Chapter 2: Protagonist Yun Zhou and Du Shui: Two Living Ancestors! Stop Fighting! …

Liu Ming looked up. The door to the small courtyard had been firmly shut from the inside by his grandfather. That was the decision of the Liu Family head, and all he needed to do was obey.

Knowing he wouldn’t see his grandfather again tonight, Liu Ming shifted his gaze and turned his attention to the silver snake ring on his finger.

“Misunderstanding Points… System?”

【Detecting the host’s confusion. T231 will now provide an explanation:

Misunderstanding Points, as the name suggests, are energy values exchanged when surrounding characters misunderstand you. The system does not limit the scope of the misunderstanding. As long as the perception others have of you is inconsistent with reality, the host can obtain Misunderstanding Points. According to the deal between T231 and the Liu Family head, Liu Lin, the Misunderstanding Points you earn can be used to cancel the Plot Strings on designated characters, granting them freedom of action.】

Liu Ming’s eyes darkened when he saw his grandfather’s name.

T231 continued: 【A friendly reminder: The amount of Misunderstanding Points gained is closely related to the importance of the person being misunderstood within the Plot Strings.】

Liu Ming thought it over seriously. In other words: “In the book called ‘The World,’ the higher the plot status of the character who misunderstands me, the more Misunderstanding Points I get?”

His expression suddenly turned somber. “Then T231, who is the protagonist of this book, ‘The World’?”

He asked so quickly that even T231 didn’t have time to react, displaying the answer directly.

【Yun Zhou.】

That boy, a fellow Corrector candidate who came from the Wandering Highlands of the Seventh District – a place already contaminated by Anomalies – yet remained a fool with a stupid, hypocritical heart.

Liu Ming pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. The mere thought of having to continue dealing with that guy made him wish he hadn’t learned any of this.

However, his grandfather had entrusted T231 to him. This was the secret of the Liu Family’s inheritance that had always been hidden – the truth about the world. Even if it was just to figure out those strange bullet comments and seize a slim chance of survival in a terrible future, he couldn’t afford to slack off or give up.

Liu Ming forced himself to rally his spirits. As he walked toward the hospital, he began to contemplate how to extract Misunderstanding Points from the protagonist, Yun Zhou.

To get those points, he first had to determine his current image in the eyes of that stupid wolf, Yun Zhou.

He decided… he would go find the protagonist tomorrow to explain himself. After all, the things he had done before were simply too idiotic!

Liu Ming’s mouth twitched. He was grateful that the streets of the First District were empty at night, so no one could see his composure crumbling or the disheveled state that was a far cry from his usual elegance.

Tree Tower Academy had been in session for a long time. During this period, under the control of the Plot Strings, he had done many ridiculous things. This included, but was not limited to, intentionally picking fights with Yun Zhou, mocking his Spiritual Body for having an ugly color, and even getting into a physical brawl with him over a seat in the cafeteria.

He, a mental-type Guide and the heir to the Liu Family that managed the First District, had engaged in a brawl with Yun Zhou – a scholarship Sentinel from the Wandering Highlands – over a cafeteria seat!

Every single part of that sentence was bizarre. If he weren’t so disgusted by the dirt on the ground, Liu Ming would have wanted to collapse right there in despair just thinking about his past actions.

Damn those Plot Strings! What on earth had they done to him? His reputation was completely ruined!

“Boom!”

A sharp explosion rang out, forcibly dragging Liu Ming out of his immersive trip down memory lane. He stared blankly at the firelight of an explosion on a nearby street, suddenly feeling that he had become a fool himself for not choosing to have the Serpent Guard escort him back to the hospital.

It was likely that Yun Zhou’s stupidity was contagious.

【Crap, what the hell is going on? I thought this was just a minor trial for the protagonist’s party. Why is Scorching Ghost, the Sequence 35 Anomaly imprisoned under the World Tree, out here?!】

【Wait! Who is that person standing dazed on the street in a hospital gown in front of the wolf cub? No, why is Liu Ming here? He definitely wasn’t here in the First Cycle?!】

Scorching Ghost?!

The Scorching Ghost that his grandfather had sacrificed his entire Mental Landscape to successfully imprison and contain?

Liu Ming snapped his head up. The waves of fire from the explosion were spreading rapidly. The edges of the flames were followed by a terrifying pitch-blackness – that specific type of fire was the signature of Sequence 35, Scorching Ghost.

And the target the flames were chasing – a golden-eyed youth with extremely fluffy silver hair wearing a wind-concealing robe from the Seventh District – was the protagonist focused on by the bullet comments: Yun Zhou.

“Crap, crap, what is happening?! Du Shui, can you save me? Save me!”

Liu Ming’s mouth twitched. The other boy looked a complete mess, rushing forward with strange cries, the silver-gray wolf ears on his head even wobbling.

…Yun Zhou, this wolf cub, was so pathetic he couldn’t even control the ears and tail of his Spiritual Body. Why had Liu Ming ever bothered competing with a guy like this, thinking that his constant display of biological spiritual traits was a way of mocking him?

“Stop screaming! Look ahead! You’re going to hit someone!”

The girl Yun Zhou called Du Shui had black, waist-length hair styled in a jellyfish cut. She wore the white hunting robes¹ of the Third District over a plain blue Shinzou hakama skirt. In her hand, she held a Clear Sky Umbrella. The umbrella seemed to be some kind of high-tech weapon, allowing Du Shui to leap lightly between the buildings on either side of the street, suspended in the air.

“Why is it you?!”

The moment Yun Zhou and Du Shui saw the figure ahead, they shouted in unison.

The silver-blue-haired youth standing in the street in a thin hospital gown, looking at them blankly, was none other than the young master of the Liu Family who never ceased finding trouble for Yun Zhou.

“Why are you here? What are you trying to do now?”

Du Shui narrowed her unique blue eyes, her red pupils contracting like a sharp blade.

“Hey, Young Master, don’t come looking for trouble at a time like this, okay?”

Yun Zhou looked like he was on the verge of tears. “I really don’t have time to mess around with you. I’m going to die – wait!”

Yun Zhou froze, the wolf ears on his head twitching in confusion. “Wait, where did he go?”

Liu Ming? Before Yun Zhou could even speak, Liu Ming had already vanished from his spot, sprinting away.

Yun Zhou and Du Shui shared a look of utter disbelief. “??? That was a bit too decisive, wasn’t it?”

As they fled for their lives, their eyes met, both reflecting obvious confusion. Was this really the same punchable young master who never missed a chance to argue or say something nasty?

Liu Ming’s gaze didn’t linger on the two of them for a second. He stared fixedly at the wave of fire spreading not far behind Yun Zhou. Forgetting all about Misunderstanding Points, he turned and bolted.

His premise for binding with T231 was that he and the Liu Family could survive the coming disaster. If he died here now, everything would lose its value.

The wave of fire behind them surged forward like a cloud, swallowing every building on the street and turning those grand shops into black and red ash.

Liu Ming was, after all, only a Guide. Even if he ran with every ounce of strength he possessed, he couldn’t outrun the fire. Just as a tongue of flame was about to strike him, a hand abruptly reached out and hoisted him over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Liu Ming froze, only to see a silver-gray wolf tail swaying behind the youth.

A wolf… one of the natural predators of snakes.

Liu Ming’s entire body trembled instinctively under the bloodline pressure of his Spiritual Body’s place in the food chain.

“Yun… Zhou…”

He gritted his teeth, pronouncing the lunatic’s name syllable by syllable as he tried to call back the bastard’s sanity. “I am not a sack. Can you not carry me like this?”

As a Guide, his physical stamina was indeed pathetic, and he truly couldn’t have escaped the chasing fire on his own. Because of that, Liu Ming didn’t actually care much about his image anymore; it was mostly that this position was incredibly uncomfortable.

“Just endure it, Young Master! You’re about to become snake ash, so stop fussing over details—wahhh! Don’t burn me! Don’t burn me!”

Before Yun Zhou could finish his sarcastic retort, he felt a hand grab his tail. Liu Ming, a man who never let a grudge last overnight, took Yun Zhou’s tail and held it toward a nearby flicker of flame.

…The texture was actually quite nice.

Yun Zhou’s fur bristled. “Your temper is way too short! I just saved you from the fire!”

Liu Ming gave a cold laugh. He pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses, maintaining his personality as controlled by the Plot Strings without the slightest hint of being out of character. “Who knows why you saved me? Maybe you want to use me to threaten the Liu Family?”

Yun Zhou’s fur bristled even harder. He was furious. While fuming, he adjusted Liu Ming’s position according to his words, shifting him onto his back. “How can you say that about me?! I’m never saving you again!”

Liu Ming pressed the attack. “I didn’t need you to save me anyway. Do you really think I have no way to protect myself?”

As the managers of the First District and one of the seven members of the Seven-District Council, the Liu Family possessed countless resources. Liu Ming had more than one trump card on him right now. Even if Yun Zhou hadn’t grabbed his hand and pulled him from the fire, nothing would have truly happened to him.

Yun Zhou was so angry he started stomping his feet. “Can you just shut your mouth?”

Liu Ming continued his cold sneer. “How wonderful. To think that in my lifetime, I’d experience the feeling of being looked down upon by a Seventh District drifter.”

He sneered on the outside while feeling a secret thrill on the inside.

【Misunderstanding Points +10】

【Misunderstanding Points +10】

…

As expected of the protagonist, he gave so much. In the time it took to have a quick argument, the Misunderstanding Points had already increased by dozens.

Who was to say that a cannon fodder villain continuing to maintain their persona without going out of character after awakening didn’t count as a kind of misunderstanding?

“Stop arguing! Move! The Scorching Ghost’s true body is coming!”

Watching the two lunatics continue to bicker like elementary schoolers while surrounded by a wave of fire, Du Shui couldn’t help but scream. She shook the Clear Sky Umbrella in her hand, and the miniature thrusters in the ribs instantly carried her into the air, away from the worldly noise.

In those unique red and blue eyes, the pupils had narrowed into slits nearly identical to those of a beast. That was the price of using spiritual power to block the Scorching Ghost’s flames.

The more spiritual power a Sentinel used, the heavier the burden on their Mental Landscape. They could easily be contaminated by the backlash of their Spiritual Body’s bloodline, eventually turning into an animalistic Anomaly and losing their human soul.

“Got it! Du Shui, be careful yourself!”

Yun Zhou noticed Du Shui’s state and hurriedly shouted a worried warning. But before he could say more, a ghostly figure rushed toward them.

Countless boiling flames soared into the sky, forming a hideous and terrifying curtain of fire that completely enveloped Yun Zhou and Liu Ming on his back.

Yun Zhou’s eyes widened.

It was a distorted, mutated humanoid figure—a glowing red shape. The head was not a skull, but a cluster of burning flames.

Above that cluster of fire, a black rift slowly tore open, revealing a bizarre, twisted smile to the two Corrector students who had yet to graduate from the Tree Tower.

“Found… you…”

The Sequence 35 Anomaly, Scorching Ghost, giggled.

Translator’s Notes