Điền Mục

## Overall:

Điền Mục is the protagonist of the Half-Alive series, abide appearing much less than the deuteragonist - Vũ Thanh. His special condition become the series namesake.

## Backstory:

Not much was known about Điền Mục past and backstoy at this point, aside from the fact that he came from a renown family line of Plane-Walkers: the Điền's family. Because one of his ancestor: Duke Điền had slained a water god roughly 400-500 years before the series start, the Điền family third eye was taken away as a punishment. This made every member of the family unable to see being from the Yin realm unless they revealed themself to the mortal eyes on their own volition.

### Prior to Half-Alive Series:

Điền Mục was forbid from working actively as a Plane-Walker before taking the University Entrance Exam, so what he did know about the world of Plane-Walkers were kept to a minimum. Mục only had the slightest idea of how modern Plane-Walkers functioned as a result. However, he did growing up reading a lot of notes, scriptures and diaries of his ancestors in the family library, so he wasn't an amateur either.

Prior to meeting Thanh, Mục had no friend his age, so all he knew about human interractions came from mass media such as comics, movies and cartoons. As he always tried to reference mass media to "sound cool" and "make friend", he became quite socially awkward and was viewed as an odd-ball by everyone around him at first glance.

Sometime before the event of Eyes, he overheard the conversation of his parent about going after a criminal mastermind, who was later revealed to be a seasoned Plane-Walker and a traitor. Convinced by The Old Man, he decided to set out on a scouting mission, gathering as much information as he can to support his parent.

### During the attack on the Maize Village:

The meeting with Vũ Thanh completely turned his plan upside down. Realizing the criminal was coming after the innocent girl life to perform a black magic ritual, he had to take matter into his own hands and a simple scouting mission quickly become a head-on battle. Having to go against a much more experienced opponent, right in their hideout, was proven too much for Điền Mục to handle and he was promptly defeated, which leaded to the enemy capturing Vũ Thanh. Thanks to The Old Man and his phantom steed Tam Vĩ Ô Vân, Điền Mục successfully rescued his new found friend and put an end to the terror of the Maize Village.

## Abilities:

* Physical Prowess: Điền Mục has top physical conditions of people his age. He can scale walls, outrun a demon dog and can put up a fight against said canine in its true form. However, he had very low pain threshold and is often seen reacting to physical pain in an exaggerated, cartoonish manner. This was later revealed to have been Mục's strategy all along to create diffusion and lead the enemy to misjudge his situation.

* Being half-alive: Due to this special condition, Điền Mục can briefly turn his physical body into an ethereal form like that of a ghost, which help him fly, evade physical attack, phase through solid obstacles and gain access to a whole lot more abilities that are otherwise can only be used by a spirit. This unique trait also allow the Điền's family successor to merge with The Old Man - their family guardian spirit - for a prolonged period of time. If the spirit were to merge with a fully alive Plane-Walker, the sheer amount of spiritual energy he possess will literally make that Plane-Walker explode. However, being only half-alive doesn't come with only benefit. This unique condition make the Điền family successors in a sense outgrown fetuses, and thus Điền Mục is a top tier ingredient for black magic users.

* Necromancy: Điền Mục had an army of dead spirits (âm binh) that he can offer to himself in a ritual similar to the act of burning joss paper to one's deceased family members. Normally, he do so by burning a paper Hufu (Hổ Phù) with a blue flame.
* Tactical mind: He can control his army with great efficiency.
* Intellect: While being child like in his manner and is inexperienced, Điền Mục is certainly not a fool. He can think on his feet with ease and is capable of improvising his way out of most situation. He is great at diffusing tense situations and using his seemingly random actions to force a reaction from his opponent, normally in the form of a sudden change in the plan.
* Modern ghost catching equipment: He got various spray can of salt, garlic extract etc, an instant camera, ghost catching wire and mirrors among other equipments all crammed in a backpack.

### Personalities:

* He is carefree and a happy go lucky most of the time, but also had a more serious side that rarely resurface.
* His go-to-strategy when in a pinch is creating diffusion and chaos, normally by evoking strong emotions in the people involved. Then Mục would use that chance to either study his opponent, gain intelligence or flee the scene.
* Điền Mục is quite generous and doesn't hold grudge to trivia things. In book 1, despite being accused of being a conman and hit a couple of times by Vũ Thanh, he still genuinely worry about the girl safety and try his best to save her.
* While being 20-21 already, he was quite child like due to his lack of human interractions, and thus doesn't develop romantic feelings for anyone yet.
* Although capable of working on his own, Mục would often rely on the old man whenever he was around. His reasoning was: "If The Old Man had to get involved, that mean the situation was already out of control and I can do nothing about it. So why bother?"

## Trivia:

* His name - Mục - means Eyes in Sino Vietnamese.
* His favorite food is Bún Chả - a noodle dish that is often eaten with grilled pork, various herbs and a special fish sauce. Honorable mentions are Phở, Bánh mì and jellyfish salad.
* He got a pet turtle name Rosie, a reference to the dragon ball character Roshi. Mục had to change the name because his turtle is a female. She hasn't got her debut in the Half-Alive series yet, but got a short story.
* While not busy binge watch / read his favorite series, he enjoy fishing. However, he always ended up fish out something paranormal every time he went for a fishing trip, with Rosie being one of his catch.