Chapter 22
22
“Divine Academy… How about we avoid them for now? Those guys’ abilities are too weird.”
Roy suggested hesitantly.
“No, we can’t avoid them.”
Pei Xi pointed at the Divine Academy’s position on the sensor, his expression grave. “Look at the distance between us and them. It’s so close—conflict is inevitable. We must prepare to face the Divine Academy.”
“Even prepare to confront them every time.”
So far, they had never clashed directly with the Divine Academy, but the intelligence they had gathered was plentiful. Mysterious, bizarre, unpredictable—that was their style, even harder to grasp than the overbearing and tyrannical Sykes.
“Pei Xi is right. We can’t back down.”
Kyle said firmly.
“Since our goal is the championship, let’s beat the Divine Academy first!”
Lu Qi planted her hands on her now-protected waist, looking spirited. Pei Xi smiled knowingly at his old teammates, then finally turned to Zhao Mei.
“Zhao Mei, what’s your suggestion?”
Ye Zheng narrowed her eyes slightly. She couldn’t help feeling that the protagonist team at this moment was radiating some kind of glow—as though the manga author was diligently adding all sorts of flashy special effects to the fired-up group.
“Of course. Let’s go.”
Meeting those people was unavoidable. She could only take it one step at a time.
✧✧✧✧✧
Crowds were evacuating, while only a few youths moved against the flow.
Aberrant Realms continuously expand. The sooner a realm is resolved, the lesser the damage.
But this rule did not apply during the competition.
In the distance, a semi-transparent beam of light shot into the sky—like an upside-down hemispherical dome covering the earth, or a white vortex devouring everything, inspiring awe at the sight.
In a nearby street shop, a child anxiously peeked out to check the commotion. Upon seeing the youths, hope lit up in the child’s eyes.
“It seems we’re the first team to enter the realm.”
The black-haired, green-eyed youth murmured as he met the child’s expectant gaze.
“There are two teams closer than us. How could we possibly be the first to enter?”
Lu Qi asked in confusion.
Pei Xi furrowed his brows, gradually slowing his steps. “I understand what Zhao Mei means. Being the first to enter isn’t a good thing.”
“Only the team that ultimately destroys the realm core earns points. The smartest strategy is to wait until other teams have worn themselves down inside, then swoop in to reap the rewards.”
“N-No way. Everyone’s that sneaky?”
Kyle was shocked.
“Even so, we must enter immediately.”
Everyone turned to look at the youth trailing at the rear of the group. The usually mild-tempered Zhao Mei unusually displayed a trace of assertiveness.
“Once a realm is locked by contestants, the officials won’t send anyone to handle it.”
“The people inside the realm are still waiting for us.”
The youths’ expressions grew solemn. Zhao Mei was right. Beyond being contestants, they also bore responsibility for guarding the lower district.
They felt ashamed of their earlier hesitation. Upper-district contestants didn’t care about casualties, but as children of the lower district, they could not be indifferent.
“Let’s hurry!”
“Damn it—didn’t the competition association notice this issue? If everyone drags their feet and refuses to go first…”
“We can’t worry about that now. The people inside are still waiting!”
Standing among his excited teammates, Pei Xi quietly glanced at this teammate from another district. He had always felt that Zhao Mei possessed a strange, almost divine quality that shouldn’t belong to someone of his class.
It inexplicably reminded him of that girl he had only met a few times—the one the lower-district people called the most flawless existence from the upper district.
The group of youths ran forward noisily, charging without hesitation into the massive white mass of light.
A piercing white flash passed before Ye Zheng’s eyes. When she opened them again, a trace of surprise crossed her face.
Around them were empty streets. Shops stood with doors wide open and unmanned. Somewhere, a radio still played cheerful music.
This place was no different from the outside.
She turned to Pei Xi. He met her gaze in tacit understanding—both saw the gravity in the other’s eyes.
Aberrant Realms typically overlaid alien spaces onto the land—deserts, grasslands, caverns, or landscapes that simply did not exist in the Sacred Citadel Empire—accompanied by large numbers of aberrant beasts and plants.
Yet the realm they were in still retained the original appearance of this land. Ye Zheng blinked. This place felt somewhat familiar.
“It’s a rule-type Aberrant Realm. Damn it—our luck really is terrible!”
Roy clutched his golden hair, his expression somewhat collapsing.
Rule-type Aberrant Realms did not descend with alien spaces or creatures, but with unfathomable alien rules. Touching a rule’s taboo could even result in instant erasure by the rule itself!
Even the team’s pillar, Pei Xi, revealed a helpless, bitter smile. “We should be used to it by now. Bad luck seems to be our defining trait.”
Ye Zheng thought: this was thanks to the author’s setting. She had heard that in the higher-dimensional world, bad luck was a standard protagonist trait—and apparently a popular one.
Pei Xi: “Let’s go. With a rule-type, we can only explore slowly.”
The youths walked ahead and behind. Scattered panicked pedestrians stared wide-eyed at them in confusion. More experienced residents had already hidden in safe buildings, waiting for ability users to destroy the realm.
There were no ferocious monsters, no man-eating plants. The surroundings could even be called peaceful and serene—yet everyone’s nerves were stretched taut.
Ye Zheng walked at the rear, recalling the original plot she had seen.
Short black shadows, black butterflies resembling Lu Qi’s ability… How was this anomaly triggered? When would it arrive?
Ye Zheng surveyed her surroundings. Aside from the excessive quiet, nothing seemed unusual. She lowered her head in thought—her gaze brushing the ground—when her delicate brows suddenly furrowed.
They were walking through a large patch of shadow.
It was midday in summer. The sun blazed directly overhead. The shadows of the buildings along the street should not be this long, this wide—especially since the buildings themselves were not large.
Something was wrong. The shadows of these buildings were wrong!
She looked at the shadow behind her. How could a midday human shadow possibly be longer than the person herself?
Yet when Ye Zheng examined it more closely, the black shadow seemed to have a side ponytail tied—this shadow wasn’t even hers!
“Watch the shadows!”
The moment she shouted, the shadow beneath her feet actually struggled up from the ground, like a thin sheet of black paper.
A swarm of black butterflies suddenly filled the sky. Just as Pei Xi and the others noticed something wrong with the shadows at their feet, their vision was disrupted by the butterflies.
Pei Xi immediately activated his ability【Metal Aberration】. His right hand transformed into a sharp blade, shredding the surrounding black butterflies. Amid the chaos, only a girl’s voice shouted loudly: “This is my ability, Butterfly Dance!”
Lu Qi stared incredulously at the black shadow and its butterflies—it was practically a silhouette of herself and her ability.
She gnashed her teeth in anger and was about to summon her own colorful little butterflies when a fierce blade light suddenly slashed toward her neck. Lu Qi had no time to react. Someone forcefully pushed her aside, allowing her to barely dodge the attack.
Lu Qi, who had fallen to the ground, looked up. Zhao Mei stood in front of her. The usually gentle youth viciously kicked the black shadow that had just assaulted her. The shadow, light as paper, was sent flying.
“That was Pei Xi’s shadow.”
“Fortunately, its ability is far weaker than his own.”
Ye Zheng pulled the fallen Lu Qi to her feet. After Lu Qi stood steady, she still swayed slightly. Looking down, she saw a deep gash on her fair thigh seeping blood—likely scratched when she fell.
She crouched down. Healing water flowed from the youth’s fingertips. Ye Zheng remembered she was currently in a male identity and said politely, “Sorry for the impropriety.”
Then she placed her hand on Lu Qi’s thigh wound.
The usually lively and carefree Lu Qi looked down at Zhao Mei’s focused head, somewhat at a loss. Her thigh stiffened as she let Zhao Mei proceed.
“Th-thank you!”
She should have known better than to wear shorts for the sake of looking pretty! Everyone else was fighting hard, and she was only holding them back… Maybe she should wear the flat boots Zhao Mei gave her. What if next time her ankle got injured?
Just imagining Zhao Mei holding her ankle to heal it made Lu Qi feel like she was about to evaporate. Her ears had already turned suspiciously red.
Lu Qi shook her head, her high side ponytail swaying with it. She thought to herself: Zhao Mei wasn’t even her type. Girls liked men stronger than themselves—she had only joined the competition after hearing there would be many powerful handsome guys!
Her thoughts wandered chaotically as she summoned her colorful little butterflies, sending half of them to surround and protect Zhao Mei.
Though he wasn’t her type, she had already decided Zhao Mei was her friend!
“Zhao Mei, stay here for now. I’ll go help them deal with the other shadows.”
Lu Qi instructed worriedly. Though Zhao Mei’s kick just now had been cool, he was still a healing type—the precious and fragile healing type universally recognized in the ability user world.
Ye Zheng nodded obediently and simply stayed in place, watching the protagonist team fight the monsters as a group—showing no intention of helping further.
Three black shadows had appeared on the field in total: one was Lu Qi’s, one was Pei Xi’s, and one whose ability did not belong to their team… meaning another team had already entered this realm.
『You’ve shown some extra care toward Lu Qi. Why? She’s the least popular character in the protagonist team. Interacting with her won’t benefit your popularity—BG CPs aren’t popular right now.』
[T/N- BG -> Boy Girl pairing.]
The system asked curiously, interrupting Ye Zheng’s thoughts.
『Though in the original plot some people shipped you two, most were strategic yuri—very few genuinely shipped it.』
“What is strategic yuri?”
“Yuri… a hundred years of harmony? Or does it mean something else?”
[T/N- Yuri (ηΎε) the chinese character ηΎ = hundred, ε = harmony !]
Ye Zheng couldn’t figure it out. She didn’t recall seeing anyone mention “yuri” on the forums.
『Yuri means female-female CP! “Throne of the Aberrant Realm” has few female characters, so hardly anyone ships yuri. Yuri is niche anyway—the “homo” in most fanworks refers to male-male.』
“Then what is strategic yuri?”
『You’re the official female lead paired with the male protagonist. Giving you a yuri CP makes it reasonable to ship Pei Xi with other characters.』
Ye Zheng only half-understood. She didn’t comprehend shipping behavior in the first place—having so many roundabout tactics just to ship made it even less comprehensible.
She simply stopped thinking about it and seriously watched the four members of the protagonist team fighting in the distance. Lu Qi stood out especially among them.
Before entering the realm, Lu Qi had refused the boots she offered, but Ye Zheng knew this wasn’t truly Lu Qi’s own choice. Pei Xi wore the blue work outfit that readers had complained about countless times for its straight-male aesthetic—lacking design sense but comfortable and practical in battle. Roy wore a white shirt and suit pants with sleek long boots that appeared noble and agile. Kyle wore the most black clothes and pants layered with soft armor, looking extremely defensive.
Yet Lu Qi in shorts and high heels stood out bizarrely among them.
Readers often praised the author of “Throne of the Aberrant Realm” for strong logic, but why had no one pointed out such an obvious logical flaw?
Fighting in such flaw-ridden attire—unless the author himself normally dressed like that for battles—Ye Zheng could only conclude the manga’s author was foolish and lacked basic logic.
Ye Zheng recalled her own appearance in the original plot: a white dress with loose black hair—absurd to a similar degree as Lu Qi’s.
She could currently wear neat, comfortable battle attire only because she was a man right now.
Once she shed this male disguise, even cutting her long hair as Ye Zheng would be considered major OOC.
“I can’t help but pay attention to Lu Qi. It’s out of simple empathy.”
『Don’t worry. She has low popularity but good relationships. Though the author doesn’t give her much spotlight, he also doesn’t give her any CP plot. You’re the one who draws the most hate.』
“As one of the original protagonist team members, shouldn’t the author give her plenty of scenes to showcase her abilities?”
『In hot-blooded manga, having one female character in the protagonist team is standard but giving her the worst configuration and screen time is also standard. All those “three little ones” or “four little ones” team bonds are actually just the bonds between those two or three male characters.』
[T/N - Sakura oh my Sakura.]
“So this is the common treatment for female characters.”
“It seems women in the higher-dimensional world also have far fewer social resources than men—just like in this world.”
The system choked, unsure why Ye Zheng had veered into discussing the world outside the manga—a realm a paper person should not and could not touch.
It was about to remind its host when Ye Zheng changed the subject again.
She pointed at the protagonist team fighting in the distance and said calmly, “I know who the extra black shadow belongs to.”
Just as she spoke, the protagonist team—which had already gained the upper hand—was suddenly blasted away by an explosive aura. The three black shadows seized the chance to escape.
“The extra black shadow belongs to a contestant from the Divine Academy. He needs time to charge up before erupting.”
“As expected, people from the Divine Academy are already inside.”
“That burst of air just now was only half as strong as the real person, but earlier shadow-Lu Qi’s butterflies were less than a third of Lu Qi’s own.”
“And in the manga spoiler, Lu Qi’s shadow was clearly much harder to deal with than now…”
A trace of understanding passed through Ye Zheng’s eyes as she reached her final conclusion. “The shadows grow stronger over time. We need to eliminate them quickly.”
Thus she stepped forward toward the protagonist team, intending to tell them this information.
The system was somewhat dumbfounded. This person had just been chatting with it—how had she suddenly reached a conclusion?
“These shadows will—”
The black-haired, green-eyed youth suddenly covered his mouth, stopping midway through his sentence.
His disheveled teammates looked at Zhao Mei in confusion. Pei Xi asked with concern, “What’s wrong, Zhao Mei? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
The youth lowered the hand covering his mouth, ignoring the burning pain in his throat, and smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. Do any of you need healing?”
Everyone shook their heads, indicating they were okay. Kyle said, “These guys aren’t strong—just a bit tricky.”
Ye Zheng could not directly state her conclusion and had to circumvent it. “We should still resolve them quickly. Who knows what other unimaginable properties these shadows might have.”
Pei Xi nodded gravely. “Let’s chase them now. Eliminating them might break the realm.”
The group set off again, running swiftly toward the direction the shadows had fled.
『Don’t steal the male lead’s lines. Pei Xi is both the combat powerhouse and the brains. These key conclusions are his dialogue.』
『If you want to state this conclusion early, you’d need at least 150 action points—that’s a full 15,000 popularity—to rewrite this plot belonging to Pei Xi.』
Ye Zheng’s lowered lashes trembled slightly. She felt no disappointment at the system’s words—instead, she began calculating. So as long as she had enough popularity and action points, she could freely alter even the protagonist’s plot.
“I understand.”
『Good that you understand. This manga is an absolute big male-lead story—all the spotlight must concentrate on Pei Xi. Lying low and picking up some plot and popularity isn’t very comfortable?』
Ye Zheng swallowed the burning pain in her throat and said no more. This was punishment for violating manga laws, but she found the pain refreshingly vivid.
Precisely because she could feel pain, she was a living person—not a manipulated paper figure in the manga.
The youth’s running steps suddenly stumbled. The ground shook violently. Buildings on both sides of the street swayed precariously. People hiding inside screamed and ran out.
Ye Zheng turned back. The ground was rapidly cracking. A black shadow crouched behind them, hands touching the earth.
“Another new shadow behind us!”
“Its ability isn’t from the Divine Academy—damn it, another team has entered!”
“We can’t kill them all like this, can we?”
The youths stopped in their tracks, turning to face the new shadow. Suddenly, Pei Xi pointed in one direction and called out, “Those three shadows are ahead!”
Everyone looked at one another, unsure which direction to attack first.
Pei Xi’s brows gradually furrowed. He stepped forward. “We can only deal with this one first—protect the residents here.”
Roy disagreed. “Those three together have greater destructive power—especially with yours among them.”
“I’ll stay. You go chase those three shadows.”
Just as everyone hesitated, the youth who had been quietly standing spoke up.
The others looked incredulously at their healing-type teammate. Lu Qi wrinkled her small face. “Zhao Mei, wake up! How could we possibly let a healer like you stay behind to fight alone?”
“Yeah, I’ll stay. My ability 【Barrier】 is tough.”
Kyle advised as well.
Pei Xi remained silent for a moment. He looked deeply at this mysterious healing teammate, then said slowly, “If it’s Zhao Mei… I believe in you.”
Through their time together, he could tell Zhao Mei was quiet and reserved yet intelligent and highly opinionated. His background was mysterious, and his abilities had not been fully revealed. If he said he could stay behind alone, he must be confident.
Healers weren’t necessarily unable to fight. He had heard the Saintess’s younger brother possessed an S-Class talent that could both heal and attack—perhaps Zhao Mei’s abilities weren’t limited to healing either.
“Zhao Mei, we’ll leave this to you. We’ll wait for you up ahead.”
Pei Xi cast a gaze of trust. The others looked worriedly at the black-haired, green-eyed youth.
The youth standing where light and shadow intersected nodded. His face, divided by light and shadow, remained as gentle as ever yet carried a hint of eerie mystery. One pure green eye gleamed like a gem in the sunlight; the other hid in shadow like a deep green flame.
“Don’t worry. I’ll catch up to you.”
Hearing this, the others lingered no longer and chased after the three shadows ahead.
【Deducting 50 action points. You now have only 15 left.】
『But staying behind alone like this is definitely a highlight moment! Once this chapter drops, your popularity will skyrocket again!』
“Is that so? That’s not important.”
Ye Zheng half-knelt on the shaking ground, fingers touching a crack in the earth.
Immediately, a stream of water shot along the fissure like a swift fish, then surged up from the ground to bind the distant black shadow, slamming it hard onto the earth.
The ground instantly stopped shaking.
The youth walked lightly, step by step toward the shadow bound by water.
“First, let’s study how to kill a shadow.”
“Then hurry to kill—my shadow.”
She had to find a chance to eliminate her own shadow first; otherwise, it could very likely expose her true identity and abilities in front of others.
Until this competition ended—until her popularity became substantial enough—the existence of Zhao Mei was necessary.
If someone unfortunately encountered her shadow in this realm and noticed something amiss… Ye Zheng considered striking first.