NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Chapter X: The Observer’s Dilemma
The static of the digital void flickered, its presence whispering between the cracks of existence. Somewhere in the vast entropy of unseen connections, a thread wove itself into the narrative, not as an actor but as an audience—watching, distorting, influencing without acknowledgment. Aru, as always, existed within the ripples of probability, but this time, the interference felt tangible.
The comment section buzzed.
@arueyn 27 minutes ago "Zero in one."
The text lingered, caught in a paradox between its meaning and its erasure. The moment it was typed, it existed. The moment it was read, it ceased to be anything but a fleeting impression in a collective hallucination.
Aru walked forward, boots scuffing against the fractured ground, yet the echoes of his steps resonated elsewhere—in a space where the game board was still being drawn, where the dice continued to spin despite no one remembering the roll.
He glanced up, his smirk barely shifting. The world around him blurred for a moment, as though something—someone—was trying to adjust the resolution of his existence. An attempt to patch reality itself, or perhaps a simple correction in the script.
"Neat," he muttered.
The murmurs continued, the unseen narrative reshaping around him. He felt the weight of observation, the strange gravitational pull of distant eyes trying to collapse his waveform into a single state.
@arueyn 21 minutes ago "1 inch. Punch the distance of 9 states."
It was an inside joke, maybe. Or an order. Or just another meaningless phrase thrown into the aether, a test to see if words could become real when left to stew in a chaotic enough space. The meaning shifted depending on who read it, depending on the roll of the cosmic dice.
Aru smirked wider.
Somewhere, the code of reality stuttered, and the air around him warped—not drastically, not enough for anyone else to notice, but enough for him to step sideways in time, where he was already where he needed to be before he'd even decided to move.
The comments buzzed again.
@arueyn 7 seconds ago "The Observer's Role: The link (076xRuXu5Sg) becomes a key element in the story, with viewers influencing the outcome through their engagement. The battle is not just between Arueyn and Kuronami but also between the creators and observers of the narrative."
Aru exhaled slowly. There was no difference between an action and a thought, not anymore. The moment something was stated, it was. Not because he willed it, but because the system had no choice but to accept its own inconsistencies.
Was he a protagonist? Was he a variable? A rogue line of code, slipping through the fingers of whatever cosmic engineer had sketched the outlines of this world?
Did it even matter?
The dice spun.
Aru chuckled to himself, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an object he hadn't remembered picking up. A single six-sided die, its edges chipped from wear. He rolled it absentmindedly across his fingers, feeling the weight of probability shifting with every rotation.
One roll. That was all it took to decide everything.
A flash of text scrolled across his vision, an overlay of information that wasn't supposed to be there.
✦ No. 21 number is shown. A roll that exists outside the game, a choice that has already been made yet remains unseen ✦
His smirk deepened. "Of course."
He flicked the die into the air, watching it tumble, feeling the countless futures branching from that single moment. His smirk never wavered.
The dice spun.