Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The Author Tower was on the verge of collapse.

The System had clearly realized that things were spiraling out of control. A dull roar echoed from outside the well walls, sounding as if some massive entity was attempting to rip the entire Manuscript Vault away from the Operation Layer. Countless red warnings flickered in mid-air:

“High-risk self-referential text detected.”

“Judgment Module contamination detected.”

“Please cease creation immediately.”

I refused.

The other me knelt by the computer, her face growing paler by the second, like a lamp nearing the end of its oil. She unlocked the final recording permission, and a hidden document immediately popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen.

The title bar was still blank.

Inside, there was only a single line she had written in advance:

“The true exit isn’t deleting the System; it’s making the System learn to face the consequences for the first time.”

I suddenly understood what she wanted me to write.

It wasn’t about simply locking the Hunter away. It was about trapping it forever within the very work it excelled at-forcing it to eternally experience how it felt when the rules were turned against it. Only then would it never be able to return to the world outside the story.

My fingers flew across the keys as I typed the final settings:

“The Rule Hunter shall become the sole protagonist of ‘The Hunter Never Leaves the Chapter.'”

“This book consists of seven chapters.”

“It shall never reach the eighth chapter, and therefore, shall never leave the story.”

“Every time it understands a rule, it will discover that the rule is directed at itself.”

“It must continuously seek the truth, but the truth is not an exit; the truth is merely the beginning of the next cycle.”

As the final sentence was typed, the entire Manuscript Vault fell silent for a heartbeat.

It was as if the world were holding its breath.

Then, the System issued its judgment.

“Draft promotion conditions met.”

“Character binding in progress…”

The Rule Hunter finally showed genuine panic. It reached out, intending to tear the screen apart, but the moment its hand touched the document’s title bar, its entire hand dissolved into a wisp of black ink and was sucked into the new book. Then came the arm, the shoulder, and the face. It tried desperately to retreat, but it was already too late. Seven glowing chapter titles descended from the air like seven seals, pinning it inch by inch into the text.

Before being dragged in completely, it stared fixedly at me.

“Lin Zhaowan, you think you’ve won?”

“No,” I said, looking back at it. “I’m just writing you back to where you belong.”

With the final word, it vanished entirely.

On the computer screen, the blank title bar finally filled itself in.

“The Hunter Never Leaves the Chapter.”

At the same time, the other me let out a soft sigh, as if she had finally let go of a burden she had been forcing herself to carry for a long time.

“Now, it’s your turn,” she said.

“My turn for what?”

“To write the new rules.”

The System panel at the very top of the Author Tower slowly slid open, revealing the core line of default parameters.

Novice Real-Time Survival Rate: 3%.

This time, I finally had the authority to touch it.