Chapter 736: Two "Protagonists"

Master's sudden attack caught Jian Changsheng off guard, and he retreated violently!

But then he thought, that's not right... "Chen Ling" is still wearing the white paper shackles, his power is sealed, so how could they fight?

He saw Master flick his sleeve, and the disc turned into endless light and shadow, swallowing "Chen Ling" like a tide, yet it didn't cause him any harm. The figure in the bright red opera robe stood unsteadily amidst the waves of light, his expression incredibly ferocious!

"Old thing!! You're cheating! If you have the guts, kill me!!"

"Come on! Even if my power is locked, if I stand here and let you kill me, can you do it?!"

"I don't need to kill you," Master said calmly. "I only need to wake up someone else... the person who should have been standing on the stage."

"Chen Ling's" eyes widened. The waves of light and shadow around him contained various images... like a compressed movie playing at high speed before his eyes.

There was an invitation signed [Actor Nameless]; there was a performance of "The Carriage" in the wilderness of the Red Dust; there was his shocked expression as he traveled between countless movie discs; there was the scene of him pushing open that door for the first time, seeing the starry sky, the grasslands, and the colorful houses...

Everything Chen Ling experienced in the Ancient Opera Treasury was recorded on this disc. Now, as it reappeared before his eyes, familiar figures—Senior Brother Ning Ruyu, Second Senior Sister Luan Mei, Third Senior Brother Wen Renyou, Fourth Senior Brother Mojiao, Fifth Senior Brother Choujiao—flashed past, as if he were retrieving those sealed memories.

"Hahaha, you're dreaming!!"

"Chen Ling" saw these images and naturally guessed what Master was trying to do, immediately sneering, "He has already fallen off the stage. Now, I am the protagonist of this stage! He won't be awakened by these things of yours. Even if he wakes up, he's just an 'audience member'!

Like all 'audience members,' he cannot cross the fourth wall between the auditorium and the stage. He cannot possibly influence me! Much less return to the stage!"

Master's eyebrows raised slightly, and he said unhurriedly:

"...Is that so?"

……

Theater.

[Audience Expectation -1]

[Current Expectation: 20%]

The familiar images flickered on the stage once again, like a large-scale recap, causing many "audience members" to lose interest, and the expectation value dropped to freezing point.

But in the dark auditorium, there was a pair of eyes that stood out from the other audience members.

Those were intoxicated eyes, staring blankly at the passing past, like a dying old man looking back at his life... Those images seemed to have some kind of power, tugging at the deepest part of his heart, as if something was about to awaken.

He seemed to want to murmur something, but his face no longer had features, leaving only a face as dark as an abyss and a pair of scarlet eyes... But even so, he didn't give up. As the emotion deep within him grew stronger, his body in the auditorium trembled from the effort!

Creak—creak—

Sounds came from the chair beneath him.

At this moment, all the "audience members" seemed to notice something and turned their heads to look at the unique figure among them. Pairs of scarlet eyes, like an ocean, nearly drowned that figure...

No one was paying attention to the recap on stage anymore, or rather... in the eyes of the "audience," a second, more spectacular stage had appeared.

The scarlet in that figure's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a trace of confusion. He didn't realize at all that he had become the focus of everyone's attention, still intoxicated by the past on stage, as a question slowly surfaced in his mind.

"Who... am I?"

The next moment, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from the images:

"Chen Ling! What are you still waiting for?!"

This sentence was like a thunderclap, echoing in his ears, and the confusion in his heart was mostly dispelled... He suddenly remembered that he hadn't always been sitting here. He was different from all the other audience members.

He had a name, and he had a face of his own.

"I am... Chen Ling?"

The pitch-black face gradually faded. Under the gaze of the "audience," a touch of color was slowly outlined from the corner of the figure's eyes...

It was a touch of apricot red.

The last insurance policy Chen Ling left behind before completely releasing the [Mockery] Calamity had taken effect.

The moment this face appeared, he was completely separated from the other audience members. He possessed his own memories, his own joys and sorrows, and a face of his own. Even his eyes gradually returned to a human appearance...

At the same time, those past memories flooded into his mind. He looked as if he had just woken up from a nightmare, his pale face filled with fear and surprise!

"This is..."

Chen Ling looked at his hands, which were still as black as a shadow, and the dense crowd of audience members nearby, his forehead covered in sweat.

Too close... Ever since he first entered the theater, Chen Ling had always stood on the stage, looking down at the audience. But now, he was actually sitting with them, and the endless scarlet eyes, like a tide, were enveloping him—eerie and sinister.

Chen Ling recalled carefully. Ever since he shot himself, he knew everything that happened afterward—it felt like sitting in the auditorium watching a spectacular movie... But during this process, his own ability to think seemed to have been blinded. He just followed the plot, feeling different emotional feedback, like a dull puppet.

"Is this what it feels like to be an audience member..." Chen Ling muttered to himself.

One suicide had dropped the expectation value to 5%...

The good news was that the [Mockery] Calamity had nearly killed everything; the bad news was that he had become an audience member himself.

So, how was he supposed to go back?

Chen Ling's gaze fell on the stage, where a black shadow in an opera robe was standing in his original position, confronting Master and Jian Changsheng.

"Master." A sharp glint flashed in Chen Ling's eyes, and he didn't hesitate to take a step, walking down from the auditorium.

As he moved forward, the audience members who were watching the show began to automatically split to both sides, clearing a path for him to the stage... Although Chen Ling was wary of them, now was not the time to focus on them. His eyes were fixed on the shadow in the opera robe on stage, filled with determination.

Since he was awake, he naturally wouldn't be content to continue being an "audience member"... He wanted to take back what belonged to him.

Perhaps the audience felt the protagonist on stage was too boring, or perhaps they remained curious about Chen Ling.

The next moment, a line of characters floated above Chen Ling's head:

[Audience Expectation +1]

In a theater, both on and off stage, there were now two "protagonists" who could influence the audience's expectations... From the audience's perspective, a spectacular performance happening right beside them was about to unfold!