The villain, caught in a chaotic situation, only wants to boost his popularity.

In Mu Jing's field of vision, a pitch-black system window suddenly opened:

[Prologue: Demon Invasion PV Conclusion]

[Famous Scene Recall: 1. Grand Finale Appearance, 2. 100 Consecutive Kills Without Damage, 3. Sword Fall and Demon Collapse → Popularity +20%]

[Hottesting Settings: 1. Backboard Master, 2. Bandage Master → Popularity +20%]

[Final settlement: Total PV comments: 10,000, 5000 comments pointing to the character "Mu Jing" → 5,000 popularity points gained.]

Memorable scenes and settings receive a 50% bonus → grants an additional 2500 popularity points.

Mu Jing watched the numbers jump with satisfaction, finally having paid off the loan.

[Loan Repayment -4000 → Current Popularity Value: 3500; Cumulative Popularity Ranking: 1st]

"It's still too little." Mu Jing glanced at the data and sighed inwardly.

Anime adaptations of visual novels are often dominated by fans of the original work, making it a long and arduous journey to gain popularity through bullet comments.

The explosion of comments in the live chat when the camera cut to the suspended girl at the end of the PV is clear proof of this:

The Qiong Party is overjoyed! Their daughter has arrived!

The wicked "Muchoo" glutton has arrived!

"Cute is justice!!"

Mu Jing looked up and saw a pink-eyed girl standing in mid-air above the ruins where the smoke and dust had not yet dissipated.

A thousand sword fragments swirled around him like a star ring, emitting a faint buzzing sound as they sliced ​​through the air.

The girl's pink hair was blown by the wind, and her slender legs were revealed under her skirt.

Mu Jing frowned inwardly: According to the original setting, she shouldn't appear in this timeline.

"My name is Mu Jing, and I'm the one who dealt with the demon," he introduced himself.

Then, pointing to the writhing tentacle remains on the ground, he deliberately asked, "Who are you?"

"Mmm~~ Chu." The girl uttered a strange sound.

Then she paused, as if sensing something.

Then, seemingly sensing that the aura of the demon core had completely dissipated, it withdrew its oppressive aura, and the buzzing of the sword blades around it suddenly weakened.

Her tense shoulders relaxed, and she suddenly pulled out a bag of tomato-flavored potato chips and started munching on them.

With his cheeks puffed out, he mumbled, "So it was you who defeated the demon! That's amazing! My name is Qiongren!"

The smoke of gunpowder is rising.

Blood rain continued to fall intermittently.

The girl exuded a kind of innocent and adorable charm that was completely out of place with the atmosphere.

However, Mu Jing did not underestimate this cute girl who was muttering while stuffing her mouth with potato chips. She was a supermodel "monster" who had mastered the second-stage technique "Infinite Sword Arrow" that could easily slay the "Thousand-Legged" demon.

However, she was supposed to appear like a deus ex machina when the main characters were fighting the Thousand-Eyed Demon and were on the verge of being wiped out, and then start the heroine route.

"It seems the trigger condition isn't necessarily a branch selection... but rather delaying arrival time," Mu Jing guessed.

Just then, Qiong Ren's eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "Hmm! Someone who can help Xiao Xue defeat the demon must be a good person!"

Her body fell, and the fragments of sword blades around her gathered together with a clang.

Before she landed on the ground, the thousand fragments had already combined into a seven-colored longsword in her right hand.

She skipped two steps closer to Mu Jing, her left hand already outstretched in front of her eyes: "Let's be good friends!"

Mu Jing subconsciously reached out and grasped it.

The instant the palm of the Sky Blade touched his hand, a system notification flashed across his vision like lightning:

[Episode 1: The Mirror Realm Labyrinth, now airing.]

A torrent of bullet comments erupted in response:

"Aaaaah, the knife! How dare this bastard hold my Qiongbao's hand!!!"

"The Centipede Line connects to the Sky Blade Arc? The ultimate crossover! Like, favorite, and give coins—a triple combo!"

The audience was ecstatic; the show was a huge hit!

Big production! Explosive budget! Cyberpunk Night of Destiny Edition – Mirror Labyrinth – makes its grand debut!

Mu Jing squinted as he pondered. Just as the comments said, normally the plot should be at the point where Xuehua and Wuge diverge, but Qiongren unexpectedly entered the line at this moment.

Based on the title of the series, it's reasonable to speculate that the world is heading towards an ultimate hybrid path.

He also realized that his plan needed to be changed—he had to abandon his original plan to accumulate popularity points and purchase powerful stigmata.

The exclusive storyline for the Skyblade – [Mirror Realm Labyrinth] – is on Hell difficulty!!!

Suddenly, Qiong Ren moved closer, and a "Muchoo!" pulled him back to reality.

"Your sword is broken! Let me take a look!" she said.

The distance was suddenly shortened.

Mu Jing could smell the rich tomato flavor of the potato chips and the milky aroma of the young girl.

An ordinary person might be captivated by her sparkling pink eyes and mistakenly believe that "she's interested in me."

But Mu Jing knew that her target was the broken Crimson Flame Longsword.

If this damaged D-grade weapon is handed over, it will definitely be lost forever.

"You've already collected over a thousand fragments of your [Thousand Blades of Spirit Sword], why would you even bother with this piece of scrap metal?" he said helplessly.

Qiongren abruptly stopped chewing potato chips: "Huh? You recognize my sword?!"

Mu Jing certainly recognized it; it was the most famous sword from the original work—the [Spirit Sword Thousand Blades].

"Who doesn't know about the Holy Spirit Bureau's strongest psionic weapon!"

"Hmm! Is it that amazing?" she giggled. "Actually, it's not that amazing!"

"boom--!"

Suddenly, the wall not far away collapsed with a loud crash.

Gravel flew everywhere.

A white-haired girl staggered out.

Dark red blood seeped from the white-haired girl's thigh, flowing down her calf to her ankle, dripping a string of blood beads onto the ground.

She steadied herself by holding onto the broken wall, and frowned slightly when she saw Mu Jing and Qiong Ren's hands clasped together: "How long are you two going to hold hands?"

Qiong Ren was immediately stunned, only then remembering that Xue Hua was still injured.

Qiong Ren instantly released Mu Jing's hand and transformed into a pink lightning bolt, rushing forward.

"Xuexue! Your injury!"

"Xuexue, are you alright? Does it hurt?" Qiongren squatted down, looking at the wound on Xuehua's leg, his eyes reddening with worry, tears welling up in his eyelashes.

"It's alright, I still have energy left." Xuehua bit her lip, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

As soon as she finished speaking, as if she had been prepared, she forced herself to chant the incantation: "[Holy Healing]!"

Pale golden holy light emanated from her palm, enveloping the wound.

As the light flashed, the skin and flesh healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the bloodstains gradually disappeared.

Then her tense body relaxed, and she collapsed into Qiong Ren's arms as if all her strength had been drained.

"Xiao Qiong, what brings you here! Aren't you in charge of patrolling the second district?" Xuehua leaned on Qiongren's shoulder, her voice weak but tinged with questioning.

"Hmm, I just happened to be passing by, haha, just passing by." Qiong Ren held her tightly with both hands, but his gaze was unfocused.

Mu Jing, however, knew:

This is a lie. She was actually worried about Xuehua and came all the way from the Second District.

Mu Jing stood aside, speechless at the two "tsundere" female protagonists from the original work.

Despite being terribly worried, Qiong Ren pretended to be "just passing by".

Xuehua has always been proud and unwilling to admit that she needs help;

Even the [Holy Healing] was saved for this moment because the intention was to unleash the last of the spiritual power to help Mu Jing after Mu Jing's defeat in the battle against the demon.

Seeing that neither of them was seriously injured, Mu Jing turned and walked into the depths of the ruins.

There, the original protagonist, Takari, was trapped under a broken wall and was struggling to climb out.

Mu Jing bent down and helped Yingli up.

"Are you alright?"

Yingli stood up, supported by Mu Jing's hand, and patted the dust off his clothes.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he gripped Mu Jing's left hand tightly: "Mu Jing! Let's become partners of justice together!"

Mu Jing sighed inwardly, thinking that this was yet another hot-blooded male protagonist, with each original character setting being more bizarre than the last, and he was about to give up.

Xuehua, who was not far away, interrupted first: "Mujing, I am very grateful for your help this time."

Xuehua heard the commotion from the ruins and was about to thank Mu Jing, but her tone turned serious as she spoke:

"Although you have exceptional swordsmanship talent, you were just lucky this time, and happened to run into a familiar demon."

"As an ordinary person, you should no longer get involved in the supernatural world. Everything here is too dangerous for you."

Xuehua's intentions were good; she was thinking that Mujing was a good person who had saved her, so she didn't want to see him in danger.

Upon hearing this, Mu Jing did not immediately agree.

Instead, it broke free from the eagle's grasp.

Pop, pop, pop!

A crisp sound of footsteps rang out.

He turned around.

I walked over the gravel once more.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the smoke and fire onto him.

He said lazily:

"It's simple, I'll just become a psionicist."

Then, he stopped trying to conceal his aura...