Chapter 20 – The Dream Ends

【Fred PoV】

Everything hurts.

My body feels distant, like someone else is wearing my skin and reporting back through a bad phone connection. There’s warmth spreading across my chest, wet and sticky. Blood, probably. My blood. The thought floats through my mind without weight, without meaning.

But none of that matters.

Because I can see her.

Sylvia sits against the wall, bathed in golden afternoon light that makes her look like an angel. Her hair catches the sun, shimmering like silk. Her face is peaceful, serene, exactly how I always imagined she’d look when she finally understood. When she finally saw how much I loved her.

A window flickers into existence above her head, glowing blue and perfect.

《 Sylvia’s Affection: Maximum ♡♡♡♡♡ 》

See? The system confirms it. She loves me. She’s always loved me. We just needed time, needed the right circumstances. All those years of friendship were just the tutorial phase, building up to this moment where everything makes sense.​

The window glitches.

Static runs through the text, corrupting the hearts into broken symbols. The blue glow turns sickly purple, pulsing like a dying heartbeat. I blink hard, trying to clear my vision. Just fatigue. Just the pain messing with my head.

《 S̴y̵l̶v̴i̵a̷’̶s̴ ̵A̸f̴f̷e̶c̴t̵i̴o̷n̵:̸ ̶E̷R̴R̵O̷R̴ 》

No.

No, that’s wrong. The system’s malfunctioning. It has to be. I did everything right. I followed the quest line perfectly. Confess to the childhood friend, prove your devotion, overcome the obstacles. Standard protagonist route.​

Another window spawns, this one larger, demanding attention.

《 MAIN QUEST: Win Sylvia’s Heart 》
《 STATUS: FAILED 》
《 REASON: Target psychology incompatible with user parameters 》

My chest tightens, and not from the physical pain.

Failed? That’s impossible. I can see her right there, smiling at me. She’s been smiling for days now, laughing at my jokes, holding my hand. We’re together. We’re finally together.

The world tilts sideways.

Someone’s kneeling beside me, a figure in a mask. White porcelain, plain and emotionless. I try to focus on him, try to place where I’ve seen that outline before. Something familiar in the way he moves, the casual confidence.

Wait.

“You’re… Alfred…”

My voice comes out wrong, garbled and weak. But I know him. The nice man from the forest, the one who helped me when I first arrived in this world. He gave me directions, told me where to find help. He was kind when everything was confusing and terrifying.​

“You came back. You came to help.”

Relief floods through my broken body. Alfred’s here. He’ll fix this. He’ll explain why the system’s acting weird, why everything hurts, why there’s so much red on my hands.

“We can have the wedding now, right? You can officiate. Sylvia and I, we’re ready.”

Alfred doesn’t respond immediately. He’s doing something with his hands, holding something that catches the light. A blade, maybe? Probably ceremonial. For the wedding.

“Fred.”

His voice is different from how I remember. Quieter. Sadder.

“The other hero never came. You were playing single-player in a co-op game, kid.”

I don’t understand. Other hero? Co-op game? My friend, the one who got separated from me during the summoning. He means my friend.​

“He’ll show up eventually. We can wait. Sylvia doesn’t mind waiting.”

“Look at her, Fred. Really look.”

Something in his tone makes me obey. I turn my head, ignoring the screaming pain in my neck. Sylvia’s still there, still sitting against the wall. Still beautiful. Still perfect.

But.

But there’s something wrong with her eyes. They’re open, staring at nothing. Her smile isn’t reaching them. Her hands rest limply in her lap, fingers bent at odd angles like someone posed a doll and forgot to adjust properly.

A crack forms in my vision, spreading like fractured glass.

“She loves me…”

“She’s gone, kid.”

“No. No, she told me she loved me. She said—”

“You made her say it.”

The crack widens, and suddenly I can see through it. Past the golden light, past the perfect fantasy. The city behind Sylvia isn’t whole. It’s rubble. Smoking, collapsed buildings stretching in every direction. Bodies in the streets. Blood on the cobblestones.

Another system window appears, red this time, flashing urgently.

《 WARNING: Hypnosis Self-Target Detected 》
《 EFFECT: Reality Distortion Level 9 》
《 DURATION: 147 hours 》
《 RECOMMENDATION: Immediate dispel before permanent psychological damage 》

My hypnosis. I’d been using it on myself. Rewriting my own perception to make everything fit the narrative I wanted. Making myself believe Sylvia loved me, that we were happy, that none of the screaming mattered.​

The window shatters.

Everything floods in at once.

The real Sylvia, empty and broken. The people I’d controlled, forced to destroy their own homes. The guards who’d tried to stop me, now buried under stone. The parents holding their children’s bodies. The fires. The screaming. The blood.

So much blood.

“Oh god.”

My voice breaks, horror crushing my chest harder than any physical wound.

“What did I do?”

Alfred’s mask stares down at me, impassive and final.

“You threw a tantrum. And a lot of people paid for it.”

The guilt hits like a tsunami. I can see their faces now, all the people I’d hypnotized. They’d fought me at first, begged me to stop, pleaded that Sylvia didn’t want this. But I hadn’t listened. I’d cranked up the power, forced them to obey, made them smile while they committed atrocities in my name.

Because I couldn’t accept the truth.

Sylvia had rejected me. Gently, kindly, but firmly. She’d tried to explain that she saw me as a brother, that her heart belonged to someone else. And I’d snapped. I’d used my power to rewrite her mind, to turn her into the perfect girlfriend who existed only in my delusions.​

I’d killed her.

Not her body, but everything that made her Sylvia. I’d murdered the girl I claimed to love and replaced her with a puppet.

Tears mix with the blood on my face, hot and bitter.

“Where is she?”

I don’t know if I’m asking about my friend, the one who got separated, or the real Sylvia, the one who existed before I destroyed her. Maybe both. Maybe neither matters anymore.

Alfred’s hand rests on my chest, right above my heart. The blade in his other hand glows faintly, humming with purpose.​

“Resting.”

His voice is quiet, almost gentle. There’s no anger in it, no judgment. Just tired acceptance, like a janitor mopping up after a particularly messy accident.

“This is going to be quick. You won’t feel it.”

I should be scared. Should be fighting, begging, trying to activate one more hypnosis spell to save myself. But I don’t. The weight of what I’ve done presses down on me, heavier than stone, heavier than the entire ruined city.

“I just wanted her to love me.”

“I know, kid.”

The blade moves, sliding between my ribs with surgical precision. There’s no pain, just a sudden coldness spreading from my chest. My vision starts to fade, the edges going dark.

The system windows are dying with me, flickering and corrupting.

《 User Status: Critical 》
《 HP: 3… 2… 1… 》
《 Soul Integrity: Failing 》

Sylvia’s face appears in my fading vision, but it’s the real Sylvia. The one from before. She’s laughing at something her boyfriend said, happy and whole. She’s looking at me with friendship in her eyes, uncomplicated and genuine.

That should have been enough.

Why wasn’t that enough?

The last thing I see is Alfred’s mask, that blank porcelain face that could mean anything or nothing. Behind him, the sky is turning orange with sunset. Or maybe that’s just the fires still burning.

I try to say something, maybe an apology, maybe just her name one more time. But my voice is gone. My body is gone. Everything is gone.

The final system window appears, stark white text on black background.

《 User Disconnected 》
《 Story Arc: Failed 》
《 Character Status: Deceased 》
《 Final Message: You were never the protagonist 》

Then nothing.

Just quiet, sad, and quick.​

The dream ends.