Chapter 935: with translation of chapter title

NO．58： Turning

The myriad lives in the electronic world are, to the higher-dimensional beings who overlook it, like a movie.

And if they could intervene in it, that movie would become a game.

The former Xintiao Qian was such a player, as if placed in a farming development game, using monsters as farm tools to carry out her labor.

To be honest, given the monsters' own possibilities, she could achieve far more than she imagined, but at that time she merely wanted to create a place to dwell, an ideal world to escape reality.

Thus, Cuckoo Terrace appeared.

Aside from a few colossal beasts standing like wonders, the city had no distinctive features.

Yes, she clearly possessed the power to create cities and life, yet she still favored that ordinary town.

She would even go to school as usual in the town.

Thus, the only difference between here and real life was that she had become popular.

Thus, you can see that Xintiao Qian is indeed just a high school student.

She had no grander vision, no more luxurious pursuit; all she wanted was a life that was popular and smoother.

Yet at the same time, she also grasped the power over others' lives and deaths.

This is no different from giving a minor a gun.

In fact, under the constant 'care' of a certain unnamed Kailifu, she quickly 'opened fire'.

To create a more smooth life, she created subsequent monsters to kill those who had offended her, the classmates and teachers who had displeased her, etc.

But even after doing this, she still did not completely let go to practice more radical measures, as if she had various concerns.

On the contrary, only after her own collapse did she allow her mentally mutated monsters to begin wanton destruction.

Looking at it this way, you will be more convinced that Xintiao Qian from beginning to end carried a limitation akin to a 'petty bourgeois mentality'.

'Dreaming' cannot dream big, and 'blackening' cannot be thorough either.

This is the limit of what a high school student who once escaped reality can achieve.

She evidently never made use of the developed internet to read various works, understand various ideas; even when Guli Te appeared and was clearly obstructed, she did not truly consider an arms-race-style preparation.

As a villain of this era, her quality in this regard can only be described as tragic.

The one who truly grasps the 'degree' of the opposition between the two sides is actually Yalikexisi Kailifu.

But Yalikexisi Kailifu is, however, undoubtedly a person who seeks fun.

His every maneuver is for the purpose of reaping the ultimate — the emotional fluctuations displayed when Xintiao Qian's psyche collapses.

And before that, His manipulation of the protagonist side can almost be said to be completely laissez-faire.

Under these circumstances, they could still manage to squeeze out twelve episodes, which only shows that the protagonists' lineup and quality are also quite subtle.

The excellent matching mechanism turned the battlefield into a showdown between peers, high schoolers; amidst the back-and-forth clucking of novices, Xintiao Qian still came out ahead.

She easily extracted the identity confession from 'Guli Te portraying Xiang Yutai,' and thereafter even performed an offline solo kill with a utility knife.

With such an utterly plain high school student, neither monster nor giant, she secured the victory.

If she had stabbed a bit more accurately in this segment, there would have been no subsequent events.

And even if there were later events, they still had little to do with her.

The battle she ought to have fought ended right there (x), after which came a brief period of being persuaded to awaken, relying on her own will to dismantle Yalikexisi Kailifu (at that time she was swallowed by Kailifu inside her body), a plotline helping Guli Te ultimately win.

At this point, Xintiao Qian had already walked out of that extreme mental state, and thus could no longer operate the world by controlling monsters.

So, did the other side merely snatch earlier data?

In the room filled with display cabinets and racks stuffed with monsters, after Xintiao Qian had just tossed out the newly appeared trash bag, she returned to her room and saw the displeased gaze of Hei Qian.

It was always so familiar, like looking in a mirror that reflected her former self.

"What did you go do?"

"Just throwing out trash, bah," she blinked, Xintiao Qian raised both hands, spread them, showing the slight stains still remaining, "That's something you made, hey, exactly like my past, full of model scraps, really boring."

"Mind your own business, what else do you want that's interesting?"

"At least mix in some takeout boxes or the like."

Wiping her hands at the sink beside the washroom, Qian looked with exceedingly helpless eyes at the black-haired little girl who seemed to have chosen to live as that former self.

"You can also buy some snacks to eat, oh; how are you living like you have no money from part-time work?"

"You used to be like that too."

Hearing that, the approaching Xi also brightened: "Oh! Does this count as acknowledging my junior status?"

"... Where did this senior/junior stuff come from," Hei Xi frowned, glaring at this shameless roommate, "and what gives you the right to help me clean up that trash?"

"On what basis..." Xi turned her head to survey the room that had become more spacious, "Wouldn't looking at it like this feel cleaner? You wouldn't disagree, would you?"

She turned her head, looking at Hei Xi's face with a mischievous smile: "You wouldn't even be like my former self in this regard, would you, needing to be surrounded by monster models, even scraps giving you a sense of security?"

Finally, she added: "You wouldn't be that mentally fragile, would you?"

"……"

No response, Hei Xi leaned on the swivel chair and turned away, showing her attitude with action, yet she then heard Xin Tiao Xi's voice from behind: "Actually, yeah, I used to be this bored too."

"Even in the world I built myself, I still have no life goals, my classmates are also boring, social interactions are both exhausting and forced, I might as well just get rid of all these people..."

"What are you doing?" Hei Xi couldn't help but turn her head, only to see the other person holding a broom and bending slightly.

"Sweeping the floor, isn't that obvious?" Xi said, straightening up, lifting her broom a bit, "Later I still have to mop the floor, you should be grateful! As a senior, I don't even clean at home!!"

"So why are you sweeping the floor then!"

"Because you're not sweeping the floor."

"I wasn't asking... uh, this is so annoying! Never-ending!"

Feeling as if she were about to be dragged into the abyss of stupid talk, Hei Xi's blood pressure spiked again, and then she heard the other person sigh:

"Hah—how long has it been since this place was swept... there's really a lot of dust accumulated."

"Ah——! Is this revenge?" Heixi, who could no longer bear it, glared at the other party, "Because I restricted you from sending messages to Aomo Lindun, so you're using this method to interfere with me!?"

"Too unfair! I've only been staying here this long, and only then did I finally couldn't bear it and start cleaning up!"

"Don't insult the seniors' hard‑won big cleaning motivation!"

"……"

She seemed to be serious…… Heixi, who was being scolded back, was completely stunned for a moment; then, reacting in the arc of the side profile revealed when the other party turned around, she darkened her face and said, "You're just smirking smugly at this moment."

Once my god's preparations are complete, you'll be able to watch those people disappear from the best audience seats.

"I've said it before, don't use my face and voice to say such low‑class lines—even in a tokusatsu show, this kind of line would only be for a third‑rate villain!" Xi sighed, turned her head to look over, "You can't be the ultimate."

You're really making me dislike the past more and more.

"Disliking the past?" Heixi startled, then replied disgustedly, "I'm not your past at all!"

"Eh——? Isn't it?" Xi gave a sly smile, picked up the broom again to clean the floor, "Well then, it isn't. Maybe I should just remind you that, regardless of whether you count as my past or not, you're not facing my original opponent."

You can't beat him.

"Is that Sai Luo Ultraman? Indeed, I never expected him to appear." Turning back to stare at the middle‑aged man on the screen who followed Aomo, Heixi naturally understood just how troublesome it was when he got serious.

But the way to deal with Sai Luo Ultraman is also 'written' in the works where he has appeared.

She thought of ways to ban him; even if she couldn't confront him head‑on, she could exile him—so she specially prepared BUJACK/Bajak in advance.

The Bajak monster, whether tangible or not, can lead the opponent into a sweet dream; it has no physical form in reality and cannot be attacked, only being defeated in the dream, after which it becomes corporeal in reality—a dream‑world monster.

This was also inspiration Xintiao Xi drew from the dream monster Bakugon in 《Tiga Ultraman》, and Heixi had confidence in making good use of it.

In the days before this, she and Xintiao Xi stayed together in this spacetime‑independent cottage, paying attention to the various timelines' cuckoo platforms.

Constantly manufacturing and dispatching new monster groups turned the room into the appearance Xintiao Xi was familiar with yet rejected—filled with bagged trash (though all were just model scraps).

It also made Xintiao Xi unable to stop complaining that she lived like someone working for no pay.

Xintiao Xi was obviously not tolerating it well, but she enjoyed it anyway.

Rather, Heixi had been constantly restrained everywhere, unable to outtalk the opponent or shake them with action, and was glad to find a place where she could gain an advantage.

The last time she saw the opponent looking that uncomfortable was when she reiterated the gambling rules, not allowing them to converse further with Aomo Lindun.

It's easy to see that the troublesome fellow named Aomo Lindun is the person Xintiao Xi values most; her occasional annoyed expression while typing clearly shows his standing in her heart.

That works out perfectly.

Coincidentally, that person is also the one she dislikes most, so she has taken various measures against them, the biggest being an attempt to exile them outright.

Seeing him struggle several times in his dazed state even once gave her an edge in her verbal sparring with Xintiao Xi.

Now, the position the camera is aimed at is also when the opponent is visibly struggling again; she had prepared to bring up the topic to mock them, but then saw Xintiao Xi——

Unexpectedly!

Unexpectedly, she was actually cleaning the room in an unbelievable way!

Does this guy actually want to destroy his past comfort zone?

No, even if that's the case!

Faced with this impactful scene, Heixi also didn't intend to just let it go.

She was pointing at the screen, criticizing Xintiao Xi's "stubborn mouth," preparing to launch a juice‑based hero debate, when she suddenly heard the other party laugh out loud, turned her head, and met those blood‑red eyes still just like hers.

"I'm talking about a little snake~"

"Aomo Lindun? Heh," upon hearing that, Heixi also couldn't help laughing, "That guy who's still running off to other people's Christmas parties, pretending to be mysterious about what to discuss—could he even mess things up for me?"

As the words fell, the sound broadcast from the screen came out through the speakers like this:

"The true Ultraman sleeps within your body."

"Not the one on the screen, but the true one that once possessed you."

"We may need to use some more radical methods to awaken Him."

"Radical methods……"

"For example——"

"INSTANCE!"

After that brief silence, with only those words continuing, Heixi suddenly shouted in a slightly sharp, high voice that instantiated phrase.

Then, in the next instant, the several people on the screen all became unsteady, each leaning against the wall and falling down.

And she was sitting on the chair after a few hurried breaths.

Immediately realizing something, her expression stiffened as she turned her head to look at Xintiao Xi, whose face was gradually covered by a wanton smile.

"Eh——You're panicking."

"Not at all!"