Rising engagement, a name appearing with increasing frequency in the comment section.
A9 couldn't see comments outside the manga discussion section, but it was certain that Lin Mo's popularity elsewhere was by no means inferior to the comment section. Setting aside the fan art and derivative creations popping up on social media, with just a little more effort, she might even get her own personal feature.
Her name had even appeared at the bottom of the popularity leaderboard. Considering she had only killed three people, having such a massive impact was...
A9 closed its eyes, silently hugging its weak and helpless self. It was over, everything was over. It had strayed; everything had derailed completely. The storyline belonging to Licheng had deviated beyond all recognition.
If managers from other areas noticed this, they would probably line up to denounce it.
Damn it, if they were so capable, why didn't they come to Lin Mo's subconscious and get stabbed twice by her themselves?!
Only after giving itself a thorough pep talk did A9 summon the courage to slowly look up at the temporary panel floating in the air.
A strange light materialized out of nowhere. Beside a brief character introduction, it displayed small words representing attributes.
Constitution, Strength, Spirit—extremely simple attributes, yet they were the foundation for survival in this world. Hesitating in midair for a moment, it decided it was better to play the turncoat and curry favor with Lin Mo so she wouldn't rip its entire head off next time.
【We've entered the main storyline. Because your popularity is high enough, I can see your panel now.】
A9 spoke to the anxious Lin Mo.
【Every important character has a panel. That assassin you saw this morning has one too. But their plotlines and screentime are set, so no matter how popular they get, their panel stats remain fixed.】
【Unless... they receive an intensely passionate surge of reader desire and expectation in a short span of time. Then, their panel stats will undergo a brief, intense burst of growth. But aside from the protagonist, such a thing is virtually impossible for other characters—they're just not that popular.】
【But you're different. You're a bug in this world, an anomaly, so your panel is variable. It can be changed, increased... and of course, decreased.】 A9 didn't know if Lin Mo was actually listening.
Having derailed from the main storyline alongside Lin Mo, it had also become a traitor, and now it had no choice but to rely on her.
【Honestly, I'm not entirely clear on how the stats are calculated, because characters with high stats can still die to those with lower stats, and characters with low stats might even perform better in action than those with higher ones.】
【The way this entire world allocates points and the value of those points is very strange. This is also my first time encountering an uncontrollable external character like you, so we'll have to figure everything out step by step.】
【However, I guess that every point added to your stats doubles your base strength,】 A9 said based on its own experience. 【So moving forward, you'd better start working out and improving your actual physical condition so these stats can take full effect. After all, zero multiplied by anything is still zero. If you're a weakling, no matter how high the stat is, it's just a waste.】
It babbled on for a long stretch, but received no response from below. Looking down, it saw Lin Mo leaning back against her seat, eyes closed in rest.
Her entire presence was like a soaked dandelion—decadent and gloomy, covered in wounds, dark circles under her eyes. Though extremely weak, she exuded a terrifying aura.
A9...
Lin Nan had tried persuading her for so long to no avail, yet its two sentences worked like magic? Was it really that hypnotic?
The entire bus fell into silence. The scattered passengers had long since fallen into deep sleep. It didn't need to sleep, and as it watched these two strangers sitting together on a shared journey, it suddenly felt a wave of sentimentality.
How on earth did things turn out like this...
...
Before long, daylight broke, and Lin Mo opened her eyes. Still seeming a bit dazed, she sat resting for a moment before communicating with it in her mind with an extremely faint breath.
“What did you say just now?”
【It wasn't 'just now'...】 Looking at the bright sky and the vivid red sun up ahead, A9 painfully rubbed its furry face. 【Half the night has passed. Day has already broken.】
After a brief complaint, it immediately stopped and got down to business. 【Since you're awake, I'll continue. Among these three stats, only your Strength is at 1. Clearly, your performance in the manga gave readers the impression of powerful physical combat skills, so only your Strength went up.】
It glanced at the burns on Lin Mo's body, which were clearly disadvantageous for their escape.
A9 said regretfully, 【If you want strong self-healing capabilities, you must raise your Constitution. If your Constitution increases, your wounds will heal much faster.】
【Sigh, why did it have to be Strength?】
It couldn't comprehend it. Were the readers' eyes attached to the soles of their feet? This lunatic only had her clothes slightly dirtied in an explosion!
...Well, even if that was an exaggeration, after suffering mild burns, she climbed back up and nearly killed two people! How could they not give her a point in Constitution?!
Lin Mo's endurance had reached a sky-defying level—A9 even suspected it wasn't human.
What on earth were readers looking at these days? Could this even be classified as normal?
...
Where Lin Mo got off the bus was a prefecture-level city focused on manufacturing. It had a large floating population and lax inspections. Lin Nan found a daily-rental inn in an alley near the train station, where the landlady handed over the keys after receiving cash payment.
While waiting for their boat, the two rested in the inn for a while.
They couldn't stay on land for long. Checkpoints could be set up at train stations and highway entrances, so they needed to leave, but legal routes were no longer an option.
Lin Nan had managed to secure the boat tickets. Having him along was very useful—certainly more useful than A9. Their destination was a coastal city in the south, which they would reach by the following evening.
The wind at the pier smelled fishy. A few ships were anchored in the distance, their lights swaying gently on the dark green water. Whenever a boat passed, the reflections shattered into countless flickers of light before slowly drifting away.
A9: 【The Covenant of the Scales has put out a hit on you.】
Hearing this news, Lin Mo paused in her movement of carrying their luggage onto the boat. Perhaps because the evening wind was too cold, her back felt stiff in waves.
Regarding the assassin she had fought, she knew that person was likely still breathing.
But at that time, she had had more important things to do. Besides, she had worked at a convenience store, so she was bound to leave traces behind; it didn't matter whether her face had been seen.
It was only natural for the Covenant of the Scales to obtain her information.
【Don't worry, they aren't much of a threat to you right now. The hit is only circulating within their organization and on the black market. Since they're outlaws themselves, they won't go around publicly plastering your bounty everywhere.】
“Let's go,” Lin Nan called out, turning his head. Lin Mo tossed the luggage down.
The two slept in a small crew storage room. Forget an actual room—the fact that this unregistered boat could squeeze out two spots for them to sleep was only thanks to the crew crowding together.
Lin Nan was making the bed. He had bought bedsheets before leaving, doing his utmost to make the journey bearable for the two of them.
The entire way, Lin Nan had never asked her what happened or why they had to flee so frantically. Perhaps he understood in his heart and chose to follow her on the run.
Lin Mo sat on the hard bedboard, leaning against the wall of the cabin as she felt the rocking of the ship. She wasn't seasick.
She had hardly eaten anything over the past two days, yet her brain sent waves of nausea.
The ceiling spun slowly; pressure built continuously in her eardrums. The colors of the entire world were gradually fading. Whenever she closed her eyes, it felt as if she were being swallowed by darkness.
Lin Mo's mouth opened and closed before she finally uttered a sentence: “I... I have a younger brother.”
Realizing that Lin Mo was speaking to him, and that the so-called younger brother she mentioned was not him, Lin Nan stopped making the bed and listened.
This was the first time Lin Mo had ever spoken to him about herself.
Was she laying her heart open to him? Had his performance along the way earned him her trust?
Why did that possibility feel so incredibly slim?
Things wouldn't be as simple as he imagined. He straightened up, sat on the bedboard, and looked at her in silence.
“He... was a very good person,” Lin Mo continued. “Anyone who met him would speak highly of him; everyone liked him.”
“He was very weak and held goodwill toward everyone. Although he didn't appear before others often, he still wasn't suited to survive among our family.”
“Some said he was a burden and a hassle, that living only consumed resources, and that without him, we would get more room to move around. But I... I didn't think so. Because of differing views, the balance was broken, so everyone started fighting for power.”
Lin Mo tried to swallow, but there wasn't even saliva in her mouth. Her head spun; recalling the past felt as though her entire brain was being stirred.
“I was closest to him. I believed my younger brother definitely deserved to live in this world, that his existence definitely had meaning.”
She strained her eyelids wide open. Perhaps she should have been shedding tears at this moment, but her eyes were dry, devoid of any moisture.
“But... but in the end, he still died. I thought he was just tired and didn't feel like talking. I never imagined his entire body had been hollowed out, the stuffing almost bursting through his thin skin. It's because I failed to protect him, failed to protect him... I'm so, so sorry, I'm sorry...”
He had been blown up to death—used as a means to threaten and provoke her.
“He was so thin, so small, he didn't even finish school. You're so much like him...” Lin Mo stared intently at Lin Nan's face, speaking with utter certainty. “The feeling you give me... is so much like him...”
Lin Nan's heart skipped a beat. The story coming from Lin Mo gave him an extremely absurd impression.
If this were a family, it would be far too twisted, with no parents present whatsoever. But if it were an organization, it would make sense.
Had Lin Mo previously lived in an organization where the strong devoured the weak? Had the companions she spent day and night with taken her relative's life to threaten her, which later turned into mutual slaughter?
What on earth...
His lips parted, speechless for a moment. The light in his eyes flickered uncertainly; his mood was complex and hard to vent.
A9 heard Lin Mo's account.
As a manager who knew she had a mental illness, it sensed how absurd and unreal the story sounded. An inexplicable wave of panic surged within it, pooling into a guess—a conjecture that sounded downright outlandish.
According to the information previously gathered from Lin Mo's subconscious, she had split personalities. What's more, her original world didn't have any famous outlaw organizations; it was a relatively peaceful and tranquil world.
It boldly speculated: what if certain words she used were substituted?
"We" — Me and my other personalities.
"Room to move around" — The time each personality gets to come out.
"Power" — The power to control the body.
Stripping away all the specifically whitewashed terms, it boldly guessed: was her younger brother actually one of the personalities that had died?
If the personality of the younger brother was truly weak, and Lin Mo's life in that world had been in dire straits, his appearance would indeed bring danger, making it natural for the other personalities to feel dissatisfied.
Rate on N.U.
