Coherence: 99/100
Quest: ☐ SURVIVE THE PROLOGUE
Threat: High Priestess Lysara — Starfall Requiem (87% charged)
Jin didn't wait.
He lunged—not at Lysara, but sideways, rolling behind a toppled pillar. Stone exploded where he'd stood a heartbeat later. Shards sliced his forearm. Warm blood dripped onto the journal at his hip.
[MINOR INJURY — HP: 94/100]
WARNING: NO REGEN. HEALING REQUIRES NARRATIVE JUSTIFICATION (E.G., "REST," "POTION," "CHARACTER MOMENT")
No regen? Of course not. Real stakes. Real consequences.
Lysara floated forward, untouched by debris. Her golden eyes scanned him—not with rage, but curiosity. Like a scholar examining a glitch in sacred text.
"You wear the Mark," she said, voice softer now. "But you're not him. The Protagonist was… passionate. Reckless. Full of destiny." Her lip curled. "You smell of… coffee. And resignation."
Jin wiped blood on his armor. "Occupational hazard."
He opened the journal.
Blank pages—except the first.
At the top, in neat, clinical script (his own handwriting, impossibly), it read:
ARCHIVAL NOTES — STORYVERSE #7743
TITLE: ETERNAL THRONE OF THE STAR-EATER
STATUS: REJECTED — DRAFT 4
REJECTION REASONS:
Overpowered MC (soloed final boss before inciting incident)Zero emotional arc"Star-Eater" lore inconsistent (is it a god? a weapon? a metaphor? Pick one.)CRITICAL: Prologue deleted due to "narrative redundancy" (Ch.1–3 summarized in 2 paragraphs of exposition)
FINAL NOTE:"If the prologue's so skippable, why not let the reader skip it? — J.M."
Jin's stomach dropped.
He'd written this.
Three months ago. With red ink in the margin: "Just start at the collapse. No one cares about the prophecy dream."
And now?
The prologue was alive. And it wanted revenge.
Lysara raised her hands again. Runes flared. "The Author abandoned this world. Left us mid-sentence. We are unresolved." Her voice cracked. "Do you know what it's like… to exist in a draft folder? To hear the click of 'Delete'—and not fade?"
Jin hesitated.
This wasn't a boss fight.
It was a tragedy.
[NARRATIVE SENSE TRIGGERED]
DETECTED: "VILLAIN MONOLOGUE" (HIGH YIELD)
— Potential for exposition, world-building, or opening to strike.
— Caution: Overuse may reduce emotional impact. (Tropes remaining: 2/3 this chapter.)
He exhaled.
Fine. Let's play by the rules.
"Why keep this place running?" he asked, stalling. "If the story's dead… why not let it end?"
Lysara smiled—sad, ancient. "Because endings require closure. And the Author gave us none." She gestured to the broken palace. "This was the Prologue Arena. Where the Chosen One would prove his worth, receive his blessing… and learn of the Star-Eater's return."
She paused.
"But the Author cut it. Said it 'slowed the pace'."
Her voice hardened.
"So we waited. For years. In the silence. Until the collapse began… and the System, desperate, reached for any narrative anchor."
Her gaze locked onto his pen.
"It found you."
A chime echoed—soft, final.
[STARFALL REQUIEM — CHARGED]
IMPACT IMMINENT
Jin's pulse spiked.
No time for diplomacy.
He flipped the journal. Scrawled on the next page—already there, as if pre-written—was a crude map of the courtyard. A red X marked a spot behind the throne dais.
And beside it, in his own handwriting:
"If things go south: Check the 'skipped cutscene' cache. — Past You (probably)"
Past me?
He risked a glance.
The throne—shattered, half-buried—lay 20 meters away. Between him and it: open ground. Lysara. And a countdown in his vision:
3… 2…
He ran.
Not away.
Through her.
Lysara's eyes widened. "Fool! You can't—"
Jin didn't attack.
He edited.
Pen to air, he slashed a single word in midair—red ink hanging like a neon sign:
FLASHBACK
The world stuttered.
Like a video buffering.
Lysara froze mid-gesture. The glowing runes dimmed.
[NARRATIVE INTERVENTION: "FLASHBACK" — SUCCESS]
COST: 3 COHERENCE (96/100)
EFFECT: 5-SECOND TEMPORAL PAUSE (LOCALIZED)
WARNING: FLASHBACK CONTENT NOT PRE-LOADED. GENERATING FROM CONTEXT…
Jin didn't wait to see what the "flashback" showed. He sprinted.
Stone crunched underfoot. Blood slicked his grip on the pen.
He reached the throne.
Dug into the rubble.
His fingers closed around something cold, metallic.
A key.
Not ornate. Just iron. Rust-speckled. On its bow, etched in tiny letters:
"PROLOGUE — MASTER OVERRIDE"
[ITEM ACQUIRED: SKIPPED CUTSCENE KEY]
USES: 1
EFFECT: UNLOCKS DELETED CONTENT (RISK: NARRATIVE CONTAMINATION)
Behind him, reality snapped back.
Lysara gasped, staggering. "You… you forced a flashback? But only the Author can—"
Jin turned. Held up the key.
Her face went pale. "No. Not that. That's—"
[SYSTEM ALERT]
DELETED CONTENT DETECTED
INITIATING PROLOGUE RECOVERY…
> WARNING: INTEGRITY COMPROMISED
The ground trembled.
Not from magic.
From corruption.
Black veins—like cracked glass—spread from the throne outward. The air warped. Sounds distorted: a child's laugh, a sword clash, a weeping voice whispering "Why did you leave us?"—all overlapping, out of sync.
The two moons flickered—silver to static, crimson to error-red.
[COHERENCE DROP: 96 → 89]
CAUSE: NARRATIVE CONTAMINATION (DELETED PROLOGUE INJECTION)
Lysara fell to her knees, clutching her head. "It's coming back… all of it…"
Jin's vision blurred. His journal glowed. Pages flipped wildly—text appearing, disappearing, rewritten in real time.
A new entry formed:
ARCHIVAL UPDATE — STORYVERSE #7743
STATUS: CORRUPTED (PROLOGUE REINTEGRATING)
NEW THREAT: "THE SKIPPED"
— Manifestations of deleted scenes, characters, and exposition.
— Hostile to "canon" entities.
— Weak to justification. Strong to neglect.
Then—movement.
From the black veins, figures rose.
Not knights.
Children.
Dozens of them.
Wearing tattered ceremonial robes. Hollow-eyed. Each held a scroll—unrolled, blank.
The Protagonist's childhood friends.
The village he was supposed to save.
The mentor who was meant to die here, in the prologue, to motivate him.
All deleted. All remembering.
The nearest child stepped forward. Its voice was a chorus of whispers:
"You skipped us."
"You called us 'exposition dumps'."
"You said our deaths were 'inefficient'."
It raised the blank scroll.
"Now… justify us."
Jin's breath caught.
This wasn't a fight.
It was a test.
The pen grew warm in his hand.
Not a weapon.
A responsibility.
[QUEST UPDATED]
☐ SURVIVE THE PROLOGUE
→ ☐ JUSTIFY THE SKIPPED
FAILURE: PERMANENT DELETION (SELF + STORYVERSE)
SUCCESS: 1 ROLE POINT + CLASS UNLOCK
The children advanced.
Lysara whispered, broken: "Even the Author… never faced them."
Jin looked at the pen.
At the blank scrolls.
At the journal—still writing itself.
And for the first time since waking up in this broken world…
He didn't reach for a trope.
He reached for truth.
He uncapped the pen.
And began to write—not over reality this time.
But on the first blank page of the journal.
A new line.
A new beginning.
"Let me tell you what should have happened…"
The children paused.
The corruption stilled.
For one fragile second—
hope flickered.
Then—
[NEW ENTITY DETECTED]
NAME: ???
CLASS: [AUTHOR'S ECHO]
STATUS: OBSERVING
LOCATION: BEYOND THE FOURTH WALL
Jin's blood ran cold.
Someone was watching.
And they were not pleased.