Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 98: Master of Overthinking

The sun in the manga world sank below the horizon.

After a devastating destruction event, the city was in ruins.

When Li Li blinked, the streetlights of the night flickered on sparsely, some already broken, intermittently emitting trembling white light.

But these lights perfectly illuminated the faces of a few people.

Dan let out a dissatisfied hum from her throat, glaring at Yu Xiao, who had just said something equivalent to “I want to hit on you.”

The golden-haired youth looked at Dan helplessly, then at Li Li, who had maintained a smiling mask since returning to the manga world.

“No coincidence, I haven’t seen you in my dreams.” Li Li said casually.

An Heyu, holding the neck of the big dog-goose, glanced over as well.

Yu Xiao, a self-proclaimed C-rank domain-type ability user in the manga.

His ability could trap people in his own space.

Yu Xiao and Yiming had once sat side by side in his space to hide from pursuers.

That experience made Yu Xiao and the still-naive Yiming become good friends.

His ability was like a space separate from this world, an extra dimension.

“Did I remember wrong?” Stared at by three people, Yu Xiao shivered, took a step back, and said, “Thank you for helping me, I-I’ll leave now.”

After two steps, he turned back and asked, “Where in Zhusheng City is this?”

“This is Ranmu City.” This time, An Heyu spoke, stepping forward with the big dog-goose.

The goose-bodied, dog-headed creature flapped its wings, stretching its neck as if to bite Yu Xiao.

Yu Xiao immediately jumped, moving away from the big dog-goose and closer to Li Li, then said tearfully, “How did I end up here? What’ll Yiming do if he can’t find me?”

Yiming wouldn’t do anything; he was happily saving people with Tide.

Li Li recalled the manga’s contents.

“Why’s it chasing me to bite!” Yu Xiao’s distress seemed genuine.

“Maybe it mistook you for a fish.” Li Li said unhurriedly, even finding time to pat the big dog-goose’s dog head.

“Fish?” Yu Xiao was stunned.

“Fish is on its menu.” An Heyu coughed twice before continuing.

Yu Xiao paled in shock: “So it wants to eat me!”

The big dog-goose let out two timely barks, prompting An Heyu to pull it a bit farther away.

After the commotion, Yu Xiao, under Dan’s death glare, looked at Li Li with pleading eyes: “Kind person, can you let me stay for one night?”

Li Li looked at him with a half-smile.

Yu Xiao slowly raised one finger: “Just one night, I’ll head back to Zhusheng City tomorrow.”

Dan, like a dog whose territory was being invaded, stepped forward to drive him off, but Li Li raised a hand to stop her.

“Sure.” She said nonchalantly.

Regardless, Yu Xiao had once saved her, giving her two or three days of rest.

Back when she didn’t think Yu Xiao was suspicious, she had wanted to repay the favor.

Now that she found him questionable, this conversation, which should have flowed naturally, seemed meticulously calculated.

He started by mentioning that day, how he saved ‘Heige.’

Then he brought up Yiming, someone ‘Heige’ currently cared deeply about.

Having saved her first, and being connected to Yiming—perhaps even on good terms—there was no way ‘Heige’ would refuse such a small request.

But all this could be explained as unintentional.

There was one thing, however, that Yu Xiao completely failed to notice.

When he was dodging the big dog-goose in a panicked act, a tiny pebble on the ground at night disappeared after he passed by.

The ability Illusory Reality, capable of turning illusions into reality, had a limitation.

When facing ability users of a higher rank than her, the process of turning illusions into reality or reality into illusions would be disrupted by the high-rank ability user themselves.

She had concealed her true ability from everyone.

No one, inside or outside the manga, knew her ability had this trait.

In the darkness of the night, she curved her lips into a smile.

Claiming to be C-rank to Yiming, yet a high-rank ability user—Yu Xiao was indeed suspicious.

For now, Li Li had only one thing to say: please start your performance.

...

This night was destined to be sleepless.

Before the sun rose the next day, Tide’s agent brought a group of people to find Li Li, asking if she would take over as Ranmu City’s lord.

“Most of Ranmu City’s residents hope a city lord will step up. They need a guiding light they can rely on,” Tide’s agent explained. “They’ve spontaneously rebuilt that platform, awaiting your announcement to take over as city lord.”

Li Li shook her head, refusing as decisively as before: “Find someone else for city lord. I won’t do it.”

Tide’s agent didn’t seem regretful.

He merely bowed deeply.

“You only need to stand at the forefront, and that’s already dazzling enough.” This was the power of spiritual faith.

But Li Li didn’t want to accept it.

After they left, An Heyu poured her a cup of steaming milk tea and said, “I thought you’d be willing.”

“Hm?” Li Li tilted her head toward him.

Yu Xiao had said he was staying one night, and at this moment, he was indeed sleeping.

Dan, like Li Li and the others, hadn’t slept.

Without needing to rewind the city, he spent the night moving his belongings to the house An Heyu had originally rented.

Judging by his actions, he planned to stay long-term, completely ignoring the house’s owner, An Heyu’s, opinion.

Though, to be fair, An Heyu likely wouldn’t have any objections.

At this moment, he sat obediently by Li Li’s side, hugging his rabbit plushie, head lowered as he looked at the milk tea An Heyu poured for him, lost in thought.

“Ranmu City was established after Lin Ran left Floating City,” An Heyu said, bringing up something he’d mentioned before.

In fact, the closest timeline was that Lin Ran killed the Prophet Shuang Buyan, and two days later, Ranmu City was established.

Ranmu City’s thirteen districts were originally several separate cities, merged into one under the management of an SS-rank ability user after their arrival.

“Before that, this was the Lin clan nobles’ fief and…” He paused, looking at Li Li, “Dawn City.”

This was where the dream-filled members of the Former Ability Guild began, and where they ended.

The Prophet was killed here too.

Li Li had anticipated this.

In Sang Feiling’s travelogue, the Lin clan nobles’ fief and Dawn City were adjacent, so it wasn’t surprising that they merged into one city after the Prophet’s death.

“You think I’d stop because of this?” Li Li looked at An Heyu.

He knew the most about ‘Heige’s’ persona and what Dawn City and the Prophet meant to ‘Heige.’

An Heyu definitely didn’t want to stay here.

His enemies were in Floating City, his goals were in Floating City.

But he had never stopped Li Li from doing anything.

Rarely, Li Li saw a trace of hesitation on An Heyu’s face, like when they first met, and she asked if he wanted revenge.

“What I want to do will never change,” Li Li said, staring into his golden eyes.

She let out a laugh, finding it amusing.

She hadn’t realized An Heyu would worry about this.

It made her think of a mother hen fretting over her child traveling far, yet even more worried about being left behind by her son.

Of course, she definitely wasn’t his son.

She preferred to be the domineering brother or sister.

At that moment, the door opened, and Yu Xiao, rubbing his eyes, walked out of the bedroom.

The only one who had slept soundly and peacefully that night was him.

He saw the pile of Dan’s belongings, drawn to something, and walked straight over.

Li Li ignored him, continuing seriously: “I only ever act for myself. No external thing can change me.”

This was the truest truth.

It seemed like a signal.

An Heyu smiled, turning to fetch the breakfast he’d made.

“And you should know my situation,” Li Li added.

She was wanted by the Empire.

If she became city lord, it would mean the entire city was rebelling.

Without the strength to back it up, that would clearly be irresponsible.

That’s why Li Li thought Lin Ran’s ideas back then were impossible, though, ironically, she had nearly taken her place as city lord.

But An Heyu’s figure froze.

As if imagining something, the smile on his lips vanished, and he said in a low voice: “Yes, I don’t know how much time you have left.”

Perhaps he was thinking of the generally short lifespans of experimental subjects and Li Li’s reckless actions that seemed to care little for her life.

“We’ll succeed,” he said, as if to encourage or shift the topic, avoiding this sad matter.

Li Li turned her head, slowly blinking.

I knew An Heyu loved to overthink, his thought process occasionally quite peculiar, but.

How did he even imagine I was going to die?

Then she said slowly: “That’s right.”

The master of overthinking always surprised me.

Master An, give me more.

The forum’s current wails of anorexia were Master An’s masterpiece.

More, please, since I wasn’t the one crying.

An Heyu made breakfast, including a portion for Yu Xiao.

Yu Xiao didn’t seem to notice what we were saying.

He had pulled a cheap plastic block set from Dan’s pile of belongings and was focused on building a tall tower.

Just as he was about to succeed, An Heyu walked over to call him.

The golden-haired youth jumped as if startled, his hand trembling, knocking the entire tower down.

He stared at the ruins of the tower, one step from completion, dazed for a moment before coming over.

As usual, I only drank some milk tea.

When we were packing up, An Heyu asked: “So, are we leaving?”

“Wait a bit,” I said, glancing at Yu Xiao, who was picking up the scattered blocks. “After all, there’s still a mystery to solve.”

“Better be quick,” An Heyu said. “With such a big commotion in Ranmu City, the Imperial Family won’t stay silent. The worst case is that the Lin clan nobles reported to the Imperial Family when Lin Ran died. They’ll definitely send someone to take over Ranmu City.”

That would mean the home and away fields reversing, a rare chance to fight on home ground.

“Let them come,” I said.

Under this roof—myself, An Heyu, Dan, and Yu Xiao—four people, three high-rank. I felt the urgency.

Perhaps noticing my earlier glance, Yu Xiao looked over in confusion after gathering the blocks.

...

Yu Xiao said he was staying one night, so after eating An Heyu’s homemade breakfast, he politely said goodbye, as if he were really leaving.

But when I put on sunglasses and a navy-blue jacket to head out, I saw Yu Xiao squatting in place, looking bewildered.

“I got lost again,” he said.

Beside him, the big dog-goose was biting his hair tightly, making a section stick up.

He looked disheveled and pitiful.

I pushed my sunglasses, realizing he wanted me to take him along.

I had planned to visit the Lin residence to ask the butler something, but it wasn’t urgent.

Seeing this, I gave a slight smile.

“Good luck finding your way,” I said.

I didn’t believe this was a coincidence.

But after a few steps, the golden-haired youth tilted his head, struggling to follow, saying: “Kind person, give me a lift.”

At that moment, my eyes sharpened. I stepped back, grabbed the big dog-goose’s neck, and lifted it.

Yu Xiao, whose hair was caught, cried: “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

The next second, I retreated several steps.

At the same time, a giant sword smashed the spot where we had stood, the ground caving in and cracking.

Amid the dust, a stranger’s figure emerged.

It was a man with long, low, cyan ponytail, dressed in tight combat gear.

He raised his head from the dust, locking eyes with me, half-floating in the air.

My smile remained, while Yu Xiao, lifted by the big dog-goose biting his hair, flailed his limbs like a drowning fish.

In an instant, the ability probe ended.

This was a high-rank ability user.

Were S-ranks becoming as common as cabbages? I thought.

It was hard not to link this to Yu Xiao, though this high-rank was currently whimpering in pain, hair caught by the big dog-goose.

Truly convincing acting, heartfelt, with tears in his eyes.

Miserably adorable.

The cyan-haired youth’s ability seemed tied to the giant sword in his hand.

After missing, the sword shimmered with star-like specks, as if absorbing something.

Then he swung the giant sword again.

The wind seemed split in two, but I threw the big dog-goose—along with Yu Xiao it was biting—aside.

The next second, the sword’s edge passed through an afterimage, and my figure vanished from the spot.

At this moment, An Heyu was leading the Night Guards to handle the city’s aftermath, and Dan was sent to assist him.

Here, it was just me and Yu Xiao, a habitual slacker unlikely to be useful.

Was this a test of my combat strength or ability? Illusions unfolded as I pondered during the fight.

The whistling wind wrapped around the giant sword.

The cyan-haired youth’s gaze searched for my trace in the air.

His ability didn’t seem to counter mine like Qu Yan’s, nor did it resemble Lin Ruye’s, empowered by an SS-rank ability user.

In short, I could try taking him down alone.

I glanced at Yu Xiao, thrown to the side.

And here, no one could slack off.

Want to test me? Fine, I wanted to test him too.