her head from the wall, slamming any part of her body that could move against the stone. “Don’t you dare fucking touch her! She has nothing to do with this!”

Amelia’s face was covered in tears as she looked down at the ground, snot dripping down her face. This time, she couldn’t even comfort the mute Ailun beside her.

“You’re all fucking bastards! You all deserve to die!” Yue continued screaming, trying to turn the people’s attention onto her instead of me. “I can’t believe we tried to save any of you! I’ll curse every single one of you! See what your fucking divinity does then!”

Realizing what she was trying to do, my eyes widened and trembled. “Stop it,” I whispered in complete shock.

The man, no longer willing to spare Yue another moment, raised his arm straight toward her and snapped.

A large explosion sounded as blood and stone erupted around Yue’s head, sending shockwaves through the air. She immediately fell limp, her head lopsided and her neck completely strained.

Yang’s eyes widened in horror as he tried to reach her but couldn’t from his position on the wall. I could see him frantically calling out to her to no avail—no one was listening.

The man turned back around, staring at me in warning. “This is what a disciple of Daji can do.”

Finally, he turned back to the crowd, continuing his speech.

“Daji has enlightened me to the cure, everybody. Look at me as proof of that,” he smiled, pointing toward Wei’s bleeding corpse.

“This is the only way. The only way to stop this disease from ravaging you and your loved ones is to take someone else’s life.

“But, how cruel would it be if we all started killing one another? And why would we when,” he paused, pointing at the two divinities strung up on the wall, “there are two divinities just before us? We could save all of us by killing them, and they’ll just revive.”

Vomit rose in my throat, leaving its signature burning sensation, and I could barely keep myself from completely throwing up everywhere. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real. I never wrote this, no, it wasn’t possible!

People lined up just before Wei, comically in single file. Swords were strewn out all before them as the first woman stumbled forward, wielding it.

“I-I’m sorry. I’ll burn a candle for you later. Thank you for sacrificing yourself for your people!”

She stabbed Wei through the heart and he let out an agonizing scream, thrashing and trying to break away from the agonizing pain. Immediately, however, the giant black marks that covered her skin shrank and vanished.

“It’s true… It's true! It really does work! Oh, thank you, thank you!"

Just behind her was a small child. Guiding the child over before Wei’s body, she helped the son grab onto the sword before they both thrust it straight through Wei’s heart once more.

“It hurts! It hurts!” Wei cried, tears streaming down his face as a sob tore through his throat. If he looked exhausted before, he looked ruined now. Blood gushed out of his chest, but there would never be relief for an immortal man.

The woman cried, pulling her child back and bowing deeply before Wei. “Thank you, Your Highness! You’re saving us!”

Meihua stared at the sight without making a sound. Her eyes were so wide, so filled with heartbreak and turmoil, that her eyes looked like two blank disks taking in the world for the very first time.

“It hurts! It hurts!” More and more people ran forward and stabbed him through the heart relentlessly, clamoring to kill him and rid themselves of their pain. The more people who were cured, the more who seemed to grow frantic and seek their own relief.

“IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS—”

The Disciple of Daji clamped a wad of soiled cloth over Wei’s face to silence him. Wei squeezed his eyes shut, and for the moment just before they closed, he seemed to be looking out into the world, begging for anyone to end his suffering.

Suddenly, I noticed Gang approaching me and quickly distracting those trying to pin me up, guiding them over to the chaos instead of me. I guess there was one use to his inexistence—even when he was Wei’s right hand man, no one bat an eye at him.

“Get to Wei,” I gasped, every one of my breaths a wheezing, pained gasp. “Get to him, hurry—”

“Peijin,” Gang said firmly, “I’m leaving. I wish you all the best of luck. You can break the news to Meihua and His Highness.”

I blinked at him, not even processing any of his words anymore. “What? No, I’m telling you, Wei—His Highness—needs help. You have to save him.”

“I can’t live like this, Peijin. I thought about what you and Meihua said,” he replied in that same, firm voice, “I have my own parents, too. I’m sorry, and I never imagined myself doing this, but once I save you, there is nothing else for me to do.”

He quickly applied a healing technique on my body, but I shoved him back shouting at him.

This was exactly what happened in Surviving My First Run—it was identical! Fucking identical! Sure, the plague changed, and Wei lived longer, and I had the cure, but it was going down the exact same path. Did Gang not say the same thing but only to Wei’s face after his people turned on him? Did I change nothing??

“You’re not fucking leaving, Gang!” I shouted, shoving him again. “Right now? Are you serious? I know you can fucking change! I know you don’t have to act the way I wrote it down!”

Observer ‘Socrates’: Jia Li! Stop it! You’re going to give yourself away!

Gang, after stopping my bleeding wounds, quickly kicked his foot under me, causing me to slip and crash into the ground. But, before I could get up and scream at him, he was already gone.

Instead, I met Meihua’s gaze directly as she stared down from the wall, eyes half-lidded and completely blank.