The Narrator suddenly brought this up, and Xu Zhi inexplicably felt that something was off. The faint teasing look on her face vanished, replaced by seriousness. "I remember it very clearly. What is it?"
The helplessness she had felt then, the despair of death closing in, and the Game Console that had suddenly appeared behind her—she had thought she was seeing a ghost.
[What were you thinking, in the second before I appeared?]
Xu Zhi remembered that clearly as well. She raised her chin slightly, and her tone lost its usual ease.
What had she been thinking then?
The answer could not have been simpler.
"I wanted to live."
Her mind had been filled with thoughts of how to keep living. A fierce desire to survive had consumed the mind of her weak younger self.
[Yes, but not only that.]
The Narrator added.
[You were unwilling, resentful, and hateful. In that moment, you wanted to live, even if you had to resort to any means necessary.]
In that instant, what Xu Zhi hated was not some external thing, but rather her own helpless and weak self.
That was why it had appeared.
[In that moment, you made a choice that even you yourself failed to notice.]
". . .What?"
Xu Zhi did not quite understand. She even thought back carefully, yet she still did not feel that she had made any choice.
What choice had she even had back then?
"You mean I chose to pick you up?"
After thinking it over, that seemed to be the only possibility.
[No.]
For the first time, the Narrator chose to tell Xu Zhi this.
[It was because you made that choice that I appeared.]
``` [In your extreme negativity at