Promoted to Protagonist: Persecuted by the Meta-Narrative | Chapter 57 | Echoes of the Past | Novela.app

A young man dressed in a white lounge shirt sat on the carpet, scrolling through his phone. He was reading a web novel—an apocalyptic supernatural thriller. He had only just started the first three chapters when a supporting character named "Xin Ye" made his debut. Only then did he suddenly realize who he was. Oh, right. He was Xin Ye, that minor character who, at first glance, seemed like nothing more than a useless piece of eye candy. He had woken up from the dream. Xin Ye spent five minutes recalling everything that had happened, using the built-in memo app on his phone to jot down the details. He had escaped from Headquarters and dove into the sea to devour the Mutation Core. However, the moment he touched the Core, it vanished. Mirror had taken him to flee for their lives, but the Mirror Space had suddenly gone haywire, separating them. Now, he was sitting here in a pair of plush slippers. This place was decorated almost exactly like his old room. In fact, it recreated ninety-nine percent of his living environment before he left home. There was even a biscuit tin on the desk. However, the clue that told him at a glance that this wasn't his actual territory was also on the desk—a high school textbook. The age when Xin Ye should have been in high school coincided with the end of the "Five Years of Awakening" and the onset of the apocalypse. All his subsequent studies had been completed during his training period, an educational system that strictly separated ability users from ordinary children. A high school textbook would never have existed in his home. He tossed the phone onto the bed behind him and began to examine the room in earnest. White walls, a circular wall clock, a desk piled high with books... Aside from the white void outside the green-framed window that felt a bit like "dreamcore," the place was as ordinary as could be. Xin Ye sensed the fluctuations of his own power. He found that this space fell within the range of his ability, yet he couldn't leave directly. He was locked inside by himself. Surprisingly, the state of mind that should have been plagued by agony and anxiety due to the failure of his plan was now exceptionally calm. "Why would I do something as ridiculous as locking myself up..." Xin Ye walked to the door and tried the handle a few times, calling out for his navigation system as he did. "Xunyin... Xunyin, are you there?" His ears remained quiet. The voice that had promised to stay by his side at all times did not respond. He walked to the desk, picking up the high school textbook to flip through it. There was nothing special about it, though there were two or three thick stacks of exam papers and exercise books beside it. Driven by a sudden, strange impulse, Xin Ye grabbed a workbook and flipped to the very back. "This isn't one of those rooms where you can't leave until you finish your homework, is it? The answer key hasn't even been torn out, so I guess I'm fine..." A cursory glance showed that more than half of the exercises in the book had been completed with a high degree of accuracy. On a whim, Xin Ye flipped to the first blank page to check the owner's name. *Xin Yan.* The handwriting was neat and orderly—the mark of a good student. Xin Ye felt that the structure of the characters was very similar to his own, though there were subtle differences in the details. Feeling slightly puzzled, he set the workbook down and began checking the other items on the desk. As he usually did on missions, his first instinct upon seeing an electronic device was to unlock it. The laptop on the desk was password-protected. Xin Ye tried one at random, and as expected, it showed an error. Just as he was about to use his technical skills to bypass the lock, the screen suddenly flickered into static. When it returned to normal, the computer had unlocked itself. Xin Ye silently stood up, went back to the bed to grab his phone, and confirmed that the novel he was reading didn't have a "horror" tag before returning to search the computer. The desktop was as clean as the room's decor. Folders were neatly organized for various school subjects, containing PPTs and documents. The sections involving personal data all bore the name Xin Yan. There was a separate folder for private files, but it was empty. Aside from the default system games, the only thing downloaded on the computer was *Plants vs. Zombies*. Xin Ye suppressed the urge to click it and closed the laptop. Next were the remaining notebooks on the desk. Xin Ye placed the parts he had already looked at on his lap and began going through the exam papers one by one. The stack contained various subjects, likely not yet organized. He noticed a drawing on the side of a biology paper and pulled it out for a closer look. In the margins was a sketch of an ugly whale, with a line of small text written underneath. "Livyatan melvillei versus Megalodon—which one is stronger? P.S. It’s hard to find a reason for extinct creatures to reappear, isn't it? Even though they're cool and I really want to write about them..." Xin Ye read the line softly, his mind filling with conjectures. He placed the paper on the pile on his lap and pulled out another. Most of the papers were normal, showing excellent grades. Near the bottom of the stack, Xin Ye finally found another paper with a drawing. This time it was a Chinese literature paper, featuring a person even uglier than the whale. There were several arrows pointing away from the little figure, each leading to a short sentence. Xin Ye read them aloud, one by one. "A protagonist has to be aloof to seem cool, right? Like how I usually don't talk to my classmates..." "A serious personality is also very charming. I personally love taking notes..." "Being purely cold and stiff will result in having no friends. Would it be more interesting if they became talkative after getting close?..." "Actually, no one is perfect. Having a cowardly or weak side is also good..." "Of course, the most important thing is to be handsome. The protagonist needs a face that everyone loves at first sight. About as handsome as me should do it, right?" Xin Ye folded the paper. "What an ego. How can he call himself handsome when his drawings are this ugly?" Having finished searching through the study materials, he tried the doorknob again. The door still refused to budge. Xin Ye returned to the desk and opened the final notebook. The cover bore the name Xin Yan. It wasn't a notebook for class, but rather a compendium of various biological data, some even accompanied by pasted photos. He saw many familiar "old friends." "Telescopefish... Huh, why do the spines under its body look so much like insect legs? Virginia Creeper, White Lion, Surinam Toad, Forest King Snake, and Horseshoe Crab..." Xin Ye found the prototypes of almost every mutant he had encountered in this notebook. He even saw the *Livyatan* that had appeared on the previous paper. "The *Livyatan* was completely rejected? 'Don't use extinct animals recklessly.' Fair enough." He became absorbed, his mind sinking into the contents of the pages. There were no distractions here. The only sound was the steady ticking of the clock on the wall. Xin Ye quietly flipped through the notebook until, after an unknown amount of time, he finally reached the last page. There were no strange creatures on this page. Only a single, crookedly drawn person. The figure appeared to be wearing a coat. There were no annotations beside it, only two large characters written at its feet. "Villain." Xin Ye froze for a second, then suddenly moved to tear the page out. The person drawn on that paper was Gu Shaolou. The same phenomenon occurred once more. The moment Xin Ye's fingertips touched the little figure in the notebook, the two were torn apart. Only this time, it wasn't Gu Shaolou who vanished, but Xin Ye. *** When Mirror left the house, he did as he had for the past few days: he carefully placed the mirror shard on the bed and pulled the quilt up to cover half of it. He had been in the civilian area for two weeks now, and he had successfully managed to support himself. He felt that even if Xin Ye didn't go out to work upon his return, the money he was earning now could support both of them. When Xin Ye came back, he would have to make him give a few extra compliments. He was currently living on the outermost edge of the jurisdiction. He had managed to rent a small room without showing any identification, and the security was decent—no one really caused trouble. This was a testament to the excellent management skills of Lian Muyun’s father, the Director of the Second Branch. It was no wonder he had earned Vice Chief Leng’s trust for so many years. The money Mirror had was the paper currency Xin Ye had kept on him when he left home. Surprisingly, that old currency was still usable and had actually appreciated in value. The landlady was a kind woman; not only did she not overcharge him, but she also reminded him to exchange the notes for their current market value. Jobs in the civilian area were not easy to find. Initially, Mirror had tried to become a "Mutant Exterminator," as mentioned by the bearded man. Aside from killing mutants, he didn't have many other skills. The civilian areas were plagued by mutated rats and cockroaches that were immune to old-world pesticides and traps. Exterminators were in high demand, yet Mirror was ultimately ostracized. The reason was simple: he was too good at his job. Any ability user who went on missions for Headquarters was a veteran at dealing with high-level mutants. Handling these civilian-grade pests was as simple as sweeping eraser shavings off a desk. Mirror could finish a week's worth of work for others in a single day. This "King of Overachievers" was successfully shunned by his peers. No extermination studio was willing to hire an "unidentified mute" who lacked an ID and was hated by everyone else. The derogatory term "mute" had been coined by those same colleagues because Mirror didn't like to talk. That was only his third day in the civilian area. Having been fired late at night, he didn't know where to find another job. Today's wages were settled, but what about tomorrow? What if Xin Ye came back tomorrow? Mirror had already tried to re-enter the Mirror Space, but he found that he, an original inhabitant, was now being rejected by the space itself. It was as if some vital program was running inside the shard, brook no interference from external factors. He could sense that Xin Ye was safe, but he could learn nothing else. He could only go out during the day to earn a living and return at night to stare blankly at the shard. He wasn't sure how long this would last. It would likely continue until the day he could no longer be certain of Xin Ye's safety. Mirror stood outside the studio for half an hour before finally leaving, thinking about whether he should ask if the community sanitation department was hiring sweepers. Even if the pay was a bit lower. His lodgings were quite remote. Mirror had to take two secluded alleys to get home. He was confident that with his skills, it was impossible for him to be mugged or stabbed, so he walked with his head down, contemplating the closing time of the sanitation office and the likelihood of the older workers letting him join. Then, he bumped into someone. "Sorry, sorry... Are you alright?" The streetlights were dim. He couldn't see who he had hit and only thought to help them up, but his wrist was suddenly grabbed. Mirror saw the person's face. It was the doctor from the clinic near his apartment. Business was always poor because he looked quite fierce, but it was precisely because of his distinctive features that he was among the first people Mirror had remembered. The doctor gripped him without speaking. Mirror, being a "mute," said nothing either. The two stared at each other for a long time until the doctor finally spoke. "...My clinic is short a sweeper who can clear out mutated rats. You interested?" Mirror started work the next day. The job was close to home and paid well. He cleared mutants when there were any and swept the floor when there weren't. It was a perfect fit. The only downside was that the doctor wouldn't let him bring the shard to work. He had discovered that the doctor was also an ability user, though his level seemed so high that it was difficult to detect. Certain abilities did indeed repel each other, similar to the predator-prey hierarchy in a food chain. Out of a sense of mutual recognition between rare ability users in the civilian area, Mirror and the doctor agreed to keep each other's identities a secret. He accepted the condition and went to work. The shard was merely a medium; if it were destroyed, it would regenerate. Mirror did the work of two or three people, and his boss was very satisfied. Sometimes, when business was particularly slow, the doctor would let him off early. Today was one of those days. After Mirror finished taking out the trash, the doctor told him he could leave and stuffed some snacks into his hands. Faced with a large bag of snacks, Mirror initially tried to decline, but the boss looked like he was about to get annoyed, so he eventually took a box of biscuits. Maybe Xin Ye would come out tonight? With that thought in mind, he headed home once more. As he passed through the revolving gate, a nearby cat walked over and meowed at him. Mirror hesitated, then stopped and mimicked the way Xin Ye used to pet Tang Qiuqiu, stroking the cat. The cat seemed to find it very comfortable. His room was on the third floor—not too low to be damp, and not too high to be a tiring climb. Mirror reached the door and habitually pulled his keys from his pocket. During this time, he had swapped his Headquarters uniform for a black jacket. The pockets could hold many things, and the biscuit box was tucked inside one of them. Before inserting the key into the lock, his movements paused briefly. *Will there be someone home today?* For someone who had been accompanied since the moment of his birth, loneliness was a novel concept. He hadn't expected that after only two weeks of the word appearing in his dictionary, so much pain would leak from between the lines. He lined up the key and pushed it in. Just as he was about to turn it, the landlady's voice suddenly rang out nearby. "Xiao Ye? You're back?" The landlady lived upstairs. She had an extra unit downstairs that no one had been willing to rent. Although this young man named "Xin Ye" had no ID, he didn't look like a bad person and had a gentle manner, so she had rented it to him. "I heard some noise down here an hour ago and thought you were already back from work. I guess I misheard?" Mirror froze, not knowing how to respond for a long moment. Only when the landlady called out again did he reply, "Thank you, sister." The landlady laughed. "That's a bit random. Why the sudden thank you?" Mirror's hands trembled as he tried to turn the key several times. It finally clicked open on the third attempt. The room was barely a dozen square meters. It had no windows, and the lights were off, leaving it in pitch darkness. However, through his ability, Mirror could clearly sense the emotions of the person kneeling on the floor ahead. They were like a pool of stagnant water, incapable of a single ripple. Mirror tossed his things aside and knelt in front of Xin Ye. He reached out to touch his shoulder, only to feel a damp stickiness. His nose caught the scent of blood. The wound on Xin Ye's shoulder had not yet healed. The touch pulled Xin Ye’s spirit back from a distant, unreachable place. All the emotions suppressed by the failure of his plan and the long, quiet agony of his injuries exploded all at once. His entire body leaned forward uncontrollably. Mirror supported his uninjured arm and said, "You're crying." The warm glow of dusk filtered through the crack in the door into the small, dark room. Xin Ye knew he was shedding tears. He could only bury his face in Mirror's shoulder, blaming his lapse on the rare intrusion of light. "The light... it stung my eyes. Let me lean on you for a bit. Just for a moment." *** **Glossary** | Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 忻衍 | Xin Yan | The name found on the notebooks; likely the protagonist's original name before the apocalypse. | | 梦核 | Dreamcore | A surreal, nostalgic, and slightly unsettling aesthetic style. | | 梅氏利维坦鲸 | Livyatan melvillei | An extinct genus of sperm whale. | | 巨齿鲨 | Megalodon | An extinct species of giant shark. | | 变异种清除师 | Mutant Exterminator | A profession in civilian areas involving the removal of low-level mutated pests. | | 寻银 | Xunyin | The name of Xin Ye's navigation AI/system. |