[ Standing atop the remains of the condemned, the Reaper: Reol Montressor, raised his scythe to greet the world. ]
A low ping echoed in his skull. Reol stared at the sky where his name was mentioned in a translucent interface that only 'he' could see.
Strings began to attached from his body, controlling his own limbs.
But he didn't bothered to resist; he merely followed the words as they appeared.
Slowly, he lifted his scythe.
The crimson sun caught its blade, and the reflection revealed the rotten battlefield beneath the thousands of corpses.
[ He casts his final judgment. ] The interface continued.
As his scythe descend, the sky split open.
White light burst from the heavens, crashing down like divine light.
The shadow-like beasts below shrieked and clawed their way out. Yet despite all those attempts, those monsterous beings ended up melting under the radiance.
Reol watched in pity as he swung his blade below.
The scythe carved through the air, and with that motion, it appeared as if the atmosphere itself fractured.
In that single sweeping downward arc, everything including the soil, the corpses, even the sky, was reduced to ash.
[ And the young reaper smiled, kissing goodbye to the world he once knew. ]
Just as the script said, Reol let a small smile.
He closed his eyes and embraced the consuming brilliance. His form dissolved, particle by particle, until even the system interface above his head was erased.
The last thing to fade was the echo of the system's final message.
[ Chapter 128: Goodbye World ]
***
A faint sound of rain echoed in the dark.
Drip... drip...
Reol stirred awake staring in a distant window.
He found himself looking a scenery inside a small apartment.
Empty wrappers littered the desk, crumpled papers formed mountains around a dying lamp, and the faint smell of instant noodles lingered in the air.
He wasn't surprised. How could he be? He had known this place for as long as he could remember.
Reol turned his head slowly, and he could see someone sitting inside it.
It was a young man with messy black hair hunched over a laptop, his fingers trembled slightly as he clicked the cursor.
[ Submit: Chapter 128... ]
Moments later, the comment section began to flood the website.
[ Anonymous Rat: I really like the story! Thank you for the update, author! ]
[ Anonymous Worm: Please update soon, author! ]
[ Anonymous Cat: <3 Hoping to see my boy Reol again! ]
And then, as always, the other kinds of comment came.
[ Anonymous Dog: Another dogshit rushed chapter. ]
[ Anonymous Cattle: d!3 d!3 d!3 ]
[ Anonymous Finger: The author loves his OP characters too much. It's boring. ]
With an apathetic emotion, Reol gazes at the man beneath the window.
That man was visibly irritated when he read the comment section one by one. His jaw tightened as he began to curse his thoughts out loud.
"Fuck you! Fuck you, fuck you, fuckkk youuu!"
Laptop rattled as he slammed his fist over the screen, knocking over cans of coke and papers beside it. When the laptop fell to the ground, crack spidered across the screen.
Reol sighed quietly and pulled his knees to his chest, watching the scenery beneath the window unravel.
Reaching out his hand, it met that same invisible wall. A distance he couldn't push through.
"Here he goes again," he murmured.
Reol wanted to comfort him, to calm him, maybe to remind him to breathe, but he couldn't. He never could do so... The man couldn't even see him, let alone to try talk to him.
Thus, as always, all Reol could do was watch his daily life with disdained. Waiting for the the day until the author decided to continue writing the book again.
He couldn't help but wonder...
When would this person finally start Chapter 129?
If Reol remembered correctly, it took almost two months before the man even began writing Chapter 128.
Two months of discarded drafts, each one another cycle, Reol was forced to relive. Again and again, watching the different scenes rise and crumble.
Though he wasn't mad about the inconvenience. But back then, he would have been furious.
After all, that person was supposed to be his God.
The one who had given him life, a past, a name, and a world. And the one who decided who lived, who died, who loved, and who was forgotten.
He was a foolish God... so foolish he couldn't bear to face the words of his own readers. An immature creator, trembling at every failure, no matter how small it could be. And a cruel being, consumed by envy and bitterness at the success of others.
Despite all the harsh comments, all the hate he had endured through the years, he never learned to accept them. Instead, he only broke himself further each time.
It's obvious his God never loved that book he's writing. What even is this story for him? Why was he even created it in the very first place?
How pitiful.
A God without friends, without family, without anyone to care for him, locked away in this tiny room, clinging to a story he couldn't bring to enjoy.
Reol pitied him... so deeply that he no longer pitied himself.
So he learned acceptance.
He played the role he was given. He became the character his God wished to see... and wished silently for his author's peace.
Still, a thought lingered in his heart.
(Will my thoughts ever reach him?)
Reol watched his author's daily life unfold before him.
Playing games on his console.
Watching TV.
Eating the most unhealthy meals.
Broke down.
Scream and throw tantrums.
Returned in the same spot.
Sleep
Sleep
And Sleep again.
Nothing was ever done.
In this small room, Reol couldn't help but to wonder why he's always locked there?
It had been eleven months since then.
And Reol couldn't help but wonder when his author would finally continue the story...
Or maybe… he wouldn't?
The thought clawed at him, filling him with a quiet dread.
If his author decided to abandon it entirely... Then he will be trapped in this world forever.
Not that it matters to him, he never had a free will in the very first place.
But if he will be abandoned... Does it mean, he no longer have a purpose here?
(' No... I'm overthinking it... he couldn't possibly abandon me')
And then, as if the heavens themselves had heard his plea, the author returned.
He opened his laptop, and the familiar website was clicked.
Reol waited patiently, ready for the moment his author would start typing again, and it would be the moment he could return to his world.
But what came next wasn't what he expected.
The author opened the settings of the book… and clicked—
[Delete.]
Was it worry? Sorrow? Fear? Reol couldn't tell. The emotions he thought died long ago came flooding back.
"What are you doing?!"
He reached out to the man, to the God who made him, but his hand merely stopped through a force. Trying his best to push himself through, but no matter what effort he did, the barrier did not budged a single thing.
Then slowly... He could see his own fingers flickered, like pixels peeling away into static.
"No... Stop it!"
The world around him began to tremble, the edges of the apartment folding into white noise, and he could feel the pain surge through him at once.
Then he heard it.
The voice of the God once more.
"I give up…"
Reol's eyes widened in disbelief as a force began to pull him away.
His body trembled, fragmenting at the edges, yet he still reached out, desperate to grasp the fading figure before him.
"Stop messing around! You can't just discard me like this!!!"
"HEY!!"
But his voice remained unheard until he was dragged away by the void completely.
[ Book Deleted completely ]