Chapter 1

I remember when the system first appeared, it gave me two choices: return home after completing the mission, or stay and keep accompanying the target.

Back then, I chose the latter. I thought I had plenty of time.

Now the system has placed the choice before me again. I didn't hesitate.

The rewind doesn't create disasters out of thin air. The system only cancels the changes I once bought with points and resources from my original world.

Part of Adrian's success came from his own ability. The other part came from doors I opened for him.

Once those doors close, he'll have to survive on his own.

Grayhaven's winters always carry the smell of the sea.

I stood outside The Gilded Room, watching silhouettes sway through the glass. Under the crystal chandelier, champagne glasses clinked.

The white roses I'd ordered ran down the length of the table to the far end. And at the far end stood my fiancé, Adrian Cross.

He wore the black suit I'd picked for him. Shoulders straight. Expression cold.

Those eyes had once been gray and empty, like a window that would never open. Now they reflected the light, bright enough to look almost gentle.

Tomorrow, he would announce to every guest that the bride had been changed to Sophie Miller.

Three days ago, I heard his plan with my own ears.

I was still holding the suit I'd pressed for him, standing outside his office, listening to him laugh.

"She's been with me six years. She'll figure it out eventually. Let her be happy a few more days. Call it compensation."

I didn't burst in. I didn't cry or beg him to take it back.

I just walked out to the street and woke the system that had been silent for years.

"Start the rewind now," I said. "Set the endpoint at midnight tomorrow. Take back the eyes I gave him. Return the storyline I altered to its original state."

【Confirmed. During the rewind, resources the host secured for the target will be gradually withdrawn. The target retains his memories.】

Tonight, the first partnership contract would void. Tomorrow, funding and connections would follow.

By midnight, Adrian would be back in that harbor alley eight years ago—blind, starving, with no one beside him.

I pressed a hand to my chest.

Six years ago, in another alley, I saw a blind boy kneeling by a drain, clutching a cracked bowl like his life depended on it.

I took him out of there. I stayed with him for six years. I thought I'd given him light.

Now I was taking the light back.

The banquet hall doors opened. Adrian's deputy Marcus hurried out, face pale, phone still pressed to his ear.

"The contract was canceled?" he whispered. "Impossible. Adrian signed it himself..."

I looked away and walked into the night.

【Rewind progress: three percent.】

Adrian didn't know yet. But his world had already started moving backward.

When the counter hit three percent, I received a voice message from my mother.

She was asking when I'd come home. I could hear the range hood humming in the kitchen.

I didn't play it a second time. I was afraid if I listened again, I'd change my mind before the rewind finished.

I set my phone to silent and walked along the shore toward the hotel, letting the cold wind dry my tears.

When I reached the sea, the tide was hitting the breakwater.

I thought about my parents in my original world. I thought about how I once believed I could go home just by finishing the mission.

Now I finally understood. Going home wasn't a reward the system gave me. It was a choice I had to make myself.

I set my phone to silent but still felt it vibrate. Every buzz felt like someone reminding me that my old life was still waiting.

I kept walking.

When the sea wind hit my face, I realized my hands had been shaking the whole time.

I walked into a twenty-four-hour café on the corner, ordered a black coffee, and sat by the window.

The clerk asked if I was waiting for someone. I said no.

Headlights passed one after another outside. I remembered the night I first entered the book. It was a night like this.

I used to push my wish to go home to the very end, because Adrian needed me.

Now I didn't have to put anyone's needs before my own.

I sat in the café until dawn, listening to a cleaner drag chairs across the floor.

The system notified me the rewind had entered the next phase. I didn't open the panel.

I finished my coffee and told myself the night was over.

I didn't tell anyone where the café was.

After dawn, I walked along the street for a while, confirming I could decide my own direction.

I no longer needed Adrian to hold my hand, and I no longer needed to prove I could save anyone.

I dropped my cup in the recycling bin and walked back to the hotel along the shore.

Dawn came. I still didn't look back.

I wrote my mother an email I never sent. I got as far as "I'll be home soon" and stopped.

Until the rewind finished, I didn't want anyone deciding for me whether I could leave.

I wiped the sweat from my palms, gripped my phone, and kept walking.