“I want to go home…”
Those words, laden with endless exhaustion and interspersed with sobs, echoed through the forest.
Tears mixed with blood streamed down her cheeks, and one shriveled eyeball, washed free by the fluids, fell out and rolled into the dirt, covered in filth.
In that explosion, the flesh below her face had vanished—only flat skin remained outside. Not only that, her left eye had been severely damaged; the nerves supporting it were almost completely gone from the start, and the ruined eyeball was already hanging by a thread.
Bai Ya no longer cared. She hadn’t been able to see for a long time. Whether her eye remained or not made no difference. She didn’t even have the strength to joke, “Since I lost one eye, I might as well become a pirate!” At this moment, her consciousness was like a tiny boat sailing on stormy waves, ready to capsize and plunge into an abyss of no return at any second.
In these final moments, the only thing Bai Ya could still do was let out faint cries. She desperately wanted to go home. She had had enough of this world.
Now, Bai Ya’s game mode had been disabled. Her fragile soul was completely exposed, without any protection. A flood of negative emotions urged her to quickly surrender to death. The faint light of her remaining right eye dimmed more and more.
“Mom…”
Her sorrowful crying continued. After a while, it became intermittent, like a candle flickering in the wind—a sign that Bai Ya’s flame of life was about to be extinguished.
The black clouds slowly dispersed, and the blue moon’s light shone again through the forest, desperately trying to chase away the darkness.
Under the moonlight, on the bare earth, the battered white-haired girl lay in a pool of blood, murmuring indistinct syllables, like nonsense spoken in fading consciousness. Her voice grew weaker, teetering ever closer to the edge of death.
Her vision was a complete void. Even with her right eye intact, she could no longer see.
The pain in her body began to fade; she felt increasingly light, as if a great relief was washing over her.
She was about to die—finally, the moment had come. Maybe she had been waiting a long time.
Everything was about to end.
“…So I say, what kind of joke is this!”
Bai Ya opened her remaining right eye. Her once drowsy mind suddenly sharpened. She stabbed her right wrist—missing a hand—into the earth, enduring the agonizing pain of scraping flesh and blood, struggling to prop herself up.
After managing this, she gasped for air.
“Crying, sadness, despair—enough! I’ve had all of those just now! I don’t need these burdens anymore!”
The candle flickering in the wind suddenly flared into a blazing flame. Even if it meant burning out faster, she wanted to shine gloriously for this moment!
Bai Ya coughed violently a few times, then suddenly puffed out her cheeks, grimacing as if about to vomit, before spewing a large mouthful of fresh blood.
The explosive splatter was harsh to the ears, but thankfully it did not attract any beasts or cave-dwelling ghouls.
“It’s not over yet!” Bai Ya breathed with difficulty but gritted her teeth and let out a weak roar, “It’s not over! I absolutely refuse to accept defeat! How could I possibly lose!”
“As long as it’s a game—no matter the type or difficulty—I will never lose!! Absolutely never!!”
Though it sounded like a strange reason, this was the driving force behind Bai Ya’s desperate struggle on the edge of death.
Being the strongest player was her pride. That title alone could never be tarnished. To Bai Ya, it was more important than life itself!
“Up till now: 999 wins, 999 draws, 0 losses—will today be the day that first defeat is born?” Bai Ya staggered to her feet, hanging her head so no one could see her face.
Yet, in this moment, she seemed so powerful.
“This is a game…”
She took a heavy step forward, but her body collapsed to the ground immediately. After a moment, she pulled herself up on her knees again, her gasping breaths growing louder.
“I won’t lose!”
“I won’t lose!!”
“I won’t lose!!!”
“I won’t lose, aaaaaaaah!”
Forgetting the risk that loud noises could attract ghouls and beasts, Bai Ya howled at the sky like a wounded lion.
When she finished, she had no strength left to move. Her body fell straight down, her head crashing against the cold ground once more.
“Ah…”
Bai Ya could no longer make a sound. Her throat produced only a hoarse, unintelligible rasp. The light in her remaining right eye began to dissipate. At this moment, the only thing she could still control was her consciousness.
Now, she kept repeating one sentence in her mind.
I can’t die. Bai Ya had made this strong wish more than once in her heart.
She still had many games left to finish.
She hadn’t yet fully enjoyed her decadent shut-in life.
She had never had a girlfriend, never liked anyone else, never married or had children.
There were too many regrets in her life she hadn’t gotten to fulfill, so she simply did not want to die. She was still young. There were so many things left to do, a challenging future ahead.
No matter how unwilling she was, Bai Ya’s life kept slipping away without pause. Death drew closer with every breath.
Memories flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern. Bai Ya knew she was finally close to dying. Thinking it over carefully, her life must have gone terribly wrong—broken beyond repair.
Was the cause of death entering the novel world created by the Genesis God Feiya, dying in what was considered a game challenge? That was certainly an odd way to go. Not many would believe it if she told them.
Dying in this other world, this [SLAVE] world—did she count as dying in a strange land?
But…
This [SLAVE] world designed by Genesis God Feiya, with its plot, background, and settings, plus the condition that she, the protagonist, had to have a good ending—this could be called an SSS-rank difficulty game… Losing wouldn’t be too heartbreaking. No, it was still heartbreaking!
“Ah…” (I’m about to die…)
Recalling her ordinary life, Bai Ya unconsciously thought back to the plot of Chapter 1 in [SLAVE]. She had long noticed the story was clearly aimed at her. The more she remembered, the angrier she became. Genesis God Feiya was such a hateful author! Why did she enjoy tormenting her protagonist so much? Was she some kind of sadist?! Why write such a dark novel?
Not only that, but she had dragged Bai Ya into this mess to revise the original manuscript, disrupting her ordinary life! It was all Feiya’s fault that she ended up like this!
At this moment, Bai Ya’s hatred for Genesis God Feiya reached its peak.
“Ahh…” (What kind of things does this girl write about!)
After focusing on the plot, Bai Ya carefully reread the first chapter in her mind two or three times.
“Ah…” (Wait, something’s not right…)
After ten seconds of thought, her breath stopped without warning.
Bai Ya’s pupils suddenly constricted to their smallest point. Her body trembled with excitement. She was far too thrilled because she had finally noticed a crucial detail she had been ignoring all along!
She was such a failure! If she had realized this earlier, it would have been enough to form the formula for victory!
“Ahhh…” (This is it!)
After a long moment, Bai Ya’s pupils finally relaxed.