Chapter 33: Defeating Magic with Magic
It felt like a moment, yet also an eternity.
The noisy clamor seemed to fade, the colorful lights and crowd blurring.
The brown-haired boy stood stunned, lips trembling, opening his mouth but unable to utter a word.
The ice-blue pendant swayed, but the black-haired youth’s cold expression remained unchanged, as if seeing nothing.
Time froze, then flowed again.
I brushed past him, stirring a faint breeze.
The crowd’s noise flooded my ears, that moment of silence feeling like an illusion.
Or like falling, returning to reality from a weightless void.
Just two strangers whose eyes happened to meet.
Yiming stared ahead, dazed, his gaze lingering on that fleeting moment of crossing paths.
Then he turned, calling to the figure not yet far: “Wait—”
“Wait for me, Baige!”
A completely unfamiliar red-haired boy caught up to the black-haired youth, tilting his head with sparkling, childish eyes, as if expecting something.
Someone in the crowd stepped back, entering Yiming’s line of sight, blocking his view.
They were laughing joyfully.
When Yiming stepped forward, bypassing the obstructing pedestrian, the figure was already lost in the sea of people.
“Yiming? What’re you looking at?”
Yu Xiao’s voice came from beside him, panting as if he’d struggled to push through the crowd.
Yiming stared blankly at the crowd ahead, not answering for a moment.
When Yu Xiao let out a puzzled hum, Yiming slapped his own cheeks, put on a bright smile, and regained his energetic demeanor.
“Nothing, just mistook someone,” he said, turning around, slinging an arm over Yu Xiao’s shoulder, and leading him in the opposite direction.
"Keep looking for Momo. If she's not here, she’s probably on the street from yesterday..."
...
I had already left that street.
The diamond-shaped streetlights illuminated the road, stretching my shadow long.
Under the cold moonlight, I, Li Li, gazed at the path ahead.
The young master beside me was still chattering to himself.
"Baige, just now I saw them roasting a tiny pig-headed turkey. When my parents were still around, we roasted one too, but it was much bigger. It was just enough for me and my brother. They’re roasting such a small one, and with so many people, won’t it run out?" An Huyu said, stepping on the shadows of the streetlights.
I didn’t respond, of course, but An Huyu’s enthusiasm for talking wasn’t dampened in the slightest.
I looked up at the moon on the horizon.
Maybe it was because I’d suddenly run into Yiming, but my brain, which had been on high alert from constant busyness, suddenly recalled the past.
When I first arrived in this manga world, a lot of my actions were for earning popularity points—like suddenly approaching the boss or pretending to be stranded goods to stay near Yiming.
Back then, my primary goal was to survive, so my target was just popularity points.
Later, I faced off against Yue Lan and clashed head-on with Qing Yu Chen.
At that time, I had no choice but to go all in.
If I didn’t secure my own ability while the mall was still usable, it would’ve been even harder to get one later.
And without an ability, surviving in this ability-driven society would’ve been nearly impossible.
It seemed my goal was still to survive.
Then, I crafted a new face for myself, switched identities, and ‘killed’ my old self.
There were plenty of reasons for it—like the messy situations I was dealing with, the high-rank concept-type hunters, or the fallout from killing a noble.
There was also the fact that I didn’t want to stay tethered to the manga’s protagonist, always reacting passively.
But the main reason was still popularity points.
The earlier a ‘white moonlight’ dies, the higher the popularity, and I just happened to have the perfect chance.
Back then, I was solely focused on earning popularity points to survive in Jiao Huang.
Looking back now, I left plenty of flaws.
Now, the mall is unusable, but my popularity points have converted into enough life energy to last over two hundred days—more than enough.
So, with my survival secured for now, I had only one goal.
To shape the role of ‘Heige.’
To don a false mask and take control of a character that was entirely mine.
It was time for me to weave lies for the readers.
Though, was Yiming’s hair looking a bit thinner? I idly recalled the recent encounter.
I’d meet Yiming again, but not now.
The ‘white moonlight’ role—I’d milk it to its absolute limit.
...
"...If only Big Brother wasn’t so harsh," An Huyu suddenly said.
The young master glanced back, making sure the bodyguards were still trailing far behind, not too close, before he continued, "When Mom and Dad were still around, he wasn’t harsh. He’d even play treasure-hunting games with me."
Maybe the scenes we saw tonight triggered something in him, because An Huyu suddenly started telling me about his family.
I wasn’t too surprised. I’d already suspected there were issues with An Huyu’s family, but I didn’t expect him to just blurt it out like this.
"I’m an outsider," I said, more as a formality.
But once the urge to vent took over, An Huyu didn’t care about that.
In fact, he’d been unusually reliant on me lately, so sharing with me didn’t seem like a big deal to him.
"It’s fine. Any noble would know about this," he said.
An Huyu looked up at me and asked, "Baige, what do you think is the most important thing for a noble?"
"Power, status, money, or abilities?" he asked, then quickly answered himself, "It’s obviously abilities."
"Without the inheritance of abilities, a noble’s wealth gets swallowed up by other nobles in no time. That’s what happened to my family." An Huyu spread his arms, as if trying to embrace the moon in the sky. "We used to live in the Floating City, right next to the imperial family. I’ve even met the empire’s princess. When I was little, Mom and Dad would take me and Big Brother to meet the imperials, and I’d often play with her."
I glanced at the young master out of the corner of my eye.
This was probably why An Huyu, a noble, hadn’t inherited the bloodline ability.
So far, I’d encountered two noble families. The Yue clan betrayed the Former Ability Guild and joined the empire to become nobles.
The An clan, it seemed, lost the previous generation, and their ability inheritance broke.
They went from the heart of the Floating City to Four-Way City.
The prouder a noble was, the less they’d stoop to ‘inferior’ methods like plundering.
It was entirely predictable that the An clan from the Floating City would think this way.
Without inheriting the bloodline ability from his elders and unable to awaken one himself, An Huyu was naturally just an ordinary person without abilities.
"Now that I don’t have an ability, she’d probably laugh at me with the others," An Huyu said, his eyes glistening with tears. "Because of this, Big Brother’s always mad at me, telling me I can’t go here or there."
"It’s suffocating. Things at home didn’t used to be like this."
The noise of the crowd seemed far away. The sound of our footsteps mingled with the young master’s sniffling, echoing in the night.
"Baige, without an ability, am I really useless?" The question circled back to this.
Days of bounty hunter work hadn’t shaken An Huyu’s fixation. "Can I really not catch Heige?"
I, the emotional trash can, didn’t say anything.
If I wanted, I could let An Huyu have his moment, but why would I?
The Ability Guild’s building was getting closer.
I could already hear the faint announcements coming from the Bounty Hall.
An Huyu wiped his tears. "Anyway, Big Brother and the others haven’t made any progress, so we still have a chance."
"Oh, right, it seems like Big Brother and them have a new plan," An Huyu said, suddenly remembering and tapping his head. "They’re apparently trying to lure Heige out."
Two days ago, the Four-Way City branch of the Ability Guild had screened its members.
Based on known information, they checked every concept-type and illusion-related bounty hunter, from newcomers to long-time veterans.
No one had any clue where Heige came from or where he’d been before.
While the entire city was searched thoroughly by them, it triggered a chain reaction, causing Yiming and his group to encounter bounty hunters conducting investigations as soon as they entered Four-Way City.
In the previous chapter of the manga, Momo, the younger of the twins, had a unique ability and was targeted by bounty hunters eager to curry favor with the nobles.
However, these people couldn’t guess for the time being that a B-rank spell-type was the one they were looking for.
Hearing this, Li Li was somewhat curious about how they planned to lure Heige.
Just moments ago, she had seen Yiming.
The brown-haired youth didn’t seem to be pursued by the Ability Guild yet, so the connection between Heige and Yiming likely hadn’t been exposed.
So, what method were they planning to use to entice Heige to show up?
Li Li was quite interested.
She came up with many possibilities, including Hua Yizhi exposing his identity as a former Ability Guild member and being used as bait by the nobles.
But she soon found out.
When they arrived at the entrance of the Ability Guild, Li Li saw a familiar figure walking out from the door.
White light from the Ability Guild’s hall illuminated the night sky outside.
Even at night, the building remained resplendent.
That “familiar” person passed by her, heading in the opposite direction from where Li Li had come.
Li Li kept her gaze straight ahead as she brushed past the person, as if they were strangers.
“It seems to be that person!” After the figure was far enough away, An Huyu whispered to Li Li.
But even without his words, Li Li already knew.
Because that person had black hair and black eyes, wore a familiar black trench coat, and had a choker around their neck.
Though the figure was slightly bulkier, it was obvious—this was the “Li” that Heige had once impersonated.
The nobles wanted to use magic to defeat magic, using Heige to lure Heige.
For a moment, Li Li wanted to applaud this genius idea.
Wouldn’t this only attract Little Corgi?
But for Li Li, this was actually the most advantageous arrangement for her.
In the shadows where An Huyu couldn’t see, she slightly curled her lips, then returned to her cold demeanor.
She walked into the Ability Guild, as if she hadn’t noticed anything special about that person.
Just like before, it was merely a chance encounter.
...
Two days later.
[Opening the passage for you... Welcome back to reality.]
At midnight, the manga updated.