Chapter 24

The manga opens with the protagonist group doing their routine upgrade training.

Although everyone's ability talents are C-level or below, their team coordination is tacit, often producing effects far greater than one plus one. Many readers suspect that Pei Xi's true level isn't E, perhaps a detection error due to overly high talent.

Next is the gathering of advancing teams to announce the competition details. The Crown Prince's team did not arrive, and Li Yixin sighed in disappointment.

Scrolling further down, the gentle boy with black hair and green eyes pushes open the door, bringing new equipment for the protagonist group. Upon seeing Zhao Mei, Li Yixin immediately threw the Crown Prince out of her mind.

No time to lament the Crown Prince's absence. Next comes her favored new plot! Various high-level equipment piled on the table. Even Li Yixin outside the screen was excited by Zhao Mei's lavish spending. The comments also started buzzing excitedly.

【Ah ah, Zhao Mei is indeed a rich young lady too】

[T/N- This is not a translation error although Zhao Mei is Ye Zheng "Male" disguise, Readers just make it cutely so "rich young lady" part, it's one of the Central theme in this novels comment part to more gender-bendery plz remember this.]

【Haha, the Cloud Soarers team has also latched onto a sugar mommy's thigh】

【Begging Mei Bao for sponsorship!】

[T/N- Again Zhao Mei+bao(slang of short) I explained this before.]

【As a Pei Xi fan, thank you. Our poor boy can finally wear new equipment!】

【Snagged another bite of Xi-Zhao. The gentle rich lady and commoner overpowered protagonist pairing is so good...】

Every member received suitable equipment. It was clear that Zhao Mei had prepared them very thoughtfully, even the shoe size for Lu Qi was perfectly fitting.

However, when Li Yixin saw that Lu Qi rejected the shoes Zhao Mei gave her, her brows gradually furrowed. It was precisely because Zhao Mei had given Lu Qi a pair of flat boots that, in comparison, she suddenly felt it was strange for Lu Qi to be wearing slight high heels. She had never noticed this before.

Once, for the sake of looking good in photos, she wore height-increasing shoes to a school sports meet. That time nearly ruined her legs from running. After that incident, she stayed far away from even slightly high heels. Yet Lu Qi was fighting in shoes like that. Just thinking about it felt exhausting.

But this was 2D after all, and considering the author's consistently straight-male aesthetics, it wasn't incomprehensible. She opened the comments section, and sure enough, some people were discussing this issue.

【Sigh, I've always thought it's weird for female characters to fight in high heels. I hope the author changes it.】

【Zhao Mei is so thoughtful, but flat boots are indeed a bit ugly haha】

【High heels do look good though, and 2D female characters should fight beautifully. Don't dictate the author's creation】

【Little fairy, stop talking. If she doesn't wear heels, you wear them and show me?】

【Do women even understand hot-blooded shonen manga? All they care about is characters' clothes and shoes】

Li Yixin frowned. She hadn't expected such a small issue to spark an argument, mixed with the foul-smelling comments from male readers.

"Throne of the Aberrant Realm," as a hot-blooded shonen manga, had always had many male readers. It was just that female readers were more active in fan creation, causing her to overlook the other group—they were the manga's original target audience.

Originally, she thought wearing high heels was a minor issue, but after seeing this group's comments, she suddenly hoped very much that Lu Qi would switch to the boots Zhao Mei gave her. Next, the aberrant realms descended. Li Yixin's spirits lifted. Finally, the main event was starting!

Rule-based aberrant realms, shadows that copy skills, other academy teams that hadn't formally appeared yet—she watched every panel of the manga with full concentration. 

Zhao Mei's screen time in the new chapter was unexpectedly high, especially his interactions with Lu Qi, which surprisingly exceeded those with Pei Xi.

In particular, when Zhao Mei specially healed Lu Qi, amid the tense battle atmosphere, the two actually gave off a warm, isolated-from-the-world feeling. Li Yixin's face twitched. No way, no way—was the old uncle planning to heavily push BG recently? Don't do that kind of thing!

【Zhao Mei really seems to care about Lu Qi. Before, he gently put a back support on her too. Shallowly shipping it】

【The two just give off bestie vibes. What's there to ship? Don't be so horny-brained】

【Husband spotted. Why ship CP in a hot-blooded manga?】

【CB toward race high!】

[T/N- CB = "CP" backwards. inshort they are rejecting the boy(Zhao Mei)+ girl(Lu qi) cp instead saying their favourite MALE-MALE CP is best.]

Seeing the comments all opposing it, Li Yixin quietly breathed a sigh of relief. If it was Zhao Mei and Pei Xi's CP, she could accept it, but being paired with a female character... it somehow felt like it would lower Zhao Mei's character tone, as if binding him to petty romance.

[T/N- I will came out say it I hate this Li Yixin girl.]

Next, Zhao Mei voluntarily offered to stay behind alone to deal with the shadows. The stunning close-up shot made Li Yixin almost hold her breath, forgetting her recent displeasure.

The gentle boy stood at the junction of light and shadow. Half of his refined and beautiful face was hidden in darkness, while the other green eye shone like the most brilliant gem under the sunlight. Mystery and gentleness intertwined, making one irresistibly drawn to him and wanting to get even closer.

"Don't worry, I'll catch up to you."

The boy smiled gently. Clearly a frail healing type, yet at this moment he gave infinite sense of security. Pei Xi and Zhao Mei shared a tacit gaze, trust evident in the unspoken eye contact.

Then Pei Xi turned, leading the rest of the team to pursue the other three shadows. Zhao Mei's figure disappeared from the manga panels.

The four members of the Cloud Soarers began fighting the black shadows, but Li Yixin couldn't concentrate on the protagonist group's subsequent plot. Li Yixin shook her phone, shouting inwardly: Please, let me see Zhao Mei one more time!

Could Zhao Mei really handle the monsters alone? How could everyone bear to leave a healing-type beauty who looked so easy to bully behind by himself! The comments also heated up because of Zhao Mei, even though his figure was no longer in the manga.

【Ah ah, don't go supplement! Old uncle, give the panels to Zhao Mei quick!】

【Woo woo, really want to know what happened after Zhao Mei stayed alone. He should return safely, right?】

【Xi-Zhao big sell! The mutual trust and telepathic tacit understanding slays】

【Old uncle, please maintain this level. This kind of bond between young men is what we want to see, not some weird female lead】

【Even non-Xi-Zhao shippers picked up crumbs. Isn't this much more shippable than that forced encounter in some cemetery?】

Although Li Yixin shipped Xi-Sy, she didn't mind the comments shipping Xi-Zhao. After all, Zhao Mei was so great—wanting to be with him was only human nature!

As long as the old uncle didn't force an official female CP, that was fine. It wasn't that she disliked female characters, but female characters always lacked tension. Male characters more easily had strong-strong synergy and CP feel. As the same healing-type beauty, Zhao Mei was clearly more vibrant than that newly appeared Ye Zheng.

To see Zhao Mei again, for the first time Li Yixin flipped through the protagonist group's plot so quickly, barely paying attention even to Pei Xi, whom she used to like a lot. Finally, in the last few pages of the chapter, she saw Zhao Mei again. The black shadows hid once more. The Cloud Soarers were on high alert.

The boy appeared in this tense atmosphere, his black clothes matching his black hair and eyes, looking like a nimble and mysterious black cat. He waved to his teammates, gentle and composed as always.

"You have several scratches here. Why didn't you heal yourself?"

"It's fine. I'll heal it once my ability recovers."

Several blood marks hung on the boy's fair arm. Li Yixin thought: As a healing type, Zhao Mei couldn't even heal himself. What kind of fierce battle had he gone through!

Perhaps under that black outfit, there were even more wounds hidden. Perhaps it was because he was used to concealing injuries that Zhao Mei always wore black clothes...

She almost wanted to tie up the author and interrogate him: When the protagonist group wasn't there, how exactly did Zhao Mei, as a healing type, deal with the monsters? What kind of past had he experienced to develop such a gentle yet heartbreaking personality?

The new chapter was finished. Li Yixin was still unsatisfied. She impatiently clicked into the forum to discuss Zhao Mei with everyone.

The forum had already been conquered by Zhao Mei. She casually clicked into a hot post.

【1L: Mysterious, powerful, and kind. Can Zhao Mei become one of the top three popularity gods in Throne of the Aberrant Realm?】

Discussing popularity always easily sparked fan-anti wars. Currently, the highest popularity in the manga belonged to Pei Xi and Crown Prince Sykes, their popularity far ahead of others. Other characters like the tsundere Ryan and the fun-loving Yinkong were also high-popularity roles.

Having been in fandom for so many years, Li Yixin could judge a character's popularity well. As the protagonist, Pei Xi showed strong strength and leadership from the start, more appealing than traditional loser protagonists. Sykes was handsome and powerful, his nasty domineering personality very popular in 2D—a must-have high-popularity handsome villain in shonen manga.

As for Zhao Mei, he was exactly the rare beautiful-strong-tragic male second lead that "Throne of the Aberrant Realm" lacked!

This type of character was usually the protagonist's kindred spirit and close friend, a powerful companion who silently made huge contributions to the team. Perhaps in the finale, he would even sacrifice his life to resolve the final boss, becoming everyone's white moonlight...

The more she looked, the more she felt Zhao Mei's appearance was positioned like this!

【2L: Zhao Mei stan. I don't want everyone comparing popularity, but lately Zhao Mei has really been gaining fans.】

【3L: Just his appearance alone will definitely make him a popularity character. Little wife kills!】

【4L: At first I also liked calling him wife little treasure, but after the new chapter, Zhao Mei isn't a vase. He clearly has a very complex character design. Hope everyone stops using feminized nicknames. Zhao Mei is a man.】

【5L: Supporting upstairs. Zhao Mei is just pretty, not effeminate. From the new chapter, besides healing, he clearly has mysterious attack power. Absolutely an alpha among alphas!】

【6L: Calling wife is just expressing love. How does a female nickname hurt you? It's the highest praise for a man.】

【7L: Oh my god, can you guys stop both stepping on female nicknames and stealing them...】

【8L: Putting it here: Once the mysteries around Zhao Mei gradually unravel, his popularity definitely won't lose to Pei Xi and Sykes. Top three locked in.】

Li Yixin felt complicated watching this. Even within Zhao Mei stans, they were arguing—this meant Zhao Mei was truly on fire. She continued browsing other hot posts about Zhao Mei, thinking: Oh no, this time she accidentally latched onto another hot one.

Once subsequent Zhao Mei plot continued to unfold, popularity would definitely skyrocket even more. She didn't know when "Throne of the Aberrant Realm" would release official Zhao Mei merch—she was already prepared to go all out buying it!

Sigh, currently there was still too little information about Zhao Mei, not even his birthday is known. Hope the old uncle hurries and advances Zhao Mei's plot. Then she could even set up a merch array for his birthday.

✧✧✧✧✧

【Real-time popularity 20,000! Completely effective appearance!】

"Great, I don't have to make those weird expressions anymore."

Amid the chaotic fierce battle, the boy with a gentle and fragile aura did not focus on fighting. Instead, he inappropriately curled the corners of his mouth quietly.

【Deducting 15 action points.】

Ye Zheng objectively evaluated herself. She was very good at acting. Even in front of insects she wanted to kill, when temporarily powerless, she could still put on a gentle and tolerant expression. As for surprise, admiration, worship—she could easily and vividly display them on her face.

It was just that acting for too long made her tired too.

【Although you're now considered a popular character with plenty of action points, using them like this is too casual... Making expressions could even give sugar to Xi-Zhao CP fans. You guys are now one of the trending CPs.】

"My current role is just to make expressions. Deleting this kind of plot wouldn't matter."

"Better to spend 15 points to relax a bit."

Pei Xi and the others were entangled with the black shadows. Since she no longer needed to react to highlight the protagonist, and she had no other effective combat plot, she might as well leave the battlefield and rest on the side first.

Anyway, everyone thought she was injured. Staying aside without causing trouble was reasonable, right?

"Popularity rising this fast? Let me check the forum reactions."

Ye Zheng nimbly disengaged from the intense fight. She stood on the periphery, no longer paying attention to her teammates fighting desperately nearby, and even took out her phone to slack off on the spot.

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Authors Note

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Zhengzheng: Teammates fight while I slack, but that doesn't stop me from being the beautiful-strong-tragic white moonlight.