Chapter 203 – You Seem to Be Drawing Me
By La Qi Xiao Xue
About half an hour later, Yuan Yuanyuan finally figured out what was going on.
As she listened to the girl below talking, she whipped out her phone and frantically scrolled through it, eventually pulling up a very old issue of the comic… then she stared at the panel where Yuan was sitting next to a vending machine, drinking a Coke.
Oh my god, that was from so many issues ago. When she first read it, she didn’t notice anything off at all. If she hadn’t just now heard something strange, she would’ve totally missed it.
Yuan Yuanyuan felt an inexplicable stomachache. She really didn’t expect someone to actually use the location clues from the comic to corner her again. This whole thing—predicting the future through comics—was actually pretty disturbing when you thought about it. But right now, she had no way to avoid it. Just Qiuqiu alone was enough of a tyrant in her life.
She looked down at the girl again. Actually, by now Yuan Yuanyuan should’ve gone home, but she suddenly didn’t feel like it. She wanted to follow this girl and see what exactly she was up to—what her true intentions were.
Yuan Yuanyuan sat cross-legged for quite a while. This girl was different from the last one who had tried to find her ahead of time. She was pretty smart and didn’t immediately start chatting with friends. Yuan could tell that this girl had come prepared, with a plan—and an organization behind her.
Yes. A “plan.” An “organization.”
Yuan noticed this because she saw a group chat on the girl’s phone… and it looked like everyone in that group knew about her coming here. It wasn’t just a one-off—this whole incident was coordinated.
Yuan Yuanyuan felt a bit dumbfounded. She didn’t realize people had gotten this crazy nowadays. Was she the one out of touch? But from what she could tell, they didn’t have any malicious intent. It just seemed like they thought it was a fun thing to do.
Their original intent was simply to try and interact with a famous comic character. It was basically just for fun. Yuan saw that the group wasn’t just interested in her—there were a lot of other characters in their “hunting” list too. From Faning to minor characters who only appeared once. Yuan snooped through the group for a while and realized she was actually pretty popular. The first reason was that she adored Big Sis, so anyone under her protection was relatively safe. The second was that she had a good-looking face.
The third reason… everyone was curious what a big monster was actually like. She was, so far, the only high-profile monster whose identity was fairly easy to trace.
Yuan Yuanyuan gritted her teeth as she searched the group number. She tried to quietly join the chat, but it was blocked—they required verification.
Her stomachache got worse from the frustration. Just then, someone messaged her privately, likely an admin or something, and started asking questions.
[Big Bro Hopijiu: What do you want?]
[Circle: …Trying to join the group.]
[Big Bro Hopijiu: What for?]
[Circle: …Roleplay.]
[Big Bro Hopijiu: Any experience?]
[Circle: …]
Yuan hesitated for three seconds… then silently took a selfie, trying to make it look like a candid, low-quality shot.
[Circle: Bro, does this count?]
[Big Bro Hopijiu: …Who’s this?]
[Circle: Yuan.]
[Big Bro Hopijiu: Are you serious?]
[Circle: Just a passerby. Let me in.]
And then… Yuan got in. Once inside, she saw 120+ members in the chat and was utterly dumbfounded.
Humans… she really didn’t get them anymore…
…
After getting home, Yuan Yuanyuan was bored, so she kept browsing the group. Actually, earlier that night, she had thought about going down to talk with the girl face-to-face, but ended up giving up.
What could she do? Was she really going to fight some random girl over this?
That wouldn’t be right… sure, if she really fought, she could shred the girl in a minute, but then she’d get blasted online for stooping so low.
It’s like when celebrities know someone’s slandering them online… just knowing it is enough. If you clap back, people laugh at you. After all, you’re not even in the same world. If you go after them, fight them, people will just say—“Wow, you really had to pick a fight over that? Why don’t you go fight someone who’s actually worth it?” It’s just pathetic.
Sometimes, staying silent takes real skill. Yuan Yuanyuan’s only comfort that night was realizing that she wasn’t the only one having a bad time. Apparently, someone else had it even worse.
There was a fairly popular supporting character from Si Qun’s side—handsome, upright—and unfortunately for him, Qiuqiu hadn’t censored him. His life was just miserable.
[Wanshenshen: Heard that guy’s gone to the psych ward. Might have depression now…]
[?? So fragile?]
[Wanshenshen: His girlfriend broke up with him because of it… depression triggered.]
[Rip]
[Circle: R.I.P.]
Each of these examples felt like horror stories to Yuan Yuanyuan. She’d shiver as she read them, then hide under her blanket… of course, to everyone else, it was just gossip. The group trashed the incident a bit, then said they’d never go that far themselves… Yuan just rolled her eyes, then someone asked where the photo of Yuan that day had been taken.
Yuan vaguely said it was in the “Peace District”… but she certainly wasn’t going to say that. She made up a more remote-sounding place—Hero District.
She browsed the chat while glancing at her alarm clock, waiting for it to hit midnight—once it did, she’d go read the latest comic.
There was something that had been bothering her lately. The higher-ups wanted her to “clarify” what happened that night when she suddenly showed up in the middle of a monster brawl and ended up killing someone. Because a bunch of students started mimicking her actions, which led to some serious incidents, she now had to personally put a stop to it.
Thinking back, it was scary. If she had known earlier that ghost monsters weren’t supposed to be on the battlefield, she would never have rushed out like an idiot. She should’ve stayed safely in the backlines.
She’d heard the student suicide incidents were finally calming down a bit, so she could relax for now. As for whether Qiuqiu would draw that day into a comic… that was the higher-ups’ problem, not hers. She’d already given her testimony.
Yuan Yuanyuan thought about all this, then looked back at the group. Since they’d mentioned Yuan, the conversation had drifted back to him. Someone asked, “So we can safely assume Yuan isn’t dangerous, right?”
“He’s not dangerous. I think even if a girl approached him, he wouldn’t react much. He’s also super easy to find. But honestly? He’s kind of boring.”
Someone chimed in, “But that face is worth looking at. Strongly recommend. As for the rest… I think the new hot guy the protagonist is hanging with is more interesting.”
“Yeah, I like that hot guy too. His personality’s just so appealing.”
“Oh oh oh! Yes, that guy. Totally my type. Feels a bit like Kurapika, but not as angsty.”
The topic shifted quickly, and soon they were talking about the new friend of the protagonist—a guy who looked very uke-coded, but was very clearly drawn as a man. Right now, a bunch of fanboys were writing serious arguments proving that he was indeed male, which reminded Yuan Yuanyuan of the terrifying wave of fanfics about Haku from Naruto back in the day. Every word was backed with citations, and every sentence made Yuan giggle under her blanket.
Damn it, how come no one ever wrote fanfic about Yuan with such emotional investment?
What they currently knew about the new character was: deep-seated blood vengeance. They didn’t know the specifics, but… yeah, that was it. Deep vengeance.
Honestly, when Yuan Yuanyuan imagined what he’d look like in real life, she kind of got the appeal… ahem. She had to admit—she and the people in this group might share some shameless qualities.
Tch… now she really wanted to know what that hot guy actually looked like. Hopefully he wasn’t like her—pretending to be a guy.
“Yuan is way too straight-laced, but man, that face is so worth looking at. If you wanna dip your toes into ‘Monster Chronicles,’ you have to start with Yuan. His area is super safe. Even Meng came back just fine last time.” The chat finally came full circle.
“Yeah, but even though he’s hot, nothing he does really matches that face, you know? Like, it’s such a meme-worthy face, but he never does anything meme-worthy. All he ever does is save Big Sis…”
[Circle: …Bro, can we talk about what exactly you mean by ‘meme-worthy’?]
“Some characters are made for angst, some for fluff, some for drama. Like the newest guy—he’s got that ‘tragic revenge’ thing going on. So dramatic! But Yuan? He’s just… a monster, a siscon, and a decent human… so what are you supposed to fantasize about with him?”
…Yuan Yuanyuan sat silently on her end of the phone.
Damn. What they’re saying makes so much sense that she’s actually speechless. This idiot literally only ever saves Big Sis. If she were them, she’d hate him too for wasting that face…
She sat there, tangled up in these thoughts, and before she knew it, it was midnight. Her stomach still hurt, but she opened the latest comic anyway.
The last issue had Faning noticing something odd about the author signature in a book, and Yuan was curious if he’d find anything, maybe even figure out who “Seventeen” was. To be honest, she thought it’d be hard—because lately, she hadn’t heard of anyone in the monster world who actually knew Seventeen.
Only the people close to her knew… but that didn’t mean most monsters did. So it was going to be tough. If Faning wanted to figure out that Seventeen and Yuan were the same person, it was going to take a lot of work.
So with that attitude, Yuan calmly opened the comic.
The first thing she saw were two lines introducing the issue:
Post-War Monster Treaty —
Clause 1: Humans shall provide yearly tributes to the monster race. In return, monsters must not attack humans without cause.
Clause 2: The human side shall withdraw from previously occupied monster territory. Monsters must not enter human lands without permission.
Clause 3: The monster side must execute Seventeen.
The screen shifted from darkness to the modern, neon-lit cityscape.
The comic didn’t explain where the three clauses came from or how they were decided.
In fact… it only mentioned the name “Seventeen.”
Pinky says: Yi Qi means Seventeen in Chinese. I’ll keep it as Seventeen.
Little Pink Starfish 
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