Chapter 5: Ghost in the System

Suddenly, my heart felt hollow, like I’d stepped off a ledge. A wave of weightlessness swept over me.

Before I could process this weird emotion, several lines of white text flashed rapidly across my vision—

[A new strategist has appeared.]

[In the last ten years, I’ve lost count—dozens? Hundreds?]

[The system is terrified of the villain, afraid he’ll torch the world if he’s unhappy.]

[So it keeps trying to throw people at him.]

[But the villain only loves his late wife.]

[All these years, the system’s sent in stand-ins by the dozen.]

[Some look like her, some act like her, some even come with all her memories...]

The snow muffled the city around me. Somewhere, a bell rang—a distant train or a church marking the hour. I felt less like a person and more like someone watching my own life from behind glass, the chat scrolling like a cruel ticker at the bottom of a news channel.