QT: I hijacked a harem system and now I'm ruining every plot(GL)-Chapter 112: Hurt

Chapter 112 - Daphne POV

We only make it a few steps before the world tilts violently beneath me. Pain crashes into me like a tidal wave. My knees buckle, and I hit the ground with a thud that feels far away.

My breath catches, sharp and shallow. Then I taste blood.

"Daphne!"

Evelyn’s voice cuts through the fog, raw and terrified. But I can’t answer. My mouth opens, but all I manage is another gasp as blood drips from the corner of my lips, staining the dust below.

It feels like something is crushing me from the inside out. My muscles convulse, nerves set ablaze with a pain far more brutal than anything I’ve felt before—worse than the backlash from punching Jiang Wei, worse than the migraine that followed veering from the script. This is punishment. Severe, irreversible.

I can’t focus.

[Host! Host, please!]

The system’s voice is frantic, blue lights blinking like a dying pulse across the edge of my vision.

[You weren’t supposed to interfere like that! That was a full break. Not deviation—destruction!]

My ears are ringing. Evelyn drops beside me, cradling my head in her lap.

"Daphne? Daphne, please look at me. Please...!"

Her hands are shaking, her voice cracking as she strokes the hair back from my face. I try to smile. I really do. But it feels like every part of me is being torn apart atom by atom.

[System error. Host integrity at 17%. Recalibrating plot parameters... attempting rollback.]

I choke, hard, another spatter of red against Evelyn’s skirts.

"You’re going to be okay," she says, but she sounds like she doesn’t believe it. Her hand is pressed hard against my chest like she can hold me here, keep me tethered.

I want to tell her I’d do it again. That I’d hit him again. That I’d choose her a thousand times over.

But all that escapes is a whisper, ragged and hoarse:

"I’m sorry."

She shakes her head immediately, fierce and devastated. "Don’t you dare. Don’t you apologize. You protected me. You—"

My vision dims. Her voice warps like it’s underwater. The last thing I see clearly is her face, streaked with tears, as the system voice fades to static.

I’m underwater, in an ocean of pain. I try to swim up, try to reach her, but it hurts—it hurts so fucking much. The agony latches onto every nerve, every memory, like fire licking through my veins.

Then—

Voices.

Loud, arguing.

I force myself to claw toward the surface of it. I don’t know how I do it. Maybe it’s the sound of her voice. Maybe it’s the knowledge that she’s near.

Maybe it’s him.

When my eyes snap open, I see him again—Cedric, dragging her by the wrist, pulling her away like he owns her, like nothing’s changed.

The fucking bastard.

My body moves before I can even think. Every limb screams, but I lurch to my feet. I get to her. I shove him back. Hard.

He stumbles. Falls. The sheer shock on his face almost makes it worth it.

Almost.

But not quite.

I kick him. Again. And again. My foot slams into his ribs, his shoulder, his gut—I don’t care. I want him gone. Gone from her.

Evelyn yells something—I can’t hear her over the blood roaring in my ears.

I grab her wrist, the same one he was holding, and pull her back toward me, shielding her with my body even as mine begins to buckle again.

I only get a few steps before I’m on my knees once more. The weight crushes me like a landslide. I can feel it—the punishment, the backlash, the universe gnawing on my spine like it’s offended I dared fight fate.

Ha.

Of course. Of course this world wouldn’t let me touch the main character’s golden throne. Not without cost.

Blood pours from my mouth again, soaking the front of my shirt, staining Evelyn’s hand where she tries to steady me.

Still—I don’t regret it.

I’d do it again.

Again and again and again.

Even if the universe ripped me apart for it.

Even if this body turned to dust in her arms.

Haaa... It hurts so much.

It feels like my bones are grinding against each other, like fire has taken up residence in my lungs. My hands shake as I try to hold onto something—anything—but the world is spinning, slipping away.

Evelyn is saying something, her voice cracked with panic, but I can’t make out the words. My ears ring too loudly. Her hands are on my face, trying to keep me anchored, trying to keep me here, and gods I want to stay.

I want to stay so badly.

Her forehead touches mine.

"Stay with me," she whispers.

And I—

I want to say yes.

But the pain—the pain is a scream echoing through my entire being. My vision whites out, my body folding under a force I can’t see, and I feel it again—that ocean, that darkness, swallowing me whole.

But even now, even sinking—

I’d do it again.

The world tilts. My stomach turns. My fingers are cold but everything else is burning. This body—my body—it’s failing me. Like the system is peeling me back from the inside out.

I see Evelyn’s face, barely, blurry through the haze. She’s crying. She’s crying because of me.

"No—" I try to lift my hand to her cheek, but it falls like dead weight.

[HOST—]

The system’s voice is static, garbled.

I think it’s panicking too.

If this is the cost of loving her, of protecting her, then so be it.

Let it take me.

Let it tear me apart.

I’d still do it again.

Because she’s worth every bruise, every shattered rib, every drop of blood staining the earth.

Because she is mine—and no god, no system, no cursed protagonist will ever take her from me again.

Again?

Again?

***

Evelyn POV

I don’t understand anything.

What’s going on.

One moment she was beside me—steady, strong, holding my hand—and now she’s on her knees, her body trembling like a string pulled taut.

"Daphne," I whisper, then louder, "Daphne!"

She doesn’t respond.

Her face is pale, her eyes unfocused, lips stained red with blood. I drop beside her, catching her shoulders, shaking her slightly.

"No, no, no—look at me," I say, my voice cracking.

"Please, love, please look at me."

She reaches for me with shaking hands, and I grab them, clutching them to my chest like I can hold her here by sheer will alone.

Her breath comes in shallow gasps, and I can feel her strength draining like a bucket with a hole in it.