Shen Yuan relaxes as Viktor reacts to his story with surprise and understandable confusion, but at least no outward signs of disbelief. That's one hurdle cleared. In fact he relaxes far enough to actually laugh at that last suggestion.
"There's an idea," he says wryly. "The author was stuck there too, in the body of a weasely little double agent who was eventually executed by his demon boss after his usefulness ran out. Maybe the whole thing was Airplane's ironic hell for writing such a shitty novel, and as his most outspoken critic I got dragged into it too."
It was an amusing thought, but the facts didn't quite line up. "Of course," he said wistfully, "you'd think if that was the real point of the world, the System would have arranged for me to meet him earlier, instead of leaving it up to chance after I'd already lived in that world for three years. The impression it gave me was that I'd have the chance to change the plot -- turn it into a "true classic" were the words it used -- but at this point I'm pretty sure that was bullshit. It let me change a few things, like putting a stop to all the ways the original goods abused Binghe, but every time we hit a major story milestone it forced me to make sure things played out like in canon. What was the point of repairing Shen Qingqiu's relationship with Luo Binghe if he still threw Binghe into the Endless Abyss? If anything it probably just made the betrayal hurt more, poor thing..."
The corners of Shen Yuan's lips turned down in a deep frown. He'd never actually articulated all that before, not even in his own private thoughts. It was just too painful to think about, so he just...hadn't let himself think about it. At all. But he wanted to finish this dumb quest and escape this nightmare, so...Trench really hadn't left him any choice.
no subject
"There's an idea," he says wryly. "The author was stuck there too, in the body of a weasely little double agent who was eventually executed by his demon boss after his usefulness ran out. Maybe the whole thing was Airplane's ironic hell for writing such a shitty novel, and as his most outspoken critic I got dragged into it too."
It was an amusing thought, but the facts didn't quite line up. "Of course," he said wistfully, "you'd think if that was the real point of the world, the System would have arranged for me to meet him earlier, instead of leaving it up to chance after I'd already lived in that world for three years. The impression it gave me was that I'd have the chance to change the plot -- turn it into a "true classic" were the words it used -- but at this point I'm pretty sure that was bullshit. It let me change a few things, like putting a stop to all the ways the original goods abused Binghe, but every time we hit a major story milestone it forced me to make sure things played out like in canon. What was the point of repairing Shen Qingqiu's relationship with Luo Binghe if he still threw Binghe into the Endless Abyss? If anything it probably just made the betrayal hurt more, poor thing..."
The corners of Shen Yuan's lips turned down in a deep frown. He'd never actually articulated all that before, not even in his own private thoughts. It was just too painful to think about, so he just...hadn't let himself think about it. At all. But he wanted to finish this dumb quest and escape this nightmare, so...Trench really hadn't left him any choice.