Chapter 321

Elliot

I eat mindlessly, the food Dr. Wang has brought me in bed.

Normally, this would make me happy. Excited, even. Dr. Wang bringing me breakfast? Paying attention to me? Caring for me? That used to feel like winning.

Now I see it’s the bare minimum.

"Not to your taste?" He asks, that concerned doctor’s mask firmly in place.

"No. I just have no appetite." I force a small smile. "Thanks to last night’s activities."

From the time he brought me home from the gala, it’s been like this. Me in bed. Him hovering. Playing the perfect caretaker after sleeping with me.

I think about Daphne.

She would see me as more than just a body. More than a conquest. More than a tool to relieve desires.

Wouldn’t she?

"Do you know my favorite color?" I ask suddenly.

Dr. Wang looks up, surprised by the random question.But he recovers quickly, that confident smile spreading across his handsome face.

"Of course I do. It’s blue."

He says it like it’s fact. Like he knows me.

"You’re right." I smile back.

His smile widens, satisfied.

"May I take a shower now?" I move off the bed before he can respond.

"Of course. Take your time."

I walk to the bathroom, close the door, lock it.

Then I lean against the cool tile and close my eyes.

My favorite color is green.

Always has been. The color of leaves in spring. The color of the eyes I inherited from my mother. The color I painted my childhood bedroom before everything fell apart.

He doesn’t know me.

None of them do.

*

My head hurts.

I was walking home—just walking, minding my own business—when hands grabbed me from behind.Before I could scream, I was shoved into the back of a truck, the doors slamming shut, leaving me in darkness.

Now I blink open my eyes.

Unfamiliar place. Expensive. A plush king-sized bed beneath me, silk sheets, soft lighting. I push myself up, disoriented, heart pounding.

The door opens.

Vincent.

I should have known.

"Didn’t you miss me?" He’s smiling, but it’s wrong. His eyes are wrong. He crosses the room in three steps and grabs me, pulling me into a kiss that tastes like alcohol and desperation.

I shove him off. "You’re drunk. Let me go."

He laughs. It’s not a nice sound.

Then he rips my shirt open.

"Look at this." He grabs my arm, twisting it to show the marks;the bruises and bites Dr. Wang left over the past three days.

"I had my men wait. Did you have fun, my little omega? Three days. Not a single curl of yours was seen outside the doctor’s apartment."

"Vincent. You’re drunk. Let me go."

"Ha!" He grabs my jaw, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.

"I must have pampered you too much. How dare an Omega speak to me that way?"

He shoves me onto the bed.

I hit the mattress hard, the air knocked out of me. He’s on top of me before I can move, his weight crushing, his hands everywhere.

"I have to admit," he breathes, alcohol thick on his breath, "you’ve got quite the hold on you. Having so many Alphas wrapped around your hole. It’s my turn today, right? After all you’ve been ignoring me?"

"Let me go!"

He doesn’t budge.

My hand scrabbles against the bedside table, searching for anything—anything—and finds a lamp. Heavy. Solid.

I swing.

The first hit makes him grunt, surprise more than pain. He pulls back, hand going to his head, and I swing again. Harder.

Again.

Again.

Again.

He falls off me, and I keep swinging. I find a metal rod,the fireplace poker—and I keep hitting. Over and over. His face. His head. Over and over and over and over.

I don’t stop.

I can’t stop.

Until there’s nothing left to hit.

***

Daphne

The world stops.

For just a few seconds, everything freezes.Then it rewinds, like a video glitch, and restarts.

"Excuse me." I push back from the dinner table, ignoring the confused looks from Olga and Damien. "Not feeling well."

I make it to my room, close the door, and lean against it.

"System. Was that you?"

The purple orb shows up, flashing softly.

[No. That was the world seed.]

Then a screen appears in front of me, a holographic image playing out the scene...

Elliot. Vincent. The lamp. The poker. The blood.

So much blood.

I don’t have a response.

"Did he just...?" I can’t finish the sentence.

[Yes.]

Elliot actually killed Vincent. In a brutal, bloody, graphic way.

I watch the replay,the desperate swing of the lamp, the way Vincent’s face caves in, the poker rising and falling, rising and falling, long after any movement stopped.

Then time rewinds. Elliot drops to the floor, unconscious. Vincent stands in the doorway, alive, as if none of it happened.

I fold my arms, processing.

"So even the main character can’t kill the male leads?"

[Before the world is stabilized, none of the major core characters can die. Their fates are locked.]

"And I’m supposed to break the harem." I start pacing. "But this world needs the harem to be stable? The ending has to happen?"

[Affirmative. The happily ever after is the stabilizing event. Until it occurs, the core characters are functionally immortal.]

Well, shit.

Turns out I really underestimated this world.

"If this is a mid-tier world..." I trail off, dread curling in my stomach. "What’s waiting for me in higher-tier worlds?"

[The ending has to be stable to stabilize the world. Higher-tier worlds have more complex narrative structures and stronger resistance to deviation.]

Not comforting.

"How much longer until the whole happily-ever-after harem ending?"

[Based on original narrative trajectory: approximately eight months. However, recent deviations may accelerate or delay the timeline.]

"Well, it’s time to up the plans." I say, already moving. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

So much to do.I walk out of my bedroom, heading toward the office.

Passing by the dining room, I catch a glimpse of themOlga, Damien, the remnants of dinner. Olga looks up, concerned. Damien doesn’t even glance my way.

"Something urgent came up at work."