Chapter 22-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

 "Royal Academy team... how about we avoid them for now? Their abilities are just too bizarre," Roy said, a little hesitant.

"No, we can't avoid them." Percy pointed to the Royal Academy team's location on the sensor, his expression grave. "Look at the distance between us and them. It's so close that a confrontation is inevitable. We have to be prepared to fight them."

"In fact, we have to be ready to fight them every time."

So far, they had not had a direct conflict with the Royal Academy, but they had gathered a lot of intel on them. Mysterious, strange, and unpredictable was their style—even more elusive than the arrogant and domineering Sykes.

"Percy is right, we can't back down," Caleb said with conviction.

"Since the goal is to win the championship, let's beat up the Royal Academy first!" Lucy put her hands on her hips, her expression proud.

Percy looked at his old teammates and smiled knowingly. Finally, he looked at Zhao Mei.

"Zhao Mei, what's your suggestion?"

Ye Zheng's eyes narrowed slightly. She felt that the protagonist's group at this moment was radiating a certain light, as if the manga creator was busy adding various flashy special effects to the determined main characters.

"Of course. Let's go."

Meeting those guys was unavoidable. She could only take it one step at a time.

The crowd was evacuating, but a few teenagers were walking against the flow of people.

The Demonic Domains would continue to expand. The sooner a Demonic Domain was resolved, the lower the losses would be.

However, this rule did not apply to the competition.

In the distance, a translucent light shot into the sky, like an inverted semi-circular dome covering the earth, or like a white vortex devouring everything, making people feel a sense of dread.

In a street shop nearby, a child peeked out in a panic to see what was happening. Upon seeing the teenagers' figures, a hopeful light appeared in their eyes.

"Looks like we're the first team to enter the Demonic Domain," the black-haired, green-eyed teenager muttered as he met the child's expectant gaze.

"There are two teams closer to us. We can't be the first to enter, can we?" Lucy asked, confused.

Percy furrowed his brows and slowed his pace. "I understand what Zhao Mei means. Being the first to enter the Demonic Domain is not a good thing."

"Only the team that destroys the Demonic Domain's core gets points. The smartest approach is to wait until other teams are exhausted inside the domain and then look for an opportunity to reap the rewards."

"No... they wouldn't be that cowardly, would they?" Caleb asked, dumbfounded.

"Even so, we have to go in right now."

Everyone turned to look at the teenager at the back of the team. The usually gentle Zhao Mei had a rare hint of assertiveness.

"Once a Demonic Domain is locked by a contestant, the officials won't send anyone to deal with it."

"The people inside the Demonic Domain are waiting for us."

The teenagers' expressions became serious. Zhao Mei was right. Besides being contestants, they also had the responsibility of guarding the lower district.

They felt ashamed of their earlier hesitant thoughts. The contestants from the upper district didn't care about casualties, but as kids from the lower district, they couldn't be so indifferent.

"Let's hurry up!"

"Damn it, didn't the competition association notice this problem? What if everyone stalls and no one wants to make the first move..."

"We can't worry about that too much! The people inside are still waiting for us!"

Standing amidst his agitated teammates, Percy secretly glanced at this teammate from another district. He had always felt that Zhao Mei possessed a strange, almost divine quality that shouldn't belong to his social class. It inexplicably reminded him of the girl he had only met a few times—a person people from the lower district said was the most flawless being in the upper district.

The group of teenagers ran forward, chattering and without hesitation, they rushed into the huge white orb of light.

A dazzling white light flashed before Ye Zheng's eyes. When she opened them again, a hint of surprise crossed her face.

The surrounding streets were empty, with vacant shops' doors wide open. A radio from an unknown house was still playing cheerful music.

This place was no different from the outside world.

She turned to look at Percy, who also looked back at her with a knowing glance. Both of them saw the gravity in the other's eyes.

Demonic Domains usually invaded local spaces, which could be deserts, grasslands, caves, or other landscapes that didn't exist in the Holy Sei Empire, accompanied by a large number of strange beasts and plants.

However, the Demonic Domain they were in still maintained the original appearance of this land.

Ye Zheng blinked. This place looked a little familiar.

"It's a Rule-type Demonic Domain. Damn it, our luck is so bad!" Roy said, pulling at his golden hair, his expression a little on the verge of a breakdown.

Rule-type Demonic Domains didn't bring different spaces or creatures, but instead, they brought unpredictable and bizarre rules. If you touched the reverse scale of a rule (provoked the rule), you might even be instantly erased by it!

The team's anchor, Percy, also gave a helpless, wry smile. "We should be used to it. Bad luck seems to be our specialty."

Ye Zheng thought, 'This is thanks to the creator's setting.' She heard that in the higher-dimensional world, bad luck was a standard feature for protagonists, and it seemed to be a popular setting.

Percy: "Let's go. With a Rule-type, we can only figure things out slowly."

The teenagers walked one after another. There were a few scattered, panicked passers-by along the way, who stared blankly at them. Many more, however, were experienced enough to hide in safe buildings, waiting for ability users to break the Demonic Domain.

There were no ferocious monsters or man-eating plants. The surroundings could even be described as peaceful and harmonious, but everyone's minds were on high alert.

Ye Zheng walked at the very end, recalling the original plot she had seen.

The short black shadows, the black butterflies that resembled Lucy's ability... How were these anomalies triggered? When would they appear?

Ye Zheng looked around. Besides the excessive quiet, there were no other signs of abnormality. She lowered her head in thought, and her gaze fell on the ground. She suddenly furrowed her delicate brows.

They were walking in a large area of shadow.

It was summer noon, and the sun was directly overhead. The shadows of the houses on the side of the street shouldn't be this long or wide, especially since the houses themselves were not large.

Something was wrong. The shadows of these buildings were not right!

She looked at her own shadow behind her. How could a person's shadow at noon be longer than their body?

However, when Ye Zheng took a closer look, the black shadow seemed to have a side ponytail. This shadow was not even her own!

"Watch out for the shadows!"

As soon as she shouted, the shadow at her feet struggled and climbed up from the ground, like a thin, black piece of paper.

A group of black butterflies suddenly fluttered everywhere. As Percy and the others noticed the strangeness of the shadows at their feet, their vision was immediately obscured by the butterflies.

Percy immediately activated his ability, [Metal Transmutation]. His right hand turned into a sharp blade, tearing the black butterflies around him to shreds. In the midst of the chaos, a girl's voice was heard shouting, "This is my ability, [Butterfly Waltz]!"

Lucy looked at the black shadow and its black butterflies in disbelief. It was practically a silhouette of her and her ability.

She gritted her teeth in anger and was about to summon her own little butterflies when a sharp blade suddenly struck toward her neck. Lucy didn't even have time to react. Someone pushed her hard, and she narrowly dodged the attack.

Falling to the ground, Lucy looked up. Zhao Mei was standing in front of her. The usually gentle teenager fiercely kicked the black shadow that had just attacked her. The black shadow was kicked away as lightly as a piece of paper.

"That's Percy's shadow."

"Fortunately, its power is far less than his."

Ye Zheng helped Lucy up from the ground. Lucy was still a little wobbly after standing up. She looked down and saw a deep scratch on Lucy's fair thigh, which was bleeding. It must have been accidentally scratched when she fell.

She knelt down. A healing stream of water flowed from the teenager's fingertips. Ye Zheng remembered that she was in a male body now and said politely, "I apologize for the offense."

Then, she placed her hand on the wound on Lucy's thigh.

The usually lively and outgoing Lucy looked down at Zhao Mei's serious head, feeling a little flustered. Her thigh became stiff, letting Zhao Mei do her work.

"Thank... thank you!"

She thought, 'I should have known not to wear shorts just to look good! Everyone else is fighting hard, and I'm just dragging them down... Maybe I should have worn the flat boots Zhao Mei gave me. What if I hurt my ankle next time?'

Just thinking about Zhao Mei holding her ankle to heal it, Lucy felt like she was going to evaporate. Her ears had already turned a suspicious red.

Lucy shook her head, her high side ponytail swaying with her. She thought, 'Zhao Mei isn't even my type. Girls like men who are stronger than them. I came to this competition because I heard there would be many strong and handsome guys!'

She had these scattered thoughts, and then she summoned her colorful little butterflies, having half of them surround Zhao Mei to protect him.

Even though he wasn't her type, she had decided that Zhao Mei was her friend!

"Zhao Mei, you stay here. I'll go help them deal with the other shadows." Lucy instructed with concern. Although Zhao Mei's kick on the black shadow was cool just now, he was a Healer—a precious and fragile Healer in the world of ability users.

Ye Zheng nodded agreeably and stayed where she was, watching the protagonist team fight the monsters, with no intention of providing any extra help.

A total of three black shadows appeared on the field. One was Lucy's shadow, one was Percy's, and the last one's ability didn't belong to their team... which meant that another team had already entered this Demonic Domain.

[You seem to be paying special attention to Lucy. Why is that? She's the character with the lowest popularity in the main team, and interacting with her won't do much for your popularity. BG couples aren't popular now.] The System asked curiously, interrupting Ye Zheng's thoughts.

[Although some people in the original plot shipped you two, it was mostly strategic baihe(百合, Chinese for yuri/lily/GL), not many people genuinely shipped it.]

"What is strategic baihe?"

"'Baihe'... is it 'bǎinián hǎohé' (a idiom means may you have a long and happy marriage)? Or does it have another meaning?"

Ye Zheng couldn't figure it out. She didn't seem to have seen the word 'baihe' on the forum.

['Baihe' is girl-girl shipping. There are very few female characters in King of the Demonic Domain, so not many people ship 'baihe', and 'baihe' is already a niche genre. The 'Tong'(同, literally means 'same', can be understand as homosexual here) in 'Tong Ren' (同人, Chinese word for fandom) is mostly 'Nan Tong'(gay men).]

"Then what is strategic 'baihe'?"

[You're the official male lead's partner. Giving you a 'baihe' couple would give people a reasonable reason to ship Percy with other male characters.]

Ye Zheng half-understood. She didn't quite grasp the concept of shipping itself, and she found the roundabout tactics used for shipping even more incomprehensible.

She simply stopped thinking about it and focused on the four main characters fighting in the distance. Lucy was particularly conspicuous among them.

Before entering the Demonic Domain, Lucy had rejected her boots, but Ye Zheng knew it wasn't Lucy's own choice.

Percy was wearing a blue jumpsuit that readers often complained about for its 'zhinan' (straight man) aesthetic, but it was comfortable and practical for combat. Roy wore a white shirt and slacks, and a pair of neat, long boots that made him look noble and agile. Caleb was the most heavily dressed, with a layer of soft armor over his black clothes and pants, which looked very defensive.

And Lucy, with her shorts and high heels, had a bizarre style among them.

Readers often praised the manga creator of King of the Demonic Domain for their strong logic, but why didn't any readers point out such an obvious logical bug?

Wearing such flawed attire to fight, unless the creator normally dressed like this for fights, she could only assume that the creator of this manga was stupid and lacked basic logic.

Ye Zheng recalled her appearance in the original plot—a white dress and long black hair. It was just as absurd as Lucy's.

She was able to wear comfortable, practical combat gear now because she was a man.

Once she shed this male disguise, her character as Ye Zheng would be a major OOC even if she wanted to cut her long hair.

"I can't help but pay attention to Lucy. It's out of simple empathy."

[Don't worry, she has low popularity but good social skills. The creator doesn't give her many highlight moments, but they also don't give her any romantic plotlines. You're the one who attracts the most hate.]

"As one of the original members of the main team, shouldn't the creator give her a lot of scenes to show her abilities?"

[Having one female character in a shonen manga's main team is standard, but having the worst configuration and the least screentime is also standard. The bonds of 'the three little ones' or 'the four little ones' are actually just the bonds between the two or three male characters.]

"So this is the general treatment for female characters."

"It seems that in the higher-dimensional world, women also have far fewer social resources than men, just like in this world."

The System choked. It didn't know why Ye Zheng had suddenly veered into a world outside the manga—a field that, as a fictional character, she shouldn't and couldn't touch.

Just as it was about to remind its host, Ye Zheng changed the subject again.

She pointed to the group of main characters fighting in the distance, her voice calm. "I know who that extra black shadow is."

As soon as she finished speaking, the main team, who had already gained the upper hand, was suddenly shaken by a burst of explosive energy and sent flying. The three shadows took the opportunity to escape.

"The extra shadow is the shadow of one of the Royal Academy's contestants. He needs some time to charge up before he can unleash his power."

"As expected, the people from the Royal Academy have already entered."

"The strength of that gust of air just now was only half of his actual power, but at the beginning, the number of Shadow Lucy's butterflies was less than one-third of Lucy's own."

"And in the manga spoilers, Lucy's shadow was clearly much more difficult to deal with than it is now..."

A hint of understanding flashed in Ye Zheng's eyes as she reached her final conclusion. "The shadows will get stronger over time. We have to destroy them as soon as possible."

So, she moved her feet and walked towards the main team, intending to tell them the news.

The System was a little dumbfounded. This person was just chatting with me a moment ago. How did he suddenly come to this conclusion?

"These shadows will—"

The black-haired, green-eyed teenager suddenly covered his mouth and stopped speaking halfway through his sentence.

His teammates, who were looking disheveled from the battle, looked at Zhao Mei in confusion. Percy asked with concern, "What's wrong, Zhao Mei? Are you not feeling well?"

The teenager put down his hand, ignoring the stinging pain in his throat, and smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine. Do you need me to heal you?"

Everyone shook their heads, saying they were okay. Caleb spoke up, "These guys aren't strong, just a little difficult to deal with."

Ye Zheng couldn't directly state her conclusion, so she had to take a roundabout approach. "Let's deal with them as soon as possible. Who knows, these shadows might have characteristics we can't even imagine."

Percy nodded with a heavy expression. "Let's go after them now. Maybe if we eliminate them, the Demonic Domain will be broken."

The group set off again, running quickly in the direction the shadows had disappeared.

[Don't steal the male lead's lines! Percy is both the combat and the brains of the team. Crucial conclusions like this are his lines.]

[If you want to say this conclusion in advance, it will cost at least 150 action points, which is a full 15,000 popularity, to rewrite this part of Percy's plot.]

Ye Zheng's lowered eyelashes trembled slightly. She wasn't disappointed by the System's words. Instead, she began to calculate. This meant that as long as she had enough popularity and action points, she could even change the protagonist's plot as she pleased.

"I understand."

[I'm glad you do. This manga is an absolute male protagonist-centric story. The highlights must be focused on Percy. Isn't it comfortable to just lie down, goof off, and just get some plot and popularity?]

Ye Zheng swallowed the burning pain in her throat and didn't speak again. This was the punishment for violating the manga's rules, but she felt that the pain was exhilarating.

It was precisely because she could feel pain that she was a living, breathing person, not a manipulated, fictional character from a manga.

The teenager's running footsteps suddenly stumbled. The ground began to vibrate violently. The buildings on both sides of the street swayed, and the people hiding inside screamed and ran out.

Ye Zheng looked back and saw the ground quickly cracking. A black shadow was behind them, crouching with its hand touching the ground.

"There's a new shadow behind us!"

"Its ability isn't from the Royal Academy. Damn it, a new team has entered!"

"We can't kill all of them, can we?"

The teenagers stopped and looked back at the new shadow. Suddenly, Percy pointed in one direction and spoke up, "Those three shadows are up ahead!"

They looked at each other, not knowing which way to go.

Percy's brows furrowed. He took a step forward. "We can only deal with this one first. We have to protect the residents here."

Roy disagreed. "The three shadows together are more destructive, especially with your shadow among them."

"I'll stay behind. You guys go after the three shadows." The usually quiet teenager said as everyone was struggling with the decision.

The others looked at their Healer teammate in disbelief. Lucy's face crumpled. "Zhao Mei, wake up! How can we let you, a Healer, stay behind and fight alone?"

"Yeah, I'll stay. My ability, [Bulwark], can take a beating," Caleb also persuaded.

Percy didn't speak for a moment. He took a deep look at his mysterious Healer teammate. Slowly, he said, "If it's Zhao Mei, I believe him."

After spending time together, he could see that the quiet and reserved Zhao Mei was actually a smart and very opinionated person. His origin was a mystery, and his abilities had not been fully displayed yet. If he said he would stay behind and fight alone, he must have a plan.

Healers weren't necessarily unable to fight. He heard that the Saintess's brother had an S-rank talent that could both heal and attack. Maybe Zhao Mei's abilities weren't limited to healing either.

"Zhao Mei, we'll leave this place to you. We'll wait for you up ahead." Percy gave him a look of trust. The others looked at the black-haired, green-eyed teenager with concern.

The teenager, standing at the intersection of light and shadow, nodded. His face, divided by the light and darkness, was as gentle as ever, but with a strange and mysterious air. One of his pure green eyes was bathed in the sunlight like a gemstone, while the other was hidden in the shadow like a deep green flame.

"Don't worry, I'll catch up with you."

The teenagers stopped lingering and chased after the three shadows in front of them.

[50 action points deducted. You now have only 15 action points left.]

[However, staying behind alone is definitely a highlight moment! When this chapter is released, your popularity will definitely go skyrocket again!]

"Is that so? That's not important."

Ye Zheng knelt on the vibrating ground, her fingers touching the cracks in the ground.

Then, a stream of water, like a swift fish, surged along the cracks on the ground, then shot up to bind the black shadow not far away, slamming it hard into the ground.

The ground immediately stopped shaking.

The teenager walked with a light step toward the black shadow bound by the water.

"First, I'll study how to kill a shadow."

"Then, I'll immediately go and kill... my shadow."

She had to find a way to get rid of her own shadow first. Otherwise, it was highly likely that her true identity and abilities would be exposed to others.

Until the end of this competition, and until her popularity was considerable enough, the existence of Zhao Mei was necessary.

If someone unfortunately ran into her shadow in this Demonic Domain and saw a few clues... Ye Zheng decided to strike first.

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