The Extra Who Shouldn't Exist novel Chapter 22

Chapter 22 - 22: The Night it Happened

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Flashback

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It was just another evening.

Alex had taken a temporary job in the outer districts—manual labor to scrape together food for him and Lily. They had just managed to pay the rent.

Lily stayed home, as usual, preparing dinner.

That's when the sky tore open.

An Abyss Gate.

It wasn't supposed to happen there. Not in their district. Not so close to the capital.

But it did.

The crack split the sky above their neighborhood. Abyssal energy spilled out like ink in water. Monstrous entities surged forth. The chaos was instantaneous.

In the confusion, a Corruption Lich slipped through.

It was hunting mana-rich targets. Lily was unawakened, but her mana core—though small—was unnaturally pure.

It attacked.

Her screams echoed through the collapsing building.

She should have died that day.

But the city's awakeners responded quickly.

A squad of master rank hunters descended from the skies, battling the swarm of corruption and sealing the gate.

Lily was found, barely alive, her body writhing with black veins of Abyssal corruption.

She was taken to the hospital immediately.

By the time Alex returned home, there was nothing left but ashes and the shattered remains of their old life.

--- 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

( The present )

He remembered now.

The horror. The rage. The helplessness.

And the guilt.

"I wasn't there when she needed me ."

The hallway outside Lily's hospital room was quiet—eerily so. The soft hum of mana-laced lighting above flickered in steady rhythm, the walls adorned with holographic medical diagrams and floating healing sigils. But to Alex Dragonheart, everything felt still, like the world had stopped moving.

He leaned against the wall just beside the door, his eyes shut, breath shallow.

"She smiled for me... even now," he whispered, swallowing a lump in his throat.

Seeing Lily like that—frail, pale, her silver hair now thin and brittle, her green sapphire-like eyes dimmer than before—had torn into him like a jagged blade. Yet, she had smiled. Cracked a joke. Pretended she wasn't in pain.

He clenched his fists.

"I'm so useless..."

As he walked away from the room and down the corridor, his mind spun through the fragmented memories of the game. The game that brought him here.

The storyline he had once played through casually for entertainment, now turned into his grim, unforgiving reality.

He walked slowly in the hospital, the artificial lights above flickering in and out, casting elongated shadows on the marble floor.

With each step, his thoughts spiraled deeper into hopelessness.

This isn't fair...

Once outside, the cold evening air of Avaloria slapped him back into focus. His hand trembled slightly as he placed it against his chest.

He could feel the beating of his heart. Fast. Uneasy.

His mind went back to the game.

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