Why Is Everyone Reading This Damn Manga
1L:
Relevant interests, posting anonymously.
Does anyone know manga author Fat Fish's home address? I have some things I'd like to say to him.
2L:
That's terrifying — not even the barrier could stop it...
Coming back from the dead doesn't sound like much on its own, but being able to reach inside SS-rank ability user 【Red Moon】's barrier? That's genuinely frightening, isn't it?
I kind of get now why people are saying his combat power is off the charts.
3L:
That far off the charts — is he even human???
4L:
Didn't Clip Bro already say it? He's not human — he's a devil!
Where the hell did he even come from?! And Clip Bro, what's going on with you — how did you two end up chatting?!
【[Character Post] Kitty on the Desk~】
OP:
My cat loves sitting on the desk, tilting its head and looking down at me from above — does anyone else get this? I felt an instant connection!
[Image]
Quick sketch — cat-statue alert!
1L:
The cutest green-eyed devil in the whole world!
2L:
Bi Xi's name was given to him by You Shuo — it's exactly like naming a little pet. Which one of you is the owner here?!
3L:
After reading the manga I dove headfirst down the rabbit hole! Bi Xi is such a delight — who on earth would attack him just because his combat power is high?!
Isn't being strong a plus?!
Gorgeous and powerful — so what if his personality is a little wild? I'll spoil him rotten, and the kitty will love it!
4L:
Bubbling over with happiness, so incredibly adorable...
5L:
I have a feeling Bi Xi is going to blow up huge!
So, author — are you releasing merch?!
6L:
Before this chapter I genuinely thought Bi Xi was some kind of gentlemanly devil type. Never expected him to be this cute — he's actually afraid of sour things? Hachi-Xi, moe overload, I can't!
【[Character Post] Is the New Character Bi Xi a Hero or a Villain?】
OP:
He's helping Clip Bro, right? But why does it feel like everyone's already treating him as a villain?
1L:
With that aura of his... how much of it screams hero?
2L:
Bi Xi: "I'm a good person."
He actually went and said that???
I'm asking you all — who buys it?!
3L:
Seriously, who are the people calling the strongest Trisolaran cute?!
【What's Going On with This Manga? Doesn't the Nightwatch Care?】
OP:
It's revealing things about the Surface and Hidden Worlds, and it's been serialized for this long. They're usually so diligent about going after us ability users — but when it comes to the internet, they don't care?
1L:
Immersive role-playing, huh? Say no more.
Nightwatch is too obsessed playing guessing games with devils to bother going online.
We must condemn Clip Bro!
2L:
Fun thread, but OP, you're violating the forum rules.
3L OP:
This isn't role-playing! And what rules?
4L Admin:
This post violates forum rules. It has been removed.
...
The strongest Trisolaran, You Ling, had to drag herself out of bed for her 8 AM class.
Even with only three days left to live, she still had to attend university. Such was You Ling's resilient life.
She had worked so hard to get into this university — why would she not go!
Ever since dying, her body had felt much better. Pulling all-nighters didn't even bother her. As long as the system existed, as long as the popularity held, she existed.
Death from staying up too late? Not a thing anymore.
She went to the kitchen and warmed herself a glass of milk and boiled an egg. After thinking it over, she also made tomato egg noodles. Normally, when You Shuo worked overtime he might not come home in the morning, but after some thought, she prepared a portion for him anyway.
When You Shuo pushed open the door and walked in — dark circles under his eyes, eyelids heavy with exhaustion from pulling an all-nighter — You Ling was peeling a boiled egg.
"Lingling, you're up," he said.
You Ling stuffed the freshly peeled egg into her mouth, raised an eyebrow, and studied You Shuo's complexion. Confirming that beyond physical exhaustion, he wasn't under too much mental strain, she pointed at the noodles on the other side of the table, then turned to face him with a solemn expression. "Eat first. After that, we need to talk."
In that instant, You Shuo's drowsy eyelids stopped drooping. His entire being was engulfed by a dread more intense than what he had felt facing Bi Xi.
You Ling, who could clearly sense all of this through her ability: "...?"
Come on, was it really that scary?
...
Half an hour later, You Shuo was driving, making his third attempt to change You Ling's mind. "Isn't it nice at home?"
"I want to focus on my experiments," You Ling said. She was being perfectly well-behaved right now — nothing like the reckless persona she wore under her alias. "Besides, you're already so busy, and having to come home morning and night just to cook for me — it's so inconvenient."
"It's fine. My cooking is healthier than takeout." You Shuo's voice grew quieter and quieter until he finally let out a sigh. "So you've decided to move into the dorms?"
"Mm." You Ling nodded.
Of course she had to live on campus. If she stayed home instead, it was the same as being watched by an A-rank ability user every single day. How was she supposed to make any moves?
She was currently C-rank at best, capable of controlling only a single puppet.
The precision of ability manipulation depended entirely on the user's own mutation, but it was the scope of an ability's range that truly determined its ranking. For instance, 【The Listener】 covered half a city and was only rated A-rank. 【Red Moon】's barrier could descend anywhere in the world at any time — that was what made it SS-rank. For her, someone who could control only a single puppet, there was truly no combat power to speak of.
And since she hadn't yet found her next puppet, her combat power was effectively zero.
If a total weakling wanted to claw her way up, the first step was escaping the comfort nest.
The thought made You Ling irritable. You Shuo was A-rank, yet You Ling, born to the same parents, was only C-rank. Had he hogged all the nutrients in the womb?
Strange.
"Are you sure? Absolutely no plans to change your mind?" You Shuo asked again.
"Stop trying to talk me out of it — unless you can give me a reason that would actually change my mind," You Ling said.
You Shuo's lips moved slightly. "This is so sudden. Did I do something wrong?"
"It's not because of you. You've already done more than enough." You Ling spoke slowly. "I can't be your everything, You Shuo. You're twenty-five already. You need to think about yourself — about what you're going to do with your life. You can't just—"
She stopped herself. She had wanted to say that You Shuo couldn't really pour his heart and soul into the Nightwatch until he died in the line of duty. She had wanted to ask what would happen to him if one day she couldn't maintain her popularity and died again.
But she couldn't say any of that. It was You Shuo who refused to discuss these things, not her.
"..." You Shuo was silent for a moment. "You're my only little sister. You are my everything."
You Ling turned her face away and stared at the scenery outside the window. She genuinely had nothing left to say.
What an idiot. Not a shred of growth since they were kids.
At the school entrance, after getting out of the car, You Ling walked around and knocked on You Shuo's window.
You Shuo rolled it down, and You Ling asked him right there: "Besides trying to convince me to stay — is there anything else you want to say to me?"
You Shuo took a deep breath. "Lingling, I'm sorry, I..."
"I'm going." You Ling nodded. She hadn't really expected an answer. So be it. She would keep being the low-maintenance, well-behaved little sister, and her idiot brother could carry on saving the world.
You Ling went to class first. You Shuo had originally requested leave for her, but it wasn't as if she was actually sick — she had just been dead for a bit — and now that she was alive and kicking, she had naturally canceled it.
By the time she finished classes and arrived at the dormitory her advisor had arranged, it was already noon. But You Shuo had already prepared all of You Ling's daily essentials, so she didn't need to worry about a thing. He had even made her bed with meticulous precision.
With You Shuo gone, You Ling's mouth went off the rails again. "My brother is such a homemaker."
Working for the Nightwatch was such a waste of his talent! Why not go into housekeeping! Or marry a rich woman! Why all the fighting and killing! How unhealthy!
After a brief moment of mourning, You Ling began making plans.
Three days — not particularly long, not particularly short. She pulled out a notebook and began jotting down notes and sketching diagrams.
【Quick Blade】 knew Bi Xi.
They knew 【The Listener】 wasn't in Jinli.
"They've done their homework on You Shuo's Edge Squad." You Ling began clicking her pen cap, one hand resting against her lips as she thought.
They had too much intelligence. It could be chalked up to having read the manga, but You Ling couldn't pin it all on that. After all, before the manga had even appeared on this world's internet, 【Jiao Tu】 had already known You Shuo's real name.
Even without the manga, he had obtained sufficient information.
If she had to narrow it down to S-rank information-type ability users, the only one who had appeared in the manga was 【Zhi Tianming】 from the neighboring city. But he had no reason to antagonize the Nightwatch — he was essentially an unofficial affiliate of the neighboring city's Nightwatch branch.
The Nightwatch occupied a unique position in the Hidden World. Hidden World ability users generally lived by the law of the jungle — the powerful did as they pleased, like the SS-rank 【Red Moon】. Their ranks alone destined them to stand at the apex of the ability user hierarchy. Besides the SS-rank 【Red Moon】, there was another SS-rank ability user who didn't even bother concealing their identity in the Surface World, openly using their real name as their code name.
The convenience of their status combined with formidable abilities made them a commanding presence in both worlds.
The Nightwatch, on the other hand, was a group dedicated to maintaining order. When the opponent was a powerful S-rank ability user, they would typically choose to drop the investigation.
The number of S-rank ability users worth naming could be counted on one hand. High-ranking ability users usually knew one another and maintained mutual connections. Going head-to-head with them under those circumstances was a death wish.
Such was the fate of the dead. High-ranking ability users seldom killed ordinary people — take 【Jiao Tu】, for example. You Shuo had initially begun investigating 【Jiao Tu】 because twenty ability users had gone missing in Jinli City in succession. His investigation revealed that every one of the missing ability users had been in online contact with someone operating under the code name 【Jiao Tu】.
After You Shuo tracked down their offline meeting place, the warehouse had already been abandoned — with only ten sets of skeletal remains left behind, matching the biological data of half of the twenty missing individuals.
For most Nightwatch agents, they were drawing a fixed salary. The dead were ability users, not ordinary people. Their deaths were simply the unfortunate byproducts of the ability world's internal power struggles — bad luck, nothing more.
But You Shuo was the manga's protagonist, and protagonists typically possessed a stubbornly idealistic sense of justice. You Shuo wasn't a hot-blooded shonen protagonist, but giving up was still out of the question for him.
Because he was the protagonist.
"You Shuo..." You Ling sighed softly.
That was roughly all the relevant content the manga provided. 【Jiao Tu】 always seemed one step ahead of them. You Shuo had finally managed to identify 【Quick Blade】, only for Quick Blade — knowing his cover was blown — to not even bother trying to hide. He went straight to kill You Ling.
It was both a warning and a declaration. 【Jiao Tu】 had grown tired of this game of cat and mouse. But the one leading the pursuit was You Shuo, and he was extraordinarily stubborn. Surrender and retreat simply weren't in his vocabulary.
If 【Jiao Tu】 understood You Shuo at all, he should have known You Shuo would never stop.
Unless You Ling truly died and You Shuo suffered a complete breakdown — then, naturally, he wouldn't be able to keep meddling.
"Everyone's been taking advantage of you — me included. But it doesn't matter. This time, he'll come for me." You Ling murmured. "He'll definitely come for me."
There were only two ways to stop You Shuo. One: kill You Shuo. Two: kill You Ling.
No matter how you looked at it, You Shuo was still an A-rank ability user. Killing You Ling was the easier option.
Logically, You Shuo should have reached the same conclusion, but he had relented too quickly this morning. You Ling had expected she would need to put in more effort to convince him.
He must have found something on 【Quick Blade】's body last night and worked through the night — likely confident that 【Jiao Tu】 would be more preoccupied with his end of things.
She probably wouldn't learn the details through the manga until the next update. With incomplete information for now, she would maintain her original assessment.
A girl with no ability. No knowledge of the Hidden World. Who had even voluntarily left You Shuo's sphere of protection — the perfect prey.
As she mulled this over, the dormitory door beeped.
The university rooms were doubles, so You Ling naturally had a roommate. She closed the notebook and tucked it away, opened a thick course textbook in front of her, and only then looked toward the door.
In the doorway stood a girl with a bun in her hair and rosy cheeks, carrying takeout boxes as she walked in. The instant she laid eyes on You Ling, she visibly froze.
Her eyes went wide, as if she had just witnessed a miracle.
"I'm your new roommate. The advisor should have sent you a message?" You Ling couldn't quite read her expression and offered a friendly introduction. "I'm You Ling. I look forward to living with you."
Then she watched her new roommate toss the takeout boxes haphazardly onto the desk and charge at her like a tiger barreling down a mountain, seizing both her hands, eyes brimming with tears on the verge of falling —
"You look so familiar — you're just like the protagonist's sister from that manga I've been reading, you even have the same surname! I feel like we're incredibly compatible, like it was fate — we're absolutely going to get along amazingly —"
"Oh right, I'm Wen Nian," her new roommate said, barely containing her excitement. "You Ling, your name is so pretty — just hearing it tells me you're kind-hearted and beautiful. Do you read manga? Can I recommend you something? Can you do a brother-sister cosplay with me sometime?"
You Ling looked down at her hands, held in an iron grip. "?"
"Oh, sorry, I got too excited. It's my first time seeing such a pretty girl who looks like she walked straight out of a manga." Wen Nian's tears spilled over. "So, do you read manga? I love you — can I give you a kiss? I'm so glad you came back to life — sorry, I'm not trying to jinx you — anyway I just really, really like you —"
You Ling's eyes went round. "Wait — wait?!"
Just how popular was this damn manga for her brother to have become a household name overnight?
Overnight, everyone knew she had been dead. Was the corpse-returns-to-society plan a complete and utter failure?