Chapter 153-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
[How interesting.]
When this thought popped into Ye Zheng’s mind, she once again felt a strong urge to look up—would a slightly silly speech bubble pop up over her own head as well?
Unfortunately, she was currently on a plane; a plane only has length and width but no height, and thus she began to forget the concepts of "up" and "down."
Relying on the System, the forum, and other manga on the manga platform she occasionally used to pass the time, Ye Zheng could describe her current situation more accurately: she had moved from a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional world.
The main world she resided in was a three-dimensional world, and the world of the System and the readers should be a three-dimensional world of a slightly higher dimension, but this world was entirely two-dimensional.
To put it more simply, she had undergone dimensional reduction.
Truly becoming a "paper person" (2D character) in the words of the readers.
Ye Zheng clenched her five fingers into a fist at her side. She found herself somewhat unable to understand "thickness" and could not feel the thickness of her body, but she could still perceive [Stream] flowing in her palm. Her brain still remembered many things and had not been completely assimilated by this world.
She had to find a way to leave this world as soon as possible, Ye Zheng thought, otherwise she might completely become a "paper person."
She called out to the System in her mind. After waiting for a while, the System did not respond.
[Your Highness, let's agree on this first: we will cooperate until the Deep Blue Giant Eel appears, and after it shows up, everyone will rely on their own abilities.]
On the other side, speech bubbles kept popping up over the heads of Percy and the others; the plot was continuing to progress.
Sykes's head moved, expressing agreement with Percy's suggestion.
Ye Zheng observed silently from the side for a while. Aside from the fact that this world was a plane, it wasn't much different from the other worldlines she had experienced. Ye Zheng judged that the reason for this situation was likely that she was still trapped in the [Fate Singularity], but this place was definitely special.
Where was the specialty? Ye Zheng suddenly remembered her current height of less than 1.6 meters. She recalled the System once telling her that the creator's original height setting for her was 1.55 meters, but under the intervention of Editor Lin, her height became 1.75 meters.
[Xiao-Zheng, don't be sad for Ye Di anymore. He can't understand you, but you still have us.]
Percy suddenly approached her with his speech bubble. Ye Zheng furrowed her slender eyebrows outlined by thin black lines, feeling a sense of eeriness and repulsion toward this slightly mushy concern. Was this the direction of the original plot?
[The original plot?]
Ye Zheng suddenly realized. She seemed to know what this place was.
In all the worldlines she had jumped through, there were places that were similar to yet different from the original plot and original settings. Only this two-dimensional world was a worldline that completely conformed to the original plot, and even her height matched the initial conception.
This place was very likely the original *King of the Demonic Domain*!
Ye Zheng's eyes widened. Her gaze moved from the speech bubble to Percy's face, which was outlined with black lines, with only his eyes having a touch of blue. She only then discovered that this world was not only a plane but also lacked color; most of the scenes consisted only of sketchy black lines.
A rough draft? This word popped into Ye Zheng's mind. Had she jumped into the original rough draft of *King of the Demonic Domain*?
[Fate Singularity...]
Ye Zheng repeated the term thoughtfully. Wen Xiaoxing once wanted to show off the concept of a singularity in front of her, but unfortunately, she happened to have studied this knowledge point. A singularity is the point of origin for everything, and isn't this sketchy two-dimensional world exactly the origin of *King of the Demonic Domain*?
Ye Zheng was almost certain that this place must be the core of the [Fate Singularity], and quite likely the core of the entire manga world!
If she broke through here, she would surely have incredible gains.
The cool, thin stream wrapped around her arm. While thinking, Ye Zheng kept the [Stream] in motion, using its icy touch to constantly remind herself that she did not belong here—she was only a visitor from the three-dimensional world, and she had to leave.
Ye Zheng snapped out of her thoughts and stared at Percy, who was still talking. She had to admit that Percy was a very useful protagonist.
She took a step closer and noticed a flush of red passing over Percy's paper-pale face, and the speech bubble above his head began to operate again.
[What's wrong, Xiao-Zheng? If you have something to say, we can go to the stern.]
There was nothing to say, Ye Zheng thought expressionlessly. In the next moment, the lurking water suddenly attacked the other person's throat.
Ye Zheng's pupils constricted as she watched the tense scene. When the needle-sharp stream was about to break through that layer of paper as thin as a cicada's wing, it suddenly disappeared, leaving only a faint water mark on Percy's neck, like the trace of a water drop spreading on a piece of paper.
Without the System and without action points to change the original plot, she couldn't move Percy!
Ye Zheng took a deep breath and pressed her hand against her thin chest. She could no longer feel her heartbeat. Perhaps as a three-dimensional being, she was already dead on some level.
No, there must be a way. Ye Zheng had not forgotten that in the initial lounge, a "Ye Zheng" had quietly hung a mirror on the door; there must be a way back!
That mirror was a hint, Ye Zheng was sure of it, but now her hands were empty—the mirror she had been carrying had disappeared after she entered this world.
[Then find another mirror.]
Ye Zheng thought.
She didn't have the habit of carrying a mirror, but this world was the original world filled with the manga creator's stereotypes; perhaps he thought women were creatures who carried mirrors with them.
Ye Zheng exchanged a few words with Percy using the speech bubbles and found her backpack on the boat. A mirror was lying beside the backpack, looking as if "Ye Zheng" had looked into it not long ago.
She picked up the mirror and felt a hint of surprise that wasn't entirely unexpected—this mirror was exactly the same as the one hung on the lounge door!
Ye Zheng held up the mirror. In this two-dimensional world, she finally saw her appearance clearly. Aside from the lack of color, it wasn't much different from the manga.
Looking through the mirror, Ye Zheng could see no sense of space. Her face and the miscellaneous items on the boat seemed like pieces of paper stacked together.
Ye Zheng's premonition became increasingly dangerous. If this continued, all her knowledge, thoughts, and even her folded, three-dimensional brain would soon be squeezed into a thin plane by this two-dimensional world.
Ye Zheng frowned. Suddenly, she felt something strange. This mirror was clearly also a two-dimensional, paper-like existence. Would it automatically become a three-dimensional object after being brought to the three-dimensional world?
Three dimensions to two, two dimensions to three... Assuming that two-dimensional objects would also undergo dimensional elevation after reaching the three-dimensional world, then there were two paths for her to return to being a three-dimensional existence.
One was for her to find a way back to the three-dimensional world, and the other was—to find a way to turn this world into a three-dimensional one.
Ye Zheng smiled. Generally speaking, the latter would definitely be more difficult. After all, changing the world is always harder than changing one's own situation.
But as Ye Zheng thought of the second method, her smile widened.
[Hahaha... Hahahaha!]
Ye Zheng covered her mouth as she laughed out loud. The usually calm and composed Saintess laughed with a sense of madness at this moment. In this body that was gradually losing sensation, she once again felt the surge of blood and excitement!
What Saintess Ye Zheng was best at was changing the world and subverting the world!
Ye Zheng quickly ran out of the cabin and came to the side of the boat. Her head still could not find the concept of looking "down," but the [Stream] that had not yet been assimilated could perceive this world for her.
The stream poured down from her hand, merging into the lake painted a pale blue. In this two-dimensional world, Amber Lake had become a stagnant pool in every sense of the word, but it didn't matter. [Stream] would bring it back to life, and bring this two-dimensional world back to life.
The deathly still blue lake gradually deepened in color. The lines at its corners became blurred, and the boundary between the water and the shore began to haze, just like a drop of water on paper—the water stain began to expand, gradually eroding the surrounding dry plane.
[What happened? Is the Deep Blue Giant Eel back?]
[Such big waves! My clothes are wet. No, my skin is also wet...]
[So strange. Is it raining? Does the whole world seem to be getting wet?]
Behind Ye Zheng, speech bubbles emerged one after another from everyone's heads. Percy noticed she was still by the dangerous side of the boat and wanted to approach her to pull her back. After taking a few steps, he found his body exceptionally heavy, like winter clothes that hadn't been wrung out.
He was surprised to find that at some point, the colors of the entire world had become deeper and more fragile, as if paper soaked by rain... This comparison of his seemed a bit strange.
But this world really was like a piece of paper that had been completely soaked.
"It's leaking!"
"My god, where did the water in the lab come from? Did someone knock over the water dispenser?"
Inside a busy laboratory, researchers stopped their work one after another and looked at the puddles on the floor in surprise.
"Hurry up and mop the water dry; there's so much electronic equipment here!"
A group of researchers began to scramble for cleaning tools. Some called the cleaners, while others followed the water traces inside to see what was going on.
"Oh no, you guys come and look!"
A researcher leaned his hands on a research table connected to various electronic devices. He stared at the object sealed under the glass cabinet and made an unbelievable sound.
"It's the Linkage! The Linkage, how did it..."
The shouting researcher was suddenly pushed aside. A young man in a suit took his place, staring wide-eyed at the scene in the glass cabinet in disbelief.
What was originally sealed here was a thick stack of rough drafts—precious Linkages.
And now, these drafts were all soaked, with the ends of the papers tightly joined together, forming a continuous loop—
Möbius strip.
These wet, flat drafts were joined into a long strip, then twisted 180°, becoming a Möbius strip.
A Möbius strip has only one surface and one boundary. Locally, it is just a two-dimensional planar fluid, but it can be embedded in a three-dimensional world!
Moreover, it is a closed loop. No matter where you are on the Möbius strip, there is a way to return to the original position!
"—Ye. Zheng!"
Realizing what Ye Zheng had done, the young man almost fainted. Who could tell him why Ye Zheng appeared in the Source World? And why did she pull off something like this?
He raised his wet hand, his relaxed and calm demeanor vanishing without a trace. A hint of fear flashed through his shocked expression. Ye Zheng's ability had actually been able to affect this world!
No, no, no, it was just a temporary oversight on his part. He indeed shouldn't have used Hope's technology to cause trouble for Ye Zheng, which instead allowed her to find a loophole.
It didn't matter. He was the leader of the high-dimensional world. People like Lin Zhixing and Ye Zheng could all get lost. This was his project. How hard could it be to crush an experimental subject?
Dizzy with rage, the young man turned to walk toward a display screen but accidentally slipped and fell straight to the ground. His body twitched a few times and then went still.
Some researchers wanted to go forward to help him up but were hurriedly held back by their colleagues.
"There's a leak! There's electricity leaking into the water! Everyone, be careful of the water on the floor!"
For a time, all the researchers stared at each other. Looking at the newly appointed project leader lying motionless on the ground, everyone huddled on the dry floor in fear.
Wen Xiaoxing was crouching on the boat, guarding the unconscious Percy, holding a green fragment in his hand.
He had now lost the ability of [Fate Singularity], but it wasn't a big problem. The body Wen Jian gave him was very strong, and he could still excel while blending into the Cloud-Soaring Squad.
And he had already solved his most troublesome enemy. As long as he solved one more person, Wen Jian, after the competition ended, he would have no more worries.
The sound of something slicing through the air rang out again. This time it definitely wasn't Wu Shu. Wen Xiaoxing stood up with a mysterious smile of a prophet, prepared to welcome that idiot Ye Di.
After crouching for a while, coupled with the damage caused by the destruction of his ability, Wen Xiaoxing's consciousness blurred for a moment as he stood up. His body tilted, and he half-knelt on the ground. Just as he was trying to force himself to stand up, a hand suddenly appeared before his eyes, seemingly wanting to pull him up.
This hand was very beautiful—fair, slender, and powerful.
But Wen Xiaoxing wore an expression as if he had seen a ghost.
First, he blinked hard with his right eye, which was white with blurred vision, and the world became clear in his eyes again. Then, he slowly raised his head in disbelief, his gaze following the hand all the way up until he saw the owner of the hand.
A pair of black eyes gazed at him with a cold smile, their look deeper and more dangerous than the Amber Lake behind her.
"Can you no longer stand up, Wen Xiaoxing?"
Wen Xiaoxing looked down, only then realizing that at some point, his posture had gone from half-kneeling to completely slumped on the ground.
"Ye... Ye Zheng." He uttered the name with difficulty.
At the same time.
After waiting for four full weeks, countless readers outside the manga world—and not just readers—muttered this name just like Wen Xiaoxing when they saw this point, their emotions complex, excited, and incredulous.
Ye Zheng!
Author's Note:
Zheng made her first brief greeting to the real world, and just like that, she unintentionally jinxed to death (caused the death of someone due to one's mere presence) an ill-intentioned man...
In the next chapter, let's enjoy the hype on the forum.
Comments
Post a Comment