*** THIRD PERSON***

  Karma’s eyes immediately lit up at the shift in Peijin’s demeanor. She darted forward and grabbed Peijin’s small body, embracing her into a tight hug. She let out an excited squeal, jumping up and down.

  “Ah, I think this is what you might call admiration? I can’t believe I get to meet you.”

  Peijin’s expression hardened, her eyes cold as she stared forward and spoke with a hardened voice.

  “I have done no wrong.” The words were curt and held an indiscernible tone as Karma released her grasp on Peijin.

  Karma pulled back and placed her soft, glowing hands on Peijin’s young face, squishing her soft cheeks. “It amazes me how the mind will split to preserve itself. We aren’t so different, you know?”

  “Was it so wrong for me to find comfort and live?”

  “There is no such thing as wrong as long as you pay it off.”

  “There is nothing I need to pay off. Where was karma when Dad became a coal miner? Where was karma when his friend assaulted me?” Peijin replied harshly, not skirting the story anymore. “You’ve never been just, and you’re not now. Why make me remember everything?”

  Karma laughed, bringing up a hand to cover her face. “You still don’t understand karma after all this time. You’ve never lived a good life in any lifetime, and you’ve never made good decisions. Why else would you be standing before me right now? You aren’t supposed to exist,” Karma jabbed the question toward Scathing Reviewer before continuing.

  “You pretend that all misfortune was bestowed upon you by the world. It wasn’t. Whether or not this Peijin recalls it isn’t of my concern.”

  Peijin’s nostrils flared in rage, but she stood still, only clenching her fists. “Feiyu will kill you.”

  “He might,” Karma replied sincerely, nodding her head. “But in the end, that doesn’t matter. Peijin might change other’s fates, but she’ll never change her own.”

  Peijin lifted Zhige and pointed it straight at Karma’s throat. “Then before I die, I’ll tear you down with this very blade. I swear it.”

  Karma gave a soft smile, her long eyelashes fluttering and dark eyes glimmering. A heavy moment of silence followed Peijin’s statement before Karma finally responded with a familiar question:

  “Who are you?”

  “I am me.”

  “But then, who am I? Am I not you, Liu Peijin?” Karma quizzed, placing a hand on her chest. “I know more about you than you yourself.”

  “Liu Peijin does not need to understand herself to live as long as she’s in this world.”

  “And that is why she will be ruined,” Karma replied sheepishly. “Liu Peijin is nothing without this world—she cannot survive without it. She only stands here, before us, instead of dead with her father because she wrote that story and damned the rest of us.”

  “Do not twist what happened,” Peijin said. “This story is Peijin’s salvation.”

  “And it shall be her damnation.”

  Eyes narrowing, Peijin glared straight at Karma, never once faltering. “Feiyu is Peijin’s most beloved creation. You cannot win.”

  “Ha ha ha!” Karma laughed, her chest moving up and down with each breath. It sounded as if small hiccups broke up the laughter, like she were an over enthusiastic child. “Feiyu is merely Peijin. Everywhere you look, the only thing you’ll find is Peijin. Yue is Peijin. Wei is Peijin. This world is Peijin. That is why you will pay. This world is the most beautifully selfish creation, and even if it saves you, karma gets everyone. I don’t need to win, Peijin. I am Karma.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Scathing Reviewer is flickering!]

  With a heavy sigh, Peijin responded, “Wait until Peijin meets Feiyu, and you’ll see the extent of her strength to protect him. Today, she has already acknowledged how she felt for the rest of her party without me getting involved.”

  With a wicked and twisted smile, Karma only said a few more words before Scathing Reviewer shattered.

  “And even in this world, Peijin still cannot learn to love herself. You and I are more similar than you think. I believe we will become good friends.”

  “You forget that things are different now,” Peijin’s fading but firm voice declared. “Zhige has marked Peijin with the Tower tarot, and she’ll unlock it soon and be able to meet the other members. The Major Arcana already have their eyes locked on her. Once the Hermit and the Chariot tarots uncover Peijin’s true identity, you’d be a fool to think they’d ever let her go.”

  [Scathing Reviewer has deactivated!]

  ***

  Peijin’s POV

  I coughed for a moment, placing my hand on my knee to steady myself. My head raced, and I felt it pulse as my vision blurred.

  I spotted Karma’s face peering at my curiously.

  “Hello again.”

  Finally catching my breath, I wiped my dirtied face with the back of my hand and met her gaze. My mind was completely jumbled as if someone had shuffled and refiled my memories.

  Why had Karma just said, “Hello?” We’ve been talking this entire time, and our last interaction was about how I wasn’t the strongest person here—that was Feiyu and whatever other monster of a disciple there was.

  “I’m not the best in this world,” I spat, steadying myself. “Kill the rest of them first, you motherfucker!”

  I lunged forward and aimed Zhige straight at Karma’s perfect figure, but she easily side-stepped, and I went flying into the wall with a flurry of curses.

  “You misunderstand me, Liu Peijin. I don’t intend to just kill you. Your fate is far worse.”

  I got back up, screaming as I ran forward again, this time making sure my blade slashed straight through her. I knew it was futile if I couldn’t find her spiritual core, but I couldn’t let myself get treated this way.

  Zhige easily sliced through her body, but instead of being cut in half, she remained fully intact.

  “Your curse is knowledge. Isn’t it befitting? You’ll try and save all of them by using your knowledge of the world, but all it will do is prove to you that you really can’t save them.” Her grin grew as she laughed, twirling away from my frenzied slashes before she calmly sat down on the armrest of a sofa.

  “Shut up!” I slashed Zhige violently, but none of my slashes seemed to land on her. “Goddamnit, Zhige!”

  Zhige shrank at my harsh tone and words and a wave of sympathy immediately flowed through me. When did I get so attached to this world?

  One thing was for certain now. I couldn’t lie to myself anymore—I really did care about my party. Whether or not ‘Scathing Reviewer’ was activated, I started thinking about them more than I thought about myself at times. Yue’s bickering, Amelia’s smile, Yang’s cunningness, Wei’s empathy….

  And for that reason, I would kill Karma. No matter what it took of me.

  Karma reached out an arm at surprising speed and grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks. “I see why the gods and observers like you. You’re so cute!”

  I couldn’t pull out of her harrowing grip no matter how much I tried—she didn’t even budge despite my thrashing.

  “I’ll let you live, Liu Peijin. But you must know something,” At once, Karma emitted gold karmic energy around her body, and I was violently flung into the bedroom wall with a sharp cry. I tried to lift a finger and move forward, but I was completely pinned down.

  Even Zhige struggled to move from the overwhelming power.

  Karma took step after step forward, almost floating across the ground.

  “You’re the reason your group will suffer. Your karma is so bad it impacts everyone else around you,” Karma began.

  “Weren’t you curious why Yang’s luck was so bad after his first dice roll? It was because of you, Liu Peijin. You’re dooming everyone around you. Didn’t it surprise you how well Yue did without you and with Yang, Wei, and Amelia instead?”

  I wanted to scream in her face, reach out and cry and tear at her, but I couldn’t even open my mouth. My eyes darted remained locked on her, a silent threat.

  “No one needs you. They need Feiyu. He’s always been the better version of you, and you made him that way. Every relationship you forge is your karma because you will always destroy the other person, Liu Peijin. You, you are destruction.”

  My blood ran cold. I remained still—not because of Karma’s retracting aura but because of my sheer horror.

  Ha, this world really was cruel.

  “Me?” I asked softly, meeting Karma’s empty but glittering gaze. “Me?”

  Karma walked forward and pulled my child-like body into a tight embrace before pulling back and looking down on me.

  “That’s your curse. But I won’t go back on my word. I’ll send you back, and your party will make it past this room safely as soon as you exit the house.”

  At once, countless hands burst all over the room and grabbed me, beginning to drag me into the walls. Their grip was cold, but their fingers moved frantically, pinching and tearing into my flesh.

  “I’ll kill you,” I swore softly, my lips mouthing the words more than they were audible. “I’ll tear down this entire universe and slaughter you to save them,” my voice grew louder, “I’ll hunt you down in any fucking timeline! In any world! You’ll never get away with hurting them, you fucker!”

  The hands continued to pull me into the wall, but I tried resisting, shoving my way forward until my face was just inches from her glowing one.

  “You were right about what you said earlier. You’re not the only anomaly. We’re one and the same, Liu Peijin. And for this, this is why you’ll survive.”

  Finally, the hands wrapped around my face and dragged me into the black abyss.