Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 25 First Update (Bonus for Landmine)

The long blade let out a humming sound, its silver-white body meeting the black hair as if sparking with electric light.

The moment they touched, the hair spread, tightly wrapping the long blade, enveloping it.

Like tree branches, it grew and stretched in an instant, binding all ten long blades.

“Hmph,” the ability user let out a scornful snort. His eyes were dark-rimmed, his face still flushed with a sickly pink.

“Useless spell-type,” he mocked.

At the same time, his black hair surged, swarming like locusts, forming a massive encirclement stabbing toward the youth.

The shift in the situation made Yi Xiangnan, hiding nearby, clench his fists in worry.

But soon, he realized his concern was unnecessary.

The black-haired youth’s stern expression didn’t change.

Since saying “C-rank,” he hadn’t spoken again.

He was taciturn, silent, his crimson eyes indifferent as if devoid of any human emotion.

But when he raised his hand again,

Thirty long blades materialized in the air, filling half the sky, as if an inexhaustible, endless supply.

The blades’ humming roared like thunder, forcing its way into everyone’s ears.

With the youth’s casual wave, the blades shot forward like lightning, appearing before the ability user in an instant!

They moved like fish, like migratory birds crossing the horizon, their arcs of light slicing through.

They were the most frenzied weapons, vowing not to stop until they claimed the enemy’s head!

And the black-haired youth standing at their center looked over coldly.

He needed no words.

“Obstructing me!” the C-rank ability user roared, his excess hair stretching to trap the blades that reached him in an instant.

But he grasped at nothing.

Three long blades arced through the air, turning to slash their sharp edges down on the hair, clearing the obstacle ahead.

The black encirclement broke open with a few strikes, revealing the two figures.

In that instant, severed hair scattered in the air, like black willow fluff.

Yet the black hair still pressed forward, while the remaining blades seemed to abandon defense, a dozen tips piercing toward the ability user, glinting with blinding sunlight.

The sharp hair lunged at the youth simultaneously.

As if in the next second, they would pierce each other through.

...

Several times, Li Li thought she was about to mess up, but she steadied her expression, maintaining an indifferent facade.

In reality, she was intently observing the target’s ability.

Both being long-range, her chosen disguise as a “spell-type conjuring long blades ability” didn’t offer much advantage.

It was normal for it to devolve into a situation like a head-on snipe.

Both were C-rank, with similar range and strength constraints, so trading blows like this was pointless and she didn’t want to reveal other uses of her ability.

The target had plundered many mimicry-type abilities, and the bounty information provided details on some of the stolen abilities.

The victims’ families truly wanted this person to pay with his life.

Among them, she saw a mimicry-type ability with extremely high defense, but its weakness was glaringly obvious.

When facing the target’s attack, watching the sharp points about to pierce her body, she was thinking about forcing him to defend first!

As long as the target used that ability, she could end this fight immediately!

...

The long blades and sharp black hair surged in opposite directions.

At this critical moment, scales burst from the C-rank ability user’s arms, his nose elongated, and he transformed into a crocodile, opening his jaws to bite down on three blades.

The long hair that nearly struck the youth dissipated into the air.

A person could only use one ability at a time, so the C-rank ability user chose defense, abandoning his attack.

The remaining ten blades struck the scales on his limbs and chest, their tips clashing with the hard armor, sparking electric light.

“Crack!”

The bitten blades made a snapping sound.

The ability user, now crocodile-like, let out a cold snort: “You can’t pierce my defense!”

But at that moment,

“Pfft!”

Two blades suddenly appeared from the side, stabbing into his eyes the moment he saw them.

He instinctively released his jaws.

The crocodile’s weakness was its eyes.

The moment they were attacked, he couldn’t help but feel the urge to flee.

“Imperfect ability!” he roared.

The downside of plundering was that abilities couldn’t be obtained as completely as through bloodline inheritance.

Newly acquired abilities came with increased restrictions or even reduced ranks.

This time, his restriction was intensified: losing the will to fight and craving escape the moment his eyes were injured!

With this roar, the ability user reached out, his scales fading as he tried to pull out the blades piercing his eyes.

But by then, six blades, freed from the hair’s grasp, had appeared before him.

After a few muffled thuds, the C-rank ability user fell to his knees, his upper body pitching forward onto the ground.

The youth hadn’t moved a single step from start to finish.

His crimson eyes coldly observed everything, showing no trace of emotion even in victory.

His gaze held no impurities, as if only his target existed in his eyes, and nothing else—not even Yi Xiangnan, whom he saved—could leave a shadow in that red.

Yi Xiangnan stared blankly at the figure, a sudden thought striking him.

Faced with that overwhelming attack, why didn’t the youth choose to defend?

The youth was like a sharp sword, like the blades he controlled.

He was immensely powerful, unstoppable, and utterly mad.

...

After dealing with the target, Li Li maintained her icy expression, aware someone was still nearby.

“Come out,” she said.

Her new persona was also an iceberg, but the silent, stoic version—her idea of “Sealed Heart, Locked Love 2.0 Li.”

She was done with building bonds; she was going for the high-end lone wolf route!

But that didn’t stop her from sticking to her usual style, like ordering people around.

The last person she bossed around, Yiming, wasn’t here, but this passerby seemed obedient enough.

At her words, Yi Xiangnan hesitated, then timidly poked his head out from behind the wall: “Bigshot, you calling me?”

He looked terrified of her but, with his favorability maxed out, cautiously showed himself.

Li Li pointed at the target, then noticed the passerby flinched and hugged his head when she raised her hand.

Recalling how she’d just raised her hand to unleash blades, she understood.

She had no intention of building a friendly persona anyway.

Being feared was better.

“Carry him, follow me,” she said curtly.

She turned and walked away, giving the passerby no chance to refuse.

He wouldn’t refuse anyway.

As she expected, after seeing her leave, Yi Xiangnan barely hesitated before hoisting the C-rank ability user onto his back and catching up.

He followed without a word, obediently trailing behind.

And he kept following until evening, after Li Li completed a dozen tasks.

When the receptionist handled her handover, their smile was strained: “Congratulations on completing the bounty. Any other needs?”

Nearby, people whispered: “How many times has he been back this afternoon?”

“Seems like all mid-level bounties…”

“When did this bigshot show up?”

Just as the receptionist thought Li Li would take another task, she said, “None.”

She was tired.

Li Li glanced at the time. It was almost time to leave the manga world.

But as she was about to exit the Bounty Hall, all the lights suddenly went out.

Li Li’s steps toward the exit paused.

The sudden change startled everyone, and the chatter grew louder.

Amid the noisy hall, a mechanical female voice echoed from all directions.

“Announcement, announcement, announcement.”

The sound seemed to surround them, flooding into everyone’s ears from every side.

The massive screen in the Bounty Hall flickered with shifting lines. All low- and mid-level tasks vanished, and the gaps between the three panels disappeared.

Finally, a single line of large text formed.

“SSS-rank bounty, Illusionist, Heige.”

The announcement repeated three times, and the entire hall fell utterly silent.

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

Li Li slowly blinked.

She hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly…

Rather, she hadn’t expected the Ability Guild to handle it publicly instead of privately.

The guild’s internal unity was clearly lacking.

After the announcement, the crowd erupted, their clamor instantly drowning out the mechanical voice.

“It’s actually SSS-rank! SSS-rank!” Yi Xiangnan, who had followed Li Li all afternoon, couldn’t help but exclaim.

“This is a task that, if completed, lets you leap from commoner to noble!” he said excitedly.

It was the temptation of crossing class boundaries!

“Will many people take it?” Li Li asked casually.

She looked at the giant screen and the description of herself on it.

Concept-type illusionist, Heige.

She could almost hear the sound of trouble rushing toward her endlessly.

Hearing Li Li’s question, Yi Xiangnan was surprised.

This was the first time the bigshot had actively asked him something.

But the question was simple: life or status? Most people chose life.

An SSS-rank bounty wasn’t something ordinary ability users could touch.

Only fools and madmen would gamble their lives for that fleeting status.

Before he could answer, amid the noise, he heard the bigshot muttering to themselves.

The black-haired youth stared at the screen, his profile gaunt, his tone utterly certain.

“No matter what, the one who succeeds in the end will be me.”

His voice was soft, but to Yi Xiangnan, it was strikingly clear.

The SSS-rank bounty seemed already in his grasp, his prey.

But that was SSS-rank!

Yi Xiangnan couldn’t help but step back.

He felt he hadn’t misjudged. The youth before him was a madman.

A complete, reckless, ever-burning madman!

The youth was a blade, and in the end, it would pierce someone’s chest.

Either his enemy’s—or his own.

...

[Opening the passage for you… Welcome back to reality.]

At midnight, the manga updated on time, and Li Li, exhausted from the day, pulled up her blanket and went to sleep, unbothered.

The next day, she groped for her phone and lay in bed reading the manga.

She had no morning classes today.

This chapter picked up right after the last one.

Yiming was found by Tang and the boss in the ruins of the Qing Tong organization.

The rain hadn’t stopped. When Yiming woke, he felt water droplets.

They were Tang’s tears.

The emerald green-eyed girl was terrified, standing beside him, holding his hand and using her healing ability, saying, “Wake up, big brother!”

But Yiming’s first reaction upon waking was, “I’m sorry.”

He opened his blue eyes, staring blankly at the rainbow-streaked sky.

“I couldn’t bring Li back.”