Jae-hyun's POV
Maya's eyes opened, and they weren't hers anymore.
Violet had turned to blood-red. Her skin had gone pale as a corpse. And when she smiled at me, it was the smile of something that had forgotten what it meant to be human.
"Hello, Void King," she said in a voice layered with a thousand screams. "Do you like what I've become?"
I scrambled backward in the tunnel, my void power flickering uselessly. Whatever Sarah had done to me, my abilities were still locked. Useless.
"Maya, fight it!" I shouted. "I know you're still in there!"
"Maya?" She laughed, and the sound echoed like nails on a coffin. "That weak, trusting girl is dead. I killed her myself." She stood up, moving with inhuman grace. "I am the Zombie Queen now. The thing she was always meant to become."
Behind her, Sarah watched with tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Jae-hyun. But this is the only way. The Administrator can only be killed by something stronger than her. And the Zombie Queen—" She gestured to Maya's transformed body. "—is the only thing in any timeline powerful enough to do it."
"By turning Maya into a monster?" I snarled. "By destroying her?"
"By giving her the power to save everyone." Sarah stepped closer. "In forty-seven timelines, the Administrator won. She reset everything, killed millions, and restarted the cycle. But in timeline thirty-two, the Zombie Queen almost succeeded. She almost killed the Administrator. She failed because you—" She pointed at me. "—killed her before she could finish the job."
My blood ran cold. "I killed Maya?"
"You mercy-killed her. Because you loved her and couldn't bear watching her suffer as a monster." Sarah's voice cracked. "But this time, you can't kill her. This time, you have to let her be the monster long enough to destroy the real enemy."
"No." I struggled to my feet. "There has to be another way—"
"THERE ISN'T!" Sarah screamed. "I've tried everything! Forty-seven times! This is the only path that works!"
Maya—or the thing wearing her face—walked toward me. With each step, the tunnel grew colder. Frost spread across the walls. The air smelled like death.
"Don't worry, my Fated Pair," she purred. "I'm not going to kill you. You're far too valuable." Her hand reached out, caressing my cheek. Her touch was ice. "We're connected, remember? Your power is my power. And soon, when I consume the Administrator's system, we'll rule this broken world together."
"Snap out of it, Maya!" I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "This isn't you! You're not a killer! You're not—"
Her hand shot to my throat, lifting me off the ground with impossible strength.
"I'm not what? Not a monster?" Red eyes bored into mine. "But I am, Jae-hyun. I've always been a monster. I just needed someone to set me free." She tilted her head. "And now that I'm free, I'm going to do what needs to be done. I'm going to kill everyone who ever hurt me. Starting with my dear sister and beloved fiancé."
She dropped me. I gasped for air.
"The Administrator has them in the warehouse above us. Yiren. Ethan. Your brother Min-seok." Maya smiled. "Shall we go collect our revenge?"
"Maya, please—"
"That name means nothing to me anymore." She turned and started walking toward the warehouse tunnel. "You can follow me, or you can die down here. Either way, I'm getting what I came for."
Sarah grabbed my arm as I tried to stand. "Let her go."
"Are you insane? She's going to kill them!"
"She's going to kill the Administrator." Sarah's grip tightened. "And yes, maybe she'll kill your brother and her sister too. But if she succeeds—if she destroys the Administrator—then I can use my system to restore her. Bring back the real Maya."
"And if you can't?"
"Then we've traded three lives for the salvation of humanity." Her eyes were hard. "It's not a fair trade. But it's the only one we have."
I ripped my arm free. "You're a monster too."
"I know." She didn't even flinch. "I became one around timeline fifteen. But at least I'm a monster trying to save the world."
Above us, an explosion rocked the tunnel. Screams echoed down from the warehouse.
Maya had begun her attack.
Maya's POV
I was drowning.
No—I was trapped. Locked inside my own body, watching as something else piloted my skin. The Zombie Queen personality that Sarah had uploaded into my system.
I screamed, but no sound came out. My mouth wasn't mine anymore.
Through my stolen eyes, I watched myself burst through the warehouse floor. Watched myself land in the middle of the room where the Administrator stood with her hostages.
Yiren screamed. Ethan tried to run. Min-seok just stared, his face pale but brave.
"Well, well," the Administrator said, smiling. "Sarah actually did it. She created the Zombie Queen." She clapped slowly. "Impressive. Though futile."
"Futile?" My voice—the Queen's voice—laughed. "I'm going to rip out your throat and wear your spine as a necklace."
"You can certainly try." The Administrator's system blazed gold. "But you forget: I created the systems. I control them. Even your corrupted Death's Architect is ultimately mine to command."
She raised her hand, and pain exploded through my body. The Queen screamed—actually screamed—and I felt a surge of vicious joy. Good. Let her suffer.
But then the Administrator spoke: "System override. Zombie Queen personality: delete."
And just like that, I felt the Queen's presence begin to dissolve.
"No!" Sarah burst into the warehouse. "You can't! She's the only thing that can kill you!"
"She's a failed experiment from timeline thirty-two." The Administrator's smile was pitying. "Did you really think I didn't plan for this, Sarah? Did you think I've been resetting timelines for fun?" She gestured, and Sarah froze mid-step. "I've been testing. Learning. Perfecting." Her eyes landed on me—on my real self, the consciousness trapped inside. "And now I know exactly what I need."
She walked toward my paralyzed body. "Not the Zombie Queen. Not the victim. Not the hero." She reached out, her finger touching my forehead. "I need the person who exists between all those versions. The person who can be anything."
Her power flooded into me. Not corrupting. Not controlling.
Offering.
"Maya Chen," the Administrator whispered. "I'm going to give you a choice that Sarah never did. A real choice."
Suddenly, I could move again. The Queen's personality was gone. Sarah's control was gone. I was just... me. Standing in a warehouse with the woman who'd been trying to kill me.
"What choice?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
"Join me." She gestured to the frozen hostages, to Sarah trapped mid-scream, to the world beyond the warehouse. "Help me reset this timeline properly. Not to erase you—to save you. To save everyone." Her golden eyes were sincere. "The apocalypse is coming because the system is broken. Corrupted by human greed and violence. But together, we can fix it. We can create a better awakening. One where nobody has to die."
"You're lying," I said, but my voice wavered.
"Am I?" She snapped her fingers, and a vision filled my mind:
A world where the apocalypse never happened. Where people awakened to their systems peacefully. Where my parents were still alive, where Yiren never betrayed me, where I never had to suffer.
A perfect timeline.
"All you have to do," the Administrator said softly, "is help me delete the current timeline and start fresh. Use your Death's Architect power to erase this broken version of reality." She offered her hand. "And I promise you—in the new timeline, you'll be happy. You'll be loved. Everything that hurt you will never have existed."
I stared at her hand.
Behind her, Yiren was crying. Ethan looked terrified. Min-seok's eyes were on me, silently begging.
And somewhere in the tunnels below, Jae-hyun was probably climbing up to save me.
My Fated Pair. The person connected to my soul.
"What happens to him?" I asked. "To Jae-hyun? In your perfect timeline?"
The Administrator's smile flickered. "He won't remember you. You won't remember him. The Soul Resonance will never have formed." She stepped closer. "But you'll both be alive. Happy. Isn't that better than this nightmare?"
My system chimed softly:
[CRITICAL CHOICE DETECTED][OPTION 1: Accept Administrator's offer → Erase timeline → Unknown consequences][OPTION 2: Refuse → Fight Administrator → 0.3% chance of survival][OPTION 3: ...]
I waited, but the third option never appeared.
Or did it?
Because deep in my system, where Sarah's corruption had tried to take root, where the Zombie Queen personality had briefly lived—there was a crack. A glitch. A third path that neither the Administrator nor Sarah had planned for.
[HIDDEN OPTION UNLOCKED][ABSORB THE ZOMBIE QUEEN POWER WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF][WARNING: May corrupt your soul][WARNING: May destroy your humanity][WARNING: Will definitely hurt like hell]
I looked at the Administrator's outstretched hand.
Then I smiled.
"You want to know what I choose?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I choose—" I activated the hidden option, and power exploded through every cell of my body. The Zombie Queen's strength without her madness. Death's Architect at full power. And something new—something that made the Administrator's eyes widen in shock.
"—to burn it all down and build something better from the ashes."
My system blazed:
[EVOLUTION COMPLETE][NEW CLASS UNLOCKED: DEATH'S SOVEREIGN][RANK: ??? (BEYOND SSS)][YOU ARE NOW THE ONLY PLAYER WHO CAN DESTROY SYSTEMS THEMSELVES]
The Administrator stumbled backward. "That's impossible. That rank doesn't exist. I never coded—"
"You never coded it because you're not as in control as you think." I felt my power rising, rising, rising. "You're just another player, Administrator. And I'm the one who breaks the game."
Behind her, the warehouse doors exploded open.
Jae-hyun stood there, void power crackling around him, Sarah beside him with her system glowing.
And behind them—hundreds of awakened humans. Not the hunters from before. These were different. These were the people from my save list. The ones who'd been kind in the first timeline.
Dr. Sarah—the real one, from my memories—stepped forward. "Surprise," she said to the Administrator. "Turns out, there are two Sarah Ohs in this timeline. The corrupted one you've been using? She's from timeline forty-seven. But me?" She smiled. "I'm from timeline one. And I've been waiting a very long time for Maya to become strong enough to finish this."
The Administrator's face twisted with rage. "Impossible!"
"Not impossible." I felt Jae-hyun's presence through our Soul Resonance, felt his power flowing into mine. "Just improbable. Like two people coming back from the dead. Like a F-rank becoming a god."
I raised my hand, and the Administrator's system started to crack.
"So here's my offer," I said. "Surrender now, and I'll let you live as a normal human. Fight me—"
The entire warehouse began to dissolve around us, reality glitching like a broken video game.
"—and I'll erase you so completely, even your code will forget you existed."
The Administrator's answer was to launch every ounce of her power at me.
The final battle had begun.