Chapter 188-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
[How many secrets is Ye Zheng hiding? The most complete plot analysis is here!]
[Count the Saintess's allies, your domain's hidden villains]
[No one dares say Ye Zheng is this manga's biggest protagonist...]
[Please, can Ye Zheng's side story be published as a separate manga?]
[Coming from the anime, who is this Ye Zheng you're talking about?]
As soon as Ye Zheng opened the forum, at a glance, all the titles contained her name, with other people's names sporadically mixed in.
"I thought there would be many readers analyzing the plot of Percy finding the Divine Sword."
In the new chapter, Percy, who escaped onto the train, encountered a Demonic Domain. He fought monsters with two companions, protecting ordinary people on the train. While searching for the core monster, guided by the Blood of the God, he unexpectedly found the Divine Sword she had discarded.
In between, her coronation ceremony was inserted, revealing the truth that she forged the Divine Sword.
The matter of forging the Divine Sword was finally known to readers. Ye Zheng thought the forum would have many denouncing her for fraud, but unexpectedly there were even more posts professing love for her in various ways.
[Don't underestimate the bond between Zheng fans and you!]
The System discovered Ye Zheng didn't have accurate recognition of her popularity yet.
[The anime has aired three episodes, but the forum is still yours and Zheng fans' world. From backend data, you're already King of the Demonic Domain's popularity top!]
The System said with pride. With Zheng fans' current ability to control the field, even if Ye Zheng said the sun was square, Zheng fans could press the forum's head from various angles to admit Ye Zheng made sense.
Unexpectedly, Ye Zheng lightly frowned and asked, "How much are my popularity value and action points now?"
[Popularity value 313,836, remaining action points: 1,100]
[Broke through three hundred thousand! The only concern is that certain characters' popularity will rise with the anime's boost, so the popularity top position might not be stable.]
[The anime very likely won't have your appearance in the first or second season. Once the anime becomes popular, Percy and others' popularity will rise quickly. After all, in the manga's early stages, Percy and the others had many highlights.]
To be precise, before Ye Zheng appeared.
At that time, Percy and Sykes were the popularity dual tops. Protagonist Percy had broader popularity. Readers often called him "little angel," "true hero," "everyone's sun," and such. Villain Sykes had many toxic solo stans. With powerful abilities, noble birth, and excellent appearance, his appeal among male characters was unrivaled. Yumejo and shippers often fought over him.
But after Ye Zheng appeared, both popularity rankings and public opinion underwent earth-shaking changes.
The System hadn't expected Ye Zheng could reach today. Ye Zheng initially wasn't valued, just a small project among the company's many experiments. No one had high hopes, merely using it to enrich experiment reports.
Unexpectedly, Ye Zheng displayed astonishing possibilities, which delighted some people but also made others begin to fear and hate.
Especially last time when Ye Zheng's power inadvertently affected reality, directly causing someone's death, different voices appeared within the company regarding their attitude toward her.
The anime's presentation effect was part of the company's attitude. If they wanted to expand Ye Zheng's influence, Ye Zheng's plot could also be interspersed into the first season as part of an ensemble, or even proceed on dual lines, elevating Ye Zheng to the protagonist position.
Unfortunately, because the new person in charge died—and someone with considerable status—some company executives' attitudes became hesitant. For a time, no one else was willing to take over, and the project was thrown back to the original person in charge, Lin Zhixing.
Lin Zhixing herself didn't quite agree with the family's approach, believing this might very well open Pandora's box, thus maintaining an observer's attitude.
The side story was Lin Zhixing being stimulated by the change of person in charge, wanting to teach certain people a lesson. Even though she wasn't very enthusiastic about this work, having her results inexplicably intercepted, with the other party wanting to tamper with experiment content and harm her observation subject—anyone with backbone couldn't swallow this.
However, she hadn't expected Ye Zheng to vent such a big breath for her. Originally wanting the other party to quit and get lost, the result was that with Ye Zheng's help, the other party directly exited the biosphere, obtaining an early death.
The System guessed this was why she continued giving Ye Zheng side stories.
But extras, like adding scenes for Ye Zheng in the anime—with Lin Zhixing's cautious personality, she wouldn't do that.
[It's okay. The anime has less than a forty percent chance of becoming a hit. Even if the first season explodes, by the time we appear in the third season, we'll definitely take back everything that belongs to us—]
"If the anime's popularity is high, it can also attract many people to read the manga."
Ye Zheng smiled slightly. She didn't care whether Percy and Sykes's popularity would surpass hers. If they attracted more people to read the manga in the anime, some readers would convert to liking her, contributing to her popularity value and action points.
Like now, she had already seen many newcomers in the forum curious about the name "Ye Zheng."
Thinking this way, the System also agreed. According to backend data, King of the Demonic Domain manga's collection count was soaring recently. Due to its length, most new readers hadn't seen Ye Zheng's appearance yet.
When this portion of new readers caught up to Ye Zheng's coronation plot, perhaps Ye Zheng's popularity would welcome another small growth peak.
[You're right. Raising the reader base is a good thing!]
"By the way, is there no preview update this time?"
Ye Zheng clicked into the manga app again, confirming there was no preview update.
Not every time had a preview update, but if the preview didn't update for a long time, from Ye Zheng's experience, once it updated, it would be an especially important plot.
Ye Zheng's lips maintained an upward curve, but her eyes had no smile. She still remembered an extremely important original plot segment, hanging over her head to this day, not knowing when it would fall.
But she had a premonition deep down—perhaps soon.
—How many action points would modifying Ye Zheng's death plot require?
Ye Zheng didn't know, so before the death plot arrived, she had to raise popularity as much as possible and accumulate action points.
To raise popularity, she needed to understand reader friends' preferences a bit. Ye Zheng switched to the forum again, with a studious learning attitude, clicking into every post with her name.
After browsing a circle, she discovered some people liked her kind and firm, some liked her obsessive and dark-hearted, some liked her ambitious. The angles of liking her were various, but every angle was her, Ye Zheng.
In other words, every part of her—dark or bright—had people genuinely liking it. Every ray of light she refracted had people warmed by its illumination.
As long as she was Ye Zheng, they would like her.
The smile in her black eyes became genuine. Ye Zheng's heart felt faintly soft and warm.
She saw someone in the forum showing off a cotton doll in her likeness—small, placed on a desk, with big black eyes open, expression pure and cute.
[#1: Everyone look, can my child be a child model?]
[#2: Not yet. Looking at the face, not too clever. Suggest sending to me for a few days of training.]
[#3: Bold! Daring to say our Zhengzheng king isn't clever, drag them down and behead!]
[#4: I observe this girl has an emperor's countenance. Not suitable as a child model. Suggest sending to be the Empire's emperor.]
[#5: Does any Zheng mom have this one? Hesitation leads to defeat. After it sold out, I discovered it gets cuter the more I look!]
[#6: Too few Zheng dolls. This one was originally forty, but on second-hand platforms it's been scalped to several hundred. Suggest waiting to see if other fellow fans organize group buys.]
[#7: I'm an elementary student, give me give me give me!]
[#8: I also received one. I bring it to school every day to supervise my studying. The moment I get distracted, I meet Zheng Emperor's gaze. I feel so guilty I straighten my back...]
[#9: (I will always watch you...).jpg Zheng doll emoji]
[#10: Bought many character dolls. Zheng doll really has a special high energy. The aura is strong. It's really a bit mystical.]
[#11: Feel like our Zheng looked like this as a child. Intelligent big-eyed cute baby, a little sister who'd secretly do bad things~]
[#12: @King of the Demonic Domain Official, dare you release little Zheng's side story, hmm?]
[#13: @King of the Demonic Domain Official, my big sister is asking you!]
...
[#73: Everyone quickly go to Xiaohongshu, fellow fans are organizing another group buy. It's short-haired Pope Zheng, currently collecting name suggestions! (attached image)]
[#74: Zheng Dragon Emperor, instant win.]
[#75: The doll OP showed is called Little Little Zheng. This one can be called Big Big Zheng.]
Seeing everyone enthusiastically starting to discuss the Pope-appearance doll's name, although Ye Zheng didn't understand why they needed to give it an extra name, she also left her own thoughts.
[#102: Perhaps it can be called, Holy Mother.]
People often called the Pope "Holy Father," especially when needing the Pope's help. This title meant "most holy father," a respectful honorific, also reflecting the dominant position of paternal roles in secular tradition.
However, after she took power, the voice calling "Holy Father" would no longer appear in the Curia.
From now on, the Empire would only have Holy Mother.
Merciful, majestic, thunderous-handed Holy Mother.
[#103: Holy Mother Zheng? This name is good. We want Holy Mother! We need more Holy Mothers!]
[#104: Holy Mother has been stigmatized too long. Boldly using the term Holy Mother is also a counterattack against stigmatization. Feels very meaningful, a very suitable name for Zhengzheng.]
[#105: Real-world religions also often call male popes Holy Father. Unfortunately, there's never been a female pope. If there were, she'd definitely be called Holy Mother.]
[#106: Worthy of being a fellow fan with the "Ye Zheng" ID. Such vision!]
The fellow fan Ye Zheng with vision smiled and left this interesting post, glanced at the forum homepage, then exited the forum.
[Why exit? Not curious about "kind people get bullied, evil people become Zheng's wife"?]
Ye Zheng stopped smiling. Sometimes she regretted the System had no physical form.
She put down her phone. This time was suitable for sleep. A good night's rest—tomorrow still had many things waiting for her.
Like familiarizing herself with papal affairs, receiving various personnel, and most importantly—exploring [Mother of All Things]'s usage.
Changing the death plot not only required enough action points but also the strength to defeat Sykes.
No, more accurately, the strength to kill Sykes.
She had to prepare sufficiently powerful ability strength, as well as the ability to handle aftermath when facing subsequent threats after killing the Crown Prince.
Author's Note:
Happy New Year everyone!
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