Chapter 196: Gamified Life
The glare stuttered along his cuffs, sketching thin bars of radiance that crawled over the immaculate fabric before bleeding into the blank horizon.
His lenses glinted red and blue, his grin unchanged, as if Elias’s sacrifice were just another rule in the system’s game.
Nothing in his posture hinted at reverence—only practiced poise, like a presenter waiting for the next slide to load.
"Take it, Kikaru," he urged again, voice smooth, almost sincere, the shard hovering above her cupped palms. "He gave you this chance—don’t waste it."
The words drifted between them, bright and hollow, echoing off the colorless sky until they sounded like the instructions printed on a test form: choose, submit, proceed.
She didn’t look at him. Her gaze stayed on Elias, on the fading outline of his body, the blood drying at the corner of his mouth, the echo of his grin frozen on lips that were no longer there.
Every flicker of torchlight passed straight through him now, turning muscle to mist, certainty to suggestion.
Her fingers trembled, the shard pieces digging deeper into her palms, as his words echoed in her mind: There’s very few people I’d trust with her. You’re one of them.
The memory hit like a dull blade—no sharp shock, just relentless pressure—until her shoulders rounded, trying and failing to guard the ache spreading beneath her ribs.