Chapter 06

Along the gray streets, people in masks, face coverings, and cloaks could be seen everywhere. They waved shields and flags bearing the symbols of the lower district, desperately splashing vivid color across the filthy, decaying streets as they shouted themselves hoarse.

“Remove the pig-headed city lord!”

“Send more ability users to deal with the Aberrant Realm!”

“Give us the disaster relief subsidies we deserve!”

…

“Why must the lower district bear everything!”

Someone swung a flag and smashed it against an innocent roadside shop. Another roared and threw a punch at the hastily arriving security officers. Barricades were erected as rows of uniformed guards blocked the path of the frenzied crowd.

Ye Zheng moved nimbly through the chaos, gradually leaving the furious protesters behind. She turned silently into a narrow alley.

She did not need to look back to know that even though most of the ability-user guards were only C-rank or lower, they could easily and swiftly suppress these ordinary civilians.

But what if such riots erupted simultaneously in countless corners of the lower district?

Ye Zheng gently knocked on a rusted iron door.

Behind it, a woman wearing an apron cautiously peeked out. When she recognized the familiar face, her expression lit up, and she quickly ushered the girl inside.

“Saintess, why are you here today… It’s a good thing he isn’t home.”

Ye Zheng removed her cloak. “Your husband is the activity leader in this area. Today is the lower district city lord’s public speech, so he must be organizing protest activities.”

The woman lowered her head guiltily, rubbing one arm with the other. “As his wife, I know nothing about his activities… I’ve caused you trouble.”

Ye Zheng chuckled softly. “Your task is not to monitor him for me. In fact, he has no surveillance value at all.”

Based on his behavior and the situation, she could already predict what the woman’s husband would plan in the coming days. Someone so transparent that anyone could see through him would never be taken seriously by the lower district police.

And yet, such ordinary, commonplace individuals were often capable of stirring unpredictable waves.

Ye Zheng took the woman’s hand. “Wen Xin, compared to your husband, the speeches and newspaper articles you write for him exert far greater influence.”

“Without your words, he would be nothing more than a reckless man mocked by others. He would never have gained the recognition of so many people.”

Wen Xin shook her head modestly. “I’m just an ordinary person who happens to write a little well. Without my husband’s vision and passion, I wouldn’t even know who the lower district city lord is.”

“If there were no passion, how could your words incite so many people to rise up?”

“I only wrote what the residents of the lower district truly feel… And all those slogans were provided by you, Saintess.”

Wen Xin’s timid eyes shone as she gazed at the girl before her, flawless, as if a god had descended into the mortal world.

“It was you who told me that according to imperial law, the lower district should receive more generous subsidies. You also said that during periods of heightened Aberrant Realm activity, the lower district has the authority to command royal knights and Church guards.”

“You are clearly the greatest contributor to the resistance in the lower district, yet no one knows…”

Ye Zheng smiled faintly. “That would not be considered an honor in the upper district.”

Because of the unrest in the lower district, the entire upper district was enveloped in oppressive tension. The lower district was a civilian hive discarded like worn-out shoes, yet it also served as the greatest shield protecting the Sacred Citadel Empire from Aberrant Realms.

Now that shield was no longer willing to obey, leaving the lords behind it so anxious that they no longer even bothered to meet their mistresses.

Wen Xin panicked at once and hurriedly said, “No, I won’t tell anyone! Even if it costs me my life!”

Ye Zheng sighed softly and spoke in a low voice.

“I don’t need you to die. I need you to publish another article.”

“Continue praising that academy team from the lower district. They are not only the hope of the lower district, but also proof of the empire’s mistake. Ability-user resources should not be allocated solely based on talent.”

“Focus the narrative on that captain, Pei Xi. As an E-rank talent, he crushed the Royal Academy beneath his feet. Isn’t that the most convincing evidence?”

Wen Xin’s eyes widened slightly. Even as a mere housewife, she knew that allocating ability-user resources according to talent was one of the most fundamental laws of the Sacred Citadel Empire.

Imperial research had long shown that ability talent was closely tied to bloodlines. The children of high-talent ability users were generally stronger, and such powerhouses were concentrated in the upper district, or at worst, the middle district.

Thus, resources naturally flowed upward.

Wen Xin swallowed hard. “You… you mean opposing the allocation of resources based on talent? The people in the upper district will be… will be extremely offended, won’t they?”

Offended was far too mild a word. This was an attempt to shake the very foundation of the rulers’ interests. Ye Zheng curved her eyes slightly. “Yes. Extremely offended.”

She suddenly lifted Wen Xin’s sleeve, revealing a scarred arm. Her slender fingers traced gently over the ugly marks.

Wen Xin had yet to recover from her shock. She stared blankly as cool water wrapped around her damaged arm and stammered, “Lately, more people have been following him, so he couldn’t help but drink a little more…”

Ye Zheng lowered her gaze, looking expressionlessly at the scars. “This will be the last article you publish under your husband’s name.”

“If you are willing, then from this day forward, this kind of thing will never happen again.”

Wen Xin watched the graceful figure disappear, her heart trembling violently. Should she… should she do it?

Publishing such an article under her husband’s name would be almost equivalent to murder.

✧✧✧✧✧

Amid such chaos, a sacrifice of sufficient weight was required to push the story toward its next climax. Since a sacrifice was inevitable, she would carefully choose someone who truly deserved to die.

However, judging who deserved death based solely on her own will would be unfair. And so, she entrusted the final judgment to Wen Xin.

She looked forward to the outcome.

Ye Zheng turned into yet another alley and entered an unremarkable house. After some time, she emerged again, cloaked once more, as if nothing had happened.

『What kind of outfit is this? According to the original story, you should be wearing a holy white dress, all ethereal and fairy-like.』

The system suddenly appeared.

“You really know how to pick your timing.”

“Of course. I detected that the comic’s plot is about to begin. It’s time for me to return and assist you.”

Ye Zheng neither accepted nor rejected the system’s offer. She continued walking through the narrow alley, her expression calm, yet perpetually alert.

Ahead lay Sieg Square, the area with the heaviest foot traffic. She had instructed Wende to send the knight squad to help retrieve something there. Given their domineering style, the square should already have been cleared of civilians.

Ye Zheng slowed her pace. From afar, she could already see the broad plaza ahead. Just as she expected, only uniformed knights remained. Ordinary people had long since dispersed.

A gentle breeze lazily stirred scraps of paper across the ground. Ye Zheng watched as one sheet fluttered upward, twisted unnaturally in the air, and was torn to shreds by a sudden shift in the wind.

It’s here.

She looked up at the unnaturally blue sky.

“It’s an Aberrant Realm! An Aberrant Realm has descended!”

“Damn it! We were just sent out to look for something!”

The knights’ curses rang out alongside the howling of the wasteland. Ye Zheng blinked, and the surrounding low houses and old streets vanished. In their place stretched an endless expanse of yellow sand. Within the vast desert, only scattered figures remained.

This was an Aberrant Realm, a heterogeneous space filled with the unknown.

If it was not resolved in time, this desert would expand endlessly until the entire Sacred Citadel Empire was swallowed and transformed into sand.

“Damn it! Who said the probability of Aberrant Realms descending near the church was low? I even pulled strings to get assigned here!”

“Coming to the lower district to pad one’s resume always carries this risk. It’s not like the middle district. I’ve heard you can run into an Aberrant Realm just by buying vegetables here.”

“I’m from the upper district, and this is my first Aberrant Realm. It’s far more interesting than staring at rows of buildings all day.”

Leaning behind a sand dune, Ye Zheng listened to the chatter of these elite knights from the middle and upper districts. She immediately understood that she could not rely on them.

She tightened her cloak, pulled her feet free of the sand, and began moving forward step by step.

“You don’t need to move. The gravitational pull of the comic’s plot will arrange for you to encounter the protagonist’s group.”

“At the appropriate moment, monsters will appear here and attack you. The male lead, Pei Xi, will save you. You only need to wait calmly.”

Ye Zheng raised her hand and pointed into the distance.

“But there are still ordinary people farther away who were dragged into the anomalous domain.”

…

“Wake up. You are a healing-type ability user, not a combat type.”

“This Aberrant Realm hides many mutated desert monsters. The kind that can swallow an ordinary person in a single bite. Your ability is completely useless here.”

Ye Zheng frowned slightly. “Then that means I need to move even faster.”

She tightened her cloak and began running across the desert. The system was practically seething. No wonder readers hated her so much. This kind of reckless compassion was truly infuriating.

If the comic artist drew this scene, the system could already imagine the backlash. What a foolishly sweet, saintly woman, an outdated and brainless female lead.

Damn it. Other awakened paper characters became cold, decisive, and shrewd. This one only learned how to argue back more eloquently, while none of her other flaws improved.

✧✧✧✧✧

“Rest in peace.”

Water coiled around the half-human-sized lizard lying on the ground. The woman it had pinned scrambled free of its claws and rushed behind the gray-cloaked figure.

The water sealed over the lizard’s face. It struggled violently, as though its throat were being strangled, until its limbs finally went limp. Only then did the water slowly withdraw.

“Don’t be afraid. Stay behind me.”

Ye Zheng lowered her voice. Wrapped in her cloak, with a calm, magnetic tone, it was impossible for the woman to determine her savior’s gender.

But that did not matter.

Encountering a powerful and kind ability user within an Aberrant Realm was the greatest stroke of luck she could have hoped for.

…

“Aren’t you a healing type?”

The system stared in disbelief as several ordinary people now followed closely behind the girl, all of them individuals she had just rescued.

Ye Zheng lifted an eyebrow. “Even among ordinary doctors, it doesn’t mean they are completely defenseless. A scalpel can save lives, but it is also a sharp instrument capable of killing.”

“But in the comic, all your scenes involve healing others, and whenever danger appears, the male lead saves you.”

“Is it possible,” Ye Zheng said calmly, “that if the male lead did not save me, I would have resolved everything on my own long ago?”

The system was utterly stunned. This was an angle it had never even considered.