The Test That Kills

The invigilators approached me mechanically and surrounded me.

"Leaving during the entrance exam is prohibited. Please return to the exam hall and complete your test."

Their identical, lifeless eyes sent a chill down my spine. I quickly weighed my chances of fighting my way out and gave up just as quickly.

In the end, I obediently turned back toward the exam hall.

On the way back, floating comments popped up once more.

[Jessie's smart. She knew that she couldn't just sit and wait for death, but what she didn't know was that during the security check, a tracking device had been planted on her. If she leaves the exam hall, the tracking device would ring the alarm.]

[Also, don't forget, the entire school installed new surveillance cameras for this entrance exam. It'll be hard for her to escape.]

My heart sank when I saw the comments. I had no escape route at all. It seemed that the plot wanted me to die badly.

However, I was not going to just sit around and wait for death.

At that thought, just when I was about to reenter the exam hall, I turned to head to the confidential storage room.

Thanks to my excellent grades and my role as class monitor, teachers often had me assist with major exams, transporting papers, storing them, and handling logistics.

The confidential room was where unopened exam papers were kept. Backup copies were stored there as well.

Most importantly, it was the only place in the entire school without surveillance.

I made it there smoothly. No invigilator stopped me along the way. I was relieved.

It seemed as though, as long as I did not show any intentions of running away, the invigilators would not stop me.

Thankfully, I found backup copies of the test and answer sheet inside the storage room. Since hey were sealed, I was the only one who had touched them.

I took the test papers back to the exam hall. Ignoring the invigilator's murderous gaze, I calmly and quickly filled in the answer sheet. Then, I handed in my sheet right before the bell rang.

After handing in the test papers, I waited for a few seconds. I did not feel the throbbing pain in my heart that I felt in my previous life.

Just when I was sighing in relief, the invigilator walked over to me and whispered in my ear, "You think you can escape this? You've celebrated too early."

Before I could react to that, a student in front of me suddenly went crazy and tore everyone's test papers into pieces.

Instantly, everyone there lost their heads.

Mine fell to the ground as well.

Right before I saw darkness, the floating comments came once more.

[What a pity! Jessie was so close to escaping this time, but she seemed to have forgotten that in the novel, every other character would sacrifice everything to ensure Rachel and Timothy get their happy ending.]

[Too many people died this time, and the plot is getting hard to patch up. People in the comments are already getting mad.]

[Even the author said that the plot is starting to collapse and that it was getting harder to keep writing.]

I engraved those words, 'plot collapsed', deeply in my mind, waiting to be reborn again.

…

When I opened my eyes once more, I swiftly avoided the poison attack from the invigilator. I started going through the information from the floating comments.

If that world were a sweet romance novel, then the only way to change its ending was for the story itself to collapse.

Once the author stopped insisting on a fixed ending, a supporting character like me could finally escape a destined death.

The way to cause the plot to collapse was something I had already tried in my previous life: to constantly change the storyline.

In my previous life, I was so insistent on changing my death by poison that I caused the entire exam hall of students to die, throwing the entire plot into chaos.

Even then, the author forced the story back on track, ignoring the readers' complaints.

Therefore, no matter how much I struggled in my new life, the result would likely be the same since I was just a minor supporting character.

The parts of the plot I could influence were limited.

However, what if Rachel and Timothy's storyline collapsed instead?

…

At that thought, my eyes instantly sparkled. I found an excuse to leave the exam hall. I quickly ran to where Rachel and Timothy were having their exams.

Since I had distributed everyone's admission tickets myself, I knew exactly where their exam rooms were.

As I ran, I planned how to shatter their storyline.

Firstly, it was a sweet romance novel.

The female lead, Rachel Sharp, was supposed to be a naive yet brilliant top student.

The male lead, Timothy Handler, was the cold, domineering school tyrant.

Their character settings defined the tone of the story, and were exactly what made readers ship them.

The first step was to destroy their character settings.

After settling my thoughts, I steadied myself.

Then, without hesitation, I grabbed a fire extinguisher from the hallway cabinet and smashed it straight into the glass window of Timothy's exam hall.