After the Countdown
To stay by the side of award-winning actress Victoria Quinn, I gave up the system's one-billion-dollar cash reward.
I also drained every last one of my luck points to make her paralyzed legs heal.
The price was that my life became bound to her loyalty.
If she ever betrayed me, emotionally or physically, my soul would be ripped from my body and erased completely.
At the moment of binding, I hesitated.
But when I looked into her eyes and saw the depth of her love, I believed her.
I believed her when she said, "Out of all the people in the world, I only want you."
So I chose to become the man who stood silently behind her, giving everything without complaint, and I pressed confirm.
For seven years, we loved each other as deeply as we had in the beginning. Hand in hand, we weathered every storm together.
Until our wedding anniversary.
I was in the kitchen making her favorite soup when I suddenly coughed violently and spat out a large pool of black blood.
Then I looked down and saw my fingers slowly turning transparent, so faint that I could no longer even touch the glass in front of me.
At the same time, a piercing alarm rang through my mind.
"Warning. Bound target's love value has fallen below the critical threshold. Erasure protocol activated..."