Chapter 12-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

 Li Yixin opened the latest chapter of King of the Demonic Domain. The protagonist's team was invited to a banquet held by the Crown Prince.

Roy, with his slicked-back blond hair and white suit, looked like a handsome young master from the upper district. The tall Caleb had shed his beast-skin armor for formal attire. Lucy wore a bouncy red mini dress, and Percy had finally changed out of the work jacket that countless readers had complained about, looking noble and handsome in a smart suit.

The group, now in new clothes, squeezed into a black private car.

As soon as she opened the comments, a stream of praise scrolled across the screen.

[Oh, Roy, you're a beautiful tabby cat!]

[Old Uncle finally changed Percy's clothes. I'm frantically taking screenshots.]

[Lucy's puffy dress exposes Uncle's 'straight man's' (a term for someone with poor aesthetic sense) taste, lol.]

[Caleb is still big and buff, which is very reassuring.]

[Uncle, our Percy wants slicked-back hair, too!]

At this point, the comments section had no idea what was about to happen. Li Yixin anxiously continued to scroll down.

"So this is a car. It's my first time riding in one."

"The Crown Prince sent a legendary car to pick us up. He doesn't seem like such a bad person after all."

"You two fools, cars aren't that rare in the upper district."

As his teammates bickered, Percy wore a helpless but somewhat doting smile.

This car was a purely industrial product, developed 500 years ago before the Demonic Domain descended and humans awakened their abilities. Since the Demonic Domain's arrival, such pure industrial products had become rare. The Demonic Domain not only brought disaster but also vast resources—strange beasts, unique plants, and odd minerals and crystals—that could both enhance ability users' strength and be used for inventions.

Percy had grown up working in factories in the lower district. Most of the factories served ability users by producing equipment and weapons, with only a few making civilian products. Even the civilian products required resources from the Demonic Domain.

The black-haired boy lowered his head to play with a rectangular device in his hand. It was something called a "cell phone" that the Ability Tournament Association had given them. He heard it was a device used for communication in the upper district. After studying it for a while, he realized its components were produced in a factory just like the one he worked at, crafted from a common Demonic Domain mineral called soundstone. Long-term exposure to soundstone could cause tinnitus and even serious hearing loss, but the soundstone in the phone was processed to eliminate this risk. Instead, its properties were utilized to transmit sound over long distances.

Sitting in the car, Percy's smile vanished. The common people bore the consequences, but the powerful elites of the upper district enjoyed the results.

Seeing Percy's look of dejection in that panel, Li Yixin's heart ached for him. Those despicable 'heavenly dragons' (a reference to powerful elites from a popular Japanese manga)!

However, when she scrolled to the scene where Percy and the others entered the banquet and Sykes suddenly appeared on the second floor, she couldn't help but cheer for the heavenly dragon. The Crown Prince was indeed the most handsome! With his arrogant and uninhibited blond hair and golden eyes, his demeanor of looking down upon everyone made her want to surrender to him. He was the perfect type for a 'strength worshipper' (a term for someone who admires powerful characters) like her.

She opened the comments, and as expected, everyone was captivated by the Crown Prince's stunning looks.

[I've finally been waiting for the Crown Prince to appear! He's gotten even more handsome after not appearing for a few chapters.]

[Ahhh, PerSy(the pairing that Percy is top)  are going to start fan service again!]

[It's Sykcy(the pairing that Sykes is top) who are the 'couple empire' (the most popular couple in the fandom), okay?]

[Sykes! The manliest of men! The most masculine of males!]

"Thank you all for taking the time to come."

Sykes's noble face filled an entire horizontal page. His expression was intriguing, as if he were planning something interesting.

"In the third stage of the tournament, Ye Zheng will join the Royal Academy's team. Let us cheer for our Saintess!"

Li Yixin was stunned. Who was Ye Zheng? The Saintess character had only been mentioned briefly in the introduction to the Sei Curia. She continued to flip the page, and another stunning face, following Sykes, dominated her screen, making her gasp for breath. The black-haired, black-eyed girl was a stark contrast to the Crown Prince beside her. If the Crown Prince was the blazing sun, this girl was the high-hanging, cool moon, her light undiminished even by the sun's brilliance.

On the next page, Percy, with his black hair and blue eyes, looked toward the second floor. The normally calm and intelligent boy wore a lost expression, his blue eyes shimmering with a strange light.

Li Yixin's heart skipped a beat. As a 'Sykes-Percy' (literal translation) shipper, she desperately tried to convince herself that it was because Percy had seen Sykes. But the next part of the story immediately shattered her hopes.

Complex thoughts surfaced in the boy's mind.

[The moment I saw her, I knew for sure she was the mysterious Sei Curia figure who saved me.]

[So her name is Ye Zheng... She's as gentle and beautiful as the rumors say.]

[But why is she standing there, beside that person?]

[I have a vague feeling that something is wrong. She should be... standing by my side.]

Li Yixin felt like the creator had hit her with a truck.

This clearly looked like a developing romantic feeling, didn't it? The creator's 'fan service' was so clumsy. Percy fell for her without even speaking a word? This is too OOC! No wonder her best friend said the forums had exploded!

---

[Are you crazy? You've agreed to join both the protagonist's and the villain's teams. How are you going to handle that?]

Ye Zheng was in the lounge, slowly responding while scrolling through the forums on her phone.

"According to inside information, the third stage doesn't involve direct team-vs-team combat. The main focus is still on fighting the Demonic Domain."

"A replacement member doesn't need to fight in every match. The team can decide the lineup themselves."

[You really know how to make trouble for yourself... According to my plan, you could have easily avoided the death ending.]

"Having more scenes helps me gain popularity."

"More importantly—"

Although the system was unconvinced, it had to admit that this host was a little smarter than it was. The current popularity score was more optimistic than its projection. Perhaps she had a bigger plan for having the 'Ye Zheng' identity appear.

"More importantly, under those circumstances, I had to agree to Sykes's offer for him to spare that man's life."

The system, which had been anticipating Ye Zheng's big plan, froze. It took a moment for it to remember which man she was referring to.

[Hey, hey, hey, that man was completely insignificant. If he wants to rely on Sykes, he should be prepared to die. Was it really necessary to save some random nobody?]

Ye Zheng frowned. "Why would you think that? The people in this manga world see Sykes's tyrannical actions as normal because they've become numb to living under such an authoritarian rule."

"They will spontaneously defend the powerful in exchange for their protection. I understand them, but as the Saintess of the Sei Curia, I cannot agree with them."

"Sykes's hunting ground has devoured many innocent people. With his crimes, I should have killed him on the spot to live up to my name as Saintess, but unfortunately, I don't have that kind of power."

Ye Zheng calmly uttered these treasonous words about murdering the future emperor. The system felt its impression of Ye Zheng was once again subverted.

[Wait, what kind of Saintess is in charge of executions?]

[You are our gentle and kind healing-type heroine. Killing the villain is the male lead's job. You don't actually want to kill Sykes, do you?]

Ye Zheng looked down, scrolled through her phone a couple of times, and asked nonchalantly, "By the way, what does OOC mean? The forums are in an uproar over that word."

[OOC means a character doing something that doesn't fit their established personality, leading to a 'character breakdown.' Don't change the subject!]

"Oh, the forums are arguing that Percy's supposed love at first sight for the new character is OOC and a major error in his characterization."

"Someone has removed me from the manga image. Is that some kind of special high-dimensional world technology?"

[That's just photoshopping you directly out from beside the Crown Prince.]

The system couldn't help but look at the forum with Ye Zheng.

[Get ready, 'couple empire' shippers are going to pester you for the rest of your life!]

Ye Zheng tilted her head. "As expected of the high-dimensional world, they have such a rich vocabulary. What is a 'couple empire'?"

← Previous Chapter Next Chapter →