Otto's Ultimate Legacy: He Didn't Die-He Became the World Root's Source Code

"Then what the hell was all this?" Xu Sanshi slammed a fist into his knee, his eyes red. "What did he turn himself into? A tool? A sacrifice? A fool who couldn't even get the result he wanted?"

"He turned himself into something that 'never happened,'" Ye Yinzhu said quietly, his fingers resting on the strings. Not a trace of blood remained on them. "Every scheme he made was reduced to nothing. This wasn't failure. Failure at least has a reason. The world plucked him out by the roots without leaving even a mistake behind. The 'price' the Light Screen spoke of wasn't Divine Punishment. It was erasure, like removing a variable too dangerous to keep."

"But that variable just wanted a girl to live." Xiao Xiao finally broke down, her voice catching. "He did so much... so much... Why...?"

"Because some things aren't arithmetic," Gu Yuena said softly. "Otto treated the world like an equation. He thought that if he put in enough sacrifice, he could solve for Kallen's life. But the Tree doesn't grow according to human formulas. It only takes everything Otto offered and folds it into its own cycle. Then it tells him: a life cannot be prolonged, only paid for."

"What will happen to that New World Line?" the Dragon Prince asked suddenly. "If Kallen still dies, will the places that river flowed through still exist?"

"Yes," Huo Yuhao said. "But that will be a matter for another river. The New World Line will keep growing, though no one knows what it will become. It might be almost identical to the Old World, or it might be worse. Otto bound himself to the World Line, hoping to trade his life for a certain future. But the Tree never gives anyone a certain answer. It only