Chapter 2

The one-man show that I'd been performing for more than 20 years finally came to an end right then and there.

I knew that I wasn't going to get a reply to that message I'd just sent. After all, the only two people whom I knew would always stand by me forever had already left this world a long time ago.

It was just as Cherie often told her friends.

"Victor can never leave me. My parents are so good to him, and he also said that he doesn't have anyone else aside from me."

She was right. She remembered everything. I had indeed treated her as the only person I had left in this world.

But she'd forgotten that those words were originally a promise and a testament to my love for her. Now, they had simply become a way for her to mock me.

When Mom and Dad first passed away, Cherie was the first person who found me. She stayed by my side and kept a silent vigil all night long amidst the carnage of that horrific car accident. And when I finally collapsed, she used her slender frame to carry me on her back, step by step, all the way home under the starry sky.

Later on, no matter how often I painted the night sky, there was no canvas I could produce that could ever rival the beauty of that night.

Perhaps I should have stopped gazing upward like that a long time ago.

I lowered my head and quietly booked a plane ticket.

Even now, I still wanted one last look at the person whom I'd spent a majority of my life chasing. I wanted to see exactly when I had become a burden she was desperate to shake off.

At the very least, I wanted to know why she was forcing me to pave the way for someone else's life with my own death.

…

"Victor, the target is right here."

The new system gave me one final bit of help before I left the city. It granted my wish and allowed me to run into Cherie just outside her office building.

However, Cherie didn't notice me. She was still chatting with her companion, and the conversation topic had somehow gradually shifted to me.

Her best friend, Erica Nolan, asked, "So, have you finally decided to marry your childhood sweetheart, Victor Pearson? When is the wedding going to be? You're going to have to invite a huge crowd to make it as lively an affair as possible! You know, I haven't really seen you smile much ever since Max Wheeler passed away—"

"Don't use him to test me like that," Cherie said with a frown, pressing her lips into a thin, displeased line. "I will never forget him."

Erica paused for a moment. Then, she sneered as her expression hardened.

"You had better not forget him. Max stood by you so faithfully all those years, and he even lost his life because he loved you so much. And where were you when he needed you? Tending to your jealous childhood sweetheart on that snowy, blizzardy day.

"You will always owe him, Cherie!"

Cherie went silent.

I hid behind the wall, quietly listening to everything they said.

So, his name was Max Wheeler.

I suddenly recalled the system telling me that he was Cherie's true love, and that he was also going to be the one taking over my body.

Apparently, Max had been tied to a system too, and he was also playing a character whose mission was to confess and marry the target, Cherie. However, he had died after failing his mission, and now, his soul was parasitically attached to me, waiting to be reborn.

It was precisely because Cherie had colluded with my original System to implant his soul inside me that my original System had malfunctioned and collapsed.

I watched with a heavy heart as Cherie and Erica walked away, still chatting with each other. I then gazed up into the bright, blue sky and felt a truly visceral sense of solitary despair for the first time ever.

I wondered how Cherie was feeling now.

From what I'd heard, she didn't defend me in front of Erica. She just remained silent, lost in the memories of the man she'd lost.

I supposed she was hoping that I would die soon.

I remembered that snowy day from three years ago. It wasn't just the heaviest snowfall that I'd ever seen. It was also the day that I'd come the closest to death.