Chapter 188

【How many secrets is Ye Zheng actually hiding? The most complete plot summary is here!】

【Counting the Saintess’s allies and the hidden villains of Throne】

【No one dares to say it, but Ye Zheng might actually be the biggest righteous character in this manga…】

【Please, can Ye Zheng’s extra chapters get their own separate manga?】

【New anime viewer here. Who is this Ye Zheng you guys keep talking about?】

The moment Ye Zheng opened the forum, she immediately saw titles containing her name everywhere, with only a few scattered mentions of other characters mixed in between.

“I thought there would be a lot of readers analyzing the part where Pei Xi found the divine sword.”

In the new chapter, Pei Xi, who had escaped onto the train, encountered an Aberrant Realm. He fought monsters together with his two companions and protected the ordinary passengers on the train. While searching for the core monster, he unexpectedly found the divine sword she had once discarded, guided by the divine blood.

The chapter also intercut with her coronation ceremony, revealing the truth that she had personally forged the divine sword.

The fact that she had forged the divine sword had finally been discovered by the readers. Ye Zheng had originally expected there would be many posts condemning her for faking it and using unscrupulous means, but she had not anticipated that there would instead be even more enthusiastic praise and declarations of love directed at her.

『Don’t underestimate the bond between Zheng fans and you!』

The system noticed that Ye Zheng still did not have an accurate understanding of her own popularity.

『The anime has already aired three episodes, yet the forum is still dominated by you and your fans. According to the backend data, you have already become the most popular top character in Throne of the Aberrant Realm!』

　　The system spoke with a voice full of pride. With the current level of control Ye Zheng’s fans held over the forum, even if Ye Zheng claimed the sun was square, her fans would still press the entire forum down from every angle and firmly insist that everything she said made perfect sense.

However, Ye Zheng only lightly knitted her brows. She asked, “What are my current popularity value and how many action points do I still have?”

『Popularity value: 313,836. Remaining action points: 1,100.』

『We’ve broken past three hundred thousand! The only thing left to be cautious about is that certain characters may gain popularity due to the anime’s boost. Your position as the top character might not remain stable.』

『The anime will most likely not feature you in the first or second season. If it becomes a hit, Pei Xi and the others’ popularity will rise very quickly. After all, in the early parts of the manga, Pei Xi and his group had a large number of highlight moments.』

To be precise, that was before Ye Zheng had appeared.

At that time, Pei Xi and Sykes had been the dual peaks of popularity. The protagonist Pei Xi even held a higher overall popularity score. Readers often called him “little angel,” “the true hero,” and “everyone’s sun.” The villain Sykes also had a large number of solo fans. With his powerful abilities, noble background, and outstanding appearance, his appeal among male characters was unmatched. Dream girls and CP fans frequently argued over him.

But after Ye Zheng appeared, both the popularity rankings and the direction of public opinion underwent earth-shaking changes.

The system had never expected Ye Zheng to reach this stage. At the beginning, Ye Zheng had not been taken seriously. She was just a small project among many experiments within the company. No one had placed high expectations on her; she was only used to enrich the experimental report.

No one had anticipated that Ye Zheng would display such shocking potential. This both surprised some people and began to frighten and disgust others.

Especially after the last time Ye Zheng’s power unintentionally interfered with reality and directly caused someone’s death, different voices began to emerge within the company regarding her.

The anime’s presentation was one part of the company’s stance. If they wanted to expand Ye Zheng’s influence, her plot could be inserted into the first season as part of an ensemble cast, or even run on dual timelines, elevating Ye Zheng into the position of protagonist.

Unfortunately, because the new person in charge had died, and it was someone with a fairly high status, some senior executives in the company became hesitant. For a time, no one else was willing to take over the project, so it was handed back to the original person in charge, Lin Zhixing.

Lin Zhixing herself did not fully approve of the family’s methods. She felt it was very likely to open Pandora’s box, so she maintained a watchful observer’s attitude.

The extra chapters were the result of Lin Zhixing being provoked by the change in person in charge. She wanted to teach certain people a lesson. Even though she didn’t have much enthusiasm for this job, having her results casually hijacked, and the other side even trying to tamper with the experimental content and harm the subject she was observing, would make any person with blood in their veins find it hard to swallow.

However, she hadn’t expected Ye Zheng to help her vent such a huge breath of frustration. She had originally wanted the other party to quit the industry and disappear, but with Ye Zheng’s help, that person directly exited the biological world and received an early death instead.

The system guessed that this was the reason she continued releasing extra chapters for Ye Zheng.

But anything extra, like adding more scenes for Ye Zheng in the anime, someone with Lin Zhixing’s cautious personality would never actually do something like that.

『It’s fine. The probability of the anime becoming a massive hit is less than forty percent. Even if the first season completely blows up in popularity, when we show up again in the third season, we’ll definitely take back everything that belongs to us.』

“If the anime becomes popular, it should also bring in a lot of new readers to the manga, right?”

Ye Zheng gave a faint smile. She didn’t really care whether Pei Xi, Sykes, or anyone else’s popularity would eventually surpass hers. If the anime could pull in more viewers and guide them into reading the manga, then a portion of those readers would naturally convert into people who liked her, increasing her popularity value and action points.

For instance, right now, she could already notice quite a few new users on the forum who were curiously searching for the name “Ye Zheng.”

Thinking about it this way, even the system agreed. According to backend data, the collection count for Throne of the Aberrant Realm had been rising rapidly lately. Because the manga was fairly long, most new readers still hadn’t reached the chapters where Ye Zheng appeared.

Once those new readers finally caught up to the part where Ye Zheng was crowned, her popularity would very likely experience another small surge.

『You’re right. Expanding the overall reader base is a good thing!』

“By the way, there’s no update preview this time?”

Ye Zheng opened the manga app again and confirmed there was no preview for the next update.

There wasn’t always a preview for every single update, but if previews stopped appearing for a long time, based on Ye Zheng’s experience, the next update would usually contain a particularly important plot development.

The corners of Ye Zheng’s mouth were still slightly raised, but there was no real smile in her eyes. She still remembered a very important part of the original plot that hung over her head like a blade, waiting to fall at an unknown moment.

But she had a vague feeling that it was coming soon.

—How many action points would it take to change the death plot where Ye Zheng dies?

Ye Zheng didn’t know, so before that death plot arrived, she needed to raise her popularity as much as possible and accumulate more action points.

To increase her popularity, she had to understand her readers’ preferences a bit better. Ye Zheng switched back to the forum again. With a mindset of studying and learning, she clicked into every thread that mentioned her name.

After browsing through an entire round, she discovered that some people liked her kindness and determination, some liked her obsessive, darker side, and some were drawn to her ambition. There were all kinds of ways people liked her, but every angle was still her — Ye Zheng.

In other words, every part of her, whether bright or dark, had people who truly liked it. Every piece of light she reflected seemed to warm someone.

As long as she was Ye Zheng, they would like her.

The smile in her dark eyes grew more sincere. Ye Zheng felt a faint warmth and softness spread through her chest.

She saw someone on the forum showing off a cotton doll modeled after her. It was a tiny figure placed on a desk, with big black eyes and a pure, adorable expression.

【1L: Everyone, take a look. Can my child be a child model?】

【2L: Not yet. From her face, she doesn’t look very clever. I suggest sending her to me for a few days of training.】

【3L: How dare you say our Zheng Zheng the Great isn’t clever! Drag him out and behead him!】

【4L: I see an imperial aura in this girl. She’s not suited to be a child model. I suggest sending her to become the Emperor of the empire.】

【5L: Is there any Zheng mom selling this one? If you hesitate, you’ll lose. I only realized after it sold out that the more I look at it, the cuter it gets!】

【6L: There are too few Zheng dolls. This one originally cost forty, but it’s been resold for several hundred on a certain fish app. I suggest waiting for other fellow fans to open group buys.】

【7L: I’m an elementary school student, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me!】

【8L: I received mine too. I take it to school every day to supervise my studies. The moment I get distracted, I meet the gaze of Emperor Zheng and feel so guilty that I immediately sit up straight…】

【9L: (I will always watch you…).jpg Zheng doll meme】

【10L: I’ve bought dolls of many characters, but the Zheng doll really has a special high-energy feel. Her aura is very strong. It’s getting a bit mystical.】

【11L: I feel like Zheng must have looked like this when she was little — a clever big-eyed cute baby, the kind of little sister who secretly does bad things behind everyone’s back~】

【12L: @ThroneOfTheAberrantRealm official, dare you release an extra about little Zheng? Hm?】

【13L: @ThroneOfTheAberrantRealm official, my big sister is asking you a question!】

……

【73L: Everyone, hurry to a certain red potato app. Another fellow fan has opened a group buy. It’s the short-haired Pope Zheng. They’re collecting name suggestions right now! (attached image)】

【74L: Zheng the Dragon Emperor. Sold.】

【75L: The doll the OP showed is called Little Zheng. This one can be called Big Zheng.】

Seeing everyone enthusiastically discussing names for the Papess-version doll, Ye Zheng didn’t fully understand why extra names were needed, but she still left her own suggestion.

【102L: Perhaps it can be called… Holy Mother.】

People often called the Pope “Holy Father,” especially when requesting assistance from the Church. That title meant “the most sacred father” and served as a respectful honorific. It also reflected the traditionally dominant role of paternal authority in secular customs.

However, after she took the throne, the voice of “Holy Father” would no longer exist within the Church.

From now on, the empire would only have a Holy Mother. A merciful, majestic, and thunderously decisive Holy Mother.

【103L: Holy Mother Zheng? That name is pretty good. Let’s go with Holy Mother! We need more Holy Mothers!】

【104L: The term “Holy Mother” has been stigmatized for too long. Boldly using the word “Holy Mother” also feels like a pushback against that stigma. It suits Zheng Zheng really well.】

【105L: In real religions, male Popes are often called Holy Father, but unfortunately there has never been a female Pope. If there were, she would definitely be called Holy Mother.】

【106L: As expected of a fellow fan with the ID “Ye Zheng.” What great vision!】

The fellow fan with great vision, Ye Zheng, left the interesting thread with a faint smile on her face. After quickly scanning the forum homepage, she exited the forum.

『Why did you leave? Aren’t you curious about “Good people get bullied, evil people become Zheng’s wife”?』

Ye Zheng’s smile froze. Sometimes she really regretted that the system didn’t have a physical body.

She put down her phone. It was time to sleep. After a good rest, there would be many things waiting for her tomorrow.

For example, getting familiar with papal affairs, meeting various personnel, and most importantly, exploring how to use 【Mother of All Things】.

Changing the death plot didn’t only require enough action points, but also the strength needed to defeat Sykes.

No, more accurately, the strength needed to kill Sykes.

She had to prepare sufficiently powerful abilities, along with the ability to clean up the aftermath after killing the Crown Prince and dealing with any subsequent threats.

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Authors Note  

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Happy New Year, everyone!