NOVEL NEXT Ch. 7
Chapter 7
Higher-dimensional world, Lujiang mangas Website.
Bai Guzi's latest serialized manga, Special Ability × Food Chain, suddenly received an extra update at 12 AM. Many night owls who were still awake quickly clicked on it.
The new chapter wasn't long, starting right where the previous one left off. The male protagonist, Zhou Chenhao, and his two teammates had been injured quite a bit while fighting a special ability user engaged in illegal transactions at sea. However, under the treatment of the SAIDB's healing-type special ability user, the three had already recovered.
The bureau praised them for capturing that special ability user and gave them a generous reward; but at the same time, they were also seriously criticized and educated, told to prioritize their own safety in the future, and to report any incidents exceeding their mission level first instead of taking risks.
The three exchanged a quiet glance while accepting the criticism, and Zhou Chenhao flashed a bright smile. After fighting side by side this time, their relationship had become even better.
Their battle with that special ability user had taken place in the early morning, so there were basically no witnesses. The SAIDB's logistics department quickly completed the cleanup work, disguising it as "three university students heroically assisting the police in arresting maritime smugglers," which even made it onto the trending news.
At the same time, the mutated species they had eliminated also trended in another way, believed to be a marine creature suspected of being a nuclear radiation mutation.
In recent years, the number of wild mutated species had significantly increased. After being eliminated, any mutated species whose traces were vaguely detected by people would be disguised by the SAIDB logistics department's cleanup crew as "monster legends," "water monsters," "suspected new species," "nuclear radiation mutations," and so on. When netizens saw such news, most would move on after enjoying the spectacle, without thinking too deeply about what was behind it.
Other countries also concealed mutated species in this manner.
However, according to the predictions of the academicians in the research department, around the year 5030 of the Xia Calendar, which was three years from now, they would no longer be able to hide it.
By then, not just the Xia Kingdom, but the entire world would witness a massive outbreak in the reproduction of mutated species, and they would become a common sight everywhere.
It was said that the higher-ups were already discussing whether to start gradually releasing information, striving to avoid causing panic among the public. The laws related to special ability users also needed to be further perfected.
Using the narrator's explanation and extension of the SAIDB's cleanup methods to announce such a somewhat urgent and solemn future to the readers, the art style suddenly changed, showing a daily life scene of Zhou Chenhao and his two teammates eating barbecue.
The SAIDB's cafeteria was very large. As food specially supplied for special ability users, all the ingredients were naturally mutated species. Moreover, there were always people in the cafeteria, so special ability users could go eat at any time.
Zhou Chenhao was an omnivore, while his two teammates were both carnivores. The three ordered a pile of grilled meat and ate from dusk until night. The scene was warm and harmonious.
The blonde girl with low twin ponytails, Xia Xiaoxi, was the only girl on their team, yet she had the biggest appetite. Zhou Chenhao and the other teammate, Ling Feng, were already full, but she was still eating.
Ling Feng was silently drinking juice on the side. Zhou Chenhao brought back another plate of grilled skewers from the window and handed it to Xia Xiaoxi. A news notification popped up on his phone, which was precisely about them.
Zhou Chenhao opened Weibo and saw that they were still on the trending list.
The manga showed a close-up panel of the phone screen. All the other topics on the trending list were blurred out, with only two adjacent trending topics being very clear.
#Suspected Nuclear Radiation Mutated Creature Appears in D City Waters#
#Three University Students Heroically Assist Police in Arresting Maritime Smugglers#
The left side of this manga panel was enveloped in the bright light of the cafeteria, but the right side was dim. Three fair fingertips were visible at the edge of the phone, much fairer than Zhou Chenhao's thumb on the left.
On the next page, following the dim light from the right side of the phone screen, a pair of legs appeared, sitting on an edge with feet dangling in the air, clad in a blue-and-white striped hospital gown, with a pair of slippers on the feet.
The subsequent manga panels were several close-ups, as if someone was pushing the camera from the bottom up.
First was the slender ankle and half of the instep below the cuff of the hospital gown's trousers. The slipper was lightly hooked by a slightly curled foot, on the verge of falling off; next were the long fingers holding the back of the phone, the nails neatly trimmed but somewhat lacking in color; further down was a delicate and thin jaw, illuminated by the phone's screen light, as white as jade; finally, there was a pair of blood-red eyes, like magnificent pigeon's blood rubies, with long and thick snow-white eyelashes.
Flipping further into the manga, the person's full appearance was finally revealed.
Night and light intertwined as the sickly youth sat high on the edge of the hospital rooftop.
His pale and beautiful face gave him an overly exquisite, inhuman feel. His slightly long hair, as white as snow, cascaded down to the side of his neck, its tips fluttering gently in the wind.
His eyes curved slightly, and his slightly parted thin lips held a smile.
“This boring world finally has a little fun.”
……
The Little Pink Forum of the Lujiang mangas Website was the largest mangas forum in the world. Even late at night, the number of real-time online users was staggering.
【Topic: A secret signal: New character! Does anyone get it, ahhhhhhh!!】
OP: White hair, white hair, white hair! I love white hair!
1L: IP correct, turns out the average Xia Kingdom person being a white hair-con is real. (laughing-crying emoji)
2L: I get it, I get it! White hair and red eyes are my xp!
3L: A sickly and beautiful boy, white hair and red eyes, and he even has a bob cut. All my favorite buffs are stacked!
4.L: Sob, is such beauty for real? hiss ha hiss ha! [manga screenshot.jpg] He's my new husband!
5L: Holy crap, that screenshot from the 4th floor hit me right in the heart! I declare this is my next wife! Please tell me which manga this is from?
6L: It's Bai Guzi's new work Special Ability × Food Chain, how do you not know?
7L: Damn, it's by Bai Guzi? My ptsd is kicking in, I'm out, I'm out.
8L: Ugh, now that you mention it, me too... Bai Guzi's work + white hair and red eyes, that's another kind of stacked buff, isn't it? [tormented mask.jpg]
9L: Surely no one still doesn't know what happened to the last white-haired, red-eyed character in Bai Guzi's work, right? Sob, my wife, my adorable wife... [manga image of the white-haired red-eyed female protagonist.jpg]
10L: Bai Guzi's The Great Ming Spirit Master had such a terrible ending, how does anyone still dare to read her works?
11L: (Deranged) (Grabs a passerby) (Tormented mask) The Great Ming Spirit Master has an epic bad ending! Negative review! Don't read it!! (Shouting with a megaphone) The ending where the spiritual energy is depleted, the female lead sacrifices herself to awaken the World-Purifying Lotus, and ends up in a BE with the male lead, one dead and one alive, was already feeding me shit like crazy. But then the appendix in the final volume of the manga says that six hundred years later in the modern era, spiritual energy is reviving and demons are returning. I just want to ask, isn't my daughter's life a life??
12L: Exactly, since the demons will reappear a few hundred years later, my daughter's sacrifice was for nothing. Couldn't she just let the little couple live happily ever after? That's not how you do angst, is it? I can accept a well-reasoned sacrifice, but I can't accept this kind of angst for the sake of angst, especially when halfway through the serialization, Bai Guzi had clearly hinted that it would be a happy ending, a HE for the male and female leads!
13L: Electronic fraud! Bai Guzi really is luring dogs in just to kill them. Allow me to call her an old thief!
14L: (Rushes in) (Sees the white hair and red eyes and gets super excited) (Finds out it's by Bai Guzi) (About to have a heart attack) (Leaves dejectedly)
15L: Look at this man [Screenshot of the male protagonist from Spirit Master.jpg] Handsome, right? It cost him his wife. My daughter didn't even have a body left. I was crying like an idiot watching him kneel in the snow, holding the jade pendant she left behind. Damn it, I had just barely accepted my daughter's sacrifice for the world, and then the appendix slaps me in the face, telling me my daughter died for nothing. [oxygen mask.jpg]
16L: I reasonably suspect that old thief Bai is planning a sequel, a spirit master story with a modern setting.
17L: Are you guys annoying or what? Bai Guzi's last work had a bad ending, aren't the comments on the final rating enough for you to vent??
18L: Hey, it might not be entirely old thief Bai's fault. I heard some inside news that Bai Guzi's original ending wasn't like this, but as you all know, the direction of a simulated world is not very controllable. It's said that the Lujiang mangas Website provides a system to maintain the plot and try to keep it controllable, but it wasn't controlled well, and old thief Bai went crazy over it too.
19L: You believe such ridiculous news? If Lujiang had that kind of system, would there be so many works with collapsed plots and bad endings? Besides, the unknown is the most attractive part of simulated world works, right? If the plot was controllable, why would I even read simulated world stuff?
20L[OP]: I just went to take a screenshot of my new husband's beautiful picture for my wallpaper, how did the thread almost start a fight? [scared cat.jpg]
Let's not talk about Spirit Master. Let's look at Bai Guzi's new work. Food Chain is worth a read! Modern alternate universe + urban special abilities, the special ability users are divided into three dietary types, they can eat each other (crossed out) they can devour mutated species to level up. I think it's pretty interesting, everyone get in the pit! (Looks around) (Hits anyone they see with a pot) (Hits them into the pit)
21L: The male protagonist seems like a sunny and cheerful, naturally black-hearted type, not quite like the male protagonists of many traditional shonen manga. You won't regret getting on board!
22L: I heard Bai Guzi specially commissioned someone for this art style. The brushwork is delicate, the colors are bright and vibrant, every character is drop-dead gorgeous, it's a paradise for Face-dogs,waa waa waa, the newly appeared character is so handsome and beautiful too! By the way, everyone guess, is his alignment black or white?
23L: It's gotta be black. Don't you guys feel the villainous aura practically radiating from his lines? It feels like he's about to say he'll destroy the world in the next second.
24L: But the new character with light gold long hair at the end of the last chapter was a villain, right? A villain character has already been introduced, so they probably won't introduce another one in a row, right? I guess the white-haired one is a good guy!
25L: Hah, are there so few good guys who act like villains these days? Pointing you to a manga from the neighboring country, the good guys are crazier than the last, more like villains than the villains themselves.
26L: I also guess he's a good guy. He looks to be the same age as the main characters' group. Sickly beautiful boy, join the main characters' group ASAP!
27L: The main characters' group is already the classic shonen manga trio setup. A team in the SAIDB is three people, I don't think they'll add anyone else.
……
At this moment, Bai Xuechao was completely unaware of the discussions among the readers in the higher-dimensional world, because he had already developed a high fever, which had also triggered his chronic respiratory disease.
The nurse in charge of his care had been prepared for this ever since he went to the rooftop, and she methodically administered his inhaler and put him on an IV drip to reduce the fever.
Bai Xuechao slept until noon the next day, and the temperature of his forehead was still alarmingly hot.
Due to the persistent fever, his cheeks were flushed and his lips were a bit dry, yet he slowly sat up as if nothing was wrong, picked up the water kettle on the bedside table, and poured himself a glass of water to drink.
The water in the kettle had been changed by the nurse this morning and was still warm. He drank it in small sips and pressed the button on the headboard. Before long, the sound of a cart's rolling wheels approached.
A knock sounded on the door, and then the same nurse sister from last night pushed a trolley in, used a forehead thermometer to take his temperature, wrote it down in a notebook, and then deftly set up the small table, placing the congee and boiled egg from the bottom layer of the trolley onto it.
Bai Xuechao took a sip of the congee and heard Xiao 6 ask in his mind: "Host, don't you feel unwell?"
"It's alright, I'm used to it."
Bai Xuechao picked up the mutated species' egg and tapped it on the small table. Cracks appeared on the egg, which was slightly larger than a chicken egg. While crushing the shell along the cracks, he said, "Don't worry, I'll definitely be able to get out tomorrow. I won't delay the plot."
Xiao 6 displayed a teary-eyed soybean emoji in front of Bai Xuechao: "Host, when you say that, I feel like an exploiter, still squeezing you for work when you're sick."
"Is that so?" Bai Xuechao's tone was faint. "If you feel guilty, remember to be nicer to me."
Xiao 6 nodded: "I definitely will!"
It was only after Bai Xuechao peeled and finished the boiled egg and took a sip of congee that it reacted.
What did it just agree to again???
Bai Xuechao had a few more sips of congee and then stopped eating. The nurse cleaned up while he got out of bed.
This hospital room was specially set up for Bai Xuechao by the organization. He pulled open the thick, blue medical curtain that had been drawn shut, revealing behind it furnishings that resembled a clean and tidy home, fully equipped with household items. The entire ward was a hidden gem, like a hospital room and a hotel room combined.
Bai Xuechao went to the bathroom to wash up, and Xiao 6, seeing this kind of hospital room for the first time, cried out in his head.
While he was washing up, a wave of nausea suddenly rose in his stomach, and he threw up all the food he had just eaten into the toilet.
Xiao 6 was startled and quickly asked: "How are you?"
It knew Bai Xuechao's health was poor, but it didn't expect that even eating a meal would make him vomit.
"It's nothing, I might have eaten a bit too much." Bai Xuechao calmly returned to the sink to rinse his mouth.
Just then, the phone on the sink counter buzzed twice.
Bai Xuechao received a message. The sender's contact name was a golden star pattern.
[Star: I got that mission.]