I Refuse to Follow the Script

Flowers. There were always flowers. White lilies upon a grave. Blue hydrangeas beneath a willow tree. Roses scattered before a marble monument. Different places. Different people. Different endings. Yet they all smelled the same. Death. She had long forgotten how many times she had stood before graves. Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? No. More. Far more. Once, she watched the Crown Prince ascend the throne alone, his once-gentle smile hardening into something cold and distant. Once, she saw the loyal royal knight fall upon a battlefield, smiling until his final breath. Once, she held the trembling handof a mage who no longer recognized his own name Once, she listened to a priest whisper prayers he no longer believed in. Once, she reached for an assassin whose existance was slowly fading from the world itself. Once, she heard a merchant laugh loudly among a crowd, only to discovr years later that no one had attended his funeral. and every time— The world reset. She would wake once more. Sixteen years old. A noble lady. A daughter. A student. A heroine. Always a heroine. Never a person. At first, she accepted it. She smiled. She cried. She loved. She chose. She followed every path the world offered. Perhaps if she made different decisions... Perhaps if she loved harder... Perhaps if she sacrificed more... Perhaps— Nothing changed. One was saced. The others were lost. Always. She began to hate the words. Good Ending How cruel. How absurd. How selfish. How could it be good... When five others disappeared? She tried to refuse. The world corrected her. She tried to remain alone. The world pushed her toward someone. She tried to warn them. The world silnced her. She tried to remember. The world forced her to forget. But memory lingered. Like cracks beneath polished glass. Like ink bleeding through old parchment. Like a bug hidden inside a program. And so she searched. Not through books. Not through people. But through the place she was never meant to see. The place beneath the story. The place beneath fate itself. Thousands of names. Thousands of players. Thousands of inclomplete records. 87% 64% 91% 73% None of them understood. None of them stayed. None of them saw every ending. Until she found one. [JOSEPHINE RICHTER] ----------------------------------------------------- COMPLETION RATE: 100% CG COLLECTION: 100% ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED: 100% ROUTES CLEARED: 100% GOOD ENDINGS WITNESSED: 100% NEUTRAL ENDINGS WITNESSED: 100% BAD ENDINGS WITNESSED: 100% -------------------------------------------------------- She stared. For a very long time. Someome had done it. Someone had seen everything. Every smile. Every tragedy. Every sacrifice. Every hidden scene. Every impossible choice. And yet... She had returned. Again. And again. And again. A small laugh escaped her lips. Weak. Tired. Hopeful. "Perhaps...." "Perhaps you can do what I never could." She reached toward the glowing name. The world trembled. Warnings echoed. Errors spread. The System finally noticed her existence. Too late. "I'm sorry." "For dragging you into this." "But I..." "I want them to live." She smiled. For the first time in countless resets. "Please..." "Break our story." And somewhere far away— A girl sitting before a screen clicked. ----------------START GAME-----------------