Chapter 115-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation

At the end of the previous chapter, Ye Zheng and the other two escaped the little black room. In the ensuing chaos, Ye Zheng ran off alone into the mist, and Percy chased after her.

Opening the new chapter, Percy couldn't find Ye Zheng. In the white mist, he caught a glimpse of a shadowy dragon-bodied woman, and like he'd been shocked, he ran back. He found Kiran, who was in the middle of getting beaten by Sykes.

After a confrontation, Percy finally remembered his memories from before he was four, and he learned exactly what the Hope Project really was.

Tang Mingxi had no interest in this big male lead plotline about being unable to walk independently or the flashbacks, but even a casual glance at what came next pissed her off beyond belief.

The so-called "Hope Project" was about artificially creating gods by exploiting women's unique reproductive abilities, and Percy and Sykes were both products of god-making that had sacrificed countless women!

On her phone screen, the blue-haired, white-robed bishop struck a heavy expression, his eyes full of pity—even though he was one of the executioners. How did he have the nerve to pull that face?

She scrolled down further, and Tang Mingxi's rage hit its peak.

"If things go as expected, she was probably personally modified with dragon bone by Wen Jian herself... into a holy vessel."

"Has the Ye family not announced Ye Zheng's engagement yet?"

Connecting this to Percy's memory fragments from earlier, a holy vessel was a woman selected for experimentation. What Kiran meant with those two lines was that Ye Zheng was one too? And what the hell was this engagement nonsense—did Ye Zheng even know about it?

Tang Mingxi really wanted to punch the sanctimonious bastard on her screen, but considering it was her own phone, she held back.

...If the creator dared to force Ye Zheng into a marriage, the Little Steam (the Zheng in Ye Zheng orounce same as Zheng in Zhengqi(steam), so fans use Zhengqi(steam) as Ye Zheng stans' nickname) would legit go blockade the creator's company building with trucks and funeral wreaths (extreme fan protest)!

Still fuming, she kept scrolling. Percy and the others decided to head to the base, and midway through, they got murderous intentions toward Kiran but held back again after learning Zhou Yun's real plan. Once they finally reached the base, Kiran pulled out the original documents from the start of the Hope Project.

Seeing that document only made Tang Mingxi angrier—how could so many women have agreed to something like this? It was nothing but the ultimate fantasy of those pathetic dudes!

Even when Kiran revealed the bombshell that the prophecy of salvation was fake and the apocalyptic future was real, Tang Mingxi, as a woman, still couldn't buy it. A future reached by stepping on the bones of women—would it really be kind to women? Might as well all perish together. She hated most how people hijacked her with some vague, lofty grand narrative.

Up to this point, the creator had devoted most of the ink to depicting how tragic Percy's childhood was—monitored, imprisoned, experimented on—while the horrific fates of the women behind it all only existed in Kiran's words and fleeting glimpses in Percy's memories. But Tang Mingxi couldn't empathize with the former at all.

She could even totally understand Zhou Yun using 500,000 lives as leverage to destroy the Hope Project and kill off Percy and the other god-made products.

If anything was extreme, it was only her desire to kill Ye Zheng—probably because Ye Zheng wielded the Divine Sword and was seen as the empire's chosen one by the empire, and Zhou Yun wanted to shatter every last hope the empire had.

Her finger kept sliding across the screen. Kiran, mid-conversation with the two young men, was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door. He opened it—

And the saintess appeared on the screen in her pristine white robes.

Tang Mingxi's eyes immediately widened. How did her baby end up here all of a sudden? Wait, why were her hands bound with that black ring?

"It was Zhou Yun who brought you in, wasn't it?"

"Perhaps before killing those four at the base, you didn't know Zhou Yun had kidnapped a full 500,000 people and demanded I kill all of you?"

In the manga, Kiran questioned the girl in disappointment, like he was looking at a naive kid who'd been duped.

In the close-up shots, Percy and Sykes showed their own varied expressions, staring in utter shock at the saintess being escorted to the door by the tall white-clad knights, and they couldn't help stepping closer.

Ye Zheng's bound hands hung in front of her. Facing the gazes of doubt and disbelief from all around, she wore her usual gentle expression.

"Even if I knew, I'd still do it."

On the screen, four scenes of gruesome deaths floated up behind the girl: a person drowned in a shallow stream, someone riddled with bullets, flesh exploding, a head smashed by a dragon-bodied monster... And Ye Zheng's upright figure was shrunken down at the very bottom, the horrific visions encircling her, like the angry ghosts of those she'd caused to die were staring her down, interrogating her.

"Because that's your fate."

The saintess smiled, utterly unrepentant, as if in an instant, all the ghosts trying to scrutinize and question her screamed into oblivion under her cold words.

Tang Mingxi was in the car. She clamped a hand over her mouth in a silent scream. She declared this the most satisfying moment of the chapter!

The whole lead-up had been about how women were willingly exploited and transformed, turned into mere background props to highlight the big male lead Percy's tragic hotness—it was so suffocating. Until Ye Zheng offed a few of those assholes, finally clearing the air for her mood.

While Percy and Sykes were still dithering around, letting Kiran manipulate them, Ye Zheng had already stormed the base and gone on a killing spree. This woman's value kept skyrocketing!

On the final page, an enraged Kiran locked Ye Zheng in solitary confinement, but Tang Mingxi wasn't too worried. Ye Zheng gave her such a strong sense of security—like even if this woman got tossed into the eighteenth layer of hell, she'd slaughter her way back to heaven in no time.

She was even more excited now: What would Ye Zheng do next? She must hate this place with a passion—would she team up with Zhou Yun to wipe out these disgusting men? Especially that Kiran.

Tang Mingxi couldn't wait any longer and opened the forum. Her urge to chat was off the charts; she was dying to gush about Ye Zheng with her fellow stans.

But when she opened the forum, the vibe inside was nothing like what she'd imagined.

[#1: Sorry, I know this is kinda messed up, but I'm actually kinda wanting to stan Kiran now...]

[#2: Percy mom coming in to cry together! What kind of ending would be worthy of your wandering hardships, baby?]

[#3: A lot of people don't dare say it, but after the identity reveal with Chao Mei, Ye Zheng's saintess persona has completely collapsed.]

The three hot threads made her vision blur. Was she reading the same manga as these people?

[#1: Sorry, I know this is kinda messed up, but I'm actually kinda wanting to stan Kiran now...]

[#2: I really eat up this type of bad guy who does whatever it takes for justice—anyone get me?]

[#3: OP, you can search the Kiran tag on Lofter (a Chinese fanfiction platform similar to AO3); there's been a ton of content since he showed up. Hotness is the ultimate productivity.]

[#4: It's all 2D anyway—stanning a villain? What's the big deal? And Kiran isn't even fully a villain in some ways.]

[#5: How insane. The Hope Project that Kiran oversaw killed even his friend's daughter, and he hid Zhou Yun's negotiation terms from the empire, putting 500,000 lives at risk—you call that not a villain?]

[#6: Villain or not, so what? In real life I'd run as far as I could, but in 2D, liking one a bit hurts nobody. Can you people even separate fiction from reality?]

[#7: Kiran hid Zhou Yun's threat to protect Percy and Sykes, and he even admits his deep sins—afterward, he'll let Percy do whatever he wants with him. In a way, he's got this divine vibe.]

[#8: "Bad guy who does whatever it takes for justice"—how are you stealing the review you Ye Zheng stans wrote for Ye Zheng?]

[#9: Upstairs, Ye Zheng stans, go ahead and trademark the dictionary while you're at it.]

[#10: I don't see Kiran as a villain at all—did you even read the manga? He didn't start the Hope Project, and the women who joined did it willingly.]

[#11: Lmao, what a "willingly." Upstairs, you're a guy, right?]

[#12: The Hope Project is misogyny history within history, portraying the exploitation of women as utterly righteous—makes me wanna puke. Anyone stanning Kiran gets labeled severe misogynist.]

[#13: Old Uncle's misogynist core is slipping out; no surprise he wrote this plot. The real shock is how many incels (involuntary celibate, misogynistic men who blame women for their loneliness) love it.]

[#14: What's an incel?]

[#15: Incel means woman-hating guys, but I think calling Old Uncle that is a bit unfair—he's at most a bit patriarchal.]

Tang Mingxi frowned as she read. She'd thought stanning Kiran was bizarre enough, but what baffled her even more was that people were starting to whitewash this "Hope Project"?

[#52: Am I the only one who got a little moved seeing all those women's signatures on the original document? The Hope Project started with good intentions, and it really brought the empire Percy and Sykes, two boys who might save the world. Whether Percy's mom or Sykes's mom, they were all such great women!]

[#53: I don't get why people are calling Old Uncle misogynist over this plot. Clearly, even the protagonists—and the antagonist Sykes—oppose Kiran and the Hope Project. Can you stop cherry-picking?]

[#54: "If there's no god, create one; if there's no hope, forge it"—the methods are extreme, sure, but this kind of brutal hope is often the last lifeline in desperation. I think this plot, though cruel, is realistic.]

[#55: Anyone who can't accept it is just a kid with low tolerance. The world's doomed anyway—who gives a damn about ethics or morals? Those women who willingly sacrificed in the manga have way more vision than you lot bickering about pro-woman vs. anti-woman.]

[#56: I think Old Uncle is clearly satirizing the real-world bullshit of treating women as breeding tools. The plot's heading toward dismantling the Hope Project—pretty progressive women's awareness from a male creator, honestly.]

[#57: Agreeing with upstairs. Not trying to whitewash Old Uncle, but this blatant satire? Calling him misogynist for the very stuff he's critiquing is way too harsh.]

[#58: Pro-Woman Debate Hall incoming! Instead of flaming other women for stanning male characters here, go donate some sanitary pads.]

Tang Mingxi wondered when the forum had gotten so flooded with male readers? These people empathized with Kiran, empathized with Old Uncle, and when it came to the sacrificed women, it was all "cruel but realistic"?

She scrolled a bit more, relieved that plenty of readers were still sane.

[#72: "Good intentions," "great women," "Percy's mom," "Sykes's mom"—doesn't typing that out feel contradictory to you...?]

[#73: Anyone calling it realistic is probably a guy, right? No way women actually buy into this woman-eating grand narrative.]

[#74: Where do these Uncle protectors come from? A male creator's "women's awareness" means setting up a world where women get screwed over by their fertility, then having male leads pretend to save them?]

[#75: I get flaming Old Uncle, but why drag Percy and Sykes? They didn't do anything wrong—they even wanted to kill Kiran.]

[#76: Wanting to kill Kiran? Big deal. Meanwhile, Ye Zheng over there is actually killing those disgusting pricks—case closed on who's superior.]

[#77: The most pro-Ye Zheng chapter yet—that killing montage at the end was so badass it makes me wanna die!]

...

Meanwhile, Li Yixin was also scrolling the forum.

[#1: A lot of people don't dare say it, but after the identity reveal with Chao Mei, Ye Zheng's saintess persona has completely collapsed...]

[#2: The kind, healing-type saintess who'd risk her life for people, cats, whatever—such a positive female character. Now she's scheming, torturing and killing others. Do Ye Zheng stans really think the plot's fine?]

[#3: Backing OP—totally lost on what Old Uncle's going for with this character. Her actions in this update are so confusing.]

[#4: OP, you dare name-drop a religious character? You're fearless—watch Zheng Moms and Little Steam smell the blood and come nuke you!]

[#5: Here we go again—Ye Zheng's personality and face change every week? Ye Zheng haters, stop pretending to be casuals.]

[#6: Oh god, Ye Zheng's face changed again? Turned into that type who'd step on OP's precious boy underfoot~]

[#7: Ye Zheng stans in here still capping hard—your saintess turned full-on serial slayer psycho, and your usual "heart-full-of-love justice saintess" was all fake?]

[#8: #7 is too unhinged—the guys in the Hope Project deserved a machine-gun sweep with zero innocents, and you're sympathizing?]

[#9: House Zheng is all about loving the world like a goddess—where's the collapse? And the ones she killed weren't even human.]

[#10: Ye Zheng says: Humans are good by nature—if not good, then not human, off with their heads!]

[#11: Today's forum is legendary—oppressing women and the male characters born from oppressing women see their popularity explode, while the female character actually avenging women gets tried as a psycho killer. How artfully human, huh?]

[#12: Even as a casual, this thread shocks me—don't you think what Ye Zheng did was super cathartic?]

[#13: What's the point of that hotheaded stunt? She still got caught by Kiran—no long-term brains. As a girl, it wasn't cathartic; it just felt dumbed down.]

[#14: Kiran mentioned Ye Zheng as a holy vessel and brought up her engagement, then gave Percy and Sykes this meaningful look—won't the creator pair Ye Zheng with one of the PerSy duo? My PerSy ship would shatter.]

[#15: #14, so you mean Ye Zheng's just a holy vessel, while PerSy lose their love...?]

[#16: Hilarious—calling you male lead moms is too kind; some of you only deserve "male lead dads." Protecting your boys so hard you forget you're women too.]

...

Ever since Chao Mei fully vanished from the story, Li Yixin hadn't wanted to follow this manga anymore. But thinking of how Tang Mingxi loved Ye Zheng, and to have more to chat about with her, she decided to keep an eye on it for Tang Mingxi's sake.

Li Yixin used to ship PerSy and stan Percy, but now she found herself increasingly indifferent to those male characters. She wasn't really a Ye Zheng stan either, but this thread made it impossible for her to stay neutral as a casual.

[#167: Isn't the Hope Project worth resisting? Ye Zheng's methods are a bit extreme, but calling her irrational or cruel— isn't that over the top?]

She gripped her phone, a bit nervous. She rarely got into online arguments; back when she shipped CPs or stanned characters, she stuck to output with fellow fans. The big popular male characters she'd stanned before rarely sparked this kind of absurd controversy.

Soon, replies came in.

[#168: Zhou Yun's still threatening with 500,000 lives outside the base—Percy and Sykes held back on killing Kiran for those 500,000 real lives. What good does Ye Zheng's rampage do besides venting?]

[#169: What if Percy and Sykes are just too lame to actually kill Kiran?]

[#170: We independent big female lead stans stay young forever, always dragging others to hype ours—Sykes can't kill, so your girl got locked up by Kiran right away.]

[#171: I can't take it anymore—Ye Zheng blowing up has brought in so many cute pro-woman sisters; the other threads flaming male characters and their stans? All Ye Zheng fans too.]

[#172: Ye Zheng stans, kindly return the harmonious, loving forum environment from before Ye Zheng showed up! For free!]

[#173: Don't male character stans from the early days have memories? Your "harmonious, loving forum" means when Lucy and Percy had a bit more physical interaction, you started subtweeting Lucy?]

[#174: This the "no-Ye-Zheng, no-Ye-Zheng-stans friendly forum environment" you wanted? (attached image)]

Li Yixin tapped on #174's screenshot and recoiled with a hiss.

The screenshot was from some male-dominated forum bar—guys preferred hanging out there over the main forum.

Someone had screenshotted a brutal scene from the manga of the base experimenting on women, captioned "Holy Vessel Warning."

Below it, a pile of comments like "Good pic," "Guaranteed to break those little princesses," "Creator finally drew something decent." Li Yixin wondered if these were even human.

For the first time, online comments pissed her off so bad her hands shook. Then she glanced back at her own post calling Ye Zheng's methods "a bit extreme," and she wanted to slap herself—wishing Ye Zheng could burst out of the manga and smite these creeps!

Why, with plot like this, could these men show zero empathy—and even weaponize it against women?

That noxious screenshot dropped, and replies exploded.

[#175: ...I'm done, total silence—who's still got expectations for men?]

[#176: Thinking of a forum overrun by these stinky bros without Ye Zheng stans—who wouldn't thank Ye Zheng and her fans?]

[#177: Upstairs Ye Zheng stan, don't pat yourselves on the back—everyone knows 2D men and 3D men are different species. We male character stans hate these no-limits meme-ing 3D dudes too.]

[#178: What's that got to do with not liking Ye Zheng's actions? Opposing her just means her logic's no different from those violent men's—it's straight-up misandry.]

[#179: Your misandry's pretty chill, huh? But your harsh malice toward female characters more than makes up for it.]

[#180: Here's another pic—fragile-hearted Ye Zheng stans, don't click; you Ye Zheng haters deserve to bunk with the bar bros 99% (attached image)]

Li Yixin braced herself mentally, but seeing that image nearly choked her with rage. They claimed to target Ye Zheng, but really, they were just venting hate at women via her—she got hit hard just glancing at it.

[#181: Oh my god, why do these guys hate Ye Zheng so much?]

[#182: 'Cause Ye Zheng killed a few dudes who deserved it—those sewer rats got triggered hard.]

[#183: Ye Zheng haters and incels rushing toward each other—perfect match guarding your precious boys' untouchable dignity.]

[#184: This ex-PerChao shipper's getting converted to Ye Zheng stan—this little girl's done nothing wrong, and yet men and women alike hate her so much...]

[#185: Sigh, Old Uncle clearly wrote this to show women's tragic greatness and a plot to save women—why are so many people standing on the exact wrong side of what the work's saying?]

Li Yixin saw #185's sigh and felt the same, but something nagged at her as off—until the replies below cleared it up.

[#201: 'Cause Old Uncle just wants to gold-plate his male leads with women's tragedies, duh—otherwise why's the forum full of "Poor Percy and Sykes" and "Wanna stan Kiran" after this plot drops? He pretends to pity, but deep down he totally buys the Hope Project logic—thinks women's biggest role is exactly that.]

[#202: Don't give me that "Percy and Sykes will dismantle the Hope Project"—even if they do, it's just Old Uncle's tool to arc his male characters. In-manga, they were born sacrificing women; out-of-manga, they rack up popularity by "saving" women. Those sacrificed women get eaten up and wiped clean across two dimensions.]

[#203: And the two female characters who actually empathize and rage about it—Ye Zheng and Zhou Yun—get painted as villains. Zhou Yun endangers 500,000; Ye Zheng's irrational and violent. All other women? Just weak ones needing men to save them.]

[#204: You tell me Old Uncle's satirizing reality and voicing for women? Looks more like gaslighting and threats to me—dazzle women with grand narratives, call any woman who doesn't buy it unreasonable, patternless crazies; plus hammer in that women are fragile, need men to save them stereotypes to crush any urge to fight back.]

[#205: Kinda ashamed now—my biggest reaction after reading was pitying Percy, hoping he'd save those women. But after upstairs, yeah... that does feel off.]

[#206: Yeah, I'm a Sykes stan, but this time I'm blindly Team Ye Zheng— she shoulda slaughtered the whole damn base!]

[#207: Alright, I admit I was a Ye Zheng hater before, but without her, this chapter would've straight-up killed me with rage. Hater-to-casual pipeline activated.]

[#208: Ye Zheng hater turned stan—only women can empathize with women, and it's a joke that a male creator twists that into villainy.]

[#209: Kinda don't wanna see Percy or Sykes plots for a bit... no matter their stance, it feels a little fake now...]

[#210: Wow, everyone's backing the antisocial chick—who's gonna care about #MaleSafety# (attached Holy Vessel warning image)]

[#211: Eww, gross! A stinky bro snuck in!]

Li Yixin rolled up her sleeves—how dare this in-your-face toxic dude? Watch her copy-paste the internet's finest roast lines!

[#219 → #210: Serial Slayer Zheng Warning! (attached image)]

Seeing the new reply, Li Yixin paused her tab-switching and curiously opened #219's attached image.

She jolted on opening it—the color scheme bloody and dim, the manga's four gruesome death scenes of the men Ye Zheng took out amplified and sharpened, with Ye Zheng standing at the bottom center, her pitch-black eyes like they were quietly staring down whoever opened it.

It was a screenshot of the original scene, but after some editing, it looked straight out of a horror movie poster—though on closer look, Ye Zheng was still kinda cute, in a spooky-cute way, Li Yixin thought awkwardly.

#210 had been spewing more bile, but went radio silent after the warning image.

[#220: What's up, shorty—why'd you stop laughing and memeing? (Serial Slayer Zheng Warning image)]

[#221: This is what happens when you mess with Zheng—pick your death, @#210~]

[#222: Question Ye Zheng stans, understand Ye Zheng stans, become a Ye Zheng stan—this time I'm really joining the Zheng cult!]

[#223: Ahaha I can't— I declare the forum can't survive without Zheng Moms! Without Zheng Moms, who'd roast male leads this hard? (Serial Slayer Zheng Warning image)]

[#224: I won't let anyone defy you Zheng Moms! (Serial Slayer Zheng Warning image)]

[#225: That actually scared me—fighting back with the same tactics isn't great, right? At the end of the day, we just hate that toxic behavior—don't turn ourselves into them.]

[#226: Upstairs, what's wrong? I'm still waiting for #Slaughter-the-Hope-Project-Zheng-Warning# and #Destroy-the-World-Zheng-Warning#]

Li Yixin quietly saved the meme. A bit terrifying, but the kill power was irresistible.

Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes like she'd realized something, glancing at #219's ID—this style and firepower were totally Tang Mingxi again.

Author’s Note:

Sure, when female celeb fans trash other female celebs it's also... but their firepower against male leads is strong too—beats even 2D female lead moms at cursing a smidge.

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