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

Wang Qiang could only stand in the center of his office, facing the red tentacle monster that had fallen from the sky, with the words "The End" appearing on each tentacle.

He looked at the blue fountain pen in his hand, his comrade-in-arms from twenty years ago when he was a contracted author. Engraved on the pen was an outdated motto: "Create with seriousness, respect the reader."

Wang Qiang crossed out the last four characters and replaced them with "Go to hell."

At this moment, Yong Ge frantically poked at the parchment-like door with his pen, yelling, "You fucking come in here, Sanchou Mao! Your hair hasn't all fallen out yet, you can't die!"

Ye Tian pulled him from behind. This semi-transparent character began to have a very obvious physical feel. Could it be because of the increased narrative weight?

"Author, calm down! If you rush out now, you'll be unleashing a massive wave of damage. Editor-in-Chief Wang is using the format of a single chapter's climax to combat those unspeakable things. This is both the best and the worst lesson you can learn about narrative weight!"

With tears in his eyes and a burning resentment, Yong turned around. The endless bookshelves in the dark room emitted a faint light, and each book had a name and number marked on its spine.

[Wang Qiang: Narrative Weight: 7320/∞ (Burning)]

[Midnight Typewriter: Narrative Weight: 0 (Archived)]

[Liu Tianyong: Narrative weight: 10 (increasing)]

"Is this narrative weight the same as combat power or mana in a game?" Yong Ge pointed to the numbers.

Ye Tian snapped his fingers, pulling out a copy of "Apocalyptic Survival Guide" from the bookshelf. The page automatically flipped to the middle: "This will help you a lot. Combat power and mana bars are much more complicated. Listen, author, you are now in the shallow area of ​​the narrative graveyard. The rule here is that whoever's story is more realistic and can move readers more can change reality."

"What the hell do you mean by more realistic?" Yong Ge was starting to lose control of his emotions.

"Completion rate x approval rate." Ye Tianyong drew a formula in the air with his finger.

"If you write a story that is logically consistent (high completion rate) and can be believed by most readers (high acceptance rate), this story will gain narrative weight, and the higher the weight, the stronger your ability to rewrite reality!"

"So, Wang Laodeng's narrative weight is over 7000, how powerful is that?"

"He's the potential administrator of the narrative space! That's something he's accumulated over countless years, from 'The Domineering Editor Falls in Love with Me' to 'Burning Hair Makes Me Stronger,' every book has left its mark, and he's been using that mark to burn, preventing the world from being forcibly ended!"

The translucent parchment door shook violently, and red ink seeped through the door panels. Through the translucent fibers, Yongge could see:

Editor-in-Chief Wang's blue pen drew huge "annotations" in the air, each blue light severing a red tentacle.

"Wang Qiang!" Yong Ge shouted at the door.

"Tell me! Why is this happening! Aren't you the administrator? Why has the world become like this? What exactly is this pen you gave me? Tell me!"

Wang Qiang seemed to have heard Yong Ge's shout. He turned his head, and his pupils, now in Songti No. 5 font, appeared unusually clear.

He smiled towards the hidden door, with unparalleled elegance, and then did something that Liu Tianyong would never forget:

He ripped open his shirt, revealing the written scars on his chest.

It wasn't just a scar; it was an unfinished concept:

Wang Qiang, male, 52 years old, is a candidate administrator for the Narrative Graveyard, responsible for finding those who can break the rule that completion means death...

The text that followed was charred, and Yongge couldn't see it clearly.

"Listen, Yongzi!" Wang Qiang's voice appeared directly in Yongge's mind; this was a high-authority narrative dialogue.

"I don't have time to explain, you just need to know..."

A red tentacle pierced through his shoulder, and Editor-in-Chief Wang spat out a mouthful of golden blood, but continued to transmit information.

This world is being read! We are all "stories" existing in a higher dimension! The narrative graveyard is not a cemetery, but a copyright repository, a nursery! Those monsters are...

"What is it?"

"It's a rejected draft!" Wang Qiang roared! The blue fountain pen burst forth with its last glimmer of light.

[Readers are not just readers! They are also observers! Observers cause the spatial logic of the plot to collapse into reality! Your deception survives because of uncertainty; the unfinished story exists in a state of superimposed spatial logic, therefore! Therefore…]

More tendrils wrapped around Wang Qiang, and his lower body gradually began to pixelate, turning into fragmented characters.

"So! Don't let them know your fate! Don't let them guess your fate!" Wang Qiang roared with his last strength. His three tufts of hair burst into flames in the void.

"Remember, the true use of narrative weight is not to alter reality, but to preserve possibility!"

"Wang Laodeng!!!"

"Didn't you say I couldn't die before all my hair fell out? Well, my hair's burned to ashes! I found a copy of the 'Hiatus Protection Law' in my drawer. The readers are actually..."

boom! ! !

A loud bang, the sound of a book being slammed shut.

The red light outside the door disappeared, the parchment door turned deathly white, and a new line of text appeared on it, like a death notification automatically generated by the system:

[Character: Wang Qiang (Alternate Administrator)]

[Status: Completed]

[Ending: A Heroic Sacrifice (Bonus Chapter: "The Great Burning of Three Tufts of Hair" is now unlocked)]

[Legacy Weight: +500 (Transferred to the recently serialized work "The Survival Guide to the Apocalyptic World of a Failing Author")]

[Special Note: All unexplained background information about this character has been permanently archived and used as generation material for the new narrative monster "Regret Body"]

Yong Ge knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face. The red fountain pen in his hand became scalding hot, and a line of small characters appeared on the pen barrel: 【Inherited from: Wang Qiang (Unfinished Mandate)】

"Author Ye Tian" also walked over, looking sad.

"He... he's written himself into your backstory; he's part of your story now. As long as you keep updating, Lord Wang, even if... even if he's still alive, living in some form."

Liu Tianyong silently mourned for three minutes.

Then he wrote on the parchment door panel with his red pen:

[Wang Qiang didn't die; he just went and wrote a new book called "How to Make the Three-Cut Hair Editor Survive in Another World," currently being serialized.]

The text seeped into the door panel, and the parchment door panel instantly disappeared. A system pop-up window appeared:

[Warning: Attempting to modify a confirmed death event will result in insufficient narrative weight and trigger narrative backlash.]

[Backlash effect: For first-time offenders, the author will bear 50% of the emotional impact of that scene.]

Tears streamed down Yong Ge's face like a pillar, snot kept flowing from his nose, his mouth was unable to close, and his entire face was contorted with sadness.

"Fuck, fuck your ass..." Yong wiped away his tears and snot, "This is... this is even with forced emotional manipulation!"

His mentor passed away suddenly, and now Yong Ge can only rely on himself to figure out what this post-apocalyptic world—written, narrative, or fiction—is about.