The Raven Carries Only Me Across

Synopsis

Ji Mian has a problem. Even she finds it annoying.

A senior girl at the library smiles at her, and her heart flutters.

A teammate in a game instance saves her once, and her heart flutters.

A girl on the rooftop says, "No one remembers me," and her heart flutters.

That aloof deskmate in real life smiles at her, and her heart skips a beat.

Every time, the feeling is real. Every time, she thinks it's the "last time she'll fall for someone."

Then someone new shows up, and she falls for them again.

Ji Mian thinks she's a terrible person. Late at night, she hides under the covers and scolds herself: Ji Mian, how can you face them?

She doesn't know that all those "different people" are one and the same.

She also doesn't know that they are the Raven, the number one player on the game rankings, the System's enforcer, the creator of SSS-level instances, and the one all players dread...

Fu Ya has no emotions. Not aloof, not repressed, truly emotionless.

There is no warmth or color in their world, and no such thing as "love." Pain is merely the erosion of the laws, and encounters are simply rules at work.

After living for tens of thousands of years, they treat all things alike: [Do not look. Do not wait. Do not stay.]

Until Ji Mian appeared.

It wasn't love at first sight. They couldn't even fall in love back then.

They only wondered:

Why does this person's soul shine when they draw near? Why does this idiot, who never recognizes them, cry so hard when their avatar fades away?

They didn't understand.

They only knew that Ji Mian was the first person to "see" them.

Not their face: Ji Mian is face-blind and can't make out anyone's features. Not their power: Ji Mian doesn't know how strong they are, and doesn't care.

Ji Mian saw them.

Not the Raven, not the boundary, not the laws.

Just them, and nothing else.

The moment they realized it,

something stirred in their chest.

Only much later did they learn that it was called falling in love.

[They never knew how to love. Ji Mian taught them.]

[And they are only like this with Ji Mian.]

When the System set them up, the instance exploded, trapping five avatars in one place to tear at one another.

The number one player gripped the creator by the throat. "You play the victim every time."

The creator shoved them off. "Play the victim? You deliberately took the wrong route just to hold her hand a little longer."

The enforcer's gaze was icy. "Keep arguing and I'll deal with all of you first."

A shadow stood in front of Ji Mian, blade already drawn.

The aloof deskmate stood farthest away, fingers trembling.

Ji Mian stood frozen in place.

Suddenly, she felt that she shouldn't be here.

Later, Fu Ya learned to feel a strange kind of pain.

It wasn't the pain of the laws eroding. It was the way their chest tightened whenever Ji Mian mentioned "them."

They knew they were all the same person.

But it still hurt.

Ji Mian asked, "Are you jealous?"

Fu Ya was silent for a moment. "...What does it mean to be jealous?"

They weren't pretending. They really didn't know.

They had lived for tens of thousands of years and fallen for only one person.

They hadn't even learned how not to be jealous of themselves.

[The End]

The Raven does not ferry the world.

They ferry only you.

[Reader's Guide]

Infinite flow + campus | Equally matched leads | Sweet | HE

Aloof nonhuman top x ditzy, face-blind bottom

"I can't recognize faces, but I know every time my heart flutters."

[They were never meant to love anyone. You are the one and only exception.]

Theme: Even if you can't tell faces apart, you can still recognize the one and only you among countless souls. Even if you were born without a heart, you're willing to grow one and feel it beat for them.