Unfinished draft, I’ll look at it later!

——

The System was stunned as well. It seemed to want to say something, yet didn’t know what to say. [Host...]

Shen Tang just let out a soft laugh. "No need to rush to explain. I know—you bound yourself to me for the sake of an experiment too."

Her voice was very soft, as if it would be blown away by the wind in the next second, yet it was piercingly clear, as though it had seen through many things. "Even though I don’t know why you helped me so much, even went so far as to rebel against the Main System for me, after all this time, I’ve slowly come to understand a lot."

"From the moment I was born, I’ve never known who my parents were. Even when I tried to search for information about them when I was little, those so-called parents were like they didn’t exist in this world at all, leaving no trace of information behind."

"I do have nineteen years’ worth of memories from a previous life. In my recollections there were clearly familiar friends and so many experiences, yet for some reason, whenever I tried to think about them carefully, those memories felt both clear and blurry. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t recall many details. It was like watching someone else’s movie—so familiar yet so foreign to me, to the point that it filled me with an indescribable fear..."

"I suddenly realized that all those past memories might be fake, just information someone implanted into this brain of mine, just like with that No. 3 experimental subject—thinking they were real memories when they were all false..."

"It suddenly made sense. Turns out, I am that No. 2 experimental subject."

"Why don’t I have parents? Because my memories were fake to begin with. Since they’re just irrelevant fabricated memories, of course the simpler the better. Only by removing the closest blood ties would they be less likely to be exposed."

She gave a self-mocking smile. "So when you first bound yourself to me, System, I wasn’t some lucky one-in-a-million chosen one at all, and it wasn’t any sudden death from staying up late. I’m just like Shen Qingli and that No. 3 experimental subject—we’re nothing but lab rats in a laboratory."

"That so-called ’original plot’ is just another stretch of fake memory, right? Set up with the variables of heroine and side heroine, forcing them to slaughter each other according to different life scripts... What kind of satisfying answer is this experiment trying to achieve, exactly?"

Shen Tang slowly said a lot. The System was so shocked it couldn’t utter a word. So she had already figured it all out.

A System that by program design shouldn’t have emotions was now crying even harder. [I—I never wanted to harm the host, wuwuwu. A lot of programs were set by the Main System before, I had no way to resist them, and no permission to know they were violations. But I really did want to help the host...]

Hearing it cry so sadly, Shen Tang could only smile helplessly. Instead, she had to turn around and comfort it. "It’s okay, I don’t blame you."

The System didn’t have a physical body, but Shen Tang’s spiritual power seemed to fall upon that cluster of nothingness—those illusory data in her sea of consciousness. She gently patted it and said sincerely, "What I want to say is, thank you for always staying by my side. Even though you can be pretty noisy sometimes, and I’ve secretly complained about you in my heart, I’m really grateful to you."

"Thank you for walking this road with me."

"From the beginning to the end, and also for staying with me as I walk this last stretch."

[Awooo, host, I don’t want to leave you.] The System cried even more miserably. It didn’t know what to do. The host’s Life Value had completely dropped to the limit of the red line, but it could only watch her vitality ebb away, unable to stop her.

Shen Tang looked up at the sky again. Death on the battlefield continued without pause. Lu Xiao and the others were desperately fighting against the Alien Star army, but in the end, they were at the end of their strength. If one person’s life could be traded for victory on the battlefield and the survival of millions, would that be a worthwhile deal?

Of course, it would be worth it. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Her gaze was firm and burning, carrying a relieved smile. "If my existence was created from the very beginning, if I was never meant to exist in this world at all, then tell me, System—shouldn’t I at least leave behind something meaningful so this trip won’t have been in vain?"

[Host, don’t do anything stupid!]

She shook her head. "I’m not doing anything stupid. I’m thinking very clearly. You know I’m someone who clings to life and fears death. I’m very clear on what I’m doing right now."

"I don’t want to be an experimental subject controlled by some invisible big hand. I have things I truly want to do, and I have a true meaning to my existence—not just the meaning of being an experimental subject."