Chapter 153

 【How interesting.】

The instant this thought surfaced in Ye Zheng’s mind, she once again felt the urge to look upward, wondering whether a somewhat foolish-looking bubble would pop into existence above her own head.

Unfortunately, she was now within a completely flat plane. A plane possessed only length and width, lacking any notion of height. Because of that, she was beginning to forget what “up” and “down” even meant.

Thanks to the system, the forums, and the other manga she occasionally read on various platforms in her spare time,, Ye Zheng could now describe her current situation with greater precision: she had shifted from a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional one.

The main world she originally came from was three-dimensional. The world of the system and the readers was likely a slightly higher-order three-dimensional existence. But this particular world was entirely two-dimensional.

To put it more plainly, her dimensionality had been reduced.

She had truly become what the readers referred to as a “paper person.”

Ye Zheng curled her five fingers into a tight fist and let it hang at her side. She realized that she was somewhat unable to grasp the concept of “thickness.” She could no longer perceive the thickness of her own body, yet she could still sense the 【Stream】 flowing within her palm. Her mind still retained many memories and hadn’t been completely assimilated by this world.

She needed to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible, Ye Zheng thought, otherwise she might end up completely turning into a “paper person.”

She called out to the system within her mind and waited for quite some time, but there was no response at all.

【Your Highness, let’s make this clear first. We’ll cooperate until the giant eel appears. Once the giant eel shows up, we each rely on our own abilities.】

On the opposite side, dialogue boxes continued to pop up above Pei Xi and the others’ heads one after another. The plot kept progressing forward.

Sykes’s head shifted slightly, indicating his approval of Pei Xi’s proposal.

Ye Zheng quietly observed from the sidelines for a while. Aside from this world being flat, there wasn’t much difference compared to the other world lines she had experienced before. Ye Zheng concluded that the reason for this situation was most likely because she was still trapped within the 【Fate Singularity】, though this place had to be something special.

What exactly made it special? Ye Zheng suddenly recalled that her current height was less than 1.6 meters. She remembered that the system had once told her that the author’s original setting for her height was 1.55 meters, which was later changed to 1.75 meters under the intervention of the editor sister.

【Little Zheng, don’t be upset over Ye Di anymore. He can’t understand you, but you still have us.】

Pei Xi suddenly approached her, his dialogue box appearing along with him. Ye Zheng furrowed her brows, which were drawn as two slender black lines. She felt both a sense of strangeness and a hint of repulsion toward this slightly awkward and cringeworthy concern. Was this really the direction of the original plot?

【Original plot?】

Ye Zheng suddenly came to a realization. She seemed to understand now what kind of place this truly was.

Across all the world lines she had traversed, there had always been both similarities and differences when compared to the original plot and its settings. Only this two-dimensional world adhered completely to the original plot, even down to her height perfectly matching the initial design.

This place was very likely the original version of Throne of the Aberrant Realm!

Ye Zheng’s eyes widened. Her gaze shifted from the dialogue box to Pei Xi’s face, outlined in stark black lines. Only his eyes carried a faint touch of blue. Only then did she realize that this world wasn’t just flat, it was also severely lacking in color. Most of the scenery consisted of nothing more than hastily drawn black lines.

First draft? The term surfaced in Ye Zheng’s mind. Had she leapt into the very first rough draft of Throne of the Aberrant Realm?

【Fate Singularity…】

Ye Zheng murmured the words thoughtfully. Wen Xiaoxing had once tried to flaunt the concept of singularity in front of her, but she’d happened to study that exact topic. A singularity was the origin point of everything, and this crude two-dimensional world was precisely the origin of Throne of the Aberrant Realm, wasn’t it?

Ye Zheng was almost completely certain now. This place had to be the core of the 【Fate Singularity】, very likely the core of the entire manga world!

If she could break through here, she’d definitely gain something extraordinary.

A cool, delicate stream coiled around her arm. While thinking, Ye Zheng let 【Stream】 flow, using its icy touch to constantly remind herself that she didn’t belong here. She was merely a visitor from the three-dimensional world. She had to leave.

Ye Zheng snapped out of her thoughts and fixed her gaze on Pei Xi, who was still speaking. She had to admit that Pei Xi made a very useful protagonist.

She took a step closer. A flush of red spread across Pei Xi’s paper-pale face, and the dialogue box above his head began operating once more.

【What’s wrong, Little Zheng? If you have something to say, we can go to the stern of the boat.】

There was nothing to say. Ye Zheng thought expressionlessly. In the very next moment, the lurking stream suddenly shot toward the other party’s throat.

Ye Zheng’s pupils contracted sharply as she took in the tense scene before her. The needle-thin stream of water was just about to pierce through that layer of paper, as thin as a cicada’s wing, when it abruptly vanished, leaving behind only a faint watery mark on Pei Xi’s neck, like the trace of a droplet slowly spreading across paper.

There was no system, and there were no action points she could use to alter the original plot. She couldn’t touch Pei Xi!

Ye Zheng went through the motion of taking a deep breath and pressed her hand against her slender chest. She could no longer sense her own heartbeat. Perhaps, as a two-dimensional being, she was already dead in some sense.

No, there had to be another way. Ye Zheng hadn’t forgotten that in the initial lounge, a “Ye Zheng” had quietly hung a mirror on the lounge door. There had to be a way to go back!

That mirror was a clue. Ye Zheng was certain of it. But right now, her hands were empty. The mirror she had always carried with her had disappeared after she entered this world.

【Then I’ll just find another mirror.】

Ye Zheng thought.

She didn’t have the habit of carrying a mirror, but this was the earliest version of the world, filled with the manga author’s stereotypical assumptions. Perhaps the author believed that women were the kind of creatures who always carried mirrors with them.

Ye Zheng exchanged a few lines with Pei Xi through the dialogue boxes and found her backpack on the boat. A mirror lay beside the backpack. It looked as though “Ye Zheng” had only just used it to look at herself.

She picked up the mirror. Alongside her surprise, she felt a faint sense of confirmation she had already expected. This mirror was exactly the same as the one that had been hung on the lounge door!

Ye Zheng raised the mirror. Within this two-dimensional world, she finally saw her own appearance with complete clarity. Aside from the absence of color, it wasn’t all that different from how she looked in the manga.

As she gazed into the mirror, Ye Zheng couldn’t perceive any sense of depth at all. Her face and the scattered items on the boat appeared like overlapping sheets of paper, layered together without distinction.

The sense of danger within Ye Zheng grew stronger. If this went on, all her knowledge, her thoughts, and even her wrinkled three-dimensional brain would soon be flattened into a thin plane by this two-dimensional world.

Ye Zheng frowned. Then, all of a sudden, she sensed something unusual. This mirror was clearly two-dimensional as well, thin and paper-like. If it were taken back into the three-dimensional world, would it automatically become a three-dimensional object?

Three-dimensional to two-dimensional, and two-dimensional to three-dimensional… If two-dimensional objects could also ascend in dimension upon entering the three-dimensional world, then there were two possible paths for her to return to being a three-dimensional existence.

One was to find a way to return to the three-dimensional world. The other was to find a way to transform this world into a three-dimensional one.

Ye Zheng smiled. Generally speaking, the latter would undoubtedly be far more difficult, since changing the world had always been harder than changing one’s own circumstances.

And yet, as Ye Zheng thought about this second method, her smile widened even further.

【Hahaha… Hahahaha!】

Ye Zheng covered her mouth as laughter burst out uncontrollably. The Saintess, who was usually calm and restrained, was now laughing with a trace of madness. Within this body that was gradually losing sensation, she once again felt a surge of exhilaration rushing through her blood!

Saintess Ye Zheng excelled at changing the world and overturning it entirely!

Ye Zheng quickly ran out of the cabin and made her way to the side of the boat. Her mind still couldn’t grasp the concept of looking “downward,” but the not-yet-assimilated 【Stream】 allowed her to perceive this world in her stead.

The water streamed down from her hand and merged into the pale blue lake. In this two-dimensional world, Amber Lake had turned into a pool of truly stagnant water, but that was fine. 【Stream】 would restore its vitality and, along with it, revive this two-dimensional world.

The lifeless blue lake gradually deepened in hue. The lines along its edges started to blur. The boundary between water and shore began to dissolve, like a droplet seeping into paper. The spreading stain slowly encroached upon the dry, flat surface around it.

【What’s happening? Did the giant eel come back again?】

【Such huge waves! My clothes are soaked… No, even my skin feels wet…】

【How strange. Is it raining? It feels like the entire world is getting drenched?】

Behind Ye Zheng, dialogue boxes burst forth one after another above everyone’s heads. Pei Xi noticed she was still standing at the perilous edge of the boat. He moved to step forward and pull her back, but after only a few steps, he realized his body felt unusually heavy, like winter clothes that hadn’t been wrung dry.

To his shock, he noticed that the colors of the entire world had somehow deepened and grown more fragile, as if they were paper thoroughly soaked in rain… The comparison felt a little odd.

Yet this world truly did resemble a sheet of paper that had been completely saturated.

“Leak! There’s a leak!”

“Oh my god, where did all this water in the lab come from? Did someone knock over the water dispenser?”

Inside the bustling laboratory, the researchers all halted their work and stared in astonishment at the trails of water spreading across the floor.

“Quick, mop it up! There’s so much equipment here!”

The group of researchers scrambled in a panic to find cleaning tools. Some called out for the cleaning staff, while others followed the spreading water trails further inside, trying to figure out exactly what was happening.

“Oh no, everyone, come look!”

A researcher braced both hands against a lab bench connected to various electronic devices. He stared at the object sealed inside the glass cabinet and let out an incredulous cry.

“It’s the Linkage Body! The Linkage Body, it… it’s…”

The shouting researcher was abruptly shoved aside. A young man in a sharp suit took his place, his eyes wide with disbelief as he looked at the scene inside the glass cabinet.

What had originally been sealed here was a thick stack of drafts, the precious Linkage Body.

But now, all those drafts had been completely soaked through. The sheets of paper were tightly connected end to end, forming a continuous loop.

A Möbius strip.

These wet, flattened drafts had been joined into a long strip and then twisted 180 degrees, becoming a Möbius strip.

A Möbius strip had only one surface and one edge. Locally, it was merely a two-dimensional planar fluid, yet it could still be embedded within a three-dimensional world!

Not only that, it was a closed loop. No matter where one stood on the Möbius strip, there would always be a path leading back to the starting point!

“Ye… Zheng!”

The moment he realized what Ye Zheng had done, the young man nearly fainted. Someone had to tell him why Ye Zheng had appeared in the source world, and why she had caused something like this.

He raised his soaked hand. His usual calm and refined demeanor had completely vanished. A trace of fear flickered across his shocked face. Ye Zheng’s ability had actually managed to affect this world!

No, no, no. It was only because he’d been careless for a brief moment. He really shouldn’t have used Hope Project technology to create trouble for Ye Zheng. Instead, he’d given her an opportunity to exploit.

It didn’t matter. He was the controller of this higher-dimensional world. Lin Zhixing and Ye Zheng both had to move aside. This was his project. How hard could it really be to crush a mere experimental subject?

The young man, dizzy with rage, turned and headed toward a certain monitor. But his foot slipped on the wet floor, and he fell straight down. His body twitched a few times on the ground before going completely still.

A researcher wanted to step forward to help him up, but his companion behind him hurriedly held him back.

“There’s electricity leaking! The water is electrified! Everyone, be extremely careful of the water on the floor!”

For a moment, all the researchers stared at one another with wide, alarmed eyes. They looked at the newly appointed project leader lying motionless on the ground and huddled fearfully on the dry patches of the floor, each one remaining on high alert.

✧✧✧✧✧

Wen Xiaoxing was squatting on the boat, guarding the unconscious Pei Xi while holding the green fragments in his hand.

He had now lost the ability of the 【Fate Singularity】, but it wasn’t a major issue. The body Wen Jian had given him was exceptionally strong, so he could still integrate into the Cloud Soarers team without any trouble.

Moreover, he had already taken care of the most troublesome enemy. Once the competition ended and he dealt with Wen Jian as well, he wouldn’t have any more concerns left.

Another sharp sound slicing through the air rang out. This time, it definitely wasn’t Wu Shu. Wen Xiaoxing rose to his feet with a faint, enigmatic smile, ready to welcome that foolish Ye Di.

After squatting for so long, combined with the backlash from his ability being destroyed, the moment Wen Xiaoxing stood up, his consciousness wavered briefly. His body swayed, and he dropped into a half-kneeling position on the deck. Just as he tried to push himself back up, a hand suddenly appeared in front of him, as if offering to pull him to his feet.

The hand was strikingly beautiful, fair, slender, and firm.

But Wen Xiaoxing’s expression changed as though he’d seen a ghost.

He first blinked hard with his right eye, which had turned pale, and the world snapped back into clarity within his vision. Then, in disbelief, he slowly lifted his head. His gaze followed along the outstretched hand and finally reached its owner.

A pair of black eyes looked down at him, carrying a smile that held no trace of warmth. The depth within them felt even darker and more perilous than the Amber Lake behind her.

“Can you no longer stand up, Wen Xiaoxing?”

Wen Xiaoxing lowered his head, only then realizing that his posture had somehow shifted from half-kneeling to fully seated on the ground.

“Ye… Ye Zheng.” He forced the name out with difficulty.

At the same time.

After waiting an entire four weeks, countless readers outside the manga world, and not just readers, witnessed this scene and, just like Wen Xiaoxing, softly murmured the name with emotions that were tangled, excited, and utterly disbelieving.

Ye Zheng!

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Authors Note  

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Zheng’s first shallow greeting to the real world ended up accidentally taking out a malicious guy…

The next chapter will include a fun forum section.