To stay by the side of award-winning actress Victoria Quinn, I gave up the system's one-billion-dollar cash reward.

I also drained every last one of my luck points to make her paralyzed legs heal.

The price was that my life became bound to her loyalty.

If she ever betrayed me, emotionally or physically, my soul would be ripped from my body and erased completely.

At the moment of binding, I hesitated.

But when I looked into her eyes and saw the depth of her love, I believed her.

I believed her when she said, "Out of all the people in the world, I only want you."

So I chose to become the man who stood silently behind her, giving everything without complaint, and I pressed confirm.

For seven years, we loved each other as deeply as we had in the beginning. Hand in hand, we weathered every storm together.

Until our wedding anniversary.

I was in the kitchen making her favorite soup when I suddenly coughed violently and spat out a large pool of black blood.

Then I looked down and saw my fingers slowly turning transparent, so faint that I could no longer even touch the glass in front of me.

At the same time, a piercing alarm rang through my mind.

"Warning. Bound target's love value has fallen below the critical threshold. Erasure protocol activated..."

I gasped for air and lifted my hand in terror.

Out of instinct, I reached for the glass of water beside me, trying to use it to steady myself. But my fingers passed straight through the solid glass.

With a sharp crash, the glass fell to the floor and shattered.

[Warning! Detected: bound target Victoria Quinn's love value has fallen below the critical threshold.]

[The contract has been breached. Penalty activated. Erasure protocol officially launched.]

[Death countdown: 71 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds...]

A string of blood-red numbers appeared out of thin air above me.

All strength left my body. I collapsed onto the tile floor, surrounded by shards of glass. The pieces cut into my calves, but all I felt was a chill running up my spine.

Seven years.

I thought I would never hear that alarm.

Back then, when she spent thirty million dollars to fill the city sky with drones and propose to me, she looked at me with burning eyes and said, "Julian, in this life, I don't want anyone but you."

But now, the system was telling me in its cold, mechanical voice that she had betrayed me.

I forced myself through the pain tearing through my organs and reached for my phone with my trembling left hand. Then I called Victoria.

It rang for a long time before someone picked up.

"Hello? Who is this?"

A young man's voice came through the phone, lazy from sleep and laced with open provocation.

The blood in my body froze.

I knew that voice.

Noah Bell. The second male lead in Victoria's new drama. He had just turned twenty this year, and his eyes and brows looked almost exactly like mine when I was younger.

"Put Victoria on the phone," I heard myself say, my voice hoarse.

There was a rustle of fabric on the other end. Then Victoria's familiar voice came through, edged with irritation.

"Julian, the cast is having dinner. What exactly are you trying to do? You keep calling again and again. Do you trust me that little?"

I looked at the blood-red countdown flickering in midair. Bitterness spread through my chest.

"Victoria, can you come home tonight? I made your favorite soup. Today is our..."

"I'm really busy right now, Julian. You used to be the most understanding person I knew, remember?"

Victoria cut me off before I could finish.

"You know I hate explaining myself. Don't upset me."

"Noah just had too much to drink. I'm only taking care of him. Once he's better, I'll come home."

"But seeing you act so unreasonably, maybe I won't come back tonight after all. Stay home by yourself and think about what you've done."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The call was cut off without mercy. The busy tone echoed through the empty villa.

I slid down to the floor. My phone screen lit up, and a breaking entertainment headline popped up.

[Oscar-winning actress Victoria Quinn spotted having late-night supper with rising star Noah Bell. Romance rumors spark online frenzy!]

In the photo, Noah had Victoria firmly protected in his arms. The worry and tenderness in her eyes were exactly the same as the way she had looked at me seven years ago.

[Host, face reality. She betrayed you long ago.]

The system's voice was emotionless.

I looked at the photo, then at the pool of black blood on the table.

The last light in my eyes finally died.

[Death countdown: 47 hours, 15 minutes, 8 seconds.]

My body had become so weak that even walking from the bedroom to the living room left me breathless. I was coughing up blood more and more often.

But I did not want to die with regrets.

That afternoon, I forced myself out despite my paper-white face and took a cab to Victoria's film set.

The moment I reached the edge of the set, I saw something that stabbed straight into my eyes.

They had just finished filming a rain scene.

Victoria did not even wipe the water from her own body. Instead, she rushed over with a dry towel and gently dried Noah's hair, her eyes full of tenderness.

Afraid he might catch a chill, she even took off her private custom shawl and wrapped it tightly around his shoulders.

"Thank you, Victoria. You're so good to me," Noah said, lifting his head with a bright smile.

The crew members around them whispered that the two of them looked like a perfect golden couple.

I stood frozen in place as the cold wind cut through my thin clothes.

Once upon a time, that kind of careful, all-consuming tenderness had belonged only to me.

Expressionless, I walked forward.

The moment Victoria turned and saw me, panic flashed across her eyes.

But in the next second, that panic turned into extreme impatience and coldness.

She grabbed my wrist with so much force it felt as if she might crush my bones. Then she dragged me into an empty corner of the prop room.

"What are you doing here? Are you trying to give the paparazzi even more to photograph?"

Her voice was low and full of accusation.

I looked at the faint kiss mark near her collar.

My heart hurt as if a needle had pierced it.

I did not argue with her the way I used to. I did not break down or shout.

I only looked at her calmly.

"Victoria, have dinner with me."

I looked at the face I had traded my luck points to heal.

"Just tonight. At the restaurant where we had our first date. After this meal... I won't bother you again."

Victoria froze, as if she had not expected me to be so calm.

She studied my bloodless face and frowned tightly.

Maybe she thought I was being sensible today. Or maybe she was afraid I would make a scene on set and affect her and Noah.

In the end, she nodded.

"Fine. I get it. Seven tonight. I'll go straight there."

"Now go home. Don't cause trouble for me here."

At seven that evening, I reserved the window seat at the upscale restaurant where we had gone on our first date. I ordered a table full of dishes Victoria had once loved most.

Soft violin music filled the restaurant. Outside the window, the city lights and traffic glittered through the night.

I sat there quietly, watching the red countdown in midair that only I could see, watching it keep slipping away.

[Death countdown: 41 hours, 30 minutes, 12 seconds.]

Seconds and minutes passed.

The food on the table slowly lost its warmth.

I lifted the glass of water beside me and looked at the faint transparent outline flickering once again around my fingertips.

Then I waited in silence for the final farewell to this relationship.

Victoria did not arrive until nine.

After sitting down, she did not even take off her coat. The entire time, she was distracted, frowning, and checking her phone every thirty seconds.

I forced down the taste of blood rising in my throat and pushed the poured glass of red wine toward her.

"Victoria, have some. You used to love..."

Buzz.

Her phone suddenly vibrated.

The moment she saw the caller ID, the perfunctory expression on Victoria's face disappeared. In its place was undisguised urgency.

She answered right in front of me without the slightest hesitation. Her voice was so gentle it sounded like a different person.

"Noah, what's wrong?"

From the other end, Noah's slightly rushed voice came through.

"Victoria, my assistant asked for leave. I'm alone at the hotel... I don't feel well. Can you come check on me?"

"Don't be scared. Stay right there. I'm coming now."

Victoria's face changed. She shot to her feet, grabbed her car keys, and headed for the door.

"Victoria Quinn!"

I calmly caught the sleeve of her coat.

My fingertips turned white from the force. My body even began to flicker faintly with a transparent outline because of the surge of emotion.

I stared at her and spoke in a steady voice filled with dead stillness.

"If you walk out that door today, then from now on... you will never see me again."

I was not lying.

The countdown had nearly reached its end.

If she left now, this would be goodbye forever.

Victoria stopped and looked down at me from above, her voice ice-cold.

"Noah is fragile. He's in danger right now."

She pried my fingers off one by one. Her eyes were so cold she looked at me as if I were an unreasonable lunatic.

Then Victoria threw down those cruel words, turned without hesitation, and strode out of the restaurant.

Her back was decisive and urgent.

From beginning to end, she never looked back once.

Late that night, I dragged my dying body back to the empty villa alone.

I did not turn on the lights. By moonlight, I found paper and a pen, then calmly began writing my farewell letter.

In the letter, I did not accuse her of anything. I only wrote in detail about the choice the system had given me seven years ago.

I wrote about how I had given up a billion-dollar cash reward, and how I had drained every last luck point from my own system account to exchange for the chance for her to stand again after the car accident that had paralyzed both her legs.

After finishing the letter, I packed all our old photos into a cardboard box and erased the last traces of my life in this house.

[Death countdown: 10, 9, 8...]

The countdown entered its final ten seconds.

I fell onto the carpet beside the sofa. It felt as though my organs were being shredded by countless blades.

My face remained cold as I endured the agony. I vomited mouthful after mouthful of black blood, instantly staining the pure white carpet Victoria loved most.

[3, 2, 1!]

[Erasure protocol complete!]

The instant the system's cold voice fell, an irresistible force violently ripped my soul out of my body.

After the pain, my consciousness sank into endless darkness and scattered completely.

All that remained was a lifeless shell, lying quietly in a pool of blood.