RPDH Chapter 21

Li Li’s eyes snapped open. It was midnight back at the dormitory.

The difference between reality and fiction became all the more apparent as the surge of power coursing through her body vanished.

She gazed somewhat absentmindedly at the darkened screen of the laptop. Her face was reflected in the black surface.

As the feeling of disorientation faded, Li Li recalled her adventures in the manhua world.

She half-heartedly covered her ashen face with one hand after a beat of silence. “Was I a psycho all along?”

Her roommate happened to be sitting at her desk as well. She whirled around after hearing Li Li’s musings. “What? Who insulted you? My Lily’s never been a psycho, and I’ll beat up anyone who says otherwise!”

The familiar silliness of her roommate finally grounded Li Li back to reality. She huffed in amusement. “No one said anything like that to me. I just had a sudden realization.”

The moist scent of the manhua world dissipated from her lungs as she inhaled the somewhat stuffy air of the dormitory. Li Li got up and opened the balcony window.

The system chimed in as she did so.

[Assistance function deactivated. The mall has been closed.]

[System updating…]

[System update complete.]

Li Li had no idea what it updated. Her roommate came over when she returned to her seat.

“Lily, aren’t you a bit too stressed lately?” The roommate fretted over her.

Despite midterm season just ending, the amount of work for each course only continued to increase. She supposed she was overly stressed.

Of course, the source of her stress came from a different world entirely.

“Just a bit.” Li Li responded, turning and resting one arm on her chair. “It’s not that bad.”

The mall might have closed, but she had accumulated enough popularity to live for two more weeks if she exchanged it all for survival points. Her previous machinations were also coming into play. After all, the earlier the white moonlight died, the more popular they would become. The more wicked the villain, the more fans they would attract.

She felt like living past this semester wouldn’t be a problem.

Her roommate suddenly said after a moment of thought, “Why don’t we go out and have some fun?”

Li Li blinked at the abrupt change in subject. She slowly asked, “Where to?”

“There’s a manhua convention next Saturday that still has tickets available online. Why don’t we make a daytrip of it?” Her roommate suggested.

Li Li wanted to refuse at first, but it didn’t sound too bad upon further reflection.

At least going out would break the monotony of shuffling in between the dorms, library and classrooms.

“I’m just going to get this out of the way: I’m not cosplaying this time.” The only thing Li Li was going to wear was a face mask. Everyone knew that cosplaying was an exhausting affair. If she was going for fun, she’s going in her street clothes with a bag.

“Fine, fine, fine. Just bring yourself and I’ll handle the rest!” The roommate eagerly started booking tickets on her phone. Watching her, Li Li was beginning to suspect that her roommate was planning to take her there from the start.

Li Li turned back to her own desk with a sigh, “A convention, huh…”

She’s gone to some before, but those memories felt like a lifetime ago.

She shook her head after a few seconds of reminiscence and turned off the desk lamp. “I’m going to bed first, dear.”

“Good night!” Her roommate cheerily replied.

The overhead lights in their room shut off.

…

It was soon the night before the next manhua update. Jiang Lan and her bestie Lian Mai were staying up to wait.

“Sorry, sorry, ah. I’ll post it on an alt next time.” Jiang Lan was apologetic.

She was the infamous ‘Madame Fanfic’ of the forums, her first ever post earning her a permanent ban from the moderators. Her second fanfic post, made from her bestie’s account, earned her the same honour.

Being able to read posts but not reply to any of them was slowly driving Lian Mai mad.

“The account doesn’t matter.” Lian Mai graciously reassured her, “As long as you keep supplying the goods.”

“Of course, of course.” Jiang Lan quickly agreed.

She was a fan of Li, while her bestie was a fan of the Rank A bigshot. Therefore, in order to satisfy both of them, she whipped up a scrumptious CP based on nothing but wishful thinking.

Even Jiang Lan felt like she had created something truly special this time.

“When will the Rank A bigshot make his next appearance? It’s been so long since his last one.” Lian Mai grumbled about the limited number of appearances she had to fawn over.

“It’s bound to happen sooner or later.” Jiang Lan offered words of hollow comfort.

She was on cloud nine since her favourite character was always around.

A chime came from both their phones. Midnight had come.

“Ahhhh! It’s updated!” Jiang Lan squealed as she tapped on the link posthaste.

A hand holding a photograph was featured on the colour cover. It was sunny in the photo. A short, green-eyed girl stood between a dark-haired young man and a brown-haired teenager. They were standing in front of a wall of alternating pink and yellow bars, seemingly waiting for the camera shutter to go off. While the teenager and the little girl were beaming with joy, the young man’s expression was deliberately obscured by glare.

The black-gloved hand holding the camera obviously belonged to an unknown fourth party.

“A family portrait?” Jiang Lan blurted out her first reaction with a giggle, “The author really is lurking on the forums. I swear I saw ‘Happily-ever-after family’ trending a few days ago, and here we are!”

“En. They’re keeping up with the times.” Her bestie responded absentmindedly.

She was a much faster reader than Jiang Lan. If Jiang Lan needed half an hour to finish an update, she just needed 10 minutes.

With that, Jiang Lan turned the page.

Continuing on where the last update left off, the protagonist group was running for their lives. Yi Ming seemed to be able to hold off their enemies for now. That was, until she turned another page.

The exit was sealed off unceremoniously. The new enemy that appeared looked troublesome to deal with just based on appearance.

A thrilling battle sequence followed, the dynamic perspectives leaving readers speechless in awe. The black and white palette did not hold back the intricacy of the scenes. Each character’s expressions and movements were brimming with life.

Jiang Lan was swept away by both Yi Ming’s quick reflexes and Tang’s last-minute breakthrough.

“Damn…” she murmured as she turned the page.

The icicle that was about to pierce Yi Ming’s eye vanished in an instant. The dark-haired young man glanced up slightly, the icicle rocketing towards him missing him by inches. The residual wind lifted a strand of hair by his ear.

In the elongated panel with his back to the icicle, his side profile appeared especially aloof and fragile.

“Damn!” Jiang Lan exclaimed in amazement, “My male god! My male god! He’s so cool!”

She didn’t pay attention to what her bestie was saying as she quickly turned to the next page, eager to get her next hit of her male god.

It was a close up. After narrowly turning the tide in the previous panel, the aloof eyes of the young man who saved their entire party seemed to be tinged with the barest hints of sorrow.

“I was born a bad seed, a contrary rebel.”

“You and I were fated to walk different paths, Little Corgi.”

Jiang Lan paused in the middle of turning the page.

Even her male god-addled brain clued in that something wasn’t right.

“It can’t be.” Jiang Lan checked in with her bestie. “Why do I feel like that was a…flag?”

Her bestie’s silence on the other end of the phone rang louder than any words.

Jiang Lan shook her head and continued reading.

She saw the thin young man coldly reject Yi Ming and Tang. She saw him sever their bond with apparent ruthlessness.

In the end, he told Yi Ming, “You’ll find your own family one day, but I’m not one of them.”

Jiang Lan stared at her phone screen, dumbfounded. Her mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come out.

It was quite some time before she mumured, “My male god looks so sad.”

“…My condolences.” Her bestie replied after a beat.

But Jiang Lan didn’t think things were that bad yet. She commented as she saw Yi Ming flee with Tang on his back, “Nah, it’s too early for that. A flag this obvious shouldn’t be hard to remove.”

In the manhua, Yi Ming struggled with his conscience before listening to his adoptive father’s teachings and going off in search of help.

Jiang Lan didn’t expect to see the boss. “Woah. He’s still alive?”

However, she’s moved on already. The boss’ reappearance barely cause a ripple in her heart.

She only had eyes for her male god right now.

After the boss refused Yi Ming’s request, Yi Ming ran wildly back in the direction he had come, alone.

“I knew it. Look, the protagonist is even backtracking.” Jiang Lan was even more reassured now. “There’s no way he’s dying with the protagonist around!”

Her bestie just hummed along. She didn’t spoil anything in the end.

The scene suddenly returned to the Tarnished Bronze HQ. The interior had been turned into a frozen wasteland with imposingly high bronze walls.

A silhouette stood in the foreground of the panel. Only a calf and the overly long hem of their coat was visible.

On the stairs in front of them, the black-robed man had been reduced to swiss cheese by multiple icicles. The blue-eyed enemy’s face was frozen in a horrified expression after he ran himself through with his own ability.

“Huh? What happened here??” Jiang Lan shot up to a sitting position due to the sudden turn of events. “Who’s this? Where’s my male god? Was he saved?”

The scene shifted once more. This time, the dark figure strolled idly through Tarnished Bronze’s corridors, a musical note in the speech bubble next to them.

He was humming a tune.

The elongated panel that followed showed the dark figure walking towards the right. In the corridor in front, an identical shadow was running. The hem of clothing could be seen whipping around the legs of the figure to the right, while those of the one on the left seemed to billow out more.

One the next page, a small panel showed the rear silhouette coming to a stop. The rest of the space was dedicated to a close-up of him.

Light poured in through the seams as he opened some sort of door, the strip illuminating his right eye and the corner of his lips.

He was smirking.

“Where did this badass give off major villain vibes come from?” Jiang Lan couldn’t help but murmur.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She had no idea what just happened, but she could tell that the person in the rear was chasing the person in front. He was most likely the one who killed those two ability users as well.

“Who’s he chasing?” Her question was met with silence.

She found out the answer a few pages later.

As she saw the full appearance of the dark figure for the first time, she also spotted the young man buried in the ruins underneath his feet along with Yi Ming.

The black storm clouds were almost upon them by now. Even wearing a mask that covered 2/3 of his face, the man’s beauty was like the last smouldering embers of sunset.

Rampant and unrestrained.

“The Rank A bigshot…” Jiang Lan was incredulous.

She hastily skimmed through the next few pages, her gaze lingering on the final panel of the Rank A bigshot looming over the collapsed Yi Ming for a long time.

Just as rain poured down from the sky in the manhua, tears poured down her cheeks.

Jiang Lan understood why her bestie had given her condolences now.

Her male god was gone, killed by her bestie’s favourite character at that.

Sure enough, a CP based on wishful thinking was just that at the end of the day. The whiplash from the bad ending left her reeling.

“Are you okay?” Her bestie asked worriedly.

Jiang Lan sniffled, “Don’t talk to me right now. I, I need to cry for a while, wuwuwu…”

What fanfic? What fanfic?? Goodbye!

She was going to quit writing for her male god from today onwards!

“Male god, male god… How could you vanish just like that, wuwuwuwu…” She blew her nose and wiped at her eyes. “You were obviously a very gentle person, not a bad kid at all…”

“That guy’s the baddie! That Dark Principle!” She choked.

Her bestie remained silent on the other end of the line, not daring to admit at the present moment that her infatuation with the Dark Principle had only deepened after the update.

I mean, could you blame her? He was so cool.

…

[Cool and Collected Cowlick! Check in for Li fans!] hot

[Ahhhhhh wtf wtf wtf was that update?!]

[No! I refuse to believe it! I refuse! That family portrait has to be foreshadowing! Li’s still alive!]

[Are my tears not worth anything?? Did I fawn over the protagonist’s group becoming a family just for you to stab me in the back?!]

[This has to be a joke, right? Isn’t Li the second male lead? I’ve never seen a second male lead get killed off so early.]

[I’m sending the author razor blades!!!!!]

As usual, Li Li scrolled through the barrage of new forum posts after skimming through the update.

She wasn’t surprised by the author’s arrangement. After all, it was best to keep the two identities separate, building up suspense for the eventual reveal.

That’s right. ‘Li’ and ‘The Dark Principle’ were the same person.

Li Li noticed how the manhua protrayed Qing Yuchen’s scenes. He was wearing a magua jacket, which looked different from trenchcoats. Additionally, given the lengths the author went through to illustrate the blade of ‘The Dark Principle’ trembling when he heard Yi Ming say they ‘were nothing alike’, she speculated that they too agreed that the two identities were the same person at the end of the day.

Li Li was very satisfied with her performance in the manhua world. Her stage fright from her initial appearance had all but faded and she was able to incorporate a great deal of nuance into the characters.

This was all foreshadowing, ah!

There should still be a long way to go until the big reveal. Li Li estimated it would take at least one arc.

She flipped through the forums, deep in thought. The sound of sobbing came from behind her as she tapped on one post titled [Analysis: The Dark Principle’s ability].

Turning around, she found her roomate sobbing into her black cat plushie that was half her size. On the phone screen in front of her was the latest manhua update.

Her roommate cursed in between sobs, “You’re heartless, Author! Heartless!”

Li Li blinked.

Yep, they sure are heartless.