CHAPTER 83 – The Deleted Heroines
The café dissolved into a chaotic, white digital void, the ceiling and walls replaced by endless, unstable static.
Gu immediately spun, pulling Xiao Xi securely behind him, shielding her with his own flickering body.
Shen and Ling moved instantly, their auras flaring, adopting practiced defensive stances.
The glitching woman reformed in front of them—her body constantly melting and shifting between dozens of different female faces.
One was tragically pretty.
One was harshly aristocratic.
One was elegant.
One was visibly angry.
One was crying in silent grief.
Xiao Xi realized the horrifying truth, bile rising in her throat.
"She's… multiple people, Yanzhou."
Ling whispered, her voice full of sorrow.
"It's a composite deletion.
All the minor female characters the author killed, removed, or deleted during the rewrite merged into one corrupted entity, clinging to the central narrative thread."
Shen added grimly, his golden aura forming into a focused weapon.
"Every insignificant female character who lost her script... she became this single, vengeful ghost."
The woman shrieked, the fusion of voices painful and loud.
"YOU STOLE OUR STORY! YOU STOLE OUR FATE! WE WERE HERE FIRST! WE WERE MEANT TO LIVE!"
Xiao Xi trembled, trying to reason with the ghost of the old narrative.
"I didn't steal anything! You were erased before I arrived! You were deleted by the author!"
"LIAR!"
The composite entity lunged—a chaotic mass of dissolving code and furious memory.
—and Gu intercepted, slamming the entity back with a massive, uncontrolled burst of raw digital energy that seemed to tear from his very core.
He snarled, protecting his Anchor.
"Don't touch her."
But the entity didn't shatter; it split into five separate, smaller versions of herself, surrounding them instantly.
Shen cursed under his breath, recognizing the tactical error.
"Damn it—she's multiplying.
She uses the energy she absorbs to replicate her deleted consciousness."
Ling whispered, her gaze fixed on the edges of the static void.
"She's not the only one.
There are others."
Xiao Xi's System flared violently, overriding the domestic stability protocols:
[Warning! Multiple deleted entities detected. Threat level: Existential.]
[World rewrite breach expanding. Stability compromised by narrative ghosts.]
Xiao Xi swallowed hard.
Her perfect, stable world was already breaking.