Chapter 226-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Fluorescent light flickered. From the shadows beneath the Green Crystal puppet, a pair of hands reached out, and a small knife was thrust into the crevices on the Green Crystal's surface, prying off two pieces of crystal.
Ye Zheng quickly received the two crystal pieces from Cheng Cheng's hands. She held them in her palm, carefully feeling the energy surging within—good, [Mother of All Things] could command it.
She looked toward the motionless Green Crystal puppet not far away. It was alive—not an inanimate mineral, just with a very unique way of existing.
These Green Crystals were composed of microscopic organisms invisible to the naked eye. The green crystalline substance was their collective secretion, essentially an exoskeleton.
Ye Zheng lightly pricked her fingertip with the small knife, then gripped a small piece of crystal tightly in her right hand. A moment later, she opened her palm—the crystal had lost its luster, and the cut on her fingertip had vanished without a trace.
A flicker of amusement passed through the young woman's eyes. She had used [Mother of All Things] to absorb the Green Crystal's life energy, successfully harnessing their space-time power for herself.
But a small piece was nowhere near enough. Ye Zheng gazed at the Green Crystal puppet in the distance. The ordinary Green Crystals growing along the corridors were numerous but held negligible power. The core Green Crystal puppet appeared massive, yet Ye Zheng estimated its energy was likely insufficient to send her five hundred years into the past—let alone bring her back.
A more critical issue was that activating space-time power required a specific target as a medium. She could direct the ability at her fingertip, reverting the wounded area to its pre-injury state, or perhaps revert her own body to ten years ago, turning herself into an eight-year-old child—but such an approach was obviously pointless.
As for sending herself five hundred years into the past... Ye Zheng couldn't think of how to pull it off.
Carrying these thoughts, Ye Zheng left Empire Central Station with her two Knights.
Back at the Papal Palace, Ye Zheng shut herself in the study. She sat at the desk with furrowed brows, absentmindedly toying with a small piece of crystal.
Why had Wen Xiaoxing possessed such immense power back then? Wen Jian's [Mother of All Things] ability leaned toward "mutation" and "regeneration." He had used a human body fused with Green Crystal to mold Wen Xiaoxing. No matter how powerful [Mother of All Things] was, Wen Xiaoxing's [Fate Singularity] clearly exceeded the scope of this world.
So the key was what the company had bestowed upon Wen Xiaoxing to grant him power that transcended this world's timeline.
"The core of [Fate Singularity]... a comic book?"
Ye Zheng's eyes suddenly widened. She recalled that after she and Wu Shu had joined forces to shatter [Fate Singularity], she had been transported to another world—a truly flat world, where she became a paper person in the literal sense.
To return to the three-dimensional world, she had used [Stream] to soak the entire flat world, twisting it into a Möbius strip, elevating the two-dimensional space into three-dimensional space. Then she seemed to have entered an extraordinarily wondrous dimension.
Vivid comic panels advanced or retreated beneath her feet with each step. She walked upon a Möbius strip of space-time, as if flipping through a comic book, freely leaping to any page she wished.
Upon returning to her original world, Ye Zheng had no time to dwell on it. The rapid succession of events that followed forced her to set her doubts aside. But now, thinking carefully, the two-dimensional comic world she had entered might very well be the comic book that existed in a higher-dimensional world.
Just like the books she could physically touch on the desk right now.
"System, is there a way for you to let me touch that wondrous space once more?"
"Or rather, that comic book."
It was said that the universe originated from an infinitely small point called a singularity. Wen Xiaoxing's [Fate Singularity] was named precisely after this concept.
A single singularity could give rise to countless worlds. Thanks to Wen Xiaoxing, Ye Zheng had already visited dozens of timelines—all derivatives of the singularity, including the world Ye Zheng currently inhabited.
Then the origin of the story, the singularity of all timelines—was a comic book that contained the original plot!
Wen Xiaoxing's ability had linked to it, linked to the singularity, which was why he could transcend this world and banish her to different timelines.
And now, Ye Zheng needed power that transcended this world's space-time. She had to make contact with the origin of the world—the "singularity."
System did not respond for a while. Ye Zheng patiently waited for its answer.
Ye Zheng remembered that System was restricted by the company and couldn't help her freely. But as long as it gave her even the slightest chance, the slightest hint, she might find a way to circumvent the rules and achieve what she wanted.
She awaited its reply with anticipation.
[The comic book... it told you? No, the program has restrictions...]
"Who are you?"
An unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed in her mind—no longer the mechanical tone Ye Zheng was accustomed to, but the voice of a young woman.
Ye Zheng's expression instantly turned grave. In the span of a moment, several ominous guesses flashed through her mind.
[Let me introduce myself. My name is Lin Zhixing, and my job is... the editor of King of the Demonic Domain.]
The moment she heard the word "editor," Ye Zheng recalled how System had once mentioned the matter of her height setting in the comic. The Creator's original design had made her quite short; it was the comic editor who had raised her height with a stroke of the pen.
Ye Zheng's guard didn't relax in the slightest. Why would the comic editor suddenly reach out to her?
She was called a comic editor, but from the information Ye Zheng had pieced together, the higher-dimensional world didn't simply treat her world as a comic. The editor's actual responsibilities couldn't possibly be that simple either.
[Ye Zheng, I've reviewed System's logs. You proposed a collaboration with System.]
Could it be that her boundary-crossing behavior with System had displeased the company? Was this a warning—or something worse...
Just as Ye Zheng's brow grew heavier with worry, she heard an answer she hadn't expected.
[Then, how about collaborating with me instead?]
Ye Zheng froze for a moment, her dark eyes going still. "I don't understand what you mean."
She pinched two fingers together, miming something flat. "To you people, I'm just a paper character."
[I don't think so. And clearly, neither do you.]
Ye Zheng blinked twice at the empty air.
[Ye Zheng, I'll share secrets from our world with you and help you achieve your goals as much as I can. But I have one condition.]
"Let's hear it. I'm quite curious—what could I possibly help you with?"
Before the complex control panel, the faint glow of the screen illuminated the young woman's conflicted, hesitant expression. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke.
*
One day earlier, Lin Zhixing had received a text message from the Lin family's great-elder and once again stepped into the Lin family's secret research facility.
Before meeting the great-elder, she made a deliberate detour to the main control room. In one corner, a thick stack of comic manuscripts was sealed inside a glass case connected to complex electronic equipment.
The manuscript paper had a slightly rough texture, its edges curled and uneven, no longer the smooth sheets they once were—this was the first tangible mark Ye Zheng had left on this world.
Lin Zhixing looked up at the cold, apathetic staff members around her. Did no one find this mark terrifying? If it were her, there was no way she could work here with peace of mind.
She walked further in, her gaze sweeping over glass case after glass case. Some contained books, others film reels, and others CD discs...
The phone in her coat pocket buzzed. Lin Zhixing hurriedly answered the call, responding as she walked briskly into an elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.
She had never been to the top floor before.
When Lin Zhixing stood before the tightly shut door, she—not a timid person by any means—was so nervous she could hear her own heartbeat. She took several deep breaths and pushed the door open.
The Lin family had nearly a thousand years of family history. Through multiple dynastic changes and shifts of eras, they had endured through ups and downs to the present day, becoming a reclusive great family that quietly controlled wealth and power. Their reach spanned politics and commerce, and quite a few household-name enterprises had the Lin family's shadow behind them.
Lin Zhixing was not of the Lin family's direct line. That she could participate in this secretive project at all was surprising even to her. She had never once had a private conversation with the actual head of the Lin family—the great-elder.
The moment she pushed the door open, her eyes went wide where she stood. What first caught her attention wasn't the sharp-eyed old man, but the countless small screens embedded in the conference room walls—so densely packed they looked like countless watching eyes.
Each small screen played a different story. With just a cursory glance, Lin Zhixing saw worlds overrun by zombies, worlds ravaged by plague, worlds swept by freezing catastrophes...
Every world was deeply unsettling to behold. Some were well-known movies or TV shows she was familiar with—things she'd found entertaining and thrilling when watching them.
But the moment these films appeared in this conference room, it meant they too were experimental subjects.
Her family was insanely trying to open portals to worlds of disaster.
Author's Note:
The episode where our girl Zheng swiftly castrates all the dudes is the most anti-BG episode ever. All you anti-BG toilet sisters and brothers better kneel and welcome the descent of Goddess Zhengzheng—she's your one true deity, okay?
Comments
Post a Comment