Has Anime Invaded Reality?

Li Shimin spoke up, and Liu Che and Zhu Yuanzhang followed suit. They all wanted to know what would happen to their dynasties.

Liu Bing didn't refuse. He sent each of them the history of their respective eras, then left them to digest it on their own.

Of course, the main reason was that Liu Bing wanted to see their reactions when they learned the dark history of their dynasties. Watching the fun was always more entertaining when someone else was the one losing it.

While Liu Bing lurked and watched the show, Zhou Nuo was finishing up a busy night of juicing at the Sunny Night Market. After packing up her stall, she pushed her cart home to get some rest.

She slowly pushed the cart toward the small storage unit she rented. Just as she passed a narrow alley, a Cat's cry suddenly rang out, raising goosebumps on her skin.

The cry was unusually shrill and piercing, as if the Cat were about to enter battle mode. Combined with the dim alley entrance, it made the whole scene feel eerie and terrifying, and Zhou Nuo couldn't help feeling a chill creep over her. I just need to make it back to the storage unit.

Still, she quickly took several deep breaths, trying to calm her fear and telling herself not to let her imagination run wild. Then she focused on getting back to the storage unit. She was only a few dozen meters away.

Just then, a black shape shot out of the darkness like lightning and slammed into Zhou Nuo's cart. There was a loud BANG! Caught off guard, Zhou Nuo stumbled backward several steps.

Then she saw that two Cats were fighting. They were clawing and biting each other beside her cart, letting out a series of pitiful howls that echoed through the late-night alley.

At the sight, Zhou Nuo's initial terror gave way to helpless bewilderment. She shook her head and decided to leave the Cats to their fight. She wanted to push her cart back and get some rest.

But before she could move, something even stranger happened. Without warning, her right hand began to twist and change shape. In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a thick, fleshy whip! Its tip was as sharp as a blade, glinting coldly.

The whip that had once been her right hand lashed out with lightning speed, cutting both fighting Cats clean in half at the waist! Blood sprayed everywhere. The sight was horrific.

Zhou Nuo's eyes flew wide with terror as she stared at her mutated right hand. At the same time, she clamped her other hand over her mouth, afraid she might accidentally scream.

Just then, her right hand, which had turned into a fleshy whip, slowly returned to normal. But at the same time, it seemed to have a mind of its own. It rose by itself and moved straight toward Zhou Nuo's face.

Then a slit opened in the center of her palm, and an eye abruptly opened, staring straight at Zhou Nuo! As the eerie eye appeared, a low voice suddenly rang out. "So noisy..."

The voice was deliberately deep, but its somewhat childish tone still ruined the effect.

"I'm talking to you! Could you stop staying up so late every night? You make me suffer right along with you. I'm practically being driven crazy." The voice continued to grumble, irritation and discontent thick in its tone.

Faced with such an unbelievable sight, Zhou Nuo was completely terrified. Her body trembled uncontrollably.

She stared wide-eyed at the eye that had suddenly appeared on her right hand, her face full of fear. Her lips quivered for a long moment before she finally managed to ask, "W-what are you?"

"Hm?" At Zhou Nuo's question, the strange eye looked utterly incredulous. "With an appearance like mine and features this obvious, you can't tell what I am? Ah, damn it, I'm not a thing..."

Her right hand paused, then snapped in frustration. "Don't call me a thing!"

"How am I supposed to know what you are... Uh, fine. I won't call you a thing. So, are you a five-finger girl?" Zhou Nuo was on the verge of a breakdown. What was wrong with her right hand? How had it become self-aware? Had her right hand become a spirit?

She hardly ever used her right hand! Why had it become a spirit?

"Good grief, a five-finger girl? Do I look female to you?" Her right hand sounded irritated. What did this woman think about all day? No wonder her phone was full of weird little websites and videos. She had a dirty mind!

She hardly ever used her right hand! Why had it become a spirit?

"Good grief, a five-finger girl? Do I look female to you?" Her right hand sounded irritated. What did this woman think about all day? No wonder her phone was full of weird little websites. She had a dirty mind!

Her right hand was now somewhat relieved it hadn't taken over her brain. Otherwise, he figured he would've turned perverted too.

"But I'm a woman too. If you were a five-finger girl, that wouldn't really work with me either." Zhou Nuo felt that her right hand had a point. She was a woman. If her right hand turned into a five-finger girl, wouldn't that just make things weird?

"So, are you a five-finger guy?" Seeing that her right hand didn't seem to be trying to hurt her, Zhou Nuo's adrenaline-fueled terror turned into excitement. She wasn't quite so afraid anymore, and her thoughts started to wander.

"Good grief, a five-finger guy? Could you please throw out all the dirty thoughts in your head?" Her right hand roared.

"Uh..." Seeing how worked up her right hand was, yet how it still hadn't hurt her, Zhou Nuo felt more reassured.

Awkwardly scratching her cheek with her left hand, she tried to laugh it off. "Well, I was just joking. I'm usually very proper."

"Do you think I don't know whether you're proper? Your phone has a terabyte of storage, and eight hundred gigabytes of it is videos. And you still call yourself proper?" Her right hand sounded exasperated, apparently reminded of some deeply unpleasant memories.

"And another thing: could you stop disguising them as study materials? Do you know how horrified I was when I saw those 'study materials' while looking things up in the middle of the night?"

Zhou Nuo had been pretty embarrassed at first, but once she processed what he'd said, she got worked up. "How could you? How can you just look through my phone?"

"If I didn't look through your phone, how would I learn about this world? So get a grip, damn it!"

"Learn about this world?" Zhou Nuo latched onto the important part and asked cautiously, "So, are you an alien?"

"Sigh." Her right hand sighed, feeling the sort of exhaustion people talked about.

He was clearly a member of the Parasitic Beast species, and shouldn't have had any feelings. Yet for some reason, he did. Then his host had practically angered him to death.

"You've had all this time, and you still haven't figured anything out? Look at what I look like! Doesn't that remind you of anything?"

Her right hand was beside itself with frustration.

"Um..." Zhou Nuo examined her right hand carefully. An eye was set in the center of the palm, with a mouth beneath it. That look... Suddenly, a thought struck her. She asked in disbelief, "A Parasitic Beast?"

"No, that's fictional, isn't it? It's from an anime, right? How could it actually exist?" Zhou Nuo felt as if her whole worldview had crumbled. Had anime invaded reality?