Finishing the book means death; I abandoned the whole world.

Liu Tianyong opened his eyes and found himself lying on a bed made of book pages in the corner of the stronghold. A red fountain pen hovered in front of him, with a line of glaring numbers dancing on its handle:

[Current Narrative Weight: 130]

"Damn it!" Yong Ge sprang to his feet and almost bumped into Ye Tian, ​​who was floating beside him.

"Author, you're awake? How are you feeling?"

"How does it feel? I feel like someone's twisted my kidney!" Yong Ge clutched his kidney. "After a day, they deducted 58 points from my ranking, leaving me with only 130 points. This is worse than a monster!"

He counted on his fingers: "After midnight today, 58 will be deducted, and another 58 will be deducted at midnight tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow! By midnight the day after tomorrow, I'll only have 14 points left to deduct!" Yong Ge looked depressed. Living by counting on his fingers is really tiring! Even more tiring than Calvin!

"To be precise, it's -44 points."

Forced to finish! Forced to finish! So annoying!

Yong looked toward the center of the stronghold, where the "anchor of narrative stability," woven from the stories of everyone, was still slowly rotating, radiating a soft light.

More than 30 people were busy with their own tasks. Some were watering tomatoes in the planting area, some were practicing boxing with Zhang Gou Dan in the training field, and others were learning from Fang Xiao Yuan in the mutual aid canteen.

"Sigh, these are all living, breathing people," Yong Ge muttered to himself. "Two days, or more precisely, one and a half days left."

"There are still 16 hours until midnight tonight. Author, before you start calculating, shouldn't you go check on Huang Chaobin first?" Ye Tian added from the side.

Yong slapped his forehead: "Damn! I almost forgot! How's that kid's injury now?"

"The recovery is going well." Ye Tian's expression was somewhat relaxed. "Li Yumeng said the 'period' on his back has almost faded away, and it will scab over after another dressing change."

"Gently, gently! Grandma, is that iodine or sulfuric acid?!"

Huang Chaobin's screams echoed in the medical station. When Yong Ge walked over, he saw that most of his "full stop" wounds had healed, but there were still some faint marks on his skin.

"Brother Yong, you're here." Huang Chaobin turned his head. Although his face was still a little pale, judging from his grin, he seemed to be alright.

"Don't move, lie still!" Brother Yong squatted down to check on him. "How do you feel?"

"It still hurts. Nurse Li's mental imagery therapy is indeed quite effective, but it's just..."

"What is it?"

"It's that iodine solution," Huang Chaobin grimaced, "She insisted that in her mind, iodine solution was dark brown, the bottle cap was orange, and it would sting a little when poured on the wound, but it turned out to be excruciatingly painful!"

Li Yumeng, standing beside her, said embarrassedly, "I, um, next time I'll try to imagine a painless version..."

"No, don't change it!" Yong Ge laughed. "The more specific the details, the more stable the narrative logic. It's better to feel some pain than for the wound to worsen."

Li Yumeng said, "Those periods are fading, and according to estimates, it will take about a day to fully heal."

"One day," Yong calculated, "that means I'll be able to run and jump by this time tomorrow."

"That should be fine," Huang Chaobin said, lying on the bed. "But Brother Yong, I might not be able to use my ability to read delivery difficulty for the time being. The system told me that during the injury, my ability to fill in the gaps in my mind is limited, and the accuracy of my detection will decrease by fifty percent."

"It's better than nothing. It's alright, just focus on recovering. We won't be taking you on today's exploration."

"Then who will lead the way?"

"Wu Qu, although her ability to fill in the blanks is unstable, she should be able to handle it with the help of my written confirmation."

"We also plan to go further afield, just wander around the area, see if there are any sections where updates have stopped, and look for any relics left behind by deceased authors."

"His belongings?"

"Yeah, didn't your recycling guy say yesterday that completed items and fragments can be exchanged for weight? We need to find a way to replenish them, otherwise we won't make it to the day after tomorrow."

The development of the stronghold went relatively smoothly. Under Green's guidance, Wang Gangtie was finally able to condense a complete spirit sword. Although it looked like a children's toy sold in a roadside grocery store and could only be maintained for 5 seconds, it was still somewhat combat-capable.

"Insufficient spiritual energy..." Wang Gangtie was covered in sweat. "When I used to write, a single sentence could easily allow me to fly three thousand miles on a sword!"

"That was when you were padding your word count," Greeny pointed out incisively. "Now every word consumes weight. All that nonsense you spout about the universe and the primordial chaos will cost you half your life for every single sentence!"

Zhang Gou Dan fully embodies the self-discipline of a fitness enthusiast, seemingly practicing boxing whenever he's awake. Every punch he throws carries a gust of wind.

"Brother Yong, I can only manage eight punches at most now, I still need you to support me."

"Raise them! Raise them all!" Brother Yong was talking nonsense. "Once we find enough relics, I'll exchange them for tons of weight! I'll even exchange them for new boxing manuals!"

Sister Hu sat in the planting area, muttering to herself as she looked at the rows of tomatoes on the wooden racks. When Brother Yong leaned over to listen, he almost burst out laughing. She was writing short biographies for the tomatoes!

"This one is called Little Green, it's resilient, and although it's not ripe yet, it dreams of turning a deep red; that one is called Little Green, it's a bit insecure, always feeling that it's not as good as the one next to it..."

"Sister Hu, would you consider this a physicalized plant?"

"What do you know!" She glared at Yong Ge. "Give them stories, and they'll be able to resist 'descriptive interruptions.' That's the core technique of my farming novels!"

Fang Xiaoyuan's "crowdfunded canteen" is now able to stably supply rice for 20 people. A dozen readers surround him, learning how to imagine "pearl-like luster" and "appropriate firmness".

"Imagine the rice your grandma cooked," Fang Xiaoyuan instructed with her eyes closed, "that taste, that texture... Don't think about your grandma! Think about 'that bowl of rice'..."

Yongge looked at the poster at the entrance of the stronghold. The words "[Serialized Safe Zone]" glowed slightly. 38 people. This was the most complete setting he had written so far in this apocalypse.

[The Exploration Team's Second Departure]

Personnel: Liu Tianyong (weight 130), Zhang Gou Dan (weight 61), Wu Qu, Li Yumeng, Wang Gangtie

Objective: To search for the deceased author's belongings.

"Chaobin drew a simple map before," Yong Ge said, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. "This area was originally the office area of ​​several small literary websites. There should have been many authors present when the apocalypse came. Many of them probably didn't make it through."

"It became a keepsake?" Wu Qu raised her little hand.

"It becomes a completed asset. Completion means death, but their props, settings, and character fragments should remain there. These are the things we are looking for," Yong corrected.

The outside world seems to remain largely unchanged, still shrouded in mist.

"Maintain formation," Yong said in a low voice. "Wu Qu will scout ahead, using minimal mental effort to sense the 'complete aura.' Gou Dan will bring up the rear, Gang Tie will provide support in the middle, and Yu Meng will handle logistics."

"Received." The four responded in unison.

The roaming, hungry monsters were still there in the distance, and they carefully bypassed them, groping their way forward.

"There's something ahead, a very complete aura, but it feels very sad." Wu Qu suddenly stopped and closed his eyes.

"sad?"

"It's that feeling of the story ending," Wu Qu tried to describe. "It's not like the hunger of a monster, it's a feeling of satisfaction mixed with a touch of regret."

"The aura of a completed work! Lead the way!" Yong Ge's eyes lit up.

Turning into a side street, there seemed to be a studio on the right, with a crooked sign that read: "[XX Literature City - Author Studio]".

The studio's glass was shattered, and it was pitch black inside. Wu Qu imagined another light bulb floating in the air, illuminating the space.

The interior was very clean, as if it had been "frozen in time". There were people sitting in front of a dozen computers, each in a typing posture, but their bodies had become semi-transparent outlines.

"These are all," Li Yumeng said, her voice trembling slightly.

"They're probably all authors who, after the apocalypse, were consumed by their own stories and became part of the interrupted narrative." Ye Tian floated over to a computer to check.

Yong Ge walked behind the counter, where there was an even more complete figure—a man around thirty years old, slumped over a keyboard, his body transformed into an open book with the title "I Opened an Internet Cafe in the Apocalypse," by Keyboard Warrior.

[Time of abandonment: The day the apocalypse arrived, Remaining weight: 0, Status: Forced completion]

"If the system forcibly terminated the project, the value of this relic might not be high." But even a small mosquito bite is still meat, and at times like this, we have to take whatever we can get, no matter how small.

Yongge opened the drawer and found a black ballpoint pen [a spare pen for keyboard warriors], a USB flash drive [a draft (backup)], and half a pack of [Hongtashan cigarettes (narrative remnants) consumables, which can temporarily improve mental focus, but have no exchange value].

I packed all these things into my backpack and will go to the exchange point later.

Other authors who stopped updating their computers also had some scattered items, but most of them were of little value.

"Go to the second floor. There should be separate offices up there. The authors there probably have more authority, and their relics are probably better."

The team arrived on the second floor, where the decor was noticeably more luxurious than on the first floor. There were several private offices. Yong pushed open the door to the first office, which was empty except for a computer that was still running, with the following message displayed on the screen:

[You have been on hiatus for 24 hours; the demand for more updates is imminent]

"Speed ​​up!" Yong shouted, "Monsters are about to spawn here!"