In this half a month, Ye Ruo spent her days peacefully.
She still continued her training every day for 2 hours in order to be able to stand up and walk again. Although she wanted to add more hours, Han QiuRan didn't agree with her request. That day, doctor Wen couldn't find anything wrong with her body. Her wound healed well but her uncle and aunt still couldn't put their heart down. They nagged her for days and strictly forbid her from moving around too much.
As for Shen ZhongMing, except for that one time, she never saw him again. He seemed to forget about her. However, Ye Ruo didn't care at all. Such a trash man was not worthy to be her father.
"Shen Ruo, look at the doll my brother bought me yesterday.", a little girl in a pink dress held a big blue dolphin doll in front of her face, showing off in an arrogant manner.
Ye Ruo looked at her indifferently. At the moment she was in the middle of having a conversation with Zero when suddenly this annoying chatterbox appeared and started to rambling as she likes. Ye Ruo felt her temples throbbed.
Zero: [Never thought that you will meet the female lead this early. Hehe~ look how tender and lovely she is. Even I want to pamper her... ckck...]
Ye Ruo rolled her eyes inside: "Shut up! If you like her, why don't you change the host and use her instead?"
[Hss... What are you acting so fierce about? I am just appreciating beauty ma~ No matter how much she exceeds you in many aspects, you'll be the only one for me.]
She hmph-ed coldly. This man had such a honeyed mouth. If not because he didn't have any other choice, she doubted that he would even spare a glance at her.
"Wei! Are you mute? You can't talk?", seeing the girl opposite her only stared at her without uttering a single word, Qian Xue was displeased.
She painstakingly asked her elder brother to buy her this limited edition dolphin doll. This doll was very popular nowadays. It could sing if she pressed a button under its belly. It was designed very cute too. When she showed this doll to her other girl playmates, they would show her envious expression. She thought that she could see the same reaction from this girl...
" Ahh~ I remember now. My parents said that the elder brother of yours is not born by your mother. No wonder you both aren't close. Of course, he will not have time to visit and give you gifts.", Qian Xue mocked her, trying to add oil into the fire.
"Also I heard, your father love him and his mother more than you and your mother. Che... this young miss in fact feels that you are quite pitiful. Too bad nothing I can do. sigh*"
Inside Ye Ruo's mind, Zero clicked his tongue.
[Such a young age but she already has a sharp tongue... Little Ruo, don't you feel angry?]
Ye Ruo sneered: "Who do you think am I? I am a Rank-S task taker ma~ Just this little provocation, is it worth of me to waste my energy by getting angry? Which kind of characters I haven't met? You should stop belittle me from now on."
Zero: [Hehe~ Don't be upset, don't be upset. I am just kidding. I know that my family Little Ruo is such a competent soul. How can a little girl from a lower plane compete with you?]
Ye Ruo wasn't affected by his flattering. She just slightly creased her brows.
"Zero, I just found something is not right. This task is categorized as E-grade. But I feel that the difficulty is much higher than usual. It took a long time for me the past before I finally raised into a Rank-D, so I can't be more familiar with the pattern. But this task..."
Zero mockingly interrupted: [Ah, you finally realized? Quite slow, aren't you?]
Ye Ruo didn't get stirred by his tone. She continued, "In such an E-grade task the matter about the main lead's halo, it usually manifests in the forms of above-the-chart appearance, power, wealth, and luck. As for the final bosses or the main villains, their overall situation will not be any worse than the main leads. It is the same state as those male and female secondary characters. But, when it comes to those small cannon fodder side characters... their fate can be described as the most pitiful."
Zero: [Hmm~ Your point is...?]
Ye Ruo: "Based on the storyline, Shen Ruo is supposed to be part of those secondary characters faction. She was born as the only legitimate daughter of a wealthy family and loved by her mother and her maternal family. Her luck can be considered good although her physical state couldn't be compared with the male and female leads. She will later fall in love with the male secondary character, although it is unrequited."
"But, after half of the storyline, in the end, she doomed to perish in the middle of a confrontation between the male lead and the final boss fighting over the female lead."
Zero: [Hehe~ I understand your evaluation in this part. But I don't find it odd if as a female secondary character Shen Ruo will die in the end.]
Ye Ruo: "I am not finished yet. Please, don't cut my words."
[Fine... go ahead and continue then. I am listening.]
She always thought that hearing Zero's low laughter is very irritating. But after this half a month, she found that she couldn't win him in any arguments. Not to mention he was such an extraordinary powerful existence who didn't even need any efforts to pinch her to death. It was foolish to just confront him head-on. Thus, she could only swallow back her grievance.
"Every time when I entered a plane and started to receive the storyline, 6RD would give me additional data. Although I said it is additional, in fact, it is very important. That contains the comparison statistic between me and other characters I will have to meet or have a relationship with."
Ye Ruo paused for a bit but after she didn't hear any responses from Zero, she unhappily continued, "After completed countless tasks I found some patterns. Although in every world the pattern would be different, the repetitive was always in a constant order."
"Characters in every world can be categorized into four. The main leads, the secondary characters, the villains, and those small cannon fodder side characters. Every category differ in statistic."
"As I told you before, Shen Ruo was supposed to be a female secondary character. But based on the data given by 6RD, her statistics were even lower than those cannon fodder side characters."
"At first, I thought that it was solely influenced by my own current statistics. But the more I observed, I found that I was wrong."
Zero: [...]
Ye Ruo then solemnly concluded, "There is only one explanation. This world either has been upgraded or in the middle of changing its own law. In short, the task I must complete now is not an E-grade task anymore."
Followed by her last sentence, there was only silence. Ye Ruo still 'attentively' listened to Qian Xue non-stop tireless provocation, but in fact, she waited for Zero to say something. A moment later, again, she heard that annoying laughter.
[Indeed worthy to be a Rank-S. You are right. This world indeed had been upgraded. But can you guess why?]
Ye Ruo: "I don't know. Can you tell me the reason?"
Zero: [Ah~ this is such a long story...]
Could he just make it short?
Ye Ruo's patient was almost hit rock bottom, but Zero next statement made her freeze.
[...In short, Minerva is in need of a huge amount of energy. Lately, it had been lost control of those task-takers and more and more of souls could free themselves from the bonding. By upgrading the worlds, it can increase the amount of energy it collects from those who complete the tasks tens or even hundreds of folds.]
Ye Ruo inhaled heavily. The Central System wanted to cut its loss and at the same time upgrading itself!
Zero's voice turned icy, containing immense hatred and grudge: [More and more of my comrades had failed and their soul exterminated. Some who are still struggling sooner or later will also face the same fate.]
Ye Ruo: "..."
She thought about her agreement with him and couldn't help feeling that both of them are in similar circumstances. Perhaps, this was also Zero's only way to survive...
Meanwhile outside, Qian Xue started to be more impatient. She remembered her mother mocked this young miss of Shen family. After the passed of her mother in that accident, she turned into more introverted.
Qian Xue scoffed in disdain, "Why should I bother to show you this limited edition doll? My parents said that you just turned more quiet because you are too shaken after losing your mother. But as I see, basically you're just an idiot."
Uh-oh... this girl really didn't hold back, did she? Ye Ruo felt a sudden moving of her core. It was slowly spinning clockwise and at the same time radiating red glow. Her emotional state instantly changed.
Anger.
Sadness.
Hatred.
She wanted to destroy...
Ye Ruo got alarmed and tried to resist. But the more she resisted, the faster her core spun and the more radiant it glowed. In the end, she couldn't manage to continue struggling. The corner of her lips slightly upturned and her eyes flashed a glimpse of icy glint.
Fine then. The female lead was itching to be tortured to death. Then she could only do her best to serve, ne~