Little Pink Starfish

Who is Seventeen?
This was the hottest question being asked in the comment section of Monster Chronicles lately.

Everyone was fascinated by this character who had only been mentioned by name, never shown in person. He felt like a mysterious benefactor—you could just stumble across him, and he’d hand you some martial arts manual, and then bam, you’d be a master.

The only catch was, the manuals he handed out might not be from the “righteous” sects.
But no one really cared about that anymore. These days, fewer and fewer people minded such things. So Seventeen blew up instantly—but the way he blew up differed depending on who was talking.

Among normal people, he was “normal-famous.”
Among not-so-normal people, he was “not-so-normal-famous.”

Gao Ling had just drawn what she saw at Experimental High and posted it online.
As expected, it blew up overnight.
The next day, she saw she’d hit the recommendation list for the first time ever.

She was a bit shaken. This was the highest ranking she’d ever reached.
And the comments? So many she couldn’t keep up.

Gao Ling scrolled through them one by one and saw a flood of messages:

“Thank you, Goddess, for making my beloved Yuan look so handsome!”
“My Yuan finally looks cool now!”
“AAAAAH! Finally doing justice to his face—Goddess, I think your version is better than the original!”

Better than the original? …Not really.
All she’d done was draw based on things she’d speculated about Yuan.

For example, maybe Yuan had been seriously ill. Maybe he’d suffered great injustice.
She sketched out those ideas with her own interpretation… plus a little bit of her own life experiences.

Like that time she got saved at the comic con.
Or what happened at Experimental High.
She looked at the readers wailing in the comments, saying things like:

“My Yuan is handsome, but why is his fate in the original so tragic?”

Girl, this isn’t even that tragic. Trust me, Gao Ling thought. It could be worse.

She changed into her clothes. Even though the comic’s reception had startled her, she had other things to do.

Today, she had a meetup with some local people—admins of her chat group, plus a few friends.
Everyone in the group wanted to know who Seventeen really was, so the group admin arranged a meet-up to brainstorm.

She took a cab and arrived at a café. After giving her name, she followed the waiter inside.
When she entered the room, she saw two teenage girls in school uniforms, textbooks spread out in front of them.
They’d clearly come straight from class.

“Hey! You’re here!”
The more quiet-looking girl greeted her excitedly. Gao Ling smiled and sat down, ordering a tableful of snacks.
They began chatting.

“Any news on Seventeen?” Gao Ling asked.

The more energetic girl beside her sighed. “Ugh, don’t even bring it up. I just asked my dad yesterday and he nearly beat me half to death.”

“He beat you? Why?!” the group admin quickly turned her attention to the girl. Gao Ling figured this was the monster girl she’d heard about.

“How should I know? He just beat me. I asked the boss first who Seventeen was, and the boss told me to ask my dad. So I asked, and he went off on me…”

“Pfft. If the boss said that, then obviously you shouldn’t have asked your dad,” the admin laughed.

…

Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan—who had just thrown Tang Shi under the bus—wasn’t feeling the least bit amused.

Because she knew her own problems were about to begin. And it was going to be disastrous.

Last night, she’d read the update, dozed off in a daze, only to wake up shivering from a sudden temperature drop—along with the unmistakable presence of murderous intent.

“Whoosh—BANG!”

In the middle of the night, a massive ice chunk crashed onto her bed, nearly scaring her to death.
It wasn’t just one—it was a barrage.

She hadn’t even finished putting on clothes before fleeing.
A mob of monsters was on her tail, hunting relentlessly.
They were clearly experienced: some were torching the air, others were soaking the ground before freezing it.

Yuan Yuanyuan cursed herself for being so naive—how could she be dumb enough to sleep at home so carelessly?

These monsters had never intended to let Seventeen live.
Now that the truth was about to come out, and their lies were on the verge of being exposed, of course they’d want her dead.

To do otherwise would be out of character for monsters.

She felt like she’d gone back in time—running not with reason, but with raw survival instinct.

She hid inside a shopping mall. Monsters couldn’t openly slaughter in crowded places.
Still, Yuan had a bad feeling. They might send in illusion specialists soon.

She wandered aimlessly through the mall, grabbing a large hat and an overcoat to hide her face.
She still couldn’t dispel her illusion magic—so she was walking around wearing Yuan’s face, plain as day.
No choice but to cover up.

As she passed a display mirror, she caught a message written in lipstick:

“If you die now, then…”

Before she could finish reading, the writing vanished.

Yuan Yuanyuan began to suspect that every time Jiuqiu appeared, he was using illusion magic.
She’d never considered that before, but as her understanding of magic grew, old mysteries were becoming clearer.

She used the Qipan Jue to sense the rising number of monsters entering the mall.
The number of humans nearby was thinning fast.

They were setting up an ambush.
Just like Jiuqiu said: if she died here, everything would vanish into dust.

Everything so far would become a dream.
No one would ever know there had been a “Yuan Yuanyuan,” a cursed stand-in, dragged in and forced to play a role for so long.

She wasn’t even worried about what would happen to the comic if she died.
Last time Seventeen died, they just dragged her in as a stand-in.
If she died now, they’d just find a new “Fang Xixi” or “Cha Chacha” to take her place…

She just didn’t know how long the next one would last, or whether they’d mock her for being too weak.

God, when she thought about it like that—it was so damn frustrating.

Yuan Yuanyuan bit her lip, stared at the monsters just beyond a wall, and slowly drew her twin blades.
She crept toward them.

Stay calm.
Think about how you did it last time.

If any monster in the world could write a thesis titled “How a Trickster Monster Survives a Group Battle,”
Yuan Yuanyuan might be the only one qualified.
Sure, she was weak—but she had experience.

In fact, she might be the only monster with that kind of experience.

She drew her blades, imagining the feeling of slicing someone’s throat.
She scanned the group, locating the leader.

It was the one standing at the highest point.

She locked eyes on him, spun her blade once, and shouted encouragement to herself.

Then in a flash, she appeared beside him and drove her blade into his throat.

The monster gurgled, his breath caught in his throat.
Yuan Yuanyuan pushed the blade deeper, feeling blood splash into her eyes.

She struck fast and retreated just as quickly.
In the next instant, the place exploded into chaos.

Monsters looked up to see someone stepping out—his blade dripping blood, hair matted with it, a few splatters still on his neck.

He looked up, blood on his lips, and wiped it away with a calm hand, leaving a thin red smear at the corner of his mouth.

The others suddenly realized who had just been standing there.

Their eyes widened.

“Just killing a big monster isn’t enough~ I think the comic needs a really good fight scene to develop Yuan’s character~”

The man standing by the mirror at the mall entrance glanced down, stomped the mirror to pieces,
and walked out slowly across the shards.

…

“Hey, what’s up with that mall?” Gao Ling asked, stepping outside and noticing all the lights inside had suddenly gone out.
She remembered that mall usually stayed open later.

Tang Shi frowned and looked back.
After a moment, she pulled her friends away. “Let’s go. Don’t look.”

“Oh? Okay.”

As the three walked away, once they were out of range, Qiu Ling suddenly said,
“Tang Shi… you looked pretty cool just now.”

“Huh? Really?” Tang Shi turned and grinned brightly.

“You did. But now that you’re smiling like that, you look dumb again.”

Tang Shi turned away and wiped off her smile.

“What happened in there?” Gao Ling asked, still curious.

“Someone was fighting,” Tang Shi replied. “Don’t know who, but it smelled really bloody. Definitely not someone to mess with. Let’s head back.”

“I used to think life was so safe, but lately it just feels more and more dangerous,” Gao Ling said with a laugh, then waved goodbye and left.

She was holding a notebook filled with notes—and tucked between the pages were a few leaves.

She thought of what that monster girl’s dad had told her:
“Go read your Trickster Arts book.”

So Tang Shi, that curious little girl, read the book.
And then she found something.

It was vague, unclear, and she wasn’t sure if it was real.
But if it was…

Then that meant the textbooks they were studying now… were written by someone named Seventeen.

God.

Gao Ling suddenly looked up again.
Somehow, a crimson, fire-like glow had appeared in the sky—like blood smeared across the horizon.

She hadn’t thought much of that night at the mall.
But over the next few days, even as a human, she started to hear some explosive rumors…

Apparently, something huge had happened in the monster world.
The monsters were going nuts.

She didn’t know the details—
But once the next issue of Monster Chronicles dropped, she found out just like everyone else.

Yuan had carried out a brutal massacre among the monsters.

Gao Ling’s first thought was: No way.
Not him.
Impossible.

But the facts were right there in front of her.

She couldn’t deny it.

She stared at the panels in shock.
Yuan slaughtered wave after wave of monsters with effortless movements.
It was him.
They couldn’t even fight back.

Standing in a pool of blood, blood dripping from his blade,
a red smear on his lips.

Vines coiled endlessly around him like a blooming flower.

Even the power on the page made Gao Ling tremble.
What would it be like in real life?

“How does a trickster-type monster even survive in a battle like this?”

“All the monsters were stunned. No one had expected that a trickster monster could do something like this.”

“The entire community was shaken by this unprecedented event. Trickster monsters, once nearly extinct, were now seeing a revival.”

“They had their god. They never thought a once-dead trickster monster could rise again—but now they saw it.”

“And just as the monsters celebrated in a frenzy… Yuan disappeared. No one knew where he went.”

Gao Ling didn’t understand why the trickster monsters were so ecstatic.

All she could think was—

This person she’d met a few times had suddenly massacred so many.

It completely shattered her worldview.

Her fingers rested on a page of her trickster manual.
She still didn’t understand it—but she’d brought it back with her.

She ran her fingers over the leaf… and suddenly felt afraid.

Trickster arts…

Was this what they meant?