The mind-reading fake heiress changes her fate by eating melons.

"Anling, Anling?"

Who is calling her?

"Wake up, open your eyes."

Wait a minute, that sound...

A mysterious person?!

Realizing who was calling her, An Ling suddenly opened her eyes.

But upon seeing the "person" in front of her, An Ling's first reaction was to rub her eyes. She thought she had fainted and had a dream.

"Stop rubbing, it really is me..." The mysterious "person's" voice sounded somewhat helpless.

An Ling lowered her hand and looked again at the giant dandelion in front of her, with a stem as tall as a refrigerator and a ball the size of a washing machine growing on it. She uttered her first exclamation since reuniting with the mysterious "person":

"So you're not human after all..."

"Your words sound like an insult..." Dandelion muttered.

"I really want to blow a puff, but I don't think I have that much lung capacity."

Dandelion: ...

"Alright, let's get down to business," An Ling's expression turned serious. "I think you should explain yourself properly, right? Why did you disappear after issuing the mission, and why did it take so long for you to reappear? Also, is the world I'm in now the real world, or is it being manipulated by a novel?"

"I'm so sorry, the situation was urgent last time and I wasn't able to explain it to you in detail. This time there's more time, so I can answer any questions you may have."

The dandelion bent its stem slightly towards An Ling, as if bowing in apology, and then introduced itself:

"Let me formally introduce myself. I am an employee of the Novel World Administration Bureau. You can call me Fa Cai (meaning 'get rich')."

Let me answer these questions you've asked first.

Dandelion said that the Novel World Administration Bureau he works for manages a series of worlds, like the one An Ling is in, that evolved from a certain novel.

Their mission is to maintain the normal operation of the fictional worlds and prevent them from collapsing. Once a fictional world can run smoothly to the end, it is considered to have completely broken free from the limitations of the fictional world and become an independent world, no longer facing the danger of collapse due to various bugs.

However, normal operation does not mean that this world must develop exactly as the original plot, and reaching the ending does not mean that the ending must be the same as the original novel.

The original plot of the novel mainly serves as a prototype, but no one can say for sure how the final product will turn out.

Taking An Ling's world as an example, the original novel was a romance novel, and the original ending was a happy ending where the male and female protagonists were together. However, in the operation of the novel's world, even if the male and female protagonists did not end up together and it was a bad ending, it was still considered an ending achieved.

"But the standard for judging whether the ending of your novel world is achieved is whether the male and female protagonists confess to each other and see if the other accepts, or whether one of them has objective conditions such as death that make it absolutely impossible for them to be together," Fa Cai explained to An Ling. "So, congratulations, the world you are in now is a completely independent world, and you no longer have to worry about it collapsing! You also don't need to do any more missions!"

An Ling said thoughtfully, "So, after Gu Chenming confessed to Qiu Nian and Qiu Nian rejected him, our world is no longer a fictional world?"

“Yes, yes, yes,” the lucky flower ball shook, probably nodding, “that’s exactly what I mean.”

"Then why didn't you explain these things to me from the beginning? If you had said so earlier, I could have started working towards this goal sooner!" An Ling glared at Fa Cai with resentment.

"I'm truly innocent! It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I can't tell you..."

Fa Cai also looked a little aggrieved, and the little fuzz on the flower ball drooped down.

"This actually brings us back to the last question you just asked. Although this world isn't exactly controlled by the novel, it does have a world consciousness!"

I am an outsider to this world. If I speak too much or too obviously, it will attract the attention of the world's consciousness, resulting in either expulsion or, worse, elimination.

"Moreover, based on our long-standing experience, the less intervention there is, the more stable that world will be, and the higher the probability that it will eventually become an independent world."

The number of novel worlds in Fa Cai's novels is simply too vast, and the Administration Bureau cannot possibly monitor the situation in every world at all times.

Therefore, their Novel World Administration Bureau is only responsible for handling bugs and does not usually interfere with the development of specific novel worlds. They generally let things take their natural course, but this does not mean that the plot of each world will go completely off track.

Generally speaking, since a world is derived from the original novel's plot, its overall development will follow the general direction of the original plot. However, it is possible that some worlds may deviate significantly from the original plot.

The world An Ling lives in is already quite far off, but they won't intervene unless there's a major bug. However, An Ling being stabbed to death was a major bug that could cause the world to collapse.

An Ling nodded. "I think I understand now, but you still haven't explained about Gu Chenming's time travel and the system. I thought his system was you."

"How could it be me!" Fa Cai immediately denied. "Don't compare me to a traitor!"

"Traitor?" An Ling caught Fa Cai's anger towards the system. "So, it's also from your Bureau?"

“Yes,” Fa Cai nodded at the flower ball, though he was reluctant to admit it. “So that’s how it was, but it later betrayed our administration and joined our rival organization.”

Fa Cai said that when each novel world successfully becomes an independent world, it releases a kind of energy, and it will continue to release the same energy stably during its subsequent operation. This energy is like food for humans, which is essential for their survival. Therefore, they and the various novel worlds have a mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship.

However, the hostile organization wanted to plunder this energy, and the system planted in the novel's world beforehand could absorb the world's energy before the Administration Bureau.

"That organization was actually established by employees who defected from the Administration Bureau due to differing ideologies. The system on Gu Chenming's body is a plunderer sent by that organization."

The lucky flower ball trembled angrily.

"It forcibly alters the natural course of the world by implanting time travelers, with the aim of making this fictional world follow the original novel's plot as closely as possible."

Fa Cai paused for a moment, thinking about how to help An Ling understand better.

"For example, when playing games, there are standards like perfect, great, good, cool, miss, etc."

"The closer the actual development of the novel's world is to the original novel's plot, and the more the ending conforms to the original novel's standards, the more energy can be released when the ending is achieved."

"That organization wants to rely on the system and time travelers to achieve a perfect ending, thereby maximizing their energy gains."