Little Pink Starfish

After a good nap, Yuan Yuanyuan dragged herself out of bed and headed out for a bite. She went to her usual spot—the pancake lady’s stall—and bought a pancake, munching on it while watching the people on the street.

The thing was, normal humans couldn’t really see her. Once she stepped into the area around the stall, she automatically faded from the perception of regular folks. So, at the moment, very few people could see her—except other demons who came for pancakes.

Yuan Yuanyuan stood there, eating her pancake, when suddenly she noticed a familiar figure approaching. The person wore a brown City C security uniform. He bought a pancake, turned his head, saw Yuan—and immediately jumped in surprise.
“You… When did you get back?”

Yuan looked at him calmly. She knew her sudden reappearance might startle people. If public interest in “Yuan” hadn’t waned a little recently, she wouldn’t have come back at all.

“I came back last night,” she said. “How’ve things been lately?”

“Pretty calm,” the man replied.

“Oh. You… finish your pancake. I’m heading back,” Yuan said, gesturing toward the small shop behind her.

“Right, right—go on back and keep resting,” the little demon said hastily.

Yuan walked off, still holding half a pancake. Halfway back, she suddenly realized something.
Wait… how did he know I was away to recover from injuries…?

*I wasn’t even really hurt! I just *pretended* to be…*

Sitting back in the shop, Yuan thought about this for a long time but couldn’t figure it out. In the end, she gave up trying—who knew what kind of nonsense people had been gossiping? She turned around, picked up the eyeless mask again, and decided to seriously study how it worked.

Why the hell did they give me a mask with no eye holes?

She even took out her toolbox—full of drills—and considered cutting holes herself.

But it seemed risky. If the organization had a rule about tampering and she disobeyed… it might cause serious trouble.

While Yuan was puzzling over whether she could drill the mask safely, on the other side of town, Gao Ling was studying the latest chapter of the Demon Chronicle manga.

What’s going on? Jiuqiu’s such a straightforward guy… This must be just a case of shipping goggles, right?

Gao Ling stared at her phone, deeply conflicted. She wanted to believe it was all in fans’ heads, but Jiuqiu had never been this… suggestive before.

This was clearly a huge hint, wasn’t it?!

Gao Ling had always thought Jiuqiu was a straight man’s straight man—so aggressively hetero that it leaked off the page. There had been a whole group of fujoshi on the Dream Manga forums shipping all sorts of male-male couples from Demon Chronicle. They’d generated so much buzz that people new to the series thought it was all about gay romance—until they read the actual manga, got blindsided by the manly vibes, and became diehard fans of the author, swearing to defend him from any accusations of queerbaiting.

But now this…

Gao Ling scratched her head and opened the forum. Sure enough, the fujoshi crowd was going wild again.

“It’s real! It’s real! Official ship confirmed!”
The casual readers, however, were unmoved, still scarred by past false alarms. One of them even scoffed,
“Oh great, the Demon Chronicle shippers are off the rails again.”
“Yeah, they’ve lost it,” came a chorus of agreement.

Gao Ling re-read the chapter. The scene only had a masked character say one thing to Yuan—his face was hidden, and there was no way to guess his identity. But based on context, it was likely someone close to Yuan. Anyone who could come to his rescue now must be a very old friend.

A bond that deep…

Gao Ling refreshed the forum again and saw that thread had exploded into triple-digit replies. As she scrolled, she saw the fangirls had started posting images.

As soon as they did, the whole vibe changed. With actual visual content, people had something concrete to react to. Suddenly, the bystanders were swept up too.

Comments flooded in:

“Wait, is this real? Is this from the official manga?”
“Yo… the artist really went there?”
“I’m gonna check this manga out.”

Even though last week’s issue had major plot development, no one was talking about it anymore. Just one lone analyst had posted a thread about it on the front page.

Last week’s story introduced a mysterious masked organization that seemed extremely powerful. Fa Ning had received a few blood-stained talismans from a deceased Taoist, and when he used one, it summoned a spirit—a “talisman familiar” that fought alongside its previous master.

The familiar told him her last master had been killed by a certain masked figure, now very infamous. But she wouldn’t say more.

It seemed like the familiar didn’t want Fa Ning to die the same way—so she stayed vague.

Interestingly, this talisman spirit was very beautiful—she didn’t have a physical body, more like smoke. Technically a ghost, but she looked like a fairy. She’d instantly gained massive popularity among male readers.

So both male and female fans were hyped last week—and the forums were lit.

Gao Ling still thought the scene with Yuan was the most compelling, though. She kept reading the comments while internally judging herself for enjoying it so much.

Then suddenly, she remembered something. She flipped through the manga again.

The comic was still unclear on why Yuan was being hunted. Last chapter hinted that he had killed some people—but Fa Ning had heard a different version: that Yuan had simply gotten too popular.

Apparently, Yuan’s growing influence in the demon world was making both humans and monsters uneasy. Some demons even resented his fame. Fa Ning even subtly hinted that some human factions wanted to suppress him too.

Was it because Yuan was a traitor? Possibly. Readers had speculated for a long time about why the higher-ups hadn’t dealt with him—perhaps they tolerated him only because they thought he’d die soon.

But lately, Yuan had done something truly threatening—something that scared both humans and monsters. That’s why he was attacked and forced to recuperate at a friend’s place.

What was this terrifying thing Yuan had done?

Gao Ling had heard it was related to illusion techniques—and the manga supported that theory. Two demons were once chatting while Fa Ning eavesdropped in disguise:

“You hear Yuan’s being hunted again?”
“I don’t think he’ll get away this time. Everyone thought he was just some decrepit old monster. Who knew he’d crawl out of the Red Sand Well and still…”

“He was strong even before. If he didn’t die back then, he probably cracked it ages ago. People said his research was worthless, but after all this time, no one’s caught up to him in illusion techniques.”

“Shhh. Don’t talk about it. Just drink.”

No one can match Yuan in illusion techniques?

Gao Ling frowned and grabbed a stack of fan-made flyers.
Not necessarily. There’s someone way better right here.

Yes, she meant Seventeen. She thought the demons in the manga were clueless—clearly not paying attention to who actually signed the illusion techniques they used. Like forgetting who wrote your grade school textbooks.

Even though that person never put a name on their work, Gao Ling leaned toward Seventeen. But that didn’t mean Yuan was the best—it was Seventeen, who was practically the teacher of the entire demon race.

After all, back then, the humans had literally drafted a war treaty just to have Seventeen executed. Could Yuan command that level of fear?

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she got. She had wanted to boost Yuan’s reputation… but now she felt like he was getting outclassed again.

How could Yuan get a redemption arc now? It’d have to be something earth-shattering. But judging from Jiuqiu’s recent style, Yuan seemed doomed to be the “cool, edgy guy who saves damsels” type—and he lacked the tragic flavor most redemption characters had.

Gao Ling sighed and kept reading.

Just then, a new thread appeared:

“The Old Man and His Friend”

…Huh?

---

Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan liked to crack open a cold soda after a shower. She had just stepped out, soda in hand, when she noticed a red slip of paper by her door.

She picked it up. On it were just a few ominous lines:

“Go to the Taoist sector. Take the talismans from one of the Taoists. If you can kill him, make sure you do.”

Yuan flipped the paper over and went “Huh?”

“This Taoist may or may not exist. If he doesn’t, retrieving the talismans is the priority. He may go by the alias ‘Fa Ning.’ His possible face is shown below.”

Underneath was a large, very familiar face.

…That’s Fa Ning. What the hell?!

Why do they want me to kill him? For some talismans?!

If she had been reading Demon Chronicle, she would’ve seen Fa Ning summon a talisman spirit recently—and the spirit had seen Tiga’s face.

Of course, Tiga hadn’t done it on purpose. Talisman spirits rarely outlived their masters, so this was an exceptional case.

Put simply, Jiuqiu had gifted Fa Ning a cheat code—this female talisman spirit was the kind of miraculous survivor you only see in novels. Technically should’ve died, but plot armor kept her alive.

But Yuan wasn’t reading the manga. She just assumed some dumb secret organization was trying to get her killed.

Seriously? You want me to go after Fa Ning now? What did I ever do to you?!

The red paper burned to ash the moment it left her hand.

Yuan thought for a second, then picked up her mask.

Guess I’ll need to hide my identity for this mission, huh?

So… time to wear the mask.