The Man who Forget to Die

Chapter 14: The Hollow Choice

The city was gone.

Melted into memory fog.

Zero stood alone in a white expanse—just him, the broken Anchor Core, and a clock in the sky.

[RECURSION SYSTEM END IN: 6 DAYS 04:12:39]

He blinked.

The countdown ticked lower.

A new voice echoed.

"One way or another… you will choose."

It wasn't Flame.

It wasn't Lin.

It was the System itself.

Cold. Genderless. Detached.

"You may restore the timeline using the Anchor Core," it said.

"Or allow all iterations to decay. This choice is final."

[REBUILD?] — YES

[END?] — NO

Zero stared at the hollow options.

"Why would I fix it?" he whispered.

"Because someone loved you once," the System replied.

"And because you loved them too."

The words cut deeper than they should have.

Because they sounded like her.

He sat down in the nothing.

Breathed in.

Waited.

And remembered.

Cycle 119

She made him paper stars.

Cycle 232

He pulled her from a flood. Lost his left hand.

Cycle 501

She died saving him.

Cycle ???

He doesn't remember her face. Only that it mattered.

His fingers shook.

Not from fear.

But from emptiness.

He had become so used to dying, he didn't know what it meant to live.

Then—

A ripple across the void.

Someone was walking toward him.

Same face.

Same eyes.

But wrong.

Too still.

Too precise.

"Hello, Zero," the duplicate said.

Another Flame.

But wrong.

"You're not him," Zero said flatly.

"I'm what's left when even rebellion burns out," it said.

"What are you?"

"Flame's last instinct: to erase you."

Zero raised the broken Anchor Core.

The fake Flame's smile cracked.

"That won't save her.

That won't save you."

Zero stood.

"No. But it's not about saving anyone anymore."

He drove the core into the ground.

A shockwave blasted outward.

The fake screamed as its form ripped apart into light.

And suddenly—

Zero wasn't alone anymore.

Around him, echoes appeared.

Other Zeros.

Other versions.

Some young.

Some monstrous.

Some quiet.

All watching him.

Some began to speak:

"We died for nothing."

"We killed to survive."

"We forgot. So many times."

"You're the only one left who can choose."

He looked at them.

At all he could've been.

Then he looked up.

At the clock.

[05:58:22]

Still ticking.

Still waiting.

And then—

Lin appeared.

Or… her last echo.

Woven from his own guilt and memory.

"Even if you build it again," she said, "you won't be part of it."

"I know."

"So why would you?"

Zero smiled.

"I think… because this time, I finally remember who I am."

He stood tall.

Held out the Anchor Core.

The options returned.

✅ [YES: Rebuild the Timeline]

❌ [NO: Let It End]

He whispered:

"Yes."

And broke the core in two.

Light.

Fire.

A billion fragments rewinding.

Not a reset—

But a rebirth.

The loops did not start again.

They unraveled.

And beneath them—

A real world, long hidden, began to breathe.

To be continued…