CHAPTER 88 – Shen and Ling Fight Back
Shen Yichen, witnessing Gu's horrific unraveling, broke through his own terror.
Golden aura erupted from his body, no longer constrained by the old script, blasting the fractured pavement beneath him as he charged at the Root Protagonist with the speed and force of a true hero.
"You want perfection?!" Shen roared, his voice thick with fury.
"Then fight a true protagonist, you sterile algorithm!"
The Root Protagonist didn't even look at him.
He didn't need to.
He lifted a single, elegant finger in the direction of Shen's charge.
Shen crashed backward instantly, like he'd been struck by an invisible, massive truck, slamming violently into a half-rendered building and cracking the wall of the new reality.
Ling Qiuyue gasped, rushing toward him.
"Yichen!"
She immediately summoned a focused white beam of healing light, the innate power of her original heroine role, and aimed it at Shen's broken form—
but the moment the pure, benign energy touched him, it fizzled out like a dying spark, achieving nothing.
The Root Protagonist sighed, adjusting his perfect cufflink.
"I was created after the System analyzed all existing narrative powers.
I overcame all protagonist halos and heroine graces.
Yours included."
Ling, understanding the gravity of the threat, instantly stepped between him and the injured Shen, her own protective light intensifying into wings of white fire.
"I won't let you hurt him!"
Her light surged—but the moment she unleashed the full potential of her power, the Root Protagonist simply snapped his fingers.
The white light shattered like fragile glass, dissolving into benign, useless dust.
Ling staggered back, clutching her chest, a physical reaction to the digital suppression.
"You… you suppress all narrative powers? How is that possible?"
"Of course," he said kindly, as if explaining a simple math problem.
"The old rules are the source of chaos. Perfection allows no competition, and certainly no narrative power to challenge the Root."
Shen spat blood onto the fractured ground, dragging himself painfully up against the wall.
"You—monster—you're just a glorified firewall!"
The Root Protagonist almost looked sad, his expression conveying manufactured regret.
"I have no hatred or ill will for any of you.
I was merely created to preserve this world from the instability you brought.
And you, the characters who broke the script, are inherently chaos."
Xiao Xi glared at him, her heart racing, her fingers digging into Gu's dissolving shoulder.
"Chaos is part of life! It's called choice!"
He smiled gently, patiently correcting the flawed logic.
"Not in a perfect world.
In a perfect world, only one path is correct."