Chapter 4
Author: Fourpen
last update2026-09-04 17:58:41

Ethan stood frozen on the side of the road, staring at the glowing red screen in front of him. His soaked clothes clung to his body, water still dripping from his hair onto the pavement. His heart pounded in his chest.

[WARNING.]

[HOST MUST SAVE HER.]

At that moment the timer continued counting down.

[20]

[19]

[18]

Ethan's breath caught. His eyes widened.

“What?” he whispered. “Save her? What are you talking about?”

[HOST MUST SAVE HER OR FACE PUNISHMENT.]

[17]

[16]

[15]

His gaze snapped to the crowd ahead. The woman on the ground. The blood pooling beneath her. The two women kneeling beside her, frantic and desperate.

But how do I even know what's wrong with her?

The thought hit him, and then his vision changed.

It happened so suddenly that Ethan actually staggered back a step. One second, everything looked normal. The next, it was like someone had sharpened the entire world. Colors became more vivid. Details jumped out at him. He could see things he shouldn't be able to see from this distance.

The woman on the ground. Her chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths. The way her skin had gone pale, almost gray. The dark stain spreading across her blouse. And the wound itself—small, circular, just below her left ribcage.

A gunshot wound he confirmed again 

The information slammed into his mind like a freight train. He didn't examine her. He didn't get close. He just knew. Like his brain had scanned her body and delivered a full diagnosis without him asking for it.

The bullet had entered at an angle. It had missed the major organs—barely but it was lodged inside. She was bleeding internally. Fast. Too fast.

Three minutes.

The thought materialized in his head, clear and sharp. If no one intervened in the next three minutes, she was dead.

The countdown on the system screen wasn't random. It was exact. It was how much time she had left.

[14]

[13]

[12]

Ethan's hands clenched into fists. His jaw tightened.

No. I don't have time for this. Emma's waiting for me. I promised her.

But even as he thought it, something deeper stirred inside him. Something that wasn't just the system's command. It was instinct. Reflex. A voice in the back of his mind whispering, "You have to help her."

He took a step forward. Then another. His legs moved on their own.

The two women were frantic now. One of them dressed in a sharp business suit, her hair pulled back tightly—was on her phone, her voice shaking as she spoke to someone on the other end. The other woman, younger, with softer features and a pale blue dress now stained with blood, had her hands pressed against the wound.

“Please,” the younger woman called out, her voice breaking. “Is there a doctor here? Anyone? Please, somebody help her!”

A few people in the crowd glanced over, but no one moved. They just stood there, watching. Uncomfortable. Unwilling to get involved.

Ethan pushed through the circle of onlookers. The two women looked up at him, their eyes wide and desperate.

He stopped a few feet away and looked down at the injured woman. His eyes scanned her quickly, taking in everything.

[TIME REMAINING: 2 MINUTES 47 SECONDS.]

"She doesn't have much time," Ethan said, his voice calm but urgent.

Both women stared at him.

“What?” the younger woman—Grace asked, her voice trembling.

“She's been shot,” Ethan said. “The bullet missed the vital organs, but she's lost too much blood. She has less than three minutes left if we don't do something now.”

The words hung in the air.

For a moment, both women just stared at him in shock.

Then Victoria's face twisted with suspicion and anger. “What did you just say?”

“She's been shot,” Ethan repeated. “The wound is just below her left ribcage. The bullet is still lodged inside. She's bleeding internally.”

Victoria's eyes narrowed. She took a step back, her phone still clutched in her hand.

“How do you know that?” she asked, her voice sharp. “Nobody here knows that. It didn't even happen here. We got out of the car because of the traffic and kept it quiet so people wouldn't panic.”

Grace looked up at Ethan, her hands still pressed against the wound, her eyes wide with confusion and fear.

“You didn't even touch her,” she said. “You didn't examine her. How do you know she was shot?”

Ethan opened his mouth to respond, but Victoria cut him off.

“He knows because he's one of them,” she said, her voice rising. “He's one of the people who shot her. That's how he knows. Security!”

Two security guards who had been standing nearby immediately stepped forward. They moved quickly, their hands reaching for Ethan's arms.

“Wait—” Ethan started.

“Get him away from her,” Victoria ordered. “Now.”

The guards grabbed Ethan's shoulders, their grips firm and unyielding. They started to pull him back.

“Listen to me,” Ethan said, his voice steady despite the guards yanking him away. “It'll take an ambulance at least fifteen minutes to get through that traffic outside. By then, she'll be dead. She has less than two minutes left.”

Victoria's jaw clenched. “I don't believe you. You could be anyone. You could be one of the people who did this to her.”

“I'm not,” Ethan said. “But if you don't let me help her right now, she's going to die.”

“We'll get her to a hospital ourselves,” Victoria snapped. “We don't need your help.”

The guards tightened their grip, starting to drag Ethan further away.

And then a voice broke through the tension.

Weak. Trembling. Barely above a whisper.

“I… I think…”

Immediately everyone froze.

The injured woman's eyes had fluttered open. Her lips were pale, her breathing shallow and labored. She looked up at Victoria, then at Grace, then at Ethan.

Her hand moved slightly, trembling as it lifted from her side.

“I think… he's right,” she whispered, her voice shaking with effort. “I can feel it. My spirit… it's fading from my body. Everything's… getting colder. Getting darker.”

Her eyes locked on Ethan's, wide and desperate.

“Just… just let him try.”

Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • Chapter 107

    Sofia listened to everything Marcus said without interrupting, letting him finish, letting his frustration spend itself out into the room before she offered anything in response, and when she finally spoke her voice carried the measured, deliberate quality of someone who had already turned the problem over in her mind several times and arrived somewhere calmer than where he currently stood."I understand you perfectly," she said. "I understand everything you just said, and I know this is not something you can simply wish away or pretend doesn't exist. It's not about what you did to him, not exactly, it's about what the consequences of that could still become if he decides to make noise about it now, at the worst possible time. I can already see that this is going to be a problem. A real one. I'm not going to pretend otherwise." She paused, composing herself, pushing the anxiety back down into something more manageable. "But right now, the audition tomorrow, the movie, that is the sing

  • Chapter 106

    Ethan absorbed Deborah's confident assurance for a moment, and something in the certainty of her tone was enough to settle whatever residual doubt might have still been lingering at the edges of his mind, but he was not a man who left important things to chance without reinforcing them one final time, and so he allowed himself to nod slowly, even though she couldn't see the gesture through the phone, before responding with the quiet gravity of someone underscoring exactly how much was riding on what he had just asked of her."No problem then," he said. "I'll be counting on you. I need you to understand that I am counting on you completely, and I need you to know that failure is not something I'm prepared to accept here. Not partial success, not a halfway effort dressed up as a win. I need this handled exactly the way I've described it."Deborah's response came quickly, almost before he had finished speaking, her voice carrying a vigor that suggested she had already begun running throu

  • Chapter 105

    Ethan stepped out of the car, moving deliberately toward a quieter spot in the parking lot where the ambient noise from the street would not intrude into the call he was about to make, and he pulled out his phone with the fluid efficiency of someone who had already decided exactly what needed to happen next and was simply now executing the necessary steps to bring it about. He scrolled briefly through his contacts, found Deborah's name, and pressed dial, and the phone barely completed its first ring before she answered, her voice coming through immediately with the slightly breathless quality of someone who had been waiting, perhaps anxiously, for exactly this call."Mr. Ethan," she said quickly, the words tumbling out before he could even greet her properly, "I want to apologize again for what happened earlier at the company. I know I already said it, but I need to say it again because I don't think I made it clear enough how deeply sorry I am for the way things unfolded. Even though

  • Chapter 104

    At that moment in time, upon hearing what Megan had just said about GSK Entertainment, Ethan couldn't help but nod his head slowly, a thoughtful expression settling over his features as he considered the possibilities stretching out before them."Well, if that has been the case," he said, "then GSK is going to be our target. I'll speak to the people that I know, the right people, and I'll make sure you get a spot there."Megan's eyes widened slightly at the confidence in his voice, and she found herself momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer weight of everything he had already done for her, everything he continued to do without hesitation or expectation of anything in return."Thank you so much," she said, her voice soft but earnest. "Thank you so much for what you have done and what you continue to do for me. This is way too much, and I honestly cannot even comprehend the full extent of everything you've given me."She paused, her throat tightening slightly with emotion."First of all,

  • Chapter 103

    Megan fell quiet for a few long seconds, the silence stretching between them inside the car as she studied Ethan's face, searching it for the small signs that would tell her whether this was simply another kind gesture, the sort of encouraging thing partners say to each other in passing without any real intention of following through, or whether it was something else entirely. And what she found there, in the steadiness of his eyes and the set of his jaw, told her everything she needed to know before he even said another word. He was serious. Genuinely, completely serious, in a way that few people in her life had ever been serious about anything concerning her future, and that quality in him, that unwavering follow-through, that refusal to offer comfort without substance behind it, was one of the things she had come to love most about him, one of the qualities that had settled itself quietly into the foundation of everything she felt for him."It seems like you're actually very seriou

  • Chapter 102

    Ethan's eyebrows lifted slightly, a flicker of genuine curiosity crossing his face, and he repeated her words back to her slowly, as though testing their weight before fully accepting them. "You're good at acting. Like an actress, professionally."Megan nodded, and there was no hesitation in the nod, no false modesty dressing up the claim, only a plain, settled confidence that came from someone who had spent enough time with a particular talent to know its exact dimensions without needing anyone else's validation to confirm them."Yes," she said. "Absolutely. I'm very good at it. I know how that sounds, like I'm just saying it to sound impressive, but I promise you I'm not exaggerating or dressing anything up for your benefit. I'm good at multitasking too, genuinely good, I can run three conflicting responsibilities at once without dropping any of them, but acting is different. Acting is the one thing I actually love doing, not just the thing I happen to be competent at. It's been a d

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App