"Aiya, aiya" — a character catchphrase, serving as an anchor.
An eccentric outfit, a standout character design. Neo-Chinese aesthetics were all the rage lately — pair that with a pretty face, and it was a killer combination.
A deal. Demanding a soul. Since she intended to exploit her resurrection, she had to ensure the credit for it belonged to her alter ego.
What plot could be more fitting than You Shuo making a deal with a devil, trading his soul for his sister's revival?
The only question was whether You Shuo would follow the script she had designed. Whether he would seize You Ling on the spot, whether he would move against her just for causing trouble even when she hadn't harmed anyone, whether he would be willing to make the trade—
You Ling knew You Shuo too well. Every one of his reactions fell within her predictions.
This was the brother she had depended on for thirteen years.
You Ling was actually fortunate. Her brother You Shuo was the manga's protagonist, with the story centered on him. She only needed to get close to him to make her entrance. And You Shuo was a good person — good in the conventional sense.
He would not kill a stranger for saying a few words in front of him, giving her the chance to retreat unscathed.
Just a few words, but for You Ling in her current state, they were enough to save her life.
【Host remaining activity time: 00:00:00】
The tall figure, under the relentless wash of rain, gradually revealed its original form like a melting candle.
The system's remaining energy had been depleted. It could no longer provide You Ling with energy for activity, so she died again.
She reverted to a corpse, her body returning to the alley where she had died, while her soul watched the plot unfold in the direction she had predicted.
You Ling had neither the opportunity nor the strength for a grand entrance — slaying all who stood in her path, god or mortal alike. All she could leverage was her understanding of her brother and her own dead body.
Her soul watched her brother appear at the mouth of the alley. You Shuo was completely drenched. The mask he wore for Nightwatch work had already been removed, exposing his face.
You Ling had never seen You Shuo wear an expression like that.
You Shuo never showed weakness in front of You Ling. He was the older one. After losing their parents, he had to hold up the sky for his little sister.
For the first time, You Ling saw his tears, mingling with the rain, falling drop by drop.
Now all she needed was to come back to life, proving that everything she had just said was true. Then this death and resurrection would be a testament to her power.
The stage was set. The actress only needed to step onto it and begin the scripted performance.
You Ling watched You Shuo walk slowly in from the alley's entrance, each step as though weighed down by heavy chains. At the same time, the system began uploading the manga plot.
All she needed was for the manga to be published, for the system to collect Popularity Points and convert them into energy, and she would be able to open her eyes again.
【Error! Error! Unable to connect to manga forum! Energy conversion system failure!】
【Current system remaining energy: 0. Host remaining activity time: 00:00:00】
You Ling froze.
Everything had been ready — she had only lacked the final push. And then the system malfunctioned?
Was this a joke?
If it could not connect to the real world and sync the serialized manga, then no matter how brilliantly she had performed, no matter how boldly she had spoken, the manga could not be uploaded. She could not obtain any energy at all!
Rain fell from the sky, striking the bloodied water pooled on the ground. You Ling watched You Shuo slowly crouch before her corpse. From her god's-eye view, she looked down at him as though she were an outsider.
The system had broken down. No way to resurrect. Then she could only give up...
"Absolutely not," she whispered.
After clawing this far, how could she possibly retreat?
Throughout their lives, You Shuo had always been the one holding the family together. He thought You Ling was a good, obedient little sister — but her stubbornness had never been any less than his.
She absolutely refused to accept this ending, and absolutely refused to accept that this was where she stopped.
She would never acknowledge this as the final curtain on her life.
【Insufficient remaining energy. System entering hibernation...】
You Ling asked, "Does it have to be a manga forum in the real world?"
【A manga must exist as a medium before the system can begin converting Popularity Points into energy to sustain the host's survival.】 The system answered.
In that instant, an idea struck.
The specter spread her hands and smiled with a tilt of her head. "Upload the manga onto this world's internet."
No one said it had to be the real world. As long as a manga medium existed, did it matter which world it was in?
The system's voice spiked sharply for an instant.
【Manga uploaded. System connecting...】
The manga world — where manga was never supposed to exist — received a higher-dimensional product. Reality warped in an instant.
The moment the manga appeared on social media, it descended from thin air yet instantly became one of the Surface World's hottest titles. No one noticed its sudden appearance. In the eyes of this world's people, it had always existed.
Serialized since last year, every page had readers leaving comments. Its readership swelled, rapidly coalescing into a devoted fanbase.
Manga readers camped out on forums, ceaselessly posting to demand updates, as though this had long been routine.
Their cognition had been altered.
【Connection successful!】
【Uploading manga...】
...
After class, Wen Nian returned to her dorm and picked up her phone. She had been scrolling through videos when her mind suddenly went blank for a moment.
"Oh right, the manga City's Edge updates today!" She immediately shot upright from bed like a launched mantis shrimp, sat down at her desk and opened her tablet. "I knew I was forgetting something — it was the new chapter!"
She suddenly remembered — she had gotten hooked on a new manga a couple of days ago and was absolutely obsessed.
City's Edge was different from traditional shonen manga, leaning more toward the fast-paced web fiction style that was currently popular. Large sections focused on the protagonist You Shuo, depicting his growth and inner turmoil, which made readers adore this beautiful, powerful, and tragic main character.
Wen Nian was no different. At the same time, she was a little worried — the previous chapter had just reached the point where the ability criminal organization under investigation discovered they had been exposed and decided to retaliate against the protagonist.
"They seem to have tracked down the protagonist's sister living in the Surface World. Nothing bad is going to happen... right?" Wen Nian thought anxiously.
You Shuo's character was that of a cold, iron-willed heartthrob, but in private he was an absolute sister-con — to the point where both manga readers and his squad members alike loved calling him Shuo-ge.
His teammates had put it bluntly: Some people look so grim on the job they could scare children to tears, yet pinch their voice when talking to their little sister on the phone.
Wen Nian could scarcely bear to imagine — if something happened to his sister, would You Shuo's principles crumble? Would he go down a dark path?
Though a broken, darkened protagonist was interesting in its own right, she would rather it not happen.
Still, even without going dark, he certainly would not feel good about it. Having indirectly caused his sister's death while chasing criminals — that would be enough to haunt You Shuo for the rest of his life.
Besides, his sister should never have suffered such a disaster in the first place.
You Shuo had protected her well, never letting her get dragged into the battles between ability users. His teammates did not even know his sister's name.
The manga offered little description of You Shuo's sister. All the readers knew was that she was a well-behaved, sweet girl.
She should have been living freely in the Surface World, reveling in her youth just as You Shuo had hoped.
With a touch of apprehension, Wen Nian swiped her tablet unlocked and opened the manga webpage — the update had just dropped.
The plot continued from the previous chapter. You Shuo's squad had discovered the ability criminal's whereabouts and followed him to the Surface World.
The criminal had concealed his movements behind a web of feints and misdirections. By the time the dust settled, the rain had been falling for a long while.
From the moment You Shuo sensed something was wrong, Wen Nian had already realized that something terrible might have happened.
"No way... don't do this..." Her suspended heart finally sank when she turned to the next page.
The manga gave the phone's lock screen wallpaper a close-up. This was the first time Wen Nian saw what You Shuo's sister looked like. She was indeed as he had described — beautiful and lively. Her eyes were striking, unmistakably clever at a glance.
Blood in the panel created a violent impact. Those beautiful eyes had already gone dilated.
Forget whether You Shuo could accept it — Wen Nian the reader could not accept it either. "How is that fair?!"
Wen Nian wanted to send razor blades to the author. She empathized with the characters almost instantly. The most heartbreaking thing was someone dying on the eve of a bright future — they had already been heading toward better days, yet all of it was destroyed by those scumbags.
【"Aiya, aiya — how interesting."】
But fortunately, this was a manga, and manga had plot twists.
On the next page, a massive umbrella rim obscured a quarter of the panel. Beneath it, a face filled the frame — his lips curved in a refined, genteel arc. Red tassels by his ear stretched long in the wind and rain, intertwining with his billowing black hair like the tangled threads of an inescapable fate.
Beneath disheveled bangs, red-framed sunglasses sat half-concealing, half-revealing, exposing the pair of jade-green eyes behind them.
Rich color bled through his irises, the dilating pupils eerie and unsettling. He raised his gaze as though staring straight through the panel at the readers beyond it, greeting them.
Like a strange yet stunning portrait of a spirit, it burst from the page in an instant, the visual impact so overwhelming that Wen Nian held her breath.
Between him and the city there seemed to be an invisible barrier. They were inside the city; he stood outside it. Just as they existed in the Hidden World, while You Shuo's sister lived in the Surface World — beyond their world entirely.
"This character design — the next fan-favorite, guaranteed. But introducing a new character at a time like this..." Wen Nian recovered herself and shook her head, casting out the new character's devastating beauty from her mind to focus on the current plot. Drawing on her experience as an avid reader, she ventured a guess, her sinking mood gradually lifting. "Could there be a turning point?"
Sometimes, loving a character was not just about their face — it was about what they did.
Wen Nian did not want You Shuo's sister dying for a reason like this. She did not want to see an innocent person's life ruined by scumbags. If he could change this plotline that filled her with grief — if he could help the protagonist — then he was her new favorite!
Besides her, many readers who opened the manga and started following the updates at that hour saw the same panel.
In the rain, a strange man appeared, holding an umbrella.
He approached You Shuo, speaking words of remarkable arrogance.
【"Your generation has not heard my name. All you need to know is that there is nothing under heaven I cannot do."】
Even though the manga had not depicted other factions, Wen Nian knew that in the Hidden World, powerful ability users were beyond counting—
Yet no one had ever dared to call themselves omnipotent! But this person did.
【"I can help you achieve your most fervent wish."】
He was like Mephistopheles appearing before Faust, like a demon clawing its way up from the depths of the earth, offering the manga's protagonist — and every reader — a choice.
【"The price is your soul."】
Accept, or refuse?
The readers watching the manga seemed to become You Shuo in that moment, feeling the same infernal temptation.
In the panel, the devil's smiling face was reflected in You Shuo's pupils. The protagonist's thoughts appeared within the speech bubble. He was thinking—
【If a beautiful dream can come true, I am willing to dance with the devil.】
"Who could refuse him?" Wen Nian murmured.
Wen Nian knew he was no ordinary being. He likely possessed terrifyingly formidable power. His arrogant words were very likely the truth — no, they had to be the truth.
If he could not do it, why would he appear before the protagonist at this exact moment? Even manga had to follow narrative logic. What would be the point of introducing a new character who lied about being able to resurrect the dead? He had to be able to deliver to make such a claim!
But even though Wen Nian hoped he could bring a turning point, she could not help but shudder.
Precisely because everything he said was true — that was what made him as terrifying as a devil.
Within the manga's established lore, no ability had ever breached the boundary between life and death.
He spoke of life and death as casually as though they were nothing to him at all.
What kind of being was he?
Before the protagonist lay an obvious trap. Nothing good could come from jumping in.
Making deals with devils never ended well. For a moment, Wen Nian did not know whether the price of trading one's soul to a devil might be even more terrible than losing a sister.
But for You Shuo, he did not need to think about the price at all.
Wen Nian stared at the figure rendered in the manga. On the page, those jade-green eyes hidden behind red frames carried an uncanny aura. His smile resembled a porcelain-white mask, curving into a crescent. A terrifying sense of pressure bled through the paper beneath his pleasant, smiling demeanor.
He was cunning like a fox, but more like a snake — a cold serpent coiling tightly around its prey, squeezing until it suffocated.
It was the chaotic aura of danger and opportunity coexisting, of desire and reason locked in mortal combat.
The manga's protagonist said, "I accept."
And the readers beyond the manga thought: "Being marked by something like that — this is going to end badly."