Yun Ruoxi’s right palm rapidly spread ice, and the wounds on her palm and chest that had been bleeding profusely were all temporarily sealed.
The gushing blood finally stopped completely. Beneath the visor, the girl’s pale complexion eased slightly.
‘As expected of the protagonist of a whole world—his strength and trump cards are unreasonably tyrannical, with endless tricks. He even made me stumble repeatedly.’
‘This time, if not for the fat on my chest cushioning the force of the fatal blow, I would probably have been run through by Lin Zhen’s knife.’
Of course, even if her heart were pierced, Yun Ruoxi was fully confident she wouldn’t die.
She could completely use her doppelganger’s supernatural power [Power of Harmony] to heal herself, not to mention she could temporarily exchange Popularity Points for powerful life-saving skills like [Vitality Stimulation].
This was also the main reason she had dared to walk on the edge of a knife. However, unless absolutely necessary, she didn’t want to go that far.
After all, this body was always under the strict surveillance of the Saints’ hand society.
A sudden healing ability of unknown origin would have no reasonable explanation, and the subsequent cleanup would likely be so troublesome it would make her want to kill herself.
‘I’ve been complaining about being a bit too big, but now it seems being bigger has its uses.’
At the age of eighteen, Yun Ruoxi’s body had already developed to a B cup. According to the growth patterns of interstellar humans, who usually develop slowly until age twenty, her body might even glimpse the scenery of a C or even D level.
But this size was really a bit too big for her. On normal days she just thought of them as two troublesome lumps of fat; if they grew further, how unbearable would that be.
Yun Ruoxi raised her right hand, pulling back her wandering thoughts. She silently stared at the gruesome wound sealed by ice on her right hand, a flicker of complex emotion in her eyes.
With the battle having reached this point, in such a short time, she had been caught off guard and injured by Lin Zhen twice in a row.
The first time was just a minor flesh wound, but the second was a chest injury that nearly killed her, coupled with Lin Zhen’s earlier eerie transformation that completely slipped out of control.
She could no longer deceive herself with excuses like ‘I was afraid of hurting Lin Zhen, so I didn’t go all out’, or ‘I can’t be OOC’, or even ‘Lin Zhen could only hurt me because I gave him weaknesses with my hostility’. She had to seriously reflect.
Admittedly, she didn’t even have to use full strength; just being a bit more serious and using about 50% of her power would mean Lin Zhen wouldn’t even be able to get within a thousand meters of her before she crushed him like a soap bubble.
But when all was said and done, she was still hurt by Lin Zhen after all. Strong against weak, third-level against second-level, with intent against unaware… She had held back.
But wasn’t Lin Zhen also facing an absolute disadvantage that even a top-tier player would shake their head at, with a desperate resolve of nine deaths and one life, going all out in a fight to the death against her?
From the very beginning, he didn’t know she would deliberately hold back. So if she messed up, she messed up.
Yun Ruoxi had always known. Ever since the First Season achieved great success and she became a top-tier character, her mindset had subtly changed without her noticing.
With the system in hand and knowledge of the plot, she subconsciously regarded everyone around her as pieces on a chessboard, manipulating them at will.
That her original body was brainwashed, modified, closely monitored, and even set up with a fatal reserve move—she didn’t care, treating it all as part of the plan.
Even if the plan failed, she had the doppelganger, Neural Isolation, and a huge amount of hidden power that even Dr. Forefinger couldn’t know about, enough to guarantee her absolute safety. So she became arrogant, bold, and cautious.
Boldness and caution were never opposing traits in her. She was bold because she knew she couldn’t die; it was boldness based on caution. Like the barefoot don’t fear the shoe-wearers.
In the beginning, she had nothing, so to revive her parents, even dying on the road was fine. But afterwards, she had more and more to lose.
Her younger sister, friends, companions, the audience’s love and power. Like finally putting on shoes, she began to fear loss, losing the initial drive to burn her bridges.
Even her goal gradually became reviving her parents, finding a remote planet to live in seclusion, opening a small clinic, and living a peaceful, stable life. Until today… she was shaken awake by Lin Zhen.
Over these five years, Lin Zhen’s speed of growth was no less than hers, who held the system. In some ways, it was even more rapid and terrifying. Yun Ruoxi had never realized what was wrong with the change in her mindset.
When she was at the second level, she didn’t have a means to one-shot kill a three-star energy user. So, after that exchange just now, she saw a possibility that even chilled her to the bone.
With Lin Zhen’s current paranoid personality, combined with terrifying strength and execution ability, perhaps one day she would really be unable to defeat him, and he would forcibly take her back to “correct” her, forcing her to become the “Yun Ruoxi” she had previously performed as.
That “Yun Ruoxi,” she also liked very much, but ultimately it wasn’t the real her. She only wanted to be her unique self, not a puppet in anyone’s eyes.
‘I must adjust my mindset, use that “empty cup mentality” to face any future battle or performance! Accelerate my growth speed to ensure Lin Zhen can never defeat me no matter what.’
Yun Ruoxi clenched her fist tightly, adding another firm resolve in her heart.
‘And also find a chance to correct Lin Zhen, who has become a yandere!’
Now Lin Zhen dared to stab her chest—though he did it unknowingly, he said it was a move reserved for her—showing how terrifyingly paranoid he had become. Maybe in the future, even if she confessed everything, he would only think she hadn’t been deprogrammed.
Or, even if he believed the truth, he still wouldn’t let go, insisting on trapping her by force, even using violence and doing more extreme things, like using “Little Lin Zhen’s gun” to stab her. What’s with “body first, heart later”… That would really turn a straight line into a dead end!
These guesses were certainly absurd, but not impossible.
After all, how terrifying yandere and gravity-type characters could be, Yun Ruoxi had already seen in the animes she watched in her past life! Nip it in the bud. Yun Ruoxi, now awakened, planned to start working on changing Lin Zhen’s mindset.
But… How should she start changing it? Yun Ruoxi thought it over, and currently only one path seemed feasible—transfer Lin Zhen’s love for her to someone else.
Hmm, transfer it to Zi Jiu. A woman chasing a man is like a thin veil; as the original male and female leads, there must have been hidden feelings between them, but because she butted in halfway, it gradually…