Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 108: Brothers in Misery

Late at night, amidst the system’s notification sound, Li Li returned to the real world once again.

She had seen what happened with Yiming and the others in the manga.

During the day, Tide received news that a mysterious noble had entered Tan City in a wing-horse carriage.

The noble’s identity and ability were unknown, so Yiming and the others were sent to investigate.

Currently, Tide’s top combat forces were occupied with their own tasks, so these missions fell to them.

Yiming, Tang, and An Huyu had worked together many times, while Yu Xiao hadn’t fought alongside An Huyu but had collaborated with Yiming and the others before.

This time, their task was simple: confirm the noble’s appearance and background, and An Huyu could withdraw after seeing the person. It wasn’t particularly difficult.

But since it made it into the manga, this mission was naturally not going to go smoothly.

They ran into the princess, and by her side was one of the two ability users who had guarded An Huyu that day.

One had been killed by An Heyu, and due to time and energy constraints, the other was spared, leaving this ability user harboring deep resentment toward An Huyu.

Princess Wuyu didn’t intervene, and Yiming’s group faced off directly against the S-rank ability user.

Thanks to their prior experience with this enemy, they could initially hold their ground against the high-rank ability user, relying on their knowledge to seek an opportunity to escape.

But as the S-rank ability user got serious, Yu Xiao was captured again.

Li Li glanced at the comments, and as expected, they were all [Yu Xiao baby, why is it always you], with some even saying [On this day, bad luck shifted from Crying Bird back to Yu Xiao baby].

In the manga, Yu Xiao’s expression was initially dazed, just like when he was captured in Four-Way City.

An Huyu and Yiming worked together, attempting to rescue Yu Xiao from the S-rank ability user, while Tang stayed out of the way, ready to heal them at any moment.

She had reached B-rank, barely able to use her ability from a distance.

Meanwhile, Princess Wuyu, unable to participate in the fight, stood in a dazzling bejeweled short skirt, coldly observing her former childhood playmate standing on the enemy’s side.

Her expression was calm as still water, betraying no hint of her thoughts.

The scene shifted. Yu Xiao’s dazed expression suddenly changed.

He slightly furrowed his brow, then tilted his head upward, as if scanning his surroundings.

The story continued.

After this interlude, An Huyu, in a stroke of quick thinking, activated his ability [Requiem].

He tried to place a mark on Yu Xiao, hoping to boost Yu Xiao’s ability and allow him to save himself.

An Huyu’s ability could mark those within his domain who were lower in rank than him, freely applying positive or negative status effects.

It was like a control-support role in an online game, but against same-rank or higher-rank opponents, the success rate plummeted, with virtually no chance of success.

Unless the opponent willingly accepted his ability, but what enemy would entrust themselves to An Huyu? So, for now, this ability could only be used to buff his teammates.

Additionally, if someone marked by him died within his domain, their spirit could retain consciousness for one day.

Normally, after death, a soul’s energy would dissipate over time, losing the ability to think coherently within three to four hours.

But spirits under An Huyu’s ability dissipated more slowly, equivalent to three hours of energy loss in a natural state.

After one day, their consciousness would fade, and the energy body would continue to break down.

During that day, the spirits could be controlled by An Huyu or move freely around him.

Currently, the spirits An Huyu could gather were Tide members who had died in recent days, as well as ability users from the princess’s side who had perished.

Li Li didn’t follow them to watch the scene in person partly because of this.

She couldn’t quite stomach an ability that caused a bunch of flickering energy bodies to emerge from the ground when the domain was activated.

By comparison, what An Heyu controlled was at least tangible, not passing through hands or floating weightlessly like spirits.

Since An Huyu had never fought alongside Yu Xiao before, this was his first attempt to place a mark on him.

The plan would only work if the enemy didn’t notice, so the manga depicted his internal scheming. Without informing anyone, he directly used his ability on Yu Xiao.

In the next panel, An Huyu showed a somewhat stunned expression.

This untimely distraction, amid Yiming’s tense shouts, led to An Huyu being overwhelmed by the S-rank ability user’s power.

Thick smoke filled most of the frame.

After a few transitional panels, amidst Yiming and the others’ shocked and grieving expressions, and the S-rank enemy’s triumphant laughter, butterfly wings, sharp as blades, shot out from the dust, slicing through the S-rank ability user’s throat.

That was the ability of Lin Ruye’s uncle.

In the scene, a swarm of butterflies emerged, enveloping the S-rank ability user.

Princess Wuyu’s eyes flickered, and she murmured, “As expected.”

“The first one to come to me back then was you. I didn’t mistake you.”

As the dust settled, An Huyu maintained his stunned expression.

In front of him stood a man in a cloak.

The wind blew back his hood, revealing an unfamiliar face.

“Uncle Lin?” An Huyu, who grew up in Floating City, recognized him.

Then he couldn’t help but ask, “The Lin clan nobles in Ranmu City should all be dead. Why…?”

The spirit didn’t answer.

Princess Wuyu spoke first.

“You’ve helped me confirm a suspicion,” she said, descending the steps, seemingly unbothered by the noble, covered in butterflies, nearing death. She looked at the chaotic battlefield and the few survivors. “Your goal is quite simple and clear. As a reward, I can tell you.”

Threads shot out from behind her profile, lunging toward the group.

The spirit leapt forward, its butterflies forming a wall to block them.

The butterflies were pierced by the threads.

Outside the manga, Li Li had already recognized what they were.

The Qu clan nobles’ blood ability.

Sure enough, in the next panel, a man whose face bore some resemblance to Qu Yan appeared beside the princess.

“My ability isn’t as strong as Brother Yan’s. I can’t kill instantly, only trace back to the source,” said the newly appeared noble, the mysterious noble Tide wanted to identify. “But it’s enough to find you.”

His blood threads, upon contact with an ability, could trace it back to the ability user themselves.

Because it lacked lethality, he could even see through the dual abilities of spirits.

“Since you’re still alive and mixed up with an illusionist,” he said, as An Huyu’s eyes widened, “then you had a hand in Brother Yan’s death, didn’t you?”

The threads piercing the butterflies suddenly burned like fire, their tiny fragments like light refracted by a mirror, zigzagging into the jungle behind them.

The blood threads followed, cutting down and clearing the obstructing trees.

The fragments, under this protection, stirred a gust of wind and struck the forehead of a figure standing in the forest.

The wind, carrying leaves, whipped past his side in an instant, blowing back his hood.

A refined and noble posture, a face strikingly similar to An Huyu’s.

The man lowered his eyes, letting out a soft, “Hm.”

The swirling leaves lifted the hair by his ears, as if rewinding the clock, pulling thoughts back to the past.

Back to the day they mentioned.

In a mansion where the ceiling had been torn apart by high-rank ability users, in a hall where the floor was littered with indistinct corpses, he raised his head.

At the end of his line of sight was a black-haired youth, raising a blade and lowering it, smiling as he looked down at him.

“Did I come at just the right time?”

…

The manga ended there, followed by a single line.

‘Next issue on hiatus.’

Li Li carefully flipped back to the first page of the update, then back again, finally confirming one thing.

This chapter was indeed shortened.

The manga artist had slacked off!

And the manga artist was taking a hiatus!

“System, do you think the manga artist is okay?” she said, feeling a bit of camaraderie.

Someone who gets sick, gets tired, and takes a break when the story’s progressing fine—unsurprisingly, the manga artist was a real person.

Updating every three days, they were practically drawing manga with their life!

Li Li figured the manga artist probably had a studio; otherwise, they wouldn’t only now be in the hospital.

As for why the manga artist could draw these comics, Li Li suspected it had something to do with the system.

She was fighting for her life in the manga world, the manga artist was fighting for theirs in the real world.

Li Li genuinely felt they were like brothers in misery.

A hospital bed—that was the fate of overwork!

Back then, she’d nearly ended up in one herself, in the hospital morgue, no less.

As for why they were fighting so hard, it had to do with the system.

[Please explore on your own.] The system seemed to have only this one line.

Li Li was used to it by now and didn’t say more.

She entered the chatroom, and as expected, the group was discussing the issue.

She didn’t reply, just lurked for a while.

[Han Zhi]: It’s really on hiatus! Damn it! Stopping at a place like this!

[Han Zhi]: I want to see Boss Heige aaaaah! Sob sob sob, I have a feeling my fave will appear in the next chapter! With a big role!

[Han Zhi]: Why a hiatus! Why! Manga artist, get up and grind out the manga aaaaah!

[Lazy]: Lulu, let’s whisper something real. You know so much—do you have some special channel?

[Lulu]: I do. If I had to say, this manga website belongs to my family.

[Han Zhi]: ?????

[Lazy]: ?????

[Meowla]: ?????

…

“System, got anything to say?” Li Li asked, looking at the chatroom.

System: [Please explore on your own.]

So Li Li sincerely prayed for the manga artist: "Live on strongly, manga artist!"

She began to want to meet this fellow sufferer in reality.

...

The manga artist might be on hiatus, but Li Li still had to go to the manga world.

Li Li speculated that after the manga artist recovered, they would probably have to work overtime to churn out manga.

For a moment, she couldn’t tell who was more unlucky.

When Li Li arrived in the manga world, it continued from the time she last left.

She was back in that house, lying on a recliner under the moonlight, looking at the stars outside the window.

"Click." The door opened.

Li Li didn’t look.

She tilted her ear to listen to the footsteps.

It wasn’t An Heyu, nor was it Dan.

"Not going to sleep on the bed?"

It was Yu Xiao.

He walked over, and on that usually blank and naive face, which always seemed quite foolish, there was now a hint of complex emotion.

It seemed like concern.

Li Li recalled the manga and the plot within it.

After being captured by the enemy, Yu Xiao’s behavior had been inconsistent with his previous character, as if he suddenly didn’t know why he was there, or as if he had become a different person.

Just like now.

Li Li turned her face, her gaze meeting Yu Xiao’s pupils.

Then she turned back and said: "Don’t want to."