Chapter 34.2 ?

“So it’s this kind of substitution.” The blubberman clicked its tongue in wonder, “It works without seeing?”

“Yes, but the target text must be confirmed.” Xu Ming responded in her mind.

Although the rulebook provides complex skill descriptions, many things can only be felt after actual practice. For instance, she had to spend quite some time earlier to finally figure out how to use this “Second-level Substitution”.

The good news is, it doesn’t require manual operation like printing the work badge, nor does it need voice control like “Paper Robe Authority”. As long as she holds the necessary reading records and runs through the process in her mind, it works, making it more convenient to operate.

The only troublesome part is that this alteration seems to have a delay, needing to wait a while for the “substitution” to take effect…

Xu Ming thought silently, quickly turning her gaze back to Qiu Yufei. Sure enough, the other’s state had subtly changed—her eyelids started to blink unconsciously, her gaze lost the previous focus, even her brows furrowed slightly, as if deeply trapped in a nightmare, struggling instinctively.

Xu Ming didn’t miss this opportunity, raising her hand for a crisp slap.

With a sound, Qiu Yufei finally responded.

She subconsciously let out an “ouch”, her whole body jolted awake, covering her cheek, looking at Xu Ming in confusion, then her gaze turned filled with fear—

“My God.” She mumbled uncontrollably, her gaze slowly sweeping over the air behind Xu Ming, her body instantly stiffening, “What is going on?”

Xu Ming couldn’t see the butterfly, but that didn’t stop her from conveying the butterfly’s unstable spirit to others:

“The butterfly came to cause trouble.”

Qiu Yufei: “Ah?”

“You can think of it as it being too lazy to wait for us to queue up slowly, so it brought a big pot to pick us up,” Xu Ming continued.

Qiu Yufei: “…Ah??”

Xu Ming didn’t explain further. At this time, it was most important to transfer to a safe place first—in the meantime, she didn’t forget to flip through her rulebook again, directly to the last page.

—? A gentle breeze, fluttering petals, the cherry blossom trees along the school road witnessed their tender but sincere vows. At this moment, Yang Duoduo did not know that the beautiful smile on the lips of the boy in white would be the only beauty she would have in the next ten years… ?

After quickly scanning the newly added reading record on the last page of the rulebook, Xu Ming closed the book expressionlessly, turned to look at the still terrified Qiu Yufei, and then looked at the work badge hanging around her neck, sighing rather complicatedly.

“Don’t read too many novels when you have nothing to do.” Director Xu, who had obtained another piece of waste paper, made a voice of iron unable to turn into steel, “Can’t you read something useful?”

Qiu Yufei: “…”

Ah???

“No, when did I read a novel? I just read it for a while on the high-speed train…” Qiu Yufei, being inexplicably despised, temporarily forgot her fear, and before she could react, Xu Ming put a pair of sunglasses on her face.

“I’ll explain to you later, let’s go down first.” Xu Ming said, knocking on the wardrobe door to call out Gu Yunshu, and gave her a pair of sunglasses too—they had each brought a pair when they went out, and now she didn’t need hers, so it was just right to give it to her.

She then led the people to the door, and meanwhile called the blubberman in her mind, asking about the situation in the room.

“Are there any other writings?” she confirmed with the blubberman, “Help me see if all the ‘butterfly’ have been replaced?”

“No.” The blubberman quickly responded, “There are many sentences related to ‘butterfly’ carved on the walls and ceiling. The only one that was changed seems to be the sentence ‘The butterflies here are so beautiful.’”

Xu Ming: “…Tsk.”

“Come on, you really shouldn’t be unhappy. This change is actually safer now.” The blubberman pondered for a moment, his tone carrying a hint of lingering fear, “Such a small-scale modification is not so easily noticed. If you were to change all the ‘butterfly’ at once, do you believe the butterfly wouldn’t rush to cut you down the next second?”

Xu Ming: “…Really?”

“Why not? Do you think these sentences are just placed randomly? They are part of its rule, a method of hunting… This change of yours is like breaking one strand of a spider web it had woven, understand?”

That’s why he said it was fortunate that it wasn’t a large-scale modification—only breaking one strand doesn’t significantly affect the overall web, and the other party won’t notice for a while. If all the ‘butterfly’ were changed at once, the whole web would probably collapse halfway, and it would be strange if they didn’t come after you for your life.

Of course, with Xu Ming’s current abilities, it probably wouldn’t escalate to that point. But the blubberman felt it was best to give her a precautionary warning.

Thinking for a bit, it added, “And even without this aspect, your modification is already infuriating enough. They call themselves butterfly, and you just changed ‘butterfly’ to puppy, such an offense, wouldn’t you be angry?”

“Offensive?” Xu Ming, who was unlocking the door chain, was stunned, “But this was already the result of my careful wording.”

Blubberman: ?

“I originally wanted to change it to ‘The butterflies here are so stupid.’” Xu Ming said honestly.

Blubberman: …

Indeed, puppies are more polite.

t/n: this chapter is way shorter than usual so I only split it to two parts.