The ever-present, writhing cloud of doubt that had always shrouded Su Mu’s face finally dissipated at this moment.
Countless people held their breath tightly, their gazes locked onto the screen—this included Su Mu’s fans as well as the extremely nervous Tang Yuan.
And Su Mu’s current top donor, that wealthy gray-haired loli, very tacitly closed the live broadcast view along with Su Mu to avoid unnecessary psychological damage.
“Very good, everyone. Next up is my million-follower thank-you reward…”
The next instant, everyone who had pressed their faces close to the screen was struck as if by a heavy blow.
Their entire bodies flew backward, faces filled with pure horror.
Want to know what their reaction looked like?
Just look at Tang Yuan.
At this moment, already collapsed on the floor, her face was drained of color, pale as paper.
After staring blankly at that terrifying visage for another two seconds, she crawled to the wall and began retching uncontrollably.
“Urgh… ugh, what… what the hell is this… urghhh”
Tang Yuan could not even imagine what inhuman thing her eyes had just captured.
All she knew was that her entire heart was now overwhelmed by revulsion and terror that had shattered her limits.
The physical nausea followed immediately afterward, pinning her firmly in the corner, unable to move a single step.
Fortunately, she did not have to worry about anyone seeing her in this pathetic state—almost everyone else had already been thunderstruck into suffocation by Su Mu’s face.
“This appearance breaks through the heavens… urgh… I was wrong, please get out of my brain, I’m sorry… urghhh… I’ll never slander you again…”
Tang Yuan was not only vomiting; tears streamed down uncontrollably like in an anime, snot and drool mixing together, staining her clothes and bedsheets.
Just as Su Mu had predicted—she had been scared to the point of crying outright.
Hearing this, the corners of Su Mu’s mouth curled into a wicked smirk.
She leaned her face even closer to the camera.
“Oh? Really? Just a moment ago someone swore they absolutely would not be scared~ Since you’re begging for mercy, I’ll forgive you. But admitting fault requires the right attitude. Now… lift up your shirt and show me your belly!”
Su Mu’s words seemed to carry some kind of magic.
Tang Yuan found herself unable to resist the command.
Her mind held nothing but obedience—not even the slightest thought of rebellion arose.
Right in front of everyone watching, she pulled up the hem of her clothes, exposing her fair little stomach while continuously murmuring apologies.
From the very first second she laid eyes on Su Mu, Tang Yuan had been unable to look away.
After gradually adjusting to the initial impact, she discovered that Su Mu’s face was far more beautiful than she had ever imagined—staggeringly, heart-shakingly beautiful.
Just like when it transmitted fear, Su Mu’s image no longer belonged to the domain of ordinary three-dimensional arrangement.
It incorporated many unknown elements.
The instant anyone gazed upon her, it forcibly tore open their mental defenses and poured various concepts inside—for example, “beauty.”
The blurring and limitations of the live broadcast screen had greatly reduced this effect, but those viewers were not like Su Mu; they were ordinary people whose resistance to such influence was practically negligible.
Thus, the physiological reactions hit them the moment they looked…
Of course, due to Su Mu’s own strong will, any inappropriate reactions were ruthlessly suppressed and could not raise their heads.
The current appearance was actually not as simple and direct as the command Su Mu had given herself.
Although she had verbally demanded it that way, there were certain things she would never admit in her heart.
For instance, if someone called her hideously ugly, she would only scoff and mock their sense of aesthetics.
That was an idea engraved into her instincts—she could never convince herself to accept the concept of “I am ugly.”
If Su Mu truly believed herself ugly and desired to become even uglier, the Threads of Dominion could indeed fulfill that wish for her.
But in that case, she would genuinely be attacking everyone equally with her appearance.
Back to the live stream—Su Mu watched Tang Yuan’s reaction with great interest, completely failing to notice that her own live chat had been flooded with a massive wave of “sorry” messages.
Because of this, Su Mu’s follower count briefly stopped growing.
However, the dark magic power born from it surged in endlessly.
She could feel abundant dark magic power flowing through her limbs and bones.
Every moment, every second, she was growing stronger.
But right after, her live broadcast suddenly glitched, then a pop-up appeared.
“Your live room has been banned. Unlock period: three thousand six hundred fifty days.”
“Yo, looks like a big shot made their move.”
Su Mu gave a soft chuckle.
Her goal had already been achieved.
The amount of dark magic power was more than enough to push her through to C-Rank.
Without deliberately suppressing it, the breakthrough naturally began washing over the five memory points in the dream world.
It had to be said that her breakthrough was far too easy compared to other strange persons.
This ability to forcibly evoke emotions in others’ hearts was practically a bug.
While other strange persons were still honestly fighting magical girls, one of her streams was already a million-person-scale disaster—and with zero casualties.
At most, it left lingering psychological shadows.
And thanks to humanity’s masochistic tendencies, many of the “victims” were even perversely eager to take another look.
Black-and-red is still red.
The promotion was not so different from when she advanced as a magical girl—only this time, it was no longer those people using their perception to bully Su Mu’s image (turning her into a big-breasted brat).
Now she was using her own image to bully their perception…
“Ha—ha—ha—”
Su Mu threw her head back, hands on hips, laughing several times in a very villainous pose.
“I’m C-Rank now too!”
Back when she was D-Rank, Su Mu had never really felt how powerful the rank was—either access restricted or magic power insufficient, completely useless.
Now she finally understood the true might of this rating.
If no one stopped her, she genuinely had the ability to paralyze half a city.
Then what about C-Rank now?
What kind of effect would it have?
Su Mu was very much looking forward to finding out…
Without the handheld console, Su Mu could only rely on her own senses to understand the changes.
Besides the surging magic power inside her body, she quickly noticed something unusual.
‘Wait… when I spoke just now, didn’t Tang Yuan obey without even thinking? My D-Rank ability wasn’t that overpowered, right?’
Thinking this, Su Mu glared at a bird outside the window.
The glove that appeared on her hand instantly understood her intent and shot a sharp Thread of Dominion straight into the back of the little creature’s neck.
The bird did not die on the spot.
Instead, it suddenly became stiff and mechanical.
Its previously lively body straightened, then it dropped downward in a daze, even forgetting how to flap its wings.
“Fly!”
Receiving the command, the bird flapped its wings a few times and flew upward.
Seeing this, Su Mu felt completely satisfied, her whole body practically floating with delight.
‘If this ability could work on Tang Nai… hehehehe.’
Still, Su Mu did not particularly want to test exactly how strong Tang Nai really was.
Even her normal protective magic power was already above B-Rank, let alone after transforming into Shining Form.
But people always like to hold onto a tiny bit of wishful thinking… and a bit of that masochistic streak…