Chapter 4: The Crimson Signal
It began with a red sky.
Not the gentle blush of dawn or the anger of an approaching storm — no, this red was wrong. It pulsed like a wound in the heavens. The villagers gathered in hushed clusters, pointing. Even the chickens fell silent.
Yan Long stood at the edge of the rice paddies, one hand resting on the hilt of the Whispering Blade. He narrowed his eyes.
Beside him, Bai sat in fox form, fur bristling.
"That's not weather," the spirit said.
"No," Yan murmured. "It's a message."
The air shimmered. The System flickered once in the corner of his vision — not with a quest, but a warning:
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[System Notice: External Protocol Detected]
[Unregistered System Incoming]
[Warning: Narrative Collision Imminent]
---
Yan turned slowly, just in time to see the traveler stumble into Qingmei.
She was young — maybe sixteen, thin as a reed, with a sword strapped awkwardly to her back and eyes wide from too much running. Her robes were foreign, marked with crimson thread in swirling, unfamiliar patterns. She collapsed at the village square, dust rising in a soft cloud around her.
Yan moved before anyone else.
She blinked up at him, lips trembling. "You… you have one too, don't you?"
He crouched beside her. "A sword?"
"A System."
The world seemed to hold its breath.
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Her name was Suyin. And she had a System — but not like his.
While Yan's Divine Protagonist System guided through myth and choice, hers was cold, calculating — The Ascension Protocol — focused on efficiency, cultivation, and power accumulation.
"It gives me routes. Probabilities. Predicted death points," she whispered that night beside his fire. "Tells me what to sacrifice."
Yan frowned. "And you trust it?"
She looked at him then, eyes shadowed. "It saved me. But it's also… using me."
Bai, lounging nearby in his robe, arched a brow. "Told you Systems are like editors with too much ego."
"Mine went quiet," Yan said. "Told me I could choose."
Suyin's breath caught. "That's… unheard of."
"Maybe not. Maybe it's the point."
---
She told them of the Fallen Capital — a once-great city now reduced to ruins by something she called the Crimson God. A being not born of heaven or earth, but from within the broken code of a corrupted System.
"It consumed everyone who had a System," she said. "Hijacked them. Made them part of its narrative."
Yan sat still. The Whispering Blade pulsed faintly at his side, as if remembering something ancient.
And then, as if on cue, his System whispered:
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[New Quest: Confront the Crimson God]
Reward: Narrative Integrity
Warning: Narrative Death Possible]
Accept? [Y/N]
---
Yan didn't touch it.
He looked at Suyin instead, and asked, "If I don't accept, will you go alone?"
"I have to," she said. "It's written in my line."
He shook his head. "Then we'll rewrite the line."