Chapter 2Immortality Is Your Final Punishment

[System: Understood. Detecting new host candidates for transfer.]

[System: Host, are you certain you wish to split the tether between these two individuals?]

I looked at them. They were wrapped in each other’s arms, silhouetted by the distant glow of city lights, looking like a postcard for a love that would never end.

For a flickering second, I saw the "stupid" Callum. The one who used to say, “Rose, thank you for staying. I love you.” The one who warmed my milk every night and held my hair back when I was sick. I had thought he was my anchor.

I was wrong. He was the storm.

“I’m certain,” I whispered.

[System: Initiating transfer sequence.]

“Why hasn't the System appeared yet?” Becca asked, sounding impatient.

Callum smoothed her hair. “Rose’s probably negotiating with it. Just wait. Whenever she communicates with the Program, she gets that faraway look in her eyes.”

[System: Greetings, New Hosts.]

The voice didn't just vibrate in my head anymore. It echoed in the air, cold and synthesized, audible to all of us.

[System: From this moment forward, you are the primary nodes. Please designate your focal point for the Bond.]

“I choose Becca,” Callum said immediately.

“I choose Callum,” Becca chirped.

They looked so devoted. So unshakable. It reminded me of the man who once promised, “No matter what happens, I will always choose you, Rose.”

Well, he was choosing someone else now.

[System: Selection confirmed. However, the synchronization requires a seventy-two-hour stabilization period. You must wait.]

The voice faded from their ears, returning to the private channel in my mind. [System: You have three days before extraction. I will repair the damage from the collision so you may settle your affairs in this world.]

As the words faded, the agonizing heat in my limbs vanished. My shattered bones knit together with a sickening series of pops. I stood up, brushing the dirt from my clothes, and looked at Callum with a hollowed-out soul.

He was beaming. “See, Becca? I told you. She can make the System heal anything. It’s perfect. We’ll never be hurt again. We’ll never have to fear death.”

I looked at him, feeling a strange, cold pity. He had no idea what he had just invited in.