It was a good start.
The debut that Yun Ruoxi had exerted all her efforts to design for Lin Zhen appeared to have already garnered a significant amount of recognition and praise from the Audience.
But through her current eyes, it still seemed too weak; there was still much room for improvement.
And this was the result of review and learning.
‘My sacrifice and effort were originally meant to be revealed after Genbeier and Scarlet were moved! And Dr. Forefinger was supposed to choose to expose it early to keep Lin Zhen…’
‘The villains’ performance wasn’t bad either; I learned a bit more.’
‘This effect is actually better. As expected, villains are the best foil to highlight a hero.’
‘For next time.’
Yun Ruoxi nodded with satisfaction.
Aside from those points, there were actually many variables in this curtain call performance plan. Some she had considered, and some she had not.
However, she had made contingency plans for almost every variable that could significantly impact the plot’s development.
For instance, at the critical moment, she had pre-visualized who the commandant blocking the spaceship’s warp would be — whether it was Xia Guang from the original plot or someone else.
She was terrified that her own changes to the story might lead to the warp being prevented.
‘I’ll stop the review here for now. We’ll reach the warship soon. I don’t know how the Doctor and Behemoth are going to deal with me then, so I should claim my rewards first to give myself more protection.’
Yun Ruoxi clearly remembered that in the character setting section of the Rough Outline, she had been subjected to systematic mind control and modification because she hadn’t escaped.
Planting a Mental Brand was only a minor part of it.
To ensure that she, possessing an S-Rank Talent, was completely under control, the Saints’ hand society had also performed an Emotional Partition on her.
By stimulating separated emotions, they controlled her as a killing machine.
It sounded terrifying, didn’t it? But one had to realize that this was just the development of the original plot.
In the original story, although she had an S-Rank Talent, she wasn’t as brilliant as she was now because she lacked the help of the system, nor did she provide such powerful assistance during Lin Zhen’s escape.
It could even be said that in the original plot, the fact that Lin Zhen and the others could escape successfully was truly due to them overcoming obstacles one by one.
Therefore, Yun Ruoxi could not be certain how the Saints’ hand society would ultimately handle a “traitor who stayed voluntarily.”
Precisely because of this, she had still been somewhat hesitant at the final moment — wondering whether she should leave with Lin Zhen and the others.
She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to defend against the Saints’ hand society’s methods and would be truly brainwashed.
At the thought of being brainwashed into the “shape of the Saints’ hand society,” Yun Ruoxi couldn’t help but shiver.
‘I have to prepare more backup plans!’
She looked at her Popularity Value.
2.88 million. This was more than the total Popularity Points she had obtained in the first ten episodes combined.
However, she was already a Level 2 star energy user, and the Popularity Points required for an upgrade had also increased significantly.
Fortunately, the system had “generously” sent her 1 million.
What, you say this was a loan, not a gift?
As long as she kept taking out new loans to pay off the old ones, wasn’t it basically free? There was no interest, anyway.
Yun Ruoxi snapped her fingers happily.
First, she repaid the 100,000 Popularity Points loan from the First Season, and then she seamlessly maxed out the increased credit limit.
**[Ding!]**
**[Your system balance has been credited with 900,000 Popularity Points!]**
Yun Ruoxi glanced at her balance; it had already reached 3.78 million.
She slowly looked at the Unknown Bloodline in her Bloodline column that had remained unawakened until now.
**[Unknown Rank Bloodline (Preliminary Awakening and Perfect Awakening both require 200,000 Popularity Points)]**
‘I’ve always been curious why I, a daughter of the Nightlan Family, would have another bloodline in me besides the Night Orchid Bloodline. Now, I finally have the ability to see some of the truth behind the shadows.’
‘This deeply hidden Unknown Bloodline that can’t be extracted is suspected to be valued by the Overlord. Judging by the popularity required for awakening, it’s at least A-Rank, or maybe even close to S-Rank.’
She took a deep breath and gave the order.
“System, perform a Perfect Awakening on the Unknown Bloodline and mask the noise from the awakening for me.”
**[Masking the awakening noise will consume 20,000 Popularity Points]**
“It’s only 20,000 Popularity Points. Approved!”
**[220,000 Popularity Points deducted. Awakening in progress…]**
Following the appearance of the system prompt, lava-like patterns suddenly emerged beneath Yun Ruoxi’s pale skin, which had been washed clean by the Treatment Fluid.
Subsequently, her body temperature began to rise rapidly, breaking through the limits of human physiology at a terrifying speed and reaching 70 degrees.
The monitoring module of the Treatment Capsule detected the anomaly and was about to issue a warning.
But in the next instant —
All the abnormalities on Yun Ruoxi’s body vanished, and the records regarding the anomaly in the monitoring module also mysteriously disappeared.
It was as if nothing had happened.
The Treatment Capsule returned to silence.
The cabin was exceptionally quiet; only the slightly warmed Treatment Fluid could prove that everything just now had not been an illusion.
However, compared to the silence of the real world, the commotion in the system space was incredibly violent.
Yun Ruoxi clutched her stomach with both hands and fell to her knees in pain, letting out a shrill wail.
White and red light flashed alternately across her body.
It felt as if every cell was being stretched and torn apart.
She curled into a ball on her side, feeling as though every inch of her body was collapsing.
‘What… what is going on? Why is it so painful?!’
She struggled to open her eyes; her vision was a blur of red and white.
‘My eyes… what exactly is happening to them?’
Before she could think further, two thick pillars of light shot out from her left and right eyes respectively.
Following that, a flickering image surfaced in her mind.
Within the boundless darkness, a group of magnificent palaces, more than half destroyed, floated quietly.
A vast voice, like the heavenly dao, entered her ears like a decree —
“Mission… inheritance… journey…”
As the voice fell, her field of vision was instantly elongated. She was snatched from being a bystander outside the palace and pulled violently inside.
There, she saw a weak flame.
And —
A mysterious grapevine growing within that flame.
The roots of this mysterious grapevine were as green as jade, and the grapes were densely packed, as flourishing as Stellar.
On its surface, a layer of iridescent black flowed.
Looking at that flowing black light, Yun Ruoxi felt her gaze and spirit being sucked into it.
Her eyes gradually became dull, and her consciousness drifted toward nothingness.
The thoughts in her mind and the ideas in her subconscious collapsed and were annihilated one by one.
Just as her consciousness was about to go completely silent —
**[Ding!]**
A crisp notification sound, like a completed download, suddenly rang in her ear.
**[Awakening completed]**
Yun Ruoxi snapped back to her senses. Her consciousness was instantly kicked out of the palace and returned to the system space.
She stared at the blue prompt box in front of her, feeling as though she had just woken from a dream.