Chapter 211: Torina's Adventure Journal

"No, I don't know, don't ask me."

Inside the Black Market, in that familiar room, the man known as One-Eared Rat gave a triple-refusal without hesitation the moment he heard Yun Mu's request.

This guy, he refused so fast! "Hey, you don't even know what I specifically want to do. At least listen to me finish before you consider it!" Yun Mu said with some dissatisfaction.

"Pfft." One-Ear—no, One-Eared Rat let out a disdainful snort, his gaze lingering for a moment on the Grey Iron Mask on her face.

Soon, he looked away and turned to busy himself with his own affairs: "Get lost, I don't have time to take care of a brat. If you really want to talk to me, go call that adult from earlier today!"

This guy actually called her a brat and told her to go call an adult over.

Yun Mu couldn't help but pout under her mask.

Although, given her current age, she indeed couldn't even be considered an adult—not even sixteen years old if she were back on Earth—the tone the other party used was still really annoying.

I wanted to interact with you as an ordinary person, but all I got in return was sarcasm and mockery. I'm done pretending, I'm showing my hand: I am actually a High-level Transcendent! With a shift of her intent, Yun Mu released her full aura, and the powerful mental energy brought by her base Spell Strength of 43 points pressed down toward One-Eared Rat's body.

Relying on her Blood Perception ability, she had long ago judged that the One-Eared Rat before her only had the strength of a Second-tier Elite.

Although he was an Elite like her, there are gaps even among Elites.

Not to mention someone like Yun Mu, who was a cheater.

With absolutely no power to fight back, the previously arrogant One-Eared Rat immediately collapsed onto the ground, a look of surprise mixed with Fear appearing on his face.

If it weren't for the fact that the Evil Mark's upgrade earlier brought about that kind of evil sensation which left Yun Mu feeling a lingering fear.

Otherwise, combined with the Evil Mark's effect of stirring up negative emotions, she would have been confident in scaring him into wetting himself on the spot!

Uh, wetting himself or whatever, forget it, that feels a bit disgusting. "Now, can we have a proper chat?"

Yun Mu's right hand held a bright silver short blade, and after casually spinning the short blade twice in her palm, she stabbed the blade into the counter, within the shadow of a candle.

【Shadow-Fixing!】

The candle, which had been flickering with firelight, suddenly froze as if someone had pressed a pause button; even the flame atop it remained in its original state.

Can it even fix the shadows of objects? Looking at the scene before her, Yun Mu thought with some surprise, though the expression on her face remained unchanged.

She leaned her body forward, resting her chin on her left hand, and looked at One-Eared Rat, who seemed to have been scared silly: "What is your answer?"

While speaking, she withdrew the mental energy she had been pressing against him, along with her aura.

"Ha!"

"Hoo, ha, ha."

After Yun Mu withdrew her mental energy and aura, One-Eared Rat, who had nearly been suffocated, gasped for air. His body seemed as if he had just been fished out of water, pouring out a large amount of sweat that soaked his clothes.

"Who, who exactly are you?"

Having finally caught his breath, One-Eared Rat looked at Yun Mu in terror.

Having lingered in the Black Market for so many years, he considered his own judgment and strength to be quite decent.

And the facts were indeed so; otherwise, he wouldn't have had the ability to secure the channel for processing Identity Cards here in the Black Market.

Yet, this Young Girl before him, no matter which angle he looked at her from, should have been nothing more than a fledgling.

She possessed the strength to scare him, a Second-tier 【Warrior】 class professional, into collapsing to the ground with just a single look.

It was hard for him not to think that she might be some big shot from above, specifically sent to mess with him! Damn the Guard Hall Chief, I give you so much money every year, it really was like feeding it to a dog! One-Eared Rat cursed in his heart.

"Rest assured, I am not here specifically to discipline you." Guessing the other party's thoughts, Yun Mu's tone sounded somewhat helpless: "If you had cooperated with me earlier, there wouldn't have been such troublesome matters."

"Pat."

She took the card containing the Comic Manuscript from her bosom and tapped it lightly on the desktop.

After injecting a small amount of Spirituality, a stack of about fifty pages of Comic Manuscript appeared on the table.

"This is?"

One-Eared Rat stood up with trembling legs, looking curiously at the manuscript that had appeared on the table.

"Read it through first." Without too much explanation, Yun Mu gestured with her hand.

"O-okay."

Although he didn't know what she wanted to do, given the current situation, it was better for him to be obedient.

Thinking this, One-Eared Rat carefully moved the manuscript in front of himself.

"Hm?"

The first thing that caught his eye was a color-painted comic cover.

The art style was completely different from any paintings One-Eared Rat had seen in his entire life.

A blonde Young Girl with large, azure-blue eyes, wearing a set of armor that had almost no practical use.

At this moment, her face was flushed red, one hand weakly supporting her on the Grass, the other hand covering the sensitive area on her chest, and a pair of legs wrapped in black silk were sitting on the Grass in a duck-sit position, looking toward the direction outside the frame.

A large amount of viscous slime was wrapped around the Young Girl's body, these fluids corroding her armor, while one leather boot had fallen to the ground on the right side of the frame, revealing the Young Girl's small foot wrapped in black silk.

《Torina's Adventure Journal! 》

This was the title of this comic, written beneath the blonde Young Girl.

The story and the plot itself, if placed on Earth, would belong to the rather cliché kind.

But placed in this world... Yun Mu was actually a bit worried that it might be too novel.

The general plot was the story of the blonde Young Girl Torina, a Brave, adventuring all the way, slaying Monsters, and finally defeating the Demon King.

It was just that in the process of fighting Monsters, there would be those little crowd-pleasing plot points—like defeat penalties, imprisonment play, Ahegao, and everything one could wish for! This is a great trial!

Let the guys of this other world wash up and lie down, ready to welcome the baptism!

On the other side, while Yun Mu was fantasizing in her heart about the comic selling like crazy and thus reaping a large amount of experience points.

One-Eared Rat had already begun flipping through the contents of the comic.

First, at the beginning, it was a very normal introduction of characters and background.

The novice Torina, fresh out of the gate, began her first subjugation commission—subjugating slimes—after preparing her equipment and items.

Unlike the slimes in reality that were disgusting enough to make one nauseous, the slimes in Yun Mu's comic were the kind that were very common on Earth before she transmigrated: soft, cute, and very bouncy.

As a novice, Torina, after simply finishing off two stray slimes, felt her confidence swell and chose to head directly to the slimes' lair to wipe them all out.

As a result, after encountering an encirclement by five slimes, she became flustered and was even tripped to the ground by a tree root in the forest.

In the end, her hands were locked by the slimes, and then— "Whoa~" As a middle-aged man, when had One-Eared Rat ever seen such a scene? He couldn't help but exclaim, then leaned his head in, wanting to see the various details on the manuscript clearly.

As a Bloodline, Yun Mu could clearly perceive at this moment that a large amount of blood was surging toward the other party's lower body—*ahem*—and finally, after being 'teased' by the slimes, Torina successfully broke free from the slimes' restraints, which was the plot on the comic cover.

And after finally successfully subjugating all the slimes and returning to the starting town to turn in the commission.

She obtained the first commission fee of her life, as well as a large amount of experience points, causing her level to increase.

That's right, levels.

This comic has a level system; experience can be gained after defeating Monsters and completing commissions.

As long as you find the front desk lady at the guild, you can add points and level up on your own character panel card.

This is a setting Yun Mu borrowed from certain Japanese-style fantasy works; anyway, since it was appearing for the first time in this world, she didn't mind claiming it as her own original creation.

Tee-hee~ 【A Second-tier Elite professional has felt deep Profane after finishing the work you created; you have gained a small amount of experience points.】 "Finished reading?"

After a long while, upon hearing the game prompt in her mind, Yun Mu saw that One-Eared Rat had already flipped to the last page of the manuscript, and after letting out a long breath, she asked him.

"Mm-hmm, finished!"

One-Eared Rat sat on the chair behind the counter with somewhat stiff movements, and he said to Yun Mu: "I have never seen such a work in my life; please forgive my previous rude behavior."

"By the way, may I ask, which Master created these manuscripts?"

"."

Yun Mu did not expect the other party to ask such a question and was momentarily speechless. She said huffily: "Of course it was me."

"This..."

Seeing the look of disbelief on the other party's face, Yun Mu suddenly thought of something and took out the Senior Painter Certification Medal she had obtained when she was certified at the Painter Association from her bosom.

"You should recognize this thing, if you still don't believe it..."

She took out a piece of white paper again, slapped it on the desktop, and then took out a pencil. In less than ten minutes, a portrait Drawing based on One-Eared Rat's face leaped onto the paper.

"It really was drawn by you?" Looking at the scene before him, even if One-Eared Rat didn't want to believe it, he had to accept reality.

"What else?" Watching One-Eared Rat's incredulous expression, Yun Mu couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Alright, no time to keep chatting with you." She said with some impatience: "I need to find someone to help me print this comic and then take it to Sell."

She paused and added: "Making money is not the point; what I need is to let as many people as possible see this comic."

"Making money is not the point?"

Hearing Yun Mu's words, One-Eared Rat suddenly thought of something, and his expression changed sharply again.

"Does this have to do with your advanced profession?" He asked cautiously.

"You could say that..." Yun Mu didn't know what the other party was thinking and just gave a vague answer.

You could say that!?

Hearing her reply, One-Eared Rat was immediately invigorated.

Many high-tier professions have similar requirements for advancement, such as Transcendental of the Painter series.

After all, if one doesn't have works that people can name, how can one be called a Master?

If that were truly the case, then what rank of professional was this Young Girl before him? In any case, definitely not an Elite, and she didn't look much like an Expert... because One-Eared Rat had seen Expert-level professionals before, and the other party's mental power was not as strong as the Young Girl's.

Is she Master-level!?

Or a Master-level preparing for professional advancement!

Wouldn't that be equivalent to half a Champion-level professional!? With such a vast gap in strength, it was no wonder he couldn't perceive any aura on the other party earlier, just like an ordinary person.

Thinking of this, One-Eared Rat's mood, which had already calmed down, suddenly became very tense again.

A large amount of sweat flowed down his back.

He had just been disrespectful to such an existence and even called her a brat? The other party only looked young; she might be several times his age!

How did he dare!?

I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead!

Must think of a way to survive! One-Eared Rat's brain spun rapidly, and soon, he thought of a win-win method.

"Um... how about you leave this matter to me to handle?" He said.

"You handle it?" Yun Mu looked at the other party with some doubt.

"Yes."

One-Eared Rat rubbed his hands obsequiously, squeezed a smile onto his face, and said: "I have some connections in this underground area; I can contact a printing factory to print your work into books and Sell them on a large scale."

"With my connections at the Guard Hall, even if we Sell this kind of publication, they will turn a blind eye, as long as I give them a portion of the profits."

"Hmm." Yun Mu pondered for a moment, looked at One-Eared Rat, and said: "Then do you have a way to expand the scale of sales?"

"This..." Facing Yun Mu's gaze, One-Eared Rat gritted his teeth: "I can try!"

"But if we do that, we have to appropriately increase the price, because only with profit can we expand the scale, and also..."

"Go on." Yun Mu said, seeing the other party's somewhat hesitant expression.

"Mm." One-Eared Rat nodded and continued: "If we want to expand the sales range to other cities, or even the entire Frost Kingdom, I think relying on just one work is clearly not enough."

"We need more painters—they don't all have to be this style. Actually, we could also establish a proper company and divide the comics into 'surface' and 'inner' versions."

"For example, slightly modify your comic into a surface version, skirting the..."

"Skirting the edge?" Yun Mu interrupted the conversation.

"Yes, yes, skirting the edge, this is a great term." One-Eared Rat didn't miss this opportunity to flatter her and said.

"We release the surface version that skirts the edge, and secretly Sell the inner version in the Black Market and other places. This way, the surface version can be published openly, and the circulation range will increase accordingly."

"And as long as they have seen the surface version, hehe." One-Eared Rat chuckled and said very confidently: "Once they know there is an inner version, I don't believe anyone can resist the Seductive temptation and not go searching for it."

"This way, the number of people reading it will naturally increase more and more."

Holy crap, a genius! After hearing the One-Eared Rat's plan, Yun Mu slapped the table and cheered.

(End of chapter)