Chapter 150-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
After the young woman left, the man in the suit strolled over to a display screen in a good mood.
Densely packed blue lines extended forward on the screen, like countless trains running side by side. A tiny point of light was jumping among them, appearing insignificant.
The man almost wanted to laugh out loud. The more Ye Zheng struggled, the lower the dimension of the world she would enter. Choosing a peaceful world to exile herself in would have been the correct choice. Why did some people always desperately fight for things that could never belong to them?
He withdrew his gaze from the screen and left, humming a tune softly. Having dealt with Lin Zhixing and Ye Zheng, he was ready to continue unfolding his grand ambitions.
Meanwhile, inside the manga world.
"Saintess, why are you here?"
"Why did you betray us—"
"Why help me? We've never had any interaction..."
"You can't be Zheng!"
...
"Ye Zheng, why did you kill Sykes!"
"Ah—"
With a squelch, the black-haired, blue-eyed young man clutched his bleeding heart and fell straight into the lake water. Ye Zheng looked down at the blood spreading across the water's surface. Turning her head, she saw Ye Di not far away, guarding the nearly dead Sykes, looking at her with the terrified eyes one would use to look at a monster.
Ye Zheng frowned, and white light flashed before her eyes again.
The white light flashed for the thirteenth time. Ye Zheng opened her eyes and looked around. She waited quietly for a while, relieved to confirm that there were no other people around for the time being.
Finally, she could be alone and quiet for a while again.
Ye Zheng picked up her pocket watch and checked it; the time was three in the afternoon.
In the thirteen jumps, she had killed Percy seven times, killed Sykes once, spoken with Wu Shu twice, and attempted to leave Amber Lake three times.
Except for killing Sykes, everything else triggered a jump. And in these thirteen worlds, apart from the main world, the existence known as Wen Xiaoxing was nowhere to be found.
Even though Ye Zheng already knew that resisting would only push her into a worse situation, she couldn't just sit and wait for death. Fortunately, after thirteen experiments, she had derived a few valuable clues.
In the previous world, nothing happened when she killed Sykes. It wasn't until she killed Percy that the world line jumped again.
Once she attempted to resist, the [Fate Singularity] would continuously push her toward a worse world line. However, Ye Zheng could conversely use the world line jumps to judge which actions were beneficial to her fate.
It was now basically confirmed that killing Percy, reaching a cooperation with Wu Shu, and leaving Amber Lake—these three points were viewed by the [Fate Singularity] as effective resistance.
Ye Zheng felt she could change her line of thinking. The [Fate Singularity] was afraid of her, which was why it kept obstructing her. And the things the [Fate Singularity] wanted to interrupt must be the things that made it feel threatened.
This meant there must be a version of her in some world line who managed to escape the [Fate Singularity] by killing Percy, cooperating with Wu Shu, or leaving Amber Lake!
A gleam of light passed through Ye Zheng's black eyes, but she soon fell into deep thought again.
So, why would killing Percy, cooperating with Wu Shu, and leaving Amber Lake pose an effective threat to the [Fate Singularity] and potentially allow her to escape the endless world lines?
After figuring out the trigger for the world line jumps during the third jump, Ye Zheng deliberately caused trouble to find more patterns.
But she remembered that she killed Percy the first time to make him rewind time. Logically speaking, as long as Percy rewound time, it was entirely possible for her to return to the main world.
The [Fate Singularity] could only send her to different world lines. These world lines were like carriages running parallel forward on a timeline. The [Fate Singularity] followed time to constantly throw her into another world, but it seemed unable to go against time.
Time was the [Fate Singularity]'s weakness. It could only jump across world lines, not control time.
Ye Zheng subconsciously toyed with the water thread in her hand, her lips pressed tightly together. Her ability had nothing to do with time; the only thing related to time was Percy.
During the first jump, she made a prompt decision to kill Percy in the second world. Time didn't rewind; instead, she was sent to the next world by the [Fate Singularity].
Was Wen Xiaoxing's ability actually superior to the protagonist Percy's? Ye Zheng was a bit curious. What exactly was Wen Xiaoxing's role positioning? The person who created him not only hated her but also had no respect or affection for Percy, the protagonist. This didn't seem like the work of a manga creator.
But Percy's ability could definitely cause some impact on Wen Xiaoxing's ability, otherwise the [Fate Singularity] wouldn't be in such a hurry to send her away. Ye Zheng had a vague guess: once she disappeared from a world, the influence she left behind would also be erased by the [Fate Singularity].
Having confirmed the weakness regarding time, why would attempting to leave Amber Lake or cooperating with Wu Shu also trigger a jump?
Ye Zheng pondered. Since leaving Amber Lake would threaten Wen Xiaoxing's ability, she speculated two possibilities: first, the ability had a range; second, someone or something outside Amber Lake could affect Wen Xiaoxing.
For example, his creator, Wen Jian.
If killing Wen Xiaoxing directly wasn't feasible, what about killing Wen Jian? Ye Zheng guessed that Wen Jian used the [Mother of All Things] to create such a monster. If she killed Wen Jian and took back the [Mother of All Things], cutting off Wen Xiaoxing's life supply, his ability would naturally disappear.
It was a pity that this was the most impossible point to achieve. She couldn't count on someone in the main world suddenly assassinating Wen Jian.
The last point, and the one that puzzled her the most, was why her cooperation with Wu Shu was also seen as a threat.
She hadn't even asked Wu Shu to help her. In every world line where she met Wu Shu, she merely told Wu Shu that she could help her win the championship, fulfilling the promise she made to Wu Shu in the main world.
Unable to come up with more conclusions for the moment, Ye Zheng raised the mirror she had been holding in her left hand. In every world she arrived in, she would suffer assimilation by that world.
She looked at herself in the mirror. In this world, Ye Zheng no longer had straight hair; instead, a head of seaweed-like black curly hair hung behind her. She wore a white dress embellished with pearls, and even the tips of her small white heels were adorned with pearls. Feeling that walking would be dazzlingly clumsy, she simply took off her shoes and stood barefoot on the soil.
Not only her appearance, but even the ability of [Stream] was declining, as if it were being suppressed in some way.
The only relief was that the abilities of others in these small worlds were no better than in the main world. For instance, the "Sykes" she killed in the previous world—she had fought the Sykes of the main world, and the main world's Sykes would never be that easy to kill, even with a sneak attack.
Comparatively speaking, her combat power was exceptionally prominent in these world lines. She didn't have to worry about her safety at all—as long as she didn't encounter other "Ye Zhengs," which might trigger irreversible accidents.
Bad things would happen if two Ye Zhengs met, which was why the "Ye Zheng" of that time had secretly hung such a mirror behind the door behind her back.
Ye Zheng still didn't know why her other self wanted to hang a mirror. was it to remind herself of Wen Xiaoxing's ability?
She remembered that after killing Wen Xiaoxing, she looked into the water at his floating corpse. A blinding white light flashed over his corpse; it was likely the mirror reflecting sunlight. The triggering of the [Fate Singularity] might also be related to mirrors.
But regardless of how the [Fate Singularity] was triggered, the urgent task was that she must return to the main world.
Ye Zheng pressed her hand against her slightly heaving chest, closed her eyes to thoroughly suppress her unease and confusion, and when she opened them again, the light in her black eyes was startlingly bright.
Her other self had returned to the past and reminded the past her, which meant she would inevitably be able to go back!
There was no flawless ability. As long as she followed the weakness and dealt a fatal blow, even the invincible fate would bow its head to her.
Percy's time, the cooperation with Wu Shu, Wen Xiaoxing who only existed in the main world...
"Saintess, why are you here?"
A female voice, laced with confusion and a hint of wariness, suddenly rang out.
Ye Zheng knew who had arrived without even looking up. She was standing in the shade of a tree, focused on thinking. Out of habit, she replied, "I got separated from my teammates. Captain Wu Shu, you don't need to mind me—"
Halfway through her sentence, Ye Zheng suddenly paused. As if she had thought of something, she walked quickly toward Wu Shu and asked, "Do you know where the Deep Blue Giant Eel is?"
Faced with the direct question, a look of surprise flashed across Wu Shu's face. "Sorry, Saintess, we are also still looking for it... Ahem, even if we found it, it wouldn't be convenient to reveal it to an opponent, right?"
"Then I'll tell you where it is."
Hearing this, Wu Shu inexplicably found it a bit funny, but looking at Ye Zheng's serious expression, the other party didn't seem to be joking. Her expression gradually became serious.
"Ye Zheng, are you serious..."
Ye Zheng quickly interrupted her. "Find a way to follow Percy or 'Ye Zheng'. The Royal Academy Team's Ye Di works too. The giant eel will appear in a water area with a yellow forest."
This was the information the manga spoilers gave her.
In this world, Wu Shu was not only wearing a high-slit black dress, but her makeup had also become particularly heavy. However, the determination and ruthlessness for victory in her eyes had never changed. Her voice was somewhat aggressive, "What yellow forest water area? Saintess, is this some scheme of yours..."
Wu Shu's voice grew increasingly distant. A white light flashed before Ye Zheng's eyes, and the voice completely disappeared from her ears.
When she opened her eyes again, it was another lonely lake surface, shimmering under the sunlight.
Sensing that Ye Zheng seemed to have an idea, the System couldn't help but ask.
[Ye Zheng, what do you want to do?]
"System, Wu Shu and I made an agreement. If I help her win the competition, she will be on standby for me at any time."
"Once a promise is made, no matter which world we are in, we must fulfill it. That is the meaning of a promise."
The System saw an irreversible stubbornness, even a hint of paranoia, beneath Ye Zheng's calm face.
[Of course, promises do not allow either party to easily breach the contract... But I have to tell you, the Wu Shu of the main world might currently... not remember you very well.]
The System hesitated but decided to tell this cruel truth.
Ye Zheng laughed instead, as if not surprised at all. A trace of scrutiny flashed through her black eyes as she asked softly, "System, surely you remember our promise?"
If the System possessed a human body, its scalp would probably be tingling right now.
"You promised to help me contact Wu Shu."
[...Do you want to contact the main world's Wu Shu to help you solve Wen Xiaoxing? This method isn't very feasible. Even you fell into his hands, and the main world's Wu Shu no longer remembers your existence.]
"Even if Wu Shu doesn't remember me, she won't forget her own goal."
Ye Zheng had tested it several times. No matter which world, Wu Shu's obsession with victory was very deep. As long as Wu Shu remembered this obsession, she would never betray her.
She laughed. "I don't need her to go kill Wen Xiaoxing." That was the prey she left for herself.
"—I need the Wu Shus of all world lines to kill Percy."
The Fate Singularity could only extend world lines forward along the time axis; it couldn't go backward.
But she insisted on making it go backward.
She needed countless Wu Shus to kill countless Percys at the same time point, triggering countless time rewinds.
If one time rewind wasn't enough to rein in this disobedient carriage of fate, then she would stack countless times!
"System, you promised to contact Wu Shu for me, but you didn't say only one Wu Shu could be contacted." Ye Zheng blinked.
The System crashed again. It took quite a while before there was a sound.
[No, the consequences of doing this are unknown. It's possible to completely destroy Wen Xiaoxing's ability and return to the main world, but it's also possible to be sent to other unknowable places by the chaotic power...]
"It seems you can do it. System, I knew you definitely could."
Ye Zheng smiled with relief. Even if it failed and she was sent to an unknowable place, it didn't matter. Nothing was worse than resigning herself to accept a constantly plummeting fate.
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