chapter 143

Gu Yu Chu returned to the gloomy basement once again.

He kept thinking about how to change this inevitable, certain-death ending.

Could he hide?

Stop opposing the protagonist.

Avoid anything that would draw hatred, avoid that day-would the story be rewritten?

Gu Yu Chu’s skill at doing handwork for the tenants grew more and more refined. He could fix anything, make anything. Others praised him for a maturity and capability that didn’t belong to his age, but he was weighed down by worries every single day.

On his sixteenth birthday.

On the walk from the basement to the small shop, Gu Yu Chu noticed a jewelry store by the roadside, its display window drenched in bright light. In the last few years, phones had only just switched from keypads to touchscreens, and luxury goods had only just started entering A City.

In the window were rings and necklaces.

To Gu Yu Chu-who had already been reborn twice-the “new” styles already looked old, yet for some reason he couldn’t look away.

An oval locket.

You could open it and put a photo inside.

–

In this life, Gu Yu Chu didn’t go into automobiles. He asked Gu Zhen for a jewelry company and even changed its name.

Zhenyu Jewelry.

Gu Yu Chu explained, “‘Meeting true love’-if you read it backward, isn’t it ‘Zhenyu’? Isn’t that romantic? Does it sound good?”

Gu Zhen looked at him. “It sounds good.”

Using this company, Gu Yu Chu indulged a lot of private little intentions.

For instance, a set of rings.

The set had three rings.

They were for Gu Zhen, for Gu Zhen’s future lover,

and for himself-the one who would bury this secret crush deep in his heart forever.

He drew the design drafts himself, went into the workshop to polish them by hand, and made three finished rings. He hid one away.

Then he gave Gu Zhen the other two. “Ge, if you find true love someday, can you wear the ring I made? Your little brother made it with his own hands. Limited edition-only one set. I’m giving it to you.”

And then, a necklace.

He made two identical necklaces.

On a sunny afternoon, he went to Gu Zhen’s CEO office. “Ge, I bought a DSLR to mess around with, but I don’t know how to photograph people. Let me borrow you for practice?”

After Gu Zhen agreed, Gu Yu Chu took a photo seriously, printed it out, and placed it inside the necklace.

Then he gave Gu Zhen the other necklace. “Ge, this is the first necklace I ever made with my own hands. The design might be kind of old-fashioned, but it has the meaning your little brother insists on. You can put a photo of someone important inside.”

“Wear it closest to your heart.”

In this life, the friend who would betray him showed up right on time. It was an assistant from the design studio. That day, he specifically came to Gu Yu Chu’s home, and after finding out Gu Yu Chu wasn’t drinking water, he went crazy and poured Medicine into his mouth.

Gu Zhen stayed with him through the withdrawal period in this life.

Gu Yu Chu used his own health as a threat and made his promise-keeping older brother agree: no matter what happened in the future, he would never throw away the two items Gu Yu Chu had given him. He also begged Gu Zhen to give up the bids and projects the Gu Family was fighting over with the protagonist Ao Tian.

Gu Zhen agreed at first. Later, suspicion crept in. He couldn’t shake the feeling that what Yu Chu said sounded like saying goodbye. “What’s going to happen in the future?”

–

The “future” arrived fast.

Because Gu Yu Chu also made a set of Chains.

In the early hours before the car accident was about to happen, he stood by Gu Zhen’s bed and chained him inside the room.

The huge noise woke Gu Zhen.

Gu Yu Chu’s hands were trembling the whole time.

Because he wasn’t sure whether he could successfully dodge it. In this life, he had already done everything he could to avoid making friends, to avoid going out that day, to avoid drinking water-yet it still happened.

Now he could only place his hopes in these Chains.

“Promise me. Just today-you can’t go out, okay?”

“I know you might think I’ve gone insane. After today, lock me in a hospital, send me abroad-send me anywhere. I don’t care. I just want you to live.”

“After I’m gone, don’t throw away the things I gave you,” Gu Yu Chu said. “Please. I’m begging you.”

Gu Yu Chu went out to get food. When he came back, Gu Zhen had vanished from the bed.

Right after that came the news-Gu Zhen had died in a car accident.

After two lifetimes of acting obedient in front of his brother, Gu Yu Chu finally snapped and swore.

“Fuck.”

Hiding didn’t work.

Not at all.

He went to every length to get a gun and a knife, then tracked down the protagonist of this world to kill him. “What the hell am I supposed to do!? Tell me-what am I supposed to do? Why won’t you let us go?”

“I hate you. I watched him die in front of me three times, and I couldn’t do anything! Is his life destined to end at twenty-seven forever?”

At this point the protagonist was still just a cocky kid. He looked at Gu Yu Chu with contempt. “No matter what you do, I can’t die.”

Gu Yu Chu fired. The Bullet went off course.

When he drove the knife viciously into the protagonist’s neck, his own body began to turn into paper scraps that scattered in the air.

Because he had threatened the protagonist’s life, the story’s World Consciousness was going to erase him.

–

Gu Yu Chu came from a novel where all rules existed to serve the protagonist. The reason he was about to be erased was simple: an overreaching side character dared to rewrite the plot.

In tearing, rending agony, bloody tears streamed from his eyes.

Then, suddenly, his shadow on the ground transformed into thick Black Mist, rising up in the shape of a person and standing before him.

[You’ve caught the Main God’s interest.]

[What you’re doing right now won’t make what you want come true.]

The World Consciousness fell silent at once.

Every inch of Gu Yu Chu’s skin shifted from paper back into flesh, and blood began to spill again. He forced out the question, “Then how can it come true?”

[Any wish you have-the Necromancer Game can fulfill it. Please choose: Yes/No to join the game.]

[Choose Yes, and the Main God will grant you a real body-like the one you have right now.]

Ge, I’m leaving for a while.

I’m afraid I’ll forget what you look like.

Let me take your photo with me.

Wait for me.

I’m going to rewrite this book’s ending.

I’m going to make you live past twenty-seven.