Chapter 221

【New here. What chapter does Ye Zheng first appear in? The opening chapters are way too long, and I’m too lazy to catch up.】

【Picked up two Zheng merch items at the comic convention today. So happy…】

【I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms from Ye Zheng’s birthday café (crying emoji)】

【Why’s that old uncle taking another week off again? His health isn’t actually failing, right?】

【We just celebrated my oshi’s birthday, and now it’s already time for her seventh day memorial. How the hell am I supposed to cope with this?】

Ye Zheng noticed a post with “seventh day memorial” in the title. Since the term didn’t exist in her world, she clicked on it out of curiosity and a genuine desire to understand what it meant.

【2L: If you can’t cope, then just uninstall the manga app.】

【3L: Say goodnight to little Sykes. He really did suffer through a hard life. Honestly, it’s not the worst ending for him. At least he escaped that painful existence and can finally reunite with his mother in heaven.】

【4L: …The Zheng moms upstairs are probably just roleplaying.】

【5L: The Zheng moms are putting on a full-blown performance, or maybe it’s some deranged Sykes-Zheng sister. The guy’s already dead, so why the hell won’t you let him rest?】

【6L: Which bastard came up with the toxic ship Sykes-Zheng? Every time I see “Who understands the redemption in the moment Ye Zheng killed Sykes,” I genuinely can’t tell which side that person is even on.】

【7L: Seven days passed so fast. How am I supposed to cope when I still haven’t gotten over Sykes’ death?】

……

【83L: Just give your oshi a proper funeral already. Print out the large image from the main post as a black-and-white memorial photo, then buy some merch off Xianyu now that the prices have completely crashed and set up a little altar. That basically counts as giving Sykes a complete life.】

【84L: Don’t start coping this early. Who knows, maybe that old uncle will drop Sykes’ funeral chapter on the exact same day, just like how he synced it with Ye Zheng’s birthday arc. Hahahaha】

【85L: This is fucking terrifying. I honestly can’t tell whether the person above is a sarcastic Zheng fan or a completely unhinged Sykes fan.】

The moment she clicked into the thread, Ye Zheng saw Sykes’ neat and dignified portrait. She quickly realized that “oshi” referred to Sykes. She selectively ignored certain comments. Combined with the repeated mentions of the “seventh day” throughout the thread, she rapidly figured out the meaning behind “seventh day memorial.”

In the readers’ world, the seventh day after someone’s death was considered a special occasion that called for mourning. It was said that the soul of the deceased would return on that day.

Having learned an unexpectedly interesting piece of knowledge, Ye Zheng quietly closed the thread without leaving behind a single comment.

Subjectively, she did not wish to hurt their feelings. Although she couldn’t truly understand why anyone would like Sykes, she still felt a faint sense of guilt for making them sad.

『You really don’t need to worry. They’re just using exaggerated internet slang to vent their emotions. Most of them will probably move on to a new favorite before long!』

At times, even the system found it difficult to comprehend how such ruthless killing intent and such gentle emotions could coexist within Ye Zheng, but it still offered her reassurance.

“That’s good.”

“System, what’s my current popularity value?”

『Your popularity has already surpassed 600,000. After deducting 1000 action points for killing Sykes, you still have 3100 action points remaining.』

[T/N- if any one forgot 1 action point = 100 popularity point]

Ye Zheng blinked in astonishment. If she remembered correctly, the last time she checked her popularity value, it had only been slightly above 300,000. She hadn’t expected it to double in such a short span of time.

『It’s still climbing. It may even surpass a million or go even higher, depending on when the manga finally ends…』

The moment the topic of the ending came up, the system’s voice abruptly stopped. Ye Zheng, however, merely smiled. She raised her right hand to cover her heart. “I’ll do my best to keep living. I don’t want them to feel sad because of me.”

Ye Zheng had already seen through the reason the system suddenly fell silent midway through its sentence. She had already escaped the death flag from the original storyline, but as the story’s villain, what sort of ending would ultimately await her once the manga reached its conclusion?

『Hurry and click into that post in the middle. They prepared your birthday celebration with incredible care. This is absolutely top-tier treatment for a paper character!』

Obediently, Ye Zheng clicked into the thread titled 【Severe Withdrawal Symptoms from Ye Zheng’s Birthday Café (Crying Emoji)】.

After scrolling through several pages, Ye Zheng unconsciously leaned closer toward the phone screen. Her slightly pursed lips parted without her noticing, and beneath the glow of the display, her dark eyes gradually brightened, as though she had fallen completely under its spell.

Ye Zheng did not care that her originally grand and luxurious birthday celebration had abruptly collapsed into ruins. Her family, her friends, and even she herself had already received gifts that carried more than enough meaning on that birthday.

But Ye Zheng had never expected that the readers beyond the screen would continue celebrating her grand and vibrant birthday on her behalf, turning it into a celebration that was perfect and complete in every possible sense.

“I look so huge and radiant. That building is more than twice the height of the tallest structure in the Upper District. I’ve never seen lights this beautiful before.”

“They even made desserts modeled after me? If it were me, I don’t think I’d have the heart to eat them.”

“They’re cosplaying as me? It really seems they like me that much.”

Many people in the thread had uploaded photos from Ye Zheng’s birthday celebration, all saying they were still suffering from withdrawal afterward. Gathering together like this felt wonderful, almost as though they had stepped into another world entirely.

Ye Zheng opened every single photo and examined them one by one with great care. Each time she clicked on a new image, she would let out another exclamation of admiration, even though some of the photos appeared terribly low-resolution and aesthetically questionable in the system’s eyes.

【66L: It’s fine. We’ll hold another Zheng God celebration next year!】

【67L: Who could possibly understand the salvation of that moment when Ye Zheng appeared on the giant screen?】

【68L: The birthday café event in X City was absolutely worth it. The organizers were incredibly generous with their budget and poured so much heart into it.】

【69L: I always thought our Throne of the Aberrant Realm was some obscure niche interest. I never expected this woman to be this fucking popular?】

【70L: There are only about five hundred Zheng fans across the entire internet, but every single one of them is ridiculously powerful.】

【71L: Zheng’s about to break into the mainstream. Everyone passing by, please go vote for her in the manga platform’s annual popularity poll, okay?】

【72L: Please treasure this period while Ye Zheng is still a niche fashion icon. Her popularity has been exploding lately. I have a feeling she’s going to become a mainstream trend very soon.】

【73L: The follower count for our precious Zheng’s super topic has already reached 91,128. Breaking one hundred thousand is practically right around the corner.】

【74L: My girl is shining brilliantly, and it makes me feel so reassured. I just hope that old uncle knows what’s good for him and treats the traffic-generating goldmine that is Throne of the Aberrant Realm properly.】

【75L: By this time next year, Throne of the Aberrant Realm might already be over. Please, let a happy ending fall into Ye Zheng’s hands.】

【76L: I still can’t believe Ye Zheng is supposedly positioned as a villain. Is it possible that the first two hundred chapters were nothing but an elaborate high-level camera setup for Ye Zheng’s debut? Maybe this series is actually a strong female lead manga…】

【77L: If that old uncle dares to take Ye Zheng offline, I seriously won’t let him off for the rest of my fucking life…】

The thread gradually veered off-topic as everyone began discussing every possible version of Ye Zheng’s ending, along with a hundred different methods of threatening the manga’s author. However, right in the middle of the increasingly chaotic discussion, a comment with a strangely unusual tone suddenly appeared.

Someone had gone through the thread replying one by one to every single floor that had posted photos, praising each image in an exceptionally friendly manner. Even a blurry photograph of the giant screen taken from inside a moving car had received praise such as, “Such magical motion. It’s dazzling and utterly captivating.”

More importantly, the person leaving those replies was using the familiar ID “Ye Zheng.”

Many of the Zheng fans within the forum had already become familiar with that ID long ago. Quite a few of them enthusiastically greeted and teased the account with comments like, “The missing person has finally returned,” and, “The great Zheng Emperor has once again descended upon her loyal forum.”

However, there were also Zheng fans who expressed dissatisfaction toward someone using the “Ye Zheng” ID to draw attention. As the number of Zheng fans continued to grow, all sorts of differing opinions gradually began to surface as well.

【Sisters, this really doesn’t feel like our little Zhengzheng. She’s not the talkative type at all.】

【Could this be official staff trying to stir up hype? If you’re going to roleplay, at least do some proper research on Ye Zheng first.】

【I’ve wanted to say this for a long time already. IDs for the other characters can’t even be registered, yet the Ye Zheng ID keeps appearing everywhere and speaking in such an OOC manner. It’s honestly really weird. Could there be some internal anti trying to reinforce the rumor that the young miss has an OC-style persona?】

[T/N- I couldn't Decode "OC皮套" this means fanon rather than canon , so I used OC-style persona]

The system had never anticipated this kind of reaction. But after thinking it over carefully, the suspicion surrounding the Ye Zheng ID did make a certain amount of sense. An ID that ordinary people had no way of registering appearing so prominently really did make it seem as though some official insider was operating behind the scenes. No one could possibly have guessed that this “insider” was internal to an absurd degree.

Ye Zheng found the situation rather entertaining. Smiling faintly, she said, “Looks like I’ll need to show up more often in the manga plot so people stop criticizing me for being… OOC?”

“Ah, I nearly forgot the important part.”

Ye Zheng exited the forum and opened the manga app.

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Authors Note  

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I finally submitted the first draft of my graduation thesis today. Now all that’s left is to await my teacher’s judgment…