Fang Qi watched all of this through Liguang's eyes.
He heard Liguang's speculation — the theory about "The Eyes of the World"...
His consciousness snapped to attention!
Was he... the "protagonist"?
And "The Eyes of the World"...
Were they like the "players" from before he transmigrated?!
...What?!
In other words, someone had been watching all along...!
No.
No no no!
Players could control a "protagonist," but...
He had never been controlled by anyone!
Every step he'd taken in this world had been his own choice!
Every move he'd made since arriving in this world was his own decision!
But...
Fang Qi stared at his own face before him, frozen.
But Liguang's guess did make some sense...
If Liguang was right, then "The Eyes of the World"...
Were a group of "spectators" who couldn't control him?
This...!
No no no!
Impossible!
Fang Qi rejected it again!
This was too bizarre!
It must be...
Liguang was overthinking things!
Now that her original core had fully awakened, she was too smart!
Too smart, and that made her overthink!
That was just how she was — too clever, so she'd connect all sorts of unrelated things together...
And then string them into a theory that even frightened herself!
That was basically a yandere's core trait!
Over-association!
It was perfectly normal!
Fang Qi tried to convince himself.
Right...
It must be that she was just overthinking it!
What "thousands upon thousands of eyes staring at screens," what "observing this world through Aqi's eyes"...
Come on, how could something like that possibly exist!
He was just him!
His life was his own, and every choice he made was—!
"Clack!"
Liguang's fingers dug into the core port at the back of her own neck!
Fang Qi's train of thought shattered instantly.
Then, blue electric light exploded across his vision!
She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her lips pressed against the teeth mark she'd just left there, moving soundlessly for a moment.
...What was she saying?
Fang Qi didn't know.
Because everything before his eyes had already been swallowed by the deep blue.
And then...
There was only endless darkness.
...
...
No telling how long passed.
Fang Qi slowly opened his eyes.
His consciousness and vision were both still blurry.
He didn't know why, but he felt...
This reload had taken longer than usual.
It was as if, in that endless darkness...
He'd slept for a while?
He shook his head.
Still, it was fine.
Nothing before him had changed.
The minimalist light strips.
The white coffee table.
Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, falling across the light-colored floorboards.
His vision was still blurry, but he knew clearly...
He was back.
Morning of the tenth day.
He let out a trembling breath.
Finally...
He was back.
Sitting on the sofa, he found himself momentarily dazed.
He couldn't help it.
The last loop had simply been too much.
Saving Sister An Lian, the gunshot, tearing apart the fate collar, then getting trapped in that pixelated maze with Liguang...
Living there for a full hundred days.
And then...
Fang Qi raised a hand and rubbed his brow.
His head still felt heavy.
And then his Liguang had taken the initiative to end it all, bringing him back.
Good girl.
But she must be in pain right now.
She must be really uncomfortable.
So...
Fang Qi took a deep breath...
He needed to comfort her!
He had to tell her that everything she'd speculated was just her overactive imagination!
It didn't exist at all!
He had never been controlled by anyone!
And then he'd give her a grand gift of "eighty-two years"!
Spoil her rotten!
His gaze snapped into focus, shooting toward the other side of the coffee table!
Liguang, you...!
...Huh?
His eyes stalled.
That spot was...
Completely empty.
No silver-haired girl knelt there.
No pair of amber-and-crimson heterochromatic eyes watching him timidly either.
The coffee table was bare.
No white porcelain teacup.
Nothing at all.
...?
He blinked.
For a moment, he didn't quite register.
Huh?
Where was Liguang...
Where had she gone?
Hm...?
Fang Qi was slightly stunned.
This wasn't right, was it?
Every reload, every time he woke from death, wasn't she supposed to be kneeling across from the coffee table, hands clasped around that white porcelain teacup...
"Master, your tea."
"Temperature adjusted to the 52 degrees Celsius you prefer."
Wasn't she supposed to say that?
"...Liguang?"
Fang Qi called out softly, almost subconsciously.
No response.
The living room was terrifyingly silent.
Only the occasional car horn from outside the window broke through.
Fang Qi stared blankly at the empty spot behind the coffee table.
He sat alone on the sofa, utterly isolated.
No one beside him.
No one across from him.
Nowhere...
No one...?
No one!
His heart stopped!
He shot to his feet!!
"Liguang?!"
The shout tore out of him!
His own voice didn't even sound like his!
What's going on?!!
He lunged toward the coffee table, toward the spot where she should have been kneeling!
"THUD!"
His knees slammed hard into the wooden floor, but Fang Qi barely registered the pain.
He lowered his head, staring at his own empty hands...
Then looked at the spotless floor in front of him.
...?
He was utterly frozen.
Wait...
Normally...
It was always her who threw herself at him, the one seated on the sofa.
Every reload, she'd fling herself into his arms, rubbing her cheek against his chest.
This time it was him lunging toward her, but...
He'd grabbed nothing but air?
Wait...!
His eyes snapped into focus!
No!
It must be—
Just now, while he'd been lost in thought, Liguang had hidden herself!
Yes!
That was it!
This little yandere loved playing games like this!
Hadn't she done it before?
After he reloaded, she'd pretended to lose her memory, saying things like "Master, whatever are you talking about?" and he'd nearly scared himself to death!
This had to be the same!
"Liguang...!"
Fang Qi stood up, his breathing unsteady, forcing a smile at the corner of his lips.
"Don't scare your master, okay?"
"Come out!"
He slowly turned his head, scanning the empty living room.
"Are you afraid of being punished?"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to punish you!"
His voice rose.
But no one answered.
Talking as he walked, he headed toward the kitchen and pushed the door open.
Empty.
"Come out, I won't punish you, I really won't!"
He walked toward the balcony and pulled open the curtains.
No one there.
"I had a great time during this hundred days! So I'll let you off this time!"
"Come out, please... okay...?"
His voice was beginning to tremble.
Hey...
Liguang, my wife...
Where the hell are you...!
Don't... Please don't...!
His movements grew faster, more frantic!
Behind the sofa!
Under the coffee table!
Beside the storage rack!
Inside the trash can!
Nothing!
Nothing anywhere!
No!
Impossible!
He spun around and charged straight for Liguang's room!
"Liguang, are you hiding in—!"
He pushed the door open with force!
And then...
His hand froze mid-air.
Because...
He saw a slightly cluttered study.
A bookshelf stood against the wall, crammed full of books and miscellaneous items at crooked angles.
A desk sat by the window, covered with a few scattered documents and a perfectly ordinary-looking desktop computer.
In the corner were several cardboard boxes filled with old magazines.
...But there was no charging pod.
There was no silver-white charging case with its cold metallic gleam.
And no trace of those little items of Liguang’s that Fang Qi knew so well…
The transparent box where she kept her little stars at night.
The maintenance manual she would occasionally leaf through.
The old toothbrush he’d secretly kept after she’d used it…
All gone.
Fang Qi stood frozen in the doorway.
This…
Ah!
He remembered!
Fang Qi snapped back to his senses!
Hadn’t Liguang taken her charging case into his room before?!
Back when she still lacked a sense of security, she’d kept moving the charging case into his bedroom, wanting to be closer to him.
But that was… from several loops ago, wasn’t it?
…Like hell it was!
That was this loop!
It had to be this loop!
He spun around and charged toward his own room!
Throwing the door open!
And then…
Standing at the threshold of his own room, his gaze trembled.
His hand slowly fell.
Eventually, it drooped completely limp.
Sure enough…
The familiar master bedroom.
The bed was made perfectly neat, a simple lamp sat on the nightstand, and the pale curtains were half drawn.
But something was wrong.
No, this was wrong…
He remembered.
This bedroom hadn’t looked like this before.
It was supposed to be…
His and Liguang’s wedding chamber.
That night, she’d been dressed in red, and under the moonlight, she’d shifted from black hair and black eyes back to silver hair and mismatched pupils, and she’d asked him to take her.
By the next morning, the tenth morning…
The bed still had the bright red bedding, and the wedding characters on the window still shimmered gold in the sunlight.
She’d arranged all of it herself.
The two of them had never taken it down.
But…
This wasn’t it.
There were none of the “bridal chamber” decorations she’d so carefully set up.
This wasn’t his and Liguang’s wedding room.
This bedroom, right now…
It was just an ordinary bedroom, the kind a man lived in alone.
…And there was no charging case here either.
Nothing.
Nothing…!
Fang Qi’s breathing grew rapid!
It’s all gone!
Why…?
Why?!
It was as if…
All traces of her existence had been wiped clean from this world!?
"Liguang?!"
He rushed into the room and yanked open the wardrobe!
…Her clothes weren’t there.
"Liguang, where are you?!"
He threw himself at the nightstand and tore open the drawer!
None of her little trinkets there either.
He dashed back to Liguang’s room—the room that had become a study—and began frantically ransacking everything!
He pulled book after book off the shelves and hurled them to the floor!
He yanked open the desk drawers and turned them upside down!
He threw open the cardboard boxes in the corner, and inside…
Only yellowed old magazines and overdue bills.
He slapped his palm against the walls, searching for any hidden compartment or secret panel!
Nothing!
He charged into the kitchen!
The fridge held only ingredients for one—himself.
The stove was spotless.
By the sink…
The little strawberry-patterned apron she always wore was gone too.
In the cabinet, the tea leaves she’d prepared for him—gone!
Nothing!
Nothing!!!
Not a single trace!!!
He couldn’t find any evidence that Liguang had ever existed here!
He yanked out his phone!
The photos they’d taken together…
Also gone.
The contact name "future wife" in his address book…
Vanished.
The recording he’d secretly made of her stammering "O-…Old…Old hubby…" was gone too.
Ah…
That recording shouldn’t have existed anyway…
That wasn’t part of this loop…
But… but…!
Thud.
The phone slipped from his hand and hit the coffee table.
Fang Qi’s legs gave out…
He collapsed onto the living room floor.
Sunlight poured over him…
But his hands and feet were ice-cold and stiff.
That chill seeped out from the very core of his being.
And no matter what, he couldn’t shake it off.
Why…?
Liguang was as if… she had never existed at all.
Gone.
She was gone…
Why…!?!
That madwoman who had walked with him through countless loops and had kept him all to herself for a full hundred days inside the labyrinth…
Suddenly… she just…?!
He felt a surge of madness flooding up from his mind!
Slamming against his temples, making them throb violently!
"Hah—hah—!"
His breathing grew even more ragged!
Something inside his chest was swelling violently, straining against his ribs, aching unbearably!
He clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms!
No…!
She couldn’t just not exist!
She must have been trapped by something!
It had to be that "Eyes of the World" doing this!
It had to be!
He had to find her…!
He had to find her!!!
He—!!!
Ring—!
The phone on the coffee table suddenly rang!
A familiar ringtone.
Sharp and jarring.
Fang Qi flinched violently!
That thread about to snap… got yanked back by the sound of the ringtone.
He slowly turned his head, staring blankly at the phone still buzzing on the table.
A name flashed on the screen.
[An Lian]
…Sister An Lian.
Ah…!
Fang Qi’s pupils shrank!
Right!
Sister An Lian!
And Lin Xiaoyou!
They had just been rescued!
They were still key NPCs who had memories across loops!
They might know something!
Even if they didn’t, they could team up, and together they could go find Liguang!
He scrambled to his feet and lunged for the coffee table!
Grabbing the phone, his finger slammed onto the answer button!
"Sister An Lian!"
"Hello, Xiao Qi?"
The voice on the other end was cool, yet carried a hint of warmth.
…It was Sister An Lian’s voice!
She was alive again!
And she would definitely help him!
Don’t panic, don’t panic, just calm down, just…!
"Sister An Lian, Liguang is gone!"
"She’s gone, I don’t know why!"
Fang Qi’s mind was a complete mess!
"After the reset, she… she just vanished!"
He didn’t even know what he was saying himself!
"Her room turned into a study! Every single thing of hers is gone! Even her charging case… it’s all…!"
"Xiao Qi? Who are you talking about?"
On the other end of the line, An Lian’s voice cut him off, full of confusion.
"Li–guang…?"
"Who is that? Is she your…"
"…A new girlfriend you just met?"
…?
Fang Qi’s fingers trembled…
The phone slipped from his grasp.
Bang!
It hit the floor.
The screen was still lit.
An Lian’s voice drifted out from it, faint and intermittent.
"Xiao Qi? What’s wrong…!"
"Hey, Xiao Qi?"
"…Are you still there?!"
But Fang Qi couldn’t hear a thing anymore.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the sofa…
Slowly, he buried his head in his hands.
Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows…
Casting his shadow long across the floor.
Holding his head in his hands, he stared blankly at the phone on the ground.
It seemed…
He had lost her again.
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